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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.
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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!
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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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
With previous versions of Android, you could long press on a link in the browser and pick Share Link. This also worked when you long pressed on an image. But it doesn't seem to work in the ICS browser.
You can however, go to a page and pick the menu option then Share Page. But that is not a good solution for everything. For example, if you have a list MP3s on a page, there would be no way to share those links with another app since you can't open that link as a page - it would just start playing.
Is this a bug, or was there some decision to remove that ability?
There's a copy url option, which means you have to open gmail or whatever yourself...
Yes, but that is a step backwards I think and isn't really what I'm looking for. One of the best things about Android is that different apps can work together by sharing functionality - like using the Share function.
I'll give you an example. I'm the developer of Juice for Roku, which lets you send music, photos, and video (in certain formats) from your phone to your Roku player. I also added Share functionality so if you were in the gallery app, for example, you can long press a photo, pick Share and pick my app - which would send it to the Roku.
I'm just now adding the ability to accept URLs from whatever app wants to share them. So for previous versions of the browser, you would be able to long press a link to a music, video or photo and pick share, then pick my app. Now you cant do that in ICS. It's just disappointing.
I agree, this is a step backward, and it's not the only one, either...
Interesting to hear about the Juice though - never heard of it, but I will be taking a look. Have you ever looked into dlna implementation? A serious drawback to the Roku...
Hi,
is possible to make HOMEBREW app which can access destinatation \My Documents\Zune\Content\0300\00\ and see the pictures which are in Picture HUB ?
This app should have also possiblity:
1. Edit images through programs like Photo Enhancer
2. Deleting multiple images
3. Manual Album creation
4. Share to Facebook, Twitter, Skydrive, Hotmail, Dropbox
5. Take pictures
6. Copy and Paste to Skydrive folders
Thanks for info.
You should add [REQUEST] or [IDEA] to the thread title
And I would actually LOVE an app that makes it able to organize pictures on-device. It's such an annoyance to first sync them to Zune and organizing them and then sync them back.
EDIT: I might do one myself, but if anyone knows anything about how Zune and the phone organizes pictures and videos I'd appreciate to get that info. Will look into it myself later today thou, but any help would be awesome
Regards
Izaac
IzaacJ said:
You should add [REQUEST] or [IDEA] to the thread title
And I would actually LOVE an app that makes it able to organize pictures on-device. It's such an annoyance to first sync them to Zune and organizing them and then sync them back.
EDIT: I might do one myself, but if anyone knows anything about how Zune and the phone organizes pictures and videos I'd appreciate to get that info. Will look into it myself later today thou, but any help would be awesome
Regards
Izaac
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK, I added [REQUEST] or [IDEA] to the title.
Well I don't know much about how Zune organizes the pictures but I know that Zune, Camera saves photo this destination
\My Documents\Zune\Content\0300\00\ and save it to some file for example 3d.jpg; 03.jpg; 39.jpg etc.
But Zune must store [ some dat file maybe in \My Documents\Zune\Content\0300\00\zunedb.dat] the real name of the picture that on computer looks like WP_000002.jpg.
It will be nice to have alternative to Picture Hub and if you will look on it it will be great.
I don't know if I help you a little bit ?
zunedb.dat work
I've been looking a bit on the zunedb.dat file in 101 Editor and the identifier or what ever it's called is ZMDB (Zune Media DataBase i think) and I could really use some help on this because this isn't really my area of expertise
Could attach a copy of the file I've been looking at if anyone is interested?
EDIT: Attached it in a zip anyway, and here is some of the information I've found so far.
The albums I've synced from my computer are these, with their respective start address in the file, or at least where the album name is in the file, and after each album name there are paths and such to the particular files, but also a lot of information that I don't know what it is.
Misc [47c00h]
tmp [47each]
Diablo 3 [48920h]
Regards
Izaac
Maybe it could help some Microsoft developer on Microsoft forum ?
But I think that nobody research it yet.
Posted a thread over at the development forum at Microsoft, like here:
http://forums.create.msdn.com/forums/t/105185.aspx
I really hope I could get some information regarding this.
Well it's 100% that this app wil not autorization from MS but for the homebrew app its not needed.
I hope that someone share the info which you need.
Just a question:
is it possible to create an own homebrew app which will take and save photo in
folder \My Documents\Pictures + it will have features like as I wrote
1. Edit images through programs like Photo Enhancer, 2. Deleting multiple images, 3. Manual Album creation,
4. Share to Facebook, Twitter, Skydrive, Hotmail, Dropbox, 5. Take pictures, 6. Copy and Paste to Skydrive folders ?
then we dont realy need any info from MS because you can upload it to Skydrive + you cann access the phone file system via WPDM or WMDC/ActiveSync launcher if zou have phone unlock etc.
What do you think ?
Thanks for info.
R,
Marek
Well, it's possible. There are other apps doing everything of that, except the saving location, so I doubt there would be any problems.
The reason for my app and what it does is that it enables you to organize the photos, add/delete/rename albums shown in the Pictures Hub, and move photos between these albums.
AND if zunedb.dat is "worked out" it will also enable us to add music and videos to the Zune app, which means if you use any Music Downloader, you could add them to the regular player, instead of having to open that particular music app to play them.
I hope you see why I think this really is something worth investigating.
Regards
Izaac
Yes, you are right, it's worth for investigating.
So lets hope that we will have good luck.
Do you know which apps can do the things like iwrote in previous comment?
Thanks.
I think there's an application called Private Hub that does most of it, not sure thou.
It will also enable you to password protect certain images/albums (in app ONLY)
Regards
Izaac
When starting the Gallery to view photos, I noticed it seems to collect images from every folder in the main memory (scripts, silver, tables, icons, moz, english, float, border... etc.). I only want to view my images and videos which I can do via Menu, View by, Content in device. I wish there was a way to save that as the default because I don't really care to see all the other crap.
Dude! I was also having this problem this weekend! What made me mad about this, is that I bought a brand new micro 64 GB SDXC, and I loaded all my photos on there. I I organized them into directories ( using the tree branch method) so that I can navigate them well, but when I go into the stock gallery app I see all the folders on there instead of being separated the way I have it organized, I have to scroll through thousands of folders being displayed at once .
What I had to do then with download a different app from the App Store. I downloaded Quickpic, and it gets the job done decently.
The good thing about this app, is that it actually allows you to decide on which folders to show, and which ones to hide. I'm now able to view my pictures and navigate my folders with ease, instead of seeing everything all at the same time. This can be quite frustrating when I have to scroll through hundreds of folders to find the one I'm looking for.
If you find a solution of this, please do let me know. I'm going to subscribe to this thread in the hopes that someone finds an answer.
Sent from my [email protected]$$ Galaxy Note II using XDA-Developers App.
I don't know the Smartphone terms, so I'll just use PC terms.
in my Programs list (or maybe on a Smartphone it's actually "App Drawer"...I'm not sure), I've categorized a lot of my apps into folders. After awhile, and I'm assuming after an update, specifically, my apps seem to remove themselves from within folders I've created, but if that does happen, I then see them in the "root" (or just listed in the Programs list, and not in any folder).
I'm pretty sure that this was an issue on my previous phone (Droid Razr Maxx).
Is there a way to ensure that apps grouped into folders, "stick" ?
I don't know if the same behavior exists when copying the folders onto any one of my Desktop screens. Either way. it's annoying, because I keep having to re-group my apps. Any help on this issue?
I don't think other Launchers have this problem.