RIM - Leveraging the Future

August 2 2012, 7:16 AM  by The Head

RIM Has undoubtably gone through a series of rough times as of late. Their products have struggled somewhat to gain the foothold they expected in the North American/Western European markets, they have struggled with public perception, and have hit financial walls. With mass layoffs on the verge of being carried out, and a delay on BB10 to 2013, RIM has what appears to be an impossible path to success in front of it.

But, there are a few things that they have going for them that could make the transition work. There is no really victory to be had in the short term, but in the long term, they do have plenty of potential to regain market viability.

• They still have a lot of money in the bank. This should never be discounted. This may not be "Apple" money, but they don't have the massive Apple infrastructure to support either. Money in the bank means a definite asset that can be leveraged in a variety of ways, whether it be through investment, to pay expenses, or to help secure credit/loans.
• They still have a massive dedicated user base. I believe it's 75+ million current BBM users at the moment. Now, it's hard to tell how lucrative that is or where these people are spread, but that user base is a strong asset for potential growth.
• THe company is modular and could be re-designed to better adapt to the market. With services like BBM, BIS, and BES coupled with hardware development and other software development, they could change their business model to meet different demands.
• They own QNX. This is actually important since that (either as a product of its own or along with the upcoming BB10) could see a lot of use in non-traditional places.
• RIM has a strong presence in quite a few developing countries with some of their lower end phones. This may not be what saves them, but it could very well be what keeps them going in the short term.

The company is clearly banking on BB10 being a game changer. They are strongly putting their eggs into that basket. From what I have seen, they may not be wrong. The previews of BB10 have shown a lot of potential, great innovation, and some truly remarkable features. The question is: will it be too little, too late? What can the do in the meantime to make a transition from BB7 to BB10, and not have to use up their cash reserves to survive?

• They really need to leverage current BB7 devices better. The Bold 9900 needs to be the clear flagship, but priced ultra competitively. At $600 + (depending on carrier) it simply isn't priced to compete with high end Androids or the iPhone. Slash the price to a level that makes people stop and think about it. $300-$350 would be my guess to the sweet spot for pricing. Work with the carriers to make it happen, and possibly sweeten the deal with a prom bundle of some sort.
• By the same token, drop the price on the Curve 9360 to $199. Make it cheap enough that people don't think twice about it.
• Promote the hell out of those devices. The Bold can be fun and business like at the same time, while the curve can be hip and sexy, targeted towards the younger market. Emphasize the hell out of the keyboard and how social the device is.
• Open up to the possibility of a strategic partnership with a content provider. Think something like Amazon, that can fill BB devices (either BB7 or BB10) with all of the media content they could want.
• Work with that partner to make the Playbook more attractive. With it's ability to run Android applications, partnering with Amazon to make this device more in line with the Kindle Fire, and cross promote the hell out of it could turn it into an instant success over night.

RIM has all the potential in the world to succeed, they just need to shift their view a little to make it happen. They can't compete directly with iOS and Android with their current product lineup priced the way they are, but they can adapt to make their products much more attractive. They can change the perception people have of RIM being old school and out of touch by taking the opportunity to get more of their products into people's hands.

The road to be BB10 will be a tough one, but RIM has the potential to spread their current products whilst creating interest in their future products. They have a good chance right now to recapture some momentum, and curb the negative press they've received. RIM is a company with a future, they just need to set a good path towards it.

A Big Week for Microsoft - First Looks at Surface and WindowsPhone8

June 24 2012, 9:10 AM  by The Head

Without a doubt, Microsoft had a very, very big week. Hot on the heels of Apple refreshing their laptop line, and showing off the new features of iOS 6, Microsoft was going to have to really up their game to capture that level of hype and excitement. Did they?

Yes and no.

For starters, Microsoft met industry expectations of announcing their own hardware, something of a rarity for the company. Surface is the new Microsoft tablet that will be leveraging Windows 8 in an attempt to take on the tablet dominance of Apple and the iPad. The Redmond crew had something very interesting to show off. Tech wise, this is a very exciting development. We could have our first legitimate contender to the iPad that may see success without being a pure undercut and cheaper alternative.

Microsoft CEO Steve Balmer showed us what they have built, and from all appearances it is a doozy. A beautiful magnesium built casing that should be incredibly durable, tapered edges, large screen, slim and well weighted. By all accounts a very nicely built tablet. An ARM model running Windows RT and an x86 model (Pro) running desktop Windows 8. Two specialized products that could potentially target every niche of the market. A device that can be exciting for consumers, but also be beautifully adopted by enterprise. They also showed their incredibly interesting and somewhat revolutionary tablet cover, which also doubles as an incredibly thin keyboard and touchpad. There are two models of cover depending on your need, with different thicknesses and keyboard tactile touch. Both have a touchpad as well, allowing you to essentially turn the tablet into a small laptop on a whim.

From a tech standpoint, Microsoft knocked it out of the park. An interesting product, that targets a variety of consumers, with features that have not been seen previously, running proprietary Microsoft software and the familiar Windows OS. The potential is huge.

But from a presentation standpoint, Microsoft fumbled. Bad. It started with one of their Surface units locking up in the middle of the presentation. This isn't the first time such a thing has happened to a Microsoft show, though everyone would have hoped it would be the last. While there is a level of understanding that these things happen, and that this wasn't a "final" product, it does leave a bit of a bitter taste.

And then there's the bit that Microsoft didn't have. They tried to showcase their product in a large, Apple-esque way, but missed out on the fundamentals of what generates Apple level buzz. Price? No idea. Microsoft had nothing to say other than it would be "competitive". Okay. Industry insiders have speculated that the RT version would be similar in price to the iPad while the Pro version could hit MAcBook Air levels. This undermines a key concept of what makes an Apple event work. They tell you the price, and then tell you why it's a great value. This gives Apple a chance to spin that price and make consumers see it as a good thing (even if it may not be). Microsoft lost that chance. By saying that the price is going to be revealed closer to launch date, they are putting that power in the hands of their competitors, and even the buying public.

This then ties into the second mistake. They didn't give a release date. The RT version should coincide with the release of Windows 8, with the Pro version being released three months later. That is simply terrible. Every truly succesful product unveiling in recent memory has included a solid launch date, and that date needs to be "soon". They really could have taken a page from Apple on this one. Microsoft announced a new product, but gave no details about pricing or availability. That just leaves the gate wide open for the competition to step in and highlight new products that can hit market way earlier.

And then there are the other intangibles. How much RAM does Surface have? No idea. What kind of battery life can we expect? No idea. What kind of screen resolution will it have? No idea.

Microsoft unveiled a killer product. In theory. It is incredibly exciting and could actually be the first legitimate contender to the tablet crown firmly in the iPad's hands. But they dropped the ball in the announcement. If they had waited, had all the answers to the questions, and been fully prepared to have the product launch shortly after the announcement, it would have been a killer presentation. Instead, they made a rookie mistake. There's no shame in admitting that Apple is better at product launches. There is, however, shame in not adapting and learning from your competition.

