Earlier this week, Nokia’s CEO came out and admitted something had to drastically change at Nokia, or they would basically be done…

“We poured gasoline on our own burning platform. I believe we have lacked accountability and leadership to align and direct the company through these disruptive times. We had a series of misses. We haven’t been delivering innovation fast enough. We’re not collaborating internally. Nokia, our platform is burning.” – Nokia CEO, Stephen Elop

Well, Stephen, the former head of Microsoft’s business division, revealed his master plan to reinvent Nokia… and his answer?  Windows Phone 7.

Seriously.  That’s his answer.  To move from one failing platform to another.  Excuse me while I catch my breath from laughing so hard and wipe the tears away from my face.  This is golden.

During Nokia’s presentation, he presented this ridiculously optimistic graphic, showing what Nokia thinks will happen to phone OS market share:

First, I would like to point out that Symbian has no where near 50% of the market share.  It is currently in 2nd place with 31% of the market share (as of Q4 2010), behind Android who has 33% of the market share, and has been exploding over the last year.

Likewise, Windows Phone is currently claiming a gigantic 3% of the market share.  Yup… 3%.  So how on Earth Nokia thinks 31% of a failing OS added to 3% of a failing OS adds up to over 50% of the market share completely blows my mind.  I can’t even fathom how they came up with this fantasy candyland illustration.

Well, I decided to fix up Nokia’s graphic for them with a much more realistic illustration:

Dear Nokia:  If you think Windows Phone OS is going to be your saving grace you are sorely mistaken.  If I owned any Nokia stock at this point, I’d be selling it asap (Just as an added el-oh-el, Nokia’s stock is down 13% at the time of writing this post… apparently investors agree, terrible decision Nokia).  Enjoy failing as a company.

Two years ago I wrote about what Microsoft needed to do to turn their platform around.  Now with Windows Phone 7 only months away, it would appear Microsoft has failed in every way imaginable.

Windows Phone 7 will be a miserable failure.  There are many countless reasons why it is going to epic fail, but here are some of the most important:

1) Microsoft doesn’t know mobile phones from a hole in the ground.  Just look at the current state of Windows Mobile.  It’s built on the Windows CE platform, created in 1996.  Yes.  Let me repeat.  Windows Mobile is based on a platform created in 1996.  Sure, the platform has seen updates, but it’s still based on a world created 13 years ago.  Back when Windows 98 was nothing but a dream.   Windows Phone 7 is based on Windows CE.  Yup.  Microsoft’s newest “cutting edge” Phone OS is STILL based on Windows CE.  They just couldn’t get rid of it.  Thanks Microsoft.  The same bullshit you’ve been jamming down our throats for the past how many years that has NEVER worked right is your platform for the next Windows Phone?  EPIC FAIL.

2) The Kin is a disgusting failure.  The Kin is running a hacked down version of Windows Phone 7.  Don’t believe me it sucks?  Here are a few quotes regarding the Kin and it’s abilities:

“…Lofty goals indeed for a product like this, and unfortunately for everyone, Microsoft misses the mark by a long shot. It’s not even close.”

“…we also take issue with the browser, which is abysmally slow and buggy (it consistently crashed while trying to load any complex web pages like Engadget), and the email client, which seemed to have trouble displaying even the most rudimentary HTML messages”

“While using the One and Two we found ourselves consistently confused or surprised by how many bad little interface problems there are. Not only does the phone make it hard to do simple tasks — and not only are the social networking features poorly implemented — but the handsets are often sluggish, hiccupy, and downright crash-prone. We were told by the devices on more than one occasion that we needed to restart (while performing basic tasks), and often it would just throw us a blank screen while we waited for the device to come back from whatever tragic internal situation was occurring”

That’s enough of that.  If you want to read more though, you can head over to Engadget’s review of the Kin One and Two.

