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Of all of the electronic devices I own or in this case use because my job provides it to me, my WM phone is the worst device I have.

Our IT staff switched to Treo 800w's from Blackberries and no one likes them.  They lockup all the time.  They are super slow.  I reboot mine every morning, usually by removing the battery because often it just wont shut down.  The battery life is miserable and this is after our vendor gave us the higher capacity battery.  With everything turned off, GPS, WiFi, BT, andExchange Sync set to manual and only using it for push email and talking I get about 10 hours tops out of it with the larger battery.

This is the second WM that I have been forced to use by a job, the other was a BlackJack and it was WM 5.0 3 years ago.  Nothing has really changed.  The BlackJack would last longer, but that is only because it had an even bigger battery and did less than WM 6.1 on my 800w.  Both will lock up 50% of the time when trying to answer a call while on the phone, complete lock, need to pull the battery, drop both calls type of lock.  Nothing has changed from 5.0 to 6.1.

My advice, for the corporate world the BB 8330 last for days, has a very fast OS, great keyboard, push to talk for sprint folks, and never locks up, every.  Only downside is that you need a BES server for full Exchange Sync, but if you just need Exchange email you dont need it.

For a consumer that wants a smartphone, iPhone all the way.  My wife has one, and its a great device, with its only draw back (for me) is the touch screen keyboard.

Microsoft needs to take all copies of the WM code out into a common area and burn it to the ground.  Fire all of those people or move them to another project.  Start fresh with new ideas.  Maybe do the same with the Exchange team, since I could go on and on about Exchange 2007 and its train wreck but I would need to start my own blog for that topic.

I used to own a WM device. It actually wasn't all that bad. Call quality and stability were as good or as bad as any other phone I've used. Unfortunately, it hasn't changed much since then and WM is now way behind when it comes to touchscreen phones. 6.5 is definitely a step in the right direction, but one that should have come half a year ago. The new Zune type home screen is very cool in my opinion, but I would've liked to see more of the Zune on the phone. The worst part is that all this will not be ready until the end of this year. That's way too long. Unless Microsoft is secretively working on something much better that they plan to launch sooner, I think Microsoft should simply close shop and buy Palm.

WM 6.5 seems to an exercise in putting lipstick on the pig. What makes this worse is that this is something that 'partners' have been forced to do themselves up to now.

It astonishes me how little progress this platform has made over such a long period of time. The mobile OS market is 100 times more competitive that it was 2 years ago and everyone is looking more innovative than MS right now.

"Why can't they move quicker than this?"

That's the dark side of "Behemoth," I guess.

WM is a great OS.  Its apps are bad? Au contraire its the iphone apps which are bad.

Do you need an app to help you have a bowel movement? well iphone has it.

Frankly WM has sold more phones than apple, and they dont lock them down with crazy restrictions like apple.  WMs two top media players: Conduits pocket player and Kinoma Play are unmatched by anything on the AAPL side. Pocket Player will even scrobble to last.fm.  Pandora and a good facebook client are all that msft needs to get in the race with the youngsters. I have both a jailbroken iphone touch and a htc touch pro and there is only one that I can't live without.

How about a run through? Use the product, detail it and then critique it like with every other MS product you comment on.

Or is WinMo the sacrificial lamb so that people can point out "He's no Shill, he hates WinMo!".  

There are millions of us who use this platform or another and not the iPhone which you've seem to have chalked up as the benchmark for smartphones w/o ever truly detailing why.

How about the #1 reason people prefer WinMo/BB/S60 is that the iPhone tied to arguably the worst carrier in the US and usually 1 carrier in overseas markets.

I'd rather enjoy my WinMo touch on Sprint with full coverage/tethering/push/ etc etc than succumb to iPhone and its little AT&T and Apple Sandbox. I guess I don't need to appear hip or impartial to my i Friends or do cutsy fartsy consumer apps on my  smartphone.

I agree, this does seems slow. I'd like to see the Zune stuff move quicker to WinMo. Paul is right, this may be too little too late...especially with the Pre coming. My Samsung Omnia, though, is a solid phone. I have had it since early December and have only been forced to pull the battery once. It holds a pretty good charge, too.

