Writing is a skill, but the word writing is a verb, an action. To write. One can dream about being a writer, but one must perform the action of writing to be a writer. All of us write. Sometimes we actually write letters, though it seems that advent of email is going to kill letters eventually. We write book reports in grade school. We write essays about what we did on our summer vacation. As we move up to higher grades, we begin to write papers. We could possibly call them research papers though that may be a bit of aggrandizement. We write essay answers on tests all the way up through college and generally by the end of our college years we have written at least one paper that deserves the research paper title.
But, there is more to writing. We blog, and we visit forums and though we may not think of it, we are honing our writing skills, or at least we are if we care about our writing. Maybe we take another step, and write fiction. More likely is that we get a job and do more writing. We write reports. We write emails and memos. Once again, most people don't really consider the craft of writing. It is just something that they do.
For a time, I earned my daily bread with my writing. I was doing email technical support for Dell, and then later graduated to working on the Dell Forums. Technical writing is a skill on its own, but I learned a few things that have helped me across all of my writing. These are two things to consider when writing.
First, you must consider your audience. When I was working on the Dell Forums, I was writing to the general public. I had to assume that my audience knew nothing about computers, except how to buy one from Dell. The problem is that some of those Dell customers are extremely knowledgeable about computers. I had to avoid any hint of condescension in my tone. I had to walk a line between giving the novice all the information he needed, and making the expert feel like I was talking down to him. It was also extremely important to say exactly what you needed to say, and no more. I got very good at stating the facts in a way that did not allow for alternate interpretations.
The second is voice. Voice in writing can be a little hard to explain, but it is easy to show what is meant by examples, though I am not sure that I have any handy, as I am writing this. I will see what I can do. Now the viewpoint taken in fiction has something to do with voice. When an author writes in first person, he writes as the character in the story, and he must fit the writing to the character, he must give the character a voice. One can hardly imagine the same story being told by Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd, even if it were the same story that involved both of them. Now, that may seem a strange example, but I hope that you see my point.
But voice can even carry over into non-fiction writing. Imagine writing a how-to manual. If any of you have ever read a …for Dummies book, then you know that even a dry subject had be handled in a witty and humorous manner, but for every subject handled this way as part of the …for Dummies series you can find a hundred dry and mostly boring texts.
Some may confuse voice with tone. This is understandable, and they are related. Voice can certainly convey tone, but voice is both less and more than tone. The tone may be conveyed through other means, and the voice can present more than just the tone. I am trying to think how to explain that better, or provide examples, and I am drawing a blank. I will just have to ask you to accept this…or at least accept that this is my opinion.
Because this writing has drawn to a close.
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Camp Taylor Memories
Late last night I got to thinking about Camp Taylor. Well, officially it is Samuel P. Taylor State Park and it is in Marin County, California. I grew up not far away in Corte Madera.
Camp Taylor was a family favorite for picnics and day trips. I remember many mornings, being bundled into the car while it was still not quite light. There would be lots of things to carry to the car, coolers, baskets, the camp stove. Then we would all pile into the car, and it was a pile. There were usually at least six of us and often more.
I remember being bundled into the car early in the morning. It would be quite cool, as Bay Area mornings can be, and once you got in among the Redwoods dawn could seem to take a long time, especially on the west side of the coastal range. We would drive out Sir Francis Drake Blvd. It goes out and into the mountains and through the little town of Lagunitus, and then out into the big trees. There is one huge hill on the way, I remember riding out once on my bicycle.
We’d pile out and setup on a wooden park picnic table and my dad would set to work getting the Coleman stone started up.
Now, you have to understand that this was not a fancy propane stove, this was one of the old stoves that ran on Coleman Fuel, the kind with a red tank that had to be pressurized. My dad would sit there and pump away at that stove for what seemed like hours. Sometimes one of us would help, but the job required a bit of a special knack, because the pump was a piston, and you have to hold your finger over a hole in the knob at the end of the piston, but only during the push in. You needed to release your finger as you pulled out, so that air could go into the piston, then close the hole and push in to force the air into the tank. My dad could do it easily, but I could never quite learn the technique.
