I've begun work on my Windows Phone 7 review. Microsoft has asked (US-based) reviewers to wait until next week to post anything. But I think I will be OK publishing something sooner that is technically part of the review but not based on any hands-on stuff. It's a guide to what you need to do before you get a Windows Phone. And it should come before Windows Phone too, when you think about it.
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Speaking of Windows Phone, I'm a bit tired of the way people (typically in podcasts and whatnot) will make some kind of a joke, repeatedly, about how hard it is, supposedly, to refer to devices based on this system. "Are they Windows Phone ... phones??" (cue laughter). No. They're Windows Phones. And for the record, you never once referred to the iPhone as an "iPhone phone." So get over your Apple biases and move on, please.
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A few Apple-related tidbits.
I am ecstatic to see that Apple is finally turning its limited attention to the Mac again after years of neglect. Ultimately, I'm all about PCs (and PC-like devices) and while iPods are cute and everything, it's the lure of multifunction devices (i.e. PCs and now smartphones) that got me interested in this industry in the first place.
Apple shares hit the $300 milestone. Unbelievable.
Cult of Mac has a lengthy interview with ex-Apple CEO John Sculley, mostly about Steve Jobs. It's a must-read (even though its author unfairly once accused me of making up a story about the HP iPod).
Apple's iPad coming to AT&T and Verizon (??) stores on October 28th.
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Apple fan Walter Mossberg reviews Outlook 2011 for the Mac and loves it. But allow me to halt the love-in for a moment and tell you something about this product that Mossberg completely ignores: Hotmail support. That is, there is none, and none is coming. With Outlook on the PC, you can install an Outlook Connector so that you can seamlessly access Hotmail-based email, contacts, and calendar as you do with Exchange. That capability is completely missing in Outlook 2011, and is not coming. So you can access Hotmail-based email, only, and then only via the dated POP3 protocol. I guess those 356 million people using Hotmail aren't a big deal over at the WSJ, even though both products--Hotmail and Outlook 2011--are made by the same company. But I think this is a huge problem, especially when you consider that far more consumers are going Mac than business users.
