What Windows Phone 'glance and go' means to you [contest winner]

A month ago today at Midnight, we ended our Windows Phone contest. Finally, after too many delays, it's time to announce the lucky winner. Why did we take so long? The entries were just too good. We argued like X-Factor judges about how best to choose the winner. In the end, we left it to chance among the top contenders.

We requested: "Please tell us why glance and go appeals to you and how you would benefit from it". "Glance and go" is Microsoft's design and marketing philosophy for Windows Phone. Conceptually, Windows Phone enables people to live better rather than spend their lives tap, tap, tapping on the touchscreen. That concept, and the task-oriented user interface behind it, makes Windows Phone remarkably different from either Android or iOS.

Our panel of arguing judges narrowed the entries down to a dozen. We used a polyhedral dice from my old Dungeons & Dragons game -- yes, there was role playing before the Internet and Xbox 360 -- to cut the contenders to nine, six and three. The process infuriated some judges, who saw what they considered to be winning entries cast aside. If I had my way, we would have picked our favorites and done rock, paper, scissors. I was overruled, but it wouldn't be the first time.

Among the final three, we have a lucky winner: Petra O'Sullivan, whom I'll email to get her mailing address soon as I post.

This is where I stop to thank Microsoft for providing the Windows Phone, Samsung Focus Flash, which will be sent overnight to Petra as soon as I get her address. Yes, Petra, there is a Santa Claus and Windows Phone under your Christmas Tree -- if you're quick responding.

Below are 11 of the 12 entries that contended for the Samsung Focus Flash. We will separately post the submission from Travis Brown, which is quite long and provocative. I want to thank everyone who participated, particularly the 12 contenders, and if I had a dozen phones to give away you'd all be winners.

Bradley Jones

Dear @Betanews Joe,
Can you please send me some 'glance and go'?

Please make my icons become I can's,
As the live-tiles show me my day's plans

The tiles are fresh and innovating,
the Mango's ripe, I'm salivating!

Sure, many entries have their reasons,
but for me my plea is all about the seasons.

I have been a WebOS apologist and user,
But as it turns out, my platform is the loser.

So maybe I just like the little guy,
Or maybe I'm just not ready for Apple-pie.

Oh, please Joe, send me a WinPho!
And Steve will owe you one...for one more user!

Chris Dorrell

The design philosophy of  "glance and go" is a logical one. Nine times out of ten when we wake up our phone we don’t need much info: what’s the time, when is my next appointment/event, should I ignore the email that just arrived? etc. Presenting as much of that data as possible without requiring interaction is a good goal.

This brings to mind Glance Armstrong. The man won the Tour de France seven consecutive times by taking quick peeks at his competitors and then going (fast). He rode a bike rather than a Windows Phone, but I suspect that was simply for personal comfort.

Johnny Kamel

Top 5 reasons of why glance and go is an amazing and beneficial concept:

1. When going to college I have to be extremely careful about the people driving around me since they're too busy unlocking their home screens, searching for apps, opening the app and then  -- oh, wait, did they just crash into someone else also using their phone?

2. It is rude enough to use your smartphone when having dinner, so if one wants to be annoying on the table let them be annoying for a shorter amount of time reduced by the glance-and-go way.

3. It is amazing how much first impressions matter and a lot of people are so consumed by their phones that they miss out on meeting new people just because they were too busy navigating through their phones to show something to someone they see every day.

4. Time is money -- enough said.

5- Well there is no such thing as top 4 reasons -- 5 sounded better. So I'm just going to use this one to say that I have always been a Microsoft fan and think that the smartphone market is looking good for them just like when they first emerged with their xbox in the gaming market.

lissack

Glance and go is the only safe way to consult your phone while driving. It's much quicker than using your voice. I am a realtor. I am driving constantly. I have been using glance and go since the moment i could get it, and I will never look back. Safe driving friends.

Kevin Mars

The premise behind Microsoft's touch and go Windows Phone interface may just be what I need to save my life and my marriage. Currently as far as my wife is concerned I'm having an affair with my phone as it's getting more attention from me than she is. And she's giving me a hard time about not noticing when my kids are demanding my attention because I'm captivated by this small device that has got me hooked like a schedule-1 substance.