The second announcement that Microsoft had this week was Windows Phone 8. And I'll start with the same issues as Surface. No release date. No updates on pricing. Nothing solid.

Again, it felt early. They had no product demos, they just mentioned the key partners. The rough notion of a Fall release has been bantered about, but again, no concrete date.

The last piece of negative news is that Windows Phone 7 devices will not be updated to 8. Yeah, that sucks. But to play devil's advocate, it really shouldn't be a surprise. We are dealing with a completely different kernel, powered by different hardware, being leveraged by new technologies and adding a slew of features that just aren't possible on the current crop of devices. It isn't so much an upgrade to the current OS, as it is a brand new OS in and of itself. So while it does indeed suck to have a brand new Windows Phone whose days are numbered, it shouldn't be a shock.

Luckily, Microsoft has promised an update, Essentially Windows Phone 7.8, that will bring as many of the perks as possible to the current crop of phones. So while I doubt it will wash the bad taste out of everyone's mouths (I say as I look at my Lumia 800), there are improvements coming.

But what Windows Phone 8 does bring is incredibly impressive. Multi-core support. A greater range of resolutions, including a 720p screen. Removable storage. NFC (including NFC payment options), Nokia Maps for Windows Phone handsets (brilliant!) and an improved home screen with a lot more customization options and less wasted space.

By and large, this should bring feature parity with iOS and Android, and even several areas where Windows Phone is the top dog. While I doubt this will lead to an immediate turnaround in market share, it should do an awful lot to make more people seriously consider Windows Phone over other devices.

And then there is this: A massive increase in security, and a prioritization on enterprise features. Things like complete encryption, local marketplaces, and enterprise server linkage. All features that are currently ownded by the failing Blackberry. Microsoft has done something truly smart here. They are placing Windows Phone 8 s a great device for consumers and enterprise alike. A phone that can be as secure as a company needs it to be, but still be fun and attractive to the masses. They are angling to make this a three horse race, and knock RIM completely out of the picture. They might not be number 1 or even number 2 in the immediate future, but angling to be number 3, while they shore up all of the lose ends and continually make their product better and tie it tighter to home computing and enterprise will give Microsoft a lot of leverage with this platform.

All in all, a strangely bittersweet week for fans of Microsoft products. A lot of really cool stuff on the horizon, but that horizon is a ways off and isn't even nailed down. Microsoft is coming through as innovators after years of being followers of tech trends. They have shown that they have a better idea of what people ant, but haven't figured out the art of presentation as of yet. IT may not be cool to love Microsoft products as of yet, but they are well on their way of making their products less lame. And that is a great start for this company.

Management Overhead is Killing RIM

June 16 2012, 12:10 PM  by The Head

Some interesting factoids came out of Waterloo this week regarding what the old guard of Mike Lazaradis and Jim Balsillie would be pulling away from the company this year. All combined, the pair will be sharing about $23 million dollars in bonus and severance payments. Let that sink in for a moment. This is the management team that saw their company's worth shrink about 16 times from it's value just 5 years ago. This is the management team that was completely and utterly unprepared for the advent of the iPhone and Android. This is the management team failed to react, at all, to a quickly changing market and decided that pure brand loyalty would allow their product to remain viable.

Added to this, the new CEO Thorsten Heins will be pulling in about $10.2 million this year. Which is great because his track record of... um... well... having not done a whole lot as of yet clearly shows he deserves this.

So we have the previous management whose lack of vision has plunged the company into incredibly dire straits where they are rapidly losing North American market share and are in danger of losing the remaining world markets where they have managed to hold some semblance of legitimacy, along with the new CEO who has of yet actually put together any sort of plan other than "BB10 is great" bringing home over $30 million this year.

With rumoured job cuts in the area of 6000 coming this Summer, this highlights how this company has managed to fail over the past five years. Zero innovation, coupled with the inability to identify market trends, and terrible talent acquisition and retention. Five years of being behind, not understanding why they were losing, and not acquiring the people they needed to change their inefficiencies. Five years of losing to companies that were executing way better, and picking up the best and brightest in the industry to do so.

So RIM is rewarding the utter failure of the old guard, as well as a man who has yet to prove his ability. Whilst pinning all of their hopes on an unreleased product and contemplating cutting away the people that did what little they could with no support from their leaders. Wonderful.

This isn't a rant about CEOs being paid too much. That's actually a different topic. This is a rant about rewarding failure or compensating before the fact. What's the incentive to excel here? Why isn't the board of directors at RIM putting together a compensation package that rewards results? Why are they throwing money around, money they don't have, to a small group of elite people, instead of taking that money and re-investing it in the company as a whole? Invest it in acquiring new talent, rewarding the performance leaders they have, and having a workforce that is capable of being competitive in an industry where they are the clear underdogs.

The sad part is that BB10 looks great. It looks like it could be an utterly amazing OS with a brilliant workflow and a truly innovative user experience. But none of that is going to matter, because thus far, the execution has been abysmal. RIM has the tools to become competitive again. They might need to be a bit of a niche company, or try their hand at strategic partnerships, but they have the ability. But they are bleeding money in terrible ways, are positioning themselves with unproven leadership, and are at a genuine risk of losing key talent to their competitors.

Enough is enough. This company needs to flush out this incredible management overhead, or they are as good as finished.

Does Android need Google?

June 9 2012, 1:40 PM  by The Head

Because of the way that the mobile industry has sort of shaped up, we tend to look at the operating systems and their creators as being one and the same. There is no iOS without Apple, no Windows Phone without Microsoft, no Blackberry OS without RIM... The ecosystem is lumped in with the tech giant behind it, to the point that they are one and the same in regards to public perception (something that is generally an advantage to the likes of Apple, but has become an increasing disadvantage in the case of RIM). 

These companies are the "creators" of our favourite mobile operating systems; they maintain it, provide it with content, access to content, and relevant tools to further satisfy our needs. And naturally they take a nice slice of the pie as well, which makes a degree of sense. These companies are coming up with new and inventive ways to monetize their platforms, and further rule the roost of digital purchasing. The golden path has just gotten bigger and bigger. Apple launched the iPhone without even an App Store. And since then have expanded into books, magazines, a full portal for all media, in app content purchases,etc... Others, like Microsoft and RIM have followed suit.

That being said, the one item missing from all of this is the internet juggernaut, Google, along with their Android platform. They have clearly been a dominant force in the mobile sector. Android is the number one mobile OS sold in the United States. Their user base is massive. Their ability to corner a market and dominate it is unparalleled. They have offerings in regards to apps, books, movies, media, etc that rival Apple almost every step of the way. Google has hammered their way into the mobile space and done so with authority. Android is huge. Android is everywhere. Android is so adaptable, that we may have only scratched the surface of what can be done with it.