It was because of this that when I bought my first camp stove, it was propane.
Once the stove was started, my mom would start on the Hot Chocolate. I was raised in the Mormon Church, and coffee was not on the menu. For camping mornings like this, my mother would make up a concentrated cocoa mix…from scratch, and mix it with milk to make Hot Chocolate. My earliest memories are back in the days before Swiss Miss and Hot Chocolate Mix in pouches…or at least before they had reached our stores.
My mom would get the cocoa good and hot. Now, she had a friend who liked hot beverages at a temperature slightly higher than the average human tongue can endure. In my family, this temperature is known by the moniker Bobbie-hot, named after that friend. We would each get our cup of Bobbie-hot cocoa, and after no more than an hour, it would be ready to drink.
Camp Taylor was a wonderful place as a child. There was one particular place that we loved to play. Only years later did I recognize that is was the stump of a truly enormous Redwood. It is hard for me to try to say exactly how large it was, but it seems to me that it must have been nearly twenty feet across. It had been cut some four to six feet off the ground, and generations of children climbing up on top of it had hollowed out the inside a little bit. To us it was like a castle tower and we would have mock battles in and around it. We would climb the tower and hide behind the parapet, even having what amounted to embrasures to shoot out of. Sometimes now, I feel a little sad to imagine the majestic tree that had stood there, but mostly, if I could, I would tell that tree about all the fun I had playing on what it left behind.
There was also a stream that wound its way through the park. I could not in good conscious call it a river. We built boats, and hunted for crawdads and generally splashed about a bit in the water. It wasn't really deep enough for swimming, though I seem to remember a few pools where you could get all wet if you wanted to.
Camp Taylor is not far, as the crow flies from Muir Woods. Both are full of majestic Redwoods, and yet my memories of those two places are totally different. From Muir Woods, I remember the dim light beneath the closely packed trees, the subtle damp, and the quiet. Muir Woods always seemed a little otherworldly and mystical, as if an elf or a fairy might come out from behind a tree.
It is mostly bright sunlight that I remember from Camp Taylor. Muir Woods was someplace you visited. Camp Taylor was a place where you played. To be honest I haven't been there in more than 30 years, but I remember it well. Maybe one day I will get to visit it again.
Oh, and only just last night, more than 30 years later, I found out why it was called Camp Taylor and not Samuel P. Taylor State Park.
Samuel Penfield Taylor struck gold during the California Gold Rush, and with his money, he bought the land that is now the park and went into logging. He built the first paper mill on the Pacific Coast on the property. In the 1870s the North Pacific Coast Railroad was built going by the property. Taylor built a hotel near the tracks and called it the Camp Taylor Resort. California took possession of the property in 1945 for back taxes and later turned it into a State Park.
Camp Taylor was a family favorite for picnics and day trips. I remember many mornings, being bundled into the car while it was still not quite light. There would be lots of things to carry to the car, coolers, baskets, the camp stove. Then we would all pile into the car, and it was a pile. There were usually at least six of us and often more.
I remember being bundled into the car early in the morning. It would be quite cool, as Bay Area mornings can be, and once you got in among the Redwoods dawn could seem to take a long time, especially on the west side of the coastal range. We would drive out Sir Francis Drake Blvd. It goes out and into the mountains and through the little town of Lagunitus, and then out into the big trees. There is one huge hill on the way, I remember riding out once on my bicycle.
We’d pile out and setup on a wooden park picnic table and my dad would set to work getting the Coleman stone started up.
Now, you have to understand that this was not a fancy propane stove, this was one of the old stoves that ran on Coleman Fuel, the kind with a red tank that had to be pressurized. My dad would sit there and pump away at that stove for what seemed like hours. Sometimes one of us would help, but the job required a bit of a special knack, because the pump was a piston, and you have to hold your finger over a hole in the knob at the end of the piston, but only during the push in. You needed to release your finger as you pulled out, so that air could go into the piston, then close the hole and push in to force the air into the tank. My dad could do it easily, but I could never quite learn the technique.
