Tuesday 27th July

We continue to wait for our developers phone, eagerly awaiting the postman, sat on the doorstep - hoping today might be the day... (ok, perhaps not quite that excited, but it would be nice if it arrived soon).

In the interim there are still some new reviews coming out from a general user perspective. We especially like the Q&A's section in this report, as it shows us where Microsoft have put their priorities. As the Zune player does not seem to have all it's functionality migrated to Windows Phone 7, then Microsoft are not 'doing an Apple' and just turning a popular music player into a phone.

Instead, what they seem to have focused on (and something which has bugged me in both iOS3 and 4, as well as Windows Mobile 6.5), is proper full functionality of Outlook.

The main feature of a smartphone for me is the ability to access the internet quickly and easily while on the move. These days that means checking emails as a basic requirement, and ideally the options to do all the things you can do from your PC whilst out and about.

Decent Outlook integration has been lacking, and it is paramount that Microsoft themselves are the first to really set a benchmark and show that this is possible. This could really be the dealbreaker that could win over the BlackBerry brigade, as it finally offers a better way of managing those mails.