Why I still have Windows Phone 6.5 even in the age of Windows Phone 7(.x): Part 4

Recently, I published part 3 on my "Why I still have Windows Phone 6.5 even in the age of Windows Phone 7(.x)" series. This is part 4, continuing from where I left off on part 3. If you haven't had a chance to read part 3 (or parts 1 and 2) yet, you can find it all here.

The fifth issue I brought up the first time was external gps support. With Windows Phone 6.5, in addition to using the gps my device may have built-in, I can use bluetooth to connect to an external (hardware) gps with bluetooth and access functions in the external gps. These days, gps systems seem to be all the rage. Evidence of this can be found with car manufacturers who, increasingly, bundle some kind of gps system in the vehicles they sell. However, these maps eventually become outdated. Phone manufacturers have also been using embedded motherboards which have a gps module onboard. All three major mobile operating system makers, Apple, Google, and Microsoft, have also included gps support in their respective operating systems, along with some sort of map software. I am pretty sure that Microsoft made gps a required hardware feature for phones running the Windows Phone operating system. This is fine for the consumer. However, the map software those software companies include in their operating systems depend on an internet connection. This is usually satisfied by a cellular internet connection. I live in West Virginia, where we still have 2g cellular internet in many places. This makes for a poor user experience when trying to use the map software. An external gps works great in this situation since its operation does not depend on an internet connection. External gps support would be great in the next version of Windows Phone, Apollo, but the current conditions in the computing world prevent this from being a much needed feature. There is more I could say about GPS, but I will save it for another article.

The sixth issue brought up is VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) support. With Windows Phone 6.5 (and even 6.1), you can use your device to make voip calls, and the best thing is that you can use the address book that's built-in to the os (configuration was a bit advanced, but there are utilities out there that make it easy). Until Skype came out for Windows Phone, there wasn't much you could do if you wanted to make calls via VOIP on Windows Phone. I don't expect this to change (much) for the current version of Windows Phone, Mango, but word has it that Microsoft will be adding support for Skype (native support, not just updated Skype app) and other 3rd party VOIP providers.

The seventh issue brought up was lack of playlist support. When I first wrote on this, it was before Mango was released. Mango did bring us playlist support. However, playlist support on the device is not perfect. You can create a playlist, but you can't edit it. You can't shift the song order in the playlist either. In my Windows Phone app, Mobile Media Manager, I attempt to solve these problems (and more). However, my app is crippled by the fact that I can't change song order while execution of the app is suspended (in other words, if you switch from my app to a different app, the current song won't change to the next song and will just stop playback UNLESS you navigate back to my app before the current song is over. This problem is not my own. The problem lies with Microsoft, where currently, you cannot play a Song ("Song" is the name of the class, part of the XNA framework, for those of you who are programmers) in the background (via BackgroundAudioAgent). If ANYONE knows how to fix this or how to get around this, please let me know as soon as possible.

The last issue brought up was the ability to do p2p multi-player gaming either via bluetooth or via wi-fi (and even cross-platform multi-player gaming). Under Windows Phone 6.5, it was possible to do both, and it made gaming on the platform even better (Orions: Legends of Wizards, anyone?). With the current system, it is possible to do multi-player gaming in Windows Phone 7(.5), but you have to have a gold level subscription to Xbox Live in order to do so. I know its the same situation on the Xbox, but I think it would be great to be able to have a local multi-player session of a game as well, especially for people who own a windows phone, but don't own an Xbox.

So far, things are looking better for Windows Phone (7.x) than when it initially came out. However there is much it can improve on. As the next version of Windows Phone, Apollo, is not out yet, there is not much we know other than what Microsoft has told us. We will all just have to wait and see what else Microsoft has in store for Apollo, so stay tuned for more. If I happen to think of more on comparing Windows Phone 7.x to Windows Phone 6.5, I will update this article.

For those of you who are (software) developers and haven't downloaded the Windows Phone SDK yet, download it, and see what you can make. You might be surprised. If you are developing for Windows Phone on Windows 8, be sure to download Visual Studio 2011 as well.