--tayme

Too little, too late for what? It is arguably the most powerful, most open os out there.  Now it just needs to be prettied up for the masses.

I wonder if part of Microsoft's lack of movement (or slow movement) is because the company knows there's a large group of people out there who praise Microsoft's products at every turn, explain the success of competitors' products as the result of fanboism, and will buy whatever Microsoft produces, no matter how mediocre?

That describes me.

"Do you need an app to help you have a bowel movement? well iphone has it."

Why does Apple allow so-called developers to make so many f@rt apps anyway?  80% of what's on the App Store is sh*t.

Add that to the sh*t that is "Mach Mobile" and, well, the pile just keeps getting bigger.

"It is arguably the most powerful, most open os out there."

Nah.  "Open" takes on a whole new definition with Android:

www.tgdaily.com/.../108

Palm phones have had poor quality in the past. Five of us with had 4  replaced. Just before I switched to the iPhone, my Treo was starting to need rest every so often again. I imagine that WinMo will be more popular on non-Palm devices, or hope that the Pre has better quality than it's predecessors. I just read that it will have Flash support, so it has a leg up. The remaining devices should probably become more Zune-like, since that is what the crowds seem to want [a smartphone with media good playing abilities. I will note that the IT geeks at our Hospital IT meeting used to show up with laptops and WinMo phones, but now mostly have a netbook. I saw some of their phones and they look smaller, so they may not be smartphones any more. Still, if you're a doctor, WinMo is the way to go.

You still gotta wonder if a tiny smartphone with limited internet access fees, but full fledged MP3/media player is the way that consumers will be drawn. I see those rumors about the iPhone nano and think that there is a form of it that would be great for my wife and her friends, that don't need internet access for web browsing, but want email, text messaging and an MP3 player.

>>Au contraire its the iphone apps which are bad. <<

Every single one of them, right?  Not a gem or useful one in the whole bunch, right?

Ballmer:

>We're in the Windows Mobile business. We wouldn't define our phone experience just by music. A phone is really a general purpose device. You want to make telephone calls, you want to get and receive messages, text, e-mail, whatever your preference is. The phone really is kind of a general purpose device that we need to have clean and easy to use.<

arstechnica.com/.../ballmer-says-iphone-has-no-chance-to-gain-significant-market-share.ars

A review:

>>That said, there still appears to be ample scope for improvement. Some parts of the new OS are apparently untouched; Windows Media Player, for example, is unchanged from 6.1—meaning it's still going to need a stylus. This kind of jarring inconsistency makes for an extremely unpleasant user experience, and it looks like we will have to wait for Windows Mobile 7 (which will hopefully have a more Zune-like media player) before that gets remedied. The piecemeal approach taken in 6.5 is never going to deliver the coherent interface that we see on competing devices that have been designed from the ground up for touch.

Windows Mobile 6.5 is not going to put an end to the diversity of hardware capabilities currently seen in the Windows phone market, either. Although there are compulsory requirements—Windows Mobile 6.5 hardware must all have a set of hard keys to do things like open the Start screen—specifications like the screen resolution and even the presence of a touchscreen are still going to be up to the hardware vendors. This variation makes it much harder for both Microsoft and third parties to deliver truly compelling Windows Mobile software. Even a measure as simple as mandating a touchscreen would enable software vendors to tailor their software to the hardware much more effectively than is currently possible.

As flexible as the hardware specs are in some ways, they're lacking in others. Chief among the deficits is the lack of support for capacitative touchscreens. All touch-enabled 6.5 devices will have resistive touchscreens. The upshot of this is that they will all also lack support for multitouch.

With Windows Mobile 7 still not likely until April 2010, Windows Mobile is going to continue to have a tough time against competing phone platforms. 6.5 is certainly a necessary update, and My Phone in particular also looks compelling, but this release fails to knock our socks off. <<

arstechnica.com/.../ballmer-windows-mobile-65-phones-are-just-windows-phones.ars

"Not a gem or useful one in the whole bunch, right?"

I remember a "gem" app.  It was called "I am rich".

