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apologeez if this article has already been made but too excited to care. just installed skyfire on my htc touch hd and it works. go to skyfire.com and download it.
Is this likely to be better than Opera already preinstalled?
I'm afraid it's still the same upscaled vga version that's been out for a while.
clown is correct, it's still an improvement over the old skyfire with which you had to use vgaFix with (even nice then alpha), but it's still not quite it.
Also, clown, I have a question (hope you read this), since you're using Dutty's Rom....do people know that if you add where you live to the world clock, it will sync with the weather and display it in the New Appointment in Calander? I don't want to start a thread if everyone already knows.
Thanks
It does 'work', in the sense you can see Flash/video content in-page, but it's important to remember Skyfire is a proxy browser - everything goes via their own server first, and all your form filling goes back through their servers too.
I'm liking the rich media, but not enough to risk them seeing my credit card details, passwords and browsing history!
Tried it a couple of times, and tbh, it's slow as hell.
Think I'll be taking it off soon.
c_lee said:
It does 'work', in the sense you can see Flash/video content in-page, but it's important to remember Skyfire is a proxy browser - everything goes via their own server first, and all your form filling goes back through their servers too.
I'm liking the rich media, but not enough to risk them seeing my credit card details, passwords and browsing history!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Somehow I doubt the $100k+ salary microsoft engineers care about your credit card number.... or would waste their time looking at your browsing history. Even if they were able to go through all that data and find your card number, you think they'd risk their job for the measily couple Ks in your bank account....ya I doubt that. Not to mention you're one of how many 100s of thousands of people using it daily. But hey, that's your perogative
Svegetto said:
Somehow I doubt the $100k+ salary microsoft engineers care about your credit card number.... or would waste their time looking at your browsing history. Even if they were able to go through all that data and find your card number, you think they'd risk their job for the measily couple Ks in your bank account....ya I doubt that. Not to mention you're one of how many 100s of thousands of people using it daily. But hey, that's your perogative
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's not the Microsoft bods I'd be worried about, and I believe that's the point...
c_lee said:
It does 'work', in the sense you can see Flash/video content in-page, but it's important to remember Skyfire is a proxy browser - everything goes via their own server first, and all your form filling goes back through their servers too.
I'm liking the rich media, but not enough to risk them seeing my credit card details, passwords and browsing history!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What do you think; the opera mobile, o.mini, IE mobile etc. work in different way than the skyfire? You are wrong!
Like you said before : "everything goes via their own server first"
And the main benefit from it is that pages are loaded quicker.
Feromon said:
What do you think; the opera mobile, o.mini, IE mobile etc. work in different way than the skyfire? You are wrong!
Like you said before : "everything goes via their own server first"
And the main benefit from it is that pages are loaded quicker.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Opera Mini uses proxying (it compresses to OBML) but in doing so they break end-to-end SSL, and so many secure sites (eBay etc.) refuse the traffic. Opera Mobile connects direct unless you specifically set up a proxy service. Skyfire uses the same concept as Opera Mini, and so breaks the SSL chain, but unlike O-mobile there's no option to turn it off. Because the proxy compression process results in unencrypted data on Skyfire's server (albeit transiently) a number of credit card companies have said the idea (based on how O-mini does it) breaks their rules on fraud protection, so the customer wouldn't be compensated if the card details were stolen.
IE Mobile on WM6.1 does not use proxying. Project Deepfish did, but that was closed in 2008 and the servers disconnected.
c_lee said:
Opera Mini uses proxying (it compresses to OBML) but in doing so they break end-to-end SSL, and so many secure sites (eBay etc.) refuse the traffic. Opera Mobile connects direct unless you specifically set up a proxy service. Skyfire uses the same concept as Opera Mini, and so breaks the SSL chain, but unlike O-mobile there's no option to turn it off. Because the proxy compression process results in unencrypted data on Skyfire's server (albeit transiently) a number of credit card companies have said the idea (based on how O-mini does it) breaks their rules on fraud protection, so the customer wouldn't be compensated if the card details were stolen.
IE Mobile on WM6.1 does not use proxying. Project Deepfish did, but that was closed in 2008 and the servers disconnected.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think it's not quite true but maybe I'm wrong. Correct me if so...
Opera does exactly the same. Both Opera and Skyfire pre-render websites through their proxies, the difference being that Opera is text-based and Skyfire is image-based.
That's why Opera loads slower and scrolls quickes (loads the whole text part of the website at once), while Skyfire loads quicker and scrolls slower (loads only the visible part as compressed image, google maps style).
I really don't understand it....everytime I go to their web page I can't seem to download it eventhough I already selected touchscreen and click the download button, nuthin happens
Feromon said:
I think it's not quite true but maybe I'm wrong. Correct me if so...
Opera does exactly the same. Both Opera and Skyfire pre-render websites through their proxies, the difference being that Opera is text-based and Skyfire is image-based.
