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Windows Phone 7 |OT|

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Vigilant Walrus said:
whoa.. it takes blackberrys marked? They go to WP7?
Click to expand...
I never coded for BB OS, but like I mentioned earlier in this thread, coding for Windows Phone is incredibly easy and therefore pretty attractive for all kinds of developers. The platform has some downsides for game developers (no in-app purchase API, no support for native code like c/cpp) and that's a real problem for the ecosystem, because we all know how big the mobile gaming market is right now, but it's usually a non-issue for the productivity apps you mentioned.
 
Nero3000 said:
How is the screen? and what phone were you using before?
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I was using a 3gs before but I've played around with a lot of iPhone 4S' too, screen is great, I think the aesthetic of the OS makes more difference than the sub pixel arrangement to be honest. You'd notice the difference more on iOS because of all the rounded edges and detailed iconography.

Other impressions:

Camera is really crappy in low light, really terrible noise, but pretty amazing in day light, nice warm colours and good quick focusing

3e.jpg


One thing I can definitely say this phone has over the iPhone (any version) is that it just feels great in the hand, the shape, the materials and even the weight all feel very deliberate, like they could have gone for smaller numbers but this was the best balance.

Played around with the Nokia stuff, Drive is a pretty basic navigator by todays standards, no traffic or any kind of alternate route options (that I can find). For free it's fine but its really got nothing on what a bog standard Garmin will do these days. Music seems pretty pointless, Maps is available to everyone and from my experience so far, is way better than Bing Maps, but it doesn't have Public Transport for my town at the moment which really sucks as Google does.

The music controls are still my major major gripe, how can it not be huge news that Apple have the only phone that does volume, pause/play & skipping tracks on the headset? More importantly how is it that no one else is doing it?? Also if you answer a call when music is playing, it doesn't start again when you hang up, and it seems that there's no way to start it.


Overall as someone coming from iOS:

For:
Industrial design is the best out right now imo
People hub is great
Keyboard is great
Sharing photos/anything is probably even more simple than iOS5
Email client is way better
The hardware buttons make getting things done much easier
In terms of apps I found everything I needed to make it as useful as my iPhone

Against:
Music controls (this is almost a deal breaker to be honest, its a real pain in the ass)
Lack of custom URL Schemes (weblinks that launch apps), this OS needs them more than any other
Game selection truly poor
Noise makes the camera totally unusable in low light
TellMe is hilariously bad at understanding me


I knew what I was getting into so I'm definitely pleased overall, it does feel like a step backwards though If I'm honest. Personally that's exciting as a developer because I can try and fill in the gaps, but I wont argue with anyone who says an iOS device is a better purchase right now.
 
Damon Bennet said:
I dont know why they changed that. Pre-Mango it was different
Click to expand...

It's far more consistent. When the search button was context sensitive you had no idea what pressing it would actually do. If you assumed the app had search and it didn't, it would send you to Bing instead. Pretty problematic, particularly if the app doesn't support fast resume.
 
NotTarts said:
It's far more consistent. When the search button was context sensitive you had no idea what pressing it would actually do. If you assumed the app had search and it didn't, it would send you to Bing instead. Pretty problematic, particularly if the app doesn't support fast resume.
Click to expand...
They should have disabled Bing search when inside an app that doesn't have search. Or at least made a toggle switch in settings like Apple was forced to do with the mute/lock orientation button on the iPad.

The search button was really useful to me pre-mango and now all it is is a button I reminisce on.
 
giga said:
They should have disabled Bing search when inside an app that doesn't have search. Or at least made a toggle switch in settings like Apple was forced to do with the mute/lock orientation button on the iPad.

The search button was really useful to me pre-mango and now all it is is a button I reminisce on.
Click to expand...

Was it really, though? There wasn't even an API for 3rd party apps and even in the apps that did support it there was no indication that search was available. This led me to believe, when I first used the phone, that searching the marketplace was unsupported.

Either way, in a well designed app a hardware search button should have no advantages over a software button.
 
NotTarts said:
Was it really, though? There wasn't even an API for 3rd party apps and even in the apps that did support it there was no indication that search was available. This led me to believe, when I first used the phone, that searching the marketplace was unsupported.

Either way, in a well designed app a hardware search button should have no advantages over a software button.
Click to expand...
Yeah, it was useful when I was drilled down into an email or somewhere in the people hub. Since there's no universal search on WP7, it was a useful alternative.
 