So now, do you agree that Windows Phone 6.5 is still useful, or do you think that Windows Phone 7.x has matured enough that Windows Phone 6.5 isn't needed anymore? Share your thoughts in the comment box below, or e-mail me at catholictechgeek@gmail.com. You can also comment (and follow me) on twitter (twitter username is @rctechgeek). Feel free to subscribe to my rss feed as well. If you like this post, please share it with your family and friends.

In the meantime, while you are thinking about Windows Phone, drink some tasty Mystic Monk Coffee (use this link or click on the picture below to access the store and purchase). Trust me, it's good coffee (in most instances, much better than Starbucks coffee) and you won't regret buying some (just keep it away from your computer keyboard or laptop/tablet). For the summer, they are also offering Iced Coffee as well. If you like tea more than coffee, the monks also offer tea for sale. Using the link (or picture below) to buy the coffee (or tea) helps the monks out and helps me with college expenses as well.

Feel free to try out my apps for Windows Phone: Mobile Media Manager, a media player app I made which has some features which (I feel) are missing from the system Zune player, and BSA Eagle Tracker, an app that boy scouts can use to track their progress to Eagle Scout (when the scout handbook isn't always handy). New versions of the media player with new features/bug fixes is coming within a week (most likely sooner than this, but definitely within 2 weeks) of passing Microsoft Apphub certification. The update for the free, ad-supported version of Mobile Media Manager got denied in Apphub certification, but it will be resubmitted within the next day or two. The update for the paid version will be in certification with it (I've been busy lately, and hadn't had a chance to submit the paid version update to Apphub yet). BSA Eagle Tracker is also getting a bug fix for an obscure bug I noticed recently, so it is also due for an update.

BSA Eagle Tracker download: http://bit.ly/Mm1Upo
Mobile Media Manager (paid, ad-free version) download: http://bit.ly/y3rf6V
Mobile Media Manager (free, ad-supported version) download: http://bit.ly/xGCsWE

Update (6-28-2012): Part 4 is located at http://bit.ly/NRzQdh

Why I still have Windows Phone 6.5 even in the age of Windows Phone 7(.x): Part 3

It's been around a year since I last wrote on why I use Windows Phone 6.5 even though Windows Phone 7(.5) is out (and support for Windows Phone 6.5 has been cut). Since then, Mango has been released for Windows Phone and this has fixed some of the issues I previously brought up. Recently, we got news about the next version of Windows Phone, Apollo. With all the changes that have happened or are coming, you may be wondering if I still have and use my Windows Phone 6.5 device? The answer is yes, I still have it and yes, I still have a use for it. (part one of my previous article is here and part 2 of my previous article is here).


The first issue brought up was a file manager and support for removable storage. As of now, we know that Microsoft did not put a file manager in either the NoDo or Mango releases of Windows Phone. Windows Phone 6.5 has the ability to do both of these, but further, Windows Phone 6.5 devices also have the ability to act as a SD card reader when connected to a desktop or laptop. The isolated storage scheme that Windows Phone 7.x uses has worked well so far, but there are still some uses for a file manager in Windows Phone 7.x (like copying gamesaves). Some devs over at XDA-Developers have gotten around the Isolated Storage and made a file manager for Windows Phone, but it only works on certain Windows Phone devices and you have to do some setup to make the file manager work (like interop unlock). From current reports on Apollo, it seems that Microsoft is (so far) not going to include a file manager.

The second issue brought up was being able to "transfer" your media library by SD card. Right now, the only device that I know of that has a removable SD card slot is the (original) Samsung Focus. However, the removable storage slot in it is tied-in with the storage already onboard and data on the card is not accessible outside the device. The way things are now, Microsoft wants you to buy the music through Zune (soon to be Xbox Music) or get the Zune pass, so that you can buy and download directly on the phone. However, the problem here is that if you have music that isn't available on Zune or the music is available on Zune, but you also have the music ripped from a cd you bought. On Windows Phone 6.5, I can sync music I either ripped from cd or bought from an online store, but I have the choice of whether to store the music on the device's onboard storage or store it on the removable SD card.

The third issue brought up was lack of available console emulators. As of now, this has only been partially cured. There is a NES emulator and a gameboy (original, not color, without sound support) emulator available in the windows phone marketplace, but we could use some more console emulators. Because of this, I still use PocketGBA for gameboy advance games and other emulators available for Windows Phone 6.5 on my Windows Phone 6.5 device.

