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Windows Phone 7 |OT|

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I really hope WP7 doesn't have a the one device officially backed by MS because that's what Google did and resulted in fragmented updates.
 
One other thing I’ve noticed is that the clipboard doesn’t save the information after you’ve pasted it somewhere. Perhaps it’s a bug.

Initial copy:

yju5n


Paste icon:

jrhna


After pasting, the icon is gone from any other text input boxes:

zq2od
 
I do think there is a definite lack of Halo device for WP7.

Not one of the current phones elicits gadget lust; they're all kind of middling. I would say it's the main reason I've held out. As someone with a living room based around Media Center 7, an Xbox Live account, and a being big user of Skydrive, the platform is pretty much perfect for me. The current line up of phones, however, are not.

I don't know if it's a matter of tepid manufactures that don't want to commit resources to a unproven product, Microsoft not supporting the hardware, or something else.

I hope Nokia gets on board and releases something truly special. I love their hardware, but am 'meh' on their software.
 
claviertekky said:
Either a bug or context specific.

How are you playing around with the SDK?
Using a custom image with the emulator.

Would have been nice if this had text selection instead of copying the entire message, but it works:

ngviz
 
VanMardigan said:
Motorola and Verizon market the Droid X, not Google. MS has not and should not play favorites here, they need manufacturers to keep making WP7 devices that have broad appeal. I think the marquee device right now is the Samsung Focus, and it's a beautiful phone with one of the best screens on a mobile device today and a gigahertz processor. It gets top billing in the ads and on the Microsoft website, but that's as far as I think MS should take it.

They've also done a ton of work with AT&T to promote the phone in stores and on tv (including product placement), and to feature it in a lot of different BOGO/$99 dollar deals. One thing they haven't done, which I think they should do, is to partner up with the manufacturers, ALL of them, to promote the specific phones, by showing off the features and the OS. Plus, we all agree that the "really" ads are funny, but ineffective in showing off what this OS can do and how beautiful it is.
They'll have to help because Verizon and AT&T have no reason to promote WP7. Verizon was driven to do so for Android due to lack of the iPhone. And from what I understand, T-Mobile and Sprint aren't big enough in the US.

claviertekky said:
I really hope WP7 doesn't have a the one device officially backed by MS because that's what Google did and resulted in fragmented updates.
That was actually Google's solution to reduce fragmentation.
 
claviertekky said:
I really hope WP7 doesn't have a the one device officially backed by MS because that's what Google did and resulted in fragmented updates.

I don't think that's the reason for fragmentation on the android, it's more because of the carriers I thought.

Dell Venue Pro should be the marquee phone, where it would be available on several carrier and you can buy it as unsubsidized phone if you wish. They wouldn't get special treatment from MS but they would be "THE" face of windows phone. I think Dell would be if it were not for the fact that phone is a big mess. From all the pictures I see the phone is beautiful with curve glass, fancy back and even pull out keyboard.

I am still thinking about finding LG Optimus 7 and get to play around with one yesterday at Costco. The phone is really heavy... may be I am just so use to the Focus being so light.

On the subject of promoting the phone, I was reading on one of the Windows Phone sites that T-mobile were steering people away from Windows Phone 7 saying it's a crappy Windows mobile. When I went to At&t, the rep know nothing about Windows Phone and would rather sell people one of the iPhone. I think thats one thing Microsoft really need to do to promote the phone, if they are not going to have marquee phone.
 
antiquegamer said:
HD7 is also another phone that use SD card as internal memory I think which lead me to believe many of the freezing, crashing etc on these phone have to do with Windows Phone 7 and the way it access memory especially on SD card.

Your friend probably should replace the phone he probably have one with "bad" sdcard inside.

Here is an article on replacing SD card in Dell Venue Pro and the problem seems to go away.

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/cell-phon...sd-cards-i-turned-mine-into-a-32gb-model/5405
Now THAT'S something I had forgotten about. Perhaps it is an issue with the SD card?

I was simply surprised by how long some things took to load.
 
Firestorm said:
They'll have to help because Verizon and AT&T have no reason to promote WP7. Verizon was driven to do so for Android due to lack of the iPhone. And from what I understand, T-Mobile and Sprint aren't big enough in the US.

That was actually Google's solution to reduce fragmentation.

Actually Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile have every reason to promote WP7. Why?

Because there are people that there that want it and WILL want it and with it being available everywhere (eventually) its more important to drive those interested ones to a phone on YOUR network. Verizon already proved it works with the Droid line.
 
Darth Tigris said:
Actually Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile have every reason to promote WP7. Why?

