While Apple CEO Tim Cook had a lot to say during the Apple Q1 2012 conference call, when asked about 4G LTE, bigger screen, and whether or not the mobile market had become a two-horse race between Android and iOS, Cook played his cards close to his chest.

Cook said he didn’t think the mobile market was like Mac vs. Windows, where despite 20 quarters of consecutive growth, Apple’s share remained in the single digits. In mobile, citing recent metrics reports, Cook said Apple and Google’s Android remained in a tight race. Further, he wouldn’t discount Microsoft either, saying that there was a horse in Redmond that always suits up and always runs, and will keep running.

We’ll ignore how many other horses there are, we just want to be the lead one. 

Cook also managed to skirt question about Apple’s LTE future and larger displays for iPhone, saying that with 37 million iPhones sold last quarter, customers appear happy with the current product.

Personally, we’re just waiting to see what iPhone 5 is packing later this year.

Marc, Seth, and Rene iterate about the iPhone mute switch (sigh), Android interface guidelines, Windows Phone at CES 2012, and PNG compression redux, and interrogate Mike Rundle of Flyosity. Plus, we sneak a question to Joe Belfiore of Windows Phone. This is Iterate!

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• Google’s Android Design site… user interface guidelines for Android 4.0
  • Don’t make your apps look like iOS or Windows Phone 7 on Android
  • The Verge interview with Matias Duarte
  • Khoi Vinh on Android Design guidelines
  • Recap of the Windows Phone $100 “smoked” challenge at CES
• PNG compression and iOS apps

• Mike Rundle of Flyosity
• Joe Belfiore of Microsoft
  • Complete interview with Microsoft and Nokia at CES 2012

Hosts

• Marc Edwards (@marcedwards) of Bjango
• Seth Clifford (@sethclifford) of Nickelfish
• Rene Ritchie (@reneritchie) of TiPb.com

Feedback

• Email: podcast@iterate.tv
• Twitter: @iteratetv
• Facebook: Iterate page

If you’re one of the best-of-the-best-of-the-best in mobile design for Android, BlackBerry, iOS, webOS, or Windows Phone, we’d love to get you on the show, or if you’ve found a drop-dead gorgeous app on any platform and really want us to talk about it, contact us and let us know.

In speaking to the New York Times recently, the man running the show for the Windows Phone software team, Joe Belifore noted how Apple’s iPhone prompted Windows Phone redesign and shaped the future of Microsoft’s mobile operating system.

“Apple created a sea change in the industry in terms of the kinds of things they did that were unique and highly appealing to consumers,” Joe Belfiore told The New York Times. “We wanted to respond with something that would be competitive, but not the same.”

It really isn’t any secret that Apple’s launch of the iPhone disrupted the mobile industry in many ways, but even today — 5 years after the official unveiling — we’re still finding out just how much of an impact it had. Microsoft at the time was considering their options for what to do with exhausted Windows Mobile platform. With their mobile future now at risk, it was decided in December of 2008 to go ahead and scrap Windows Mobile and start fresh.

That meant assembling a new team of engineers, developers and more importantly — someone to lead them all into the next generation of mobile OS’ for Microsoft. That led Terry Myerson, mobile engineering chief to hire Joe Belfiore who had recently been working on the Microsoft Zune projects. Borrowing ideas from the Zune projects, the Metro UI as we now know it was born and early Windows Phone devices were rolled out, providing something many would say was ideas never saw from Microsoft before.

Whether you like Apple and the iPhone or not, their influence on every other modern smartphone really is undeniable.

Source: NYTimes

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Chris, Ed, and Rene talk Apple value, RIM’s latest results, the uptake of Android, webOS going open source, Microsoft’s mobile chances, HTML5 platforms, the future of LTE, and the year ahead. This is Mobile Nations Stock Talk.

Hosts

• Chris Umiastowski
• Edward Zabitsky
• Rene Ritchie

Feedback

Got something to say? Agree or disagree with something we said? Have something you want us to discuss on a future show? Don’t just sit there yelling at the screen, dammit, let us know!

• Email: podcast@mobilenations.com
• Twitter: @mobilenations
• Web: www.mobilenations.com

Credits

Thanks to the Mobile Nations network of store for sponsoring this podcast, and to our fantastic live chat members for keeping us honest and making us smart!

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Kevin, Phil, Derek, Daniel, Georgia, and Rene take at look at the year in mobile, from BlackBerry to Android, webOS to Windows Phone, iPad to iPhone. Highs, lows, great new devices, frustrating delays, devastating losses, and a look ahead to 2012. This is Mobile Nations!

Hosts

Feedback

Got something to say? Agree or disagree with something we said? Have something you want us to discuss on a future show? Don’t just sit there yelling at the screen, dammit, let us know!

• Email: podcast@mobilenations.com
• Twitter: @mobilenations
• Web: www.mobilenations.com

Credits

Our music is pROgraM vs. Us3R by by morgantj. Introduction by Joseph Holder.

Thanks to the Mobile Nations network of store for sponsoring this podcast, and to our fantastic live chat members for keeping us honest and making us smart!

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Kevin, Phil, Derek, Dan, and Rene discuss the future of phone fashion, how to pick a tablet for the holidays, and what happens when all phones are smart. Plus, our holiday gift guide! This is Mobile Nations!

Hosts

Feedback

Got something to say? Agree or disagree with something we said? Have something you want us to discuss on a future show? Don’t just sit there yelling at the screen, dammit, let us know!

• Email: podcast@mobilenations.com
• Twitter: @mobilenations
• Web: www.mobilenations.com

Credits

Our music is pROgraM vs. Us3R by by morgantj. Introduction by Joseph Holder.

Thanks to the Mobile Nations network of store for sponsoring this podcast, and to our fantastic live chat members for keeping us honest and making us smart!

• Our podcast feed: Audio | Video
• Download directly: Audio | Video
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Phil, Adam, Derek, Jay, and Rene talk Amazon Kindle Fire pros and cons, Porsche’s BlackBerry and phones as fashion, webOS indecisions, and Google Music vs. iTunes Match vs. Amazon Cloud vs. Zune Pass and more! This is Mobile Nations!

Agenda

• Amazon Kindle Fire
• Google Music
• Porsche Design P’9981 Smartphone from BlackBerry Video Unboxing!
• HP still not sure what to do with webOS, will take three-to-four weeks to decide
• iTunes Match

Hosts

Feedback

Got something to say? Agree or disagree with something we said? Have something you want us to discuss on a future show? Don’t just sit there yelling at the screen, dammit, let us know!

• Email: podcast@mobilenations.com
• Twitter: @mobilenations
• Web: www.mobilenations.com

Credits

Our music is pROgraM vs. Us3R by by morgantj. Introduction by Joseph Holder.

Thanks to the Mobile Nations network of store for sponsoring this podcast, and to our fantastic live chat members for keeping us honest and making us smart!