D4Danger said:
My Omnia has wi-fi Internet sharing. It was enabled in the last firmware update from Samsung. Is your phone up-to-date?

Also, I think there's a way to get the Omnia to act as a modem using the diagnostic dial code tools. I've never tried it but apparently it works

http://www.mobiletechworld.com/2010...sung-focus-windows-phone-7-phones-if-you-can/
Click to expand...

Yes, up-to-date and I even updated yesterday (some bugfixes for exchange). I'll try that, thanks, but I would prefer a normal support.
 
Why would they add a Bing search button into the Marketplace app? Makes no sense
 
D4Danger said:
You should have an option for "Internet Sharing" in the settings menu if you got the last update
Click to expand...
I know I have seen it on videos, but it's not there on mine.
I looked for manual firmware updates, but I wonder why I should not get the latest via the normal update process. And they look a bit iffy so I am not sure I will risk that.
 
derFeef said:
I know I have seen it on videos, but it's not there on mine.
I looked for manual firmware updates, but I wonder why I should not get the latest via the normal update process. And they look a bit iffy so I am not sure I will risk that.
Click to expand...

Here's the firmware information from my phone

OS version: 7.10.7740.16
Firmware revision number: 2424.11.9.4
Hardware revision number: 3.15.0.4
Radio software version: 2424.11.9.1
Radio hardware version: 0.0.0.800
Bootloader version: 5.9.3.0
Chip SOC version: 0.36.2.0
Click to expand...

I don't know if that helps.
 
D4Danger said:
Here's the firmware information from my phone
I don't know if that helps.
Click to expand...

Thanks!
Well I have .2 instead of .4 so that's the reason I guess. So sad that even today there is no consistent update process for all phones in all regions. Pretty sure this will be my last Samsung phone as I have heard nothing but troubles regarding updates.
 
Ghost said:
I knew what I was getting into so I'm definitely pleased overall, it does feel like a step backwards though If I'm honest. Personally that's exciting as a developer because I can try and fill in the gaps, but I wont argue with anyone who says an iOS device is a better purchase right now.
Click to expand...
This is true for every platform at the moment. IMO anyways. But yea i agree with everything you said.
 
Ghost said:
The music controls are still my major major gripe, how can it not be huge news that Apple have the only phone that does volume, pause/play & skipping tracks on the headset? More importantly how is it that no one else is doing it?? Also if you answer a call when music is playing, it doesn't start again when you hang up, and it seems that there's no way to start it.
Click to expand...

Wait, are you serious? I've seen iPhone so many times and I can't believe I didn't know they have pause/play and skipping buttons.

Edit: oh you said headset, not handset. Yeah, it's not really that huge of a feature, although it is nice. Although, this link says the headset that comes with the nokia phone has music transport controls?
 
damn i'm itching to upgrade my hd7. i'm set on sticking with t-mobile though for its $30 plan. nokia better bring a hero phone over to magenta.
 
Ghost said:
Overall as someone coming from iOS:

For:
Industrial design is the best out right now imo
People hub is great
Keyboard is great
Sharing photos/anything is probably even more simple than iOS5
Email client is way better
The hardware buttons make getting things done much easier
In terms of apps I found everything I needed to make it as useful as my iPhone

Against:
Music controls (this is almost a deal breaker to be honest, its a real pain in the ass)
Lack of custom URL Schemes (weblinks that launch apps), this OS needs them more than any other
Game selection truly poor
Noise makes the camera totally unusable in low light
TellMe is hilariously bad at understanding me

I knew what I was getting into so I'm definitely pleased overall, it does feel like a step backwards though If I'm honest. Personally that's exciting as a developer because I can try and fill in the gaps, but I wont argue with anyone who says an iOS device is a better purchase right now.
Click to expand...

I don't disagree with you about headphone control but keep in mind that Apple had their own headset standard. (Which wasn't back when first iPhone came out but it is pretty much now common to find). Microsoft doesn't have the same luxury of controlling the hardware but I think they really should have. Either went with Apple compatible model as a default mode instead of letting the hardware manufacture choose what they want to use. I can understand why the manufacture would want people to buy their headphone.

On my old Samsung Focus, the headset that came with it work for pausing, volume etc, but haven't been able to find non-Samsung one that work. Same with my current HTC phone. I was told by the rep that any Android compatible headphone should work, but not sure how true that is.