That's why Opera loads slower and scrolls quickes (loads the whole text part of the website at once), while Skyfire loads quicker and scrolls slower (loads only the visible part as compressed image, google maps style).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Opera Mobile is not using a proxy, Opera is however launching a new version with a option to use a proxy, search on Opera Turbo.
What are your top 3 third party applications that you would love to have on your Windows Phone 7 Series? Most used applications for your daily routines, works, entertainment, what not ... Top 3 applications that you have in mind when asked about mobile applications.
Interesting to know so we could see what users expect to have on WP7 in terms of application.
It does not have to be Windows Mobile 6.x applications. If you think certain iPhone / Android / BB / Symbian apps thats fine.
I start with my top 3:
1. Offline navigation software
- like TomTom, CoPilot, iGo.
2. Opera Mini
- I just love the speed, thats all.
3. Good Facebook client
- Microsoft has one for WM6, but I expect much better than that. I read that iPhone version is better.
I basically use my phone for calls, messages and development... being last one like the only reason why I didn't keep my cheap old Nokia phone. Sometimes I'm using weather, GPS, reading emails or google for this or that but that's all and I'm just happy that I just can do such things whenever I would need them. I'm not really a crazy apps freak....
Got to be iGo as one of them for me!
gogol said:
3. Good Facebook client
- Microsoft has one for WM6, but I expect much better than that. I read that iPhone version is better.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The OS comes with great facebook integration already built in, no need for an app!
My top apps are:
FPSeCE (Playstation Emulator)
Spacetime 4.0 (Graphing Calculator Software)
Pandora
I know that, but I have doubt with that Facebook integration.
Not that I am saying it is not good, but from what I saw ... the integration is split into 2 hubs ... People hub where you can see status update of your Facebook friends and Photo/Pictures hub where you can see Facebook photo albums of your friends.
With dedicated Facebook app, all those will come in the same flow of information.
Well, not a big deal really, because I am using http://touch.facebook.com via web browser (Opera Mini).
Kloc said:
The OS comes with great facebook integration already built in, no need for an app!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
gogol said:
Not that I am saying it is not good, but from what I saw ... the integration is split into 2 hubs ... People hub where you can see status update of your Facebook friends and Photo/Pictures hub where you can see Facebook photo albums of your friends.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Which, IMO, is the best approach possible. Heck, I might even start using Facebook this way. Why would I need that information in a separate application? Why would I want to view photos in anything but a photo viewing app? Or where else do I need contact information apart from the contact app?
Also, this approach theoretically should aggregate information from different networks in a way that makes sense. I mean, if you are a member of both Facebook and, say, Linked-In, would you really want two separate applications to handle data from these networks?
1.Opera Mobile 10
To read 3 different newspapers each morning on my Omnia II and have all my desktop bookmarks synced OTA to my phone. Been using Opera since v3.0 or so, love it.
2.GSPlayer
to listen to somafm.com !
3. Googlemaps
Works good enough, could be done much better (font size can not be set !) and leaks 2 DC's each time you start and stop it. Have to take another look at bing maps soon
Coreplayer!!!!!!!!
IGO
BattClock (used to display battery info)
For me, if I can reduce time spent then I will choose that way.
Instead of going into 2 hubs to read status updates AND photo updates, I would prefer to just go once to look them all
Like I said, this is not a big deal because there is facebook website itself which can be accessed via web browser.
Probably because I use facebook a lot
Oh yes, the idea of multiple social network integration is nice, dont get me wrong. Probably just because of that, I would start using Twitter! Atm I am only using FB.
vangrieg said:
Which, IMO, is the best approach possible. Heck, I might even start using Facebook this way. Why would I need that information in a separate application? Why would I want to view photos in anything but a photo viewing app? Or where else do I need contact information apart from the contact app?
Also, this approach theoretically should aggregate information from different networks in a way that makes sense. I mean, if you are a member of both Facebook and, say, Linked-In, would you really want two separate applications to handle data from these networks?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Top applications: 'Real' Map-reader/GPS, Ebook reader,
Well, I might not be a typical user (and actually one of the things I liked about 'Windows Mobile Classic' was that it had a diverse ecosystem, catering for non-typical users!) but these are the two apps I use most:
1) A GPS/map-reader that works with real maps (i.e. topographic maps such as, in the UK, the Ordinance Survey series)
- so ideally, Memory-Map will port their software to WP7
2) An ebook reader that can read EPUB and TXT formats
- actually this is such an important use-case for me that I wrote a program to do it (see this thread). I expect to start porting it to WP7 just as soon as the SDK becomes available.
Windows Phone 7 is a paradigm-shift in how phones operate. Apps will no longer be individual screens, but will be subsumed into the overall user interface. Facebook is the most obvious example of that. If you take Tomtom, for instance, it will be peppered all over the phone in any of the following ways;
People Hub: Select a person and then hit the menu option to navigate to their home or workplace
Calendar Hub: Select a Calendar Entry and then hit the menu option to navigate to the Location of that entry.
