Windows Phone 7 and Genealogy Apps

Last month I mentioned that Windows Phone 7 had been released to manufacturing. Today at Mobile World Congress, Microsoft officially launched Windows Phone 7, with several companies showing off their products, as well as a demonstration by Microsoft employees.

Some articles and videos to give you an idea of Windows Phone 7
* Micrsoft’s offical press information and videos
* NBC interview with Steve Ballmer
* Windows Phone Central Video hands-on #1
* Windows Phone Central Video hands-on #2

My impressions so far from what I’m seeing: Microsoft needs to work on their presentation and their advertising. The presentation was lacking, and I’m surprised they had such a small, dimly-lit presentation area at MWC. Their advertising also makes no sense, because it only actually highlights the phone for a few seconds at the end of the ads. The rest of the ad focuses on people being so engrossed in competing phones that they are walking into things, having accidents, and ignoring the people around them. Trying to make that a flaw of other phones would sound like a winning strategy, but you have to spend more than a few seconds actually showcasing your own phone. Apple has the best mobile phone advertising – they show you a lot of what can be done with them and everybody has seen them and it’s easy to grasp in just 15 seconds. Microsoft’s advertising looks like somebody come up with a catchy idea to start with and then couldn’t come up with a way to end it.

There’s nothing wrong with mocking the competition, as long as you actually spend some time showing off your own product. Saying “buy our phone so you won’t be walking into trees or other people” and spending the majority of the ad on that aspect, rather than just 5-10 seconds, and not giving a compelling reason to actually buy into Windows Phone 7 shows that Microsoft is out of touch with consumers.

What they should have done is spend 5-10 seconds showing people being distracted and walking into stuff while trying to find something on their phone, and then spend 20 seconds showing some interesting features. Show people Windows Phone 7 in action for a long enough time for them to understand what it is. There are a lot of reasons why Apple has done so well in the mobile market, and their advertising is one of them.

This is a complete overhaul of their mobile OS, and they are not as dominant as they once were. They are having to play catchup to Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android platforms, and from the start they are missing features that are now taken for granted. These are simple features – cut & paste, multi-tasking, tethering, and quite a few others that aren’t as big. Microsoft has plenty of explanations about why some of these features are missing. They did state that cut & paste would be available sometime in “early 2011″ and that it will be a free update. The only explanation I can come up with is that they were looking to beat certain deadlines. Some of these features were present on Windows Mobile 6.5 which makes this even more confusing. With all of that said, I’m hoping that it succeeds in the long run. Apple and Google could use the competition.

If you are curious about Windows Phone 7 and genealogy, Mark Tucker, with Shazaml Design, LLC, and also ThinkGenealogy, has one of the first genealogy-related apps for Windows Phone 7. It’s called “Cousin Calculator” and it’s exactly what it sounds like – a relationship calculator.

Here’s a video he put together showing it off:
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Windows Phone 7 – Released to Manufacturing

Today, the Microsoft Windows Phone Team has announced that they have released Windows Phone 7 to Manufacturing. Back in July, Microsoft released a technical preview.

Windows Phone 7 is Microsoft’s next generation of mobile operating systems, set to replace Windows Mobile 6.5, complete with new branding a name change to Windows Phone 7. The name change is both to move it forward version wise, as well as to tie it to the success of Microsoft’s Windows 7 on the desktop and laptop platforms. Windows Phone 7 features a new interface, a new browser, and a more coherent design through the OS. It will also feature a better software update process.

With the Release to Manufacturing (RTM), this marks the integration of the software with the final phone/mobile device hardware that manufacturers and mobile/cell phone network providers will be releasing to consumers later this year.

On the Windows Phone 7 blog, they mention the testing it went through:

Windows Phone 7 is the most thoroughly tested mobile platform Microsoft has ever released. We had nearly ten thousand devices running automated tests daily, over a half million hours of active self-hosting use, over three and a half million hours of stress test passes, and eight and a half million hours of fully automated test passes. We’ve had thousands of independent software vendors and early adopters testing our software and giving us great feedback. We are ready.