It was because of this that when I bought my first camp stove, it was propane.
Once the stove was started, my mom would start on the Hot Chocolate. I was raised in the Mormon Church, and coffee was not on the menu. For camping mornings like this, my mother would make up a concentrated cocoa mix…from scratch, and mix it with milk to make Hot Chocolate. My earliest memories are back in the days before Swiss Miss and Hot Chocolate Mix in pouches…or at least before they had reached our stores.
My mom would get the cocoa good and hot. Now, she had a friend who liked hot beverages at a temperature slightly higher than the average human tongue can endure. In my family, this temperature is known by the moniker Bobbie-hot, named after that friend. We would each get our cup of Bobbie-hot cocoa, and after no more than an hour, it would be ready to drink.
Camp Taylor was a wonderful place as a child. There was one particular place that we loved to play. Only years later did I recognize that is was the stump of a truly enormous Redwood. It is hard for me to try to say exactly how large it was, but it seems to me that it must have been nearly twenty feet across. It had been cut some four to six feet off the ground, and generations of children climbing up on top of it had hollowed out the inside a little bit. To us it was like a castle tower and we would have mock battles in and around it. We would climb the tower and hide behind the parapet, even having what amounted to embrasures to shoot out of. Sometimes now, I feel a little sad to imagine the majestic tree that had stood there, but mostly, if I could, I would tell that tree about all the fun I had playing on what it left behind.
There was also a stream that wound its way through the park. I could not in good conscious call it a river. We built boats, and hunted for crawdads and generally splashed about a bit in the water. It wasn't really deep enough for swimming, though I seem to remember a few pools where you could get all wet if you wanted to.
Camp Taylor is not far, as the crow flies from Muir Woods. Both are full of majestic Redwoods, and yet my memories of those two places are totally different. From Muir Woods, I remember the dim light beneath the closely packed trees, the subtle damp, and the quiet. Muir Woods always seemed a little otherworldly and mystical, as if an elf or a fairy might come out from behind a tree.
It is mostly bright sunlight that I remember from Camp Taylor. Muir Woods was someplace you visited. Camp Taylor was a place where you played. To be honest I haven't been there in more than 30 years, but I remember it well. Maybe one day I will get to visit it again.
Oh, and only just last night, more than 30 years later, I found out why it was called Camp Taylor and not Samuel P. Taylor State Park.
Samuel Penfield Taylor struck gold during the California Gold Rush, and with his money, he bought the land that is now the park and went into logging. He built the first paper mill on the Pacific Coast on the property. In the 1870s the North Pacific Coast Railroad was built going by the property. Taylor built a hotel near the tracks and called it the Camp Taylor Resort. California took possession of the property in 1945 for back taxes and later turned it into a State Park.
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Written on Windows Phone 7
I was sick last week and missed my usual Wednesday blog post. If anyone actually reads this blog they will know that it is Thursday at least as often as Wednesday and often even later than that, but I do try for Wednesday.
I hope no one is expecting anything profound this week. Profound and typing on a tiny onscreen keyboard do not go together but in my own going quest to put Windows Phone 7 through its paces I thought I would try typing a blog post right on the phone...gives a whole new meaning to phoning it in.
My blog has been pretty solidly Windows Phone 7 for the last couple of months but that is going to change. Windows Phone 7 has become a major thing in my life over the last couple of months, but I don't intend to let it take over. There is lots more to comment on in the big wide world and it is time I got back to it.
Now, I must say that using this keyboard is not the worst thing in the world. I can actually get up a head of steam and as long as I can keep moving I can get what I think down on the page...or screen. My thumbs do hurt after a while, but this is better than the physical keyboard on my old phone. I would still like to have Swype, but I think that this is easier fir real writing than Swype. I love Swype for text messages though.
Now there are a few annoying features. I just demonstrated one of them. I didn't type the period at the end of the first sentence of this paragraph. I tapped space twice and it added the period on its own. The problem is that if you are not crisp with pressing space you may find yourself with extra periods. This can be more than a little annoying, but it isn't a huge problem, just a small annoyance.
