Andrew's Inner Sanctum

The First Evolution Of Windows (1985-1995)

This first evolution of Windows started with a combined File & Program Manager (called MS-DOS Executive which was the Shell) before splitting that program into two seperate programs, the Program Manager (which stayed open the entire time Windows was running, it was the Windows Shell)) and the File Manager, which you could open when needed. There was also a Print Manager and Control Panel too. This screenshot was Windows 3.1, the first version of Windows that most people actually took seriously (Windows 1.0 and 2.0 were not seen as serious competitors).

The Second Evolution Of Windows (1995-2012)

The second evolution of Windows is what bought Microsoft so much success. This screenshot is of Windows 95, but all of the main elements that Microsoft introduced into Windows 95 are still the fundimental pieces of the user interface today in Windows 7. The desktop in Windows 95 could actually have icons that you chose (the desktop in the first generation of Windows only had icons for minimised programs) alongside the few that Microsoft put there including, My Computer, Network Neighbourhood (renamed My Network Places in 2000/Me then then simply Network in Vista) and the Recycle Bin. The second key piece of user interface that was added in Windows 95 that still exists today is the taskbar. It contained the Start Button, programs that were currently running (so you could switch between them) and the System Tray & Clock. The taskbar has morphed into a program launcher as well as program switcher, but the concept hasn’t changed too fundimentally since Windows 95 (Windows 7 was the first time the design had really been modified since 95). The Start Menu was the 3rd major piece of GUI that was added in Windows 95 that still exists today in Windows 7. Yes, the Start Menu today doesn’t resemble the simple one that debuted in Windows 95, but it’s still got the same concepts behind it, a place to list all the programs, documents and settings on your computer as well as the place where you can search for things, find help and shut down the computer (as they say, press the Start Button to Stop ). Finally all the extra concepts and programs that Microsoft bought along in Windows 95 including the Recycle Bin, Windows Explorer, Long File Names (255 Characters instead of 11), the design of the Minimise, Maximise/Restore & Close buttons, Ctrl-Alt-Delete to close frozen programs & much much more is all thanks to Windows 95. Lots of things have changed in Windows since 1995, but most of the key fundimentals have not.

The Third Evolution Of Windows (2012-??)

Tomorrow, Microsoft will debut Windows 8 in full for the first time and it really is going to be the 3rd evolution of Windows. While it will retain the old Windows 7  style (second evolution) shell, this will be called the Classic Desktop and it WON’T be the default. The new Start Screen & the associated Metro style guidelines will be the future for Windows GUI design from 2012 onwards. Just like Windows 95 was a real step away from the Windows 3.1 (first evolution) shell, away from all those Manager programs and the useless Desktop, Windows 8 will be a real step away from the Windows 95 (second evolution) shell, away from the Taskbar, Desktop and Start Menu. This is the ultimate UI, the one UI that Microsoft says will be scalable from a 7 inch tablet to a 70 inch TV screen and everything in between!

I really am so excited about what Microsoft has to announce and I’m ready for the rollercoaster ride ahead that Microsoft has planned for us!

P.S: For some perspective, I just wanted to mention the Mac in the context of all this. Just like Windows, the Mac is currently in the second evolution of it’s GUI design. When will we see the 3rd evolution of the UI? I do not know.

Mac OS First Evolution (1984-2000)

Mac OS Second Evolution (2000-??)

Update: Turns out I ended up being correct. Zune Music Pass coming to Australia November 16th 2011!

Today, Microsoft released the final version of the Zune 4.8 software, which allows phones that are running Windows Phone 7.5 to communicate with the Zune PC Software (Zune 4.7 can only communicate with Windows Phone 7.0 handsets). During the announcement, Microsoft put up a fairly pathetic table (very undetailed) and announced some new markets that the software (and some of Zune’s associated services) would be expanding to. The service expansion today only included the Zune Video Rental section of the marketplace and that only expanded to 5 countries (Denmark, Finland, Japan, Norway and Sweden). The next question is, will the Zune Music Marketplace (and associated Zune Music Pass & Podcast Marketplace) be expanding soon and if it does expand, which countries will it expand to? For a brief period of time during the Zune 4.8 beta, the Music Marketplace was enabled in Canada and Australia and the Podcast Marketplace was enabled in Canada, Australia, Ireland, UK & New Zealand. These disappeared a few weeks ago and still aren’t present in the final version of the software. I’m not sure exactly how the software detects feature availability, but as far as I know, it isn’t hard coded into the software, but rather the software checks Microsoft servers for the information to enable and disable features as appropriate, which means Microsoft can enable and disable pieces of the Zune Software to each region from their end without making us download new builds of the software. Clever really!

