Windows Phone 7 Hits Technical Preview Milestone

suraj.sun writes "Microsoft's upcoming Windows Phone 7 mobile operating system has today reached its biggest milestone yet, with a technical preview announced placing the OS on the 'home stretch' to launch. 'We are certainly not done yet — but the craftsmen (and women) of our team have signed off that our software is now ready for the hands-on everyday use of a broad set of consumers around the world — and we're looking forward to their feedback in the coming weeks, so that we can finish the best Windows Phone release ever together,' Terry Myerson, Microsoft's Corporate Vice President of Windows Phone Engineering, wrote tonight." There's coverage around the net including CNet, NeoWin and Engadget.

Comments

Yaawwwnnn.

[1shooter]

Wake me when it's finished. Then I'll take a look and see how it stacks up against the competition.

Re:Nice

[hedwards]

To be fair, the Zune could've been a success had MS not screwed it up. The hardware was actually quite good and the few people I know that owned them really liked them.

Re:Ah, let's just call it done

[SquarePixel]

Microsoft will be enforcing content restrictions on Windows Phone 7 applications, by preventing users from sideloading applications as they previously had done with Windows Mobile. This results in all applications having to pass through the Windows Phone Marketplace where content restrictions apply.[34][35] Users are free to sync whatever content they want to their phone or view any website from the web browser.

Microsoft said that applications containing pornography will be prevented from being installed on Windows Phone 7, as well as applications containing images that fit the definition of "sexually suggestive". Violence and all nudity will be censored from apps. Suggestions or depictions of prostitution, sexual fetishes, or basically anything that "a reasonable person would consider to be adult or borderline adult content" will be forbidden from Windows Phone 7 apps.

Microsoft elaborated that it would disallow apps containing "images that reveal nipples, genitals, buttocks, or pubic hair".

When will the US understand that sex is not bad, evil or something that should be banned from adults? Of course, the games with violence and killing will be allowed, but no, not such unharmful and natural thing like nudity or sex.

Re:My question is...

[hedwards]

I had a Win CE device, and the problem was that the Desktop paradigm doesn't really translate very well to mobile devices. Pushing it to the netbooks is a bit of a stretch, but by the time you get to PDAs and mobile phones it completely breaks down. The iPhone and Android UIs work a lot better for screens that size, I think that they might even translate up to around about the netbook range without a whole lot of trouble, but then again trying to go beyond that point would likely cause trouble in that they're meant for small devices.

Never a head start

[SuperKendall]

I don't know, but it's baffling that a company with so much of a headstart over would now be its chief competitors managed so little.

The thing is, they never had a head start at all - because they were always going down a different path. It's not so much compatibility with Desktop WIndows, as it was reliance on a stylus and a physical keyboard.

Android and iOS were built from the ground up to make use of touch. Neither iOS or Android (to some extent) are reliant even on a physical keyboard, though one can be present... for small mobile devices that simply is a better path, and one Microsoft never chose to explore.

So it's not so much Desktop compatibility, as it is trying to simply move the existing UI conventions to mobile (unless that is what you meant by compatibility).

Re:Never a head start

[samkass]

Android and iOS were built from the ground up to make use of touch.

Every prototype of Android device looked like a Blackberry until the iPhone came out. At that point Android bolted on their multi-touch look and feel... there's no "ground up" design relating to touch in either the iPhone or Android. The core OS just handles files, memory, network, power, processes, etc. Apple could replace UIKit eventing with some keyboard/stylus-based input API and replace a small fraction of iOS.

To get it right takes a lot more than the touch UI being right. It takes an entire infrastructure to make the device disappear and become the task. Despite Microsoft's size, they've never been an infrastructure company so it'll be a challenge.

Sex Everywhere Already

[SuperKendall]

When will the US understand that sex is not bad, evil or something that should be banned from adults?

When will Slashdot users understand that not everyone should be required to sell sex if they do not wish to?

Anyone can get porn onto mobile devices via web applications. If you look around you'll find that the porn industry seems to have figured out how to sell sex over web interfaces quite well to date.

It's not a ban, it's just a choice not to sell it through a corporate channel with a brand to maintain.

Re:Sex Everywhere Already

[SquarePixel]

it's just a choice not to sell it through a corporate channel with a brand to maintain.

And that is the exact problem. US people, especially religious ones think there's some problem with nudity. This usually tends to be the older ones, most in their 20's don't have this problem. What exactly is it that makes nudity so bad?

Re:Sex Everywhere Already

[Mongoose Disciple]

Pornography is not created as "art". Its sole purpose is for people to look at it and then self-abuse themselves into a climax. That is not sex. Sex requires two people.

Because multiple people never watch pornography together, right?

