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Hi there, this post is basically dedicated to current users of windows mobile, who bought their phone because of the virtues an open plattform offers. People like us aren't happy with the direction ms is heading with windows phone 7 and hope that the realize their wrong doing by reimplanting things like multitasking, deep-customization, file-system access, native coding or simply copy, cut and paste.
But why should we buy a windows phone 7 device and hope they transform it to something that resembles wm6 offer time when we could just switch to another plattform?
I mean...
- booth the devices we own and the software we use are not compatible to wp7.
- Android basically got every of the above features wp7 is lagging.
- Android devices are aviable or will be released from every major windows mobile manufacture.
- A lot of software studios will produce for Android.
- Through the ndk Google offers there will probably be more windows mobile software on Android than on windows phone in a year from now.
The only thing wp7 got IMO is the ui, and as we all know from endless debates with the iphone-guys ui is a matter of taste and can be ported...
If you're not a Google or Java hater and Android does what you need... don't hesitate.
Android is good. I'm right now playing with an older Android phone, and although it is very slow (old QCOM processor) and has a small screen, I find the experience to be better than the experience I have with my HD2.
I don't have the slightest doubt anymore that Android is better than iPhone OS or WP7S.
It's smooth.
It has a great, flexible home screen (who needs tiles when you got widgets?).
It has by far the best solution for notifications.
It multitasks.
It has a Marketplace and allows you to side-load apps.
It allows you to access the file system.
It copies and pastes.
It has an NDK.
It is available right now and only getting better.
What you don't get is integration with Microsoft's services, like Windows Live and XBox Live. Of course, there's a good chance that you don't care about them.
I've never used an iPhone but I've dabbled in Android for a while. Mostly, through the Poly port for Kaiser. Here's my views on WM6.5 vs Android.
Windows Mobile GOOD
#1 WM5 sucked. Very unstable, and scrolling speed is very slow. WM6 wasn't much different. WM6.1 become stable, but speed still suffers. WM6.5 very stable, but speed suffers. WM6.5.3 is very stable, and the speed is very fast, including scrolling.
#2 True freedom. You have 3 ways to install applications, and the choice for it to be on the SD card or internal memory. Copy and Paste, and all that jazz.
#3 Customization! Like Mc Donald's says, have it your way.
#4 Huge selection of apps.
Windows Mobile BAD
#1 Lots of problems with 3D acceleration support. Mainly due to OpenGL ES drivers.
#2 Only way to upgrade OS is through custom built roms on XDA-Developers. No support from MS, HTC, and etc.
#3 Majority of applications were written in 2003, and have since been abandoned.
#4 With Phone7 coming soon, developers will completely abandon WM6.5, and move onto Phone 7.
Android GOOD
#1 Based on Linux, which means lots of community support.
#2 Already has an established amount of useful applications.
#3 Very customizable. I've seen some impressive 3D stuff.
#4 You can install applications from the SD card.
#5 Copy and paste exists.
Android BAD
#1 Applications must be installed into main memory, unless you partition your SD card.
#2 Very reliant on a internet connection to do a lot of things.
#3 No Offline GPS option for the Nav.
#4 Google might try to take away the "Google" experience from rom cookers.
#3 No Offline GPS option for the Nav.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There's IGO8, Copilot... and some others. Or did I get you wrong?
#1 Applications must be installed into main memory, unless you partition your SD card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not anymore, afaik.
#4 Huge selection of apps.
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Click to collapse
That's even more true for Android.
But this is not WM6.5 vs. Android. WM6.5 is doomed, so the time will come when you have to switch.
WP7S is not worth waiting for, it's just an iPhone OS clone. So, in my opinion, there's no reason not to switch now, if you want to.
What happens when Android becomes the NEW Windows Mobile? You know it's headed in that direction now. There's like 3 or 4 different versions of the OS and the app community isn't doing well. When WP7 gets its footing in the market (iPhone already has), it's going to be really difficult to compete with these. Perhaps Android will be relegated to low-end smartphones
C:Sharp! said:
There's IGO8, Copilot... and some others. Or did I get you wrong?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I mean the built in Nav software, which the new one is pretty cool. I could use Ndrive, but I really like the built in Nav.
Not anymore, afaik.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe it's because I'm using a port for the HTC Kaiser. If that's the case, that can be scratched off the list.
WhyBe said:
What happens when Android becomes the NEW Windows Mobile? You know it's headed in that direction now. There's like 3 or 4 different versions of the OS and the app community isn't doing well. When WP7 gets its footing in the market (iPhone already has), it's going to be really difficult to compete with these. Perhaps Android will be relegated to low-end smartphones
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Won't happen for various reasons. Windows Mobile was never really taken seriously by Microsoft until now, but Android has Google behind them.
It's a lot like what happened to Internet Explorer. When Microsoft won the browser war between Netscape, they left it completely alone. Suddenly FireFox, Chrome, Safari, and Opera are kicking it's ass. Same thing happened with Windows Mobile. iPhone, and Android appeared and took Microsoft by surprise.
Also, since it's linux based, it can never truly die. The community has it's hands on it now, and they'll never let go. Don't be surprised if we see Linux distros in the Future for many phones. Something like Ubuntu or Slackware could become common to see on cooked phone roms, in a couple of years.
iPhone and Windows Phone 7 will still be popular, but does anyone truly believe that phones with so many restrictions will last? I'm sure Microsoft is betting that the Xbox feature will grab people, much like Apple is betting on that their fan base will always grab customers.
Won't happen for various reasons. Windows Mobile was never really taken seriously by Microsoft until now, but Android has Google behind them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Google has one success, that is it's search engine. This does not automatically mean success with other endeavors.
It's a lot like what happened to Internet Explorer. When Microsoft won the browser war between Netscape, they left it completely alone. Suddenly FireFox, Chrome, Safari, and Opera are kicking it's ass.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nothing is kicking IE's ass. What world are you living in?
Same thing happened with Windows Mobile. iPhone, and Android appeared and took Microsoft by surprise.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
MS deserved it.
Also, since it's linux based, it can never truly die. The community has it's hands on it now, and they'll never let go. Don't be surprised if we see Linux distros in the Future for many phones. Something like Ubuntu or Slackware could become common to see on cooked phone roms, in a couple of years.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It may not die, per se, but it definitely will never be big. Niche product at best. There's too much confusion in open systems. How many incompatible Android OS'es are out now? Modern smartphones will win or lose based on their apps. Androids app situation sucks right now.
iPhone and Windows Phone 7 will still be popular, but does anyone truly believe that phones with so many restrictions will last? I'm sure Microsoft is betting that the Xbox feature will grab people, much like Apple is betting on that their fan base will always grab customers.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is smart business. Use your existing successes to build a customer base. All smart companies do this...even Google.