• Our podcast feed: Audio | Video
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• Subscribe in iTunes: Audio | Video

Georgia and Ashley Esqueda talk Android Xoom 2, geek dating dos and don’ts, how to rock (and not rock) your BlackBerry, advice for celebrity sexters, iHelicopters and Whale Trail for iPhone and iPad, and the next creepy step towards robot apocalypse. This is Girls Gone Gadgets! [NSFW-L]

Spotlight

• Motorola Xoom II

Girl eyes for the gadget guys

• Smartphone dating dos and don’ts

We’ve got mail!

• “What are some killer tips for how to wear your BlackBerry? Hip holster hot or not? Playbook on a gold chain? Come on girls, we guys need all the help we can get!” – Kevin from Winnipeg

Techs and Apps

• Whale Trail – App Store link
• iHelicopter – Amazon link

Grab bag

• Scarlett Johansson on Those Nude Photos She Sent to Ryan Reynolds: “I Know My Best Angles”
• Makers of infamous BigDog robot unveil human version – PETMAN (w/ video)

Feedback

Got something to say? Agree or disagree with something we said? Have something you want us to discuss on a future show? Don’t just sit there yelling at the screen, dammit, let us know!

• Email: podcast@mobilenations.com
• Twitter: @mobilenations
• Web: www.mobilenations.com

Hosts

• Georgia (@GeorgiaTiPb) of ZENandTECH
• Ashley Esqueda (@ashleyesqueda) of Techfoolery

Credits

Our music is pROgraM vs. Us3R by by morgantj. Introduction by Joseph Holder.

Thanks to the Smartphone Experts network of store for sponsoring this podcast, and to our fantastic live chat members for keeping us honest and making us smart!

• Subscribe via iTunes: Audio | Video
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• Download directly: Audio | Video

Rene, Georgia, and Seth talk using iPhones at work, what apps make the home screen, the Siri ad, iCloud and battery life issues, camera improvements, celebrating Steve Jobs, and Hal 9000. This is iPhone Live!

Meta

• iPad Live 79: 4 geeks and a beard
• Iterate 9: Zhephree
• ZENandTECH 20: Communication
• TiPb Asks: What apps are on your main iPhone 4S home screen?
• Seth: How I use my iPhone as CIO of a web and app development company
• Ally: How I use my iPhone to run a small iOS device repair, development and consulting business

iOS 5, iPhone 4S, and iCloud

• Apple airs first iPhone 4S commercial, focuses on Siri
• How to fix battery life problems with iOS 5 or iPhone 4S
• Poll: How’s iCloud working for you?
• How much has the iPhone camera improved over the years?
• Sprint working to fix slow iPhone 4S data speeds?
• T-Mobile US says they’re waiting on Apple, AWS-capable iPhone

News

• Apple posts Celebrating Steve video from October 19 Event.
• 60 Minutes: Steve Jobs [Videos]
• Aaron Sorkin being courted for Steve Jobs biography, the movie?
• iCloud data center to be powered by the sun?

The competition

• 2009 iPhone 3GS gets iOS 5, 2010 Nexus One doesn’t get Android 4.0
• Can Nokia + Microsoft’s new Lumia give iPhone a run for its money?

Accessories

• Nest learning thermostat helps iPhone users save energy
• IRIS 9000 lets you use Siri from across the room, HAL 9000 style

Hosts

Credits

Our music comes from the following sources:

• I Called You — iPhone Remix by Pete Leidy
via Sneakmove iPhone Ringtone Challenge

Dan from WPCentral is over in London getting his formerly slab-hating hands on the first steel and glass tech to run Windows Phone 7.5 Mango… from Nokia. It’s dubbed Lumia and Dan wants one. Badly.

The device is pretty smashing. The screen really is one of the best we’ve ever seen both in terms of color (“wet” blacks) and just how it pops up at you. The touch sensitivity, always a finicky setting, seems perfect to us on the device as well. The unibody design makes it truly an elegant piece of art and with a top notch camera, really makes this an excellent device.

Check out the video, and WPCentral‘s complete Nokia World and Lumia coverage and then let us know — do you think Nokia and Microsoft together can give iPhone I run for its money?

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Kevin, Phil, Derek, Dan, and Rene talk Windows Phone from Mango to Tango (and Nokia!), BlackBerry DevCon and BBX superphones, Android’s Ice Cream Sandwich and Galaxy Nexus, webOS and the road ahead, and iPhone 4S and Siri. This is Mobile Nations!

Agenda

• Happy 1st Birthday Windows Phone!
• CrackBerry at BlackBerry DevCon 2011 -Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich
• http://www.androidcentral.com/samsung-galaxy-nexus
• HP leaning towards un-spinning-off PSG
• HP using TouchPad to test Windows 8, meeting with webOS buyers? [rumor]
• Apple iPhone 4S and Siri Review
• iOS 5 Review

Feedback

Got something to say? Agree or disagree with something we said? Have something you want us to discuss on a future show? Don’t just sit there yelling at the screen, dammit, let us know!

• Email: podcast@mobilenations.com
• Twitter: @mobilenations
• Web: www.mobilenations.com

Hosts

Credits

Our music is pROgraM vs. Us3R by by morgantj. Introduction by Joseph Holder.

Thanks to the Smartphone Experts network of store for sponsoring this podcast, and to our fantastic live chat members for keeping us honest and making us smart!

• Our podcast feed
• Download Directly
• Subscribe in iTunes
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Phil, Kevin, Derek, and Rene discuss Apple’s iPhone 4S event, the Nexus Prime, BlackBerry BBX and superphones, the Amazon Kindle Fire, and Amazon webOS rumors, and the hierarchy of tablet needs. This is MobileNations!

Agenda

• Let’s Talk iPhone event coverage
• Did Samsung just tease us all with a glimpse of the Nexus Prime?
• Exclusive: Research In Motion set to announce BlackBerry X (BBX) Platform at Developer Conference this month?!!
• HP looking to sell webOS, Amazon looking to buy?
• Amazon Kindle Fire

Feedback

Got something to say? Agree or disagree with something we said? Have something you want us to discuss on a future show? Don’t just sit there yelling at the screen, dammit, let us know!

• Email: podcast@mobilenations.com
• Twitter: @mobilenations
• Web: www.mobilenations.com

Hosts

Credits

Our music is pROgraM vs. Us3R by by morgantj. Introduction by Joseph Holder.

Thanks to the Smartphone Experts network of store for sponsoring this podcast, and to our fantastic live chat members for keeping us honest and making us smart!

The original Windows Phone 7 was arguably as limited as a 2007 iPhone in a 2011 world, but Microsoft aims to change that radically this week with the launch of Windows Phone 7.5 Mango, and Dan Rubino and our sibling site WPCentral has been on it like Ballmer on a dance beat.

Despite fairly universal praise for its original, elegant Metro UI and finally getting Xbox integration underway, Windows Phone hasn’t taken off the way iOS or Android have in the market. Will Mango make a difference? Closing the functionality gap is one thing, closing the mind share gap is something else entirely. However, Microsoft did manage the previously inconceivable — a worldwide, cross-carrier, cross-device update to the new firmware, so who knows?

