A '3' Spokesperson-
A small white dog by the name of Droopy -said "I'm so excited.."
yawn.
Want a Windows Phone 7? OK, how about if it was free? Thought you might change your mind. Well, network 3 is offering one to the first lucky punter it draws out of its virtual hat. It's not limiting the prize draw to its customers, but anyone currently with O2, Orange, T-Mobile or Vodafone is likely to receive suggestions that …
The screenshot has xbox live and outlook, both terrible pieces of software for a phone and xbox live is a desparate tie in more than a beneficial service, I bet it has to log in for you to see your games, or something equally stupid.
It also looks iphoney, with no background image, just a lot of icons to stuff. But it could easily be an artists impression as Win 7 isn't out there in the wild yet.
Can't wait for El Reg to review.
Not holding my breathe on the phones % of market share.
Sorry, 3 blogger Sylvia Chind, but you don't get 'excited', 'massively excited' or 'really excited' about MS products. The official wording is 'super excited', as any perusal of Microsoft communiqués will reveal.
You must be thinking of some other company's trademarked brand of synthetic euphoria.
Note – if launching a British product, it's appropriate to say that you are 'pleased, quite pleased, or you may even ramp it up to 'rather pleased'.
Will anyone actually be eligable to win this comp? the third condition of entry is:
3 - To enter, participants must pre-register for a Microsoft 7 handset on the Three website (www.three.co.uk). All participants will be automatically entered into the prize draw. The promoter is not responsible for any registrations that are not received for any reason.
and as on the competition entry form it states:
Register for updates using the form opposite and we'll tell you when it's available. You'll also be entered into a draw to win an amazing Windows® Phone.
Does this mean that by default they have pre registered me for a WinMo 7 handset and 3 contract?! thats one way to get cusotmer numbers quickly!
I'll get my coat - yeh its the one with the "top secret handset which is launching soon" in the pocket ;)
OK, this OS and the phones ain't out yet!
I know its fashionable and cool to diss Microsoft, but why not try and be a bit more level headed. Perhaps add a pinch of proffessional, and dare I say, journalistic detachment (oh, OK, maybe this is asking too much...)
If Arstechnica can view WP7 positively, that is DEFINITELY saying something about WP7! It just looks like the majority of users on Reg are sheep now (never used to be) :-(
"I know its fashionable and cool to diss Microsoft"
It's cooler to like MS in the US. It's cooler to dislike MS in Europe.
Arsers are just as sheeply as Coomentards. Witness the group wank over homegroup (or whatever the fuck it is) a proprietary MS technology that, as ever, does not interoperate with the wider world.
How quickly have MS scraped off Mo6 from CE and glued a new Applesk interface, so quick they have lost Copy & Paste.
You didn't think this was a new OS?
The last * new * OS commercially released by MS was Windows CE, 16 November 1996; 13 years ago, upon which WinMobile resides.
Windows 7/Server2008 is based on 1993 NT3.1, it's NT 6.xxx
Singularity is a new MS OS. But that's not even intended to be commercially released.
WinCE isn't bad apart from one size fits all for driver, Original stupidity of copying Win Desktop GUI and limited number of processes. Arguably better than iOS4 or Linux/Android. It's just that in entire history of CE/Mobile MS have wanted to have "one size fits all" GUI experience and been clueless about Gadget GUI maybe till the Zune.
So is it really a Zune with a phone, really running 1996 CE? If so the next version, the finished one might be quite good if the Mobile & Gadget division isn't closed first.
Why is this in Reg Hardware?
Windows 7 is a piece of software only. There is no mention in the article about which manufacturers kit it will be on
Just like back in 2007 when Ballmer laughed about the iphone and stated that Microsoft were already selling millions of phone. 100% wrong. They never shipped one phone, just licensed an OS to other companies.
pedantic i know but, hey, its fun to ballmer-bash
When I can copy an address from a SMS and paste it into Google Maps or copy a phone number or email from an email and add it to a specific field in my contacts then let me know. Until then the Windows 7 phone is worthless.
Sorry, but HTF can you release a phone without copy & paste. I know Apple did but everything else on the iphone was so evolutionary that people overlooked the shortcomming.
The new W7 does allow to do simple copy-paste by means of recognising the text is some important information. If someone sends you a phone number is underlined so you can call it, or save it etc. I don't think you can do it with a whole sentence, that will be in next year. I am waiting to see what it can do, before I use my upgrade, it could be rubbish we'll see. I do hope it does tethering like old windows mobiles though.
Given how both Androids and iPhoneys have C&P and that WinMo6 had C&P, Losing C&P is a no go. I do still remember the lack of C&P from my Palm OS days in college, it was a living nightmare, particularly if I want to cut and paste a something (say, a parcel tracking number from eBay) from a webpage (or a URL) and send it off in a text message. Losing the C&P is a no-go for me.