[Deslock]

Originally Posted by martin_ayton

The fact that I can play music, run TomTom and take calls all at the same time is the one thing that makes my iPhone loving friends shut up and start to look askance at their devices.

?

I run a navigation app called CoPilot while listening to music, podcasts, etc. When a call comes in, the music fades and the phone GUI comes to the foreground. When I'm done on the call, the music fades back in and CoPilot automatically comes back to the foreground (and it resumes with my route).

If I want to use CoPilot while I'm on the call, I simply hit the home button and tap the CoPilot icon (I mount my phone on the dashboard so that the occasional tap isn't distracting).

There are a few annoyances due to the iPhone's multitasking limitations (for example: no Pandora while doing other stuff, unless you jailbreak), but taking a call and listening to music while using my navigation app isn't one of them.

[Deslock]

Originally Posted by martin_ayton

The fact that I can play music, run TomTom and take calls all at the same time is the one thing that makes my iPhone loving friends shut up and start to look askance at their devices.

?

I run a navigation app called CoPilot while listening to music, podcasts, etc. When a call comes in, the music fades and the phone GUI comes to the foreground. When I'm done on the call, the music fades back in and CoPilot automatically comes back to the foreground (and it resumes with my route).

If I want to use CoPilot while I'm on the call, I simply hit the home button and tap the CoPilot icon (I mount my phone on the dashboard so that the occasional tap isn't distracting).

There are a few annoyances due to the iPhone's multitasking limitations (for example: no Pandora while doing other stuff, unless you jailbreak), but taking a call and listening to music while using my navigation app isn't one of them.

[Craig Horlacher]

Requiring the built in UI seems like a questionable "feature" to me. I don't understand what they're thinking. I'm pretty sure 3rd party interfaces are the only reason WinMo isn't completely dead.

Also, it seems like a good way to make enemy's with companies like HTC and SPB. Right now, I'm not sure Microsoft can afford any more enemy's in the mobile devices space, especially from some of their largest hardware and software developers.

They better hope people really like their interface.

[Cattle-Dog]

I have to admit, that I am not overly excited either. I like the underlying UI, but the start screen is very utilitarian. For as much work as they put into simplifying the UI, they seem to have lacked in elegance. You just cannot use the words 'light blue tiles' and sleek in the same sentence. fficeffice" />>>
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I am hoping there is a yet to be announced professional version. One that is less focused on social integration and gracefully handles multitasking.>>

[Rob Alexander]

Originally Posted by Cattle-Dog

I am hoping there is a yet to be announced professional version. One that is less focused on social integration and gracefully handles multitasking.>>

Oh yeah, that reminds me. When I look up a contact to make a call or send an email, I do NOT want to see their latest Facebook "I had juice for breakfast" inanity. A solid Facebook app (as opposed to the one MS currently has out) is a good thing, but I want to use Facebook when I decide to, and not every time I send an email.

I'm sorry to have ended up so negative about it. I've been anticipating this with growing excitement as we approached the date of the trade show, but I don't buy the argument that you can't build a really great OS and also give people some control over their devices at the same time.

[martin_ayton]

Originally Posted by Deslock

I run a navigation app called CoPilot while listening to music, podcasts, etc. When a call comes in, the music fades and the phone GUI comes to the foreground. When I'm done on the call, the music fades back in and CoPilot automatically comes back to the foreground (and it resumes with my route).

If I want to use CoPilot while I'm on the call, I simply hit the home button and tap the CoPilot icon (I mount my phone on the dashboard so that the occasional tap isn't distracting)

I'm very happy to be corrected. The button push sequence is pretty much the same on my Compact V. I don't have an iPhone, so I was just repeating what my iPhone-owning friends and colleagues have said, and their reaction to the Windows Phone's multi-tasking (in the exact scenario I described). I had written the iPhone off as an option precisely because of this, so it's very good to know that my information was wrong.

[Cattle-Dog]

Being a current iPhone owner, I can tell you that there is little in the way multitasking and a lot of "tricks" to mimick multitasking. Pretty much, only a select few built in apps will multitask, like iPod and phone. Co-Pilot does not. So yes, you can bring up the phone, call some one, and while on the call launch Co-Pilot. But what if you are in Co-Pilot and would like to make a call? Not going to happen (with the small exception of dialing numbers from a POI). If you hit the home button, Co-Pilot exits. Pandora or last.fm and anything else, nope. RSS reader that periodically updates it's feeds? Nope. Weather running in the background to keep itself up to date. Nope.

I like my iPhone, but I miss many features of a Windows mobile. Unfortunately, it appears that many of the features I miss are being moth-balled anyway.

We'll see. It doesn't launch for several more months. I'm sure there is a lot more to learn. *cough*needprofessionaledition*cough*

[Dyvim]

Very bold move on Microsoft's part. I like the look. If they'd released this in 2007, I'd never have gone over to the dark side. But now that I'm there, I think it will take more than this to bring me back.

As far as professional edition, there's always 6.5.3. Didn't Ballmer say a while back that they were going to be maintaining both phone lines? With 6.5.3 you have complete control and a wide variety of UI skins to choose from.

[Rob Alexander]

Originally Posted by Dyvim

As far as professional edition, there's always 6.5.3. Didn't Ballmer say a while back that they were going to be maintaining both phone lines? With 6.5.3 you have complete control and a wide variety of UI skins to choose from.

There was some talk along those lines, and if they would continue to improve the pro ed, then I'd be okay with it. But the greater likelihood is that it would just sit there stagnant until it became too obsolete to use.

On the positive side, I watched a 20 minute long video last night at PocketNow.com by the Series 7 design team director and it was quite interesting to see it while hearing him talk about what they were trying to accomplish. It took me from a 'what were they thinking' state of mind to one of thinking that they've designed a pretty cool phone for the right people.

The idea of being task-centric makes lots of sense to me. The only thing is that the tasks that they synthesize are all about keeping you in touch with your Facebook and Flicker and stuff like that. If I could redesign it to integrate the things that I need in a similar manner, then I would probably be very interested.

And who knows. If enough smart developers came up with just the right products, and if I could get used to that ugly tiled home screen, I might be able to see myself using it. I'm still thinking 70-30 that I'll move to Android, but it was 90-10 yesterday. I'll try to keep an open mind.