3)  Microsoft does not care about the mobile market.  Microsoft is simply doing this so they can say “us too!”  Windows Mobile 6 SUFFERED from multiple issue that have existed in the Windows Mobile/CE platform for literally a decade now.  Simple fucking tasks like the built in alarm have never worked right (I know I have bitched about this before, but it’s such a shockingly easy feature to fuck up, I can’t believe they have never gotten it right).  Microsoft can’t even code a proper alarm function, nor do they care about EVER fixing it.  What makes you think that Microsoft is going to give a rat’s ass about building a competent useful device and keep it regularly updated?

Which brings me to my next point

4) Microsoft has no sense of time frame in the mobile market.  This market is an incredibly FAST paced arena.   If there is 1 thing Microsoft is definitely not, it’s fast and agile.  Let’s just take a look at some quick time frames:

The Windows Mobile 6 line was released in February of 2007.  They are on Windows Mobile 6.5 right now with nearly zero improvements aside from MAEK BUTTONS HUEG!  Windows Mobile 6 was nothing more than a skin over Windows Mobile 5, released in 2005.  Like I said, WM6 was released in early 2007.  In the 3 years since it’s release, it has seen 1 very very minor update from Microsoft.

In that same time frame of 3 years, we have seen:

• Original iPhone (2007)
• iPhone 3G [With it the launch of iPhone OS 2] (2008)
• iPhone 3Gs [With it the launch of iPhone OS 3] (2009)
• iPhone 4 [With it the launch of iPhone OS 4] (2010)
• Android 1.1 (Feb. 2009)
• Android 1.6 (September 2009)
• Andriod 2.1 (January 2010)
• Android 2.2 (June 2010)

That is 4 separate iPhones with 4 separate iPhone OS versions, each one substantially better than the one before it.

4 separate major Android releases, each one substantially better than the one before it (don’t let Androids weird number versioning system trick you up, each release is pretty substantial).

Windows Mobile, 1 minor release.  The other big players, 4 MAJOR releases.

5)  The Windows Phone Marketplace is a joke.  Microsoft has created a costly CLOSED platform.  You can’t install non-marketplace apps, and developers have to PAY to release $0 cost apps.  How in the fuck is that going to ENTICE developers to your completely fucked platform when there are already other infinitely better and cheaper platforms out there to develop for like the iPhone, Android, and Blackberry devices?  Windows Phone 7 will have no developer support.  Current Windows Mobile has no developer support and it’s been around longer than iPhone and Android.  Don’t believe me? I dare you to download a properly functioning Pandora app on Windows Mobile.  You can’t.  Because developers don’t care about a shit platform and won’t develop for it.

It doesn’t take a genius to clearly see and understand that Microsoft doesn’t care.  They don’t care about making substantial releases and they don’t care about making progress, and they certainly don’t care about mobile devices..  This is even shown in the current version of Windows Phone 7.  They have made no progress other than throwing an interesting skin on top of Windows CE, the same broken piece of shit from before.

It’s pretty pathetic.  I used to be a Windows Mobile fan.  I was using Windows Mobile doing things the iPhone couldn’t even do at launch for 2 years before.  Microsoft could have owned the mobile market, they could have controlled it.  But they don’t care.  They didn’t care about it then, and they sure as hell don’t care about it now.  Thinking anything else is foolish.

No, this post is not about my Fuze.  My Fuze has actually been a very good phone.  It has yet to really piss me off, especially like the 8525 did on a daily basis to me.

Today I got the urge to play with some different Windows Mobile builds, and since I have had my 8525 laying around not doing anything, I figured it would be the perfect little test platform.

As a side note; from what I saw from Windows Mobile 6.5 I didn’t care for it.  I like what HTC is doing with their TouchFlo interface MUCH better then the stock WM 6.5 scrolly interface.

Aside from that the OS seemed fine… but the hardware…. oh how the hardware pissed me off so badly I wanted to throw it against the wall again and again.  With in the hour I played with it, the phone randomly locked up on me… and when I reset it, the device acted like it was a HARD reset.  All the stuff I had done (thankfully not much really) was gone?!  WTF?!

I am thoroughly convinced this was not a ROM issue as there are hundreds of other people using this ROM with out issue.  I am positive that this is a hardware issue.  I believe that there is something very wrong in the land of the 8525.  Who knows what it is… I want to blame it on the Samsung processor and accompanying chipset, but I have absolutely zero proof to back that up… it’s just a theory.