Check out WPCentral‘s complete coverage via the link below and then come back here and tell us if Apple needs to raise the game next week when they show off the final version of iOS 5 and introduce the next generation iPhone.

Source: WPCentral

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Mobile Nations 5: A wedding and a funeral Phil, Kevin, Derek, Dan, Georgia, and Rene talk HP dumping webOS hardware, Google picking up Motorola Mobility, RIM’s new BlackBerrys reviewed, and what it means for Microsoft and Apple. This is MobileNations!

Agenda

• BREAKING: HP shutting down webOS device operations, will “continue to explore options”
• Could there be a suitor for webOS?
• Did iPad kill HP’s hardware business?
• Google’s acquisition of Motorola Mobility: Complete coverage
• Google’s $12.5 billion dollar Motorola insurance policy
• MSFT and Nokia stocks get a boost from Google’s deal
• BlackBerry Bold 9900 Review
• BlackBerry Torch 9860 Review
• BlackBerry Torch 9810 Review

Feedback

Got something to say? Agree or disagree with something we said? Have something you want us to discuss on a future show? Don’t just sit there yelling at the screen, dammit, let us know!

• Email: podcast@mobilenations.com
• Twitter: @mobilenations
• Web: www.mobilenations.com

Hosts

Credits

Our music is pROgraM vs. Us3R by by morgantj. Introduction by Joseph Holder.

Thanks to the Smartphone Experts network of store for sponsoring this podcast, and to our fantastic live chat members for keeping us honest and making us smart!

• Our podcast feed
• Download Directly
• Subscribe in iTunes
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Phil, Kevin, Tim, Dan, and Rene talk Google vs. Microsoft patent slap-fight, new BlackBerrys (new BlackBerrys!!), waiting on Pre 3 and the TouchPad 3.0.2 update, and Apple eating all the mobile profits. This is Mobile Nations!

Agenda

• Google to Microsoft: ‘We didn’t fall for it’ [updated with Microsoft's retort]
• Google responds to Microsoft and vice-versa
• Research In Motion Introduces New BlackBerry 7 Smartphones
• Hands on with webOS 3.0.2 [video]
• Apple now owns 66% of mobile profits

Feedback

Got something to say? Agree or disagree with something we said? Have something you want us to discuss on a future show? Don’t just sit there yelling at the screen, dammit, let us know!

• Email: podcast@mobilenations.com
• Twitter: @mobilenations
• Web: www.mobilenations.com

Hosts

Credits

Our music is pROgraM vs. Us3R by by morgantj. Introduction by Joseph Holder.

Thanks to the Smartphone Experts network of store for sponsoring this podcast, and to our fantastic live chat members for keeping us honest and making us smart!

• Our podcast feed
• Download Directly
• Subscribe in iTunes
• Subscribe in Zune

Phil, Kevin, Derek, Dan, and Rene talk Netflix on Android, media on Mobile, the RIM-pire striking back, news execs at webOS, Nokia Windows Phones, 20 million iPhones, and hitting the budget buyer sweet spot. Bringing together the heads of state of Android, BlackBerry, iOS, webOS, and Windows Mobile for full on round-table action. This is Mobile Nations!

Agenda

• Netflix’s Android rollout an example of a good thing done badly
• CrackBerry Kevin goes to Waterloo
• HP’s move puts Rubinstein in Rahul Sood’s old shoes, an operations guy in charge of webOS
• New video of Nokia Sea Ray prototype running WP7
• Apple Q3 2011 results: 20.34 million iPhones, 9.25 million iPads, 7.54 million iPods, $7.31 billion in profit
• Mobile Technology and Automobiles… it’s an exciting future, and QNX is at the heart of it
• Apple’s layered user experience approach

Feedback

Got something to say? Agree or disagree with something we said? Have something you want us to discuss on a future show? Don’t just sit there yelling at the screen, dammit, let us know!

• Email: podcast@mobilenations.com
• Twitter: @mobilenations
• Web: www.mobilenations.com

Hosts

Credits

Our music is pROgraM vs. Us3R by by morgantj. Introduction by Joseph Holder.

Thanks to the Smartphone Experts network of store for sponsoring this podcast, and to our fantastic live chat members for keeping us honest and making us smart!

• Our podcast feed
• Download Directly
• Subscribe in iTunes
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Kevin, Phil, and Rene discuss whether or not Google should buy RIM, how BlackBerry can fight back, is Google MIA in the patent wars, Google+ is here, the TouchPad has landed, and will there be a second new iPad this year? Bringing together the heads of state of Android, BlackBerry, iOS, webOS, and Windows Mobile for full on round-table action. This is Mobile Nations!

Show notes after the break!

Agenda

• 10 Reasons why Google will buy Research In Motion
• The Way I See It CrackBerry Nation, We’ve Only Just Begun…
• Editorial: How long can Google and Android afford to remain silent on patents?
• http://www.androidcentral.com/android-app-review-google
• HP TouchPad
• Could 5 new iOS devices make up Apple’s fall family?

Feedback

Got something to say? Agree or disagree with something we said? Have something you want us to discuss on a future show? Don’t just sit there yelling at the screen, dammit, let us know!

• Email: podcast@mobilenations.com
• Twitter: @mobilenations
• Web: www.mobilenations.com

Hosts

Credits

Our music is pROgraM vs. Us3R by by morgantj. Introduction by Joseph Holder.

Thanks to the Smartphone Experts network of store for sponsoring this podcast, and to our fantastic live chat members for keeping us honest and making us smart!

• Our podcast feed
• Download Directly
• Subscribe in iTunes

Mobile Nations is our brand new podcast, bringing together the heads of state from Android, BlackBerry, iOS, webOS, and Windows Phone for full on round-table action. This week Phil, Kevin, Dan and Rene discuss Windows Phone 7.5 Mango, the new Verizon data caps, and the state of the BlackBerry. This is Mobile Nations!

Topics

• WPCentral Review: Windows Phone “Mango” (preview release)
• Verizon’s new data plans broken down in complete detail
• RIM results and what’s next for BlackBerry?

Feedback

Got something to say? Agree or disagree with something we said? Have something you want us to discuss on a future show? Don’t just sit there yelling at the screen, dammit, let us know!

• Email: podcast@mobilenations.com
• Twitter: @mobilenations
• Web: www.mobilenations.com

Hosts

Credits

Our music is pROgraM vs. Us3R by by morgantj.

Thanks to the Smartphone Experts network of store for sponsoring this podcast, and to our fantastic live chat members for keeping us honest and making us smart!

Apple will be announcing iOS 5 on Monday and if the rumors are to be believed it will do pretty much everything from notifications to make you a tasty vanilla latte (okay, not really.) But it does beg the question — if you’re an Android or BlackBerry user, or a Windows Phone, webOS, or fan of any other platform, what would Apple have to do to win you over to iPhone and iPad?

Rene’s posted his want list. What’s yours? What would you need to see from Steve Jobs and Apple to make you switch (or switch back?)