"Windows Media Player, for example, is unchanged from 6.1—meaning it's still going to need a stylus"

In most WM6.0 devices I've seen, WM player doesn't support H.264 or generic MPEG-4 video, but it does in 6.1 devices.  That makes video podcasts actually usable on 6.1 devices, and my Touch Diamond's version of Newsbreak is a very nice bundled app.

Is that why Windows 7 got it's name, to have Windows Mobile 7 be the smartphone branch of the tree?

>>I remember a "gem" app. <<

There are lots of them:

www.joystiq.com/.../indie-iphone-dev-makes-half-a-mil-we-question-our-career-choice

blog.wired.com/.../shoot-is-iphone.html

It amazes me that people say that Microsoft is behind the mark. Sure, Windows Mobile doesn't look as pretty as the other platforms, but it sure has way more features than other platforms.

For all the glitz and glamour surrounding the iPhone, it still lacks basic multitasking, copy & paste and a raft of other features that Windows phones (indeed most phones) have had for years.

Android is an overrated piece of junk. The iPhone is pretty cool, but has its own limitations. (The number of hardware keys is a big one in my opinion.) All is not lost for WM, but Microsoft has to act quickly. A Zune phone will probably be more successful against the iPhone than the Zune was against the iPod, if it's good.

When Microsoft finally unveiled Windows 7, it was much bigger than all the rumors put together. That's a big reason for all the hype it created, in my opinion. With WM and Zune, that's not the case. Most major features are usually in tune with rumors, thus dampening any hype.

This is one part of Microsoft that needs a complete and utter reboot. At least the Windows Unit is moving at a brisk pace. WM needs a complete and utter refresh/restart, because I've seen how horrible WM is on cell phones. However, with the number of players involved and the competition close, its way to early to decide a winner.

I really think of the iPhone as a consumer device with smart phone capabilities. Very similar to the Samsung Instinct that I am using. However, by the time the iPhone 3.5G makes it way to the market, Samsung is already working on the Instinct 2 and the Instinct Mini. The improvements from the latest Instinct upgrade and the upcoming update on February 24th, is showing that Samsung and others are adapting quickly to the iPhone.

So to just declare the iPhone the winner is way premature. If Win Mobile 7 is a clean reboot and rebuild, Microsoft can get back into the game. While the iPhone 3G is a great and innovative product, its weaknesses are being exploited by competitors. So this fight is far from over.

Lets give Apple credit. iPhone and iPhone 3G are good 1st and 2nd generation devices. However, if iPhone 3.5G doesn't address all the issues, I'm sure that RIM, Palm, Samsung, HTC, and others will pounce if the 3.5 G falls short. I have heard that they are finally making an iPhone for CDMA networks and that Sprint is one of the carriers being considered.

subzero, I agree with most of your points, but I don't think WM is all that bad in terms of stability. Some of HTCs phones (and I owned one) run WM beautifully. Some Treos, like Doc pointed out, are awful. It all depends on the OEM. I think the partnership with LG is a great step forward for WM, but I would really like to more Zune stuff in their phones.

Ocean --

No, not all Iphone apps are bad :)  Finding one useful in a store is hard though. I like starmap astronomy app,. It is really good.  The Pandora and Facebook apps are top notch. The weather channel app is great as well. Most of the games are meh tho. Personally I like my touch. Safari is awesome, esp with google reader.

I was mainly giving defense to WM because Paul said WM apps were no good, when in most cases they meet or beat their apple equivalents, except maybe not in the glamour area.  

@volwrath - There is a Pandora client for WinMo and it works great on my Omnia. No Facebook client yet...but m.facebook.com is pretty good anyway. There are several Twitter clients available. And if one searches, you can find some pretty nice WinMo apps. Although, just like iPhone's App Store, there are a lot of flashlights and tip calculators!!!

--tayme

@shark,

HTC does a lot of work to make WM work on their platform. I was strongly considering the HTC Touch Diamond and the Touch Pro. Trust me, I was read the features, price points, and weighing the pros and cons. However, I simply couldn't resist the $99.99 price point of the Instinct and the recently added compatibility with MS Outlook. Mobile Me functionality with none of the cost involved. After using my brother's Samsung Eternity, which is an hardware cousin to the Instinct, I was just sold on the quality of Samsung.