WhyBe said:
Google has one success, that is it's search engine. This does not automatically mean success with other endeavors.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Gmail
Google Map
Chrome Web Broswer
Google voice
YouTube
All this is offered for free.
Nothing is kicking IE's ass. What world are you living in?
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Click to collapse
This world.
If you added IE6+IE7+IE8, then you can say it's more popular then FireFox. You have to wonder, if people are still using IE6 then it's most likely they probably don't know about other web browsers, or don't even know what one is. You know the type, logs on twitter, facebook, and myspace and uses AIM to chat to people.
It may not die, per se, but it definitely will never be big. Niche product at best. There's too much confusion in open systems. How many incompatible Android OS'es are out now?
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No more then Windows Mobile will have. We'll soon have legacy Windows Mobile 6.5, and Phone 7. Neither are compatible.
Modern smartphones will win or lose based on their apps. Androids app situation sucks right now.
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Not sure about Windows Phone 7, but iPhone has it horrible right now.
No porn apps
No emulators
No web browsers
No flash support
Android may not have as many pull my finger apps or farting apps as iPhone, but at least we can have all of the above. iPhone and Phone7 owners will be able to have 100 different choices of how to make fart noises from their phone, while I'll be able to view flash websites. While iPhone and Phone7 will enjoy half ass made games for their phones, eventually Android will get a Playstation and N64 emulator. I consider any Genesis or SNES game to be far superior then any 3D accelerated game they can put on those phones as is.
The biggest blunder from Apple was them pulling the porn apps. Everyone knows the internet and DVDs became popular due to porn. Enforcing that rule is sure suicide, despite the horrible image of me walking into a public bathroom and finding someone wacking off to porn on their Android phone.
When Mozilla ports FireFox to Android, I'll be able to use ABP and NoScript to have a truly secure surfing experience. While IE on Phone7 fails horribly on the Acid3 test. As it is IE9 gets a 55/100 on Acid3.
Just from what I've mentioned I say there's plenty of incentive to go with an open OS. Jail break your iPhone or **** break your Phone7, but you'll be in this endless battle between Microsoft or Apple.
Dukenukemx said:
Gmail
Google Map
Chrome Web Broswer
Google voice
YouTube
All this is offered for free.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Chrome Web Browser? A success? You must be kidding me. No, I'm not saying it's a bad product. But can you imagine how much money a promo campaign like Google did for Chrome, would cost a third party? So you spend billions of dollars (even though "virtual" in this case) and get absolutely laughable market share. Success?
YouTube they bought for a ridiculous amount of money, and it's a cash disposer. Yeah, we all enjoy it, no doubt about it. The more we enjoy it the more money Google coughs out on it. Windows Mobile is a bigger success than this.
Google Maps? You forgot Gmail. Some 90%+ of Google's income comes from its home page. Not even Adsense, which ads a few percentage points. So no, Google hasn't had a single success in any area apart from search, even though they've been trying to diversify like crazy because they are really scared of what may happen if they lose their search engine domination. The problem is, by doing all this free stuff everywhere about the only thing they achieve is that they technically cannot "fail". Sure, you don't set revenue targets, you just burn cash, what's a failure?
I love WM 6.5.3 and right now my phone (TD2) is just perfect the way it is. And if someday I want something to change then I can just flash a new ROM, install a cab or write another tool on my own.
I hate Android because your applications are running in a Java VM and you can't access the OS kernel functions like you can with WM.
Though yesterday I just for fun run Android on a Touch Diamond. I have to admit the UI is really nice done, even though it isn't THAT MUCH different compared to the user experience you get with 6.5.3. Some window animations here and there and I love it like you can pull down the taskbar and I like the multiple homescreen thing. Though I couldn't do a lot of things with it because for most things it needed a data connection (I didn't plug in a SIM card) and USB/WiFi didn't work. Also it asked me to sign up for Google account all the time. On 6.5.3 on the other hand some things are quite better implemented, for example start menu or Sense. I also like it that you can reach all functions through your touch screen. On Android you're always forced to use the hard keys to close a window or get out of an app. After all I wonder if it's possible to hack into the taskbar or bottom bar like I do on WM but due to Java VM environment I doubt you can do that.
After all, right now there's no reason why I should switch to Android. However I don't know what the situation will be in the next 1-2 years. So in the end all I can say: On the longer run it might be the only OS able to replace 6.5.3 in the future but right now it's just too limited for my taste (in other words I can also say it doesn't give me enough features to forget about some limits). But I definitely keep an eye on it
vangrieg said:
Chrome Web Browser? A success? You must be kidding me. No, I'm not saying it's a bad product. But can you imagine how much money a promo campaign like Google did for Chrome, would cost a third party? So you spend billions of dollars (even though "virtual" in this case) and get absolutely laughable market share. Success?
YouTube they bought for a ridiculous amount of money, and it's a cash disposer. Yeah, we all enjoy it, no doubt about it. The more we enjoy it the more money Google coughs out on it. Windows Mobile is a bigger success than this.
Google Maps? You forgot Gmail. Some 90%+ of Google's income comes from its home page. Not even Adsense, which ads a few percentage points. So no, Google hasn't had a single success in any area apart from search, even though they've been trying to diversify like crazy because they are really scared of what may happen if they lose their search engine domination. The problem is, by doing all this free stuff everywhere about the only thing they achieve is that they technically cannot "fail". Sure, you don't set revenue targets, you just burn cash, what's a failure?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+100
Thanks Vangrieg, you beat me to it
vangrieg said:
Chrome Web Browser? A success? You must be kidding me. No, I'm not saying it's a bad product. But can you imagine how much money a promo campaign like Google did for Chrome, would cost a third party? So you spend billions of dollars (even though "virtual" in this case) and get absolutely laughable market share. Success?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is success, even though the way to reach it is.... strange!?
But are Microsoft doing any better? They're just buying off companies if they need a new feature.
Google is buying new companies if they need a new feature - Android and YouTube are good examples. Microsoft isn't much better, but they have at least 2.5 sources of income - Windows, Office and Server/Tools. Now, that's a much better success because they sell that stuff. You have to be a complete loser to provide something that usually costs money for free, having a huge pile of cash and the world's largest web ad brokerage to not get a sizable market share. Yet Google does it all the time with Buzzes, Waves and all that acid-driven stuff that even tech savvy people rarely understand. And yeah, they'll muck up more than once with Android, the patent protection issue for OEMs is just the first bell that rang.
vangrieg said:
.. You have to be a complete loser to provide something that usually costs money for free ...