So I’ve decided to have a poke around the final version of the Zune 4.8 PC and see what I can find. What I’ve found isn’t huge (I can’t hack software, I’m no Rafael Rivera or Chris Walsh) but I know enough to find interesting things here and there by simply changing the settings on my computer and seeing what impact that has on the Zune Software. So here’s what I’ve found.

There’s a small bug in the Zune 4.8 Software, that if you’re in a country which has the Windows Phone App Marketplace available AND you don’t have any music in your Zune Collection (aka a blank My Music folder on your PC), even if your region doesn’t have access to the Zune Music Marketplace, you get a message saying “You Have No Music In Your Collection” and a link which says “Find Music At Zune Music Marketplace”. I think Microsoft meant for this link only to appear for countries where the Music Marketplace was actually available, but with most software, bugs creep through and that’s a part of life (the same bug didn’t make it through for Podcasts or Videos though). Here’s a screenshot of that message and link (taken while regional settings were set to Australia).

So if you click that link, you get sent to the Music Marketplace, well it attempts to send you there. You get a display like this one, where the browse section of the left navigation is displayed (but clicking the links does nothing) and the genres sections, but without any genres listed. I set my computer’s regional settings to New Zealand and took this screenshot.

That’s how it appears for almost every country you try it on. The 2 exceptions that I could find were Australia and Canada, the SAME two countries that did get the Music Marketplace during the beta before it disappeared again. When you set your regional settings to Australia and perform the same trick as before, you get slightly more information than you do for most countries. In addition to the browse section, you get a full list of genres listed under the genres heading (all these links work too) and you get a listing of the top songs and top albums. You can even manage to get to an artists page (with metadata and everything) and get to the screen with track listings. You can even listen to previews. I set my computer’s regional settings back to Australia while taking this screenshot.

For completeness sake, I’ll show what it should look like if you actually do have the Music Marketplace enabled properly (which is currently the case in the US, UK, France, Italy, Spain & Germany). I set my computer’s regional settings to the United States while taking this screenshot.

In addition to this, Windows Phone 7.5 includes a feature called Bing Music Search (sometimes called Bing Audio) which works in a very similar fashion to Shazam: It listens to a portion of music and tries to match it to a name and artist. The Bing Music Search links very closely with the Zune Music Marketplace (which is what it uses to find the name and artist of music it scans), when you find a track, there’s a Marketplace button which will take you to that track in the Zune Music Marketplace.  This feature is going to be released in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK and the US. All of those countries currently have the Zune Music Marketplace except Canada and Australia. If Microsoft didn’t enable the Zune Music Marketplace for Australia and Canada and left that feature in, they’d have a broken Marketplace button appear each time someone did a search and I personally don’t think Microsoft would do that. So all this information makes me continue my assertion that Australia and Canada WILL be getting the Zune Music Marketplace sooner rather than later. Additional questions such as will Australia, Canada and Germany get the Zune Music Pass are ones that I don’t have any answer for and all I can do is HOPE that they will. The other question you may be asking is, will the Zune Podcasts Marketplace be expanding too? I also don’t know the answer to this, but if what was discovered during the beta was correct (and the beta is looking like a pretty accurate source), then the Podcasts Marketplace may expand to Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand and the UK.

Finally, I was looking around in the Registry Editor and found a key called Features under the Zune key in the Current User root of the registry. This appears to be the place where Microsoft tells the Zune Software what features to enable for which countries. I tried to add Australia (AU) to the Music value and start the Zune Software, but Zune must check for new information each time the software loads and replaces the keys with what they want you to see prompting that message saying that the Feature Availability for Zune has changed and to restart for changes. I didn’t restart and I could actually see the Music pivot reappear (like it did during the beta, when I use that trick to make it appear in the final version of the software, it doesn’t actually make the pivot reappear) and display the same Marketplace that Australia currently sees using my trick, but the settings revert to how Microsoft wants them on the next load of the Zune Software. I’ll post the screenshot of this registry key for your interest, but there’s not much to see here really.

