So, Verizon released their first Windows Phone OS 7 phone recently and I got a chance to play with it for a bit. I have been using Android phones for the past couple of years (even running Android on an Windows Mobile phone before Android was taking over) so I am biased when it comes to phones, but I put my biases way for a week and picked up Microsoft’s new mobile OS on Verizon’s network for a test run and came to some conclusions that I knew I would come to and found some things that were very interesting.

HARDWARE

Before we get to the meaty part of Windows Phone OS 7, lets start with an overview of the HTC Trophy. It has a small form-factor, weighing in at just under 5 ounces with a screen size of 3.8 inches. It’s not a great mobile media device like some of the 4.0+ inch screen devices but it’s nice to see a smaller sized device on the market. The weight and size make it comfortable to hold and it’s not a nuisance to carry in your pocket.

The Trophy has all the same buttons that every Windows Phone OS 7 phone must have: back, Start, search, camera, power, and volume up and down buttons. These are a requirement from Microsoft and you’ll see why some are required a little later. There’s also a USB mini port for charging and mounting the device as a hard drive, and a 3.5mm headphone jack.

The camera is alright, I would place it around the same as the Motorola Droid. It does alright in day and well-lit areas but don’t expect too much in the dark or at night. Also, no front-facing camera means you will be taking pictures of yourself in the mirror and you can’t use any video conferencing apps.

OPERATING SYSTEM

Windows Phone OS 7 is a new OS, I only point that out because people are comparing it to Apple’s iOS and the Android OS, both of which are several years old and have substantially changed and updated themselves over the years. Of course, one could argue (and I do) that Microsoft has had that much time to make an OS that could be even better than the others because they have had plenty of time to compare and build the best OS. There are glaring omissions by Microsoft in the OS, like cut-and-paste (that will come in Mango, we are told) and lack of multi-tasking and the lack of feeling of ownership of the device because it is locked down so tightly.

This is a great improvement on the Windows Mobile OS, don’t get me wrong, but there should have been someone who worked with the OS saying, “Why don’t we take some of the great things about Windows Mobile OS and add it to Windows Phone OS 7?”.

A phone OS should be intuitive. I should be able to pick it up and use it without having to tap around and drag my finger in odd ways on the screen just to figure out how to get past the unlock screen (I did that at first because I wasn’t quite sure which way to drag… found out it was up after it bounced a few seconds later). Also, I noticed that the signal and battery life icons go away after you get to the Start screen and I thought they weren’t shown again unless you were at the lock screen, it took another friend to play around with it until he tapped near the top of the screen and it showed back up. That’s not the way I would have designed it but it does keep a clean look on the Start screen.

And then there’s the feeling of your phone being totally locked down. With Windows Mobile phones you could dive as deeply into the file structure as you wanted, there was even a file browser installed on the phone out of the box. Not so with Windows Phone OS 7, I couldn’t even find a file browser on the marketplace. Not to mention the fact that the SD card is being used as part of the phone’s memory.

Since we are on the marketplace, the Windows Phone 7 marketplace sucks. It really does. If you look at data charts comparing free and pay apps on other mobile markets you will see a huge difference between Android and iOS and the Windows Marketplace. There were even a few free apps that I found on other markets that were pay on the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace!

But for all it’s cons there are a few things that I liked about the OS:

-I can take a picture super-fast. Windows put in a great feature where if the phone’s screen is off or you are at the lock screen you can hold the camera button down for a few seconds and the phone comes to life at the camera screen. There is the chance that you will take a million pictures of the inside of your pocket but I never experienced that while I was carrying it around.

-Integrated with XBox Live and Facebook. The latter not so well but it is integrated.

-Simple Start screen. You get the simplicity of iOS with the ability to use live tiles like Android’s widgets. You can add and remove tiles, and rearrange them how you would like.

CONCLUSIONS

So, what do I think of the HTC Trophy? I know that what you all are reading this article for this anyway; I hope you didn’t just skip to the bottom.

I think, although the phone is a sturdy phone and battery life was good for a smartphone, Windows Phone OS 7 needs a lot of refinement. Like HP’s WebOS, I think this one will fall by the wayside and be picked up by a few people here and there because the iPhone is too expensive or the Android OS is too overwhelming. Unless Microsoft can really step up their game it’s going to be out of the real race and eventually will not even be a big contender.

If you are looking for a new phone that is easy to use like the iPhone and has some live elements like Android widgets, and don’t mind the lack of polish and some features that other phones have, then give the HTC Trophy a try. You do have a trial period with Verizon that you can return it if you don’t like it and get something else. But if you are coming from another smartphone with an OS that you like and just want to try the HTC Trophy because it has a different OS, don’t bother.