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Click to collapse
xda-developers provide a lot of free stuff, are they losers too? I don't think so
XDA is not a business, we're here for fun. Oh, and one little nuance, XDA doesn't have 20 billion dollars to burn and can't put an ad on every freakin' web site out there.
Dukenukemx said:
Windows Mobile BAD
#1 Lots of problems with 3D acceleration support. Mainly due to OpenGL ES drivers.
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Click to collapse
That's not a deficiency of Windows Mobile, it's a deficiency of phones manufactured by HTC. Users of the Toshiba TG01 and Acer neoTouch are very happy with their 3D support, and indeed with their hardware-accelerated video playback of virtually any codec and wrapper format.
vangrieg said:
Google is buying new companies if they need a new feature - Android and YouTube are good examples. Microsoft isn't much better, but they have at least 2.5 sources of income - Windows, Office and Server/Tools. Now, that's a much better success because they sell that stuff. You have to be a complete loser to provide something that usually costs money for free, having a huge pile of cash and the world's largest web ad brokerage to not get a sizable market share. Yet Google does it all the time with Buzzes, Waves and all that acid-driven stuff that even tech savvy people rarely understand. And yeah, they'll muck up more than once with Android, the patent protection issue for OEMs is just the first bell that rang.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't understand it as well, but seems like it's working for them. Microsoft offer more products because they are around way longer. Google are only here for roughly 10 years. Look up what MS had to offer after 10 years of existence, which was in 1985.
Actually, if you carefully listen to what Google execs say, it's not working for them. They are very nervous. I agree that one of the key problems is that they just started to diversify. They are doing too many mistakes though which are relatively easy to avoid. It's actually a funny phenomenon you can often see in companies driven by engineers because they're so into technologies and inventions and such that they just can't resist pushing their cool new things out the door. Google is in fact a lot like Microsoft, only less mature and disciplined, in this regard. A contrast to this approach is Apple where hardly anyone ever sees a beta product, and the company is incredibly focused.
Apart from product development, there's one more thing where Google doesn't have a lot of experience, and that's partnering with others. Jobs once said that he absolutely admires Gates's abilities in this regard, saying that in fact, with all the spats, fan base animosity, tensions and all, Microsoft is the only long-term partner Apple has had through all these years, and the partnership works amazingly well for both parties. He even noted that MS is the second largest developer of software for Apple products after Apple. Google has a long way to learn how to maze through all these issues and make lasting relationships. It's one thing to attract everyone with a free product and give OEMs better bargaining position against Microsoft with a mobile OS, it's a totally different thing to carry it on to market leadership with so many conflicting interests and challenges.
Sure OEMs flirt with open source OSes, IBMs and HPs of the world are investing a lot of resources into Linux development and all, but at the end of the day which OS shows up as "recommended" on their web sites? Sure HTC is all about Android, Open Handset Alliance and all that PR stuff these days, but what does its CEO say when asked why HD2 was a WM device? "We have to take care of Windows Mobile first".
WhyBe said:
What happens when Android becomes the NEW Windows Mobile?
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Click to collapse
This is not going to happen.
Contrary to what some people believe, "fragmentation" does not hurt Android much and it's not what made Windows Mobile die.
Windows Mobile died, because it got zero support from Microsoft over many years. There was no money and no developers. They could easily have made it competitive to the iPhone within a year. But they didn't. It took them one and a half years to even figure out what to do and end all the internal battles, which is an eternity in the mobile space.
Google stand behind their mobile OS and you can be sure that they will fix any problems that emerge. If fragmentation becomes too much of an issue, they'll fix it. If the UI gets outdated, they'll fix it. Microsoft didn't fix anything.
And aside from that, it will take Windows Phone 7 at least another year, to even become an option. Handsets must be launched, bugs will have to be fixed and the Marketplace has to be filled. Only then will it be competitive, if ever.
That's plenty of time before you can even consider Windows Phone 7, thus switching to Android now is not wasted money.
RAMMANN said:
I don't understand it as well, but seems like it's working for them. Microsoft offer more products because they are around way longer. Google are only here for roughly 10 years. Look up what MS had to offer after 10 years of existence, which was in 1985.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How can you compare this?
A lot of what Google has done the last 10 years is based on what MS and others made possible the first 10 years.
It's like saying that Ferrari has accomplished more then Ford because they have made better and faster cars the last 10 years then Ford did the first 10.
Ferrari might not have existed today if their wasn't someone that made engines and wheels before them.
Android is the first (open source) Linux OS that has been sold on a device. although you call it open source it's not more open the WM or iPhone.
Google is controlling the development of the OS and anyone can make applications for it.. whats the difference now between android, WM or iPhone? and witch one of them is most open source? all of them have the same. A company that develops the OS and developers making the apps.
I only see MS going less open source with WP7.
and to not having porn apps and other stuff on iPhone well jailbreak and you have it.
Now some will say you can't do anything without jailbraking an iphone. Well without Hard spl you are also kind of sucked on WM.
Android has already several updates and can't be run by all older devices.
WM also have a few updates but a wizard that is quite an old device can run WM 6.5.
Hello? Is Windows Mobile so Irrelevant that we just don't get Skyfire anymore?
Skyfire is charging iphone customers for what we have been using for years, and yet now we can't use it? I'm pissed. Their servers are overloaded because they pre render the pages, and I understand that, but to simply forget about us is wrong. We didn't pay for it so we don't count anymore?
Are we going to get Skyfire function back? If so, is it going to be intermittent because Apple people jump all over it again?
SpinalRemains said:
Hello? Is Windows Mobile so Irrelevant that we just don't get Skyfire anymore?
Skyfire is charging iphone customers for what we have been using for years, and yet now we can't use it? I'm pissed. Their servers are overloaded because they pre render the pages, and I understand that, but to simply forget about us is wrong. We didn't pay for it so we don't count anymore?
Are we going to get Skyfire function back? If so, is it going to be intermittent because Apple people jump all over it again?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm pretty upset about it too, but seeing as most devs are leaving WM for WP7, I doubt that we'll see this working for us again in the near future. Maybe it'll be working again when they add more servers to cope with the new demand. Only time will tell. I know I've got my fingers crossed.
Petition to bring Skyfire back to WinMo http www ipetitions com/petition/skyfireforwinmo/
Thanks for the link. I don't actually believe it will do anything, but what the hell right?
No one is even upset that ppl are paying for it. I know I would gladly fork over 3 bucks for Skyfire. It's the way they did it. One day we're happy and using and the next day Apple is their new customer. That's just mobile ass rape at its finest if you ask me.
I read a user on here comment some time ago "I will never use a server based browser" in reference to Skyfire. And now I see why. They can decide to drop support whenever they want, and you are completely screwed, and don't even know what is going on.
