First off, apologies for the incredible dearth of posts for the past 3 months (Jesus!). I should have more on that soon. Suffice to say, I'm not dead.
Meantime, I wanted to just point out the Ars review of Windows Phone 7, which I'm presently in the midst of skimming. And I have to say, I'm impressed. It looks very promising and it's the most attractive, forward thinking thing I've seen come out of Redmond in, well, maybe since I started using computers, which would be about 12 years.
I'm intrigued by the largely text-based visual approach, and the incredibly spartan, almost institutional iconography. In a world of imagery overload there is something very appealing to me about this look, and I'd imagine it will appeal to the business set as well. It's classy but not cutesy the way iOS can be.
It's not often (ever?) I post something positive about a Microsoft product. And I don't know if it will be successful. But I have to admit, Windows Phone 7 looks, if nothing else, interesting.