Here’s a quick preview of Gameloft’s newest iOS game: Order & Chaos Online. It’s a WoW-like game that pits Order vs Chaos in a massively-multiplayer online RPG setting that you can carry around in your pocket (or bag, unless you have a pocket big enough to carry an iPad in).

It’s a great game and I can’t wait to see more games like it! You can find it in the Appstore for US$6.99, that includes a three month subscription and you can buy extra months for only US$0.99 a month.

Definitely worth checking out if you are into MMOs.

Samsung, for the 10th year in a row, is the winner in cell phone customer loyalty, according to the 2011 Brand Keys Customer Loyalty Engagement Index.

I had to look up how Brand Keys works, but basically they interview a sample of people (using online survey sites), a sample of around 100-150 people, and take their info from that small sample.

Good for Samsung, but I wonder just how true this is. Anyway, read the presser below.

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SAMSUNG MOBILE HONORED AS #1 IN CUSTOMER LOYALTY FOR TENTH CONSECUTIVE YEAR IN THE MOBILE PHONE CATEGORY The No.1 U.S. Provider of Mobile Phones Celebrates a Decade of Customer Loyalty Leadership DALLAS – February 15, 2011 – Samsung Telecommunications America, LLC (Samsung Mobile), the number one mobile provider in the U.S. 1 began 2011 as the winner in cell phone customer loyalty for the tenth year in a row. According to the 2011 Brand Keys Customer Loyalty Engagement Index SM, Samsung is one of only 8 brands in any category to retain the lead in customer loyalty for an entire decade, and the only handset provider to be awarded the honor for ten consecutive years. The national survey identifies brands that are best able to engage consumers by meeting or exceeding expectations, thus, creating loyal customers. In the cell phone category, consumer preferences were based on wireless phone design and performance. “Samsung is honored once again to retain the Brand Keys customer loyalty distinction for yet another year, a clear sign of our commitment to not only creating innovative products, but to also continuously surpassing customer expectations,” said Dale Sohn, president for Samsung Mobile. “We know that a brand is only as strong as the people who support it, and securing many more decades of brand loyalty leadership is a task Samsung takes very seriously. We look forward to many more years of successfully and diligently meeting our customers’ needs as we continue to grow in the mobile marketplace.” Brand Keys is the only research consultancy in the world that specializes in customer loyalty, providing brand-equity measures that accurately predict future consumer behavior. Findings from the index rank brands based on those that consumers felt best met or exceeded their expectations and were most likely to demonstrate the highest levels of consumer loyalty and profitability over the next 12 to 18 months. The Brand Keys Customer Loyalty Engagement Index examines customers’ relationships with 528 brands in 79 categories to paint a detailed picture of the category drivers that engage customers, foster loyalty and drive real profits. “In a category where expectations regarding technology travel at the speed of the consumer, it’s a real tribute that the Samsung brand has again managed to better meet customer expectations,” noted Robert Passikoff, Brand Keys Founder and President. “Being able to do it for 10 consecutive years seems to be a pretty good indicator of ‘delight.’ Satisfaction has never been more cost-of-entry; delight is the new differentiator, and we offer our congratulations to Samsung.” For more information about the 2011 Brand Keys Customer Loyalty Awards, please visitwww.brandkeys.com/awards. About Samsung Telecommunications America, LLCSamsung Telecommunications America, LLC, a Dallas-based subsidiary of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., researches, develops and markets wireless handsets and telecommunications products throughout North America. For more information, please visitwww.samsungwireless.com. About Samsung ElectronicsSamsung Electronics Co., Ltd. is a global leader in semiconductor, telecommunication, digital media and digital convergence technologies with 2008 consolidated sales of US$96 billion. Employing approximately 164,600 people in 179 offices across 61 countries, the company is recognized as one of the fastest growing global brands. Samsung Electronics is a leading producer of digital TVs, memory chips, mobile phones and TFT-LCDs. For more information, please visit www.samsung.com. About Brand KeysBrand Keys is the global leader in brand equity, loyalty and engagement research. It provides Global 500 clients with predictive category and brand metrics in both B2C and B2B environments in 35+ countries. Brand Keys methodology is based on clinical psychology providing in-depth insights into both the rational, and, more importantly, the emotional factors that strongly bond consumers to brands.

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I wrote this article back in June and never posted it because it looked like everyone was going to tiered data, but today Verizon CEO, Ivan Seidenberg, said that the up-and-coming LTE network could support charging for data depending on the speed that the user chooses. So, I’ll post this because it is a bit relevant to the current mobile data situation.