Unfortunately, you do have manufacturers who don't do work the extra mile for quality. However, Microsoft has to carry some responsibility that WM isn't good enough for the current generation of phones. WM does crash to frequently on good platforms.

I think a good rebuild from scratch is the best solution out there. I believe WM is salvageable with some major redo and extensive hardware testing.

First Paul

"◦The iPhone will be in its third generation by the time Microsoft's partners get around to shipping Windows Mobile 6.5-based phones.

◦Windows Mobile 6.5, itself, is an interim solution created on the fly as a response to the iPhone.

◦My Phone looks interesting and useful."

All negative the one in the middle positive? Was that a typo?

"Too little, too late"

Huh late for what? I was using windows mobile 6.1 for a while and I still find it more useful than the iPhone. 6.5 will add a few perks, I can't say they will change the world but will help win consumers.

This move is not about winning the entire market it is about positioning themselves in the consumer market. If you look at the video all they talk about is branding windows mobile phones as "windows phones" and they have set a new standard for their partners.

They have added LG among others to the game, LG has promised over 40 different "windows phones" in the next few years. HTC release diamond2 and the pro2, have you seen these phones they are nice.

My Phone is now available and is free for anyone to use in their "windows phones"

The app store is coming

We know that zune is coming

Someone asked Ballmer "has Opera hurt internet explorer", Ballmer responded this proves that windows phones are open to what is best for consumers and our partners. So they are not worried about competition like apple is "windows phones" are open to any app you want to run.

I think Microsoft is playing their cards right, they are under promising to over deliver. Microsoft I think is positioning windows phones to enter the consumer market. I think they are doing a great job, the thing I like the most is that I can always find a phone that I like because there are so many different windows phones out there. Like I said before this move was not to wow us it is to promote windows phones and to get things ready for consumers when Windows 7 Mobile is released.

I forgot to mention carriers have you seen the list of parner carriers Microsoft have put together WOW

Unlike  many it seems here I have BOTH and iPhone and a "Q" every day. One, the iPhone is my personal phone and the other is my "work" phone mostly due to the need for Exchange which we have to STILL use the "Good" or "Not-So-Good" software product to get it all to talk.

I experience BOTH phones every day and they are sitting here on my desk.  I can san witnout any reservartion that the iPhone, even with the implmented Active-Sync is a FAR FAR FAR, did I say that enough times, better experience than the "Q".  

Email is a seriously a chore on the "Q" and the calandar painful to look at.  The web experience...well..just forget that.  I've looked at newer versions and they seem prettier but essentially more of the same.

The "Q" has been relagated to phone only status since the addition of Active-Sync to the iPhone which I just find a much better all around phone and user experience!  I've used a Treo for a time, a Blackberry, the "Q" and now the iPhone and the iPhone is the ONLY one I have used prety much 100% of the features and the ONLY one that I use to regularly surf the web.

Let me give you just one little example that to me is a constant reminder of the lack of attention to the user. \

I charge my phones at night.  I take both into the car. Both phones are password protected.  I pick up the "Q" to make a call to  my friend Christian

I have to:

1. Click to awaken it and get the unlock

2. Type password

3. Confirm password with enter

4. Phone displays that it is fully charged

5. Click "ok" thanks for telling me you're fully charged

6. Press the green button

7. Cursor up to the "Enter name or Number" box

8. Type the first few letters "Chris.."

9. Scroll down to his name when it appears or keep typing.

10. Select Christian

11. Contact is displayed

12. Scroll to number

13. Press green button

It dials!

On the iPhone:

1. Press Home button

2. Swipe slider to unlock

3. Enter passcode

--notice that if the code I enter is correct it just unlocks! No "Enter" needed.

4. Tap Favorites (there is none on the "Q" and never remember speed dials)

5. Tap Christian

It dials!

Even if Christian is not in my favroites it adds easy three taps and a swipte to get to him not typing his name and using three different mechanical buttons in the process.

This daily reminder of the poor design on the "Q" and Windows Mobile is my poster-child for why I prefer my iPhone.

volwrath,

Check out the Oracle apps for iPhone and the other business apps and get your head out of the "glamour" apps and game section.