Bing Search: Hit a search result to be navigated to its location if it is a real world place like a pizza restaurant, for instance. Once Tomtom is installed, instead of just the one option to be directed there by Bing Maps, you'll have a second option as well to navigate there by Tomtom.
Only once you're actually on the road will you get the Tomtom screen up with the 3D view of the road. The rest of the Tomtom UI will be embedded into these hubs.
I'd expect Twitter, Google Maps, Flickr etc to all melt into the phone's UI as simply extra menu options.
I think this is largely why the App list accessible from the home screen is so basic - it won't be the usual way to start an app. Normally the app will be called from a menu in part of one of the hubs. In this way, apps will organically feel like just an extension of the phone's usual functionality. Heck, I can even see the Photos hub doing something like footprints and recording the GPS coordinates, so you can use the Tomtom menu item in there to navigate to the place in the photo!
This is going to be totally awesome. And I think it's partly why the question of "Does it multitask" isn't so clear-cut...
I use my phone as a phone and as a PDA so most of what I need is already there (calendar, alarm, agenda, Excel, etc)
1) But I have to have an ewallet. I use SPB at the moment and fully expect them to port it to WP7.
2) I also would like some ereader that handles most file types (EPUB mostly).
Could care less about the whole Facebook/Twitter thing. Just hope they don't get in the way of how I use my phone. Will have to wait to see how the interface can be changed. If I have to have Facebook/Twitter in the middle of my processes I will probably not get a WP7 phone.
donnaw said:
Could care less about the whole Facebook/Twitter thing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry that doesn't make sense? Do you mean you could NOT care less?
I would like to see all my apps on it I hope I will be able to port them!
I love opera and youtube
giggles33 said:
I love opera and youtube
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Opera should be made redundant by the new version of IE contained in WP7S. Youtube will become a subsumed service as part of the Pictures & Videos hub in the UI, and will simply be another source of video from the cloud, in the same way that Facebook posted videos are. I would also imagine that the Bing search engine will return Youtube hits.
Basically, be prepared for apps to function in an entirely different way to what you're used to - they will become simply extensions of your phone's functionality - many apps will be able to avoid having their own screens at all and instead rely on the hubs to provide their input/output.
Jim Coleman said:
Opera should be made redundant by the new version of IE contained in WP7S.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's not likely that we'll see a version of Opera on WP7S as it's impossible to do a decent browser engine in managed code, because alternative browser makers will be the last to get access to native APIs (if ever), and probably IE will be much better than what we have now, but alternative browsers will not be made "redundant" by this. I can bet IE won't have text reflow, for example, which I personally love and severely miss when I try to use iPhone's Safari.
vangrieg said:
I can bet IE won't have text reflow, for example, which I personally love and severely miss when I try to use iPhone's Safari.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You would lose that bet.
I would like to see Skype on Win Phone 7
Making competitors (Opera must earn a lot of money with their OEM deals) redundant is just plainly impossible nowadays without some sort of "deal" made. It's really very interesting what will happen soon.
I know it is hard to believe that in this day and age there are people who do not spend half their day refreshing Facebook and Twitter. I personally do not even have an account at Facebook or Twitter or any other social networking site.
This is no problem as long as Facebook access is contained in an app that I can simply not launch. In WP7 however, from what I've seen of it at least, the social networking aspects seem completely unavoidable.
Whenever I go into contacts or people or whatever they are calling it, there will be a whole "What's New" column (Facebook Wall or recent Tweets I guess?) that for me would be blank all the time. Then there is the option to "share" content with others that seems to appear on every other context menu in the OS.
I'll admit my knowledge of WP7 is so far only skin deep. It is just a lot of what I read about it talks about how well integrated it is with social networks.
So does anyone know how far this integration goes? Is it just a few features that can be easily ignored? Or is it so deeply weeded to the OS that it would be constantly in your way and difficult to remove, like IE used to be with Windows.
If it is the later, clearly the best solution would be to not purchase a phone with WP7 on it.
Clearly WP7 has a ton of social integration within the OS but I don't think it's going to be mandatory that you actually use the stuff. They are aiming the device at business as well as entertainment and I know some companies would not want their employees doing facebook on their work phones. I'm sure they've realized this and made it so those features just don't show up when you arent linked to a facebook account.
MooGoo said:
I know it is hard to believe that in this day and age there are people who do not spend half their day refreshing Facebook and Twitter. I personally do not even have an account at Facebook or Twitter or any other social networking site.
This is no problem as long as Facebook access is contained in an app that I can simply not launch. In WP7 however, from what I've seen of it at least, the social networking aspects seem completely unavoidable.
Whenever I go into contacts or people or whatever they are calling it, there will be a whole "What's New" column (Facebook Wall or recent Tweets I guess?) that for me would be blank all the time. Then there is the option to "share" content with others that seems to appear on every other context menu in the OS.
