Windows Phone 7

By the time I post this I will no longer be under a Nondisclosure Agreement (NDA).

When I started planning this post the statement above was true. The NDA expired last week just before I posted about my Microsoft VIP Weekend. I started several times to write my impressions of Windows Phone 7, but something always got in my way, including my concerns over the NDA.

But now, I am free to speak.

I should have written this right after I came back, but such is life. I haven’t had a windows Phone is my hands for over a month, so I am working from memory. I hope to have one soon and I want to get down a few thoughts before I have one. Then we will have the chance to compare what I remember with what I find with a phone at hand.

First, we were given preproduction hardware. There were two models, an LG with a slide out keyboard and a Samsung without. I won’t say much about the hardware since you won’t be able to buy either of these phones. The LG was thin for a slider and the Samsung was even thinner.

The first impression was how easy it is to setup. I had done my homework and prepared my Windows Live ID, my Xbox Live account and my Zune account (I used the 14 day free trial). When you start up you are prompted for your Windows Live ID. You don’t have to have one and you can create one when you first log in. But with a Windows Live ID the setup is a breeze. Within ten minutes my contacts, my calendar and my email were all delivered to my phone.

Let me repeat that.

I started the phone, entered my Windows Live ID and within ten minutes my phone was ready to use, complete with contacts, calendar and email, and all without any effort on my part.

I expected a lot from Windows Phone 7, but not that. Xbox Live were just as easy. All I had to do was tell the phone to use the accounts associated with my Windows Live ID.

Done.

A couple of minutes later I was playing Roundabout by Yes on the phone. It was awesome.

Everything went quickly, which was a nice change from my Samsung Omnia II. The screen animations are slick. Everything I saw worked flawlessly. I added Facebook support and started seeing updates right on my phone.

I saw only two problems. First, the back button works fine, but it isn’t an adequate replacement for a task switcher. Second, there really is no way to just close an app. I think this is because of the way Windows Phone 7 handles multitasking. Because apps don’t run in the background, you don’t close them, you just move on to the next task. Rather than closing an app to go back to the home screen, you go to the home screen to close an app. If you only open one app you can also use the back button.

Well, there are a few thoughts on Windows Phone 7. I think you’ll like it and I hope to hear soon that I have one on the way.

Microsoft VIP Weekend

A little over a month ago Microsoft flew me out to Seattle, put me up at a swanky hotel and treated me like a VIP. It’s nice to be treated like a VIP, even if only for a weekend.

Back a month or so before that…which would make it about two months ago, I was invited to attend an event in Bellevue, Washington, all expenses paid by Microsoft.

They sent a plane ticket well ahead of time. The NDA followed a while later. Emails kept flying as the date approached and I took a day off from work to get on a plane. Now, I am usually a big fan of flying, but being crowded into tiny planes it not much fun. You see, I’m a rather large guy and I don’t really fit airline seats very well. As margins get squeezed, the airline industry keeps trying to fit more passengers into each plane. The 757 I flew on had the narrowest seats I have ever seen, and then the guy in front of me decided that I didn’t need my knees. My flight from Denver to Seattle was agony.

But, once I arrived in Seattle, things changed. At the airport there was a man holding a sign with my name on it. He grabbed my bags and led me out to a big Lincoln Town Car. I was the only passenger for the 20 minute ride to Bellevue.

Bellevue is an interesting place. It rises suddenly out of the forest on the east side of Lake Washington…and when I say rise, I mean high-rise. In what looks like the edge of the suburbs rise a collection of 25-40 story plus buildings. When you got in amongst them it looks like a busy downtown district except…everything is new.

When I came back from France 30 years ago, everywhere I went it looked like the building’ had been thrown up yesterday. Well, Bellevue looked more like it had been erected that very morning.

I checked in at the Westin, where Microsoft was paying all the bills. The room was nice, but not worth the $529 that was on the card on the back of the closet door. The view was terrible. The eighth floor is just high enough for the view to be dominated by the roof of the building next door.

But I wasn’t planning to spend a lot of time in my room. You see, I was there to be a Launch Ambassador for Windows Phone 7.

Friday night started the festivities with a little get together with food where I got to meet a bunch of people. Most of them were Microsoft MVPs. They run or at least moderate forums. They blog about technology and in return for what they do to help Microsoft customers, the company calls them MVPs and gives them certain resources which help them keep helping others.

Now, I hope that I have come close to distilling the essence of being MVPs because I’m not one and I’d hate to misrepresent them. They seem to be a pretty good group of guys, and week I might need their help someday.

I got my invite to be a Launch Ambassador through the Windows Phone Backstage Forum. Microsoft opened the forum just after they made the announcement back in February. It’s been a place for us to learn what we could about Windows Phone 7 and discuss what we hoped for Windows Phone 7. Several of us were invited to be Launch Ambassadors.

Saturday morning, we walked up the street for the Launch Ambassador Event. After breakfast they brought in some Speakers to tell us more about Windows Phone 7. None of them was Steve Ballmer, but it was pretty impressive who came in on a Saturday to speak to us. Unfortunately, I think I forgot to write down a name, because I would swear I remember there being four speakers, but I only have three names in my notes.

This is getting really long, and I am going to save what I learned about Windows Phone 7 for another post which I will start writing as soon as I finish this one.

We got our hands on preproduction versions of Windows Phone 7 after lunch and of course, the afternoon is a blur, except for phone, which I will talk about in the next post.

Saturday evening the rented a pub for us. Everything on the house...well, Microsoft’s tab, and only two mixed drinks, which didn’t bother me, because I don’t drink.