The excellent text prediction more than makes up for it. You get a line of words between the keyboard and the text area and you can click on a word in that line any time you want. Sometimes the word is bold and if you hit space or period while a word is bold then that word will replace what you actually typed. It works so well that you can actually type fast and most things come out perfectly.
This was entirely written on my HD7 in one afternoon during breaks at work. It wasn't an unpleasant experience.
I'll try to be profound next week.
I hope no one is expecting anything profound this week. Profound and typing on a tiny onscreen keyboard do not go together but in my own going quest to put Windows Phone 7 through its paces I thought I would try typing a blog post right on the phone...gives a whole new meaning to phoning it in.
My blog has been pretty solidly Windows Phone 7 for the last couple of months but that is going to change. Windows Phone 7 has become a major thing in my life over the last couple of months, but I don't intend to let it take over. There is lots more to comment on in the big wide world and it is time I got back to it.
Now, I must say that using this keyboard is not the worst thing in the world. I can actually get up a head of steam and as long as I can keep moving I can get what I think down on the page...or screen. My thumbs do hurt after a while, but this is better than the physical keyboard on my old phone. I would still like to have Swype, but I think that this is easier fir real writing than Swype. I love Swype for text messages though.
Now there are a few annoying features. I just demonstrated one of them. I didn't type the period at the end of the first sentence of this paragraph. I tapped space twice and it added the period on its own. The problem is that if you are not crisp with pressing space you may find yourself with extra periods. This can be more than a little annoying, but it isn't a huge problem, just a small annoyance.
The excellent text prediction more than makes up for it. You get a line of words between the keyboard and the text area and you can click on a word in that line any time you want. Sometimes the word is bold and if you hit space or period while a word is bold then that word will replace what you actually typed. It works so well that you can actually type fast and most things come out perfectly.
This was entirely written on my HD7 in one afternoon during breaks at work. It wasn't an unpleasant experience.
I'll try to be profound next week.
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Great Austin Burger Hunt….NOT!!
Well, not Austin, but they taste like a cheeseburger…
Doritos
LATE NIGHT
all nighter
CHEESEBURGER
I saw them and had to try them. I tried the all nighter Taco flavor once, but it mostly tasted like the old Taco flavored Doritos.
The funny thing is that they got the flavor pretty close. There is the flavor of beef, and cheese, and a touch of smoke and mustard. Now, I find it funny that they got close, but it is what they got it close to that I find really funny. They don’t taste anything like a good cheeseburger. They taste like the awful cheeseburgers that you buy at a cheap drive-thru in the middle of the night.
Now, some of you are probably thinking of McDonald’s, and they don’t taste anything like a McDonald’s cheeseburger. They don’t really taste like anyone’s cheeseburgers, though if I had to pick one, it would probably be Burger King, or maybe the DQ Brazier Foods like you get out west. I haven’t tasted one of those in a few years though. That touch of smoke flavor means that they don’t taste like a fried burger.
Oh, and I don’t really like them, though they do sort of hit the spot when you are looking for a snack that is more than a plain chip. They are interesting, but after a handful they start to get old. So I doubt I will buy them again….at least not for myself. They are the sort of thing that I might bring to a potluck lunch at work and see what other people think about them.
Doritos
LATE NIGHT
all nighter
CHEESEBURGER
I saw them and had to try them. I tried the all nighter Taco flavor once, but it mostly tasted like the old Taco flavored Doritos.
The funny thing is that they got the flavor pretty close. There is the flavor of beef, and cheese, and a touch of smoke and mustard. Now, I find it funny that they got close, but it is what they got it close to that I find really funny. They don’t taste anything like a good cheeseburger. They taste like the awful cheeseburgers that you buy at a cheap drive-thru in the middle of the night.
Now, some of you are probably thinking of McDonald’s, and they don’t taste anything like a McDonald’s cheeseburger. They don’t really taste like anyone’s cheeseburgers, though if I had to pick one, it would probably be Burger King, or maybe the DQ Brazier Foods like you get out west. I haven’t tasted one of those in a few years though. That touch of smoke flavor means that they don’t taste like a fried burger.