So that’s my afternoon of playing around with the Zune 4.8 software. There’s actually not a lot of new UI options in this version of the software. Something makes me think that Zune 5.0 might be here sooner than we think, I suspect Matt Akers has a surprise for us at some point . I hope that you see my logic and see why I think the Zune Music Marketplace expansions are still coming for us in the near future, even if they didn’t appear today alongside the Zune 4.8 release and Video Marketplace Expansions. Microsoft certainly has the technical capabilities to simply flick a switch and we’d get it the next time we loaded our Zune Clients (and the next time we load the Marketplace Hub on our phones too, since I think it also checks a server to see what to display in there too). Feel free to leave any feedback or thoughts in the comments.

PS: As a free plug to myself, I updated the Windows Phone ‘Mango’ 7.5 Feature Availablity Matrix Today (after loading the final version of the Zune 4.8 Software AND loading WP7.5 Build 7720 onto my phone, thanks XDA-Developers and yes commenters I know that it’s not complete until the manufacturers drivers appear, which is why I’ll be restoring to NoDo when Telstra approves the update). Check out the near final version of the chart here.

UPDATE: I’ve added some extra instructions in the comments to fix a possible “Source Path Too Long” error. If you’re having trouble with that error message, then try those instructions. Once I’ve received feedback that these instructions do indeed work, then I might possibly add them to this blog post. I’ve also received feedback that it’s NOT the Zune client Uninstallation process that is causing backup deletion problem (like I originally assumed) and so I’m now assuming it’s the updating process in Zune 4.8 from 7661 to 7712 (where Zune would normally create a backup, but doesn’t because that would have been done while running the seperate preparation & backup tool supplied when upgrading from NoDo to the first Mango Beta) that’s causing the backup to get deleted. I will update my post once I’ve confirmed this is the case.

Microsoft made a beta version of the Mango OS to flash to Windows Phone devices available to registered developers on the App Hub in late June. The process of upgrading your phone to Mango included reading & accepting the terms and conditions on the Microsoft Connect site that developers were invited to, then downloading the Mango bits, creating a complete imaged backup of your device in it’s current NoDo state, then upgrading the phone to the beta of Mango. Microsoft has said that to be able to upgrade to the final release of Mango, you will have to actually restore back to your Telco approved NoDo state and that’s why the backup that was created is so important: because this is the only way you’ll be able to get back to NoDo so you can upgrade to the final Telco approved version of Mango.

This is something that Microsoft wanted to make absolutely clear to people downloading and installing the Mango Beta onto their phone. In fact, a message warning about the absolute extreme importance of backing up was mentioned no less than 3 times in the terms and conditions. Here are the relevant sections from the Terms & Conditions page:

2. WP Backup: Prior to updating your Retail Windows Phone
device, the instructions will walk through the steps required to back up the
data on your Windows Phone, ensuring that you will be able to return to a
supported state when the program is complete. Restoring from this backup is the
only way that your phone can be updated to the final, retail version of ‘Mango’
for your Retail Windows Phone.

To participate in this program, you must make a back-up before
upgrading your phone as specified in the instructions, and you
must keep this backup in a safe place during your participation in this
program. Microsoft is unable to support developers who have not taken or
retained a backup of their device.

6. WP Backup: It’s still very important that you understand
that you really must take a backup of your device and save that backup. It is
probably also a good idea that you save a copy of that backup somewhere, just in
case.

10. WP Backup: It really can’t be stressed how important it
is that you take and retain your backup in a safe place. Once you see and use
‘Mango’, you’ll want to continue using it once we release it – and we want you
to, as well. Keeping a backup is the only way that you can get there in a
supported fashion. Please keep your backup.

As you can see, even Microsoft found it slightly amusing the amount of times they wrote that you needed make sure you kept a backup. They wrote it in a very non technical way and in a way that was quite obvious how much they were stressing that you NEEDED to do this. Finally, you had to tick a box under each of these paragraphs (and the other 7 non backup related points too), confirming that you’d read them.

Well, today Microsoft released build 7712 to these registered developers, which provides a near complete version of the Mango update, which should make developers happy (I know I was excited). For a few developers though, today has not turned out to be a good day, because they’ve lost their NoDo backups. It turns out a that a combination of not reading these instructions about backing up your NoDo update and an arguably poor decision made by the people who wrote the backup tool, which should have probably created 2 backups (one in the AppData folder and a second at a location that the user running the tool could have chosen themselves) has caused a number of people to lose their backups because they never made a copy of the C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Phone Update folder, which apparently gets deleted when you uninstall the Zune 4.8 beta (although, this is not entirely Microsoft’s fault really, they made it absolutely clear that you needed to keep this backup in a safe place and the AppData folder isn’t somewhere that I’d call safe, the Documents folder & a USB hard drive is what I’d call safe). So many developers have lost their NoDo backups (Microsoft has confirmed that this issue does exist on it’s Windows Team Blog). There is hope for them though as one final safety net could possibly exist for most people.