The 8125, which I loved, had a Texas Instruments processor.  The 8525 had a Samsung, and my Fuze has a Qualcomm.  I have also seen other Windows Mobile (Verizon) phones with Qualcomms, and they always felt so much faster then the Samsung and even TI counterparts.  I think that the Fuze is really benefitting from the Qualcomm as it always feels snappy, and can go for a week or more with out a reboot.  That is iPhone-stability-level right there.

I’m not really sure where I’m going with this.  I am just posting up some experiences I had today which further push me to believe that the 8525 line of HTC devices had a lot more problems then just underpowered hardware.

I’m thinking of a fitting way to destroy the 8525.  Perhaps some shotgun blasts?  God forsaken hardware…

Note:  I’ve had this written since last week, just hadn’t posted it yet.  I kept going between posting it, or splitting this article up in to 2, 1 comparing hardware, 1 comparing software, because I feel like this article kind of meanders all over the place.  But I decided for my little blog site, this 1 massive post will do just fine.

Well, here it is.  The article thousands of people have been waiting for!  Ok, well probably no one… but here it is any way, my Fuze vs. iPhone comparison.  I wrote previously about why I went with another Windows Mobile phone over the iPhone, and now here is the comparison.

I’ve had the Fuze for over a week now and had time to get used to it and play with all of its features.

The iPhone is running 2.2 Firmware and has been Jailbroken.

The Fuze is running a custom Firmware.  Basically I’m running the AT&T leaked rom that is been modified.  The rom is the official AT&T update that is coming soon, but it was leaked out and people already have it.  I’m running a customized version that removes AT&T’s bullshit from it, an XDA-Developers member NotATreoFan (NATF) created.  It’s version 4.5 of his rom, which is Windows Mobile 6.1

My general feelings on the Fuze as of right now:  I LOVE IT.  This is one seriously kick ass phone.  It finally feels like a Windows Mobile device should be.  It is very fast, you can multi-task like crazy on it and it has a very nice, easy to use interface utilizing HTC’s TouchFlo 3D (which comes on the device, stock).

That being said, it is still a Windows Mobile device and takes a lot of little tweaks to make it even better.  This is the thing that can suck about Windows Mobile, but it is also the thing that makes Windows Mobile so powerful.  As an example, the on screen keyboard it came with is alright, but damn it I was having a ton of accuracy problems on it.  So I browsed around a bit and came across Finger Keyboard, which has been absolutely amazing.  It looks so nice and works very very well with a bunch of configurable options that make it very nice to use.  There have a been a lot of other little quirks that took some time to work out.  Like my external speaker, speakerphone, and ring volume was way too low.  I could barely hear TomTom in the car.  It took about an hour last night to find a file that worked for my phone, but I was eventually able to update the “AudioPara” file on my phone with one that made everything nice and loud.  Then there was the Java emulator not allowing me to set the needed permissions on Opera Mini.  I replaced the policy file with an open one and it fixed that.  The Fuze also has a light sensor which doesn’t work too great stock, but you can install a program from XDA-Developers called Lumos that automatically adjusts the backlight and it works very well.  I really like not having to constantly tweak backlight settings like I do on the iPhone.  I know I’m leaving out some other things I had to change, but those were the really annoying ones I fixed.

There are lots of little things that take time to tweak, and that is where a lot of people get discouraged.  If you don’t take the time to tweak your device and make it work the way YOU want it to, it’ll never make you happy.  Like I said, this is what makes Windows Mobile a real pain some times, but is also what makes it so great.  You don’t like something on the iPhone?  Well, tough shit.  You’re stuck with it.  Don’t like something in Windows Mobile?  Change it.

As for using the devices, each one has their own advantages.  For power user features, and the nice hardware keyboard, the Fuze rocks.  It’s also got a very useful and informative user interface, which the iPhone is desperately lacking.  Even with all the information TouchFlo 3D still manages to keep a very sleek look to it.