While I agree with you for the most part, I don't find using Windows Phone is a step back necessary. There are plenty of stuff that stop me from using iPhone 4S, such as the row of icon UI that is not at all integrate, I can do stuff I normally used my phone for faster than I ever could than on an iPhone (I had one since iPhone came out, and still using iPad so I am familiar with iDevices), another is the screen size.

edit: skullcandy headphone (not for iPod/iPhone) version do work to pause the sound though no volume control on this one. I will be out and about today and going to see if the beat one with volume control work I saw a kiosk that let you plug your device in to test.
 
VanWinkle said:
Wait, are you serious? I've seen iPhone so many times and I can't believe I didn't know they have pause/play and skipping buttons.

Edit: oh you said headset, not handset. Yeah, it's not really that huge of a feature, although it is nice. Although, this link says the headset that comes with the nokia phone has music transport controls?
Click to expand...

Yep it has transport by double or treble clicking the pause button, but there's no volume control.
 
Ghost said:
Yep it has transport by double or treble clicking the pause button, but there's no volume control.
Click to expand...

Like I said Samsung headphone that came with my Focus has volume control. I saw a Sony headset today that have volume control, it's said for non-iPhone. Model # EX14VP.

I usually used the button to pause more than controlling volume. I tends to just use the phone volume control.
 
Raistlin said:
My Focus has volume and pause. I'd have to check if double/triple clicking does transport though.
Click to expand...


My focus with stock headset did track skip with a double tap, pause play and volume


neither Titan nor Focus S do...that's lame


also focus resumed music after a call on headset need to check the other two
 
I don't really expect to get 7740 on AT&T. They will probably skip it and just go with Tango. They never gave us 7392 or whatever the really small post-NoDo update was either, from what I remember.
 
Klocker said:
My focus with stock headset did track skip with a double tap, pause play and volume


neither Titan nor Focus S do...that's lame
Click to expand...

Using the same headphones?



If so, that's lame. I assumed that was OS level, and not up to the manufacturer. Hopefully that's something we can get MS to address in future revisions.

Does anyone know where that link is for features you want in future WP updates? I think a standardized HW and OS protocol for handling media control would be a good one.
 
Is there anyway to make toast notifications more responsive? I'm on WiFi all day at home and none of my notifications are working.
 
Klocker said:
My focus with stock headset did track skip with a double tap, pause play and volume


neither Titan nor Focus S do...that's lame


also focus resumed music after a call on headset need to check the other two
Click to expand...

My Samsung Focus headphones with volume and track control work on my Titan. It doesn't work too well (it is broken with a shorted in it) but it does work. Which headphone are you using?

I think the guy at At&t is right and any non-iPhone headphone such as Android one should work.
 
antiquegamer said:
My Samsung Focus headphones with volume and track control work on my Titan. It doesn't work too well (it is broken with a shorted in it) but it does work. Which headphone are you using?

I think the guy at At&t is right and any non-iPhone headphone such as Android one should work.
Click to expand...

sorry yes. I meant track skip does not work but pause play and volume do on my stock Samsung buds that came with my original Focus (and the focus S Set as well)
 
Sometimes the spell check in this OS annoys me. It misses somewhat obvious things at times.

I just wrote "ahppy" and it wanted to correct it to shoot. I can see why it might suggest that, but happy wasn't even an option.

Lots of small stuff like that it completely misses.
 
Why Windows Phone Resonates
Carpeaqua said:
When I first reviewed Windows Phone back in January I found the platform to be full of promise and potential, but found the performance, missing features and poor app catalog selections to be a hindrance to adoption. Since the next major version of Windows Phone, Mango, was released I haven’t had another opportunity to try another Windows Phone, but I certainly would like to.

With the release of Nokia’s first Windows Phone offering, the Lumia 800, Microsoft’s smartphone platform is getting a second glance from technology enthusiasts and customers alike who haven’t paid much attention since the initial wave of release hype over a year ago.

Nokia’s re-entry into the mainstream smartphone race is certainly reason for excitement. A decade ago, Nokia was the mobile phone company. Then the iPhone happened and Nokia didn’t respond as well as we’d have liked. No one ever doubted the company’s ability to create gorgeous looking hardware, but the software that went along with it always left much to be desired. Symbian was a relic from the early 2000’s and the next-generation MeeGo never truly saw the light of day. Nokia’s partnering with Microsoft changes that dynamic by giving the company a first-class operating system to complement the hardware.

More than Nokia’s hardware, software tells the tale. The Windows Phone experience is a complete departure from what we’ve seen on the iPhone and Android since 2007. Instead of a grid of app icons, there is a dynamically updating set of tiles with useful information and delightful animations. The Metro UI paradigms used in the apps feel more futuristic and sexy than the cartoonish, leather-bound look of Apple’s latest applications.