But... Does it need Google? The side effect of going with an Open Source model is that it becomes free for others to use, play with, modify and deploy. Freely. Now, there are a few caveats of course. Google requires a specific agreement with a manufacturer in order to use and include some bits of proprietary software. So yes, while Android is open source, things like the Play Store and he Gmail app are not. They require a separate agreement that requires the manufacturer to agree to certain terms. This leaves Google with some measure of control in regards to Android handsets. And by and large, it has been successful. But... is it needed?

While there have been some holdouts (particularly in Asia) when it comes to these core Google items, all of the Western manufacturers have pushed out their devices with the Google stamp of approval. Since Google houses the content, it makes sense. People won't want an Android device if they cannot easily install all of those amazing apps their friends show them. So the manufacturers agree to terms, make their devices, Google gets it's slice of app purchase action (30% per transaction) and everyone is happy. Now, Apple and RIM don't license their software, so it's a bit of a non issue for them. Microsoft does license Windows Phone 7, but it is not an open system. There is no other option that the Windows Marketplace. But with Android, that's not necessarily the case.

For example, Amazon has it's own app market. It may not quite match the Play Store in terms of apps just yet, but it does have the ability to leverage Amazon's massive catalog of other media. Amazon then used it exclusively with the launch of their Android powered Kindle Fire tablet. The low cost tablet that has been the biggest selling Android tablet to date. So yes, the Android tablet that is the most used in the United States isn't equipped with the Play Store, and does not directly generate any revenue for Google.

Now, that system is not perfect. The Amazon App Store (along with the Kindle Fire) are US exclusive. That doesn't really help users in the rest of the world. But it does set a precedent that it is possible to be Android powered and have a successful product, but not work directly with Google. This could be very important in the future. With Google purchasing Motorola, I'm sure that a lot of manufacturing partners are raising eyebrows and feeling a fair bit of concern over the whole situation. Google has publicly stated that the two entities will be completely separate, but again, perception warps reality.

The other interesting thing to note, is the success that Samsung has had with Android. Success might actually be too mild a word. Dominance might be a better fit. In the Android landscape, Samsung accounts for more than 50% of handsets sold. They are really the only Android manufacturer that is demonstrating true profits through the sale of Android handsets. They are the only ones that can have a true launch event when releasing a new flagship phone. They are the top dogs of the Android universe. And with the Google/Motorola shenanigans, they have to be wondering: "Do we need Google?"

A very strong argument could be made that they do not. That they could go another route such as creating their own app and content stores, pairing with Amazon, or looking into another third party solution. They could conceivably decide to renegotiate the terms with Google so that they are more favourable to Samsung. They could leverage their success to completely change the playing field.

The word "fragmentation" is used in regards to Android an awful lot, and while the idea behind it is clear, it has been completely accurate. What the future holds though, could indeed be an example of true fragmentation. We may be seeing true differences in the Android ecosystem, with manufacturers truly splitting from one another with different solutions, and the execution resulting in true non compatibility. Google has held it together for this long, but I have to wonder if it is in their best interest to continue to do so. Recent statements made by Google have shown that Android isn't exactly the most profitable part of their massive tech portfolio. With Amazon coming on strong and Samsung exerting it's dominance, does the Android world still need Google? Does Google, with it's array of technologies, including another mobile operating system in Chrome OS, need Android?

Jamendo - Your Portal to Legitimately Free Music

April 7 2011, 7:41 PM  by The Head

Jamendo is a web site that provides access to a massive library of free music that you can stream or download for personal use. It covers all genres of music, from all areas of the world. It is 100% free, and requires no membership whatsoever (though you can join the site if you desire).

Now, let me get a few caveats out of the way:

1. These are all "independent" artists. This is not a portal to illegal downloads or a way to get music from mainstream artists. These are all bands providing their music to the site for a variety of reasons. Don't go looking for the latest Justin Bieber, Nickleback or Rebecca Black songs.
2. The quality of the recordings ranges from garage band to professional grade, as well as everything in between. There is a plethora of high quality recordings, but you will likely encounter some jarringly bad ones as well.
3. By the same token, the quality of the artists themselves range incredibly. I've found quite a few artists that dominate my current playlists. However, there are also some that should probably be told by their friends that they have the musical ability of a deaf radish.

The site itself is as simple or as complicated as you want it to be. If you want, you can search by genre, keyword or tag, and then simply stream some selections and download what you like. This is an incredibly simple process that you will give you non-DRM files in either an .MP3 or .OGG file format, depending on your preference. If that's all you want out of the site, then that works fine. You can look through and discover some fun music. However, there are deeper levels you can go as well. There is a recommendation system that can help you find music similar to what you are listening to, "Radios" that will play a selection of music based on a chosen genre, user playlists that contain whatever music people like, user and artist blogs, and various other social components available. It is entirely up to you what you get out of Jamendo.

Navigating through the site is a generally simple affair, but can be a daunting task if you don't actually know what you are looking for. The search function works well, but is still slightly limited and not quite as granular as I would like. It's often easier simply to navigate through the variety of artists and play around until you get a better feeling for what you are looking for. There is admittedly a fair amount of trial and error when it comes to looking for music, but you quickly pick up on what you will and won't like. For example, I tend to look for nicer cover art (judging books by their cover, I know... I know...) as well as albums that have at least 6+ songs. Regardless, the sheer amount of artists and music available can be a little overwhelming at first, but patience will be rewarded.

Like I mentioned, all genres of music are available, and from all parts of the world. In fact, you are likely to find genres that you never knew existed. This is actually part of the fun. Jamendo gives you the opportunity to sample from these genres and learn a bit more about them. Some genres seem to be more represented than others (for example, I seem to notice a lot of electronica and metal, while fewer options like jazz or country) but all genres are available, including some odd fusions of music that don't appear in the mainstream. And you can find people playing that genre from all over the world. If you want to listen to Punk music from France, Jamendo has you covered. Metal from Germany? Yup. Celtic music from Finland? Oddly enough, yes. It seems that most songs are in English, though other languages are available as well, as are many tracks that are purely instrumental.

Right now, I'd say that about 75% of my current playlist is made up of music I downloaded from Jamendo. I have found several GBs of music that I think are exceptional, and listen to them routinely. The site has done a lot to open my eyes to other types of music, which is always a fun thing. While I don't think it will ever completely take over my library, it's great to see that there are free options available for music lovers who are willing to invest a little time and expand their horizons. The service isn't perfect, but is very, very good. I think that additional search functionality would make it better, but I love how social the site can be, but optionally so. I think the next logical step for them is dedicated applications for home computers, and especially mobile devices. I believe that there is some integration available with some music players such as Songbird and Banshee, but I'd like to see this taken to the next level, as I truly believe that this is a stellar service.