Because there are people that there that want it and WILL want it and with it being available everywhere (eventually) its more important to drive those interested ones to a phone on YOUR network. Verizon already proved it works with the Droid line.
Or they could say "iPhone 4" and get customers without even trying. The Droid line was marketed out of necessity due to AT&T's iPhone exclusivity in the US.
 
My phone completely locked up whilst using an app, couldn't even get it to restart. Had to take the battery out to get it going again.
 
After I unlock my phone via Chevron is a way for me not having to re-unlock it after every 10 days? (omnia 7)

edit:

Also LindyReader is the most awesome app ever! Dropbox supported comic book reader. Exactly what I wanted and I got it.
 
It looks like the camera setting is by design which is fine but they really should add "favorite setting" for the camera especially if they are not letting 3rd party app access camera api and people that have emulator running latest update said the camera 'isssue" was still there.
 
antiquegamer said:
It looks like the camera setting is by design which is fine but they really should add "favorite setting" for the camera especially if they are not letting 3rd party app access camera api and people that have emulator running latest update said the camera 'isssue" was still there.

What kind of "design" is that to forget the user's preferred setting? That makes literally no sense. It's not a big deal to me, but I can't see a single person in the world who would want a camera app that doesn't keep the settings just the way you like it for the next time you open it up. I'd like to see the "design" principle behind that.
 
I thought it was the manufacturers that were responsible for the camera settings. Can't they do anything about it, if Microsoft won't?
 
VanMardigan said:
What kind of "design" is that to forget the user's preferred setting? That makes literally no sense. It's not a big deal to me, but I can't see a single person in the world who would want a camera app that doesn't keep the settings just the way you like it for the next time you open it up. I'd like to see the "design" principle behind that.

http://wmpoweruser.com/camera-settings-still-not-retained-in-windows-phone-7-update/

This seems to be true because if I change my camera setting return to the start screen and use back button to get back to "tombstone" camera it DOES retain my setting. When it doesn't work is when you restart camera app or use camera button to wake the phone up.

"…whenever we click on an application from the Start it will always relaunch the application as if it wasn’t already running. This means that if the application was previously in the background (or Tombstoned) it will be terminated and restarted. Alternatively, clicking Back to get back to a running application will return the application to the foreground in the state it was in"

Also here is an interesting reading on how WP7 "multitask" where the wmpoweruser excerpt came from

http://nicksnettravels.builttoroam....a-Go-Backe280a6-No-I-mean-the-other-Back.aspx

Most annoying thing today for the lack of 3rd party ability to run in the background, I got message from my brother in law and it exit out from my TwiT podcast streaming which then have to restart ... why can't MS allow at least podcast app to run in the background if their Zune is such a shitty podcast manager that not only can't stream podcast but can't even download over the air. I need two app to do this simple task and it's pretty stupid thing to not quickly fix.
 
VanMardigan said:
What kind of "design" is that to forget the user's preferred setting? That makes literally no sense. It's not a big deal to me, but I can't see a single person in the world who would want a camera app that doesn't keep the settings just the way you like it for the next time you open it up. I'd like to see the "design" principle behind that.

I mean I literally in this age have NO USE for shooting non 720p video or I see no reason why I wouldn't want the anti shake feature on every time I take a pic? I mean who wouldn't want that on? LOL
 
As for the camera settings: See post #3922

WMPowerUser has a new interview with Microsoft's Brandon Watson and I'm just gonna paste the (imo) intersting parts:
...
6) Some classes of applications are absent due to missing APIs. Could you address these individually?

1)Alternate PIM applications, as there is no way to access Task & Calendar items of a user.

2)Compass API – no Augmented Reality or even Compass apps

3)Video API – Again not Augmented reality, and even apps to scan barcodes

4)Sockets – Useful for a variety of apps

BLW – this is a top feature request and we are always working very hard to make our developers happy and successful.

Bluetooth – useful for P2P gaming for example or for peripherals

BLW – we’ve heard this from some people, but it’s not as major a request as the other 4 you listed.

There’s nothing to announce at this time, but developers will not be disappointed if they are investing in the Windows Phone platform. A great place to learn about the future directions of all of Microsoft’s platforms is the Mix event.

...

What about native SDK? Android got theirs later, should we expect Microsoft to provide a native SDK also, or just forget about it ?

BLW – if by native SDK, you are asking will we allow anyone to run C or C++ unmanaged code on the device, the answer is “not now.” Our primary concern is ensuring that there is a fantastic customer experience on the phone. We recently announced that we have satisfaction rates for the phone at 93%. That’s amazing. We attribute at least some of that to the fact that customers can buy apps that they don’t have to worry will trash their phones, and they don’t have to worry because of the managed platform.