I'm a very information-hungry individual. I spend a lot of time reading random things online -- whether it be world news, social news, video game news, tech journal,s etc. Back when I was using Windows Mobile 5 & 6 I was fairly limited in what I could pull down and much of it was text based so I could get the information I desired in a quick, albeit boring, format but it didn't consume so much of my time. With the iPhone I would spend too much time jumping between apps or looking for alternate sites that were more Safari friendly to get the information I desired. I hated the fact that it didn't really bring the information to me unless I looked for it.

My Samsung Fascinate does a much better job letting me setup widgets to pull down some of this info for me but it's still not quite ideal (plus all these things drain my battery and the device demands I pull the battery every so often like my work BlackBerry devices do) and it doesn't do a great job of linking the info together (especially social info) so I spend quite a bit of time jumping between items to consume the info I desire, not to mention jumping between the Android Browser, Opera and sometimes Firefox depending on the site, since I can't seem to get a consistent desirable browsing experience with any of them.

Microsoft's hubs seem to be on the right direction for what I desire. I would relish the opportunity to give it a spin and see if their device can help me get back to living and giving my family the attention they deserve. I am a mobile deviceaholic and I'm looking for a better way. Short of getting a neural-link to the 'Net, I'm very interested to see if Windows Phone can satisfy my hunger in a more efficient manner. What I've seen so far looks promising.

Chris Papadopoulos

Inner peace derives from easy data access and fast response to any given command, since all mobile devices put your temper to the limits! That will hopefully be the case with the Windows Phone and if I am uber-lucky I will be posting the awesomeness to the crowd.

PC_Tool

Benefits of "Glance & Go":

The stop-sign/stop-light quick check no longer pisses off all of the drivers behind you -- as you unlock, tap, scroll and slide to get to what you want to check. Less Road Rage saves lives.

All the info is right in front of you. Your screen stays cleaner (less swiping) and you lower your risk of carpal_thumb_syndrome. (Is that a syndrome yet? It should be.)

Shorter meetings. Instead of staring at their phones, they are staring at the presenter, and it's gonna freak him out. The faster he gets done, the faster they all stop looking at him.

And seriously? The major benefit is for those folks who use their phones mainly as a social-media content aggregator. Instead of going from app to app (launching, closing, with a trip to the home-screen/app drawer in between), it's just there. Right in front of you. No clicking, swiping, scrolling and mostly, no waiting. Well, at least, that's the idea. ;)

ShoutBits

I live in a downtown neighborhood with eight Starbucks shops within a few blocks of each other. With my clumsy Android phone, sooner or later I am going to crash into someone on the sidewalk and spill $4 worth of coffee. Maybe Glance and Go can save me and my neighbors from this.

Petra O'Sullivan

I'm the mother of a toddler. Glance and go is all I have time for in my life!

tiburoncito_2000

I promise to give up my iPhone addiction.

Jason Ward

The glance-and-go concept appeals to me because life itself is fluid. Though we often think of things in our lives in terms of origin and destination (i.e. leaving home; getting to work, going to college;getting a good job; meet Mr. or Mrs. Right; get married) the time spent between these events or destinations is also where life flows. Life doesn't start and stop in distinct iterations of events -- it flows.

Windows Phone's glance and go concept is designed to allow people -- us -- to use the Windows Phone as a tool while we continue to flow through life. Using a Windows Phone as a tool in our lives does not halt us -- forcing us into the world of the phone, but as a natural tool the glance-andgo concept fits into our world and flows with us.

In addition to this the actual fluidity of the OS  -- how the words and pages of the Hubs and applications flow smoothly and effortlessly across the screen responsively instigated by the slight and natural swipes of the user -- is a visual manifestation of the continuity of the design of the Window Phone system to flow with our lives. Glance and go -- live and flow.

I believe that the Window Phone OS is the most natural mobile OS offering the most synergistic addition to our lives.