Sunday morning was the end of the party. I had to be ready at 9am for a ride to the airport. The worst experience of the weekend came out of Sunday morning, but had nothing to do with Microsoft, in fact, Microsoft made the problem disappear. I don’t make a lot of money I and staying in a hotel that costs more for two nights than my monthly mortgage payment was neat, but also a bit nerve racking. I was very worried about getting char for anything extra.

Well, I wasn’t going to get fed on my flight home, so I stopped for breakfast downstairs. I stay at Best Westerns when I travel for the State of Texas and the breakfasts are complimentary. Now this was a much better breakfast that you get a Best Western, but after I started eating they handed me a check for $22. Now, it was a nice breakfast, but it wasn’t anything really special, scrambled eggs, sausages, they had several kinds of cereal and fruit. $22 is what I expect to pay for two huge breakfasts at IHOP. Definitely much more than I expect to pay for a simple breakfast buffet.

But Microsoft took care of it. I signed my room number and mentioned it to one of the what hostesses as I was getting into the I went home a little worried that the breakfast bill would appear on my credit card, but it never did.

So, thank you Microsoft for making me feel like a VIP, if only for a weekend. It’s a fun experience and one I’ll be happy to try again if I get the opportunity.

And as a last quick aside, when I hear the phrase, “complimentary breakfast,” why do I picture a bowl of cereal saying, ”hey, you’re looking good this morning.”

The Great Austin Burger Hunt

Hill-Bert’s Burgers
5340 Cameron Road
Austin, TX

Hill-Bert’s has three Austin locations. Oddly enough, two of them appear to be in old original Taco Bill buildings. The restaurants aren’t much to look at, but in a burger joint that isn’t always a bad thing. I used the drive three which is probably the way to go.

I ordered a cheeseburger and fries. The burger was quite good despite the bun being decidedly over toasted. In fact, I was a little surprised to be served a bun that clearly qualified as burned. I burger tasted like it had been cooked over flames, which is always a nice touch. They used a very nice leaf lettuce. Overall, I was impressed and would rate this burger as above average.

The fries were excellent. They were unsalted, but salt was included in the bag without asking. This is an example that other burger places should emulate. Unfortunately, the fries were served in a low paper basket which is a bad choice for a drive-thru. They were crunchy in a way seldom seen and very hot and fresh. Hopefully, I no longer need to define what I mean by a French fry’s legs, but Hill-Bert’s fries definitely had good legs.

I will definitely be visiting Hill-Bert’s again.

Role Playing versus Role Playing

The title may sound strange…okay, it does sound strange, but it is where I have to start. Quite a few years ago, I started playing Role Playing Games (RPGs). I suppose that I started with Neverwinter Nights (NWN). I moved on to Morrowind at the suggestion of a friend, and loved that game. I have played pretty much all the major RPGs since then, the only two I can think of recently that I have missed are Fallout 3 and the Bioshock series. Neverwinter Nights 2 came and went, and Oblivion was one of my favorites. I successfully transitioned from Fantasy to Science Fiction with the Mass Effect series, which are both among my favorites. Presently, I am debating Dragon Age Awakenings and Dragon Age 2.

That is part of the history, but another part is NWN Persistent Worlds (PW). I played Morrowind until my character was level 80 and nothing on the island was a challenge anymore. I didn’t have the money for the expansions, and I was looking for something new. I don’t actually remember who suggested it, but some friend suggested that I check out the NWN Persistent Worlds.

For those who don’t know, Neverwinter Nights was based on Dungeons and Dragons (DnD), and so it was designed for the creation of new campaigns that would be run by a Dungeon Master (DM) how runs the game and players who join that game. Eventually, this led to the creation of Persistent Worlds, where the game was up all the time, like a Massively Multi-Player Online (MMO) game, like World of Warcraft (WoW). DMs and players could log in whenever they want. When properly built and implemented, a PW offers most of what you get in an MMO, but with a smaller, more intimate feel.

In the PWs that I played on Role-Playing (RP) was the most important focus. Now, this is completely different than what you get in a game like WoW. In WoW, the role that you play is mostly a combat, or leadership role. Your role is Meat Shield (the guy who faces the bad guys head on, toe to toe) or Crowd Control (usually a mage whose spells effect many enemies at once). In a PW, you design a character, name it, give it history, motivations, goals, and then you play that role. It is much closer to creating a character in a play without a script and then playing that character, or role. This means that sometimes, you just sit and talk, rather than always killing monsters.

In a PW, your role is not a job title, though you may play some of those roles as well. Your role is as a character in a developing story.

I miss that.

The days of NWN and PWs seem to be fading away. There are fewer and fewer PWs, and those that still survive seem to have fewer players. I haven’t tried any in months. The last time I played, it was mostly by myself, because either no one else was in game, or they were all off in far away places that my low level character couldn’t reach.

I miss the days when I logged in to find a dozen players in the game, and I could go to a few locations and find someone to spend a few hours role-playing with. Sometimes there would be a bit of conflict between characters. Sometimes a DM would log on and run an event for us. One of the greatest pleasures of the PW was having DMs run events that were significant to one or more characters. Not just an attack by some random monsters, but something that helped a character advance their story. You really became part of the story. The DM was the director, but you were the actor, and there was no script. The DM presented you with a situation, and your character had to react. It might be hate, or confusion, or love, but the emotions you portrayed were your choice, and no one elses.

That’s what I miss…and, it’s what I fear I won’t find again, a place where I can do more than play a role, but where I can have a hand in creating the role I wish to play.