I'll leave with a few of my current favorites from Jamendo. I've taken a liking to haunting female vocals, as well as some fun electronic/metal/celtic music fusions, and these are some artists that I think kick ass:

Hungry Lucy - Vicious yet melodious vocals with a hard electronic backing. Not my usual style of music, but I'm loving it. "To Kill a King" is my current favorite song.

Fenrir - A crazy fusion of Celtic and metal with an "operatic" female singer. It's so strange yet compelling at the same time.

Diablo Swing Orchestra - A mix of swing music, metal and classical style singing. High energy and a lot of fun.

The iPhone 4S - An Amazing Disappointment

October 16 2011, 1:44 PM  by The Head

There are two ways to read the title of this post, and for the longest time I wasn’t entirely sure which I meant. Is the iPhone 4S a disappointment of such an enormous magnitude that one could describe the sheer level of disappointment as “amazing”? Or is the iPhone 4S a disappointment that still somehow remains an amazing device?

The list of changes is most remarkable by the list of items that have stayed the same. Same screen size, same resolution, same design, same overall feel. All of the things that seem to truly identify a true change simply aren’t present. Sit the 4S down next to an iPhone 4 and the overwhelming majority of users wouldn’t be able to tell them apart. No matter how you slice it, this is a disappointment. The phone simply doesn’t feel any different. And while there is an old adage that has something to do with books and covers, my experience is that perception is always more immediately telling than reality. In a world where high end phones are getting bigger and bigger, the iPhone is downright tiny. Where once the high PPI of the retina display was the be all, end all of mobile displays, qHD and more importunely Super AMOLED Plus have swept in and made for much more stunning screens. The iPhone 4S, the second the physical form was revealed, received a collective “meh” from the tech world. When is the last time that an Apple reveal had such a reaction?

But what about what has indeed changed? A dual core processor is a nice touch, and the A5 packs a lot of punch. Dual GPU is also worth a strong look at, as the level of graphical push this device has is very remarkable. However stale the lack of revolution makes the 4S, these performance upgrades are nothing to scoff at. As a matter of fact, the latest benchmarks show that the iPhone 4S has a significant performance advantage over any other handset on the market (including the Samsung Galaxy S2). With estimates saying that the 4S has somewhere in the area of 7x the graphical strength of the iPhone 4, that is surely something worth noting, isn't it?

But wait a second… How many people would complain that the iPhone 4 is slow? Out of the issues people have with the device, speed hasn’t been one of them. Each and every app, game, recording and playback functionality on the iPhone 4 is smooth. As a matter of fact, most apps don’t even talk full advantage of what the iPhone 4 brings to the table. If this is the case, why then do we need such an upgrade in the form of the 4S? It almost seems like Apple is trying to solve a problem that does’t exist. Why add all that extra horsepower, almost to the exclusivity of any other improvement, when it just doesn’t seem needed?

Of course there were other improvements than just GPU and CPU, right? Er… Hold on… Oh yes, an improved 8 megapixel camera! Well, that is actually a nice little gem. The iPhone 4 had a fairly decent camera to begin with, so this should revolutionize the business, right? Well… not exactly. The smartphone camera king still remains the Nokia N8 of all things, and nothing I’ve seen about the 4S seems to indicate it call top that. The iPhone model still lacks a dedicated camera key (though this can be overcome), and it remains to be seen just how it will compare to the upcoming HTC devices coming out with a higher megapixel count as well as Carl Zeiss optics.

But what about Siri? Siri is pretty interesting. A new way to use your phone, to acquire information, and navigate content. Well, newish anyway. The feature has existed on other platforms before (including iOS oddly enough), though Apple has made it… not better exactly… more idiot proof. Siri might very well be the most interesting feature that nobody will ever use. Well, not that many people anyway, once the novelty wears off. The iPhone 4 brought us FaceTime, which was cool (again, something already existing, but done differently). However, let’s call a spade a spade. FaceTime is a gimmick that few people use on a regular basis. Siri seems destined for the same category. Sure it’s cool, but how many people really want to stand on a street corner and have a conversation with their phone?

Where does that leave us then? Well, the iPhone 4S is undoubtably a disappointment. Considering the amount of time between the iPhone 4 and the 4S, it was almost inevitable. Outside of some pretty drastic revolution, there was going to be a level of disappointment involved. Add in the sheer amount of rumours that permeated before its announcement, and it was almost impossible for it to live up to the hype. The fact that zero change went into the design of the phone is enough to make this device underwhelming. For a company that deals so strongly in public perception and being on the cutting edge, having a year + old design for your flagship handset is shocking. It’s boring and gives the competition a great opportunity to cut away at Apple’s market share.

But you can’t argue with what the phone is capable of. It still has all of the Apple advantages that makes it the top handset available for the majority of the population. It adds in an incredibly amount of graphical power, and presents it in a package that has a metric ton of third party support. Other phones are going to be released that trump the numbers on the iPhone 4S (and in the very near future), but they still won’t be “better”. The iPhone 4S is going to be the real world performance king for a while yet, as other platforms haven’t been able to recreate the complete ecosystem that Apple brings, or the sheer profitability that exists. There’s a reason why Android handsets are only becoming a truly smooth experience in a dual core world, and that reason is part of the success of iOS. Making do with less and making that truly work is a testament of how tight the iOS code is when compared to some of the competition.

So while the iPhone 4S is a disappointment and truly a “meh” phone, it is still an amazing one. With sales rumoured at the 4 million mark, you cannot argue its success. It might not be the phone for me, but I would venture to say that it is the phone for the masses. I still want a different form factor, a bigger screen, and some true innovation. That being said, I think that we will be getting that sooner than we think.

Living with WebOS - A Quick Summary

March 27 2011, 4:10 PM  by The Head

Well, I have had my Pre 2 for a few weeks now, having successfully traded in my Samsung Focus for it. It's been an interesting little run with the handset, mostly due to how these phones are almost the polar opposites of one another. The Focus is all glitz and glamour. An utterly beautiful device that has some of the best animations and transitions on the market. The Pre 2 is... kind of stumpy. The difference comes in terms of functionality. The Focus looked great, but I kept hitting walls. At this stage, Windows Phone 7 is more about what you can't do than what you can. It has a very limited set of functions. The Pre 2, on the other hand, seemingly has no limits. You are free to do what you want, how you want, and it will do its best to make that as interesting a ride as possible.

When looking at the Pre 2 (formerly of Palm, now more accurately from HP) you really have to break it down into 2 items: The Phone itself, and the operating System, WebOS.

The phone itself is, in this era of smatphones, underwhelming. It's fat and heavy, with a small screen that has a poor resolution and very little in redeeming qualities other than gorilla glass. The keyboard is cramped and takes a lot of time to get used to. There's no dedicated camera button, and the camera itself is weak. It has mediocre to average battery life, which results in more or less a daily charge.