While Apple — and hence TiPb — has no presence at Mobile World Congress, the might Smartphone Experts Network is there in full force to bring back all the Android, HP/Palm, and Windows Phone(/Nokia!) news that’s fit to post. Here’s where it’s all going down:

• Android Central Mobile World Congress coverage
• Windows Phone Mobile World Congress coverage

And who knows, they may even be able to snag some stories for PreCentral.net, CrackBerry.com, and TiPb.com as well. Meanwhile you’ll likely be able to catch most of the behind-the-scenes shenanigans Twitter, which typically includes @philnickinson losing every bit of luggage he owns — twice — while @backlon (Dieter) comes down with some heretofore undiscovered European flu and @malatesta77 (Dan) attends the Ballmernote in full motorcylce helmet (to protect against sweat and flying developers, no doubt).

If there’s anything at MWC 2011 you want us (meaning them!) to keep an eye out for, let us know!

Following the epically brutal “our platform is burning” memo, Nokia announced today it’s going to start using Windows phone in an effort to better compete with — and disrupt if they can — incredibly successful upstarts like Apple’s iPhone, iOS, and iTunes App Store ecosystem. Nokia makes great hardware and Windows Phone is about as elegant a piece of software as Microsoft has ever written. That’s a powerful combination — if they can execute (and that’s a big if).

Video after the break and for complete coverage see our sibling sites:

• WPCentral on Microsoft/Nokia alliance
• Nokia Experts on Nokia/Microsoft alliance

Then come back and let us know what you think, is the new Nokia Windows Phone going to be greater competition than the sum of its parts?

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The Cell Phone Junkies, Joey Koppes and Mickey Papillon host a special edition round table podcast rounding up all the news from CES 2011 with yours truly for TiPb.com, out EiC Dieter Bohn serving duty for PreCentral.net and WPCentral, Kevin Michaluk of CrackBerry.com, Phil Nickinson of Android Central. We talk all things Android, BlackBerry PlayBook, iPhone and iPad, webOS, and Windows Phone, along with Sprint, AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile. Listen in!

We’re on the ground for CES 2011, looking for iPhone and iPad apps, games, accessories, and general awesomeness. Tonight is CES unveiled, and we’re going to keep running from there. So if you want to see all the new stuff that’s coming your way in 2011.

The Smartphone Expert Network is here in full force, so make sure you keep up with Android Central, CrackBerry.com, PreCentral.net, and WPCentral for the latest in Android, BlackBerry, weOS, and Windows Phone news. (And if you want the gory, behind-the-scenes details, give a Twitter follow to @reneritchie @philnickinson @crackberrykevin @backlon — if you dare!)

Again, if you’re a developer or manufacturer and you want to amaze us, let us know: news@tipb.com!

[Note: Pic above is CES 2010, we'll make new memories soon enough!]

As part of Apple’s iPhone 4 press conference today, CEO Steve Jobs took the opportunity to bring out a BlackBerry Bold 9700, HTC Droid Eric, and Samsung Omnia 2 and highlight each of those devices dropping from 4 to 1 or 0 bars as well.

Jobs also pointed out that the formulae used to calculate and display bars isn’t standardized and everyone works out for themselves how they’re going to do it. (As of iOS 4.0.1 Apple is now using AT&T’s recommended formulae).

Lastly, he pointed out that Apple’s highly visible black bar at the bottom left of the antenna array made the problem spot easier to find on iPhone 4.

[Slashgear, Android Central's response]

iPhone 4 with its 960×640 retina display, easy-peasy FaceTime video calling, high quality 5 megapixel, back-illuminated camera that shoots 720p 30fps video, and the silky smoothness of iOS 4 convincing you to switch from Microsoft’s Windows Phone (Windows Mobile) to Apple’s newest handset? Worried about moving over your personal data like contacts, finding apps, getting used to the differences? Wondering where to get help?

Deep breath. We’re here to help. Just hit the jump link for everything you need to know (more properly, everything the TiPb iPhone Forums have taught us) about switching from Windows Phone to iPhone 4 and iOS 4.

(And yes, we’ve done Android, webOSBlackBerry switcher guides as well).

Windows Phone to iPhone – the paradigm shift

Sincerely, we don’t think many people switched from iPhone to Windows Phone (and won’t until Windows Phone 7 ships), though some of you may have had Windows for work, and many of you, old-school power warriors all, may have been Windows Phone users for years, eschewing the iPhone until its functionality caught up with its form. It’s all good. We’re back to the future now — iPhone 4 and iOS 4. This is about getting you up to speed and ready to go.

Moving over contacts, calendars, and email

If you’re heavily invested in the Microsoft ecosystem, you probably use Exchange — especially for business. Good news, iOS 4 can handle multiple ActiveSync accounts, including Exchange proper and Google Sync’s implementation. Just tap the Settings icon on the Home Screen, tap Mail, Contacts, and Calendars, choose Exchange, and enter your credentials. If you’re more casual and personal about your Microsoft Mail and Hotmail/Live Mail is how you roll, ActiveSync support is coming for that as well (and some users seem to have it working already).

If ActiveSync isn’t to your fancy, you can tap Other and set up pretty much any POP3 or IMAP account you have in your collection, and MobileMe, Yahoo!, AOL, Hotmail, and anything else you can think of.

You can also load up any webmail account you like in the Safari web browser.

And you can access all of it in the new iOS 4 unified inbox and threaded email client. It’s not the “best of breed” Exchange experience like Windows Mobile, and it’s not WinMo Outlook, but it gets the job done.

What about customization, file system access?

Um… with iOS 4 you can change your wallpaper, both lock screen and home screen? Seriously though, the iPhone isn’t about tinkering and customizing (except for Jailbreak, see below). It’s not about working hard to make the phone the way you like it. It’s about not having to work hard and the phone just working. Apple controls the experience, which will drive you control freaks crazy, but there’s no such thing as a perfect phone so every advantage is matched by an equal and opposite disadvantage (and each of those varies by user).

Same deal with diving into the bowels of the file system. There isn’t one — at least not a user-facing one. You’re supposed to spend your time using the phone and apps, not fiddling with directories and hierarchies.

With iOS 4 Apple is struggling towards file utility — you can open documents from email, online storage, or synced via iTunes, but it’s not where it needs to be yet.

Again, think 80/20 rule. For most people not seeing how the sausage made is a huge plus. For former Windows Mobile tweaking junkies, it will be frustrating at first.

Hopefully the modern UI, great web browser, and amazing apps will distract you long enough to get past the DTs.

Finding other apps (and games)

Windows Mobile had apps since before there was an iPhone. Fair point. But what Apple lacked in early deployment they’ve more than made up for with modern adoption. Make fun of fart apps all you want, but there’s like a hundred of them. There’s like a hundred of every app type and that means there’s a huge chance that there’s 5 or so amazing apps of just the type you want.

The power of the ecosystem, whether it’s apps or accessories, is something you’re just going to have to experience.

And there’s even Bing (iTunes link) and Windows Live Messenger (iTunes link) to help make you feel at home. (Or at least in a familiar home that’s been recently redecorated with a really slick user experience…)

When it comes to apps of all kinds, TiPb reviews several a week and we’ve got a whole iPhone Apps and Games Forum ready to help you out as well.