Over time we will certainly relax certain restrictions on the phone, but we cannot compromise the integrity of the phone experience or the marketplace experience.

Read the complete interview here: http://wmpoweruser.com/interview-with-brandon-watson-from-wp7-developer-team/
 
brotkasten said:
As for the camera settings: See post #3922


I actually thought you were kidding. :( Has MS ever actually addressed that issue? I've not even heard it on the Windows Phone podcast, they've been really good about avoiding that stuff.
 
So what's the deal with Microsoft and the requirements for manufacturers? I thought they were the minimum suggested specs but every manufacturer has used the same components so far. Let's say Nokia does decide to make WP7 phones, is it possible they could make a true high end device with a better processor, better screen etc without requiring special support from Microsoft?
 
Charred Greyface said:
So what's the deal with Microsoft and the requirements for manufacturers? I thought they were the minimum suggested specs but every manufacturer has used the same components so far. Let's say Nokia does decide to make WP7 phones, is it possible they could make a true high end device with a better processor, better screen etc without requiring special support from Microsoft?

I think they all went with what they went cause they were all gonna be launch units so they got a great price by all the manufactures going with the same chipset for a baseline. Cost effective verses trying to go outside the box especially when the device already ran perfectly smooth to begin with.

Why go with extra power? The devices and the OS themselves are perfectly smooth not counting some bugs that need to be squashed. Not like the device is gonna run faster than it already does, and nobody is gonna code apps for one phone that has higher specs when the rest don't. Now if they start to add to the OS with things like multitasking it might be time to up the horsepower.
 
Brettison said:
I think they all went with what they went cause they were all gonna be launch units so they got a great price by all the manufactures going with the same chipset for a baseline. Cost effective verses trying to go outside the box especially when the device already ran perfectly smooth to begin with.

Why go with extra power? The devices and the OS themselves are perfectly smooth not counting some bugs that need to be squashed. Not like the device is gonna run faster than it already does, and nobody is gonna code apps for one phone that has higher specs when the rest don't. Now if they start to add to the OS with things like multitasking it might be time to up the horsepower.
The WP7 specs are nice when considered in a vacuum but better specs would help when stacking the phones against their counterparts on other platforms. Even at launch, the WP7 phones were considered midrange hardware and a few people mentioned that they would wait for the second generation expected early this year. Instead the next hardware batch has failed to materialize...
 
Charred Greyface said:
So what's the deal with Microsoft and the requirements for manufacturers? I thought they were the minimum suggested specs but every manufacturer has used the same components so far. Let's say Nokia does decide to make WP7 phones, is it possible they could make a true high end device with a better processor, better screen etc without requiring special support from Microsoft?

As far as I know, the OS has to be updates to support the various chipsets. The next update is supposed to add support for a second generation Qualcomm Snapdragon SoC.

I think if it was possible for OEMs to use whatever they want, the Samsung Focus and Omnia would definitely be using Hummingbirds instead of Snapdragons.
 
giga said:
One other thing I’ve noticed is that the clipboard doesn’t save the information after you’ve pasted it somewhere. Perhaps it’s a bug.

After pasting, the icon is gone from any other text input boxes:

You have to swipe across the middle band to get the paste icon to re-appear. The assumption is that user will paste once, so the icon is hidden to make room for text-completion suggestions.

See the following post..
http://windowsphonesecrets.com/2011/02/06/windows-phone-7-copypaste-demo-with-multiple-paste/
 
Mr. Snrub said:
So...any word on that update dropping today, as rumored?
It's still early in Redmond, but why would you expect it to come out today? It was a random rumor from a random (french, iirc) site with no track record.
 
brotkasten said:
It's still early in Redmond, but why would you expect it to come out today? It was a random rumor from a random (french, iirc) site with no track record.
My guess is the site got mixed up that Sprint was supposed to announce something today.
 
Mr. Snrub said:
Hey, I'm not saying it wont happen today. It's the 7th after all and the folks at MS like to do stuff like that (remember, the Zune software was named 4.7, because it was 'for Windows Phone 7' and the Zune HD fw update v4.5 was released on April 5th, or 04/05/ last year). Still, I highly doubt it and we would've heard more.

claviertekky said:
My guess is the site got mixed up that Sprint was supposed to announce something today.
They were specifically talking about the update.

edit: Just checked WMPowerUser's source and they don't even mention a date:
http://translate.google.com/transla...iement-de-la-mise-a-jour-aurait-commence/1928

And their source dates back to January 13th (again, without a date).

