[mizzourob]

Well I solved my problem; well not really in the way I intended to. After almost two weeks of frustrations (and several almost missed appointments), I finally came to the conclusion that Windows Phone 7 is simply not mature enough yet compared to Windows Mobile 6.5. I'll happily take proper contact and calender syncing, file storage, bluetoooth file transfer, and wi-fi tethering, over a better camera, FM radio, capacitive touch screen, podcast support, more apps, etc. I do not need games, local scout, and pointless apps if the phone does not work right in the first place.

It seems that with the technical changes that were made in the Mango update, and enough time for the ROM chefs to dig through the code, someone will make the platform work like it was supposed to. For now I'm packing my bags for Windows Mobile 6.5; Windows Phone 7 I hope to see you again in the future.

For what it is worth; one (easy?) way Microsoft could resolve this issue would be to modify the operation of the Outlook Hotmail Connector (OHC). If Hotmail would support contact photos (not just Live Messenger profile pics), and the OHC tool could be setup to automatically synchronize changes from local Outlook folders (e.g. contacts and calender) to Hotmail, then this would be a partial win, and might be able to bring me back to Windows Phone 7.

It would be close to a win if Windows Phone 7 could then sync all appointments and contacts together in a single calender, and contact list back to their respective data sources without regard to which source it came from (instead of maintaining separate isolated calenders and contact lists that can only be toggled to show on a single calender or contact list). A full win would be this plus USB support so I do not have to use Hotmail at all.