Ok, so who sees Windows Phones as a pocket computer moreso than the iPhone?

Windows Mobile is an extensible pocket computer operating system.  It does that well.  iPhone is an extensible PMP platform built around the premise of a piece of consumer electronics.  I'd bet that if Woz designed it, it would be more like a Bug Labs experiment.

All in all, I'd bet Linux users would prefer the Windows Mobile platform over the iPhone because of the vast numbers of apps available for it, as well as the ease of programmability, and more openness in the platform.  Let's face it, LiMo is just a joke at this point.  Sharp proved that.

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Um....I was just looking at the Bug Base on the www.buglabs.com .  The thing has 100Mb Ethernet and an MPEG-4 encoder.  It's a $249 computer too.  So how much would it cost to make a Multi-Bug SMP MPEG-4 super encoder for use with a PC NLE video system?

Hmm....

@jeffsters

1. Please compare the iPhone to a similar windows mobile device.

2. In my window mobile phone I swipe up and click the picture I of who I want to call or I click my headset to start voice command and say call John Smith, then yes to confirm

3. I have used a q and there are faster ways of calling people, maybe your just used to the iPhone becuase it's what you use

4. Try sending an email with the iPhone, not a sentence and entire email. Now try the Q what is faster the touch screen or the keyboard.

Like you said you use your iPhone for personal use and the Q for business, I use my windows mobile phone for both and I love it.

I have a WinMo and it's my least favourite MS product, HOWEVER, it's by far my favourite mobile OS (even if I dislike it). The apps that are available for somebody like me are great (I'm a med student BTW), and the platform is often the first to get new programs.

I was impressed but mainly because I expected very little, and I like the lock screen but most of all it was a small statement Ballmer made that made me excited more than anything:

NEW and EASIER developer tools.

My heart jumped and I was delighted, if there's one reason I love MS (and respect the iPhone now) is developer tools- hopefully MS can really make progress here.

The other thing that hit me is the idea of making the things we do day to day easier (managing photos etc), the lock screen is just the start. It's a good focus because a phone is about convenience and connectivity, not necessarily style, so their aim is laudable.

@jeffsters et all - I know the iPhone has some good apps, but here are two killer apps that it doesnt have (without jailbreaking)

a) Tethering.  my htc touch gives me a wireless access point for anydevice (which can support an adhoc wifi connection) ANYWHERE.  Therefore I can use my ipod Touch anywhere. Or5 my Aspire One, or both at the same time.

b) a2dp.I find it laughable that the iphone/ipod touch does not support a2dp.  I am an engineer and must check d sized drawings and move about my office a bunch.  I dont need to be tied down to a cord whilst listenting to Windows Weekly :p or my fav. prog metal band.  Of course The music phone does not support this. Its rather inexcusable.

Having said all that, I have no need for oracle or other on my ipod touch. Its a toy for me.

The pandora on my vga Touch Pro screen does not work well visually, but otherwise plays well.

@john87:

Do you use Epocrates?  Seems like everybody in healthcare with even a dated Palm PDA does.

Epocrates is OK, and I have used it on Palm OS, iPhone and WinMo. Active Sync really makes the iPhone good for me. Still many programs for PIMs on the Palm and WinMo blow the iPhone's apps out of the water. However, Active Sync seems to work better on the iPhone. Go figure.

I prefer an iPhone app called SaiSuke, which syncs with Google calendar [I sync Outlook to Google first]. They all get updated instantly through any change]. This program is like DateBK 6, but I can't recall the name of the WinMo similar app, although I have a few friends that use it. I think it's "something" Manager, but can't recall what "something" was. I still have friends that use it with WinMo 6.1

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"I prefer an iPhone app called SaiSuke, which syncs with Google calendar [I sync Outlook to Google first]. They all get updated instantly through any change]. "

Um....

You have an Exchange server, since you use ActiveSync.  And you use Outlook.  But you sync Outlook to Google Calendar and then use a 3rd-party app to sync it to your iPhone.

I don't get it.  