Microsoft has had a technology called Previous Versions since Windows Server 2003 (and it’s been included in client versions and turned on by default since Windows Vista). This technology is essentially the same technology that Apple has built into their OS X Lion operating system (which was released last week), although Apple have made the technology more accessible and usable by creating a Time Machine style UI to access it (which means that many people will unfortuantely incorrectly attribute this technology to Apple, when it was really Microsoft who first started using it in client OSes). Well, if you’re lucky, Previous Versions might have a backed up version of the Windows Phone Update folder that you can restore and then make 2 copies of, one to put back in the AppData folder (so you can restore from it) and one to keep in your Documents folder, so that you don’t lose it again. You need to do this pretty quickly though, the Previous Versions don’t hang around forever, especially if you use your computer a lot. Here’s how to attempt to restore your Windows Phone Update folder using Previous Versions. I’m going to write these instructions in a really specific manner (probably overly simplistic for people who are Windows Phone Developers) because following instructions isn’t something that people who’ve had this issue are good at it seems (I joke, but you kind of know it’s true).

1. Hold Windows-Key and R to open the Run dialog. Type %userprofile%\AppData\Local\ and press Enter.

2. Right click the Microsoft folder and choose Properties. The reason we’re going to restore the entire Microsoft folder is, it’s likely the entire Windows Phone Update folder got deleted, so you don’t have it to right click on to access Previous Versions within it, so you need to go one level up!

3. In the Properties Dialog click the Previous Versions tab. Select an entry from the list AFTER your NoDo backup was created (so somewhere after you updated your phone to the Beta 2 release, it’s going to be after about June 30) but BEFORE you lost the backup folder. So probably the earliest point available after you upgraded your phone the first time would be the best point to choose. Then click the Copy button, NOT the Restore button. This is important. The Microsoft folder has a lot of important files in it that get changed on a regular basis by simply using Windows, you don’t want to restore a previous version of it over the top of the existing one, you want to make a copy of it somewhere else so you can fish out the Windows Phone Update folder and then delete the rest of the copy of the Microsoft folder. So click the Copy button.

4. A folder chooser dialog box will appear. From this dialog, choose somewhere easy to find (I suggest the desktop) and then click the “Make New Folder” and name your new folder something appropriate such as WP7 Backup folder. Then select this newly created folder and click Copy. Now you will need to wait. This is probably going to make a copy of possibly GBs of files, so it could take a while, so just let it run.

5. Once you have this copy of the Microsoft folder in your new folder created on the desktop, you can now open it and find the Windows Phone Update folder. In the Windows Phone Update folder should be a folder with some type of identification string (this is the GUID of your phone) which contains the phone’s backup! All you need to do now is copy the entire Windows Phone Update folder from your desktop restored version of the Microsoft folder to the real Microsoft folder you restored from AND then make a second copy of this Windows Phone Update folder to somewhere else safe. Once you’ve done this, you can then delete the Microsoft folder that’s on your desktop (not the original one). To test if this worked, plug your phone in, open Zune, go to Settings, Phone, Update and you should see a button to restore to a previous version with the date you first updated your phone from NoDo to the Beta 2 update.

Hopefully this guide has saved your Windows Phone NoDo backup, so you don’t have to contact Microsoft support to see what your options are (which will probably involve taking your phone to the Telco shop to get it reflashed or sending it to Microsoft so they can do it on your behalf). The moral of the story is, read the instructions carefully and always make backups when Microsoft strongly suggest you do, because, sometimes things happen!

As you all know, I have a Windows Phone and I love it, but I have concerns about the way Microsoft is handing updates, service distribution (such as Zune & Bing Local) and advertising the phones. Today though, there has been some very surprising but GOOD news about the platform in Australia which I’m going to comment on. I’ll get the update debacle out of the way first though.