Interesting, Skyfire became the No. 3 best selling paid app within 5 hours on the Apple app store, before it had to be pulled due to the Skyfire servers being overloaded.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/209765/apple_iphone_users_overwhelm_flashfriendly_app_skyfire.html
Sad to see so many people flocking to what seems to me a developer that does not support it product. I understand WM (at least versions before WP7) is a sinking ship, and a similar thing will likely never happen to the iPhoney. But it seems pretty crappy for a developer to suddenly drop its software apparently without warning or any kind of announcement/communication.
Oh it's completely personal. They rendered 3 quicklinks on my Home Page useless. It doesn't get any more personal. Messing with someone's mobile device is like messing with their woman, or their car. It's just wrong. Send me a dam Email or somethin. Is that too hard?
Wow that's terrible. I've been using OperaMini for some time now since it came out of beta. But I guess some people want flash to work in their browser.
The Uzard browser might be a good replacement:
http://www.uzard.com/en/down/download_windowsmobile.asp
(i also attached a cab)
i think it might have to be installed on the storage card to work.
Skyfire hasn't even bothered to post an announcement on their website. In fact, WM is still listed on their site as being supported, and Skyfire is still on the MS Marketplace. This is terrible communication. I hope they screw iPhone users just like WM users. Unlikely, but if iPhone users are dumb enough to buy into this, then they deserve what's coming to them.
how.to.get.WMplayer.7.?in.tilt2?
japper88 said:
Wow that's terrible. I've been using OperaMini for some time now since it came out of beta. But I guess some people want flash to work in their browser.
The Uzard browser might be a good replacement:
http://www.uzard.com/en/down/download_windowsmobile.asp
(i also attached a cab)
i think it might have to be installed on the storage card to work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Does this allow the flash player to work, like with skyfire?
I was wondering what happened, since I am getting the servers filled message for the past few days.
So many websites now days require the flash players to work properly, Opera just isn't cutting it anymore.
StrangeShadow said:
Does this allow the flash player to work, like with skyfire?
I was wondering what happened, since I am getting the servers filled message for the past few days.
So many websites now days require the flash players to work properly, Opera just isn't cutting it anymore.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried uZard, and yes, it transcodes Flash content same way that Skyfire did. but it was painfully slow. Even when rendering non-Flash webpages.
SKyfire News Update
For anyone interested, Skyfire announced that they were ending support for WM and Symbian devices at the end of this year. There is talk of offering it again, but for a price this time. It would be a welcome cost, for me, as their 1.x version is more feature rich than the new 2.x version available currently for iPhone users and soon for Blackberry 6, Meego, and WP7. Legacy support will end in about six weeks. Uzard is pretty much the only other option, albeit a crappy one so far. It's still in beta, but hopefully the final product is better than the current version.
R.I.P. Skyfire
You will be missed.
SOURCE ARTICLE
It works really well, doesn't seam to keep cookies, etc, so no trouble having to delete it after use too. Doesn't seam to offer a copy paste feature or selection tool though, if you want to copy some text from a web page.
cajunflavoredbob said:
For anyone interested, Skyfire announced that they were ending support for WM and Symbian devices at the end of this year. There is talk of offering it again, but for a price this time. It would be a welcome cost, for me, as their 1.x version is more feature rich than the new 2.x version available currently for iPhone users and soon for Blackberry 6, Meego, and WP7. Legacy support will end in about six weeks. Uzard is pretty much the only other option, albeit a crappy one so far. It's still in beta, but hopefully the final product is better than the current version.
R.I.P. Skyfire
You will be missed.
SOURCE ARTICLE
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I assume that we will be left without a flash browser in the next few months. Skyfire left us hangin on for a year without an update before finally tellin WM users they were done with us and if u research u'll find that UZARD has not given us an update in almost a year. The UZARD WEB S & UZARD WEB H they have been showin on their site for 8 month that were gonna be the socalled next updates for WM were never released. My guess is they are takin a page from Skyfires book and was waitin on WP7. I personally do not wanna have to install XDANDROID just to run android apps on WM. I think our best bet is to find someone to port the android version of SKYFIRE if we want to continue using a flash equiped browser on WM or get someone to port FLASH10.1 from android. Maybe someone should start a bounty thread for these android ports.
I allways installed it but never used it. Opera mini is way better
Skyfire is working for me currently. I'm enjoying it while it's available. I would certainly pay for it if they decided to charge for continuing support.
cajunflavoredbob said:
Skyfire is working for me currently. I'm enjoying it while it's available. I would certainly pay for it if they decided to charge for continuing support.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
can You still use Skyfire ? in my phone it can't connect to the derver.
jsaid said:
can You still use Skyfire ? in my phone it can't connect to the derver.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope. It stopped working earlier this week for me. They were shutting it off region by region. Everything is expected to go dark for legacy support by 31 December this year.
Hi guys/gals
Hope everyone had a nice X Mas.
I'm still looking for a replacement browser or something so that I can run Flash on my TP2 like I did with Skyfire. Anyone have any solutions besides that Uzard one? That one was just too clunky and slow. I really do not want to upgrade my device because I have come to love the archaic TP2, but not having flash is really a downer.
I didn't notice that they pulled support until some time later. Honestly, I got very frustrated with how slow the "fastest" browser was. It used to be good, but after awhile it just became frustrating. Once I discovered Opera Mobile 10, I almost never used it anymore. (Call me crazy, but Opera Mobile 10 is my favorite mobile browser, I just love the interface and it may not be super-fast but it's not too bad in that respect.) (I never really cared for Opera Mini on anything other than dumbphones-- having to deal with java apps, I think, is kind of a pain. But, that's just a matter of personal taste.)
I briefly used a Nexus S, and I never even bothered to install the Android version of Skyfire on it. It's just my personal opinion that there are better browsers out there. I guess I don't use flash that often, and, honestly, Skyfire didn't do a great job of it anyway. Sometimes it was useful, but usually it was clumsy and difficult.
It had a time that it was a great browser, but it seemed like they reached a point where they stopped listening to what their users wanted. Like the whole giant text thing that never worked consistently. A lot of people on their forum said that they hated it, but they never gave us the option to disable at (at least while I was using it).
That being said... Yeah, they're jackasses for just leaving us high and dry when we were the ones that got them started. I guess they think they're appealing to a wider audience, but when the non-technical users realize that server-side browsing has problems, they'll stop using it, and when those of us that are using WinMo 6.x are finally forced to use Android or WP7... well, I don't know about anybody else, but I sure won't be using their crappy browser, knowing that they're going to turn tail and run at the first sign that they might make a buck elsewhere.