I'll admit my knowledge of WP7 is so far only skin deep. It is just a lot of what I read about it talks about how well integrated it is with social networks.
So does anyone know how far this integration goes? Is it just a few features that can be easily ignored? Or is it so deeply weeded to the OS that it would be constantly in your way and difficult to remove, like IE used to be with Windows.
If it is the later, clearly the best solution would be to not purchase a phone with WP7 on it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1 with a little difference.
What do people like us do who do have facebook and twitter account but since we are based in china they are completely blocked here. Facebook, twitter, dailymotion, youtube etc are mostly blocked and hence i see the integration in Win 7 not much useful. Though i do think it will offer a lot of uniqueness but for me it would be iphone in the very future when i decide to buy the phone.
+1
I hate face..shi..t and I don't need twitter
but, because I do not have an account on these sites would stop using WM7
sorry for my english.. is english-google.. XD
if you dont have a account then just dont sign in..its not mandatory, just an added feature that you can turn on if you want/need
I don't understand. If you don't use Facebook and Twitter then just... don't use it. What task could you possibly be trying to do that would say"must log in to Facebook to continue"? None
If you don't have Facebook feeds coming in there is nothing to avoid or ignore.. so what's the problem again?
burnblue said:
I don't understand. If you don't use Facebook and Twitter then just... don't use it. What task could you possibly be trying to do that would say"must log in to Facebook to continue"? None
If you don't have Facebook feeds coming in there is nothing to avoid or ignore.. so what's the problem again?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you sure?
In the emulator at least, the column "What's New" is always there. Whether it be right next to the alphabetical list of contacts, or right next to the single contact info screen.
Also, because of the panorama display, you always see part of the next screen to your right. Then there is the fact that it is necessary to pan your way through contiguous screens to get to the one you want (there seems to be no way to skip over intervening screens/tabs).
These are the two main reasons which lead me to believe that this kind of integration is not something that can be simply disabled.
I never setup any Facebook account on the emulator.
Of course I realize that this is beta/alpha software I am dealing with. Hopefully Microsoft will be smart enough to remove social networking related tabs (screens, pages, what are they supposed to be called now?) if the appropriate accounts are not set up.
I don't see why a "share" option in a context menu or a "What's New" tab on a panel can't be shown if a person does not have social networking set up.
Take Sony Ericsson phones for example. MusicNow and stuff like a WAP browser don't simply "disappear" if you don't set it up. It's still there among the options.
Look at Nokia phones. Even if you don't set up an APN for use with internet, the option to click on a link from a SMS to launch a website would still appear. Whether you click on it is up to you.
The option to "share" in WP7 should always be there. Whether you click on it is up to you.
Hemant said:
What do people like us do who do have facebook and twitter account but since we are based in china they are completely blocked here. Facebook, twitter, dailymotion, youtube etc are mostly blocked and hence i see the integration in Win 7 not much useful. Though i do think it will offer a lot of uniqueness but for me it would be iphone in the very future when i decide to buy the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe you can use a proxy or VPN service?
MooGoo said:
Are you sure?
In the emulator at least, the column "What's New" is always there. Whether it be right next to the alphabetical list of contacts, or right next to the single contact info screen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
With the whats new maybe if you don't have Facebook/twitter linked it would just show recent SMS under peoples names or emails?
I'm going on the assumption that because the OEM developer documentation says that any OEM included applications 'must work without network/internet connectivity' that the OS will also work this way and there will be options to turn on and off the features.
It may turn out that we need to 'unlock' these features though as so far I've only seen it written in OEM info.
Interesting. Wouldn't that requirement exclude the inclusion of something like a weather application? Or does it just mean that the program would have to have the capability to cache data for offline use if necessary.
Even assuming that 'What's New' doesn't show you emails, SMS and other updates from that contact that have nothing to do with social networks...
you don't have to swipe over there.
With developers' ability to plug in, 'What's New' is at some point going to include some functionality you're interested in. Even if it's empty, that's no reason to disable it
I do hope you are correct about What's New being populated with emails/SMS etc, that would at least make some sense. But if this is not the case, I do not see why I should need to put up with an entirely worthless panel just on the off chance that some carrier may someday decide to put something there that interests me.
And why shouldn't I be able to disable it? If it is not disabled and just left empty as you suggest, I would indeed have to swipe it as the OS does not seem to provide a way to simply jump to the panel you want to see. This is another issue entirely, constantly having to swipe through unwanted content just to get the information you do want will get old very quickly.
MooGoo said:
And why shouldn't I be able to disable it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why shouldn't you be able to multi-task?
Why shouldn't you be able to develop in any language for any API that you want?
Why shouldn't you...
So I've finally joined the club and boy am I stoked. So, what are the first things one should do e.g. apps to get, slight customisation, games etc, help your fellow comrade.
I don't know if this thread has been done before, if not, maybe it could be a sticky?
the first advice i could give to you is: read the forums
That's the beauty of WP7. There's no real customization to be done and no real apps to get. You're good to go!