Oh, and I don’t really like them, though they do sort of hit the spot when you are looking for a snack that is more than a plain chip. They are interesting, but after a handful they start to get old. So I doubt I will buy them again….at least not for myself. They are the sort of thing that I might bring to a potluck lunch at work and see what other people think about them.
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
HTC HD7
Well, I suppose I had better get started.
Here is my latest toy.
This is HTC’s latest big bad boy. It has a 4.3” screen and runs Windows Phone 7, which you will know about if you are a regular reader of this site.
One difference from the picture is that under the kickstand, mine is silver and not gold.
The HD7 is quite thin, but it makes up for it in breath and length. The back is a sort of satin grey, with a dark grey metal ring around the whole thing, or at least it looks like metal. The front is a big slab of glass, with a very tiny, recessed mesh at top and bottom that I think is the speaker grill. Also, the charge light shines out of the top mesh. The buttons on the front are capacitive (more on that later) so they are actually under that slab of glass. At the top, you have the power button, on the bottom the MicroUSB port and the headphone jack (3.5mm). On the right side you have the volume rocker and the camera button. Without being overly heavy, it has a nice heft to it that helps create the impression that this is a very solid device.
Now, about those buttons…
I have problems with both sorts of buttons. The buttons on the outer edge of the phone are very low profile and the edge slopes slightly into the front. If that doesn’t make sense, then it’s wider towards the back than it is at the front, or screen edge. I don’t know if that is the reason why, but the buttons do not provide a really positive feel. I find myself having to press them twice. Pictures don’t snap when I want them to, and it sometimes takes a couple of presses to get the phone to turn on. So, I wish that it had better physical buttons.
Unfortunately, the front capacitive buttons have the exact opposite problem. I keep finding myself on Bing because I have inadvertently pressed the search button. Now, to follow up on the capacitive search buttons, let’s move on to the capacitive screen, which I generally find very responsive, but when it comes to the keyboard…well, I have a problem. Even when used in landscape mode, getting the right keys pressed is a problem. Fortunately, the text prediction is excellent. One little problem that I run across is that if you hit space twice while you are typing, it inserts a period after the last word. Now, I actually think that is a cool feature, but I find myself with a lot of periods in the wrong places because I am not prefect at making a single tap on the spacebar. I feel sure that I will get used to that.
But, the HD7 is all about the screen. Now I have read some reviews that say the screen is not as bright and beautiful as the AMOLED screen on the Samsung Focus, but the Focus wasn’t an option for me, so who cares? Plus, this is a review of the HD7. The screen is enormous, and videos look great. I cannot compare it to anything except the Samsung Taylor that I had for a week, and this is much better.
The sound out of the little tiny speakers on the HD7 are just as bad as you would expect, but the sound from the headphone jack is as good as I expected from my headphones (they aren’t the most expensive pieces). Zune works great on the phone and I couldn’t be happier.
Now, one oddity is that at this moment I don’t have a carrier, so I cannot discuss how well it works…as a phone. That will come, but until T-Mobile drastic reduces their prices (or someone else does) I will have a T-Mobile phone with no coverage at all. I’ll try to report back later.
Now, a couple of additional things.
The HD7 from T-Mobile comes preloaded with the Netflix app. If you already have a Netflix account, then get ready for a treat, because you will be able to stream everything from Netflix straight to your phone. Combine that with a Zune Pass, and for $30 a month you’ll be getting all the Music and Video that you can eat, right on your phone.
Final word? I like it.
Here is my latest toy.
This is HTC’s latest big bad boy. It has a 4.3” screen and runs Windows Phone 7, which you will know about if you are a regular reader of this site.
One difference from the picture is that under the kickstand, mine is silver and not gold.
The HD7 is quite thin, but it makes up for it in breath and length. The back is a sort of satin grey, with a dark grey metal ring around the whole thing, or at least it looks like metal. The front is a big slab of glass, with a very tiny, recessed mesh at top and bottom that I think is the speaker grill. Also, the charge light shines out of the top mesh. The buttons on the front are capacitive (more on that later) so they are actually under that slab of glass. At the top, you have the power button, on the bottom the MicroUSB port and the headphone jack (3.5mm). On the right side you have the volume rocker and the camera button. Without being overly heavy, it has a nice heft to it that helps create the impression that this is a very solid device.