It's fine that you prefer to have a puritanical worldview, but let's not pretend it's held by everyone or in some way rationally based.

Re:Sex Everywhere Already

[SquarePixel]

Its sole purpose is for people to look at it and then self-abuse themselves into a climax.

Self-abuse? Why be so serious about having a little bit of fun with yourself? You only life once and you might just as well enjoy some beautiful ladies (or men, if you're a woman) and do what obviously is fun and feels good.

You know, women do it too. What about phone sex? That's two people, but you just do it to pleasure yourself and not to have babies. Would you call that self-abuse too?

Re:Sex Everywhere Already

[ubermiester]

What exactly is it that makes nudity so bad?

It's not that nudity is so bad, it's what happens when kids are exposed to porn that people are concerned with. Kids have raging hormones that operate whether they are prepared for the consequences or not. And by consequences i dont mean teen pregnancy (kids who are getting some at that age are probably not downloading porn apps on their phones). The problem is that porn presents sexuality in its most mechanical form. No love, no personal relationship, just rubbing. Women are presented as easy and submissive. They do what they are told, and don't seem to need anything more than a man in the room to be ready and willing to do whatever the man wants. Young men are obviously not going to assume that all women are as slutty as the "characters" in a porn vid, but they cannot hope to understand how women actually feel about and have sex by watching porn. Parents and schools are the last places kids turn to when it comes to sex, and by the time they actually see a real nude person in their bedroom, they've probably seen thousands of digital ones there for years.

And that's just the boys. Consider how a porno makes most girls feel. They see women doing things that the average adult would stutter to explain. Almost all of the women they see are submissive and objectified (that may be something some women are into, but they don't show the woman negotiating her contract or explaining what she will or wont do). So-called "soft" porn or skinimax flix are a little more sensitive to the female psyche, but they are less and less common. (Check out how many of these series are on vs how many websites there are dedicated to the more damaging "slutty" porn).

I am not against images of nudity or even porn for adults (watch it myself from time to time...). But to ask with incredulity why people are so concerned with nudity is to ignore the fact that kids are NOT adults. They are not prepared to deal with the condensed and distorted view of sexuality that porn presents.

Nudity is not the issue. It's the developing psyche of children that people are concerned with.

PS: For the record, i am not religious at all so i am not coming at this from a moralistic point-of-view. I simply have a young daughter who's well-being is my top priority in life, so i think about this stuff a lot.

Re:Sex Everywhere Already

[daem0n1x]

So, nudity == pornography? This only shows how puritan the American mind is.

Nudity is pretty common in arts here in Europe. Also, there are statues of naked people in every corner in every city. A boob shown on TV doesn't cause outrage like in the US, and children don't grow to be serial killers or mass rapists because of it.

I assume Microsoft will ban sculptures like the "Manneken Pis" or "O Desterrado", and images like "The French Republic", because they show inappropriate body parts. how retarded is that?

MOD PARENT UP

[Anonymous Coward]

Troll? Seriously? This guy is dead on. I'm never buying another Windows phone again because MS proved to me that their mobile OS sucked and continues to suck.
 
We got MS fanboys here or fifth graders with modpoints or what?

Hmm

[jav1231]

Seriously, if they're building a phone OS at this point in the game, it better offer a paradigm shift. Otherwise, it's the Kin or at best the Zune, relegated!

Re:Hmm

[jav1231]

I think people, to some extent, are at a point where everything Microsoft doesn't hold as much sway. It used to be that Microsoft mated everything well to its OS. All of their server offerings give you Windows as the basic GUI (something I think they did TOO much of). WinCE was an attempt to do what Apple did very well, scale the basic OS down. But Apple re-wrote the GUI for the phone. WinCE looked like Windows crammed into a phone.
That said, the hurdle is very high for Microsoft. Of late, they haven't done a lot to clear hurtles, only match them at best but with lost momentum. I contend that it's an Apple / Android world on smartphones for some time to come. Microsoft has an insatiable lust for doing what everyone else does. It looks like Windows Phone 7 will be to smartphones what Bing is to Google, Zune is to iPod.

Re:Hmm

[Locutus]

"Microsoft = drawing you in to cook you slowly"? Most consumers still have no clue but what they do have a clue about is that Apple made a phone/PDA sexy and you are _in_ if you have one. It helps too that they are easy to use and work well( except if you hold the 4 a certain way ). Android brings the easy to use UI to a plethora of devices which don't have the Apple cool factor but has the easy to use and is useful but it also brings customers to all the other hardware vendors with very little upfront costs for the OS/software.

