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Windows Phone 7 |OT|

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Jason Raize '75 - '04 said:
I would really like a notification bar the top or something. Mango may bring more tile functionality, but I dont want to scroll down to my apps to see whether or not Kik Messenger, for example, has a new IM notification. With Android, the notification(s) stay at the top until you touch them to dismiss them. When the UI allows you to add more tiles onto your home screen, inevitably you will not be able to see them all without scrolling down. With no notification centre visible at all times, it undermines the toast notification feature; something that is only useful if your phone is in your hand right at the moment you get the notification.
I wants to see third-party notification icons on the lockscreen and one tap on any of the icons should immediately launch the app.

Are there any reviews of the Focus S yet?
 
Jason Raize '75 - '04 said:
I would really like a notification bar the top or something. Mango may bring more tile functionality, but I dont want to scroll down to my apps to see whether or not Kik Messenger, for example, has a new IM notification. With Android, the notification(s) stay at the top until you touch them to dismiss them. When the UI allows you to add more tiles onto your home screen, inevitably you will not be able to see them all without scrolling down. With no notification centre visible at all times, it undermines the toast notification feature; something that is only useful if your phone is in your hand right at the moment you get the notification.
I don't think Microsoft would ever implement a notification bar like iOS/Android/Meego. They didn't even have video scrubbing until Mango. Even though it's absolutely ridiculous, it's all part of their endless quest for differentiation.
 
Jason Raize '75 - '04 said:
I would really like a notification bar the top or something. Mango may bring more tile functionality, but I dont want to scroll down to my apps to see whether or not Kik Messenger, for example, has a new IM notification. With Android, the notification(s) stay at the top until you touch them to dismiss them. When the UI allows you to add more tiles onto your home screen, inevitably you will not be able to see them all without scrolling down. With no notification centre visible at all times, it undermines the toast notification feature; something that is only useful if your phone is in your hand right at the moment you get the notification.

I wholeheartedly agree. Android's greatest strength is it's notification system/centre. Sometime on windows, I heard a notification sound and have NO idea where it came from, and no where to look for it. Unless all your apps that can give notifications are pinned, if you hear a toast and miss it you have no idea where it was from.
 
went to an att retail store today to check out the new offerings and guess what? the retail situation has not gotten better. in fact, it may have gotten worse.

sure the new focus s and the focus flash were on hand taking up premium wall space but next to them were the new htc vivid and the galaxy sII skyrocket. the vivid and skyrocket were also released a day ago but have the usual bloated android specs like 1gb ram, microSD card, 4.5" screens, 1080p video recording, dual core cpus, and real 4G LTE. i say bloated because we all know most of these specs don't mean much in the real world, but as an unknowing consumer or a retail rep trying to get a sale, why choose the focus s over these new android super phones? the focus s has only half the ram, 720p video recording, hspa+ rather than LTE, no microSD slot, smaller screen, and an older single core cpu.

here's the kicker, the focus s was priced at $199 while the vivid was $99 and the skyrocket was $149. WTF? can we blame consumers or retail reps for choosing android over windows phone? let's not forget windows phone is also competing against the iphone priced at free-$399. we all know android isn't free and ironic licensing fees are paid to microsoft but how on earth are these android phones priced so low? android must be selling at incredible volume to get these discounts.

seeing the focus s next to its galaxy sII counterparts was also a bit disappointing. while the focus of last year had a distinctive design over the original galaxy, this year's focus s is almost indistinguishable to its counterparts. again, i ask, why choose this windows phone over android?

those of us who already know and love windows phone know why it's our platform of choice but to new customers walking into a store, windows phone advantages just aren't going to be visible. frankly, the windows phone OS just looks like another android skin, not unlike samsung's touchwiz and htc's sense.

to consumers, android gives you the latest hardware specs, more hardware choices, and at much better pricing.

as if all this wasn't enough, i then ask an att rep where the htc titan was and he says, "titan? i think you need to look at another provider. ...titan, that's a windows phone right? the only new windows phones we got in are the htc vivid and the samsung skyrocket." aye dios mio!!!

i know nokia is coming but will it come soon enough? will it matter?
 
Tapiozona said:
So I've been reading the wpcentral forums and people have been saying that there's lag with the Focus S. When I played with it the first time I never noticed it but when I played with it in comparison with the old Focus it was quite noticable. The UI doesn't respond instantly to touches and scrolls etc. There's a small delay. Now that I've seen it, I can't unsee it and it drives me nuts. There's also a delay with the keyboard. The keyboard on the old Focus was very fast and you could type as fast as you can press. The Focus S keyboard has a small delay which is noticable after you see it in comparsin to the S.

I wish I'd never tested them side by side but it's really strange considering the S is a better spec'd phone. I was about to buy it after work today but now I want to read more about it to see if this is something that's possibly fixable.