Sent from my GT-I9000M
APPS?
download OEM apps.
download what you need. Marketplace got almost everything
customization? you mean changing the color of the tiles? LOL
radeon_x said:
That's the beauty of WP7. There's no real customization to be done and no real apps to get. You're good to go!
Sent from my GT-I9000M
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How adorable, another android troll. There's also no lag, a good music player, no fragmentation (It's good to know I can't buy a new phone and have it be outdated next week) and hell, gaming has already about caught up with Android. You guys have more, we have better.
z33dev33l said:
How adorable, another android troll. There's also no lag, a good music player, no fragmentation (It's good to know I can't buy a new phone and have it be outdated next week) and hell, gaming has already about caught up with Android. You guys have more, we have better.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I guess the problem is that the more you feed the trolls , they keep coming back for more.
i just realize that he is using a sgs...
eww.
saldawop said:
I guess the problem is that the more you feed the trolls , they keep coming back for more.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, it's pretty much a greek tragedy how incompetent these android users are "LOL my phone OS is better than yours *tap 3 times before an app finally pulls up then swipe left or right and watch the lag roll in* Yup, totally better, I troll you."
Ha. That wasn't really a troll. I just meant there's no setup or critical apps you need to get the phone running. Just grab whatever catches your eye from the market and you're golden. I like that aspect of the platform compared to Android. Until you want your phone to do something a specific way, it's bliss.
Sent from my GT-I9000M
kappo78 said:
So I've finally joined the club and boy am I stoked. So, what are the first things one should do e.g. apps to get, slight customisation, games etc, help your fellow comrade.
I don't know if this thread has been done before, if not, maybe it could be a sticky?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Welcome to the world of WP7. Care to share which device you acquired?
MartyLK said:
Welcome to the world of WP7. Care to share which device you acquired?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't get it, aren't you the one who was pushing the WebOS users to outvote everything on that poll?
If you only get two games, get...
Ilomilo
Aphajax
Both will blow your mind into little wobbly pieces of grey blancmange and raspberry sauce. And all will be well in the world.
Wait! Someone's just put QUORUM down on a TW! Bastard!
radeon_x said:
That's the beauty of WP7. There's no real customization to be done and no real apps to get. You're good to go!
Sent from my GT-I9000M
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It depends on how you look at it.
Lacking the need for customization at a low level is good (Rooting to uninstall bloatware, etc.), but there are tons of instances where you have to hack the system up just to achieve trivial tasks. Adding Ringtons to you phone, accessing Camera Shutter options, changing the default Search Engine in the Browser (T-Mobile sets it to Google, and some Euro Carrier sets it to Yahoo!). Things like that. You can't even set a home page in the browser (so even though I can't stand searching through Google, there's no way to Set Bing as the home page and just open a new tab and search from there). The OS is literally devoid of options/settings that matter. Can't even toggle between EDGE and 3G to save battery without hacking the phone (and that hack doesn't even work for some phones).
These aren't deep customizations on any other smartphone platform, but for WP7 it requires going beyond rooting or jailbreaking an Android phone. It makes Android a bit easier to use than WP7 when you factor in OneClick Root apps and the ability to sideload applications without scouring threads/the internet for information to get this done (and installing a ridiculously big SDK on your computer - nevermind the fact that it requires a Windows PC as well).
Microsoft got it wrong.
The issue with Android settigs is not that there were too many. It's the way they are presented to the user. They're generally (especially in third party applications from independent devs) just thrown in the user face on one huge page. Decently organized options in groups or tabs... there's nothing wrong with that. They need to add tons of options for the system and stock applications, because making even trivial changes to some behaviors is impossible without going through more work than loading a custom ROM on an Android phone is right now.
Minimalistic is good if you do it right (iOS). Microsoft took it to the extreme and all it does is create a ton of usability faux pas.
z33dev33l said:
How adorable, another android troll. There's also no lag, a good music player, no fragmentation (It's good to know I can't buy a new phone and have it be outdated next week) and hell, gaming has already about caught up with Android. You guys have more, we have better.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually, you're trolling him.
He means that the stock functionality in the WP7 system is above and beyond Android and iOS. And it is. Everything comes from Microsoft, integrates nicely, and performs well. Aside from Microsoft and Manufacturer Apps (i.e. HTC, LG, Samsung Apps), there aren't that many apps that you need on a WP7 device to be functional - besides games. Twitter is missing in the People Hub, so that's a biggie, and the Facebook integration doesn't include all functionality, so you need that.
I suggest Twitter, Seesmic, Facebook (Seesmic because it includes both and is a nice hub to use when you don't need heavy duty FB/Twitter functionality). Microsoft has a ton of free apps that are useful. Your manufacturer (especially if HTC) will fill in many of the other gaps. Foursquare is in the Market.
