The first thing was getting my contacts, appointments, etc. over. No problem, just use ActiveSync. When my old phone died and I got a replacement it took me 5 minutes to re-enter my email settings and then just re-sync with Outlook. Humm… Windows Phone 7 doesn’t support ActiveSync except with Exchange. Humm…

The only option was to export and import (contacts only) to a Windows Live Hotmail account. Only Windows Live won’t sent me confirmation emails. I *hate* any system which required a third-party web-site in order to get a consumer electronics device to work. Even if MS support fixes this, it will only import my contacts. The thought of manually copying/updating my Xmas to-do list and calendar appointments is something I just can’t f-ing imagine. Might as well take my old phone with me to the store.

The second problem was I wanted to get hold of the manual from LG. The little user guide sucks, so I figured they would have a move complete manual on their web-site. I went there only to find you need to download some program to get the updates and manual. Humm… And of course the program wouldn’t work. It won’t accept serial numbers, IMEI numbers, or get them from the phone. It keeps barking about drivers. When I tried using it to update the driver… it wouldn’t list the Quantum Optimus model – even though I downloaded it under the Quantum Optimus. The idea that I need to use a program to connect to my phone in order to download a manual to provide support for my phone is equally stupid.

Issue number 3, I can’t view YouTube videos without some program installed. And it won’t install programs without a Windows Live account.

Issue number 4, Zune. Why do I need another music player organizer on my computer. Why can’t I just copy the files to the phone or use Media Player to sync the files? Media Player can sync with my $59 MP3 player? The idea of having another Microsoft application to manage my music (on my Media Center PC none-the-less) is just mind-blowing.

I’m doing this comment thing in necro manner to drop a link for you, if you haven’t already found it:
http://lifehacker.com/5504465/how-to-transform-your-windows-desktop-with-an-amazing-windows-phone-7+style-hud

I agree that there are a lot of long-term problems that Microsoft needs to solve with software updates, such as a lack of SMS drafts. Hopefully WP7 doesn’t die before that happens.

I also had a fairly sour initial setup experience too. I crashed the phone three times, and ended up having to factory reset it twice. The first hotmail account you sync to it becomes your primary account, and it *cannot be removed* from the phone. It forces syncing of contacts, calendar etc from there, and you can’t turn that off. My hotmail account was something I first set up over a decade ago, and I haven’t used it since I moved to gmail not long after gmail was first set up by google. My Xbox Live account is linked to that Hotmail account, and that’s the only thing I use it for. It’s full of contacts from people that I used to talk to a decade ago. But I attached it to the phone so I could grab the Xbox Live stuff. Trouble is that my contacts list was then polluted with all that junk and no way to remove it. Reset the phone, made a new hotmail account so no shitty contacts, but that meant that I ended up unable to use the Xbox integration, so I had to go into my old hotmail account and go through 200+ contacts to cut all the ones I didn’t need, which was most of them, then factory reset the phone *again* to go back to the original account. Stupidly broken.

In the end I’ve pretty much shelved my WP7. It doesn’t offer me anything that I don’t already have. If I wasn’t an existing smartphone owner I’d probably stick with it.

The problem is, Windows Phone 7 lacks many of the features of Blackberry, iPhone and Android. On top of that, they are still using the crappy Internet Explorer 8 rendering engine instead of the more standards compliant engine in IE 9… Therefore, I think WP7 is just as crappy as Windows Mobile 6 I used in the past not because it’s clunky, it’s not competitive. This is probably a reason why I ditched my Windows Mobile 6 Samsung Smartphone for a iPhone 3GS, because Microsoft is horrible at mobile OSes… Windows Phone 7 will never beat Blackberry, Android and iPhone… They are too late to gain the lost customers from Windows Mobile.

No, I don’t have an Xbox. I just think that Xbox Live integration can be huge if they get some proper first-party games going. The hardware specs are good enough for graphic intensive gaming.

An official Google search app already exists (you can see it in one of my screenshots), along with a few unofficial ones. The main problem is that you cannot remap the hardware search button.