I thought I was crazy.. but yeah, I've seen it too.

It's not always noticeable.. and I haven't noticed scrolling response issues as much as I have the keyboard.. makes me think it is a touchscreen driver issue.. I don't remember the Galaxy S II performing worse in touch response compared to my samsung Vibrant (original galaxy S device)..

It's still not slow.. but something about it seems a bit off compared to the original focus.
 
impruv said:
I wholeheartedly agree. Android's greatest strength is it's notification system/centre. Sometime on windows, I heard a notification sound and have NO idea where it came from, and no where to look for it. Unless all your apps that can give notifications are pinned, if you hear a toast and miss it you have no idea where it was from.
Someone should develop a notification center app then.

GENIUS.
 
Copernicus said:
Wait...I always assumed there was a notification list when you tapped up top, there isnt?

No.. there's no list. Toast notifications stack if you get a bunch at once.. but they eventually fade away and leave it to the live tiles to tell you that you have a notification (or the lock screen)
 
impruv said:
I wholeheartedly agree. Android's greatest strength is it's notification system/centre. Sometime on windows, I heard a notification sound and have NO idea where it came from, and no where to look for it. Unless all your apps that can give notifications are pinned, if you hear a toast and miss it you have no idea where it was from.

I know that feeling bro.jpg. This must be a major oversight by the development team and I hope they've acknowledged it. One way they do this is by including the feature to pop down once you scroll down at the top of the screen.
 
Tapiozona said:
So I've been reading the wpcentral forums and people have been saying that there's lag with the Focus S. When I played with it the first time I never noticed it but when I played with it in comparison with the old Focus it was quite noticable. The UI doesn't respond instantly to touches and scrolls etc. There's a small delay. Now that I've seen it, I can't unsee it and it drives me nuts. There's also a delay with the keyboard. The keyboard on the old Focus was very fast and you could type as fast as you can press. The Focus S keyboard has a small delay which is noticable after you see it in comparsin to the S.

I wish I'd never tested them side by side but it's really strange considering the S is a better spec'd phone. I was about to buy it after work today but now I want to read more about it to see if this is something that's possibly fixable.
This is why I worry about getting another Samsung, there always weird glitch and bug. With the Focus the screen was not working when laid flat and headphone disable mic .... I am leaning more and more toward the Titan or may be I can hold out to next year.
 
thirty said:
went to an att retail store today to check out the new offerings and guess what? the retail situation has not gotten better. in fact, it may have gotten worse.

sure the new focus s and the focus flash were on hand taking up premium wall space but next to them were the new htc vivid and the galaxy sII skyrocket. the vivid and skyrocket were also released a day ago but have the usual bloated android specs like 1gb ram, microSD card, 4.5" screens, 1080p video recording, dual core cpus, and real 4G LTE. i say bloated because we all know most of these specs don't mean much in the real world, but as an unknowing consumer or a retail rep trying to get a sale, why choose the focus s over these new android super phones? the focus s has only half the ram, 720p video recording, hspa+ rather than LTE, no microSD slot, smaller screen, and an older single core cpu.

here's the kicker, the focus s was priced at $199 while the vivid was $99 and the skyrocket was $149. WTF? can we blame consumers or retail reps for choosing android over windows phone? let's not forget windows phone is also competing against the iphone priced at free-$399. we all know android isn't free and ironic licensing fees are paid to microsoft but how on earth are these android phones priced so low? android must be selling at incredible volume to get these discounts.

seeing the focus s next to its galaxy sII counterparts was also a bit disappointing. while the focus of last year had a distinctive design over the original galaxy, this year's focus s is almost indistinguishable to its counterparts. again, i ask, why choose this windows phone over android?

those of us who already know and love windows phone know why it's our platform of choice but to new customers walking into a store, windows phone advantages just aren't going to be visible. frankly, the windows phone OS just looks like another android skin, not unlike samsung's touchwiz and htc's sense.

to consumers, android gives you the latest hardware specs, more hardware choices, and at much better pricing.

as if all this wasn't enough, i then ask an att rep where the htc titan was and he says, "titan? i think you need to look at another provider. ...titan, that's a windows phone right? the only new windows phones we got in are the htc vivid and the samsung skyrocket." aye dios mio!!!

i know nokia is coming but will it come soon enough? will it matter?

Yeah, my buddy works for AT&T and when I asked him about the Titan he said nobody he works with has ever even heard of the phone before. He still hasn't heard anything about a release. Makes me sad panda.
 
any more impressions on spotify? just downloaded it. so far looks to be a well made app and makes great use of the metro design. with offline mode and the ability to have spotify in other devices like iOS or android, i really can't see where zune pass would have an advantage. other than it's prettier and integrated.
 