For general media purposes, the iPhone can’t be touched.  The built in MP3 support in the Fuze is pretty much worthless.  It’s a pain to set up, and a pain to use.  However, for video, I do like the Fuze’s ability to play any regular AVI file (using The Core Media Player).  That’s right, you can copy any standard full resolution avi file on to the memory card and the Fuze will play it.  No more re-encoding bullshit like on past phones and like on the iPhone.  Dang it I HATE re-encoding files, so it is VERY nice to now have to do that on the Fuze.  One thing that really ticked me off a bit on the Fuze though was no head phone jack on the phone.  What the hell?  Maybe they realized MP3 use on it sucks so why even bother with a headphone jack?  There is one on the dongle, but fuck dongles.  It’s not 1995 any more.  But, on the other side of the coin, the Fuze has full bluetooth support, so if you really insist on rocking out on it, pick up some very sweet bluetooth headphones and make all the white-corded iPhone boys jealous.  Still, they could’ve at least included one… then you could use any regular headphone-jacked device AND been able to use the built in FM radio with out the stupid dongle.

As for screens… this is a bit of a tough call.  The Fuze’s screen is A LOT clearer and sharper then the iPhone’s.  It’s very nice looking because it’s full VGA resolution, 640×480, while the iPhone is only 320×480.  This makes the Fuze’s screen much more clear, but the iPhones screen is still physically bigger.  Some people will prefer the slightly larger iPhone screen compared to the Fuze.  The iPhone’s physically larger screen does make some on screen tasks easier such as the on screen keyboard.  But with the Fuze, the on screen keyboard is only secondary, because it has a very nice slide out hardware keyboard.  I still prefer a hardware keyboard over on screen.  While the iPhone’s on screen does do a very good job, it’s still on screen.  There is no tactile feedback to be able to tell what key you’re hitting and when.  Hardware keyboards will always win over software keyboards, I don’t see that ever changing.

This kind of brings me to the next point… the size difference in the 2 devices.  Holding them in my hands they feel like they weigh the same.  The Fuze may be slightly heavier, but the difference is negligible.  The Fuze is shorter and skinner then the iPhone, but it is still thicker.  Over all I feel like the Fuze is a more comfortable phone to hold up to your face and talk on.  The iPhone is fat and awkward because it’s skinny.  It feels weird to hold up to your face.  I always felt the Motorola Razr had this problem too because it was so thin.  The Fuze feels much smaller in your hands, but not in your pockets.  It still makes a bulge and you can feel it in there, while the iPhone is VERY comfortable in the pocket and a lot of times you’ll not even know it is there.  I think HTC realy did put a lot of effort in to making the Fuze a sexy looking device, and compared to the past hidesousness of other HTC devices, I’d say they did this pretty well.

Next I’d like to talk about device speed and browsers.  The Fuze is fast, blowing away past Windows Mobile devices and even the iPhone.  The Fuze boots up in 68 seconds.  The iPhone takes nearly 85 seconds.  Cold launching the broswers (Safari on iPhone, Opera on the Fuze which comes with it), is nearly identical.  Opera does an amazing job on the Fuze.  It runs very quick and rivals Safari.  I still think Safari is slightly faster but I prefer Opera at this point for 2 major reasons.  1) Rendering.  Opera renders pages better and when you zoom in, it wraps the text.  You don’t have to scroll left right left right left right to read.  That annoys the hell out of me in Safari.  2) Uploading files.  Safari has no ability to upload a picture to a website or any other type of file.  Opera can upload anything just like a regular browser.  Another minor reason I like Opera better is it has Flash Lite support.  Safari has no flash support.  It’s nice for other embedded media sites that use flash that AREN’T Youtube.  In actual page rendering, Safari gets the nod as being faster, but it is not by much.  Opera on the Fuze is very useable and feels very nice.

I also like that when you have a message on the Fuze the light ring flashes.  The iPhone you’re left clueless with out powering on the screen.  That’s just a little thing that has also bothered me about the iPhone.  I like having some type of visual notification on the phone that there is a waiting alert, with out needing to turn it on and off.