Adobe Reader is in the market. Amazon and Amazon Kindle is there. eBay has a very nice App in the market. Messenger by Miyowa sadly I have to recommend it because it's the best of any Messenger app in the market at the moment.
If you have an HTC phone you don't need a weather app. The HTC Hub Tile is Live for Weather. If not, I recommend Weather bug or Microsoft's little weather app. Weather Channel is a 9MB app and I can't see how that ridiculous size is justified given how WeatherBug and Microsoft's weather app are both < 2MB (if not 1 or below).
Microsoft has a few free games to try out. AlphaJacks is like Words With Friends for Windows Mobile ("Try It" version is free forever, but Ad Supported). Haypi Kingdom is a nice strategy game that is multi-player (also available for iOS and Android, so there is no shortage of people to play with/against).
Office Apps aren't needed (Office Mobile)
NoteTaking Apps aren't needed (OneNote Mobile)
Exchange Clients aren't needed (In-Built Functionality)
Music Players aren't needed (Zune)
Radio Apps aren't needed (Zune)
Slacker and Last.FM exist for Internet Radio.
Shazam is available with Unlimited Tagging.
Microsoft has a List App in the market (and HTC has one in their Marketplace).
Poynt, AP Mobile, IMDb, Fandango are all there.
But there aren't many needed apps, TBQH. Most apps are slower to use than the web browser because they tend to take excessive amounts of time "Updating..." Loading a web browser or performing a voice search often outperforms them, IME.
I'd get the biggies. Personally I'd avoid crap that you don't necessarily need and use the space for stuff that matters (Music, Pictures, Documents, etc.).
You can save documents from SkyDrive to your computer by opening them up from the Office.Live.com website and saving them to your Office Hub in Office Mobile. OneNote Mobile Syncs perfectly. There is an option to keep your Camera Roll in Sync with SkyDrive (this can use a lot of data if you take lots of pictures).
N8ter said:
Actually, you're trolling him.
He means that the stock functionality in the WP7 system is above and beyond Android and iOS. And it is. Everything comes from Microsoft, integrates nicely, and performs well. Aside from Microsoft and Manufacturer Apps (i.e. HTC, LG, Samsung Apps), there aren't that many apps that you need on a WP7 device to be functional - besides games. Twitter is missing in the People Hub, so that's a biggie, and the Facebook integration doesn't include all functionality, so you need that.
I suggest Twitter, Seesmic, Facebook (Seesmic because it includes both and is a nice hub to use when you don't need heavy duty FB/Twitter functionality). Microsoft has a ton of free apps that are useful. Your manufacturer (especially if HTC) will fill in many of the other gaps. Foursquare is in the Market.
Adobe Reader is in the market. Amazon and Amazon Kindle is there. eBay has a very nice App in the market. Messenger by Miyowa sadly I have to recommend it because it's the best of any Messenger app in the market at the moment.
If you have an HTC phone you don't need a weather app. The HTC Hub Tile is Live for Weather. If not, I recommend Weather bug or Microsoft's little weather app. Weather Channel is a 9MB app and I can't see how that ridiculous size is justified given how WeatherBug and Microsoft's weather app are both < 2MB (if not 1 or below).
Microsoft has a few free games to try out. AlphaJacks is like Words With Friends for Windows Mobile ("Try It" version is free forever, but Ad Supported). Haypi Kingdom is a nice strategy game that is multi-player (also available for iOS and Android, so there is no shortage of people to play with/against).
Office Apps aren't needed (Office Mobile)
NoteTaking Apps aren't needed (OneNote Mobile)
Exchange Clients aren't needed (In-Built Functionality)
Music Players aren't needed (Zune)
Radio Apps aren't needed (Zune)
Slacker and Last.FM exist for Internet Radio.
Shazam is available with Unlimited Tagging.
Microsoft has a List App in the market (and HTC has one in their Marketplace).
Poynt, AP Mobile, IMDb, Fandango are all there.
But there aren't many needed apps, TBQH. Most apps are slower to use than the web browser because they tend to take excessive amounts of time "Updating..." Loading a web browser or performing a voice search often outperforms them, IME.
I'd get the biggies. Personally I'd avoid crap that you don't necessarily need and use the space for stuff that matters (Music, Pictures, Documents, etc.).
You can save documents from SkyDrive to your computer by opening them up from the Office.Live.com website and saving them to your Office Hub in Office Mobile. OneNote Mobile Syncs perfectly. There is an option to keep your Camera Roll in Sync with SkyDrive (this can use a lot of data if you take lots of pictures).
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Eh, no real apps to get doesn't exactly sound right. It makes it sound like anything released on this platform is bad.
To OP though, Ilomilo and Twin Blades are the only games I have that live up to my XBL expectations (and sadly I have most of them) there are other good games but Ilomilo overall. other than that Netflix is the only other one I'd deem necessary.
I knew exactly what he means when I read the post. Perhaps English isn't his first language, but it wasn't a hard statement to decipher...