On the plus side, the CPU + GPU combo is top of the line for its era of smartphones, meaning it renders like a mofo. It also has a nice matte finish that doesn't attract fingerprints whatsoever. But honestly, from a build standpoint, it's a very "meh" phone. Going from the gorgeous 4 inch, 480x800 Super AMOLED screen of the Focus, to the "meh" 3.1 inch 320x480 LCD screen of the Pre 2 is jarring. The Focus was light as a feather, while the Pre 2 is like having a solid lump of coal in your pocket. Nothing about the build of this phone is all that great. Compared to other modern smartphones, it is simply lacking.

But then all of that changes once you actually use the phone. WebOS is, by far, the best mobile operating system available. It is stunningly easy to use, offers incredible functionality, allows you to do whatever you want with your device, and simply works well. Featuring true multitasking, an incredibly innovative cards system (which is awesome for browsing), and the sheer power of "Just Type" (picture Spotlight from iOS, only this integrates completely with every aspect of the device, and, you know... works), WebOS is simply amazing. Having owned an iPhone for 2 years, had a several week run with WP&, and used many different Blackberry devices as well as a few Android devices, I can safely say that none of them compares to WebOS. It is simply that much more efficient than the competition. 

Part of the brilliance is the "Homebrew" aspect of WebOS. Think along the lines of what Jailbreaking is to an iPhone. Only in this case, they don't constantly try and stop you from doing it, in fact, they actively encourage this innovation (you use the famous Konami Code to unlock the device!). These amazingly dedicated people have allowed the WebOS comminity at large to truly unlock the potential of the device. It's awesome, they deserve a lot of thanks.

The only software related downside is the very small application catalogue. Yes, it's an issue. Many of the big names in development haven't jumped on board, resulting in many gaps. For example, there isn't any official Dropbox, Live Messenger, or Twitter support. Some items have third parties making apps for these products, but the gap is still very noticeable. There are some high quality games in the catalogue (including the favorite Angry Birds) but still, the offerings are bare when compared to iOS. This is going to be a big hurdle for HP to overcome if they want these devices to be more than a niche product. Without solid app support, people just aren't going to abandon iOS or Android.

The fact of the matter is that I love this phone. It suits me perfectly. It works great, is fast and intuitive, and allows me to tinker. Yes, I wish it was a little bigger, I wish it had a higher res screen, and I wish that the keyboard wasn't so cramped. But despite these flaws, the phone does what I need it to do, which the Focus kind of didn't. The Pre 2 is far from the perfect phone. It just happens to be the best phone on the market for my needs.

Besides, the Pre 3 comes out this Summer. Hehehehe...

Is the Tablet War Already Over?

March 5 2011, 11:33 AM  by The Head

Well, March 2nd came and went, and of course it ushered in the era of the iPad 2. Many, many tech enthusiasts were waiting eagerly for the announcement, and it seemed like everyone and their mothers had some sort of "insider information" as to what the device would be. Some of the rumours were pretty much common sense (cameras) while others were a little less likely (retina display).

In the end, we got what amounts to a revision rather than a redesign. A front facing camera for Facetime, a back facing camera for video, an improved processor, a much thinner and fairly lighter design, and... Well, that's about it really.

Almost as noticeable in regards to what improved is what didn't improve. The iPad 2 keeps the same resolution of the original: 1024 x 768, keeps the same storage options (16gb, 32gb, 64gb) without the possibility of expandable storage, and has been surprisingly mum on the amount of RAM it has. The original iPad came equipped with 256mb of RAM, and Apple has yet to say what the iPad 2 is packing. The latest iPhone comes with 512mb, and it would be especially strange for the iPad to come with less, but why not say? 

In all honesty, from a purely specs standpoint, the iPad 2 can be summed up best with the following: "Meh..."

It's not that it looks like a bad device, or is horribly disappointing, but I do think that it's a little tough to call it the iPad 2 as opposed to something like "The Revised iPad" or the "iPad Plus". They added some features that were desperately needed (the front facing camera for one, and the option to HDMI out for another), but these were things the competition had already told us they were implementing. Apple came out with a neat product, but nothing that is completely "WOW" worthy.

Heck, from looking purely at the specs, the Motorola Xoom, the newly released Android Honeycomb tablet is technically "better". It has more powerful cameras, a higher resolution display, has USB and a native HDMI port, and can be converted to run on a 4G network.

And yet, the iPad 2 is going to dominate the competition.

Apple has done the one thing that the competition has failed at: Announce a product and have it available for purchase almost immediately. Don't give people an extended period to think about it, don't give the competition time to see what you are doing and pop out something better. Steve Jobs is an absolute expert when it comes to telling people why they should want something and bringing the point home just how awesome a device it is. He doesn't just show you what it can do, he also shows you why it's good, and how you'll love it. He creates excitement for a product, and then delivers the product. Announced on March 2nd, available for purchase on March 11th (25th in Canada and other countries). No waiting, no time to hem and haw over competing products. Apple announces, and brings the product to market almost immediately.

That is killer. Look at the competition. The Xoom was announced at CES in the beginning of January, and released at the end of February. Almost two months go by before the product is available, and that is a relatively *short* window compared to the competition. The Blackberry PlayBook was announced in September of last year, and it's looking like it might hit the market this April. The HP Touchpad was announced at the start of February, and is rumoured to come out this Summer. Meanwhile, other players in the game start shoring up their tablet responses, and working what they plan to bring to the market. Customers are left waiting, seeing newer and newer products announced.

By building anticipation, and then announcing and following that up with immediate release, Apple avoids the entire issue. Their product does not have to be superior simply because they don't give the competition a chance to trump them before they get to market.

Apple does two other things that are going to hand them the market, and they are ridiculously simple.

1) Perfect pricing. Apple doesn't need to make each version of the iPad 2 a steal, so long as they kept at least the low end version at less than $500. As long as they can say that somebody can have a brand new magical iPad for less than $500, they've hit the perfect market price, one that they themselves set with the original. Anything less is viewed as a cheap knock off, anything more is viewed as overly expensive.

2) They have a set infrastructure in place, and it's all theirs. Ranging from Apple Stores to online sales, to a set App store loaded with thousands upon thousands of iPad apps. Not just scaled up iPhone apps, but genuine iPad apps. Plus they themselves control it all. No other company has such a setup. Either they'll be depending on the Google Market or their own application storefront that will be almost completely empty.

Apple has positioned themselves exceptionally well. They don't need the best tablet on the market, and frankly they don't have it. But they've managed to build an environment that will be next to impossible to beat. By using exceptionally effective marketing, getting their product to market quickly, establishing *the* price point to go with, and owning an already amazingly put together environment that makes it ridiculously easy for people to get content and applications onto their device (and all of it pure profit to Apple), they have cornered the market before many of the players have even shown up.

Tech specs appeal to the geeks and tech enthusiasts. What Apple has done appeals to everyone else. And whether we like it or not, they are the overwhelming majority.