Apple has continually improved the iOS software with each subsequent release, but at its core, the experience is the exact same as it was nearly five years ago. Even Android has changed its look and experience more than Apple’s platform if you compare the user experience of the original HTC G1 to that of an Ice Cream Sandwich powered Galaxy Nexus.

iOS is a great mobile operating system that is intuitive and faithful to its roots, but it’s also become boring with that faith. Yearly incremental updates to the iOS experience don’t have the same wow factor as they once had because the core experience doesn’t look much different on an iPhone 4S running iOS 5 to that of a 3GS with iOS 3. As useful as they are, there is nothing sexy about Notification Center or iMessage from a ‘WOW’ perspective.

That doesn’t mean that Windows Phone is a better platform than iOS because it does look different, but it does cause wandering eyes just like the pretty girl at the bar.

The Platform
In his review of Nokia’s Lumia 800, Matthew Panzarino of The Next Web said:
Unfortunately, when I said ‘would’ in the title of this article, I meant it very literally. I would switch from the iPhone to the Lumia 800, if only it wasn’t for the apps.
Click to expand...
The sad fact is that Windows Phone 7 will not become a major contender in the OS space until it gains massive developer support.
Click to expand...
iOS and Android have an insane amount of apps available for users. Granted, Android’s selection is riddled with crapware and poorly designed options, but it still offers a giant selection of stuff that is at least serviceable.
Click to expand...

This is where the conflict lies. Whereas the core experience of Windows Phone Mango is more exciting than that of iOS 5, the apps on iOS are above and beyond what you’ll find on Windows Phone. Just look at the recently released Path and Stamped apps. Both are great applications that are made for the iPhone, but not Windows Phone leaving Mango users with serious app envy.

Quite the change to see Microsoft users complaining about not enough great software for their platform while Apple users are nearly overwhelmed by the amount of apps available.

The Fix
How does Microsoft combat this perception that Windows Phone’s app catalog isn’t up to par with the offerings in Apple’s App Store? Microsoft has thousands of developers with the technical knowledge to build Silverlight applications that run on the phone, but that technical knowledge doesn’t take into account taste.

Building beautiful software is ingrained in the culture of Apple platform developers. It doesn’t feel that way at Microsoft or Google right now. Microsoft should put more focus on improving the design and user experience of the apps coming from their seasoned platform developers so that apps downloaded in the Marketplace have the same polish and appeal as those that come straight from Redmond.

This is, of course, easier said than done. Changing culture is something that takes times and lots of persuasion. Perhaps the better solution is to court new developers to the platform. Developers that haven’t spent years building utilitarian apps for Windows or Windows Mobile.

Brandon Watson, one of main people in charge of Windows Phone at Microsoft, is prolific on Twitter and engaging with these sorts of developers. When HP pulled the cord on WebOS, Watson was quick to offer a safe landing place for WebOS developers looking for a new platform to build on. When Charlie Miller lost his Apple Developer account after exposing a vulnerability in the system through an app he published on the store, Watson was there to offer him safe harbor.

The next goal should be to convince those iOS developers and power users who have wandering eyes towards Windows Phone the tools and incentives to grow Microsoft’s mobile platform so that the platform experience is just as great as what the core OS offers. Get more hardware in the hands of developers. Put Microsoft employees in the office with the iOS or Android team and help them ship an awesome Windows Phone version of their flagship app. More than anything, get them so excited about Windows Phone that they begin using it rather than wishing they were.

Having great hardware and software is no longer enough. Customers now also expect a great platform.
Click to expand...
... indie cocoa developers are funny people
 
user_nat said:
Sometimes the spell check in this OS annoys me. It misses somewhat obvious things at times.

I just wrote "ahppy" and it wanted to correct it to shoot. I can see why it might suggest that, but happy wasn't even an option.

Lots of small stuff like that it completely misses.
Click to expand...
The correction is kinda broken in Mango. It felt much better in NoDo.
 
giga said:
He's absolutely right though. Apple developers (OS X and iOS) are obsessed with design and that might be "funny" to you but it's crucial to me.
Click to expand...
There are tons of great looking iOS apps, sure, but I've also seen enough shitty looking iOS apps to disagree with you. What I'll say is that good developers produce good apps with a certain appeal to people and those are drawn to the biggest ecosystem at the moment.

Well, no shit, Sherlock.
 
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