The fourth issue brought up was the ability to "sideload" programs. On Windows Phone 7.x, you can only install programs from the Windows Phone marketplace, unless your phone has been developer-unlocked. On Windows Phone 6.5, I can install programs via cab files on a SD card whenever I want, without any restrictions. The ability to install homebrew programs on Windows Phone 7.x has improved, but is still lacking.

The fifth issue brought up is Bluetooth profiles available on Windows Phone 7.x. What is still missing in Windows Phone 7.x is the ability to use a bluetooth hardware keyboard. Word has it that bluetooth support is coming in Windows Phone 8, the next release of Windows Phone, but we have yet to see this for sure. Still missing in Windows Phone 7.x is the ability to "swap" (or send) contacts with another windows phone user via bluetooth. This feature would be great to have in a business situation. With Windows Phone 6.5, I can do all this with bluetooth and more.

The sixth issue brought up is lack of OBEX file transfer support in Windows Phone 7.x. OBEX file transfer is used to transfer a file via bluetooth from one device to another. With a file manager in Windows Phone 7.x non-existant as well, I think this will not come until at least the file manager does.

I brought up some more issues with Windows Phone 7.x vs. Windows Phone 6.5 before, but I will save them for another article, so stay tuned to read more. If you are a developer and haven't downloaded the Windows Phone SDK yet, download it, and see what you can make. You might be surprised. If you are developing for Windows Phone on Windows 8, be sure to download Visual Studio 2011 as well.

So, what do you think about this? Do you agree that Windows Phone 6.5 is still useful, or do you think that Windows Phone 7.x has matured enough that Windows Phone 6.5 isn't needed anymore? Share your thoughts in the comment box below, or e-mail me at catholictechgeek@gmail.com. You can also comment (and follow me) on twitter (twitter username is @rctechgeek). Feel free to subscribe to my rss feed as well. If you like this post, please share it with your family and friends.

In the meantime, while you are thinking about Windows Phone, drink some tasty Mystic Monk Coffee (use this link or click on the picture below to access the store and purchase). Trust me, it's good coffee (in most instances, much better than Starbucks coffee) and you won't regret buying some (just keep it away from your computer keyboard or laptop/tablet). For the summer, they are also offering Iced Coffee as well. If you like tea more than coffee, the monks also offer tea for sale. Using the link (or picture below) to buy the coffee (or tea) helps the monks out and helps me with college expenses as well.

Feel free to try out my apps for Windows Phone: Mobile Media Manager, a media player app I made which has some features which (I feel) are missing from the system Zune player, and BSA Eagle Tracker, an app that boy scouts can use to track their progress to Eagle Scout (when the scout handbook isn't always handy). New versions of the media player with new features/bug fixes is coming within a week (most likely sooner than this, but definitely within 2 weeks) of passing Microsoft Apphub certification. The free, ad-supported version of Mobile Media Manager is now in Apphub certification, while the paid version will be in certification in a few days (but by the end of this week). BSA Eagle Tracker is also getting a bug fix for an obscure bug I noticed recently, so it is also due for an update.

BSA Eagle Tracker download: http://bit.ly/Mm1Upo
Mobile Media Manager (paid, ad-free version) download: http://bit.ly/y3rf6V
Mobile Media Manager (free, ad-supported version) download: http://bit.ly/xGCsWE

Wanted: New Developers for Windows Phone Mango

If you haven't noticed yet, Windows Phone 7.5, codenamed "Mango", has been out for a while. However, you might have noticed that compared to Android or iOS, Windows Phone hasn't been given much love when it comes to development for it. It's sad because Windows Phone is a platform that delivers. However, you can change that.

Windows Phone needs new developers and new programs to help it to grow and mature. If you have been thinking about developing for Windows Phone, but haven't done it yet, now is the time. If you are new programmer, this is a good time for you to get your program ideas out there and established in the world of technology. Windows Phone mainly uses Silverlight for graphical user interfaces. Silverlight is similar to html, so if you've done any html coding, you should have some idea of how some things works since the structure of XAML, which is the markup language that Silverlight uses, is similar to html. For the internal guts of the program, you use either C# or Visual Basic. If you've programmed in Java before, the concepts are mostly the same, with a few minor differences between java and C#. It is possible to use C# (or Visual Basic) for modifying the graphical user interface of your program in addition to Silverlight. This is useful for situations such as adding components to the user interface on the fly.