I'm not an enormously technical person, but this is just the way it seems to be to me. In a way it kind of reminds me of how RIM bought Torch and we lost Iris. Not that I would expect RIM to continue to develop a browser for a competitor, but as a user it just sucked when that happened because we lost a pretty good browser. But in that case, at least, we can still download the old cab files and use it, we just won't get updates.
So here we are - Windows Phone 7 has been around for a (short) while now, and the amount of apps has grown to a significant level. Obviously the marketplace isn't as extensive as on iOS or Android just yet, but we're getting there.
Now what I'm wondering is, what do you think about the current state of the market?
Do you think there are enough free apps? Or aren't they that important, because of the trials available?
And do you think that the general quality of the apps is higher than on other platforms, or not? And so on.
I'm really interested in your experiences so far, and I think many others are too.
So please, describe how you feel about the apps on this new platform!
I'm personally very satisfied based on what's available to the developers. It would be unfair to judge them based on factors that are out of their control... But as far as what the API allows, I'm pleased, especially in the games department. I would like better alarm applications and more live tiles, but all of that will come in due time. The trial ability is the best part of the whole marketplace experience.
I don't like the feel of the Market place. I went from and HD2 to an HD7. I use the phone for both work and play. I do a lot of both. As far as apps for work it is really amazing. What ever it is i want to do i can find an app that works well and improve my productivity. As far as apps for play not so much. the I.M. software is weak. I do love the Pro Football Weekly app. I definitely feel there is a lot of room for improvement.
Ive foud the wp7 market to be much better than the android market but obviously not up to par with iOS. There is of course a bunch of garbage in all 3 but i dont feel that wp7 has as much useless crap as android. I want to say i have no problem with android or iOS on a whole. Just stating my opinion on the markets.
as of right now I'd say the market is a mess, but I fully expect it to get better:
1. search is absurd: if I search for an app, I also get a list of songs, playlists, etc; rumored to be fixed in first update
2. live tile inconsistency: some work all the time, so won't work at all, some stop working for weeks; I assume this is a developer-driven problem and will get better over time, though i'm a bit concerned with the 15 live tile limit, as i'm already over the limit
3. trials: very happy with this feature, I have tried and purchased many apps I never would have looked at if they were 1.99 with no trial
4. quality: hit and miss, as with android and iOS markets; I suspect the developers are a bit hamstrung with some of the limitations of wp7 at the moment
5. stability: app store crashes, lockups, etc are a bit frustrating, but again I assume that will be fixed in an upcoming update
(keep in mind, I'm not a dev, these are the views of a consumer)
I like what is available now. Most of the apps I tried had very good quality with a very nice use of the Metro UI.
I hate that some apps are called "X for free", you know straightaway these are ports from another OS. Just give your app a damn name and put it in the Free section .
I also hate apps that are optimised for the US and don't work or crash constantly in Europe.
Overall it's progressing well, I'm hoping for quick must have apps like Amazon, Paypal, Live Messenger (Come one Microsoft, the iPhone has the best Messenger app around and you made it!) or TV Guide.
Also waiting for must have games we all know but with Live enabled (Words with Friends, Angry Birds, Cut the rope, Game devs story...).
By the summer it should be an important market, the updates just need to be up to par.
I think it sucks and it's terrible. The browser is very slow and either crashes, freezes or worse ends up rebooting the phone after a while. The browsing experience is the worst, I hardly browse anymore now.. because most of the time I end up waiting and waiting until I just leave before it crashes or locks up.
As far as applications, there still aren't any major hitters on the market yet apart from games, no decent instant messaging app really hurts, very few productivity apps compared to the blackberry and 90% of the time the new apps are a complete waste of time (made worse by the horrible market place browser).
There are some good apps there though but again the browser needs a update very badly.
There's no point having more vocal opinions about the Marketplace app, everyone knows it's broken, Microsoft included. We're just waiting for an update.
I only use the Zune client and Bing Visual Search to browse the apps now, I don't see why I would use the phone app when I know it's broken.
The OP is asking about the apps and games themselves and that's what we should comment on really.
I think its just decent Could be better, but what can u expect from 1.0!?
Im satisfied many bugs are getting fixed, and developers are busy. Would be more satisfied if MS made an offer on RIM, soo WP7 would get more media-attention/techinfo etc and grows bigger. More users --> More attractive for Developers. But Microsoft will have their reasons
Like now Appaloosa is cancelled because of the high cost vs expected return. If WP7 was bigger, developers can invest more because of a higher expected return. Would be awesome
EDIT: Thread reopened and will be moved to the appropriate section.
(It is nice to see someone pay attention and ask politely.)
~~Tito~~
Peew971 said:
There's no point having more vocal opinions about the Marketplace app, everyone knows it's broken, Microsoft included. We're just waiting for an update.
[snip]
The OP is asking about the apps and games themselves and that's what we should comment on really.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, that is what interests me most.
I'm slightly surprised by the spread in positive and negative replies (and votes in the poll). It's roughly 50/50, with a slight advantage to the positive experiences.
This surprises me so much because the apps I've seen trough blogs like PocketNow, Engadget, Gizmodo and WMPoweruser looked pretty awesome, and I could only think of one thing I was missing: a mobile app called 'Reisplanner Xtra' for the trains in the Netherlands (currently available on WM, Android and iOS). This is a very specific app only useful to Dutch users, so I kinda blindly expected that most people could find what they need.
Also I'm somewhat shocked that there is no good Live Messenger app available on their own platform. Luckily, this is something we can be sure of that it's bound to improve. Maybe they're waiting for the right API's to be released
Jokes aside, which apps would you like to see more? I see people mentioning IM applications (among others) not only in this thread - but what else do you think is missing?
I said that I'm satisfied but it's nothing special.
Why I'm satisfied:
rapid growth - the selection is great considering how long it's existed
decent quality apps - overall, the apps look decent. I guess the standardized design language has made it easy
big name apps - a lot of the big names are on board already
XBOX LIVE is actually pretty cool. Even though you can't play in real time vs XBOX friends yet.
Why it's not special... yet:
Search is still messy - It needs search filters. Fortunately, it's one of the things being fixed in the first update.
app store size - while a somewhat unfair criticism, it still lacks much of a selection of high quality apps. But at this rate of growth, that criticism will go away in no time.
Still a few bugs - unable to update some apps in Trial mode. crashing back to main screen. etc..
I am satisfied for the most part and although it is not up to level with iOS (obviously, no operating system is up to iOS par and I don't expect that to change), the quality of the apps is really good. The search can be a little over the place, but I like how you can trial some apps. I have probably downloaded more apps on WP7 than Android.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/216954/groupon_discount_doesnt_bode_well_for_windows_phone_7.html
Not selling well?
