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.

Where the story gets interesting is that the patch for this vulnerability (MS09-054) was issued via Windows Update by Microsoft on 14 October 2009.  So, two days after the patch for this issue was delivered via automatic updates, Mozilla decided that it would be a good idea to disable these add-ons.  Unfortunately, the block list technology Mozilla has put into place in Firefox does not give the user any option to override a block other than turning off blocking completely.

When bringing this up on the BugZilla thread for this issue, the members of the team responsible for issuing this block essentially have said that they do not plan on removing the block, putting thousands of developers using ClickOnce for distribution of their software in the position of not being able to effectively deliver their software to Firefox users.

“Updates are not magic. Some people have them now; some don’t. If it’s not 100% then it’s vulnerable and hence the block. If a version that is 100% (preferably with user permission) were put out then that could be allowed, as already stated,” stated Dave Garret. “Fundamentally, Microsoft introduced a security risk into Firefox with these add-ons. That risk came to fruition and thus Mozilla closed the risk entirely.”

Although the issue was not with the add-ons themselves, the Mozilla team apparently is refusing to unblock them until new versions of the add-ons are released that are not vulnerable.  The funny thing is, the current versions of the add-ons are not vulnerable.  It seems as though the few people who are making the decision about this block may have decided to take advantage of this opportunity to block a set of add-ons that have been controversial.

This is bad news for software developers and many enterprises who use the ClickOnce technology to deliver applications to their users.  It’s especially bad news for Mozilla, in my opinion, because if this block isn’t removed, those enterprise IT organizations who managed to get Firefox approved as their standard browser may be forced to switch back to Internet Explorer.

Hopefully someone with some sense will step in and realize that this block needs to be removed.

More information:
http://csharpner.blogspot.com/2009/10/firefox-has-determined-that-following.html

Main Desktop

My main desktop machine, where I do most of my gaming and just general personal computing, was the first machine that I migrated to the Windows 7 Beta.  I had some issues with video card drivers at first, but that was quickly resolved.  Other than occasional video weirdness, which I think may actually be hardware related, it performs wonderfully.  I haven’t had any problems with games that would’t play or performance or anything.

Media Center

The second machine I upgraded to the Windows 7 Beta (and recently upgraded to the Release Candidate) is  my media center PC.  This machine is a Dell XPS 420 with dual ATI digital cable tuners that serves as the hub for all the media in my house.  It serves streaming HDTV, movies and more to Xbox 360s located in other parts of the house.  It was a bit risky moving this machine to Windows 7, but I left my Vista install there in a dual boot setup just in case.  I haven’t booted back to Vista on that machine once.

The upgrades made to Windows Media Center are incredible.  The new guide features are great, with the ability to set up favorites lists, color code the guide entries and more. The interface is a much improved, generally tighter and nicer looking version of the one included in Windows Vista.  In general, I’m loving all the media functionality of Windows 7.

Netbook

I have an HP Mini 1030NR that I immediately installed Windows 7 on.  It came with Windows XP and I just cannot imagine myself ever going back to that operating system again unless forced to.  Windows 7 performs really well in 1GB of memory on an Atom processor.  It’s nice and quick for those times when I just want to get online real quick to check a few things or when I’m out and about and need to get online.

Work Laptop

I recently upgraded my Thinkpad work laptop to Windows 7 because I was having some performance issues with Windows Vista on it (and because I was so used to it on my other machines I really wanted it on the machine I spend 8-10 hours a day on).  It’s been great and the performance is much improved.

Kid’s computer

I just put together a low-end AMD X2 machine for the kids this weekend and immediately put Windows 7 RC on it.  They seem to be able to navigate it pretty easily, and they love the new Aero Themes with the nice color options, sound themes and cool wallpapers.

All in all I must say that I’ve been extremely pleased with Windows 7 and I really look forward to it coming out in a final release.  Anyone else using Windows 7?  If so, what do you think?

Right now, I’m in the middle of changing my media center PC over to Windows 7. It’s interesting, running into some compatibility issues here and there with some of the third party software I use, but so far pretty good! I already made the switch to Windows 7 on my desktop PC, and I’m loving it! I’ll write up a post about that and my new hardware goodie that I bought when I did the upgrade in the next few days as well.

1. My nickname/handle/nom-de-guerre is “sirtwist” and has been since somewhere around 1991 when I first read the Shadowrun: Secrets of Power trilogy by Robert N. Charrette.  One of the character’s “street name” is Twist and an elf named Dodger dubbed him “Sir Twist”, complete with a British accent.
2. This blog will be dedicated to my take on technology issues … my “twist”, if you will.  I’ll be talking about things like gadgets, media technology, cloud computing, gaming and internet security.  Sometimes I’ll be writing reviews of products and/or services.  Other times I’ll be rambling (hopefully coherently) about various “geeky” things I’ve been working on.  I’ll likely even chat about things I find in the tech press and other blogs.

Since this is my first adventure in blogging, with the exception of corporate blogs such as our Purity Networks Blog, I ask you to bear with me as I search for the right balance of personal commentary, news and other assorted tidbits.  I’m definitely open to suggestions, so feel free to email me at sirtwist@twistontech.com.

Hope you enjoy the site!