I bought the HTC 7 Mozart from Telstra because it was the best Windows Phone being offered in Australia and had the best plan at the time I purchased it (during a pre Christmas sale) as well as using the best phone network in Australia (Vodaphone is having a lot of issues). The problem is, Telstra is the ONLY carrier in Australia who still hasn’t finished testing the tiny February Windows Phone Update which updates the updater. So I don’t think they’ll get around to releasing the March Update till mid to late April at the earliest (I hope I’m wrong). Microsoft shouldn’t be letting the carriers decide when OS updates go out, Microsoft should be saying, we’re ready now and allow every customer to upgrade at the same time if they choose. Windows Phone 7 is a very different OS to Google’s Android, all the phones being shipped with Windows Phone 7 software have the same hardware which is compatible with the OS without the manufacturer having to make major changes to it each time an update is released. Manufacturers and carriers also can’t modify or brand the phone’s UI other than through exclusive applications in the Marketplace so they don’t have to worry about checking or updating those either like they do on Android. The carriers say they have to test the updates to make sure they’re compatible with their networks, but I say that unless Microsoft actually makes changes to the networking stacks or phone’s radio (not FM radio, communications radio), then the carriers should not have any part of the process as the phone will continue to operate on their network in the same way (I mean, seriously, copy and paste could bring down the Telstra network?, of course it won’t!). I understand manufacturers might ocasionally like to update the firmware in the phone that could impact the carrier’s network and I can understand needing to test those updates, but they should be kept SEPERATE from the Microsoft produced OS feature updates. Anyway, I’ll keep an eye on this chart and hopefully it will be updated next week to show Telstra as either scheduling or delivering update.

So now to the happier news. There has been a article around in the last few days saying that Windows Phones are selling well in Australia compared to the test of the world! According to Smarthouse.com.au (http://smarthouse.com.au/Phones/Industry/E2T3Q8E6?page=1) Windows Phone 7 devices have a 3.2% market share in Australia, which while still isn’t all that huge, is actually 1% more than the rest of the world. The other big piece of information that I found this morning on the Sydney Morning Herald website (http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/mobiles/windows-phone-7-has-stronger-start-than-android-in-australia-20110324-1c7oy.html) was that Windows Phone 7 has had a stronger start here in Australia than Android did when it was first launched here. Apparently for Q4 in 2010, 4.4% of smartphone sales were for Window Phone devices. Again it’s a small win, but it’s little wins like this, which give me confidence that Windows Phone is going to be a serious player in the long run. I’m hoping that this news saying that Windows Phone devices are selling well in Australia means that Microsoft will prioritise finishing making the full range of services the phone can utilise available here in Australia such as the Zune Music Marketplace and Bing Local Search (see this article for more information).

One last article predicts by 2016 that Windows Phones will have a larger market than iOS worldwide. The article states that Android will be number one with 38.7% marketshare, Windows Phone second with 22.6% marketshare, iOS third with 19% marketshare and RIM’s Blackberry fourth with 9.2% marketshare. This makes sense, because Apple market’s their products at the more wealthy audience so having a smaller marketshare makes sense, while Android works on nearly anything and so has a large market it can attract. Windows Phone sits somewhere between Android and iOS in terms of market, so being between them in marketshare adds up. You can read all the details here (http://wmpoweruser.com/ovum-predicts-nokiamicrosoft-will-redraw-smartphone-market-overtake-ios-by-2016/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter)

I thought I’d spend some time talking about smartphones. In the smartphone OS market today we have 5 major players: Apple’s iOS, Google’s Android, Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7, RIM’s Blackberry and Nokia’s Symbian. There are others who make OSes for smartphones, but I believe that they are so insignificant that I don’t need to mention them as contenders here. I also believe that 2 the above platforms are going to be disappearing soon. Nokia has not competed well with their Symbian OS. There is a lack of apps for the platform and it just seems old fashioned compared to iOS, Android and Windows Phone 7, which were all built from the ground up for capacitive touchscreen phones. I believe the same fate will occur for RIM’s Blackberry OS. Developers have not flocked to the Blackberry OS because it has been too difficult to develop on in the past and while they plan to improve this, I think it’s a bit too late. Everything the Blackberry OS used to be good at, iOS, Android and Windows Phone 7 can also do just as well.