Isnt that usual marketing?
In Germany they are doing pretty much marketing. MS is touring through many universities presenting shows of a known comedian and of course advertising wp7 really big.
Sent from my HTC Mozart using Board Express
Is it just me or around October did we not get word that Flash for Windows phone 7 was coming but since then its like nothing was ever said. Does anyone have any more insight on this or was it all just a big rumour that's now being ignored?
Well, there's not much talk about it, although it was mentioned officially several times. Flash will come when Adobe delivers a version with decent performance (which may be just a tiny bit earlier than when cows come home).
There's not much talk about it because there's not much to talk about. It's one of the topics to discuss for the blogosphere, especially since Steve Jobs criticized Flash in public, but lack of Flash isn't really that big of a deal in practice, so you don't see waves of complaints really.
vangrieg said:
Well, there's not much talk about it, although it was mentioned officially several times. Flash will come when Adobe delivers a version with decent performance (which may be just a tiny bit earlier than when cows come home).
There's not much talk about it because there's not much to talk about. It's one of the topics to discuss for the blogosphere, especially since Steve Jobs criticized Flash in public, but lack of Flash isn't really that big of a deal in practice, so you don't see waves of complaints really.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes it is a very big deal.
Big amount of internet data is not available for the user, including videos and websites built on flash. There are many things which matter to me and I can't see them.
The whole things looks like intentional - probably lazyness. There's no reason to not support flash these days.
doministry said:
Yes it is a very big deal.
Big amount of internet data is not available for the user, including videos and websites built on flash. There are many things which matter to me and I can't see them.
The whole things looks like intentional - probably lazyness. There's no reason to not support flash these days.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh come on. How many smartphones do actually support Flash properly? Sure, Android does to some extent, but not nearly on all the devices out there and it's far from fluid on the majority of the ones that do. Apple's iPhone (or iPad) doesn't. WM6.5 doesn't. Crackberries doesn't. The list goes on.
While Flash would be a great addition I wouldn't want it unless it was fast and full-featured. Playback of choppy videos is not Flash support. It would be better to just hand off the H264 stream to the built-in video-player, just like the YT plugin does. Support for Flash games or apps is a completely different beast.
Glaring
doministry said:
Yes it is a very big deal.
Big amount of internet data is not available for the user, including videos and websites built on flash. There are many things which matter to me and I can't see them.
The whole things looks like intentional - probably lazyness. There's no reason to not support flash these days.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree totally. On the way to an ATT store to check on some cases, I logged into Hallmark.com to buy an ecard for my daughter AND COULD NOT PREVIEW any of them. I then went to check the weather maps at NOAA.gov and could not see any of the looped maps. I then tried to go to publishers clearing house to fill out some lotto tickets and couldn't because the site didn't detect Flash on my phone. This happened all within a few minutes. Don't anyone try to tell me it is not a big deal, IT IS!!!!!! MS has delivered a hobbled browser experience in WP7. It is their responsibilty to work with Adobe to fix this, we are the customers of MS, not Adobe.
emigrating said:
WM6.5 doesn't.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, Opera on HD2 supported Flash, although it was disabled by default and you had to meddle some settings to turn it on, but I never ever ran into the need.
On the iPhone this was never an issue for me as it handled video on most sites, and ran those videos in iPod, which, for me, is a vastly superior method to showing them in-browser.
On WP7, you can view YouTube videos just fine, which is the majority of videos on the web, but of course you'll stumble into cases when it won't work. How important is it? I personally don't care. You may, so your mileage may vary.
But of all the issues with WP7 this one is least discussed in reality. Which does show that it's more of a chat topic than anything else, IMO.
Flash would be a better marketing point than a benefit to the user on a phone sized device. MS should implement Silverlight and Flash in browser just for marketing alone!
On a tablet, thats' a different matter. imo.
vangrieg said:
Well, Opera on HD2 supported Flash, although it was disabled by default and you had to meddle some settings to turn it on, but I never ever ran into the need.
On the iPhone this was never an issue for me as it handled video on most sites, and ran those videos in iPod, which, for me, is a vastly superior method to showing them in-browser.
On WP7, you can view YouTube videos just fine, which is the majority of videos on the web, but of course you'll stumble into cases when it won't work. How important is it? I personally don't care. You may, so your mileage may vary.
But of all the issues with WP7 this one is least discussed in reality. Which does show that it's more of a chat topic than anything else, IMO.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know Opera did, to some extent, support Flash on WM. But I didn't list it because it wasn't enabled by default, and even after setting it up myself it was a very flawed experience.
As for videos on WP7, the YT plugin does fine. I wish it would extend support to other sites, but I agree it's much better than displaying video in-line on the webpage itself.
But forgetting about video for a second, Flash is used for a lot of other purposes and while it would be great to have this all in the browser I would only want it if it worked perfectly and didn't slow down the entire browsing experience like it does on certain other platforms. Now, time will tell, but I have a feeling Flash presence is being replaced by HTML5 and to an extent Silverlight in which case, by the time Flash is viable on WP7 there would be no need for it.
Flash lite was on WM since 6.1 and worked on IE.
Flash isn't on WP7 because of security reasons they say.
I heard a few months ago that Adobe and Microsoft were in talks about putting Flash on WP7. I imagine that if it's taking this long, there is probably talk about accessing native code or having it actually built into the browser instead of being a plug-in.
my guess is they are going to wait until the "Mango" update for flash, as HTML5 and Silverlight ni the browser are rumored to come with that update as well.
emigrating said:
Oh come on. How many smartphones do actually support Flash properly? Sure, Android does to some extent, but not nearly on all the devices out there and it's far from fluid on the majority of the ones that do. Apple's iPhone (or iPad) doesn't. WM6.5 doesn't. Crackberries doesn't. The list goes on.
While Flash would be a great addition I wouldn't want it unless it was fast and full-featured. Playback of choppy videos is not Flash support. It would be better to just hand off the H264 stream to the built-in video-player, just like the YT plugin does. Support for Flash games or apps is a completely different beast.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry but you are talking around the topic.
Today Android - with the biggest increase in market, supports Flash very nicely, as well as the biggest on marketshare - Symbian - supports this FOR YEARS.
So stop this BS about "almost nobody supports this". And why this argument? Isn't WP7 "a new thing"?
WM6.5 was also supporting flash and on my SE X2 I could see alot from what I wanted. Another BS.
And the performance... Stop this nonsense. There are pages which are just a blank spot while many other platforms just show the damned content.
I know you want to justify every **** from MS but it starts to be annoying.