When what we call the internet first began it wasn’t anything like what we have today. There are plenty of people out who will read this and know exactly what I am talking about and there are some who haven’t known anything but the current state of the internet. Things have changed over the years, including the way that we pay for our internet service. From what I’ve seen there have been three major points in the internet billing cycle and you can see the same exact points when you look at mobile web data.

1. Pay as you go
Anyone who remembers the internet before Cable and DSL remembers well the squeal of a modem and the rigors of the call not going through or the other end being busy. We didn’t have an always on connection and if you didn’t know how to turn the volume down on the modem everyone in the house with you knew you were connecting to the internet. Back then your internet usage was printed on your phone bill and you were billed accordingly.

Of course when someone figured out that we could use our cell phones to connect to internet sites (although very media light) the cell phone companies were quick to start charging for the data usage, on a pay as you go plan.

2. You’ve got INTERNET!
Our next step on the trip down memory lane stops where Cable and DSL internet began, dial-up internet was still pretty big and a lot of companies still billed you per kb but there was a change somewhere and people began to pay upfront for their data.

This is where we are now in the mobile data wars, every month you pay $30 and you get the internet, the fastest available and it’s always there; that is, as long as you have a signal. The only choice you have to make is whether you need enterprise support.

3. Small, Medium, Large, X-Large, XX-Large, SUPER Duper Mega Large
Now we buy our internet by how fast we want to download the finale of LOST and how high of quality we want to see the animals on our farms on Facebook. It’s like a veritable Baskin Robins of speeds, ranging from 2Mb to 100+Mb download speeds and it is always getting faster. No more can you just buy the internet, no, now you have to choose which is right for your needs.

As far as mobile data is concerned, this is the next step. Consumers are already mad that they have to pay $30 per month and they don’t get the speed they need or they don’t even use what they consider to be $30 worth of data. Then there are people who use more than their fair share of data (it is unlimited, after all) and still only pay the $30. The only indication we have of “speed” is how many “G” it is, the current is 3G and 4G is on the way.

Yup, Google has done it again. This time they have purchased Aardvark, a site that uses artificial intelligence to find the right person to answer a person’s question. I’ve posted a few times on This Mobile Life about how great Aardvark is as a social question answering service. I still use it and still love it! Hopefully this will only make the service better (and perhaps we’ll see an Android widget for it).

(via Technology Review)

The past few years have brought Augmented Reality to the forefront of mobile life. With apps such as Layar and Wikitude leading the way, it would only make sense for even more things to fall in line behind what our cellphones and webcams can already do. Keiichi Matsuda has put together what he thinks the Augmented New World would look like and, I hate to say it but, I can see the future like this and it’s scary.

Augmented (hyper)Reality: Domestic Robocop

After playing with the HTC Eris I’ve only come to one conclusion, but you will have to read through to the end to see what that is.

Out of the Box
You can read my initial reactions here but straight out of the box I love how small the Eris is and how well it fit in my hand.

It’s really fast; there was some initial lag when I first started it up, especially when moving through the home screens, but over all this phone is just as fast as the Droid.

Play Time
You have all read the specs so I’m not going to bore you with the details that you’ve seen all over the web already. Playing with the Eris was fun and the Sense UI made it a joy to engage with the device. The lack of hardware keyboard will put some off but if you aren’t planning on typing much then this droid is the one you are looking for.

Since it isn’t running Android 2.0 there are some things that aren’t on this device that Verizon has advertised are on the Droid, namely Google Navigation, a slower browsing experience, and the older Marketplace. Of course an over-the-air (OTA) upgrade to Android 2.0 is rumored to be hitting the HTC Hero and HTC Eris in the near future so that could all change.

There’s not much more about this phone to say, it’s a great little phone — it is fast, reliable, and Verizon’s 3G makes it the best non-hardware keyboard phone the carrier has out. If you don’t like the bulk of the Droid or don’t need a hardware keyboard then definitely go check this little beauty out today. (Currently, for a limited time Verizon is selling the HTC Eris for $99.99 with a NEW 2-year agreement, $199.99 for existing customers.)

New reviews will be slow coming over the next few months as we are doing a site overhaul for the new year. Keep watch to see how things change around here.

Skyfire, the BEST mobile browser available (IMHO), has finally relinquished that dreaded Beta tag and has gone to version 1.0. Unfortunately there is no way to directly update Skyfire if you already have it installed on your phone, visit get.skyfire.com to download the latest release directly to your phone.

Alex Albrecht has released his first iPhone app — iLick! It’s a simple app and, although $0.99, I find it worth the download. It’s a funny app for a buck and brought a smile to my face on a dreary Friday evening. You can buy the app on the iTunes App Store.

[Image from cleanmyphone.com]