The reason I listed Windows Phone 7 as a major competitor, even though it’s only 2 weeks old is because it’s a great OS that consumers will love because it’s innovative and simple, but also because Microsoft has spent a lot of time, effort and money ensuring that developers will flock to the platform. To write apps for the Windows Phone 7 platform, you simply need to download the free Windows Phone Developer Tools which include Microsoft Visual Studio Express for Windows Phone which is a development environment focused on coding, Microsoft Expression Blend 4 for Windows Phone which is a development environment focused on design and user interfaces. Also included is an emulator so that you can test your applications without having to have a phone. The language used to code a Windows Phone is mix of Silverlight XAML for user interface elements and properties and C# .NET for the actions that each user interface item performs. Also coming soon is the ability to program the actions in Visual Basic .NET instead of C# .NET. Games are programmed using the XNA Framework, the same language that is used to write games for the Xbox 360. So what this means for developers is that they can use the same tools they would normally use to write Windows applications and Xbox 360 games to write phone apps, without having to learn a new language or programming environment. Although currently the Windows Phone Marketplace doesn’t have a lot of apps, it has all the right apps. It has Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Messenger and plenty more coming soon. Microsoft is also working with developers who need special access to the OS (such as Skype and its need to use Sockets) so that their apps will be available soon.

The rest of the reason why I believe Windows Phone 7 will be a success is that it currently fills a void that is missing in the market. The iPhone was the first serious player in the smartphone market; in fact it defined the smartphone market. The problem is that it is a very tightly controlled platform. There is only one iPhone, it has one form factor, it is only made by one company, it only allows apps into its one App Store if they successfully make it through the strict application process and apps can often be rejected for the smallest reasons, you can only write apps for it if you own a Mac and you can only sync it using iTunes which is not a great program. It’s very controlled, which is a good thing in some ways because using it is consistent between iPhones and developers only have to target one OS and everyone generally is running the same version of the OS, but some of the control is just a bit over the top and anti-competitive.

Google Android on the other hand is extremely uncontrolled. There are multiple handsets with multiple form factors from multiple companies running different versions of the OS with different UI skins, multiple app stores (or manual install from a website if you don’t want to use an app store), you can write apps for it using Windows, OS X and Linux and do just about anything with it. Google simply writes the base OS and throws it out there to whoever wants to use it. This is good because it provides the user with choice, but it is also becoming the single biggest problem for the platform. Each model of Android phone these days seems to come with a different UI and also there are at least 4 different versions of the OS floating around that are still in use and even still available to buy. Lots of Android phones still on sale come with version 1.5 or 1.6 and many of these phones will never be able to upgrade to 2.1 or 2.2 which means they will always be inferior. Android users say, well just root the phone and install it yourself, but I can’t imagine my Mum or Dad rooting their phone anytime soon. There’s just too much choice for many consumers. The main reason that Android has taken off has been a lack of cheap competitor to the iPhone and also because there are many more models of Android phones available instead of the one iPhone. Having competition drives down the price of all Android Phones. What consumers really need is something in the middle. Something between the openness and chaos of Android and control and simplicity of the iPhone: That middle of the road is Windows Phone 7.

Windows Phone 7 will be available on a number of different handsets with different form factors (e.g. some with keyboards, some without) from a number of different phone carriers like Android is, but each handset must have the same minimum hardware requirements for CPU, memory, graphics capabilities and storage, plus they must have the same buttons on the phone (Back, Start, Search, Volume Up, Volume Down, Power and Camera) which ensures that every Windows Phone will have the same compatibility as the next one. This is a similar experience to what you get on the iPhone, every app designed for iPhone works on every iPhone. Windows Phone’s App Marketplace takes similar route to the Apple App Store in that you can’t install apps that don’t come from the store and apps that are in the store have to be approved first. Thankfully, unlike Apple, Microsoft’s App Marketplace rules aren’t draconian. Microsoft is also taking Apple’s route for updating the phone to new software versions. Unlike Android where it is the carrier’s responsibility to provide updates to the phone (and they very frequently don’t because they’d rather sell you a new handset), Microsoft will be the one controlling the updates and will make all updates available to all phones. Carriers can delay an update by one update cycle for testing if they wish (it is assumed that one update cycle will be about 1 month), but for the most part, updates will reach all phones as soon as they are released. This will mean that Windows Phone 7 will not become fragmented like Android and like Windows Mobile before it, they’ve learnt their lessons.

Finally, it’s important to address the problem of missing features. Windows Phone 7 is a version 1.0 platform (even though it has 7 in the name). It shares absolutely nothing in common with Windows Mobile. With nearly every version 1.0 platform, features will be missing initially. When the iPhone first came out, it was missing stacks of features. Many of the features most demanded didn’t appear until version 3.0 of the iPhone software. The difference between the way Apple and Microsoft have dealt with missing features is that Apple normally says, “You don’t need this feature, our device works fine without it and there are no plans to implement it” and then they’ll implement a stack of the missing features in a new version of the iPhone saying “brand new, you’ll find this experience just magical, so buy today”. Microsoft’s way of dealing with this is to say “We realise that this feature is missing, but we will add it as quickly as possible via a free software update and we’ll release each separate update as soon as it’s ready”. It’s a more honest approach and it means that you won’t have to wait for your new features once per year.