Root meet Jailbreak

Windows Mobile, especially HTC devices, seem so easy to root and cook ROMs for that, hey, even Phil and Malatesta can do it. (I couldn’t).

If you want to get into the root jail of your iPhone, you need to break it — hence, Jailbreak. That’s also the only way to side load apps outside the iTunes app store — via the Jailbreak app store, Cydia (or Rock). Now, if you don’t understand what any of this means, just skip along to the next section, we’ll be there waiting. If you’re a diehard themer and patcher, you’ll want to keep your eyes peeled to our Jailbreak coverage, and more importantly — our Jailbreak Help Forum, and Jailbreak Apps, Games, and Themes Forum.

No. More. Keyboard. Or. Stylus.

No front facing QWERTY like the Treo Pro. No side slider like the Touch Pro. No “Pro” appended physical hardware keyboards of any kind. Apple hates buttons and keyboards are nothing if not homes for dozens of buttons.

We kid. Apple prefers the flexibility of a virtual keyboard, and they do flexible keyboards better than anyone in the business. Seriously. Multitouch capacitive interface of any kind on glass can be a transformative experience.

Apple likes their keys virtual so they go away when you don’t need them (without creaking, oreo’ing, popping batteries, or coming to the rescue when virtual keyboards just won’t do). On the plus side, if you’re multilingual or international, the iPhone keyboard can easily be switched to any alphabet, script, stroke, or pictographic symbol you want to use. It can also become optimized for numbers, games, or pretty much anything you (technically, a developer) can think of.

Best of all, if you really miss your physical keyboard, with iOS 4, you can tether up a Bluetooth one and knock email — and yourself — out.

As for the stylus and resistive screen, well you can get a stylus if you really want to (cold weather users especially), but resistive screens have gone the way of the dodo. (Nature selected them for extinction, not Apple). And yes, you can input Chinese just fine with a stubby finger on iOS, thank you. (There’s a built in input method for that).

Okay, about iTunes

iTunes doesn’t run as well on Windows as it does on Mac and with an iPhone you’re stuck with iTunes for OS updates, and for local sync if that’s the way you want to go.

Performance is a pain point for many, no doubt. Functionally however, it keeps getting better. It does so much now, we’re actually a little surprised it’s still called iTunes and not iSync or iStuff.

Buh-bye platform, hello product

Which brings us to the nut of it — Microsoft is all about platforms, Apple all up in products. It’s a huge difference. Most users appreciate the flexibility of platforms but just want their products to ship on time and work. You can, ideally, do anything with a platform and that’s a blessing and a curse. With a product, again ideally, it does what it does well.

For every one of the frustrations you’ll face in leaving Windows Phone and coming to iPhone you’ll experience one or more moments of — don’t laugh — childlike wonder. iOS is a modern mobile operating system with the best user experience in the business. Apple worked on it for years while every other player in the game slept on the sidelines and it shows.

It won’t do everything your old Windows Phone did, but what it does it will do incredibly well and while Microsoft is just now readying version 1.0 of their new Windows Phone 7 platform, Apple is only 8 or so months away from releasing their iOS 5 product in beta.

More Windows Phone to iPhone help and information

If you haven’t already, check out our complete iOS 4 feature walkthrough. There’s an incredible amount of stuff in iOS 4 and you can save yourself some serious time cribbing off of us.

If you need help, or have a story to share, check out TiPb’s iPhone forum.

And if we forgot anything or just plain got something wrong, let us know and we’ll add it or fix it.

I watched WMExperts‘ coverage of Microsoft’s big Windows Phone 7 Series keynote at MIX10 yesterday and while I once again wasn’t wowed by the hyperactive quadrilateral tiles of the home screen, the workflow/funflow of moving through the panoramic hubs continued to impress. While Microsoft deserves a lot of credit for creating one of the few new, post-iPhone user experiences/interaction models, however, it’s interesting to note that they’re pretty much copying entirely Apple’s closed iPhone App Store model.

That’s right, free developer tools (like iPhone), no app distribution outside the market (like iPhone), except for beta and enterprise (like iPhone), which means no side-loading (like iPhone), and little-to-no multitasking (like iPhone… at least until iPhone 4.0), and push-notifications to handle alerts (like iPhone). (They do, however, claim they will be far more transparent than Apple has thus far been with the App Store approval process).

On one hand that’s a huge compliment to Apple’s highly successful, if sometimes controversial App Store model. On the other hand, users of previous Microsoft handsets up to and including the most recent Windows Mobile 6.5.x have seen open app installation and ubiquitous multitasking as bragging rights over the iPhone going on 3 years now. The mainstream consumer Microsoft is obviously targeting with WP7S will no doubt find it simple and clear. The traditional base of tinker-happy, ROM-cooking, power users? Likely not.

What think you, is Apple’s App Store model something Microsoft should have emulated?

I had the chance to talk to Microsoft’s Loke Uei about Windows Phone 7 Series at GDC last week and he was cagey and super-secretive about the version running on his pre-production unit. He did, however, promise more would be revealed at MIX 10 this week in Las Vegas. Well, our very own editor-in-chief, Dieter Bohn, is at the show right now to seek it out. He’ll be covering the keynote live at 9am PT, 12pm ET over at WMExperts.com.

What might be interesting to TiPb readers is the approach Microsoft is taking — it looks to be one of the first truly different post-iPhone smartphone concepts that’s not really app-centric but rather aggregation centric. They haven’t sold me on the UI yet, but the flow between “experiences” looks stellar, as does the logical way in which information is grouped and made available. It’s going after consumers, which is the heart of the iPhone market.

Will Apple have to up their game for iPhone 4.0 in face of what the competition is (finally!) bringing to market in 2010?

Fortune quotes Oppenheimer’s Yair Reiner, who thinks Apple’s patent infringement suit against Google Android and Microsoft Windows Phone manufacturer HTC was a warning shot meant to disrupt competitors’ roadmaps:

“Starting in January, Apple launched a series of C-Level discussions with tier-1 handset makers to underscore its growing displeasure at seeing its iPhone-related IP [intellectual property] infringed. The lawsuit filed against HTC thus appears to be Apple’s way of putting a public, lawyered-up exclamation point on a series of blunt conversations that have been occurring behind closed doors.

“Our checks also suggest that these warning shots are meaningfully disrupting the development roadmaps for would-be iPhone killers. Rival software and hardware teams are going back to the drawing board to look for work-arounds. Lawyers are redoubling efforts to gauge potential defensive and offensive responses. And strategy teams are working to chart OS strategies that are better hedged.”

What changed?

“Top-tier handset makers continued to avoid implementing multi-touch, but Apple could safely assume that they were hanging back to gauge Apple’s response to Motorola and HTC. If there wasn’t one, the OEMs would likely read the silence as a green light, especially after Google also moved to enable multi-touch on its Nexus One phone.

