Now that MIX10 is over I thought I would share with some of my views about what was announced at the show as there seems to be some odd ideas, misinformation and bad news.

Windows Phone 7 Series

If you don’t know about 7 Series (I am expecting you do though) then check out this monster of an article by Engadget which covers every nook and cranny of the new mobile OS far better than I could.

Let me set the record straight first, I absolutely love Windows Phone 7 Series, I think it offers a breath of fresh, innovative, air in to the mobile OS market which is currently full of “mini PC” OSes and in terms of its design I think its beautiful and I think  myself quite critical of designs and the way things look. I can’t wait for the OS to come out and will happily pre-order a new brand new phone less than a year after I bought my HTC HD2 however there is definitely some bad news for us current Windows Mobile users, some of which I am really not bothered about.

No Multitasking – I am not bothered in the slightest about the multitasking aspect of 7 Series, other than being able to play music in the background I struggle to think of an app I would need access to when using another app. Even on my PC I rarely actually have programs “running” in the background other than music, yes i have several browser windows open and email client going but very little else, all of which Microsoft will be allowing to run in the background.

I understand that there would be some nice apps built if multitasking was enabled and maybe a small amount of time would saved when opening an app but really it wont affect me that much and certainly for the average consumer they wont the app they are using to suffer because they couldn’t be bothered to go into a task manager to close another app.

Marketplace – A lot of people have grumbled about the marketplace and how they wont be able to install apps through other means but again this wont affect me, since the marketplace for Windows Mobile came out I haven’t really needed to install applications without it, sometimes I have needed to install updates for the phone without but that’s because Microsoft doesn’t have anyway of updating the system. I also think that the Marketplace will encourage a higher level of innovation and design in apps for 7 Series, most of the current apps on Windows Mobile are absolutely disgusting (why I have so few apps on my HD2) and I for one look forward to a more unified approach to apps.

Cut, Copy & Paste – Now this is where I draw the line. I know that Microsoft are working hard on adding in smart links through the OS so that numbers, email, URLS etc will automatically be linked to the right application and I’m sure that I wont need to copy things as much as I currently do. However, and its a big however, Microsoft are including Office in 7 Series and that is definitely an app will will benefit from cut, copy and paste.

OK, OK I hear you telling me that C, C & P will be coming to the mobile OS, but Christmas is also coming. Have we be given a time scale for when this feature is going to be added to the phone? No. Maybe if Microsoft gave us that piece of information I would be reassured, but we could be waiting months whilst the iPhone users will be laughing at us 7 Series users, how the mighty will have fallen and the tables turned. I’m sure that in reality I can easily go through a few months without C,C & P but I still believe it should be in the OS from day 1.

Internet Explorer 9

I had no idea how much stock people hold in the ACID 3 test until this week when Microsoft demoed and released an early build of Internet Explorer 9. I like many people were glad to hear of standards support for HTML5 and CSS3 in the browser and its massive improvements in rendering time due to hardware acceleration, however there were quite a few people who dismissed everything Microsoft had down because it only gets 55/100 on the ACID test.

I can’t claim to know a huge amount about internet standards and the like however I have never found benchmarking to be the be-all-and-end-all that many people believe. I much prefer to use the system or program that provides me with the best experience whether that be the quickest, most secure etc whether it passes some arbitrary test or not. As far as I can tell IE9 does a much better job at rendering pages and images than the other browsers currently out there from Google, Firefox and Apple despite not getting 100% in the ACID test and if I was able to I’d use IE9 as my default browser without a doubt.

I would be much inclined to listen to IE9’s critics if they acknowledged its improvements but they don’t, they only seem to hear IE and immediately its a rubbish browser; I guess it’ll be their loss in the long run if they wont even use IE9.

Well here endeth the post (rant) and I just wish I was able to attend MIX10 to get some hand on experience with Windows Phone 7 Series and soak up the excitement Bill Buxton has for design and interfacing, maybe next year.