And those hardware vendors know what it is like in the PC and netbook segment where Microsoft is threatening them and dictating product development and marketing and they do not want any part of that. This is why Windows Phone 7 will fail. No matter how much they offer companies to sell Windows Phone 7, they will not be able to pull exclusionary and exclusive deals like they did with netbooks and PCs and because of that, there is no sexy in Windows. In the end, only Microsoft zealots will purchase Windows Phone 7 phones and a handful of business managers will dictate to staff to use only those phones "because they are a Windows shop".

What's worst, at a time when Microsoft's investors are wondering where the growth has gone, Microsoft will have to pump hundreds of millions quarterly into just marketing this thing and it'll show up on the books. Not to mention the hundreds of millions Microsoft is probably already starting to pump into the tablet segment attempting to not only stem ARM Linux or Android based tablets but also iPad growth. I don't see the 4th quarter looking good at all for Microsoft investors. Desktop Windows, MS Office, and Windows Server will still make them billions, but once again, billions in losses and no indication of success outside of Windows will pull down the stock even further. IMO

LoB

Re:Did a bit of research already....

[Anonymous Coward]

XNA is not DirectX. Not C++. Not OpenGL.

Not many XNA games out there when comparing it to directX and OpenGL.

So, the porting of games is not as easy as you think.

Re:My question is...

[CODiNE]

It's hard to point to openness as the reason with Apple's walled garden as a ready counterpoint, but what did go wrong?

One part may be what I recently noticed with my wife and her iPad. You see she immediately wanted one instead of a laptop, and she's immensely more satisfied with it than her previous (more powerful) laptop. Here's one reason why iOS is successful.

She can install apps on her own. Previously I'd tried to train her on this... you find the download link on the website (not always easy). You go to the downloads folder (she forgets where it is). You locate the file you just downloaded (forgot what it's name was, or the name doesn't match the app). Double-click it to get the disk image open (the what?) then either drag and drop the app on the Applications folder OR run the Installer if it's set up that way (huh?)

Now she just goes to the store with one tap. Hits the little search button, types draw or whatever... checks out the apps, and clicks Install. It's done.

I believe the mobile app stores such as Apple's and the Android store (there is one on the phone right?) significantly lower the barrier of entry to trying out new apps on the device. For us downloading and installing are simple as can be, but to a non-techie it's just a fog of gibberish and confusing steps. Most people don't install ANY new apps on their computers, it takes a "power user" to download and install Google Earth. You hear people like that say "I hate computers" but really it's the basic file system management and app installation process they can't grok.

So yes, openness and the "walled garden" is a significant part of Apple and Google's success. It's not so much a "cool factor" as it is a eureka! moment to people when they too can try new things on their device. The model of downloading an app on the computer, plugging in a phone and then using some sort of installer process is a bit overwhelming for the majority of people. Simplifying the phones has empowered the common user.

Re:Corporate "improvements" will kill the device..

[Locutus]

while that might be true with RIM, RIM is probably quite happy to be _the_ enterprise messaging phone and the last time I looked, RIM made a good profit. Microsoft on the other hand, loses hundreds of millions annually on Windows CE based products and has since the late '90s. And there is nothing wrong with a company being good at their market and being good enough their products are _picked_ over the competition.

Microsoft does not see things this way. They must own the market and they are willing to spend billions to do that and they have. Profits from Windows desktop based software( WIndows OS, MS Office, and Windows Server ) make up ~90% of Microsoft profits. Microsoft execs live and breath by the now infamous "Does anybody remember Windows?" statement Bill Gates made in the mid '90s when Microsoft product managers and engineers were crafting Microsoft's Java product list. That statement and the following directives from Bill and other executives turned Microsofts Java products into products whos purpose was to tie customers to Windows, not enable Microsoft to compete for customers and profits. They already had the profits from Windows and losing those profits are more important than winning new profits. IMO

And Adobe would be a fool to put any effort, funded or not, into putting Flash on a Microsoft phone product. Microsoft may not have dissed Adobe like Apple did but their Silverlight is directly targeting Flash just as .NET was and is designed to tie vendors to Windows instead of having platform choices which Java provides.

LoB

Yes but look what he used it for...

[SuperKendall]

From the article:

My typical day consisted of sending and receiving lots of text messages and email messages through various accounts, checking my Facebook feeds, using Twitter through the Dabr.co.uk mobile Twitter site (Microsoft please get Twitter integration or an app added soon), managing my appointments, and checking out friends' photos.

Wouldn't that also be a great description of the Kin's strengths?

Although I think Kin was able to work with Twitter...

Re:Ah, let's just call it done

[Com2Kid]

It's based on creaky old CE

And Android is based on "creaky old Linux".

Anything else stupid you want to say?

WP7 is based on CE7, a continuation of CE6 which was pretty much a complete rewrite of CE. CE6 and 7 are both incredibly powerful embedded OSs with none of the limitations that previous CE versions had.