It was likely in order to counter that perception that Apple began reaching out to handset OEMs in January and explaining in no uncertain terms that it was now ready to do battle–and not just on multi-touch. It was ready to press its case along a number of axes that had made the iPhone experience unique, from the interpretation of touch gestures, to object-oriented OS design, to the nuts and bolts of how hardware elements were built and configured.”

He believes it’s working, and might end up driving people away from Android and… towards Windows Phone.

Nice.

By all accounts, Microsoft is set to unveil it’s next-generation mobile operating system, Windows Phone 7 Series (say that 10 times fast!) at Mobile World Congress (MWC) Barcelona today, and WMExperts will be live-blogging the whole thing.

Join Dieter and Phil starting 9am ET, 6am PT, 2pm GT, 3pm CT for all the Steve Ballmer keynote action!

Rumors about Windows Mobile 7, or Seven as our sibling site WMExperts is calling it, are near-iTablet level over on that side of the smartphone space. If you read my Windows Phone (based on 6.5) review, you know I had only questions and no answers for Microsoft when it came to what they could do to become competitive in the increasingly important consumer space.

Well, Mal over at WMExperts has put together a ton of whispers, mixed it with keen insights, and unleashed a Windows Mobile 7: What we expect and what we are hearing article of epic proportions. Here are some highlights, but you need to go read the whole thing:

• Two versions, stripped-down Business and pimped-out Media.
• Business Edition will be more like current WM, skin-able by HTC Sense UI and the like, and is more complete right now.
• Media Edition (yes, ME is back, baby!) will be the closest thing possible to a ZunePhone without being a ZunePhone, with maximum Microsoft Experience, but it’s not yet as far along.
• Office 2010 super-integration
• Silverlight (Microsoft’s inversion of Flash), Mediaroom (Microsoft’s TV center), Xbox Live (possibly gaming!), Facebook and Twitter, and Zune Music integration.
• New “Orion” platform to do GPS faster and better.
• 720p (!!) 1280-720 resolution screen on LG “Apollo” handset.
• Dieter and Phil should get the first glimpses for us at Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona next month.

Again, go read the full article and then hurry back an let us know if you think this is finally Microsoft getting Xbox 360 and ZuneHD serious with Windows Mobile/Windows Phone, and if it’s enough to make them competitive — or more than competitive — with the iPhone in 2010.

Windows Phone is only slightly better off in this year’s Smartphone Round Robin than Palm was last year — like we substituted in the WinMo Treo Pro for the aging PalmOS in 2008, we’re using two heavily HTC-skinned devices as WMExperts entries in 2009 — the HTC Touch Pro2 and massive HTC HD2.

And I’m melancholy about that, because I kind of liked the unabashedly Windows Mobile tweaky, geeky Treo Pro last year, and was hoping to see a pure Microsoft Windows Mobile 7 device this year. Scrappy, underfunded Palm was able to deliver webOS after all, Google went Android 2.0, and Apple went iPhone 3.0. Instead we got Windows Mobile 6.5, which was decidedly bashed, and the aforementioned HTC Sense UI/TouchFlo shellacked over it — a UI so opaque I think users might have trouble distinguishing HTC’s Windows Phone devices from their Android ones going forward.

But those are the WinPhos we were dealt, and they’re certainly tremendous in their own rights. To help me make sense of them (no pun intended), Phil Nickinson went over the finer points for me and the WMExperts Forum members really helped me out.

(And just a reminder, every day you post on that WMExperts thread, or any of the official Round Robin threads, is another day you’re entered to win one of six (6!) new smartphones!)

Okay, enough preamble, it’s time for the review… after the break!

Windows Treatment

Previously, Phil took me on a tour of the HTC Touch Pro2 and HD2:

[YouTube Video link]

And here are the rest of the contextual links:

• WMExpert’s Phil Nickinson, Keith Newman, and Rene on the iPhone Live! podcast.
• WMExperts HTC Touch Pro 2 — All the different versions head to head (yes, they vary by carrier!)
• WMExperts HTC Touch Pro 2 (aka Tilt 2) review (specific version we looked at)
• WMExperts HTC HD2 Review
• 2008 TiPb Smartphone Round Robin Touch Pro 1 (Fuze) video and Treo Pro video
• 2008 TiPb Smartphone Round Robin Touch Pro 1 (Fuze) review and Treo Pro review

Hardware Design

HTC makes great hardware, no ifs, ands, or buts. These are two distinct form-facters, the landscape slider (with tilt!) of the Touch Pro 2, and the massive black slab of the HD2, but they both feel solid, they both feel premium.

HTC Touch Pro2

The Touch Pro2 is one of the better sliders I’ve tried, far less rickety in the hinges than last years devices, and the keyboard, impossibly, is even better. If you’re really one of those people who demand a physical keyboard on your mobile, if you’re really serious about the QWERTY, then this device is for you. It may not be a tiny netbook like the Nokia N900, but it’s got almost a netbook-caliber keyboard. Fear it. The screen is also big and bright, but it’s still resistive and requires you not just to touch and flick but press and drag to trigger interaction. And even though resistive screens are reaching new heights, they’re still nowhere near as visceral, as tactile, as I’m-a-part-of-this-device as capacitive screens. In all fairness, however, none of us ever reached for the stylus, if I recall right, but that’s only because most of us would rather grit our teeth and press and drag.

HTC HD2

On the other hand (or both hands, it’s that huge) the HD2 is the first Windows Phone to have a capacitive screen — supposedly coded by HTC itself. And what a screen it is! I think just the screen is as big as the iPhone. While I won’t use the analogy CrackBerry Kevin did, it really does verge on the ridiculous. The entire device, in fact, is so utterly pimped out I’m certain HTC made it just to show off what their hardware engineers are capable of. It’s the $10K gaming rig of smartphones. It’s gadget pr0n. And because it’s capacitive, it’s size doesn’t stop it from being usable. If your thumbs can reach across its girth, you’re good to go.

Software Experience

I usually break software experience down by device, but in this case while there’s minor version differences in the HTC Sense UI/TouchFlo lacquered over both these devices, by far the biggest difference between the HTC Touch Pro2 and HD2 is to the latter’s capacitive screen (which, yes, I’ll keep harping on because I’m an iPhone guy, okay?). Especially for someone coming from the iPhone, it makes all the difference in the world.

HTC Sense UI/TouchFlo

If Sense UI/TouchFlo kind of warbles on the Touch Pro2, having the right notes but missing the rhythm at times, it sings on the HD2. And its eye-candy, frankly, makes the iPhone look dated. It’s got all the bells and whistles and widgets you want, and every time I write about it, I’m compelled to mention that the HTC weather screen is an instant crowd pleaser, and on the HD2 the windshield wiper is almost big enough to really make you think you’re in your car. The UI still isn’t as intuitive and consistent as I’d like — when to move in what direction and so forth — but it’s so far beyond last year’s frustrating TouchFlo experience on the Fuze that I’m hopefully they’ll nail it completely in the near future.