Why not just use your Exchange calendar and use ActiveSync for it???

The Windows Mobile stuff is another case of Microsoft doing a "me too". Wait until others show you how to do it, then copy it. Which is flattering to Apple, but certainly make Microsoft look boring. So much for their overuse of the word "innovation" -- it's something they DON'T do.

Look at the WM 6.5 stuff, so much is lifted from Apple. From the general concepts to a lot of the UI. But as with OS X, in comparison, the copied are poor imitations. Things that are done immensely well by Apple are implemented poorly by Microsoft; it's what's commonly known as "the Microsoft touch".

Even the use of the generic term "App Store", which Apple came up with, is something others are using (because they copied).

Ok well you copied me because I posted in this blog and you did too... come on

So they should called the "app store", "application store", or maybe "program store"...

To look forward you have to look at was is and what was, oops did I just copied that?

@robertsjoe "...which Apple came up with..."

More proof of your childishness. "It was my idea...Mommy, he stole my toy. I had it first!!!" Grow up, dude.

I am guessing that you think that Apple invented the letter i as well.

--tayme

Remember the old fable of the tortise and the rabbit?  How many people are going to be using the same phone, services and even carrier in a couple of years?

This is a super transient market.  Microsoft is moving the the right direction with a lot of this stuff, its could services are coming along very nicely.  Think of a WinMo 7 that works with Office docs in the cloud cooperatively with your laptop top.  That will sell some devices.

WinMo 6.5 is just a step with  7 being the next and much bigger one.  6.5 was obligatory, 7 will be much more revolutionary espcially with the type of hardware that's coming out next year.  Dual proc, better batteries, screens and memoery.  Even today's iPhone will be junk.

Microsoft simply needs to stick with it.  The task is known they simply have to deliver.

@tayme: All I am pointing out is their leadership. App Store sticks now since it was Apple that came up with the mobile application store concept. That's why the rest are creating "app stores". Just like they are PODcasts. Not WinCasts. They lead. Microsoft follows.

Wae, I do use the iPhone calendar with Exchange. But I wanted a monthly view with text, and the iPhone's calendar does not show it that way. List view is OK, but viewing a month with my schedule in text allows me to plan and switch to different offices/hospital rotations and meetings. It's more difficult if you look at a list or a weekly view.

"App Store sticks now since it was Apple that came up with the mobile application store concept."

Really? Just like Apple invented the cell phone, I guess.

"But I wanted a monthly view with text, and the iPhone's calendar does not show it that way"

Really?  Windows Mobile shows calendars in monthly view.  Days with all-day appointments are displayed as blocks that are filled in, while partial appointments show as half-full day blocks.  Long-term appointments (vacation, etc.) show as bars across a span of whatever number of days it is.  You can get a weekly view with text though, and it'll show the time slots on it.  Monthly views don't have text, since it wouldn't fit on a small screen.  

Of course, with Exchange, you could easily just go to Outlook Web Access from a decent browser (Opera Mobile works) or Mobile Access (low-bandwidth text version for any WAP-capable cellphone).  

I think Microsoft is moving way too sow on all of this. I really hope WinMo 7 is a complete reboot.

"Just like they are PODcasts."

Last time I checked, they're only RSS feeds with audio and video links.

@waethorn: But the audio enclosures in RSS are podcasts. Something MS had tried to find a way to get around by delaying support. They did not like the name because it brings up memories of the iPod. Get a clue.

@shark47:   "App Store sticks now since it was Apple that came up with the mobile application store concept."

"Really? Just like Apple invented the cell phone, I guess."

Of course, they did not. They just got it right. While Microsoft tried to squeeze a desktop OS in a mobile device, it took Apple to show them how to do it. Now Microsoft and others are falling over themselves to copy it. Not that there's anything wrong with that. It just shows how Microsoft doesn't innovate and can't come up with anything original.

"Now Microsoft and others are falling over themselves to copy it."

Oh, yes.  My Phone sounds similar to iPhone. Otherwise, Windows Mobile 6.5 is a lot different from the iPhone OS. It's just an extension of WM 6.1.