To give you an incentive to develop for Windows Phone, Microsoft has launched the APPortunity Contest. You could win one of five Samsung tablets. Each time you publish a program to the Windows Phone Marketplace (for Mango), you get an entry into the contest. If you publish 5 programs to the marketplace during the contest, you get FREE ADVERTISING for ANY program of YOUR CHOICE. The free advertising will run on the Windows Phone Application Network for around 60 days and includes 25,000 impressions.

This contest runs from Now to December 31, 2011.

Important:  To submit your program to the Windows Phone Marketplace,either click on the picture above or go to :


       http://bit.ly/MangoOffer

and enter the code:

        E8YRA


I wish everyone well in this contest. If you don't have the SDK already, you can download it at: http://bit.ly/GoMango

There are more details in this contest to come. To help you stay tuned for further announcements, you can subscribe to my rss feed or follow me on twitter (username is @rctechgeek).


Update (1-14-2011): I have some important updates to the contest that you will like, especially with students. The link that was here is currently down, but I will have it up in an hour or so.

Update (1-21-2011): I have finally fixed the page with some contest updates that was messed up. You can see the update here.

Windows Phone Mango: How it Compares to NoDo

The much awaited Mango update for Windows Phone is out. With this new update, many new features have been added. However, is Mango really better than its predecessor? Since most of us have all had a chance to play with mango for a bit, let's see which is better.

The first part is probably the most important, the Phone. If this part is horrible, than what is the point of getting the "phone" anyway? Microsoft has added a search feature that lets you search your call history. The sad thing about this is that you can only search by contact name and not by phone number. Nothing else really needs to be added to this, except for fixing the search to include search for phone #.

The second part I will cover is the web browser, Internet Explorer. Microsoft has moved the url bar from the top to the bottom of the layout. At the same time, a consequence of this is that the features that were buttons at the bottom of the screen have been hidden under menu. In order to get to your tabs, you have to open up the menu and then choose the "tabs" menu item from the menu, but the good news is that you don't have to be in just portrait mode anymore to find the tabs option. The same treatment given to tabs has also been given to the "favorites" and "add to favorites" as well. On the plus side, Internet Explorer mobile now has hardware-accelerated browsing. Another thing where I think Microsoft went wrong was the elimination of the forward button for mango, so you can only go back in web navigation, not forward.

The third part is Contacts. A big feature added with Mango is the ability to create groups of your contacts so you can organize your contacts better. Search has also been added so you can search your contacts for someone.

The fourth part is e-mail. Not much has changed here. For the buttons at the bottom, the folders button has been taken away. Searching e-mail has also been more apparent for those with phones lacking a physical keyboard.

As far as the calendar goes, it really hasn't changed.

The marketplace has also changed. When you bring up an program in the marketplace, instead of having all of the information about the program, like the overall rating, program description, reviews, and screenshots, all on one page, everything is now in "tabs", meaning organization is better. Marketplace search has moved from pressing the search button, to a button in the menu bar. In mango, if you are in marketplace, and you press the search button, you will get the normal bing search screen.

Music and video has definitely received a change. The buttons that control playback are now larger.  Repeat and shuffle buttons have been made more obvious by appearing to the side of the album art instead of having to tap the album art and then pressing the repeat and/or shuffle buttons. Now, you can create playlists from what's in your now playing list. However, there is a catch. You cannot move items in a playlist around to a different position. This can be a bother when you add a whole album or all of an artist's songs to a playlist, but you want to change the order that those songs are in. If you have the youtube plugin installed, the youtube site interface has changed for the better. However, youtube videos are no longer shown in the media player history. Fortunately, I intend to correct many of these ills when I release the media player program that I am working on right now, Mobile Media Manager (it's not in the marketplace yet, but there will be an announcement when it has been put on the marketplace).

For Microsoft Office, one of the biggest changes is the ability to (finally) edit documents, spreadsheets, and powerpoint presentations saved on your skydrive account. So if you want to work on a word document on your phone that is stored on your laptop's hard drive, all you have to do is upload your word document to your skydrive account. I might add that in order to edit a document from your skydrive, it must be in it's xml document format. In other words, either .docx, .xlsx, or .pptx, the default formats for Microsoft Office documents since Office 2007. If it's in Office 2003 or earlier format, like .doc, .xls, or .ppt, you can still open and view the file, but you have to save it as its xml document format before you can edit it on the phone.

