For those that haven’t seen the new interface yet (where have you been?), here’s a quick video intro:

I’m not going to go very in depth in this post because many other sites have covered what we know with extreme depth and clarity.  If you’re looking for an in depth article with very good analysis, see this Engadget article.  For my part, I’m simply going to cover things from my personal perspective, picking out the things that I really like or things that I think will really apply to my life.

Introducing Hubs

One of the new concepts in Windows Phone 7 Series is the idea of “hubs.”  These are areas of the phone that bring together features and functionality that are related to a specific concept into one easy to understand user interface.  The hubs are essentially a widescreen view into a particular area of the phone and your phone screen shows you a “window” into that view.  You can scroll left and right to move around the whole page:

I really like this interface and the metaphor it represents. It makes the device feel more expansive, as if there’s a bigger device hidden in an extra-dimensional pocket behind the phone screen.  If you look at the Pictures Hub, you’ll also notice the What’s New section, which brings in new pictures from web services such as Facebook.  I presume that other photo-related web services such as Flickr will also be available as options.  It’s interesting to note that the galleries available for display on the phone also incorporate online galleries, so the walls between what you have on your phone and what is available online clearly are being torn down.  Instead of having to go to two separate locations or apps on your phone to view pictures they are all viewable from one easy to use location.

It’s a Phone; It’s a Zune; It’s Both

I have owned a Zune HD since they day they launched.  I owned a Zune 80GB second generation before that.  I love my Zune.  I love the Zune Pass music subscription service.

What I don’t love is having to carry a separate phone and Zune.  Thankfully, Windows Phone 7 Series will ship with the full Zune software experience embedded in it.  Not only do you get all the features and functionality of the Zune in Windows Phone 7, but you actually get a pretty close reproduction of the user interface of the Zune HD software as well, which is great.

As you can see in the picture above, the far right side of the Music and Video Hub appears to feature a place for music and video related applications.  Windows Phone 7 Series will reportedly have a Pandora application available at launch that will plug in to this Hub.

Final Thoughts and What We’re Still Waiting On

I won’t go into details on some of the other areas of the OS that Microsoft showed off, but I’ll touch on a few points.  While they didn’t give much detail, the Office and Exchange integration looks great.  Seeing as I use my phone for both business and personal use, that’s important to me.  The Xbox gaming integration looks really interesting, but we’ll have to see how that plays out with game developers.  I really like the social networking integration into the core phone experience, rather than through a separate application.  It’s a very people-centric phone, which seems to make sense to me.

As I’m sure you can tell, I am really looking forward to the launch of Windows Phone 7 Series.  From everything we know so far it is exactly what I was hoping Microsoft would do with its mobile platform and strategy.  Of course, it is still early and there are a lot of details that we just don’t know yet.  Microsoft will be announcing and discussing a lot of the technical and development details at the MIX 10 conference next month, which I think will clear up a lot of the unanswered questions.  I’m pretty convinced at this point that I’ll be getting a Windows Phone 7 device later this year, but I will reserve final judgement until I see the information presented at MIX.

I haven’t talked about Windows Mobile much on the site, mainly because there hasn’t been much news regarding the platform for a while. Sure, Windows Mobile 6.5 and subsequent versions were released, and they were an improvement (somewhat) over previous versions. But they weren’t the big, revolutionary leap forward that we’ve been expecting. Whether Windows Mobile 7 will fulfill that promise from Microsoft, we’ll have to wait and see.

I have used Windows Mobile phones exclusively for at least the last 5 years, and while the platform is definitely long in the tooth, I have come to love it. Sure, it has some problems: lack of capacitive touch capability; outdated and often inconsistent user interface; perceived and sometimes actual complexity and other problems. Even with all those issues, I’ve found that Windows Mobile has fit my needs better than other platforms out there.

That being said, I’m at a tipping point now. What Microsoft announces for Windows Mobile 7 will help me determine if it’s time to switch to another platform, probably Android, and I imagine I’m not alone amongst Windows Mobile users. In my opinion, it bodes well that Microsoft decided to push back WM7 and launch WM 6.5 as a stop-gap, because that means they’re taking WM7 seriously and don’t want to screw it up. It wouldn’t be the first time, however, that Microsoft needed to not screw up and did anyway.

I’m really looking forward to some of the rumored features, providing they’re delivered right, especially the Zune integration. I love my Zune HD, but I’d love to have the same features and functionality on my phone so I can carry one device.

I don’t want to do this to you, Microsoft, but if you don’t get it right this time, I’m going to have to break up with you on my phone. I look forward to the announcement at Mobile World Congress and the follow-up, in depth development info that will be coming out at MIX 2010. I’ll likely be getting a new phone this fall. It remains to be seen whether it will be a new Windows Mobile phone.

My first portable media player (PMP) was an Apple iPod Mini.  I think it was a 4GB Blue model.  It was fine, I guess, but I ran out of space on it and needed to upgrade to get more.  I upgraded to the Apple iPod Video (5th Generation iPod, I think), which was a 30GB model.  It was fine as far as space goes, but I REALLY hated iTunes and the DRMed to all hell music that I supposedly owned when I bought it from the iTunes Music Store.  I was also disappointed in the way iTunes and the iPod handled podcasts.

When Microsoft launched the second generation Zune, I was ready to make a switch.  I bought my 80GB black Zune 2 the day they came out and I’ve never looked back.  There are so many things to love about this device and the software and services associated with it.  Sure, there’s a few annoyances as well, but not too many in my book.

I’m sure I may miss a few, but here are the major reasons I love my Zune:

1. The hardware itself is really nice.  Sure, it’s not as sleek as an iPod.  But the navigation pad (the squircle) is awesome.  You flick your finger in the direction you want to scroll and the items scroll really quickly.  Press the squircle in the direction and it moves one item at a time.  Just really convenient, easy to use navigation mechanisms.  The screen is nice, though a larger, higher resolution screen would be on my wish list.
2. The device software is awesome.  I always hated the navigation on the iPods.  It always felt like I was hitting back, back, back a lot to navigate to a new section.  The Zune software has a crossbar navigation mechanism that allows you to scroll up and down and left and right.  For instance, when you go into Music, you can scroll left and right to get to the different filters (Artist, Album, Genre, Playlist, etc.) and up and down for the results of that filter.  If you, for instance, go to Artist and select an artist, you’re then presented with a left/right scroll list of all of your artists and an up/down scroll list of the albums for the artist you’re on.
3. The Zune PC software is very clean and easy to use.  It’s taken a few versions of the new software, but I think it’s finally there.  There’s some really cool features like Mixview, which allows you to view related artists, other listeners and various other related information about a song you’re playing.  It’s a great way to explore similar or related music and other people with similar tastes to yours to see what they’re listening to.
4. The Zune Pass.  This, to me, is the best part of being a Zune user.  For $14.95 a month, you get unlimited, all you can eat, access to most of the Zune Marketplace’s music content.  Download 5, 10, 15 albums a month, it doesn’t matter.  Sure, you’re “renting” the music and if you stop paying your subscription, your content expires.  But if you typically buy an average of an album a month, the Zune Pass is worth it, especially considering that you get 10 free tracks per month to keep.  Those are completely free, non-expiring tracks.

I’m sure there’s more things that I love about the Zune that I’ll think of after I finish writing this post, such as the fact that you can sync your Zune over wi-fi, can access the Zune Marketplace and stream music over wi-fi, and can stream music to your PC from the Zune Marketplace even on computers that you don’t download your music collection to.

All in all, if you’re looking for a new portable media player, consider the Zune.  It’s a great device!