After 4 long months of nothing but problems with the Sprint network and my HTC Evo Shift android phone, I finally convinced Sprint to let me out of my contract so I could go back to US Cellular.  US Cellular, from what I hear, has a very high approval rate.  Since the Windows Phone was supposed to be better on battery, I decided to give the HTC 7 Pro a try considering I have 30 days to return it for something else if I don't like it.

     When I started using the phone, I was surprised at how fluid the animations are and how user friendly it is.  I was expecting to be disappointed knowing that there aren't as many apps and is still pretty new and underdeveloped.  However, Windows Phone 7 is a breath of fresh air in this iPhone/Android world.  Instead of having numerous icons and widgets on 3-7 screens, Windows Phone 7 sports the live tiles which act as icons and some behave like widgets as well.  All of these live tiles are on one screen where you can put as many as you want, arrange them how you want, and scroll up and down to get to them.  There is also a list of apps on another screen if the app isn't on the start screen. This results in a less cluttered screen and all your information is right there at a glance.  I was not at all disappointed with the Marketplace and while there aren't as many apps as Android or iOS, the important apps seem to be there.  Also, I was surprised that HTC 7 Pro has 16 GB of internal memory, so there are no micro SD cards and no worries that I will run out of space for apps.  This is similar to how the iPhone/iPod touch works.  However, instead of using iTunes to sync up everything, Microsoft offers the Zune software to sync up apps, photos, music, and more.  I am very impressed with Windows Phone 7 so far and there is the Mango update which will arrive in September.  Mango will supposedly make the mobile OS even better should I decide to keep the phone.

      So far, I expect that I will keep the HTC 7 Pro, however I will post a follow up in about a month after the newness of the phone has worn off.  I suspect that I will know the phone's limitations by then.  I do not want to get stuck with a lemon like my last phone nor do I want to stay with something that doesn't work for me.  However, right now, I completely recommend the Windows Phone 7 and the HTC 7 Pro.  Like I said before, its a breath of fresh air in this iPhone/Android world.

Lately, I have been thinking about which operating system to run after Windows Vista on my PC and laptop.  I have been testing out the Windows 7 Beta 1 on my laptop and I must say that I really like it so far.  There are some bugs to work out still but overall its everything Windows Vista should have been.  However, I have always secretly been a fan of Linux but have never switched from Windows for various reasons.  I’d like to share some pros and cons that I have come up with so far.

Windows 7 Pros

1.) The new taskbar is pretty slick and jump lists are useful.

2.) Its faster than Vista and the beta is very stable.

3.) The new themes and the ability to save your own themes is nice.

4.) Windows Live Essentials integrates very well into Windows 7 and allows me to access my Hotmail, feeds, blog, photos, buddies, and more from the useful programs.

Windows 7 Cons

1.) I really hate the idea of buying another Windows product.  Windows 7 should have been Vista SP2 or they should give a discount to those that already spent their hard earned money on Vista.

Linux Pros

1.) Its free.

2.) Has pretty much everything Windows has and more.

3.) Linux can be just as slick as Windows with Compiz Fusion and other enhancements.

4.) I really like KDE 4.

Linux Cons

1.) Has no support for my iPod Touch or iTunes yet.

2.) There are way too many distributions to choose from.  Choice is always good, but sometimes I wish there was just one or at least a few less to have to evaluate.

3.) I can’t install Windows Live Essentials.

In conclusion, I am not sure what this tells me about which I should choose.  I do know that it would be very difficult to switch to Linux before there’s support for my iPod Touch.

This is now the part where I invite you, my readers, to leave some comments, suggestions, or anything else you have to add to this.

If you have not yet checked out the new Windows Live site, its now time.  Days ago Microsoft updated the site and its now more social than ever.  The new home page tells you what your friends are up to and shows you some headlines from the news.  The new profiles tell your friends what you’ve been up to and you can also add some your favorite things, for example you can add your favorite movies, music artists, and books.  Also, the new Windows Live Photos is a great place to store photos, with 25 Gb of storage.  In addition to all these great things on the web site, Microsoft has updated the Windows Live Essentials, which is a bundle of software that helps you manage your e-mail, photos, videos, your blog, and more.  I must say that the new Windows Live is great, but what I like the most is being able to access my Hotmail from Windows Live Mail, upload photos with the Windows Live Photo Gallery, and being able to post to my blog with the Windows Live Writer.  These tools are very helpful with managing my day to day activities on the internet.  I highly recommend to all my readers to check out the new site at http://home.live.com/!