How Phone 7 Can Improve

Okay let's face it: Windows Phone 7 is revolutionary. It is arguably good. Metro UI is novel in a world of apps, and whether you like it or not, you have to admit, it's new.

And yet, it's well, new. Abandoning the roots of the Windows Mobile Project, Windows Phone took things back to the basics, built straight off of CE 6.0 R3. And consequently, some of the good ol' features are gone.

And even then, new isn't reliable. And that's why it hasn't quite picked up yet. But here are some ideas how Windows Phone can improve:

Top-Notch Hardware

As is, Windows Mobile Phones hold up great in quality and hardware levels. But still, there is just that LITTLE squeeze that they can make. Having everything use SLCD/AMOLED technologies, up the internal storage, push the camera size up, etc. However, again, there's not much to do here, as Phone 7 has already established quality hardware ahead of time.

Ability To Customize Tiles

When I first heard of Phone 7, it seemed so cool because I could basically have anything on the homescreen. Shortcut to Internet Explorer, Link to my friend's page, Directions to his house, button to call my mom, you get the picture right? Well, apparently, the tiles aren't really all that, and, yes they're cool, but I'd like to make the messaging 2 wide and the calender 1... Perhaps get rid of the U-Verse. Things like that.

Backgrounds

I don't get what's with software producers and NOT letting people put backgrounds. First iOS, now this. Well, I hope that this one comes soon enough.

More UI Customizations

Same here as Backgrounds. Metro UI is cool, don't get me wrong, but don't we live in an age of Sense, Touchwiz, and MOTOBLUR?

KIN/Expand The Range

Not everyone has 200 joe's to spend on a phone. And the thing is, Phone 7 devices, with all their quality, bost that price. Now yes, I can't imagine something 2.8" meeting these standards, so maybe there'll be a Phone 7 Lite or Microsoft will resort to KIN, something like that. But if Microsoft is to succeed, they need to remember the not-as-wealthy.

Dual Core

Could go along with Hardware, depending on how you choose to see it. I put it seperate because it's more of tomorrow-technology than today-latest-and-greatest.

More Manufacturers

More manufacturers = More variety. And anyway, everyone has some spin to bring on the table, so yeah, it'd be interesting to see what they have.

Improved IE7 Mobile (Flash, Trident 4.0 Rendering Engine)

The Mobile Browsing Experience plays an important role of a smartphone's performance, and by choosing Internet Explorer Mobile (well I mean, what else?) Microsoft has taken on reputation of that lousy browser of the past, and to get over that, they need something good, something great. Trident 4.0 (IE8) would also be good instead of the IE7/IE8 crossover.

COPY-AND-PASTE

It comes in 2011. Whatever, it's needed.

Multitasking

By this, I mean full multitasking. I hope you know what I mean.

Windows Mobile Backwards Compatibility Via Emulator

Let's face it, there are a ton of apps (none I can name off the top of my heads) that run on Windows Mobile 6.1, 6.5, and 6.5.3. And now with Phone 7, I can't use any of them! That's right. Because of the Windows Phone-redevelopment, Windows Phone has no backward compatibility with Windows Mobile. Which can be a problem, since, after all, I do have my bubblebreaker and tetris games on Mobile, don't I? Well, perhaps Windows Mobile could take an approach like Classic for webOS and make an emulator software that can run some apps, with limited restriction. This isn't high on my list because, after all, most of them aren't memorable anyway.

This.

I know this isn't going to happen ANYTIME soon, but it can't hurt to ask.

Droid Pro: Rationalized

You've seen what people have to say about the Droid Pro. It's been praised for taking after a Blackberry and yet somehow being just as great to use. But it's been criticized for the 3.1" Screen and MOTOBLUR.


Taking a step back, are the cons really cons? Admittedly, a 3.1" Screen goes for difficult on-screen keyboard experience, and you can get a bigger-screened LG Vortex for less, but let's remember, this is Blackberry-esque and not meant to be its big brother, the Droid X. And when we think Blackberry, the Curve and Bold come to mind, and in general, Blackberry displays are usually 2.4-2.6" with no touch technology. Taking in the 854x480 res. versus 480x360, I think it stands that the Droid's display is not horrible at all.


Now on to MOTOBLUR. Blur has been... well, not well received. The unappealing panels and crapload of notifications were clearly not meant for everyone, but still, Blur is very social, and the Blur on this phone is not that annoying-only-on-Android-2.1 blur that you get out of mid-range mediocre handsets, but a more simplified, proffesional modification of Blur (sometimes called Ninjablur or MOTOBLUR-Lite) that is actually quite customizable, and unlike some layers (namely UX) still allows the original Android widgets.


While certain other points like battery and camera are not great, you have to take into consideration that the Droid Pro is aimed at being "proffesional" Android, not that Droid that a surprising amount of 13-year-old's own. For a proffesional, the 5MP camera is doable (doable without) and the battery... well, that may be the Droid Pro's only real shortcoming.


Priced at $179.99, the Droid Pro is another great Droid device. While the advent of Tegra2 and Orion dual-core CPUs is just over the horizon, this device is still a looker, and won't set you back as badly as a Droid 2.