Now, about those buttons…
I have problems with both sorts of buttons. The buttons on the outer edge of the phone are very low profile and the edge slopes slightly into the front. If that doesn’t make sense, then it’s wider towards the back than it is at the front, or screen edge. I don’t know if that is the reason why, but the buttons do not provide a really positive feel. I find myself having to press them twice. Pictures don’t snap when I want them to, and it sometimes takes a couple of presses to get the phone to turn on. So, I wish that it had better physical buttons.
Unfortunately, the front capacitive buttons have the exact opposite problem. I keep finding myself on Bing because I have inadvertently pressed the search button. Now, to follow up on the capacitive search buttons, let’s move on to the capacitive screen, which I generally find very responsive, but when it comes to the keyboard…well, I have a problem. Even when used in landscape mode, getting the right keys pressed is a problem. Fortunately, the text prediction is excellent. One little problem that I run across is that if you hit space twice while you are typing, it inserts a period after the last word. Now, I actually think that is a cool feature, but I find myself with a lot of periods in the wrong places because I am not prefect at making a single tap on the spacebar. I feel sure that I will get used to that.
But, the HD7 is all about the screen. Now I have read some reviews that say the screen is not as bright and beautiful as the AMOLED screen on the Samsung Focus, but the Focus wasn’t an option for me, so who cares? Plus, this is a review of the HD7. The screen is enormous, and videos look great. I cannot compare it to anything except the Samsung Taylor that I had for a week, and this is much better.
The sound out of the little tiny speakers on the HD7 are just as bad as you would expect, but the sound from the headphone jack is as good as I expected from my headphones (they aren’t the most expensive pieces). Zune works great on the phone and I couldn’t be happier.
Now, one oddity is that at this moment I don’t have a carrier, so I cannot discuss how well it works…as a phone. That will come, but until T-Mobile drastic reduces their prices (or someone else does) I will have a T-Mobile phone with no coverage at all. I’ll try to report back later.
Now, a couple of additional things.
The HD7 from T-Mobile comes preloaded with the Netflix app. If you already have a Netflix account, then get ready for a treat, because you will be able to stream everything from Netflix straight to your phone. Combine that with a Zune Pass, and for $30 a month you’ll be getting all the Music and Video that you can eat, right on your phone.
Final word? I like it.
Thursday, November 4, 2010
One Week with Windows Phone…almost
Last week I posted my impressions of Windows Phone 7 from the few hours that I got to test one at the Launch Ambassadors event. I wanted to post before I had Windows Phone7 in my hands again and I did, but only by a few hours. Now, it is a week later and I’ve had an entire week of Windows Phone7…well, almost.
I picked up the phone on Wednesday evening and shipped it back Tuesday. Hopefully, I will have the new phone by the end of the week.
The unit I had was a Samsung Taylor. You won’t see it anywhere except in pictures from those who had the pre-production phones. It’s not a bad phone, just not one I would choose.
Set up is still just amazing, but without a SIM card you have to skip putting in your Windows Live ID and go into settings and turn on WiFi. If you buy your phone from a carrier this won’t be a problem.
Within minutes I had it all set up, my hotmail account, contacts, and calendar. Because I have Facebook tied into Windows Live I started getting Facebook updates in the What’s New section of the People Hub. I did nothing. Zune and Xbox Live took about two minutes more, because they both use the Windows Live ID that I had already entered.
So far this was just like what I had experienced in Washington. Microsoft has paid a lot of attention to the setup and it shows.
The OS is fast, blazingly fast when compared to my Samsung Omnia It but that isn’t a very good test. Apps open quickly and you can maneuver through them equally quickly with one notable exception, the Marketplace. It seems to take awhile for things to react and sometimes you find yourself staring at a blank screen with a single word at the top.