Jason Raize '75 - '04 said:
I know that feeling bro.jpg. This must be a major oversight by the development team and I hope they've acknowledged it. One way they do this is by including the feature to pop down once you scroll down at the top of the screen.
I believe that is by design and will likely not change. During MS' reveal of Windows 8 SDK, they specifically mentioned the toast alerts and how they should only contain information that is not crititcal for the user to see. Any critical info should be referenced in a Live Tile.
 
yeah, don't expect changes with the notifications. if you want notifications in one place, move your live tiles to one location on your start screen.
 
So I just bought a Windows Phone 7 (HTC 7 Trophy) today. Pretty nice little thing I must say. Only Problem: The fucking Windows Phone Marketplace doesn't allow me to buy games with my Microsoft Points.

Seriously Microsoft. First you create a System to digitally buy things, then you don't use it on your premiere mobile platform? Why in the Love of Fuck create such a thing in the first place?

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
 
DocStar said:
So I just bought a Windows Phone 7 (HTC 7 Trophy) today. Pretty nice little thing I must say. Only Problem: The fucking Windows Phone Marketplace doesn't allow me to buy games with my Microsoft Points.

Seriously Microsoft. First you create a System to digitally buy things, then you don't use it on your premiere mobile platform? Why in the Love of Fuck create such a thing in the first place?

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
You can always buy music with your points. /trollface
 
DocStar said:
So I just bought a Windows Phone 7 (HTC 7 Trophy) today. Pretty nice little thing I must say. Only Problem: The fucking Windows Phone Marketplace doesn't allow me to buy games with my Microsoft Points.

Seriously Microsoft. First you create a System to digitally buy things, then you don't use it on your premiere mobile platform? Why in the Love of Fuck create such a thing in the first place?

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
You can buy Avatar clothes with your points through the phone marketpalce.
Even weirder.
 
derFeef said:
You can buy Avatar clothes with your points through the phone marketpalce.
Even weirder.


Yeah, I simply don't understand that decision.

I bet this takes until Windows Phone 8.5 until it has been integrated.

WTF Microsoft!
 
Buddy of mine just picked up an LG Optimus 7. He is aware of the new phones coming out, but with little to no information in Canada about them he couldn't wait.

He is loving the phone and will hopefully be able to convert others.
 
So I downloaded the Spotify App earlier. Twas weird I tried to login using my FB account and got an error saying I needed a premium account or something. I didn't have much time to mess with it though.

Just tried again a little bit ago while at my gf's and boom it worked. Currently listening through Pet Sounds because I saw the new Smile album was available and on the spotlight which made me want to listen to Pet Sounds.

EDIT: So it appears Spotify on your mobile costs money, but I don't have a premium account. Checking out the website it says I am good till the 10th then my account goes to free? Is this like a free 3 day trial?
 
Brettison said:
So I downloaded the Spotify App earlier. Twas weird I tried to login using my FB account and got an error saying I needed a premium account or something. I didn't have much time to mess with it though.

Just tried again a little bit ago while at my gf's and boom it worked. Currently listening through Pet Sounds because I saw the new Smile album was available and on the spotlight which made me want to listen to Pet Sounds.

EDIT: So it appears Spotify on your mobile costs money, but I don't have a premium account. Checking out the website it says I am good till the 10th then my account goes to free? Is this like a free 3 day trial?
that's what i'm wondering about spotify as well. right now i can stream any album with no commercials. i'm pretty sure it's a trial. smart dj and related artists on zune work better then the spotify feature. i think if i were to pay i'd go zune and purchase the $100 option for a year.

what sucks though is i've got an android tablet as well and zune won't work on that. a multi platform service may work best though.
 
thirty said:
i so want that titan now but on tmobile. maybe there will be a titan se version with beats audio?

Is there any rumor or chance of this at all? Everything points to AT&T only for the Titan though I'd kill for it to be on Tmobile rather than overpriced AT&T.

Can the titan be unlocked to work on Tmobile?
 
brotkasten said:
I don't think they want you to pay with points. Ever.

Again, I asked about this at PAX to Xbox Live and pretty much they said go talk to Windows Phone Dev we are not responsible for that.

I am thinking probably a way to appease carrier, control marketplace region etc by only allowing you to buy content via your phone bill and CC.

I am enjoying free Spotify, but if I am going to pay I would go with zune. Also the app crash several times and pretty barebone.
 
Maybe it's been mentioned here already, but Flashlight-X is the first Flashlight app that works on all Phones with LED Flash without any issues. (IE it doesn't abuse the cameras focus mechanism and have the light switch between on and off all the time)
 
talkinghead said:
Maybe it's been mentioned here already, but Flashlight-X is the first Flashlight app that works on all Phones with LED Flash without any issues. (IE it doesn't abuse the cameras focus mechanism and have the light switch between on and off all the time)
I used it on my Focus, it works great.
 