In pictures, access to your photos taken with the phone's camera is right on the start screen when you access pictures, instead of going to your picture albums, and then selecting "camera roll".

In Xbox Live, there is now an option for you to get gold level access if you currently have silver level access (which is free). I do not know for sure, but I have a hunch that Microsoft will eventually build features into Xbox Live on windows phone that only gold level members can access.

In messaging, Microsoft has built Windows Live Messenger support into mango, so you can now chat with your windows live messenger buddies right from your windows phone.

In Maps, you now have landscape mode in addition to portrait mode. The maps program has a new feature that allows you to find nearby businesses (like restaurants) and nearby attractions. I can certainly see this as being handy while on the road or on vacation somewhere.

And last in my article is the settings. Things here are mostly the same. In the settings screen for the switch for your cellular data connection, if you're in airplane mode and you try to turn your cellular data connection on, you will be asked if you want to want to turn airplane mode off or not. The biggest new feature in settings is the Battery Saver. If this is enabled, it disables some services such as push e-mail and programs being able to run in the background. You have the option to enable battery saver to run now, or to run when the battery is low (and yes, you can disable battery saver mode if the phone currently has battery saver enabled). Another big feature is the ability for programs to run in the background (if the program supports it). For wi-fi, you can now see a list of all the routers your phone has connected to.

To close it off, Windows Phone finally gets multitasking. The way this works is if you are in a program, press the start menu button to go back to the start menu, and open up a second program from there, you can go back to the first program by holding the back button and then swiping left or right with your finger until you get back to the program you want.

So overall, I do think that mango is worth the update and is better than nodo. Microsoft did do a good job with it as far as updates and new additions go. However, it's still missing a few things like bluetooth keyboard support and bluetooth a2dp audio streaming support for videos as well as audio (a2dp audio streaming for video was available on windows media mobile in Windows Phone 6.5, so it is possible). As a programmer, I also wish that Microsoft would open up the SongCollection, Playlist, MediaQueue classes (and any other similar classes) so that those of us who are programmers (like myself) can make custom playlists in our programs.


If you have any questions or comments, I would love to hear them. You can either use the comment box or send them to me via e-mail at catholictechgeek@gmail.com, and I will answer any e-mail I get at the end of my next article. You can also follow me on Twitter (username is @rctechgeek).

Why I still have Windows Phone 6.5 even in the age of Windows Phone 7 (Part 2)

After I wrote the piece on some reasons that I still have a Windows Phone 6.5 device, I happened to think of some other reasons why Windows Phone 6.5 is still useful that I forgot to include in the last post (if you haven't read it yet, here's the link to part 1. So here are some more reasons why Windows Phone 6.5 is still useful (even with Windows Phone 7).

The first four have to do with bluetooth support. The first one has to do with the profiles that are included by default. According to Microsoft itself, the bluetooth profiles that are supported are Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP 1.2), Audio/Video Remote Control Profile (AVRCP 1.0), Hands Free Profile (HFP 1.5), Headset Profile (HSP 1.1), and Phone Book Access Profile (PBAP 1.0). One thing that is definitely missing is bluetooth keyboard support. I don't know about anyone else, but aside from maybe the phones with a built-in hardware keyboard (like the LG Quantum or the HTC Arrive), it can be cumbersome at times to use the onscreen soft keyboard. Having a hardware keyboard can be a big typing error preventer and allows text to be typed faster, meaning you get access to it faster. The iPad has this capability and the any Windows Phone 6.5 device (whether running the Broadcomm bt stack or the Microsoft bt stack) has this capability.

The next one also has to do with the file explorer, but with Windows Phone 6.5, I can do bluetooth file transfers. Since Windows Phone 7, does not implement the OBEX File Transfer protocol, this is not possible under Windows Phone 7. This means you can't use your laptop's bluetooth to send a file (like a word document or a new ringtone) to your Windows Phone 7 device. I do admit that this is a feature that I don't use a lot, but it's very handy when I do need to use it.

