Windows Phone 7 Series: Everything Is Different Now

[silentj]

windows-phone-7-games.jpg

The name—Windows Phone 7 Series—is a mouthful, and unfortunately, the epitome of Microsoft's worst naming instincts, belying the simple fact that it's the most groundbreaking phone since the iPhone. It's the phone Microsoft should've made three years ago. In the same way that the Windows 7 desktop OS was nearly everything people hoped it would be, Windows Phone 7 is almost everything anyone could've dreamed of in a phone, let alone a Microsoft phone. It changes everything. Why? Now that Microsoft has filled in its gaping chasm of suck with a meaningful phone effort, the three most significant companies in desktop computing—Apple, Google and Microsoft—now stand to occupy the same positions in mobile. Phones are officially computers that happen to fit in your pocket.

Windows Phone 7 is also something completely new for Microsoft: A total break from the past. Windows Mobile isn't just dead, the body's been dumped, buried and paved over by a rainbow brick road.

It's based on the Windows CE 6 kernel, like the Zune HD, while current versions of Windows Mobile are based on Windows CE 5. Microsoft announced the new OS at Mobile World Congress 2010 in Barcelona, and says that the first handsets to run it are supposed to be released by the holiday shopping season of this year.

You'll see variation in devices (yes, some with and some without a keyboard), but there will be a much more steady tone in the nature of Windows Phone 7 Series handsets. Here's a look at some of the minimum specs thus far:

Large WVGA screen with a single aspect ratio (which means BlackBerry-style devices won't be readily available to begin with)
Five specific hardware buttons required: Start, back, search (a dedicated Bing button), camera button, and power -- no more, no less
Capacitive multitouch
CPU and GPU requirements (beginning with Qualcomm's Snapdragon as the go-to processor)
WiFi
AGPS
Accelerometer
FM radio
High resolution camera

Xbox, on a Phone

Xbox Live on a phone! It's tied to your Live profile, and there are achievements and gamer points for the games you can play on your phone, which will be tied to games back on your Xbox 360.

[CoFree]

this could be fun
as long as the g.u.i.
is ok
m$ has a way of messing up even the best idea

[silentj]

Ya lets hope thay don't mess this one up.

[HaGGardSmurf]

It'll be trash. Can guarantee it...