Maybe you should ask MS to cut some more features in order to gain perfect performance?
Main issue? Adobe outsourced their development to india...
I really do hope that browser support for Flash comes to WP7.
Like any other additional feature I want, I'm willing to be patient. There's still a lot that will need to be one over time. And I would rather have it done right, than just having something out that is slow or clunky.
As a N1 user with Flash for the past few months, I can say, it's not choppy, slow or anything like that. It was actually implemented very well. I still use my N1 for travelling instead of my Focus because it has google nav and flash (ie I can watch videos online from anywhere, not just YouTube). I love watching Top Gear Reruns..
The only downside to Flash on Froyo was not only did you get the good (videos and flash content) but the bad (flash pop ups). But it also had a setting so that you could load any flash content manually with a single click.
I'm on board for Flash on WP7 for sure.
I had time to look at this again and from what i see adobe is about to release flash 10.2 so maybe the wait is to bring it out in line with that esp as its much less power Hungary and more secure than 10.1
Full flash support isn't necessary and would probably be pretty crappy like on Android. I'd rather just have a Skyfire browser on WP7.
I don't understand why people are saying Flash on Android (froyo) is crappy. On my N1 it was pretty much flawless. Did other versions of froyo that are locked down by carriers maybe muck it up?
legbuh said:
I don't understand why people are saying Flash on Android (froyo) is crappy. On my N1 it was pretty much flawless. Did other versions of froyo that are locked down by carriers maybe muck it up?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nppe, flawless here on the Vibrant, but wait someone will jump here from G1 and tell us all it is ****ty
lumpaywk said:
I had time to look at this again and from what i see adobe is about to release flash 10.2 so maybe the wait is to bring it out in line with that esp as its much less power Hungary and more secure than 10.1
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Most likely not - from what I gather the current Internet Explorer does not allow plugins. This means Flash will not be possible until Microsoft updates IE - something I doubt will happen until the end of the year.
eternalemb said:
Full flash support isn't necessary and would probably be pretty crappy like on Android. I'd rather just have a Skyfire browser on WP7.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But what good is Flash if it doesn't give full support? Watching videos? There are much better ways to do this, like simply pass over the video stream to the internal player (as long as the underlaying format is supported).
As for the general crappiness of Flash on Android; sure there are devices/installs/ROMs where it's pretty much flawless, but OOB on just about all devices it sucks.
There are rumours this will be turned into an ad campaign, time will tell.
The "really" ad was true to life and not a rigged survey like this one is, but hey, we're talking marketing soooooooo... it should get interesting.
ohgood said:
The "really" ad was true to life and not a rigged survey like this one is, but hey, we're talking marketing soooooooo... it should get interesting.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't get your point at all. How are the "really" ads more true to life than this? This is not a survey, these are real life scenarios, have you even watched the video?
ohgood said:
The "really" ad was true to life and not a rigged survey like this one is, but hey, we're talking marketing soooooooo... it should get interesting.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think it's rigged dude...
Nope. MS should just watch iphone ads and copy them
For example: an iphone ad will be something like "with the iphone you can do, x, y, z" with video on how to do them all in the ad.
With WP7 ads sometimes even I have no idea what they are trying to do, or even then how to do it (the guy shopping with his kids typing in a document in skydrive). Keep it simple and to the point.
pillsburydoughman said:
Nope. MS should just watch iphone ads and copy them
For example: an iphone ad will be something like "with the iphone you can do, x, y, z" with video on how to do them all in the ad.
With WP7 ads sometimes even I have no idea what they are trying to do, or even then how to do it (the guy shopping with his kids typing in a document in skydrive). Keep it simple and to the point.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I totally agree with copying what Apple does, it's just great and Google has started doing it too (for non-Android services) but the above video is still miles better than all the generic stuff Microsoft has been doing so far.
cool video. It wasn't rigged but the contestants were obviously not prepared.
First test the guy could have stopped the app and it would have found the song.
The others didn't make use of their widgets, instead they went looking for the app.
Nice try though.
Sent from my Nexus S using Tapatalk
Well you're right, but the whole point of the contest is to show how on WP7 you don't have to look for a way to do things faster (like stopping soundhound).
vetvito said:
cool video. It wasn't rigged but the contestants were obviously not prepared.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed.
First test the guy could have stopped the app and it would have found the song.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Couldn't the WP7 guy as well? Wouldn't a fair test be both to run its course?
The others didn't make use of their widgets, instead they went looking for the app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed. Again, not prepared. I was shocked the iPhone beat the WP7 with its straight to camera ability. But then I remembered iOS5.
Nice try though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I love this campaign. It has more meaning than the "really" one which is entertaining but does not really show anything. The one great thing about the iPhone/iPad ads are they fully demonstrate the products' capabilities. The Macs take that entertaining approach.
Has my thumbs up.
nicksti said:
I was shocked the iPhone beat the WP7 with its straight to camera ability. But then I remembered iOS5.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To Me the WP won if it was based on who said uploading first now as far as the completed task there are many other variables like which image was larger thus taking longer to post to twitter.
rruffman said:
To Me the WP won if it was based on who said uploading first now as far as the completed task there are many other variables like which image was larger thus taking longer to post to twitter.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Either way, this campaign drives the message home:
"Get in, get out, get on with your life."
Peew971 said:
I don't get your point at all. How are the "really" ads more true to life than this? This is not a survey, these are real life scenarios, have you even watched the video?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The "really" ads showed people staring at their phones, walking into doors, refusing sex, etc which is true to life.
The survey is neither scientific nor prepared users other than the surveyor offering a $100 bet. He decides the task, instead of an impartial third party. Give an impartial third party the opportunity to decide random tasks, it will be very different and less dramatic.
^ this is why I said its marketing, soooooo you know.
LOL, everybody on here that's mad and complaining got smoked by a Windows Phone.
sinister1 said:
LOL, everybody on here that's mad and complaining got smoked by a Windows Phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
now that's funnay, sigline updated !
nicksti said:
Agreed.I was shocked the iPhone beat the WP7 with its straight to camera ability. But then I remembered iOS5.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We'll see:
http://wmpoweruser.com/microsoft-applies-for-patent-on-locked-mode-camera-access-in-smartphones
I seem to remember some iFan reporting on iOS 5 and how one of the reasons it was so much better than Windows Phone was because you could access the camera from the lock screen. He was oblivious that WP7 had done this first, and a year earlier, and would have had serious egg on his face if anyone had ever bothered correcting him.
drokkon said:
We'll see:
http://wmpoweruser.com/microsoft-applies-for-patent-on-locked-mode-camera-access-in-smartphones
I seem to remember some iFan reporting on iOS 5 and how one of the reasons it was so much better than Windows Phone was because you could access the camera from the lock screen. He was oblivious that WP7 had done this first, and a year earlier, and would have had serious egg on his face if anyone had ever bothered correcting him.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There was a nokia something or other years ago that did this. Not that it matters who was first, its an awesome feature reguardless !