The next one is external gps support. With Windows Phone 7, I am limited to the gps that is included in the device. With Windows Phone 6.5, in addition to using the gps my device may have built-in, I can use bluetooth to connect to an external (hardware) gps with bluetooth and access functions in the external gps. I realize that many people are fine with what's built-in or with no gps at all (I will admit that I still use the old-fashioned paper "map" when I go on vacation trips in the car), but I have gotten reports from many people that a certain external hardware gps (there is no one specific external, hardware gps that I am referring to), performs better than the gps that may be built-in with the Windows Phone 7 device.

The next one is the ability to transfer a contact from one device to another via bluetooth. With Windows Phone 6.5, I could use bluetooth to choose a contact from my address book and send it to another Windows Phone 6.5 device and the contact would be in the second 6.5 device's address book. In Windows Phone 7, you cannot do this. I don't know much about the Phone Book Access bluetooth profile, but I imagine it wouldn't be too hard to use this to enable you send a contact (preferably from "People") from one Windows Phone 7 device to another, as long as the two devices are paired. This would definitely be useful in a case like Microsoft's TechEd conference (Microsoft, I hope you are reading this), where you have many people present and the giving of contact information is a normal activity.

The next one is lack of VOIP support in Windows Phone 7. With the advent of Mango, skype support will be (supposedly) be built-in, but what if you do not use skype? What if you use a 3rd party voip service? If this is the case, you are out of luck. With Windows Phone 6.5 (and even 6.1), you can use your device to make voip calls, and the best thing is that you can use the address book that's built-in to the os (configuration was a bit advanced, but there are utilities out there that make it easy).

The next one is the ability to make playlists on the device. With Windows Phone 6.5, Windows Media Player mobile allowed you to save a new playlist and edit existing playlists (there was one 3rd party program out there, called PlaylistMgr, that made making playlist on the device a lot easier than doing it from within Windows Media Player mobile and you could even include media files which were on the device, but weren't part of the Windows Media Player mobile library). Under Windows Phone 7, you have to make the playlist in the Zune (desktop) client first, and then transfer the playlist to the device. This can be annoying at times when you don't have your desktop or laptop handy and you still want to make a playlist. Add to this, my wish that Microsoft gives you the capability to add a youtube video to a playlist in the zune player as well.

The last one is the ability to do p2p multi-player gaming either via bluetooth or via wi-fi (and even cross-platform multi-player gaming). Under Windows Phone 6.5, it was possible to do both, and it made gaming on the platform even better (Orions: Legends of Wizards, anyone?). Under Windows Phone 7, this is not possible (mostly due to lack of socket support in the os currently), but I hear that Mango will fix this. Big things will come when things work like they do on the Xbox, you can either "link" other devices together or go multi-player on Xbox Live. You will still need a good internet connection though, for gaming on the internet (either wi-fi or 3G, EDGE will not cut it).

These are some more reasons that I thought of that I still use Windows Phone 6.5 in the age of Windows Phone 7. I hope that Microsoft will be reading this and fix (most) of these issues with future versions of Windows Phone.

Do you think that Windows Phone 6.5 is outdated or do you think there is still some worth to it even with Windows Phone 7 (and Mango coming)? Feel free to let me know here (in the comment box) or on Twitter (url for twitter is http://www.twitter.com/rctechgeek).

Why I still have Windows Phone 6.5 even in the age of Windows Phone 7

In case you are wondering what Windows Phone 6.5 is, it's just the renamed form of Windows Mobile 6.5. Anyway, with Windows Phone 7 out right now and Mango just around the corner (termed version 7.x), some might wonder why I still keep a device handy that runs the older version. Why is this? Well, there are some aspects of Windows Phone 6.5 that I still use and I can't find in the newer Windows Phone 7 (or even Mango).

The first one is WP6.5 has a file manager and access to the file system. What's more is the fact that a 6.5 device can act as a SD card reader in a desktop or laptop. I'm sure it's not above Microsoft to add this to Windows Phone 7 (I found a post on the internet with an early rendition of Windows Phone 7 with a file manager, so it's possible), but you must admit that sometimes, the isolated storage concept can get in the way. This is true especially when you have e-mail attachments which requires a certain program to open it.