Netflix is useless if you're not a subscriber, so I wouldn't deem it necessary at all. No one is going to subscribe to Netflix just to watch movies on a phone. Just doesn't make sense, IMO. If you're a subscriber, though, have it's nice to have...
The only necessary apps are those for social networking, and XBox Live Extras.
The Manufacturer Hub Apps (some/most of them) are a given.
TBQH, most smartphone OSes are like this. If the platform is missing something, like Android is, the Manufacturers usually add it in (ThinkFree Office, Amazon MP3, MobiTV, Exchange support, etc.).
One thing most of us forgot is Navigation Software. At this point if you want decent navigation with Turn-By-Turn directions, you're basically required to pay a subscription fee for TeleNav or whatever the phone comes with.
I've tried A-to-B Navigation. It's useless for all practical purposes.
Social Networking and Navigation Software are the only ones I'd say are necessary.
Also the Carriers are allowed to change the default search provider in Internet Explorer, so if you're a Bing user like me the usability of in-browser search is... terrible. T-Mobile Maps the Search button (and address bar search) in IE to Google and some Euro Carriers change it to Yahoo. Severely inconsistent and bad considering most people use the address bar to perform searches.
There is no option to change the default search provider. And performing that hack requires more manual labor than rooting and installing a custom ROM on an Android computer (and involves making registry changes, etc. on your Windows PC).
N8ter said:
I knew exactly what he means when I read the post. Perhaps English isn't his first language, but it wasn't a hard statement to decipher...
Netflix is useless if you're not a subscriber, so I wouldn't deem it necessary at all. No one is going to subscribe to Netflix just to watch movies on a phone. Just doesn't make sense, IMO. If you're a subscriber, though, have it's nice to have...
The only necessary apps are those for social networking, and XBox Live Extras.
The Manufacturer Hub Apps (some/most of them) are a given.
TBQH, most smartphone OSes are like this. If the platform is missing something, like Android is, the Manufacturers usually add it in (ThinkFree Office, Amazon MP3, MobiTV, Exchange support, etc.).
One thing most of us forgot is Navigation Software. At this point if you want decent navigation with Turn-By-Turn directions, you're basically required to pay a subscription fee for TeleNav or whatever the phone comes with.
I've tried A-to-B Navigation. It's useless for all practical purposes.
Social Networking and Navigation Software are the only ones I'd say are necessary.
Also the Carriers are allowed to change the default search provider in Internet Explorer, so if you're a Bing user like me the usability of in-browser search is... terrible. T-Mobile Maps the Search button (and address bar search) in IE to Google and some Euro Carriers change it to Yahoo. Severely inconsistent and bad considering most people use the address bar to perform searches.
There is no option to change the default search provider. And performing that hack requires more manual labor than rooting and installing a custom ROM on an Android computer (and involves making registry changes, etc. on your Windows PC).
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Not only that, but I wouldn't subscribe to any version of Netflix because of the cost. I watch maybe 2 to 4 rented movies a month. And some months, none. To have to pay a fee just to use Netflix is wasteful. Yet that's how NF works. I would, however, subscribe to NF if there was no fee. The only cost would be the rental charge.
I have to say the best game for Xbox Live is the Harvest. Feels like diablo with a sci fi twist. The bad thing though is if your a typical Xbox console gamer, you won't find much that will interest you on WP7.
I swear its a new puzzle or tower defense game ever week.
you can of course customise your lock screen, you could also install "pin to start" which apparently offers customised live tile (don't have it myself, not my type of thing". Apps wise, get the HTC You tube app if you have an HTC device, would also recommend pdf reader and the amazon kindle app (if you like books) beyond that, there are nearly 9000 apps to choose from - I think there are even a couple of "fart" apps if that floats your boat...........
I've already mentioned Adobe Acrobat Reader X and Amazon Kindle.
Not all applications have Live Tiles, and TBH without a Live Tile an app would have to be very important to merit a spot on you home screen (no one wants a home screen that scrolls for miles). I have issues keeping Seesmic/Twitter/Facebook on the Home Screen, for example, without a Live Tile. Games like AlphaJax are good cause the Tile is Live (tells you when it's your turn and how many games you have waiting on you, for example).
The HTC YouTube app is good, but it's only for HTC devices (I already said the Manufacturer apps were a given since they fill in obvious gaps in functionality i.e. YouTube, NotePad/List App, Flashlight, Attentive Phone, Live Weather Tile (HTC), Sound Enhancer, etc.).
The customization that I say is missing isn't really "customization" in the XDA-Developers sense.
Setting a Home Page in the Browser, Setting the Default Search Engine in the Browser, and Options for things like how long you want Toast Notifications to stay on the screen aren't any type of deep customization. It's simply a trivial setting that Microsoft needs to add. These things are missing all over the OS and need to be added in ASAP. It acually makes the OS a chore to use in many instances.