Is the Tablet war over? No, but it's late in the fight and Apple is ahead on points. Can any of the current competition score a last minute knock out? My gut tells me no. But there is one player that has yet to show up. Microsoft's tablet entryway is said to be based on the upcoming Windows 8. But that's looking like 2012 at the earliest. Can they afford to give Apple a 2 year head start before they even enter the game? 

Either way, Apple is going to be making some crazy money between now and then. It goes to show you that you don't always have to have a better product than the competition. Sometimes you just need to know how to play the game.

Quick Update to the Situation With Rogers

March 3 2011, 7:59 AM  by The Head

This past week, I have been having a pretty serious disagreement with Rogers. It was to the point that I was planning on buying out my contract and taking my business elsewhere. Feel free to read about it HERE.

Well, I am happy to say that the situation has been resolved, or will be very shortly. It took an awful lot of work and phone calls, but Rogers will be providing me with the phone exchange I had been looking for. The overall path to conflict resolution was as follows:

1 - Returned to the point of purchase. They would not help me.

2 - Call Customer Service (client retention). They would not help me.

3 - Had a manager from Customer Service call me back. She would not help me.

4 - Wrote to the Office of the President detailing my issue.

5 - Had a representative from the Office of the President call me. Could not give me the resolution I sought, but was the first one to actually show me respect.

6 - Was contacted by a Rogers representative on Twitter offering me her help. Unfortunately I had already taken all of the steps that she could have used.

7 - Wrote to the Office of the Ombudsman at Rogers, detailing my issue.

8 - Today, I received a call from the Office of the Ombudsman. She apologized for all of the trouble I had gone through, and agreed to exchange my Samsung Focus for a Palm Pre 2. The new phone should arrive here sometime next week, and I will then send the old one back to her.

I am happy that this issue has been resolved, and that something that was initially promised to me as an option will now take place. I am still not particularly happy with Rogers as a whole, as I had to go to fairly ridiculous lengths to even be treated with a measure of respect.

What happens now? Well, I will most likely ride out the rest of my contract with Rogers. However, I am not sure what exactly I will do once that contract expires. Given the difficult time they gave me, I doubt I will want to remain their customer. But, that is all a good long way away. Time will ultimately tell.

The lessons I learned are twofold: Firstly, never take a representative at their word. Be a little bit skeptical and make sure that whatever you are told is backed up in writing. Secondly, when you feel you have been cheated, don't give up. Take every available option you can to try and come to a satisfactory resolution. Always remember that you are the customer, and while the old adage of the customer always being right isn't quite accurate in this day and age, a customer should always be valued. Remind the company, no matter how big or how small, that you deserve to be treated fairly, and with respect.

Why Rogers is Losing my Business (UPDATED - March 3rd)

March 1 2011, 5:00 PM  by The Head

This is sort of the continuation of an earlier post. Feel free to take a look at that one,HERE.

So, two weeks ago I went to Rogers because it was time for my hardware upgrade. It was very exciting because my iPhone 3G was on it's last legs. Ever since the iOS 4 upgrade, it simply sucked. It just lacked the horsepower to run it, which was especially confusing since all of the sweet features weren't even available for the device...

Regardless, it was upgrade time. I had planned out the handsets I was interested in, and was running down the pros and cons (that post is HERE). It was coming down to the wire though. There was a lot to consider, and it was tough making a choice. I went to the Rogers store that day having mostly decided to leave with a Palm Pre 2.

However, I left the store with a Samsung Focus, having let myself fall for the beautiful aesthetics and high def screen, instead of the pure functionality of the Pre 2. I made a mistake.

But it shouldn't have been an issue. While at the Rogers store, I spent maybe 20 minutes waffling between the two trying to figure out which device I wanted. The "helpful" employee however let me know that it would be fine. If I found that I didn't like the device, I had 15 days to exchange it. Knowing that, I felt a little better and made the decision to take the Focus. We completed the transaction, and I went about my merry way.

During the next 14 days, two things happened:

1) It dawned on me that I had made the wrong choice. The Focus is a nice enough phone, and certainly is gorgeous, but it lacked functionality. The Pre 2 was a better fit for my needs.

2) The Samsung Focus dropped $50 in price on the Rogers website.

Well, neither of these things should have been an issue, from what I could tell. On Monday, 14 days after I picked up the phone, I returned to the store. The trip did not go as planned.

I got there and talked to one of the employees, whose attitude shifted from being attentive one second, to seemingly being bothered by my presence once he realized I wasn't there to buy anything. The arrogance and condescension just rolled off of him. I told him that first of all, I was looking to exchange my phone, as the Focus hadn't quite lived up to what I was looking for from a phone. As it was within the 15 days I had been told about, I honestly wasn't expecting a problem.

How wrong I was. He asked me how many minutes I had talked on it. I had no idea. I never keep track of these things as I always use a tiny fraction of my monthly minutes. This seemed to irritate him as he had to call some department to find out. After a while, he hung up the phone and told me that he was "sad to say that I had used more than 30 minutes of talk time."

My natural reaction was to say: "So?"

This is where he informed me that I had 15 days, -=or=- up to 30 minutes of talk time to return the phone. Wait... what? This is not what the guy that sold me the phone told me. He said 15 days, point finale. Nothing about 30 minutes. Given how indecisive I was about buying the phone, I think I would have noticed. Hell, the guy made a point of it *because* I was so indecisive.

So he said there was nothing he could do. This of course confused me to no end, and it was about this point that I started getting angry. I was told one thing about the phone when I bought it, but now I was getting another story. The end result was that he wasn't going to do anything, and I needed to call Rogers customer service for action. Needless to say I wasn't happy. I then brought up the fact that my phone was now $50 cheaper, and I would like to have that credited to my account. Again, he said that it was a Rogers issue and there was nothing he could do about it.

I believe my word for word response was: "So you are telling me that you are completely useless? How utterly shocking."

I left the store and called Rogers Customer Service (client retention). The representative I talked with had one of those overly patronizing voices that seemed to indicate that I was an idiot, and should just refer to his all knowing, magical cosmic knowledge. I relayed my story, and he went back to the same spiel about some 30 minute talk time limit. Essentially, he was very limited in what he could do or say. He asked if I wanted to have a manager call me back the next day, which I readily agreed to. It was very clear that this fellow was just unable to solve these types of issues.

So today, I got a call from a Rogers manager. I told her my story and she responded with three things she really shouldn't have:

1) When I told her that the fellow who sold me the phone had not said anything about a 30 minute call time limit, she said that this "wasn't possible". She eventually relented on the issue when I told her that calling Rogers customers, and me in particular, liars wasn't a very good idea.

2) She told me that whatever issue I had with the store had to be resolved at the store. I told her not to give me the run-around, which she fervently denied doing. If the store tells me to call Rogers, and Rogers tells me to go to the store, what on earth is it if not the run-around?

