I decided to wait a little while before I posted my thoughts on Microsoft’s announcement of Windows Phone 7 Series.  I wanted to give myself a little time to digest all the coverage.  I also wanted to gather my thoughts on what we know and what is still up in the air.

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.

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Microsoft will reportedly be announcing Windows Mobile 7 at Mobile World Congress during a Steve Ballmer press conference on February 15, 2010. There have been rumors swirling for weeks now about what we’re going to learn about Windows Mobile 7 at MWC.

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.

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I picked up an HP Mini 1030NR Netbook from Best Buy yesterday.  I had some Reward Zone certificates that were about to expire, so I ended up getting a great deal on it (about $65 out of pocket).

I’ll write up a more in depth review after I’ve had some time to play with it, but I’ll give a few quick observations here. First, I immediately put the Windows 7 beta on it, and it performs really well.  It’s not as fast as a full blown laptop or desktop machine, but the performance is completely acceptable for casual, every day web use.  While the keyboard is smaller than I’m used to (my “real” laptop is a Lenovo Thinkpad R61), it has a very nice feel to it.  The screen is bright and beautiful, and about as small as I can see myself using at 10.2″.

It has built in 802.11g wireless, which so far shows really solid performance.  The two USB ports allow for some nice expansion options and make it easy for me to use my Sprint EVDO card for on-the-go wireless whereever I am.  Even though there’s no optical drive, I can easily plug in an external DVD drive via USB when I absolutely need it.

The HP Mini is a tad bit heavier than other netbooks I’ve seen, but it’s not uncomfortable to carry.  It has a similar case design to other HP notebooks, which is very attractive.

All in all, a great package from what I can tell so far.  I ran into a problem getting the Sierra Wireless drivers installed for my Sprint EVDO card on Windows 7, but it was an easy fix (I’ll post a full writeup on this in a separate post).  I also had to manually install the touchpad drivers, as Windows 7 saw it only as a PS/2 mouse.  The default drivers allowed the touchpad to work as a mouse with no problems, but I missed my “scroll area” on the touchpad, so I grabbed the drivers from the Synaptics website.

I’m looking forward to playing with this new netbook!

I wrote earlier that I was considering getting a Kindle 2. Unfortunately, I’ve had my mind made up for me.

Earlier this weekend I mistakenly drove off from my garage with my Kindle on the back of my Toyota Prius. I had set the Kindle down there when I was unloading my car and apparently forgot to come grab it afterwards.  Later on, I left to go play some poker, not remembering that my Kindle was still perched on the rear end of my car.

My Kindle is now somewhere between Aurora and Rockford, likely on the side of the road somewhere.

I’ve ordered my new Kindle 2 and a leather cover for it (since the new version doesn’t come with a case). It’s scheduled to be delivered on Tuesday.  I suppose I’ll have to live without my Kindle fix for a day or two.

I’m trying to decide whether I want to get the new Kindle 2 to replace my original Kindle.  Don’t get me wrong, I love my Kindle. I use it every day.

But there are a few things that are annoying about it, such as the placement of the Previous/Next buttons, the page turn lag that is sometimes experienced and the overall ugliness of the design. I’ve figured out ways to live with all of those things, of course.  Which is what is causing my dilemma.

The Kindle 2 looks much nicer than the original.  The button placement is better.  The screen now boasts 16 shades of gray, for crisper text and images.  The page turns and other display elements are supposed to be much faster.  The battery life is better.  It’s all around a better device.  But is that enough for me to drop the $359 on it?

I suppose it depends on whether I can sell my original Kindle to recoup part of the cost.  Anyone interested in buying a Kindle 1?