They also need to make carriers unable to alter the default search engine. It sucks for people who use a certain search engine, and makes it take 3x longer to perform searches if you don't want to go through Google. There just need to be an option for the three biggies (Bing, Yahoo, Google) or the ability to allow the bing homepage to set itself as the default search engine (or Yahoo, or Google).
Maybe its just me, but using this takes me back to the early 00's with WAP connections, Take the mobile twitter site, its a text based affair with no graphics unlike iOS and android who display it like there mobile apps, same with various websites I load, the look like they did on my old Nokia 7210 I had back in 2002 where as Safari on iOS and the Android web browser look basically the same as they would on a computer. What the reason for this?
The short version is, web developers (at least, the ones for those companies) suck. They're testing for expecific browsers, rather than testing for browser capabilities. IE9 Mobile is actually better than the browser on most of the older Android phones (a lot of phones still ship with 2.3 brand new, and many older ones never even *got* 2.3). However, because the user-agent string it sends doesn't identify itself as a WebKit browser, or some such piss-poor shortcut test, the site send incredibly dumbed-down web code as its fall-back to "I don't even know what this is" mode.
Note that many other sites *do* correctly identify the WP7 browser... just not all of them. Also, some will give different experiences depending on the site; for example, m.facebook.com has a very different UI from touch.facebook.com.
As for sites looking like they do in the desktop, if you want that, put the browser in Desktop mode (it's under Settings, which apparently people never bother to check...) That will cause the browser to send a user-agent string that closely approximates the one used by desktop IE. Websites which use that to identify the browser will therefore send the desktop site code.
The problem is many sites are not recognising it as a smart phone and are displaying a barebone mobile website designed for feature phones rather than smart phones.
It's the fault of the web site developers and not the browser itself. The iOS and android browsers are actually rubbish because of the latest webkit exploit and the fact that within them you still can't easily change the user agent settings.
GoodDayToDie said:
The short version is, web developers (at least, the ones for those companies) suck. They're testing for expecific browsers, rather than testing for browser capabilities. IE9 Mobile is actually better than the browser on most of the older Android phones (a lot of phones still ship with 2.3 brand new, and many older ones never even *got* 2.3). However, because the user-agent string it sends doesn't identify itself as a WebKit browser, or some such piss-poor shortcut test, the site send incredibly dumbed-down web code as its fall-back to "I don't even know what this is" mode.
Note that many other sites *do* correctly identify the WP7 browser... just not all of them. Also, some will give different experiences depending on the site; for example, m.facebook.com has a very different UI from touch.facebook.com.
As for sites looking like they do in the desktop, if you want that, put the browser in Desktop mode (it's under Settings, which apparently people never bother to check...) That will cause the browser to send a user-agent string that closely approximates the one used by desktop IE. Websites which use that to identify the browser will therefore send the desktop site code.
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Totally agree here too. I was speaking with Yelp about being able to view their mobile site through IE9 and WP and for their site to just recognize that it's IE9 and they said they have no plans to make changes to their website to accommodate WP.
This basically means, not until they see it worth their time/effort. Which is lame, cause, really, how hard is it to test for it and then display the mobile site if it's IE9? Why alienate customers, even if it's a small (yet growing) segment?
For me, its not working.
yesterday i had to visit Utorrent's remote control (remote.utorrent.com) to do some changes to my torrents, But unforunately i couldn't pass the "Touch to fill the proggress bar" antispam feature. "Move mouse" for PC.
I tried it with both desktop view and mobile view. no good.
I think developers need to pay some love for WP7 and make a good browser for it
I'd like to see firefox but they didn't make it. Yet ..
The problem is many sites are not recognising it as a smart phone and are displaying a barebone mobile website designed for feature phones rather than smart phones.
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Happened to me alot, Sometimes i get "Your browser is too old/unsupported" error and guess what? They refuse to show the website for me
Why don't we have an opera browser? I would definitely use that.
I find IE9 to be good. Yes, its not the best and its not comparable to others but it does a decent job.
The problem is with developers. Dev's try a lot to customize their apps for specific browsers and in turn make it difficult for non-popular browsers.
That is one reason HTML5 is being so looked upon. Everybody needs a common non-plugin solution to have a consistent web experience, which is already supported by IE9 of WP7
Have you guys checked out the HTML 5 Browser Speed Tests:
http://ie.microsoft.com/testdrive/
There are some really good HTML 5 tests there that shows the speed of the IE9 browser running those HTML 5 pages. Sure, they are pages created by Microsoft but it still makes me wonder why the android browser and iPhone browser are really poor at loading up these pages.
slugger09 said:
Take the mobile twitter site, its a text based affair with no graphics unlike iOS and android who display it like there mobile apps
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Twitter have fixed it.
Tone_ said:
Twitter have fixed it.
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Yeah, it was temporary.
Took them long enough, some tech writers jumped right into the IE9/WP7 bashing, even though it was on Twitter end
That also pretty much sums up and ends this thread.