Post by John Doe...
Post by r***@pen_fact.comWindows Phone 7, the latest from Microsoft, uses Exchange to
connect to PCs, which means connection via network, not USB.
Oh brother. Thanks for the warning.
To be fair, and to complete the answer, by "Exchange" Rob means "Exchange
Activesync," not an Exchange server. This means any sync product or service
that uses EAS will also sync with WP7 (though, as Rob said, not via USB,
only over-the-air.) This means Google Calendar/Gmail Contacts and/or
Hotmail/Live. For example, I sync Outlook on my PC to my WP7 device by
syncing Outlook with a Hotmail account (via Microsoft's "Outlook Connector"
plug-in) which allows me to keep my three Outlook PCs, my WP7 and my WM6.x
devices all in sync wirelessly and automatically.
Post by John DoeAnd it does not support copy and paste. No big surprise that
Microsoft is so corrupt that it is able to ignore the obvious
usefulness of copy and paste, probably just to ensure higher
profits by making the device unusable for copying data.
MS back-burnered CnP and other features to get WP7 released before
Christmas. Frankly, to me, the whole OS seems a little rushed to meet a
released deadline. CnP has been promised for the first update, due by the
end of January. On the bright side, unlike the old WinMo days, Microsoft
will release updates to end-users directly, a la iPhone, rather than rely on
the device OEMs to create customized ROMs for each device, so ALL devices
will get upgraded.
Post by John DoeCOPY AND PASTE IS A FUNDAMENTAL PART OF COMPUTING.
YES IT IS. WHY ARE WE SHOUTING?
Post by John DoeAny company who does not know that should not be in the computer
business. You can assume that Microsoft and others are
stifling/hindering the technology for the sake of greater profits.
Their efforts to constrain users might be successful here in the
United States, but not anywhere else.
While I hate to argue with a perfect good and irrational conspiracy theory,
I fail to see how omitting CnP can increase profits, unless you are
misunderstanding what CnP on a mobile device is- we're talking about copying
and pasting bits of text, e.g. info from a webpage into an email, or copying
an URL into the browser address bar. How does preventing that boost
profits?
Believe me, after two months of using WP7, CnP is about 10 or 15 items down
the list of things I want MS to fix! ;)
WP7 is very iPhone like in many ways- all media has to synced to the device
from the desktop (using the Zune software, of course, rather than iTunes
like the iPhone.) There's no user-accessible file system- each app manages
its own files, and there's no PC-to-device file sync (other than for Zune
media,) requiring users either to email documents to and from the device, or
use a Sharepoint server. Third-party apps are "sandboxed" so they can't
access files created or used by other applications. To get a damn ebook
onto my WP7 device, I had to install a server app on my PC so the ebook app
could retrieve it from the server, because there's no way to copy it from PC
to device via USB, nor could the app retrieve it from an email attachment.
(This wasn't the ebook app developer's fault- he's constrained by the
limitations built into the OS.)
Like the iPhone, this OS was designed to be a "smartphone for dummies."
Which is fine if you're the target market for such a device, but I'm
apparently not, and still use my WM6.1 Sony X1 as my day-to-day phone.
Post by John DoePost by r***@pen_fact.comMicrosoft is still supporting Windows Mobile, but not for
retail. You can still get some devices. I am very happy with my
LG Fathom, which runs Windows Mobile 6.5.3. Fast and reliable as
a PDA. Good as a phone. USB connection. Very nice screen.
Internal GPS works very well with some programs, not at all with
others. Bluetooth GPS is less reliable.
Thanks for that information.
Post by r***@pen_fact.comMicrosoft set up this newsgroup to support their phones,
Technically speaking... Anyone can set up a newsgroup by asking
his (or her) server administrator to include a new UseNet group
name. And then the group gets accepted by other UseNet servers by
simply adding it to their list of groups.
Post by r***@pen_fact.combut dropped support for newsgroups in favor of forums.
Again technically speaking... Microsoft does not support this or
any other UseNet group. Unless there are some copyright problems
with including "Microsoft" in the name of a UseNet group, anyone
could have started the set of groups that begin with "Microsoft".
And (with interest) they would have been propagated the exact same
way that they were after Microsoft began serving them.
The only thing Microsoft can do (or has done) is stop being a
server for UseNet. But there are many UseNet servers to choose
from, some of them free. The list of UseNet groups is entirely
independent from one server to another.
True, but in this case, it was Microsoft itself who created the
microsoft.*.* hierarchy. Once started and picked up by various news
servers, however, the groups now continue without Microsoft's support or
influence. That said, they're withering on the proverbial vine.
Post by John DoeIf you mean that Microsoft is no longer going to give MVPs extra
credit (or whatever Microsoft gives MVPs) for answering questions
here or in other "Microsoft" labeled UseNet groups, you might be
right.
Also true. Apparently Rob and I aren't overtly concerned with such "brownie
points," but the other MVPs have apparently fled for MS' web-based support
forums, and with good reason- more people are using them for support than
the "abandoned" Usenet groups. The bulk of the few non-spam posts here and
in the PocketPC group since June have been from four or five "regulars."