So all in all, I think Windows Phone 7 is a serious contender in the market because it provides the middle ground between Android and iOS and ultimately will be a win for customers. I plan to get one of these devices around Christmas and the New Year so I’ll be able to write more about the device then!

As you’d know just from reading this blog and especially if you actually know me, I’ve been immensely excited about Windows Phone 7 since it was first announced in February this year, but especially excited since the RTM was announced in September.

Well, the problem has been, Microsoft hasn’t exactly done a great job at promoting Windows Phone 7 in Australia and the Apple obsessed media has skipped over the release, because even though it’s better than the iPhone, the media seems to think any device that isn’t displayed on stage by Steve Jobs doesn’t deserve any attention at all, which is just rubbish and shows the problem with the way technology is being reported in Australia at the moment.

Update: Microsoft has just announced on Twitter they’re launching their Windows Phone 7 TV ads tonight! Here’s what it will look like (minus the coming soon part, since it’s here!)

Anyway, because of this, I thought I would be the first person that I know to actually get one of these phones, because of the lack of knowledge and buzz around them. Last night though I was given a pleasant surprise when one of my friends asked me on Facebook how to Sync their HTC Phone. I thought they were talking about the HTC Desire which is a Google Android based phone, but they were talking about a HTC 7 Mozart phone – the first Windows Phone 7 based device in Australia! Soooo Excited! The answer of course was to download the Zune PC Software 4.7 from www.zune.net but I was soo excited to hear that someone has a Windows Phone. They allowed me to take a few photos of it today so here they are

The other great thing was the reviews. I was asking different people who had seen it what they thought of it and there was so many “oh it’s so much better than the iPhone” comments. This just proves that it’s a great phone, that people would love if they knew about it. It’s true that there is a LOT of stuff missing from it at the moment, but nearly all of those can be fixed by software updates in the future, which Microsoft has promised will occur frequently throughout 2011 (and maybe late 2010). You have to remember though, that this is a v1 product, a complete rewrite from their previous Windows Mobile devices (they share absolutely nothing in common with each other) and so priorities had to be established. What Microsoft did get done is fantastic and is much better than the iPhone when it was at v1. I plan to get a Windows Phone 7 based device (when I buy there will be more handsets available, although the HTC 7 Mozart does look fantastic) by my 18th birthday in January next year and between now and then there will be plenty of content about it on my website!

Yes, yes, I know – Apple updated their iPods, iTunes & Apple TV. But who cares – it wasn’t very innovative anyway and in fact the Nano lost features in return for a weird touch screen interface, so let’s ignore that!

It has been a big week for Microsoft. Today Microsoft’s brand new innovative Phone OS called Windows Phone 7 reached the Release To Manufacturing stage today! This means that this version of the OS is complete and is being sent out to phone manufacturers now to put onto their phones and add their own customisations to it. The final version of the developer tools that anyone can download for free and build apps for the phone will be available September 16th and the Marketplace will open to developers so they can upload apps in early October. The phones should reach Europe by October, US by November and hopefully Australia by December! So it’s very exciting, but I wanted to share (and I had this post planned for a few days, so today’s announcement is a co-incidental pleasant surprise) some information about the awesome apps being developed for the phone.

Unlike the iPhone apps which only really scroll up and down, the Windows Phone apps will be panoramic experiences if the app developer decides to build their apps this way, which means you can scroll up and down, but also left and right to access “different pages”. The idea is to make the content front of stage rather than the interface. The interface is simply there to show the content, not to take over the content – so in some cases such as the calendar or email app, it’s very blank and bland because it’s just text you want to look at, while the Music & Pictures apps look really graphical and stylish. Manufacturers & phone companies won’t be allowed to completely change the interface of the phone like that have in the past (just like they can’t modify major parts of the iPhone), but they will be allowed to add some apps to the phone. Here is an example of what Telstra’s app will look like.

Telstra One Hub

It looks pretty cool, but this isn’t the whole app. Because of the Panoramic experience, where you can scroll left and right and up and down, there is plenty more in this app that you can’t see. You can see the start of the next page on the right and if you scrolled your finger to the right (using a flick or drag), it will move pages. The title also gives you a clue, because the word Telstra One is cut off, meaning more pages are available. Here is what the entire app will look like, with the phone layered on the top to show you how much fits on one screen.