Microsoft has some really good software, but the links between them are missing. If they figure that out, they'll have a very impressive solution. Apple has a lot fewer solutions, but they work well together usually.

"But the audio enclosures in RSS are podcasts"

Sorry, but they aren't.  They are just RSS XML feeds with audio file (usually MP3) links.  Get a clue.

"While Microsoft tried to squeeze a desktop OS in a mobile device, it took Apple to show them how to do it"

How?  By not doing it?  If you really believe you can run OS X software on an iPhone, I'd really like to see your documentation on the matter.  It has a custom Mach kernel, and it doesn't have Aqua.  It isn't OS X.  Get another clue.

IPhone's calendar has a monthly view as well, but no text. However, there are a few 3rd party apps for WinMo and Palm OS with monthly view text. There is only one that I have found for the iPhone. Just like most, the monthly view has bars for appointments, which doesn't show me where I need to be. Still there are many more useful apps for WinMo. It hard to find anything good at the iTMS, or you find a good app and multiple others that do the same thing. Pull my finger.

@waethorn: ""But the audio enclosures in RSS are podcasts"

Sorry, but they aren't.  They are just RSS XML feeds with audio file (usually MP3) links.  Get a clue."

The link in an RSS feed (which is XML) to an audio file (MP3 or some other audio file format) is called an "enclosure".

From Wiki: "In December 2000, Winer released RSS 0.92[14] a minor set of changes aside from the introduction of the enclosure element, which permitted audio files to be carried in RSS feeds and helped spark podcasting. He also released drafts of RSS 0.93 and RSS 0.94 that were subsequently withdrawn.[15]"

As you can see, the term is "enclosure". See, I am right. Get a clue before you comment.

@waethorn: ""While Microsoft tried to squeeze a desktop OS in a mobile device, it took Apple to show them how to do it"

How?  By not doing it?  If you really believe you can run OS X software on an iPhone, I'd really like to see your documentation on the matter.  It has a custom Mach kernel, and it doesn't have Aqua.  It isn't OS X.  Get another clue."

You don't comprehend things very well, do you? Is English your second language, maybe third?

"By not doing it?  If you really believe you can run OS X software on an iPhone"

I never said OS X was in the iPhone. I was saying that Apple's approach, that of tackling a mobile OS and the software that runs on that OS, from a different angle, is far superior. Far superior to Microsoft that basically tried to take the concepts seen in desktop OSes and squeezing it in to mobile devices. They made the wrong bet there. And it took Apple to show them (and others) how to do things differently (and much better). And now Microsoft are copying and catching up.

@weedmonk

"How about a run through? Use the product, detail it and then critique it like with every other MS product you comment on.

Or is WinMo the sacrificial lamb so that people can point out "He's no Shill, he hates WinMo!".  

There are millions of us who use this platform or another and not the iPhone which you've seem to have chalked up as the benchmark for smartphones w/o ever truly detailing why.

How about the #1 reason people prefer WinMo/BB/S60 is that the iPhone tied to arguably the worst carrier in the US and usually 1 carrier in overseas markets.

I'd rather enjoy my WinMo touch on Sprint with full coverage/tethering/push/ etc etc than succumb to iPhone and its little AT&T and Apple Sandbox. I guess I don't need to appear hip or impartial to my i Friends or do cutsy fartsy consumer apps on my  smartphone.

"

Well said.

And to top it off, Paul then , without ever actually using all if even a few of these 20,000 apps, just waves them all off as being awful? Care to point us to your detailed reviews of these apps that are so bad?

That's just plain lazy journalism, and if you are going to call out other onthat type of thing, dont engage in it yourself.

And that whole "Too little, too late" is just as dumb now as when tech journalist use terms like "late to the party" or "rip off" or "me too device" or "I dont know anyone that uses (x)".

Like you blog, but dont get lazy on WinMobile because you think it's an easy target. Many people use it, more than the iPhone, and unless you want to call us dumb, then you should clue into the platform more to see why we use it.

Microsoft in bed with the RIAA, with DRM riddled Windows 6.1:

tech.slashdot.org/article.pl

@waethorn

Yes, I am an Epocrates fan, although it's not quite optimal in the UK where some drugs are prescribed differently.

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