Windows Phone 7 emulator unlocked, lack of ‘copy and paste’ feature confirmed
A little more is known about Microsoft’s forthcoming Windows Phone 7 Series after MIX10. Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 Series emulator been unlocked to reveal some features Microsoft didn’t really want exposing at this stage. And it’s also been confirmed that copy and paste will not be an available feature from the outset, although it may turn up later.
Microsoft unveiled the new Windows Phone 7 Series, its reinvention of Windows Mobile, at Mobile World Congress last month. And it was received very positively, at least from a far-away, hands-off perspective.
This week, at MIX10, Microsoft’s new mobile operating system got a bit more of an airing, with a Windows Phone 7 Series emulator released to developers to enable them to have a look at the mobile OS and test applications out on it. However, a developer by the name of Don Ardelean unlocked the emulator to reveal the hidden features and programs lying underneath.
TechAU shot two videos of the unlocked emulator in action. The first showing Windows Phone 7 settings, and the second (embedded below) showing a general 10-minute mess-around with the mobile OS.
Microsoft issued a statement saying that they’d “anticipated that people would attempt to unlock and explore the code,” and that the “emulator is based on early code and is not reflective of the final user experience.” Therefore, they “recommend that developers use the emulator as provided to avoid any issues and unpredictability that may be introduced by an unlocked version.” As if anyone is going to listen to those words of advice.
Also emerging from Windows Phone 7′s showing at MIX10 was the news that the mobile OS will not support clipboard operations, as in copy and paste. Engadget sought and received confirmation of this from Microsoft. With a statement reading:
Windows Phone 7 Series will not initially offer copy and paste; instead, we try to solve the most common uses for copy and paste via single-tap action. For example, people often want to take an address and view it on a map, highlight a term in the browser and do a search or copy a phone number to make a call. Instead of the user manually doing a copy and paste in these scenarios, we recognize those situations automatically and make them happen with just one touch. In our early testing people have been pleased with this approach, but we’re always listening to feedback and will continue to improve our feature set over time based on what we hear.
Many people aren’t happy with this decision to leave clipboard operations out of Windows Phone 7, especially as Windows Mobile has always included the feature. I Started Something claims the feature will be added with an update soon after launch, but it took Apple two years to get around to adding the feature to iPhone OS. So I’m not going to be holding my breath, just in case.
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