Coaster in new Microsoft "Really" ad?

RatherGoodBear said:
On all these new smartphones, can you actually make a (clear) phone call, or is the human voice considered obsolete?

I think voice calling is headed toward obsolescence when it comes to younger folk, but yeah, my phone (a paltry HTC Hero Android 2.1, never ever getting 2.2 :() handles voice calls quite well.

I don't even KNOW how to text from my phone. lol

I prefer to talk, for as short of time as possible, because I hate talking on the phone. Maybe I should figure out this texting thing.

Raven-Phile said:
Hey, you were there when I made a call from the Cosmotron line on mine (Samsung Captivate running Android 2.1, still awaiting 2.2). Thanks to the noise suppression, I was able to communicate just fine in the middle of a crowded, noisy area.

It still works as a phone, though I'm more of a data-oriented guy, myself.

Only because you gooned up your password.

But at least he could hear the operator ;).

LOL well, that's true. But that's only because the rides and toilets at Knoebels aren't the only things from yesteryear. Their data service is so 2007. :)

I talked to my wife while in line for El Toro the next night, and the conversation was loud and clear for both of us.

RatherGoodBear said:
On all these new smartphones, can you actually make a (clear) phone call, or is the human voice considered obsolete?

djDaemon said:
I think voice calling is headed toward obsolescence when it comes to younger folk...

Agreed. :)

And I don't think of mobile phones (and especially smartphones) as telephones as much as they are 'personal devices' that can make phone calls. Hell, my 'phone' has 4 times more storage than the hard drive in the first PC I bought in 1997.

Phone calls is probably 6th or 7th on the list of things I do most often with my phone...and I'm old. ;)

Now that I have Facetime, I actually use that to talk to people too.

RPM said:
If WP7 does a good job of integrating with Exchange (and other mail systems)...

I would assume that it does seeing as how, you know, we also make Exchange. I never really looked into it. But I will say that the mail app overall is surprisingly good and well thought out. It does IMAP and POP and what not too. I've never been big on e-mail from the phone (including iPhone), but I realize that it's important to a lot of people. The models with physical keyboards will clearly be a hit with the e-mail crowd.

Funny thing about the calling on a phone. After 3.5 years, I've only got 5 days, 19 hours of call time on my iPhones. I have so many rollover minutes that they never get used, they just expire.

Jeff said:
I would assume that it does seeing as how, you know, we also make Exchange.

I've been developing software with Microsoft products for long enough to know that the different area's within Microsoft aren't always in sync when it comes to new software releases. Some products have gotten better with the last few releases (Visual Studio), some have gotten worse (SQL Management console). I recently spent a day pulling my hair out over a change made between SQL 2008 and 2008R2, so I'm little frustrated with Microsoft (not that the SQL group has anything to do with the phone group). I guess my point is that I wouldn't be surprised if the mail app was missing some crucial feature or had some sort of compatibility problem with older exchange servers.

Trust me, the company is far too large to make any kind of generalizations. I've met with people all over the company, and if there's one thing that's consistent, it's that it's not consistent. You can find everything from waterfall to agile development going on, small orgs, huge orgs, etc. Given the scope of the product, I'm amazed at how well WP7 is executed.

Jeff, just because Microsoft makes Exchange doesn't necessarily mean squat for Exchange integration.

I have a pet theory that the Exchange protocol is undocumented, secret, and divided among the members of the Exchange development team so that it stays that way (you know, each acolyte knows only 10% of the whole...). It's the only rational explanation for the existence of Entourage and its use of not-so-clever hacks (the same ones used by mail.app) to emulate a MAPI connection. :)

(And yes, I know Office 2011 is finally getting its own version of lookOut. Or so we are told. $DEITY I hope it isn't just a rebadged version of that steaming pile of worthless crap known as Entourage!)

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Entourage sucks? Hmm...I'm due for a PC refresh at work and one of my options is a MacBook Pro, with Entourage. Still not sure if I'm ready to switch from a Microsoft platform.

Office 2011 for Mac went RTM a few weeks ago, and Amazon at least appears to be shipping next week. I've been using it for months now, and it's incredibly awesome. Not only does it finally have "real" Outlook, but even PowerPoint is just better, and more Mac-y. Trust me, you'll love Outlook, and it's a hundred times better than Entourage.

As for the phone, believe me, getting e-mail right was an obvious priority. Look around the Web and I'm sure you'll see some demo video. Oh, and according to CNET, it looks like we'll have software to sync the phone to the Mac. Hooray!