My other main reason for buying WM was TomTom, and I must say the Fuze’s built in GPS works very well.  I’ve read about a lot of GPS issues on the Fuze with VERY slow signal-lock times and a ton of lag when navigating, but I have not experienced any of this.  I also did flash the radio from the leaked AT&T rom though first thing, and most people are saying that radio fixed these issues.  My GPS lock on takes maybe 5-10 seconds, and leg is negligible.  I have noticed there is maybe a 2 second lag in where you actually are compared to where you are on screen, but this doesn’t really effect navigation in any way.  TomTom works great, and I finally got to use new maps, which is nice because there are finally new maps that work right.  I had been using about 6 year old maps because the newer onse I tried were full of errors… but the latest ones I loaded on it work awesome and have a ton of new roads.  I’m also running a full USA and Canada map now, instead of just a 6 state regional map like I did before, so that is nice.  Turn by turn navigation is still lacking from the iPhone, and I honestly don’t see it happening in it’s current hardware release.  I played with some turn-by-turn stuff on the iPhone from a Jailbroken app, and from what I can tell the iPhone’s GPS is highly inaccurate when in motion.  Now, I don’t know if this app was missing some smoothing algorithms or what, but cruising down the road at 65mph, it indicated my speed was bouncing around any where from 45 to 75.  I believe this to be a flaw in the iPhone’s GPS…  who knows though, maybe Apple can fix it by updating the iPhone radio in some future firmware release?  Even so… I still think TomTom on WM will be unbeatable for mobile phone navigation.

So with all that being said, which device is better?  It’s up to you… for now I prefer the Fuze.  I like it better, and that’s all there is to it.

Which device is easier to use?  Hands down, no competition, the iPhone.  The iPhone’s built in app store is something desperately missing from Windows Mobile.  You’re still using cab files to install… this has advantages and disadvantages of course.  You also have to consider 90% of iPhone apps are shit.  Worthless fucking shit.  Seriously.  Windows Mobile has a ton more useful apps… but most of the time they don’t look nearly as nice and are more complicated to configure and use.  The iPhone also has much better media management compared to the non-existent media management in Windows Mobile.  iPhone has fixed memory… Windows Mobile as much as you can want.  I have 2gb in mine, but just ordered an 8gb card for $18.  That’s something the iPhone will never be able to do.  Upgrade?  Drop $300 on a new device.

The iPhone is more refined for sure… which is sad for WM since versions of it have been out for nearly a decade now.  The iPhone has a better touch screen, but the Fuze’s is actually very good.  Definitely the best resistive touch screen I have ever used, and it is sharper.

It comes down to the user… do you want to have what everyone else has?  Yes, it does work well, but it is lacking in some areas.  I’ve always been the type of person that wants things few others have, and been one to mod, tweak, and hack the things I do have.

I like the Fuze and like its potential.  It’s a good piece of hardware, inifinitely better then the 8525 ever was, and I think it’s going to be a better device then the 8125 was as well.  I look forward to many years of use and tweaking out of the Fuze.

I recently bought an AT&T Fuze, the latest Windows Mobile powered device in the US.  It is in the mail right now and should be here next week some time.  When I get it I plan on doing a full on Fuze vs. iPhone comparison.  But before I get it, I just wanted to give a look at the history of the WM powered phones I’ve been using for the last 4-5 years and what made me decide to get another, even while around a year ago I wrote that it is broken beyond repair.

My first was the Cingular 8125 (HTC Wizard).  It came with Windows Mobile 5 and I loved it at the time.  It did everything and did it decently.  When Windows Mobile 6 came out it was an excitting time, getting the latest hacked WM6 roms for the Wizard and all that entailed.  Over all I really liked the 8125 and I still believe that it was a BETTER device then the 8525 is.

The only issue I ever had with my 8125 is the screen drift issue, where you had to align the screen about every 2-3 days.  I eventually cracked the screen on it due to my own stupidity/anger at the drift issue.