Telstra One Hub All Screens

Another example of an app for Windows Phone 7 in development (I’ll just say now, none of these apps are completed yet and will be updated when the final version of the Developer Tools arrive on September 16th) is Twozaic – which is a Twitter client for the Windows Phone. Again, the main idea here is content, there is little UI such as buttons etc and the main thing is the content.

Twozaic - A Twitter Client

Another example of content being the most important thing about Windows Phone 7 is the lock screen. On the iPhone, the lock screen is actually a pretty useless screen, it shows you the time and maybe a text message, but other than that it is pretty useless until you unlock it and open the specific app. The Windows Phone 7 lock screen not only displays the date and time, but also – the number of missed calls, unread text messages & emails and also the upcoming calendar appointment. This is so you can pull the phone out, and see all of this information at a glance without even having to unlock the phone!

iPhone Vs Windows Phone 7 Lock Screens

Finally Windows Phone has something called Hubs which sections of the phone, where apps or services which are linked to each other such as the Pictures Hub where pictures from the Camera, Phone Storage, Facebook, Flickr and other services are all put together, the People Hub where Windows Live, SIM & Facebook contacts all appear together (and merged into one profile per person even if they’re on multiple services) and the Music/Videos Hub which integrates the Zune store, music and videos uploaded to the phone via the Zune PC Software and also services such as Last.fm and Pandora. Here’s the People Hub.

People Hub

So that’s Windows Phone 7 for now – I hope to get myself one of these sometime next year

A few years ago when I was in Scouts we searched through the Venturers room at our Scout den one night, I came across some packages that I really wanted to keep, because I knew the significance of them. In the room among computer equipment that had been long long forgotten, 2 boxes took my fancy. One of them was the original software box with manuals and disks for Windows 3.1 and the other was the original software carton with manuals and disks for Office 4.3. So I was allowed to take them home (the would have been dumped otherwise) and they’re now going to be safely archived for a long time. The products were released in 1992 and 1994 respectively and this is what each looks like.

Windows 3.1 Desktop

Microsoft Office 4.3 (Microsoft Word 6.0)

Anyway, so I have kept these boxes and now I’m going to show you exactly how software was packaged in 1994. Firstly, they came in cardboard boxes, with thick detailed manuals and most software came on Floppy Disks. This is the packaging for Windows 3.1 – Circa 1992.

Windows 3.1 Product Box

Windows 3.1 Product Manual & Installation Disks

So this was what Windows 3.1 looked like. It came in a cardboard box and arrived in 7 floppy disks. Disk 1-6 included the system files, while Disk 7 had additional printer drivers on it.

Microsoft Office 4.3 (which included Word 6.0, Excel 5.0, PowerPoint 4.0 and Access 2.0) came in a very heavy carton. Here are some of the pictures of that.

Microsoft Office 4.3 Carton

Microsoft Office 4.3 User Manuals

Microsoft Office 4.3 User Manuals

Microsoft Office 4.3 User Manuals

Microsoft Office 4.3 Installations Disks

This piece of software 10 user manuals and was delivered on 24 Floppy Disks, 23 being program installation disks and disk 24 including the free to distribute PowerPoint Viewer. Unfortunately for me, Disk 7 of this package no longer works, but thanks to the wonders of the internet and a website called VetusWare, I was able to download another copy of the software so I now have a disk 7 replacement

So that’s how programs were distributed in the early 1990s. I think Windows 95 was the first version of Windows offered on a CD and Windows 2000 Professional was the last version of Windows offered on Floppy Disks. Windows 3.1 is actually a fairly decent operating system if you only want very basic word processing needs on an old computer (although the 8.3 File name limit is a pain, it’s the one thing that makes 95 extremely appealing). Imagine today having to load 23 floppies into your computer if you wanted to install Microsoft Office instead of just sticking the DVD in, and 20 minutes later it’s done.

I hope to keep this stuff for a long time, I think it’s important to see where computers have come from!!

Got An Email Tonight From “Standard Bank” and I expected a fully graphical scam phishing email, but instead I got this – the HTML code of that graphical email instead. I think they must have accidentally set it to plain text instead of HTML. Here’s a copy of the message below. (Please Do Not Visit The Links In This Post, They’re Phishing Links)

So yea – effective phishing mail – NOT!

This came up in @Pikelet650 ‘s Twitter stream and I thought it was quite amusing