Windows Phone 7: The AnandTech Guide
by Brian Klug on March 21, 2010 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Windows Phone 7
- Mobile
No Maps, Just Search
I browsed to Bing.com in the browser, and saw its relatively spartan mobile version:
Even Microsoft acknowledged that their mobile version of Bing needs work.
We moved on to the first-party Bing search application. You'll notice there's no maps tile on the home screen; this is because Microsoft really wants you to use search as your portal for finding everything. I'm told the search context includes everything on your phone, maps, and on the web. I'm told that search will include the scope of local SMS/MMS, and email as well. Microsoft wants you to use Bing search on the phone so much that they've mandated a hardware button dedicated for launching it.
Bing does its best to guess what kind of results are most relevant based on the search. The most common example was the difference between searching something like "sushi," (which should return locations of sushi restaurants first), and something destined for the web, like a website. To try that, I first tried searching AnandTech:
Bing Search Page
Search pivoted to the Web results category first, and returned us at the top of the list.
I then searched "Mexican Restaurant" in the hopes that it would return contextual, location-augmented results first. Search successfully pivoted to local first. Note again that in this video there are a places where images and maps should have appeared, but didn't because of the slow network. I'm also confident that I saw Bing maps on the platform, including the blue circle for our present location. Textures just didn't load in time due to the slow network.
Contextual search at launch will work for a wide variety of subjects including movies, celebrities, flights, and everything else that works through Bing search through the web.
Integration here was everything you'd expect it to be. Search results appear under a variety of categories: Web, Local, and News. Tapping on an entry under local then pivots to the relevant results about the location entity, in this case reviews and information about the location.
What I really noticed here is how easy it was to navigate between three separate applications (maps, Internet Explorer, and Bing search) without being constrained. You'll notice that although this isn't multitasking, we're able to use the back button to transition from, say, the browser seamlessly back to search results. Or from a relevant location entry in the search results, to its location on the map, and back. These are discrete "applications" but manifest themselves seamlessly atop each other.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
55 Comments
View All Comments
PsychoPif - Monday, March 22, 2010 - link
MS will push the upgrades, not the carriers.shady28 - Sunday, March 21, 2010 - link
Wow, you know there are (were) really only 5 platforms in the smartphone space - Windows Mobile, Palm WebOS, Blackberry RIM, iPhone, and Android. All of them were unique in their own way and had their own 'fanbase'.
Now MS has removed their uniqueness. Rather than improving on WinMo, they've decided to try to go head to head against the iPhone by attempting to match up against the iPhone's strengths (ie, interface, ease of use, MP3 player integration, app store, etc).
Naturally they've failed to best the iPhone in those categories by a long shot. Instead they essentially have made a device that is 'less than an iPhone' rather than a better WinMO device. I'd say this is the move that will kill off WinMo.
Johnmcl7 - Sunday, March 21, 2010 - link
Whatever you think of S60 and Maemo, Nokia still have a large share of the smartphone marketAzsen - Sunday, March 21, 2010 - link
Does Microsoft seriously think that home screen user interface looks good? It looks flippen hideous!! Give me iPhone UI any day.straubs - Monday, March 22, 2010 - link
No kiddding! Look at the Pre and then look at WP7S and tell me that doesn't look like something someone drew up in their basement in 1978. The single color and square corners are awful, not too mention huge amounts of wasted space everywhere.melgross - Sunday, March 21, 2010 - link
One thing that wasn't clear to me is whether or not music and books will be available without going through the marketplace. Apps can only be gotten there, so ok. The same thing is true for my iPhone. But I can get books, video and music onto the phone that weren't bought through the App Store or iTunes. Would that be possible here as well?The article didn't touch on that from what I saw. Anyone know?
nerdtalker - Sunday, March 21, 2010 - link
I touched on it, but only very briefly ;) partly because it's, you guessed it, not totally finalized. Microsoft wants everything to go through the marketplace, so that means yes, music, videos, and games are all marketplace purchases.A lot of developers were asking whether there was any API for them to do in-application commerce, and the answer was that this was still being worked on. Think the same way you can buy additional levels or addons in-game on the iPhone that are billed through the App Store. It isn't present in the builds of WP7S - yet.
It's another one of those things they haven't fully fleshed out yet, and haven't decided whether they can finish in time for release.
I didn't hear any mention of books at all, that's a great point. I'm not sure whether there's any strategy there.
Cheers,
Brian
CSMR - Sunday, March 21, 2010 - link
It looks like there is some complex sync process to transfer special types of file.You can't just plug in the phone, open it up as a storage device and drag files to and fro, as you can now.
Instead you probably need to install special sync software.
My advice: avoid and get a phone that is recognized as a storage device and has a usable file system.
MGSsancho - Monday, March 22, 2010 - link
Maybe it behaves like my ZuneHD. i just put music and audio books into my music folder and videos into my video folder. then it shows up in the Zune app. if i want to auto sync pics, vids, podcats and music it can or I can manually drag stuff the the ZuneHD device icon. oh you can either encode videos yourself or the app will do it for youMrPIppy - Sunday, March 21, 2010 - link
iPhone apps are sandboxed, but they are *not* managed code. Objective-C is compiled into ARM binaries, and garbage collection is not available on iPhone.