The ads were interesting and did prove some points, but too social network-centered. Come on, you don't choose a phone just because it allows you to quickly post stuff to Twitter. I don't facebook and post to Twitter twice a month, so this is hardly useful. And cameras on most Windows phones suck, especially first-generation models.
No mentions of
- integrated Office
- contact grouping (Android 4 does something like this, but WP7 is better)
- best-of-class email (reading large emails is much better in WP7 than Android)
Now if they did some other real-world scenarios:
- Use turn-by-turn navigation without distracting (Android navigation is a lot better)
- Load an Ajax-heavy page over a crappy network connection (Opera Mini obviously wins)
- Use a non-facebook online messenger, such as Google Talk or ICQ, or a non-integrated social network
- Uploading a bunch of documents for later reference with a USB cable instead of using Skydrive or email
- Identifying a random object (sorry, Bing Vision is pathetic compared to Google Goggles)
- Making a Skype call
- Switching between third-party apps without them losing state
that would make the competition a lot more interesting!
Or if they offered contestants to propose the challenge instead of the predefined scenarios.
ohgood said:
The "really" ads showed people staring at their phones, walking into doors, refusing sex, etc which is true to life.
The survey is neither scientific nor prepared users other than the surveyor offering a $100 bet. He decides the task, instead of an impartial third party. Give an impartial third party the opportunity to decide random tasks, it will be very different and less dramatic.
^ this is why I said its marketing, soooooo you know.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think I have walked into doors or been refused sex - so don't seem like that's a real life situation for me!
Anyways, if you did read about the 'survey' which was a challenge as a matter of fact - you would have known. The 'survey' wasn't meant to be scientific or wasn't meant to compared the 'cores' of phones. We know the hardware boasting of android is much above par. Dual cores, nearly 2ghz sorta processor etc etc.
What the challenge was to show that, yeah whatever funky hardware you carry in your pocket, let's just do something we do daily and we will see who can do it faster. Yes the incentive was $100. But it is completely wrong to say that 'he chose' the tasks. The tasks were mutually agreed by both and generally the task that the challenger thought he does daily with his phone and is happy doing it was performed as a challenge. For example if someone was so much into tweeting all the time on his dual core high end Android phone, he was challenged to do so against Windows Phone and get smoked!
Ideally if I was challenging WindowsPhone I wouldn't want a random dude to tell me what I should try. Instead asking the user to do what he does daily is scientifically even more challenging. You are not only challenging the cognitive brain but also challenging the routine co-ordination the user has already mastered on his phone. Thus the users who tweet regularly would ideally have the 'widget' somewhere pinned down. If they din't it's sad. But then it shows how the users are used to going into the 'app drawer' even for things they do daily or very frequently. Whereas a WindowsPhone user can pin it in a similar way as any other OS user too. But the fact that is very clear is - Only a few Pinned Live tiles covered ALL or Majority of tasks that any other OS user performed routinely. Thus, you don't need to clutter you screen with widgets, but live tiles (few) will let you do a plenty!
---------- Post added at 03:13 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:05 PM ----------
zlogic42 said:
The ads were interesting and did prove some points, but too social network-centered. Come on, you don't choose a phone just because it allows you to quickly post stuff to Twitter. I don't facebook and post to Twitter twice a month, so this is hardly useful. And cameras on most Windows phones suck, especially first-generation models.
No mentions of
- integrated Office
- contact grouping (Android 4 does something like this, but WP7 is better)
- best-of-class email (reading large emails is much better in WP7 than Android)
Now if they did some other real-world scenarios:
- Use turn-by-turn navigation without distracting (Android navigation is a lot better)
- Load an Ajax-heavy page over a crappy network connection (Opera Mini obviously wins)
- Use a non-facebook online messenger, such as Google Talk or ICQ, or a non-integrated social network
- Uploading a bunch of documents for later reference with a USB cable instead of using Skydrive or email
- Identifying a random object (sorry, Bing Vision is pathetic compared to Google Goggles)
- Making a Skype call
- Switching between third-party apps without them losing state
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Turn-by-turn navigation on WP7 is much less distracting than Googles one. You only hear the annoying woman when you tap and need it. Else it smoothly shows the directions to you. But probably that was no possible anyway unless they go on driving from CES to McD and then to CES!
Do you load Ajax-heavey pages daily? I think loading documents will be done easily and quickly via email. The task for fixed, not the method. So if aim was upload documents - WP7 would have done much faster and safer way using the hotspot connectivity they had. Certain third-party apps like skype, googles and many google services would have surely made WP7 stumble but obviously they could come back with - Ok let's get your XBOX achievements on your android phone? Or let's play assassin's creed or any WP7 only app/games on your phone? - that doesn't look like would have worked!
drupad2drupad said:
Do you load Ajax-heavey pages daily?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I do, every day. Reading news on the bus/train, while most websites include tons of widgets (Facebook like, Tweet this, +1 etc), ads and inefficiently formatted HTML makes surfing the web with a real browser (instead of Opera Mini) unusable, especially in non-3G areas. I don't need AJAX features, but they do use a lot of traffic and not all websites provide a decent mobile-friendly version. Even forums without tons of AJAX still load much faster in Opera Mini. Online stores, cinema sites, forums - all load slowly, sometimes even on a 3G connection.
If you need to search an answer for something that's not integrated in WP7's Bing features, it's going to be so slow over 2G that most people give up and call a friend to google it on a regular computer.
IE on WP7 however is a very good browser UI-wise, I'd call it the best I've seen on a smartphone.
I do agree with your other points, but the ads could've shown much more features - like voice recognition (in cases where both phones support it), making a call, sending a text or email with the restaurant address. No mentioning of the live tiles or lockscreen displaying the number of unread messages, or the next appointment. Something like 80% of the ads displayed taking a picture and/or posting to social networks. Both Android 4 and iOS 5 already made taking a picture easy right from the lockscreen and posting stuff to social networks right on the spot is not a top priority for most people. It's a nice feature, but email/text is much more important in real life.
Damn the hate on this forum even extends to this competition. I don't remotely see how this was rigged, this was all stuff I do on a daily basis: post to twitter, take pictures and upload them to twitter/fb, etc... Not to mention, the image sizes had nothing to do with this, as the taste was completed when the picture was submitted, not when the upload completed. And, both basically took identical pictures of each other.