I bought an AT&T 8525 (HTC Hermes) after that…. and this device has really turned me off of windows mobile in the last year or so.  Couple that with the fact that my work phone is an iPhone, I really had a hatred growing inside of me for WM.  I still believe in the post I wrote and that Windows Mobile is broken beyond repair.  What I mean by this is that if Microsoft wants to compete seriously with the iPhone, all WM base needs to be thrown out and they need to start over.

I don’t know what went wrong during the hardware design phase of the 8525 but someone some where really screwed the pooch.  This phone has really been nothing but problems with me since I first got it.  The device has always seemed to run SLOWER then my 8125 did, and it always seems to be having issues, ESPECIALLY lately.  Most recently the phone is locking up ALL the time on me and some days I’ll miss multiple calls and text messages because of this.

I believe part of the issues with the 8525 compared to the 8125 are due to the 8525’s under powered single processor.  The 8125 actually had 2 processors in it.  1 for the OS related tasks, and 1 that managed all the phone’s radio related tasks, like calls, data, and text messaging.  The 8525 does both OS and radio tasks on 1 400 mghz Samsung processor, and I believe this is where the 8525’s shit-factor really comes in to play.

The AT&T Fuze (HTC Raphael) has a single processor as well, but it has some major differences.  For one thing, it’s a 528mghz Qualcomm processor, and from my experience Qualcomm powered devices have ALWAYS seemed to run better.  I don’t know what it is, but I’m guessing Qualcomm simply has a better architecture.  It also has 288mb of ram, dwarfing the 8125 and 8525 ram amounts, and in WM ram was something that was always drastically lacking in the previous iterations.  The Fuze also sports a 640×480 (yes, that’s right, full VGA), resistive touch screen.  While I wish HTC would get the hell away from resistive and move to capacitive touch screens (Resistive = pressure.  Capacitive = electrical signal, iPhone is capacitive and it’s why it’s touch screen is so amazingly accurate and sensitive), the Fuze’s design will be MUCH better because the screen is not recessed inside the device like previous phones.  It’s flush and smooth like the iPhone.  This will make all the items on the edge of the screen easier to press.  It also has built in GPS which will be nice, because I won’t have to screw with my Bluetooth GPS receiver any more!

So anyway… why did I buy ANOTHER Windows Mobile device when I have an iPhone, know it’s glory, and have ranted about WM in the past?

Well… there are several reasons.

1) Cost.

8gb iPhone from AT&T = $199 w/ 2 year contract

AT&T Fuze = $349 w/ 2 year contact.

AT&T Fuze, ebay’ed = $352, no contract.

It might seem at first that I did this backwards… but here me out:

I could get really detailed here on data plans but I’ll skip it and just give an over view.

I bought a phone with no contract, so my current billing rate at $62/month with unlimited data, 500 rollover, unlimited NW, 1500 SMS and 200 MMS will NOT change on me.

Had I bought the iPhone, to get any where CLOSE to a similar plan (which I do require for my usage), it would cost at minimum $90/month.  Add in tax and fees and I am sure it would be more then $92/month.  So I would have been looking at a $30/month INCREASE just to use an iPhone… which I already have through work.  Multiply out that $30 increase over the mandatory 2 year contact and that is $720 in additionaly billing for the iPhone.  So, that $199 iPhone would actually cost $919 due to the mandatory iPhone rate increase.

Jesus christ, fuck that.  AT&T can go fuck itself with it’s bullshit iPhone-inflated rate plans.

2) Windows Mobile is more powerful, and more customizable then the iPhone will ever be. (GPS)

Sure, the iPhone is sexy and has an amazing web browser in it… but even jailbroke, the iPhone is locked down.  There is also no built in turn-by-turn.  I rely on Windows Mobile’s TomTom multiple times a week for work and other things, and the current iPhone has no chance of getting it because from what I have learned, the iPhone’s GPS is not any where close to being accurate/sensitive enough.  I have to have TomTom and the Fuze having built in GPS is absolutely perfect.  There is NOTHING close to TomTom on the current iPhone.

On top of that, the sheer number of roms and other things you can do on the WM platform is astounding.