Windows Mobile 6.5 Titanium

One of the huge advantages of WIndows Phone is how customizable they are, especially the HTC devices for which ROMs are readily available. Lots of “cooks” and their “kitchens” whip up custom versions of the entire software stack, giving previews of upcoming, unreleased versions, stripping out carrier bloatware, maximizing speed and/or stability, and so on. And flashing ROMs is fast. I mention this because Phil was able to change the ROM on his Touch Pro 2 in the time between two video shoots. Super fast.

Whether it was a result of this, or simply Phil turning off SenseUI/TouchFlo on the Touch Pro2, I’m not certain (I lost track!) but he also showed me the default Microsoft experience on the phone, Titanium. If you imagine the ZuneHD interface layered on top of a new, “finger friendlier” (please, someone, anyone, kill that term — it’s embarrassing to the implementer in this day and age!) home screen and… pretty much the same Windows 98-esque UI beneath the surface.

Windows Mobile… Everything Else

And SenseUI and Titanium are just two of the many, many, (did I say many?) UI options available to Windows Phone aficionados. Since the iPhone only has one, and even if you Jailbreak you can only skin that one, it’s a huge difference and shows how truly tweak-able Windows Phone really is.

George Ponder rounded a lot of them up over at WMExperts, including SPB Mobile Shell, Winterface, Xperia Panels, Touchwiz, etc. Check it out.

Wherein We Explore the State of the WIndows Phone

While we’re looking at individual phones this year, we’re also looking at the platforms in general, where they are, and more importantly where they’re going. And that’s actually a good thing for Microsoft because where they are is nowhere good. I know a lot of people love their Windows Phones (if they know they have a Windows Phone, but we’ll get to that in a moment). I’m willing to bet these people love them in spite of Microsoft, not because of it, for what they and their community can do with Windows Phone and not what Microsoft has so far done for it. Could that change?

Ghosts of WinPhos Past

One of the questions I had about Windows Phone was — if they were going to try to brand the overall platform, why call it Windows Phone? I mean, Apple didn’t call their device the MacPhone, did they? Sure, it’s Microsoft’s attempt to bring some uniformity to their mobile device strategy, and okay Windows Vista was a consumer disaster but Windows 7 is proving popular and lots of people use Office, right?

But if a consumer walks into AT&T and sees all the phones on the wall, is a Windows Phone going to have any more luck against an iPhone or BlackBerry than an HTC phone?

Microsoft’s most consumer friendly brand is the Xbox. Yet they didn’t name their MP3 device the Xplayer to leverage that name (nor did they bother to integrate the services, but that’s another rant), they called it the Zune. And while the latest ZuneHD is outstanding, it still hasn’t been anything approaching successful. Now people, including WMExperts, have asked Microsoft to make a ZuneHD a phone (just stick a microphone on it, Nickinson oft bellowed), but is slapping a phone on a failed brand really the answer? Instead of Xbox, Zune, and Windows Phone in the commercial space, why isn’t it Xbox, Xplayer, and Xphone? If a consumer sees the Xbox ecosystem next to an iPhone, maybe then it becomes a fight for their mindshare.

But we know why this hasn’t happened. Microsoft isn’t one company, it’s multiple companies, 6 or so, and they don’t get along together. In fact, Microsoft is willing to sacrifice one to benefit another. Instead of keeping Exchange tied to Windows Mobile to combat BlackBerry’s proprietary push service, they’ll license it to everyone, including BlackBerry, iPhone, and Google. Microsoft has Exchange, and Bing, and yes, Zune not so that they can expand their platforms but so that they can offer those services to competing platforms. Maybe you’ll get Zune services for webOS one day. Who knows. On Windows, that’s fine because it has a 90% share. On Windows Phone?

Compare that to Apple. Seen iPod App for Android lately? It looks to this iPhone outsider as if Microsoft has intentionally fractured their offerings and licensed or given them out — or set them up to license or give out — at the expense of Windows Mobile. That’s great for those services, arguably great for the overall internet (though open source, non-proprietary versions would be better), but — again — it’s not great for Windows Mobile.

That’s problem one. Problem two is the same things I mentioned about Google and Android — I don’t think Steve Ballmer cares about Windows Mobile any more than he thinks Microsoft needs the mobile screen in their catalog. He’s smart enough to know the future is mobile and he wants Microsoft to own that future, but he doesn’t care about the end products to the degree that Steve Jobs cares about iPhone or the RIM co-CEO’s love their Berrys, or Jon Rubinstein poured himself into Palm. Even Android has Andy Rubin at the helm, a singular visionary whose vision is hampered by the needs of a larger corporate mandate, but remains singular none the less.

Who has Windows Mobile got in their corner?

Ghosts of WIndows Mobile Future

I just said I don’t think Windows Mobile really has Steve Ballmer in its corner. I don’t think it has its own division honcho, Robbie Bach in its corner either (which may be a good thing). I’d hope it has J Allard, who WMExperts called their savior and is responsible for the Xbox 360 and ZuneHD, given the seriousness of connected mobile. However, given his grand role, he may well be dreaming up the UI for the Xbox 720 or Zune1080p, and not be dedicated enough to give Windows Mobile the attention it needs. Maybe it’s Roz Ho, formerly of Microsoft’s Mac Office Business Unit (sigh) and currently leading up the horribly code-named Project Pink, reportedly based on Microsoft’s acquisition of Sidekick-maker Danger. But anyway, that it’s not widely known, that we don’t see a singular visionary on stage at CES, Mobile World Congress (MWC) or special Microsoft events holding up Windows Phone version whatever, putting his or her name and reputation on it, just like Andy Rubin did for Android and the Nexus One… makes me nervous.

Windows Mobile 7 is delayed. Yes, it’s not fair to call an unannounced product delayed, but if Microsoft didn’t intend to get a new OS out earlier than now, they have bigger issues than a delay. So, yeah, delayed. I don’t know if Microsoft got the same kick in the restarts Palm did after seeing the iPhone, but 3 years have passed since Macworld 2007 and Microsoft still has nothing revolutionary on the market — not for consumers.

If they have restarted, if they’ve restarted more than once or several times already, it’s taken so long now that they can’t just equal or even better iPhone or Android or webOS in terms of user experience. They can’t rely on a Windows Vista-esque bad taste that makes for a Windows 7 equally and opposing-ly sweet reception. Windows doesn’t have the competition Windows Mobile has. No, for Windows Mobile 7, Microsoft has to knock it out of the park so far it lands in the basketball stadium across town and swooshes clear through the basket, no net.

What that revolution is, I have no idea. It’s easy to imagine the Zune UI but that lacks telephony features and other elements a phone would require (think how much more the iPhone is than just the iPod app). And the ZuneHD still suffers from being merely competitive, not revolutionary. Microsoft could go for natural interfaces, the kind Bill Gates has been advocating for years, but Google’s Nexus One already does voice well enough that Microsoft is still only left with better. Current rumors postulate an Xbox “Project Natal”-style gesture interface where you can wave your hands and cameras pick up your movement along with facial detection and voice. Maybe that’s Star Trek enough, but it occurs to me when Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone and its capacitive display and said, at last, people could “touch their music”, he was exactly right — people like the intimacy and sense of connection provided by touch. Not to go all CrackBerry Kevin on this review, but is waving your hands 5 feet away from your significant other and reading their body language with no contact the best experience you can imagine for human interaction? Likely not.

