Below are my notes from the launch:

Approach

• WP7 changed approach, focused on end users, business and otherwise
• visual design is called “metro” graphical intense, high motion ui
• home screen is called the “start bar”
• focuses on tasks rather than apps – tasks form a hub
• Syncing to social networks seems to be a hands-off experience, sign in and it does the rest
• Microsoft want to maintain stricter control of the look & feel of the device while still allowing for third-party innovation

Hardware

• three hardware buttons (back, start, search)
• require capacitive touch (minimum 4 point touch)
• WVGA screen
• FM (or digital?) radio

Search

• context sensitive – different results based on where you are in the phone (contacts, email etc.)
• automatically uses GPS
• search can be of three types, attempts to choose the most appropriate one automatically (local, news, web)

Web Browser

• based on PC code for maximum compatibility
• pinch zoom
• tap to zoom (zoom to column on page)
• sub pixel positioning for text)
• recognizes phone numbers and addresses and makes them linkable
• supports tabs

People Hub

• Aggregates all your contacts from social networks (no twitter yet by the looks, I imagine this will change)
• Shows people you have communicated with recently
• “What’s new” feed: feed from all your social networks

Office Hub

• Access to Microsoft Office apps like OneNote, Excel, Word etc.

Games hub

• Syncs with Xbox live
• Focus on social gamer experience
• earn gamer score, achievements

Me tile

• Simultaneously update your social networking status to multiple sites

Email

• Supports all common providers including gmail, yahoo as well as Exchange (of course)
• Never see a loading bar, works against a local cache (very fast experience)

Text

• Supports SMS, MMS
• Supports portrait/landscape typing modes

Calendar

• Automatically merges your personal and work calendars

Pictures

• gallery lets you browse all pictures
• “mosaic” shows recent or favourite pictures
• “What’s new” feed shows latest pictures from your social networking sites (Facebook, Windows Live etc)
• Album view combines folders from photos synced from Zune software on your PC with albums from Facebook, Windows Live
• Social networking comments are displayed when you view a picture

Music and Video

• Full Zune HD experience
• Supports Zune pass/subscription

Other

• toolbar is always available at the bottom to access “enhanced” commands
• UI is not completely done (especially some of the buttons you see)
• one press to correct words you’ve messed up in keyboard mode

More information:

http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/LauraFoy/First-Look-Windows-Phone-7-Series-Hands-on-Demo/

http://www.windowsphone7series.com/