3) Why get another iPhone when I already have one I use daily. It didn’t make sense to own 2 iPhones.

4) Bluetooth tethering. I need to tether my WM phone to my laptop.  iPhone can’t do this.   Jailbroken, you pay money to do it. It might in 3.0 but even then, rumor has it AT&T will charge a premium for access to it.  With WM you can tether with zero additional cost.

5) I’m a nerd and I always need to tweak things. Windows Mobile satisfies my need to tweak, hack, and play. Jailbreaking the iPhone was fun, but it gets boring quick.  In Windows Mobile it seems there is always something to try out.

So… in conclusion that is why I went for a Fuze.  I’m looking forward to getting it and testing it’s limits.  I’m sure it’ll be better then the 8525 and I think it will be better then the 8125 as well.  I may be able to like WM again

I’ve already gotten excitted doing research on what rom I want to flash and radio version I want to use.  I have my files all picked out, downloaded, and ready to run for when I get the Fuze in my hands.

Keep an eye out for my full on Fuze vs. iPhone post, probably coming next weekend, assuming my Fuze will get here next week!

I have been using WM for nearly 2 years now. I started on WM5 and have been using WM6 for over a year now. I have had 2 different devices, both are PDA/Phone combination devices. The first was an HTC Wizard, and the second (and current) is an HTC Hermes.

I have loved these lil phones. They do literally anything and everything. Besides a phone and contact manager, you can surf the web, play games, emulate NES games, keep up to date on Weather, sports scores, RSS feeds, navigate using GPS, calculate anything you can imagine, take notes, photos, Exchange sync email, calendar, surf via Wifi, stream music and tv shows, or watch tv shows saved to your storage card…. etc… any way, you get the point.

These devices can do it all. If you want to do it, chances are some one out there has written a program that will allow you to do it.

But that’s where the glamor ends. Sure it may do all of these things, some of them well, some of them not so well, but it does not do them gracefully, or with ANY amount of style or intuition. The interface is a clunky disaster and navigating option menus and configurations is all but impossible at times.

I keep hearing about the upcoming WM7 and seeing screen shots of it… and everything I’ve seen from it looks like more of the same.

Microsoft needs to listen up and learn from the iPhone. They need to realize that the current state of the Windows Mobile platform is so beyond repair that they need to start from scratch and completely redesign the ENTIRE thing. The WM platform has not had any substantial changes since the Pocket PC 2002 days, which was launched in the Fall of 2001. Yes, that is nearly 7 years ago. A 7 year old OS. While it was amazing for it’s day, it is long past it’s prime. I grit my teeth every time I have to pull out my stylus. This is 2008. Why should I need a stylus to do ANYTHING?! I shouldn’t… there should be zero reason to ever need one. Yet MS is still trying to fix up this old worn, beaten up, clunky OS.

Here is a prime example:

Look at the close button.

Yup… it’s that tiny little X wayyyy up in the corner. Don’t kid your self, there is no way you’re hitting that thing with your finger. Break out the ole stylus and tap that bitch.

MS needs to scrap the entire thing, and in my opinion fire the entire WM team and start from scratch. Seriously… there are bugs in WM6 that existed in 2001. If you don’t believe me then you have never used your device’s built in alarm feature. It simply does NOT work. Either the alarm never sounds, sounds at the wrong time, or sets off multiple alarms at the same exact time. I mean seriously… 7 years and they still can’t even make the alarm system work right? The entire Windows Mobile staff needs to be fired. Microsoft needs to bring in 100% fresh people and 100% fresh ideas, rewrite EVERYTHING and not give a crap about backwards compatibility.

MS has gotten their asses handed to them on a platter by the iPhone’s OS. The thing is beautiful, easy to use, no stylus, and it simply works. I haven’t heard from anyone who has to reset their iPhone once a day because it locks up. Wish I could say the same about Windows Mobile. I know several people who have one and no one’s device works smoothly.

I don’t really know where I am going with this… I just wanted to post some of my thoughts on WM and it’s current state of disrepair.