When I arrived at the conference area to grab breakfast before entering, Tim McAfee was there to greet us, handing out REDFLY t-shirts. I was hoping for a medium, but some of the other guys had already beat me to them; he made it up to me by giving me two larges. Ha! After getting set up and then eating my food, I settled in with the others to listen to the first presentation on the Microsoft Zune.

Creative Strategies Presentation

Ben from Creative Strategies started a two hour discussion with the question “How is technology going to better integrate and improve people’s lives.” He gave a quick overview of the personal computing experience over the past couple decades, and about how many of the systems we had bought were basically versions of the current enterprise models. In the last few years, the trend has become about choices - colors, configurations, various sizes, making the whole experience more optimized and personal for each individual.

CS’s view of the Digital Future is that “No device is an island,” meaning that all of your information will be synced with all of your devices, in all of your locations. I’m ready for that…

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This wasn’t from a presentation, but I thought it was something you all might enjoy. Michael Oryl of Mobile Burn recently received a Samsung Soul, a European Market fashion phone that looks really amazing. He pulled it out on one of our breaks and shared it with me; I found it to be a very sexy little feature phone. The various materials from which is it composed give it a satisfying in-hand weight, and the textures that your hand encounters make it feel…for lack of a better word…”posh”.

Michael says, “Samsung’s new SGH-U900 Soul gets its name from Samsung calling the device the “Soul Of ULtra”, a fitting name for what the company says is the last handset in its original Ultra line of thin profile feature phones.”

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Today I will be flying to Seattle for a Microsoft facilitated Mobius Event. I hope to be able to share a lot of Windows Mobile coverage with you over the next few days, but at the moment I have no idea exactly what or which companies will be covered. I just know that John Starkweather and the gang will have once again managed to line up an exciting list of OEMs who will speak with us directly. Whatever happens, I will share everything with you that I can.

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