Ghost said:
Can someone with the spotify app tell me if clicking this link opens the app and plays a track?

spotify:track:1VpoMzYjmoQMOflZMGTZN3
Does nothing when I click.

Wierd that people think the app is barebones. I actually thought it's solid. It's a mango app, plays under the lock screen, has a solid metro look, and all the settings I'd want like toggling HQ streams on and off or only play on WiFi.

Smart DJ on Zune seems better as I couldn't really find a way to do that in Spotify without just manually making my own. I thought the related artists was fine though. I like how Zune throws up a background if it can though and even has a bio of the artist when browsing.

PS: I love the artist background thing on both the phone and PC, but gosh damn do id tags funk me on getting this 90% of the time even with the Zune social tagger. Without the tagger it would be like 95%.
 
Brettison said:
Does nothing when I click.

Wierd that people think the app is barebones. I actually thought it's solid. It's a mango app, plays under the lock screen, has a solid metro look, and all the settings I'd want like toggling HQ streams on and off or only play on WiFi.

it's a great app. It does what it's suppose to do very well and nothing more.

This is a shining example of how an app is suppose to work imo.
 
ms_nerd on twitter is reporting that Verizon could announce a new windows phone real soon.

nokia 800? better yet, a nokia 80? with ffc and lte.
 
I am eligible for a new phone from AT&T. I'm am considering an iPhone 4s or an Windows 7 phone. The main feature that I want in a smart phone is the ability to sync with outlook. I heard that the windows 7 phones don't do this and that the iPhone 4s do. Is this true?
 
Anyone else buy/try Fusion Sentient? I've been having fun with the trial. One of the main reasons I want it at this point though is simply because it's an exclusive.. I'm just glad it's not another 2 year old iOS game for 3x the price.

I've also been wondering if there are any good WP game blogs out there. I check WPCentral from time to time but I'm looking for something with more game news.
 
drifter444 said:
I am eligible for a new phone from AT&T. I'm am considering an iPhone 4s or an Windows 7 phone. The main feature that I want in a smart phone is the ability to sync with outlook. I heard that the windows 7 phones don't do this and that the iPhone 4s do. Is this true?

You can sync your email accounts and calender(s) on your phone as far as I'm aware.
 
drifter444 said:
I am eligible for a new phone from AT&T. I'm am considering an iPhone 4s or an Windows 7 phone. The main feature that I want in a smart phone is the ability to sync with outlook. I heard that the windows 7 phones don't do this and that the iPhone 4s do. Is this true?
i'm pretty sure outlook syncs fine
 
drifter444 said:
I am eligible for a new phone from AT&T. I'm am considering an iPhone 4s or an Windows 7 phone. The main feature that I want in a smart phone is the ability to sync with outlook. I heard that the windows 7 phones don't do this and that the iPhone 4s do. Is this true?

It will not directly sync with local Outlook. The work around would be to use the Outlook connector to sync that to the cloud.

Out of curiosity, you can't just connect to whatever server your Outlook is connected to?
 
rj118 said:
Anyone else buy/try Fusion Sentient? I've been having fun with the trial. One of the main reasons I want it at this point though is simply because it's an exclusive.. I'm just glad it's not another 2 year old iOS game for 3x the price.

I've also been wondering if there are any good WP game blogs out there. I check WPCentral from time to time but I'm looking for something with more game news.

I bought it.... alot like the harvest but I am intrigued to see how the transfer stuff works with the xbla version. You are right that its exactly the type of game they should be putting out there for wp7. They have such an opportunity with the xbox/wp7 integration and are completely blowing it right now. Hopefully this is a trend and they are starting to figure it out.
 
20th for the Titan, I'd like to get a new phone sooner than that. Guess I'll get a Focus S, are there any good cases for it yet?

And how does the trade in thing work, looks like there is a restocking fee? If so I probably won't bother checking out the Titan later.
 
jagowar said:
I bought it.... alot like the harvest but I am intrigued to see how the transfer stuff works with the xbla version. You are right that its exactly the type of game they should be putting out there for wp7. They have such an opportunity with the xbox/wp7 integration and are completely blowing it right now. Hopefully this is a trend and they are starting to figure it out.

Yeah I'm hoping they keep the momentum they've built up with Kinectimals and the two Fusion games' connectivity. It would be awesome if MS would do more for people that have both a windows phone and a 360.

I know the chances are little to none but Torchlight 2 on XBLA with a companion game on WP7 would be my dream come true
 
rj118 said:
Yeah I'm hoping they keep the momentum they've built up with Kinectimals and the two Fusion games' connectivity. It would be awesome if MS would do more for people that have both a windows phone and a 360.

I know the chances are little to none but Torchlight 2 on XBLA with a companion game on WP7 would be my dream come true
There is no chance. Forget little.
 
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