3) She said there was nothing she could about a phone swap, or the $50 reduction on my handset. The 30 minute talk time thing was a policy that could not be changed, and the price reduction was for new customers only. I told her point blank that Rogers apparently didn't value me as a customer, which she denied, adamantly. I asked her what she could do for me, she said nothing, so I responded with the fact that she was telling me that Rogers didn't value my business. She asked me not to put words in her mouth, to which I responded that actions spoke much more loudly with words.

Incredibly angry, I got off the phone with this woman as she was incredibly unhelpful, borderline insulting, and simply failing miserably at helping a customer with a serious issue. Checking online, I found a method of writing to the Office of The President for help in issue resolution. I more or less detailed the facts above, and sent it.

This evening, a representative got back to me. I'll say this much: This was the first Rogers representative that I felt spoke to me with a measure of respect, and I got the impression actually was willing to at the very least try and make me happy. We talked for maybe 15 minutes, and ultimately she told me that the employee at the store was wrong for misinforming me about the return policy, but there was nothing she could do about it. She didn't have the ability to override the policy. She did offer me a $50 credit to my account as gesture of goodwill, more or less taking the place of the price reduction I was not eligible for. She also said she would look into the issue at the store, to ensure that such miscommunications didn't happen in the future.

Now, honestly, I was and am not satisfied. But at the very least this woman spoke to me with respect, and felt that my issues were genuine. For that I thank her. Unfortunately for my views of Rogers as a whole, it is simply a case of too little, too late.

I am appalled by the level of customer service that Rogers has seen fit to provide. I have been lied to, given attitude, called a liar, and had my issues dismissed by way too many different people within the organization for me to be comfortable with. And the reality of the situation is that it completely baffles me. I was not asking for anything outrageous. I just wanted to return an item I had purchased 14 days prior. I wanted to perform an exchange for an item of exactly equal value. That's all. It would not have cost Rogers anything. Nothing. Nada. Zero. Zip. Zilch. One simple thing would have made me happy as a clam, would have showed that Rogers valued my business, and likely ensured that I would remain a Rogers customer for a good long while.

Here are some facts to consider:

• I use maybe 5% to 10% of my monthly allotted data. I call very few people, and don't really talk a lot when I do. Yet I have an expensive voice and data plan. Each month, Rogers makes a ton of money off of me, and I use up next to nothing of their infrastructure. I am, in essence, the perfect customer.

• The Rogers return policy is called "Buyer's Remorse". This policy allows you 15 days to change your mind, provided you do not talk on your phone for more than 30 minutes total in that time period. That means that if you use your phone everyday, you can talk up to 2 minutes a day. Think that through. How are you supposed to determine whether you like the phone or not, if you are not actually allowed to make use of it in that time period.

• I am seriously considering buying out the rest of my contract due to how Rogers handled this situation. My current plan would give Rogers over $2700 over 3 years. Now remember that I use next to none of what is allotted to me. That is money Rogers will never see if I cancel. From a business standpoint, how does this make sense for Rogers? They stand to lose money by not doing something ridiculously simple, costing them nothing, and earning good feedback from a customer. Instead of losing money and having a customer express dissatisfaction across social networks and writing an entire blog post about it, they could have made money *and* gotten good publicity. How on earth does this make sense?

• Regardless of the fact that I was blindsided by the 30 minute talk time policy, exactly how stupid of a policy is this? If I buy a TV and later return it, I am not limited to 30 minutes of TV watching. If I bought a microwave and returned it, I am not limited to 30 minutes of microwave time. Hell, if I bought an expensive cordless telephone and returned it, I am not limited to 30 minutes of talk time! This is a ridiculous and absolutely arbitrary rule. Talking on a handset does not somehow make it work less. If anything, things like repeated use of buttons and switches, or downloaded applications that are more likely to cause damage to the phone.

• The Canadian mobile provider business is an extremely competitive one. Smaller startups are flourishing and rapidly gaining more customers, largely because of incidents like this. Rogers is demonstrating an appalling lack of customer care. It's a social world, and stories like this one are communicated far more rapidly than ever before. I encourage anyone reading this to share any horrible experiences with Rogers on whatever social networks you belong to. Companies need to learn that they are ultimately accountable to their customers.

I am not happy. Rogers had an incredible opportunity to win over a customer, make a lot of money, and gain good publicity. They chose not to. They have treated me poorly, and apparently do not value their customers.

So I ask: Given all of this, why on earth should I remain a Rogers customer?

Two Weeks With WindowsPhone 7

March 1 2011, 1:27 PM  by The Head

This is going to be the first in something of a two parter. The second part will be posted when I am less angry and likely to drop F-bomb after F-bomb. 

At any rate, I have had my Samsung Focus for about 2 weeks now, and they've been an incredibly sad and eventful two weeks (you can get an idea as to why HERE if you feel like it) which is why it's taken me a while to put my thoughts up on the device, and the Windows Phone OS in general.

I find myself struggling to give it a "grade" as it were. The issue is that what it does, it does very, very well. But what it doesn't do, it just doesn't do at all. What I mean is that there is precious little that the phone does poorly. The problem is that there are plenty of things that are simply impossible to do with the device. How do you grade that? I find it impossible to really compare it to my old iPhone 3G, since it had become so incredibly sluggish and next to impossible to use with the iOS 4 upgrade. The comparison just doesn't seem fair. 

I'll start with what I like. For the device itself, the obvious answer is the Super AMOLED screen. It is just gorgeous. The screen is bright and vibrant even on the lowest brightness setting, and the colours and transitions just shine through. Even though the iPhone 4 has a higher resolution screen, the screen of the Focus still manages to blow it away. The one big downside here though is that the screen is almost unusable in direct sunlight. The glare makes it next to impossible to see anything. For me, it honestly isn't a huge issue. I don't tend to use my phone a ton outdoors. For people constantly texting and emailing though, it can be a big concern.

The rest of the device itself is fairly nondescript to be honest. The phone looks and feels a little on the cheap side. It's just too plasticky. The good side of that is that the phone is feather light, the bad side is that you really feel the need to get a case of some sort. I generally dislike phone cases, but it just feels like a solid whack will crack the casing without one. I got a rubberized casing (side note: actually finding a case for this phone was difficult. I couldn't find a store that carried them and had to shop online) that adds to the weight a bit, but it still comes out lighter than the iPhone.

The buttons on the sides of the device all feel good and work well. They have just the right amount of tension and give for my liking, and are responsive to a nice press. The phone has three soft keys along the front (back, home and search) that are just a tad too sensitive for my liking. There have been several occasions where a stray finger or the palm of my hand has triggered one accidentally. 

Other than that, there isn't a ton to say about the device itself. I added an 8gb Sandisk class 4 micro SD card, and haven't had any issues with it so far. The volume on the phone itself could be higher for my liking, as some ringtones can be tough to hear even at max volume. And call quality has been good, but you do need to keep the phone aligned well otherwise people might have trouble hearing you. This might be more of a problem for a guy with a huge head and big hands like myself than for your average Joe.

