It’s been a week since I ditched my iPhone for Windows Phone 7

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Its been a week with my new windows phone 7.  I like it a lot and don’t miss my iPhone that much.

I am actually typing this blog post on my Samsung focus in OneNote.

Things I like

  1. Keyboard is phenomenal
  2. UI is awesome.  Its a crazy world we live in when Microsoft does a better job with a UI than Apple.
  3. Very responsive OS
  4. Speech and voice commands are incredibly accurate.  I know the iPhone has that but it just never worked well.
  5. Outlook works very well

Things I don’t like

  1. The app bar at the bottom of the screen is very easy to accidentally hit while typing.  So in the middle of an email, i hit send accidentally while hitting the space bar.
  2. No copy and paste.  Initially I didn’t care but then when I started getting emails with information that i wanted to copy and paste. I also tried to duplicate a formula in excel and i couldn’t copy and paste.  I am not retyping that formula for every row.
  3. Keys are not very well placed.  I accidentally keep hitting the camera button or the soft buttons at the bottom (back, start and search)
  4. The previous problem wouldn’t be too bad if I had multi tasking, but if I am playing a game or doing something else and I accidentally hit search, I lose my work/game.  It sucks.
  5. I can’t buy audiobooks in the marketplace
  6. I am missing some apps that are making it hard to forget the iPhone

Apps I need

  1. Remember the milk
  2. Evernote – if I can import my evernote notes into OneNote then i will be ok,  but i can’t.  Actually, I created a note taking application for free to fill the void.  It is not as powerful as evernote but I am constantly adding more features as I see fit.  See it here (marketplace link).
  3. Audible player

Apps I would like to have

  1. Kindle
  2. tweetdeck

Best of All

It is ridiculously easy to develop for.  I have done iPhone and Android development and they have a very steep learning curve.  Don’t just take my word for it.  I created 4 apps in less than a month:

  1. envision – basecamp client for windows phone 7 – see http://envisionhq.com
  2. Picasa Viewer – see http://picasaviewer.com
  3. Notesly Free – marketplace link
  4. QuoteZen – 170k quotes with search and bookmarking capabilities – marketplace link

You might think that the above statement is very subjective because I have been doing .NET since version zero, but trust me WP7 development is easier than iPhone and Android.  Don’t believe me.  Try it out for yourself – http://msdn.com

  • http://twitter.com/AmrEldib Amr Eldib

    To use Remember the Milk on WP7, use the app WinMilk. It's developed by a 3rd party but it works really well.

    No support of Arabic, hitting buttons accidentally and not having Audiable work on WP7 are my biggest problems.

  • http://www.emadibrahim.com eibrahim

    I tried WinMilk. It didn't work for me. Actually, it kept crashing. Maybe because I have hundreds of tasks.

  • http://twitter.com/AmrEldib Amr Eldib

    I don't know, I have only tens (max 20) tasks and it works fine.