Microsoft has just blog about the issues that were being reported about the pre-Nodo update that has started to be pushed out (here More answers about our first software update). In summary about 90% of phone updates have gone smoothly however and the other 10% have been failing mainly due to “insufficient computer storage space” or poor internet connection. So the update is not going all that bad however it is certainly not without its issues…

Meanwhile back in Australia none of the carriers (according to WMPowerusers.com here)  have started to push out any updates their Windows Phone devices. This is certainly frustrating as Australia was one of the first countries that had Windows Phone 7 devices for sale so its users have been waiting longer than a lot of other countries.

When I asked the @telstra twitter account when the update was coming for the HTZ Mozart they said that were still waiting for details from the “Mobile team”. This would seem to indicate that the update process is initiated by the carriers explaining why Michael Stroh said on the Windows Phone Blog why the update process “could be days—or even weeks—before you’re able to update your phone.”.

I recently bought some covers for my HTC Mozart from Case Mate after they announced a new line of  covers for various Windows Phone 7 handsets. Well a few days later they are here and below is a few photos of the cases they come in and how they look on my phone. I also hope that this is a sign that now that Microsoft have announced they have sold over 2 million copies of WP7 that more manufacturers jumping on board the WP7 train such as Klipsch that are “Working on” headphone with remotes that are WP7 compatible.

Interestingly they seem to be in high demand as originally Case Mate did list cases for the Samsung Focus and Omnia handsets as well…

Barely There

This is the hard cover that clips on easily and almost looks as if it is part of the phone. It probably does not offer as good screen protection as the Safe Skin case however the screen protector should give it fairly good scratch resistance.

Safe Skin

Nice soft rubber case that is still smooth however it has a little more grip so you are probably less likely to drop it using this case. The cover is a little raised above the screen so if put on a flat surface face down it should offer good protection. This rubber version would be much better at protecting the phone from drops however it is also quite obvious you have a cover on the phone due to the extra thickness.

Case Mate also have similar cases for the HTC HD7 and the HTC Trophy if you have one of those handsets instead. As a bonus I was also pleasantly suppressed to see that both covers came with a screen protector for the phone that fitted very well.

So which one should you buy…. ? Well that is up to you but at this stage I am keeping the Barley There cover on as it keeps the look and feel of the device much more authentic plus I think the Safe Skin cover will be more of a magnet for dust and dirt like a similar cover I had for my iPhone 3GS.

P.S. In case you were wondering the Barley There cover is so thin that you can still easily fit the the Safe Skin cover over top to have two cases on at the same time… For those that want EXTRA protection…

More Info: http://www.case-mate.com/Windows-Phone-7-Cases/Windows-Phone-7-Cases.asp

I have been using my HTC Mozart Windows Phone 7 device for a few days now and while the OS is very good (see here) it also has some issues which most notably is the poor battery life of the device.

Update: This could be an issues with having Exchange/Outlook ActiveSync profile configured (even if set to manual sync) as removing the account profile from the phone seems to have improved the battery life. Stay tuned for more…

This is also an issues seen by a few other owners of Windows Phone 7 HTC Mozart devices which leads me to believe that this issue is not isolated to just my device or how I specifically use (or hold) the phone.

Interestingly when you setup Exchange/Outlook email it defaults to have a “arrive now” (a.k.a. push) email sync which basically keeps a 3G connected open and active at all times on the device. This configuration will cause a very large battery drain on any device (iPhone, Blackberry or Android) however as this is the default configuration with Windows Phone it may be the cause of some of these battery life issues. That being said even with push email turned off the battery life still appears to be an issue.

However battery life seems to no be an issues with other non-HTC Mozart devices so this would indicate the issue may be with the device and not the OS.

Interestingly that Windows Phone 7 will show both a WiFi and 3G indicator present at the same time where on iOS device you only ever see one or the other. This makes me wounder if the 3G connection remains active when the device is connected to WiFi thus drawing extra power. Certainly turning off all mobile data connections to the device improves battery life on the device so I do suspect that the power life issue is being cause by a 3G data connection that is some how being kept alive.

This is clearly a 1.0 OS and there are going to be some issues but I hold hope that these issues can be resolved as the phone does support software updates. Until then if you are experiencing issues then for now all I can suggest you make sure you turn off all push email synchronisations as this will be the number one cause of battery life issues with the device.

There has been some confusion (see here and here) recently as to weather the HTC Mozart was in fact going to support the NextG frequencies on the Telstra network. Well I now have a HTC Mozart from Telstra and I can confirm without a doubt that the device does support Next G. As you can see from the image below the device does support 850 and 2100 MHz HSPA which is a requirement for it to support NextG.

There has been a lot of confusion recently (see State of confusion: WP7 and carrier selection) about weather the HTC Mozart Windows Phone 7 coming to Telstra would support Next G frequencies. The confusion is coming from multiple web sites from HTC and from Microsoft clearly states that the HTC Mozart  does not support the 850Mhz HSPA (a.k.a. Next G) frequencies (see both below).

Source: http://www.htc.com/www/product/7mozart/specification.html

Source: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsphone/en-au/buy/7/phones.aspx#detail=1573

However in response to the question from @1800PockerPC Justin from the official @Telstra twitter account has now confirmed that the HTC Mozart will support the Next G frequency (presumably 850mhz HSPA).

As it says on HTC’s web site “please check with your mobile operator” (see below) this probably means that HTC is making both an 850 and 900mhz HSPA version of the phone to be sold by the appropriate carrier.

This should hopefully put to bed some people who were thinking about holding off from purchasing the HTC Mozart (see here ) because it was not a Next G capable phone.

So at then end of the day this will mean that the HTZ Mozart will be able to take advantage of the fastest phone network in Australia meaning much faster download speeds to the device.

(Now if only there was a SpeedTest app for the phone on launch day that would be a great way to confirm.)

Here is the video from the Windows Phone 7 launch with Telstra in Australia. This video shows off the HTC Mozart and LG Optimus 7Q which will are both Telstra launch day hand sets…

Here is the video from the Windows Phone 7 launch with Telstra in Australia. This video shows off the HTC Mozart and LG Optimus 7Q which will are both Telstra launch day hand sets…