And now we get to the meat of the discussion: Windows Phone 7.

Right off the bat I have to talk about the UI. The UI, named Metro, is absolutely stunning. It seems to be a love it or hate it sort of thing, but I absolutely love. It looks great, has nice big icons that doesn't require scrolling, and is just in general incredibly user friendly. Many programs are "live tiles", kind of like widgets. They are automatically update throughout the day, so you can get a lot of information right from your home screen. The transitions between screens, applications, and functions are amazing. We're talking about fully animated, smooth as butter transitions that really look next-gen when compared to other mobile operating systems. Whereas iOS, Blackberry OS and Android have an interface that is very functional, Windows Phone has made an interface that is both functional and incredibly stylish.

The other really strong suit of Windows Phone is how it manages contacts. It pulls information from multiple sources (such as Google Contacts and Facebook) and merges them logically. In cases where they aren't merged, you can very easily link them together. What this gives you is incredibly easy access to multiple points of contact for a single person. Then, you can take the people that you contact the most and put them right on the Start screen. It's simple, elegant, and makes repetitive tasks very easy.

The last positive I want to bring up is navigation on the device. It's very easy, fluid, and logical. Your three softkeys really make for a simple method of finding what you need. A dedicated back button is just wonderful. Instead of every developer having a different method of navigating backwards, this one button makes it incredibly easy to back up within an app or whilst navigating menus. The Start button is pretty much a Home key, but it works well, and gets the job done. The search key though, is great. It brings up a context relevant search menu depending on where you are. Looking through your music? The search button allows you to search through your library. Browsing the Marketplace? The search button allows you to look up apps. It's simple, effective, and makes navigating the phone a breeze. And finally, special mention goes out to the camera button. I am now convinced that every smartphone should have one. It works well, even when the phone is locked, and makes it much easier to get quick and candid shots.

When it comes to what I think needs to be tweaked, there are really only a few things that jump to mind:

• The marketplace is somewhat buggy at times. It will occasionally freeze up, and you will have to perform a soft reset if you want to access it again.

• The camera is good, but not spectacular. My wife's iPhone 4 will all produce a better shot.

• Some way of organizing apps would be appreciated. Games will be filled with Xbox Live, but everything else is put into one long list of apps. Some method of categorizing them would make it a lot easier to find one seldom used app in a sea of options

Like I said, what Windows Phone 7 does, it does well. While there is always room for improvement, there are only a small handful of items that need direct improvement.

The problem is now the following: There is a crap-ton of things that Windows Phone 7 just doesn't do, and a lot of it is incredibly, incredibly baffling.

Many of the limitations are well known and are being addressed in future patches. That being said, I can't judge a device based on what's coming, only based on what it can do right now. 

• Copy and Paste. The fact that the OS shipped without this functionality is just too strange for words. This is doubly true since WP7 ships with a full mobile office suite. The ability to edit documents on the go loses some lustre without this basic functionality.

• Multitasking. This one actually doesn't bother me that much. It does some native task multitasking already, similar to the iPhone pre-iOS4. I am of the opinion that most multitasking isn't worth the extra strain on the battery, but having the option and disabling it is preferable to not having the option at all.

• Web browser content: This one is odd. I can understand the lack of Flash right out of the gate. Flash is finicky and hard to implement on a browser. The lack of HTML5 is slightly more troubling. It is an emerging technology that has made a ton of progress and is mobile friendly. The one that gets me the most though, is no Silverlight support. Silverlight being a Microsoft baby would seem to be a no-brainer. And yet, you cannot load Silverlight plugins on Windows Phone 7.

• Inability to tether the device. Hell, even iOS is gaining this ability. The ability to share your connection with other devices should be one of the defining characteristics of a smartphone. This is not a good area to be lacking.

• Very poor customization options. You have 30 ringtones, that's it. You cannot use your library or make your own. Those 30 ringtones are all you have. Same thing with text message alert tones. You have 10, that's it. You also have 10 accent colours to play with (essentially the colour of your tiles on the Start screen). There are no other colour options, no grades of colour, no shades. Everything is locked down tight here, and it honestly makes little sense to me.

• No Office Live synchronization. Microsoft has an online Office service very similar to the Google Offering, and in some ways better. It has a ton of online storage for your documents, and offers easy editing on the go. Windows Phone 7 has a mobile version of Office, that while limited, is still quite functional. But for whatever reason, they cannot access one another when it comes to Word or Excel docs. So despite this amazing online Office suite being available, by Microsoft, if I want to get, say a Word document on my phone, I have to email it to myself. I then have to save it on my phone, make the changes, and then email it back to myself. This is ridiculous. 

• Xbox Live. This was supposed to be a big advantage of Windows Phone 7, and honestly, the possibilities are amazing. The problem is that the execution is so lacklustre that it might as well not be present. Having an Xbox Live account doesn't actually amount to much. There is no real synchronization between the phone and the console. We aren't getting awesome WP7 ports of 360 games, or even smaller mini games/accompanying apps. The service doesn't really amount to much other than a set of achievements. Imagine game tie ins. The next Halo has a WP7 component. The next NHL game allows for a managerial mode on your WP7 device. The execution of this is so underwhelming simply because you can see how awesome it *can* be.

• There are many glaring app omissions in the Marketplace. For example, there is no official Dropbox app. There are no Angry Birds. There is no official Evernote app. But the single most glaring omission, is the fact that there is no official Live Messenger application. How this is even possible is mind boggling. Microsoft has what is probably the most popular peer to peer chat application in the world, and hasn't even bothered to port it to their own mobile platform. 

• And finally, the lack of Twitter integration is glaring. This is designed as a social phone. Facebook is pretty much baked right in. By playing with your Contacts, you can just as easily write on their wall as call them. However, there is no Twitter integration at all. It really struggles to feel like a device with dedicated social networking built in without this option.

Part of the problem is that everything looks great on the surface. The UI is fantastic, the daily experience amazing, and the functionality that a lot of people need is rock solid. The problems only creep up when you get past that first layer. The glaring omissions become apparent. A lot of the missing functionality is actually what I'd consider minimum grade stuff for a modern smartphone. It rubs you wrong because you can see the potential. WP7 has amazing potential. It has the potential to absolutely blow iOS and Android out of the water. But it simply isn't there. The way it feels right now is that it is either the smartest dumbphone in the world, or the dumbest smartphone. What it does, it does phenomenally. What it doesn't do just plain makes me sad. Now, Microsoft has promised updates. The first is supposed to be in March and will bring copy and paste. A second will come later this year and bring stuff like multitasking. When these drop, a lot might change. Windows Phone 7 might be able to hang with the big boys. But right now? It's just missing too much.

For people looking for standard features only (email, text messaging, browsing, etc...) : 9/10

For tech geeks that need advanced features and integration with desktop services (looking for a portable PC of sorts): 5/10