I have no answers, only questions, but Microsoft will need answers to slingshot Windows Mobile 7 back into the public mind, to become relevant again.

If that sounds harsh, I don’t apologize. 4 years ago I was all in on Microsoft. I had a Windows XP machine, Xbox, and Windows Mobile device, and… none of them worked together in any significant way. Individually I was annoyed enough to change all of them for other platforms. Collectively I was disheartened enough to leave Microsoft entirely and go almost all in with Apple (and Sony, since Apple doesn’t make game consoles or TVs yet). Microsoft could have been the integrated offering a decade ago. They had all the pieces in place and whether they were scared of anti-trust (and I don’t buy that excuse because you can integrate without anti-competitive behavior) or just couldn’t get themselves organized as a company enough to do it, Windows Mobile as much as anything suffers for that today.

Wherein this Review, Lost Track, Attempts to Re-Find it

Thanks in large part to the versatility and partner-centric model Microsoft decided to imbue into Windows Mobile, and the near miraculous deep-skinning ability of HTC, the Touch Pro2 and especially the HD2 are fully competitive devices in this year’s Round Robin. Spec for spec, the HD2 is unrivaled (perhaps only because the Android Nexus One, also by HTC, wasn’t ready in time to enter). I could never have used the Fuze for more than a week last year. If there was no iPhone, I could use the HD2 for a good long while.

If you were to leave the iPhone for the Touch Pro2 you’d get a world-class horizontal keyboard, deeper and better Exchange integration, and a phone that’s as individually tweak-able as your imagination and latest ROM cook-ups allow. You can also find versions across all the major carriers, multitask your heart out, and install Windows Phone apps from anyone and in any which way you please.

If you were to leave the iPhone for the HD2 you’d get… a bigger iPhone-like phone. That’s not a knock, far from it. As you no doubt suspect I love the iPhone. But unlike the different form factor of the Touch Pro2, the HD2 is the same shape, just much larger, with a far more animated if not quite as consistent a UI, and the same integration and ecosystem issues as any other Windows Phone. It’s also only coming to the US on T-Mobile at the moment, which means no 3G for any other North American network.

You’d lose out on the iPhone’s iconic integration and ecosystem, however, which still includes the best user experience and apps in the mobile space. Power users won’t care — they can figure out, and around, almost anything. For new smartphone owners, however, it’s hard to put a price on “just works”.

At the end of the day, however, if Apple running the iPhone like a benevolent dictatorship drives you batty and you don’t trust your privacy to Google and their Androids, if webOS is too abstracted and BlackBerry is too much messenger and not enough computing platform, if you want the latest and greatest hardware and the ability to do pretty much anything you’re smart enough to do with it, Windows Mobile remains the only choice (outside of Nokia, which just isn’t that popular here at home).

More than anyone else in this year’s Round Robin, Microsoft has to bring it next year. It won’t be enough to impress us, they’ll have to astonish us. Here’s hoping they can and do.

Week 4 of the 2009 Smartphone Round Robin brings me face-to-big-glass-face with our most ancient nemesis — Microsoft’s Windows Mobile Phone, this year spawning the killer keyboard of the HTC Touch Pro 2, and the monstrous hardware of the HTC HD2. Yes, that’s 2 times HTC version 2 devices and to help me out, I’ve got the dark lord of WMExperts himself, the one and only WMExperts Phil Nickinson to show me the ropes — and quite honestly to help me lift that ginormous HD2 onto the table!

Remember, every day you post on my WMExperts Forums thread, you’re entered for a chance to win the Windows Phone of your choice. (And there’s a total of 6 smartphones up for grabs — one per SPE site — so check them all out!)

This week also brings the yin to my yang, the productivity to my play, my best frenemy forever, CrackBerry Kevin back to TiPb and the iPhone he claims never to use. Head on over to the TiPb forums and help him out, would you? (i.e. show him some neat new games). And get a chance to win an iPhone 3GS for your troubles.

Video hands-on with the Touch Pro 2 and HD2 after the break!

[YouTube Video link]

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Join Rene and special guests Phil Nickinson of Android Central and WMExperts and Keith Newman of the PreCentral.net PalmCast Round Robin Android Droid and Hero vs. iPhone and Windows Phone HD2 and Touch Pro2 vs. iPhone, more iTablet, iPhone HD, and iPhone 4.0 rumors, and all the week’s news and opinions. Listen in!

Credits

Thanks to the the iPhone Blog Store for sponsoring the podcast, and to everyone who showed up for the live chat!

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Microsoft today takes the wrappers off their latest generation of mobile software and services, and our good friend George Ponder from sibling site WMExpert.com gives us the details in his complete Windows Mobile 6.5 review. The pre-amble sums things up well from an iPhone point of view:

For some, the launch of Windows Mobile 6.5 may very well be a non-event. But it marks the beginning of a journey for Windows Mobile and a new approach to mobile computing with the Windows Phone.

Rumor has it even Microsoft doesn’t believe WinMo 6.5 is competitive with the iPhone — that’s be next year’s Windows Mobile 7, which even Steve Ballmer thinks is way late to the party. It’s a refresh of a refresh of a refresh. But it does show which direction Microsoft is going, and how the “one OS, multiple handset vendors” strategy is shaping up or them.

Along with Windows Mobile 6.5, Microsoft is also launching Windows Marketplace for Mobile (think App Store) and the previously-in-beta My Phone online service (think Mobile Me, with backups, and also now with “Find my iPhone” er… “Find my Windows Phone” features!).

WMExperts will be live-blogging all the Windows Mobile 6.5 festivities starting at 10am EDT, so head on over there if you want to join in the fun.

Our sibling sites, WMExperts and CrackBerry.com have both, coincidentally, just put up posts that show how to make your Windows Phone or BlackBerry “slide to unlock” just exactly like the iPhone. This may be nothing new, as themes and indeed the ability to theme other platforms is almost as longstanding as it is popular in some circles. iPhone Jailbreakers can even get in on the action with WinterBoard. But here’s the thing, if you’re running a Windows Phone or a BlackBerry, why would you want it to look or behave more like an iPhone? (and yes, the same holds true if you hack your iPhone to look/act like something else).

Do you love the iPhone UI but need functionality it doesn’t offer? Are you locked to a non-iPhone carrier and can’t get the iPhone, so will make do with a skin until your contract expires? Do you just love to be able to configure your phone, your way, and change it up as the mood strikes you?

Personally, I re-install and restore stuff so often, I’ve just gotten used to leaving almost everything I can in its default look and with its default settings, so I’m curious as to how the other side rolls.

Those of you with iPhones, any desire to skin it up like a WinPho or a BBerry? Maybe a Palm Pre? (Have you already?) And to those rocking other smartphones and going for an iPhone-look, how’s it working for you?