My experience has been very pleasant so far. This Windows Phone is always very responsive and stable. I also like the idea of charging through mini USB connector rather than a flimsy proprietary connector. My primary focus this week is to be able to dial a contact quickly. The other focus is to find a list of apps both for usage and fun.

Clean up the contact list

Windows phone requires me to use a Windows Live account (a Hotmail account, in my case) as a cloud account. The phone maintains bi-directional automatic sync with my Hotmail. When I add other accounts such as GMail and Facebook to my phone, and import the contacts from my old phone, Windows Phone synced them all to my Hotmail contact. The result is that my contact list is flooded with over 400 contacts, many of them are duplicates. So my first task is to clean up the list. Fortunately, it is fairly easy to combine contacts in Hotmail. I was able to get it down to about 100.

Windows phone does not automatically sync Hotmail categories as group. I had to create several groups on the phone and add contacts to groups. Windows phone also allow me to link contacts for phone/email to my Facebook and Linked-in contacts. The result is that I have a much more organized list now and is easier to navigate through groups. However, it still requires a minimum of 4 clicks to dial a number through the contact list.

Apps, Apps and Apps

Many journal articles claim that Windows Phone has far less apps than iPhone and Android. This is not a big concern to me as long as I can find enough good apps. Currently, there are a bout 80,000 apps for Windows Phone. I need only 20-30 good apps. So here is a list of apps that I downloaded this week:

• Adobe Reader.
• Facebook and Twitter: these are actually written by Microsoft, nothing fancy but do the job.
• Nokia Drive, Nokia Maps and Nokia Transit: these are from Nokia collection.
• Translator: This from Microsoft, actually quite powerful and fun to use.
• Unit Convert: A simple utility from Microsoft.
• SkyDrive
• CNN and ESPN: these are actually written by Nokia.
• Level and the Unite game: these are from Microsoft demonstrating gyro sensors. Pretty fun.
• Nokia Creative Studio: An Instagram-like app created by Nokia that makes me wonder how possibly Instagram worthed $1 billion.
• Endomondo Sports Track: Use the GSP to track my walking statistics.
• Mobile Magnifier: I could not find one as good as the iPhone equivalent that I saw. I hope someone will create a better one.

Lastly, I have a problem that cannot be solved by an app. I would like to block some spamming phone numbers. Windows Phone does not allow me to do that. I cannot find an app because Windows Phone does not have an API to do that. Samsung has implemented in hardware in some Windows Phones. For now, I just have to hit the volume key to reject a call.