The second one is that with Windows Phone 6.5, I can take my media library on my SD card and transfer it to any other device as long as it has the right size SD card slot. With Windows Phone 7, you have to sync your media library on each device, taking portability right out of the equation. I do realize that some phones, like the Samsung Focus, have an external SD card slot in them, but the majority of phones only use the SD card as a sort of "raid storage" (which is how the os works). The portability also goes with the file manager in that I can store documents on the SD card and (assuming I have the right reader in my desktop or laptop) I can open up that same document on my desktop that I just had open on my mobile device.

The third one is lack of console emulators with Windows Phone 7. I do realize that you can you write an emulator with managed code (such as C#), but all of the good emulators seem to be written in native code (using C++, something that Windows Phone 7 lacks). I can think of a few times where I've been on trips and I wanted to play a console game on my device (such as Pokemon Yellow), but I had to use my 6.5 device to do it. Some of the games written for Windows Mobile were really good (such as Orions: Legends of Wizards), but they can't easily be ported to Windows Phone 7 due to lack of native code support.

The fourth one is the capability to "sideload" programs under Windows Phone 6.5. With Windows Phone 7, you can only install programs using the marketplace (developers know a way around this though). 6.5 allows you to keep the installation file handy on your device (sd card is preferred) and if something happens where you need to reinstall, you have the installation file ready with no waiting for downloads. With Windows Phone 7, you only are allowed to get what is "approved" for the marketplace and you can't install programs (normally) that are useful, but but wouldn't pass marketplace approval for certain reasons. With Windows Phone 6.5, you can install programs from local storage in addition to the marketplace (few to no restrictions as to what you want to install, in other words).

These are just a few of the reasons why even though I have a Windows 7 phone, I still keep my Windows Phone 6.5 device handy. If I think of any more good reasons, I will start a new post with those ideas.

Do you think that Windows Phone 6.5 is outdated or do you think there is still some worth to it even with Windows Phone 7 (and Mango coming)? Feel free to let me know here (in the comment box) or on twitter (url for twitter is http://www.twitter.com/rctechgeek).


Edit:  If you haven't read it yet, part 2 is here

Windows Phone Apphub Marketplace 2.0 is coming

At TechEd, everyone who came to the session on Windows Phone Marketplace learned about some details about some changes coming to the marketplace with the release of Mango. Well, developers rejoice, for some great changes are coming that will make program testing and distribution much easier.

The first change coming is that you will be able to have beta testers before you decide to publish your program to the marketplace. After setting up your program in marketplace as a beta, you then give out a link to all of your beta testers. Your testers can then use that link to download the "beta" version of your program to their phones without having to have the testers' phones developer-unlocked. All of your testers will need to have a windows live id to download your beta (but you need that for marketplace anyway). However, the beta version of your program is only good for 90 days, but you can put out a new beta version of your program which has that 90 day limit "reset". Plus, there is still nothing like a crash test tool that can collect system information about your program (aside from the debugger).

The next change is that you will be able to have privatized programs. With this, your program is hidden from any marketplace searching and only people who have the link to your program will be able to get it. However, if the link to your program gets leaked, there's not much that can be done about limiting the distribution of your program.

The third change coming is a welcome one for students. If you sign on to Dreamspark, you will no longer have to verify with Geotrust (Dreamspark will trust that you're a student) before you can developer-unlock your phone and start publishing programs to the marketplace. Before this change, you first had to submit a program to the marketplace, wait for Geotrust to verify you, and then be able to developer-unlock your phone and start publishing programs. With the advent of Mango (the next Windows Phone release), you will no longer have to wait. I hope this will be (somewhat of) an incentive to work on getting together a team to make a program for the Imagine Cup competition next year.

The last change is with publishing games. With Mango, there is now going to be a ratings system (standard ESRB) built-in to Marketplace. You will also be able to publish mature games to the marketplace now, which means we will finally be able to see mobile Halo make it into the marketplace soon for the enjoyment of many gamers out there.


With the advent of Mango and all of its wonderful changes, additions, and updates, I know that these changes to the marketplace will help to make the Apphub Marketplace grow and become better to use for everyone. I certainly welcome these changes and hope other developers and users out there will welcome these changes as well.

Questions? Comments? I would certainly like you hear your view on this. Feel free to follow me on twitter as well (username is "rctechgeek", link is in the "About Me" section).