List of Windows Phone7 Apps & Popularity

I stumbled on this link and thought I would share. You can see the apps, and their popularity. So far, all my favorites are in good working order including Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare. My hopes are high that the app market won't be flooded with crap like the Android and iPhone stores but I can already see the fart apps and others coming in.

As a former Android G1 user, I'm delighted with the user experience and ease of use that I'm finding with the apps. I'm spending less and less time navigating and I get in and out quickly in my phone. It really is a phone to save me from my phone. So far, I've converted three people into making the switch. Each were iPhone users who have what I describe as iFatigue. They were ready for a change and I see Windows Phone7 being a slow growing that is going to start catching the buzz in the next few months. I'm thinking it's going to be a good time to buy some Microsoft Stock. their stock has been downgraded often because they aren't sexy but between Phone7, Windows 7, and Kinect, I'm thinking it's a great time to buy.

What do you think? Have you seen it yet? I'm smitten and I keep making the joke that I keep playing with it so much that I'm going to go blind. #Love iT!

Hot for Windows Phone 7

If you know me, you know I'm a nerd and an early adopter. I like the pain of issues from adopting early because it helps me learn more about it and lets me get under the hood. I'm happy when new technology "just works," but when it doesn't, it often forces the inner dork in me come out to play.

I was a first-day early Android adopter, and I happily plunked down my money for the HTC G1 from T-Mobile, which I still have. I've been happy with it since that purchase and it was a great investment. I chose Android over the iPhone for several reasons. Being open to any carrier, any maker, and the ability for people to customize their experience is what drove me to the purchase, and it has excited me to see the Android's popularity grow since its release.

I always find it interesting when open standards challenge closed, proprietary platforms. Take Beta Max versus VHS. Sony was the company behind Beta Max and they lost to the VHS open standard, even though at the time everyone believed beta max was better. Another example again features Sony with their AIT proprietary tape format, developed for the then niche market of digital media. Seagate, HP & IBM initiated the LTO Consortium in the late 1990s as an open standards alternative to the proprietary magnetic tape formats available at the time, and LTO has been the best-selling "super tape" format since 2002.

So given the theory above, my money was on Android against the iPhone, which is turning out to have been a good bet, now that Android apps are rushing to the market in droves, and Android phones are selling over 100,000 units per day. A key component with Android was the huge number of professional java developers that could get to work on something they were already familiar with.

What can beat a winning open formula like this you might say? The great combination of Enterprise and openness. Make something for the Enterprise but open it up for competition and you have yourself a winning combination.

Enter Microsoft Windows Phone 7 to the party. Not only do you bring the biggest paying and highest quantity of buyers to the party, but you bring all the vendors looking to get at the money and market share. Take it a step further and sprinkle in the Xbox gaming community that is currently 25 million subscribers per month strong and you have yourself the making of a huge shift in the market.

What will ultimately make or break the platform is developers. some say the new Palm Pre platform was pretty nice but the lack of apps at launch made it fall flat with very little success. Recently HP took a gamble and purchased Palm for 1.2 billion. Now they will be trying their hand into the tablet market but without developers, I don't predict much success. Windows Phone 7 is based on its popular Microsoft Zune device and hundreds of thousands of developers who already know how to program in Microsoft .Net, Silverlight, and XNA are off to the races. They don't have to learn a new language; they don't have to buy a new computer, pay additional fees or anything like Android of iOS development.

Given the technology demos and videos that have made it to light and the huge list of games, the platform doesn't seem lacking. The Xbox gaming integration, Netflix, Twitter, Facebook, and Foursquare was enough to have me salivating and ready to go. If I was a betting man, my money would be on Microsoft for the win.

People have beaten on Microsoft for the last 2 years that they were late to the party and missed out. The same was said when the early versions of Windows launched and they had no developer tools or platform. Now they have .Net and are easily the most advanced, organized, and modern tools / platform in existence.

I don't have a date for launch, nor do I know what exact phone I want to get. I know my T-Mobile contract is up for renewal, and I've got a handful of cash ready to throw down for a Windows Phone 7 device. They may have been late to the party, but they are here now, and they brought a keg, shots, and some friends. Let's get it on!

Windows Phone 7 Complete Guide

New Apple iPad

Many people were like me today and glued to their computers all around the world in their respective time zone looking to hear the news of the much rumored iPad. We were not confused as it really was called the iPad and it included many of the heavily rumored features that people were lusting over.. but not all.

Hype!
The hype surrounding this launch and the mystery lead to many rumors such as the ability for the device to bend time and space lead to such insanity as drinking games designed to be played around the launch which detailed out all the features and if included you had to drink.

Arrival Day
I was one of the many glued to my computer and eating at my desk as it occurred at 12:00pm CST. I was frustrated but not mad that I couldn't follow anything at all on www.apple.com or any of their subsidiary sites that I was aware of. Twitter didn't yield much more, no streaming video that I could find other than some silliness going on with the folks at Crunch Gear. I found the best source of information was the blogging which included great pictures and comments from Engadget.

The Device
I am not an Apple, Google, or Microsoft Fanboy and I consider myself omni-tech-ual? I have programing (Shell Scripting, Perl, PHP), Unix (SGI Irix, Sun Solaris), and Microsoft certifications as well as a background using and supporting Macs since 1994 not to mention that I happily own an Android phone. I am just a nerd and use the best tool available for the job at hand.

There are many sites including those names above that will cover in extreme detail what the iPad costs, contains, and promises so I won't get into that. I realize that we as a greedy never satisfied culture are never satisfied but I was not very impressed. In short I feel like this is a huge iPod Touch with a 3G upgrade if you want it. The following list of things are missing and to me are deal breakers that I expected to be fixed before I pull out my wallet (Which I was excited and ready to do).

• No Flash (really? still?)
• No Camera (Barcode reading, video conference, etc)
• No GPS (Isn't the purpose to be mobile?)
• No USB (I can't plug anything in like a GPS or Camera, or Mouse and Keyboard?)
• No SD or Memory Slots? (I can't upload anything via sneaker net?)
• No Multi-tasking? (I am way too ADHD to only be able to do 1 thing at a time)
• Still stuck with AT&T (What is the purpose of defining the iPad as unlocked if it still only works with AT&T?)
  

The Name
The most surprising thing to me was the weak name for this which is being laughed at and jokes are being told at it's expense. Twitter is now trending on several variations on the hash tags to poke fun such as #ipadjokes. My personal favorites are:

• A larger version will be available this summer called the MaxiPad
• Why did they call it the iPad? Because Sham-wow was already taken
• With AT&T and the iPad you know the network will be down at least 5 days a month

Alternatives
As I mentioned above, I am ready to put out my money for something new. I am ready to invest in something that lets me indulge more in my ever increasing content and social addictions. I am extremely interested in the rumored Microsoft Courier but it's still too good to be true and more focused on productivity than the iPad. I already have and still love my original Kindle but for now I might have to just stick with my normal laptop and my Andoid G1 handset.

My coworker Chris (@ebbynezer) wrote a pretty interesting blog post which was optimistic and very forward looking into what the iPad could have meant. After the announcement he acknowledged to me in the hall that he might have reached a bit given the outcome from the announcement.

What did you think about the announcement and will you buy an iPad?