Everywhere else, the one word that best describes Windows Phone 7 is flowing. The animations help a lot with this impression you seem to flow from the home screen to the app list. You click on an app and the app list flows out of the way and the app flows into view. You flow from screen to screen. It’s really quite amazing.
Now, there were a few hiccups. I already mentioned the marketplace. Lots of reviewers have mentioned that it took a long time to open games in Xbox Live. I only noticed that a little but I didn’t download any really complex games.
I found the back button to be annoying sometimes. I am used to closing apps and there just isn’t any way to do that. I found that a bit annoying and in my scant week with Windows I was just barely getting used to it. One problem is that it is rather difficult to jump between two apps. If you open an app, then you go back through the home screen to the app list, then open another app, you can use the back button to move back to the first, but there may be several steps in between, and without a forward button there is no easy way to get back.
Windows Phone needs a task switcher. Personally, I think it should be a bigger priority than Copy and Paste.
Now, you’ll notice that I haven’t mention many of the missing parts of Windows Phone 7 as outlined by a few dozen reviewers. That’s because, with the exception of a task switcher, I didn’t notice them. Well, okay that isn’t completely true, I did notice the absence of Copy and Paste, but only because Word in Windows Phone 7 does not work exactly like Word in Windows Mobile 6.5. It’s a long story…or at least it was long on my end.
So, my final word for now is that Windows Phone 7 is great. It has at least a few things that I hope Microsoft will correct in the early updates, but it is a strong competitor for Android and the iPhone.
I picked up the phone on Wednesday evening and shipped it back Tuesday. Hopefully, I will have the new phone by the end of the week.
The unit I had was a Samsung Taylor. You won’t see it anywhere except in pictures from those who had the pre-production phones. It’s not a bad phone, just not one I would choose.
Set up is still just amazing, but without a SIM card you have to skip putting in your Windows Live ID and go into settings and turn on WiFi. If you buy your phone from a carrier this won’t be a problem.
Within minutes I had it all set up, my hotmail account, contacts, and calendar. Because I have Facebook tied into Windows Live I started getting Facebook updates in the What’s New section of the People Hub. I did nothing. Zune and Xbox Live took about two minutes more, because they both use the Windows Live ID that I had already entered.
So far this was just like what I had experienced in Washington. Microsoft has paid a lot of attention to the setup and it shows.
The OS is fast, blazingly fast when compared to my Samsung Omnia It but that isn’t a very good test. Apps open quickly and you can maneuver through them equally quickly with one notable exception, the Marketplace. It seems to take awhile for things to react and sometimes you find yourself staring at a blank screen with a single word at the top.
Everywhere else, the one word that best describes Windows Phone 7 is flowing. The animations help a lot with this impression you seem to flow from the home screen to the app list. You click on an app and the app list flows out of the way and the app flows into view. You flow from screen to screen. It’s really quite amazing.
Now, there were a few hiccups. I already mentioned the marketplace. Lots of reviewers have mentioned that it took a long time to open games in Xbox Live. I only noticed that a little but I didn’t download any really complex games.
I found the back button to be annoying sometimes. I am used to closing apps and there just isn’t any way to do that. I found that a bit annoying and in my scant week with Windows I was just barely getting used to it. One problem is that it is rather difficult to jump between two apps. If you open an app, then you go back through the home screen to the app list, then open another app, you can use the back button to move back to the first, but there may be several steps in between, and without a forward button there is no easy way to get back.
Windows Phone needs a task switcher. Personally, I think it should be a bigger priority than Copy and Paste.
Now, you’ll notice that I haven’t mention many of the missing parts of Windows Phone 7 as outlined by a few dozen reviewers. That’s because, with the exception of a task switcher, I didn’t notice them. Well, okay that isn’t completely true, I did notice the absence of Copy and Paste, but only because Word in Windows Phone 7 does not work exactly like Word in Windows Mobile 6.5. It’s a long story…or at least it was long on my end.
So, my final word for now is that Windows Phone 7 is great. It has at least a few things that I hope Microsoft will correct in the early updates, but it is a strong competitor for Android and the iPhone.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
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.
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.
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