So what am I working on?
As I mentioned, I'll be working on the follow-up to Windows Mobile 6; specifically, I'll be testing some functionality we're adding to bring us into compliance with the Open Mobile Alliance standard. It will give IT Pros a lot more power over managing the mobile devices in an enterprise.
I've closed the book on the Vista portion of my career. This past year I was working on the volume licensing aspect of Vista; this was a big piracy Achilles' heel for us in the past, so we ratcheted up the defenses. I think the solution (Volume Activation 2.0) was a good one, but it's always tough to balance anti-piracy with ease of use, and it doesn't get much easier to use than VA1.0, which basically allowed you to input a product key and be automatically activated. Now IT Pros will have to deploy Key Management Service hosts in their labs or activate via Multiple Activation Keys; we've tried to make it as painless as possible (I also worked on the just-release Volume Activation Management Tool (VAMT)), but anything we did was going to be more painful than the "it's already activated" method from XP.
Meanwhile, it's a big change for me to be working on something that people seem to genuinely, actually like on its own merits: Windows Mobile 6. With Vista, I sort of got the sense that people in general weren't super-excited about it; they were just going to wind up with it at some point down the road on a new computer. I actually grew to like Vista as I worked with it during 2006... it's pretty, it's secure, and it makes some menial tasks (like importing photos) a lot easier, but with some of the cooler features (like WinFS) being cut out, I could understand the lack of excitement. Now, all of a sudden, I'm working on an OS that customers really like and are excited about; the Windows Mobile market share has grown by leaps and bounds over the past five years to dominate the field (when I worked at AppForge, Palm OS was still the leader; no more), and there was a ton of positive buzz in the press when the release of 6 was announced at 3GSM a few weeks ago.
And, after all, that's the fun part about working in software development: creating things that people enjoy. That's mostly why I do it.
I'm still waiting for a SIM card from our department's SIM card guardian, so I haven't gotten to fire up my cool dogfooding device too much yet. I can get it to work with Wi-Fi, so at least I can use it at work and at home... just not on the bus, yet (which is crucial to my sense of personal well-being).
PS: One blog I'm going to make a point of reading regularly is the Windows Mobile Team Blog, which is run by people who already know what they're doing. Recommened if you're already up to speed.