For the full story, see the Windows Team Blog

Pocket Genealogist 4.0 Released

This was a bit of a surprise. I admit to not having kept up on Windows Mobile genealogy software, as I was waiting to see what happens with Windows Phone 7, but Northern Hills Software has released a major update to Pocket Genealogist a few days ago. Pocket Genealogist is a genealogy program that allows you to add, edit, and delete genealogy information on your Pocket PC/Windows Mobile device. It supports reading the genealogy databases of Ancestral Quest, Genbox, Legacy Family Tree (full 2-way syncing), RootsMagic and The Master Genealogist, as well as Personal Ancestral File and Family Tree Maker (separate purchase) depending on what version of Pocket Genealogist you purchase. It supports devices with a touch screen that are running Windows Mobile 2003, 5 or 6, including Phone Edition devices. It supports devices without a touch screen that are running Windows Mobile 5 or 6.

I do mean major updates – Pocket Genealogist 4.0 offers quite a few changes, such as support for capacitive touch devices (finger instead of stylus) which has become the preferred method for a lot of people and companies as far as working for touchscreens. PDF support has been added as well. RootsMagic 4, Family Historian V4, and Family Tree Maker 2010 support has been enhanced. I should have kept an eye on things – there was a public beta last month.

A bonus for “Basic” users – some of the “Advanced” features are now available to Basic users, including GPS, easy back and restore, and a relationship calculator.
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Site Update and Some Notes (March 16, 2010)

Notes on site re-design
As you can see, there is a new design. It should load a little faster, but more importantly should allow for easier navigation in finding what you need. If you have any problems or questions, please contact us. For the first time since the site went live in 2004, there are now mobile-friendly options for those users who are browsing through a mobile device (iPhone, Windows Mobile, etc.) and using a mobile/cell phone connection (whether it be EDGE or 3G).

I’ll be making some tweaks over the next few days – if anything looks weird, do a browser refresh. If it still looks weird contact us.

Internet Explorer 6 (and 7)
We’re aware that the new site design doesn’t look too good under Internet Explorer 6 (a few things are offset) along with one image that’s offset in Internet Explorer 7, however less than 10% of the visitors are running IE 6, and from a technical and genealogist point of view – I would say upgrade to a newer version of Internet Explorer, or Apple’s Safari, or Google Chrome. You’re liable to come across other genealogy-related websites these days that don’t work too well under IE 6 as it is, along with potential security risks that may crop up with running an older browser (nearly 10 years old). I understand however, that many cannot upgrade for one reason or another, so we will work to try and iron out any bugs with IE 6 and will definitely be taking care of the IE 7 image problem very shortly.

What’s next?
We are now at the point where we will be adding several genealogy applications and genealogy-related software entries that we don’t already list, so bear with us. Once we are finished with that (should be less than a day or two), we’ve got a few other little things to add (that we’ll talk about later) and then we can start in on normal blogging/writing about genealogy and mobile devices. I personally have a good dozen or so articles and commentaries I’ve been walking around with in my head that I’m looking forward to writing and posting, among other things. Mobile computing is a big deal to me, and I’m happy to share my own experiences and hopefully help others out.

And then?
Some cool things. First and foremost, to help people out with solutions to genealogy research while trying to stay “light and portable” with your equipment. Nobody likes dragging around a lot of electronic gear to various locations such as cemeteries and libraries unless it’s going to be 100% useful in your genealogy/family history research.

Finally
While I’m still adding to it, please check the about page to get a sense of what MobileGenealogy.com is about. Also know this: All platforms are welcome here. It may seem like the iPhone dominates, but it does so only through the sheer number of applications available for it. Disclaimer: I have and use an iPhone, but this site originally started out covering Palm and Windows CE/Windows Mobile devices. For all we know, a year from now Google’s Android platform may have grown by leaps and bounds in the genealogy software arena, and we’ve still got the highly-anticipated Windows Mobile 7 release later this year (hopefully).