Here's the "article" on WMPU: http://wmpoweruser.com/first-windows-phone-7-update-coming-february-7th/
 
Charred Greyface said:
The WP7 specs are nice when considered in a vacuum but better specs would help when stacking the phones against their counterparts on other platforms. Even at launch, the WP7 phones were considered midrange hardware and a few people mentioned that they would wait for the second generation expected early this year. Instead the next hardware batch has failed to materialize...
Again, because although specs are nice for comparison, these phones work fine as was pointed out to you already. The experience was customized for this chipset. A higher spec'ed phone would not be taken advantage of, so what's the point? Android can have its dick waving hardware contests. When they just cram stuff that doesn't improve the user experience because the os wasn't designed to take advantage of it, what does it matter? Wp7's approach is the best way to ensure user experience consistency and developer experience consistency with a greater hardware variety than IOS.

The os runs butter smooth and the games look amazing, specs be damned.
 
OuterWorldVoice said:
Haha, I just found the "OH SHIT I'M LATE" button in the Calendar app. Now THAT is useful.
I'm sure it was one of the first things that came up, when your colleagues redesigned the calendar app. :lol

btw, Last.fm is switching to a subscription-based model for devices. It's $3 per month now and if you want to use the service on devices, you have to pay. Except for Windows Phone 7 and Xbox 360 users.

On February 15, the radio service built into Last.fm mobile apps and on home entertainment devices will become an ad-free, subscriber-only feature.

Last.fm Radio will remain free on the Last.fm website in the US, UK and Germany and for the US and UK users of Xbox Live and Windows Mobile 7 phones. We’ll also continue to offer radio for free via the Last.fm desktop app.
http://blog.last.fm/2011/02/07/last...ture-on-mobile-and-home-entertainment-devices

VanMardigan said:
Again, because although specs are nice for comparison, these phones work fine as was pointed out to you already. The experience was customized for this chipset. A higher spec'ed phone would not be taken advantage of, so what's the point? Android can have its dick waving hardware contests. When they just cram stuff that doesn't improve the user experience because the os wasn't designed to take advantage of it, what does it matter? Wp7's approach is the beat way to ensure user experience consistency and developer experience consistency with a greater hardware variety than IOS.

The os runs butter smooth and the games look amazing, specs be damned.
Pretty much. I just read the LG Optimus 2X review on Engadget and they gave it a 6/10. So much for the first Tegra 2/dual-core smartphone on the market.
 
My wife owns a captivate, which is essentially my Focus but has the superior hummingbird chip. Guess which phone works without os lag, which phone can scroll through lists without hiccups, which phone can zoom through the desktop version of websites without stuttering, which phone has better looking games, and which phone hasn't been updated to the latest software version seven months later?
 
VanMardigan said:
Again, because although specs are nice for comparison, these phones work fine as was pointed out to you already. The experience was customized for this chipset. A higher spec'ed phone would not be taken advantage of, so what's the point? Android can have its dick waving hardware contests. When they just cram stuff that doesn't improve the user experience because the os wasn't designed to take advantage of it, what does it matter? Wp7's approach is the best way to ensure user experience consistency and developer experience consistency with a greater hardware variety than IOS.

The os runs butter smooth and the games look amazing, specs be damned.
I'm not complaining about the performance of the hardware (although I would be delighted to see a WP7 phone with a retina display) I'm wondering what the rumored Nokia partnership would mean for us, the end-users...
 
Charred Greyface said:
I'm not complaining about the performance of the hardware (although I would be delighted to see a WP7 phone with a retina display) I'm wondering what the rumored Nokia partnership would mean for us, the end-users...
A Nokia WP7 would be another choice for the end-user. You're saying the WP7 devices out there are all the same (bc they share the same specs), so why would it matter, right? Well, there's a reason why the Focus and Omnia 7 are the best selling WP7 devices on the market.
 
Charred Greyface said:
I'm not complaining about the performance of the hardware (although I would be delighted to see a WP7 phone with a retina display) I'm wondering what the rumored Nokia partnership would mean for us, the end-users...
It means we would get the well designed and rock solid Nokia hardware paired with the best smartphone software ever put in a Nokia device, and that it will all run smoothly and look great regardless of the chipset inside.
 
I've been using my Samsung Focus since early November, but there is one thing I wish the OS had... a button or swipe to hide the software keyboard.

For example, I click in a text field, finish typing and want to close the keyboard to move to the next field. I end up having to click somewhere in the form that is empty space in order to minimize the keyboard.

Is there a better work around?

(I just tried using the back button and it minimizes the keyboard - DOH!)

NVM
 
CaptainABAB said:
I've been using my Samsung Focus since early November, but there is one thing I wish the OS had... a button or swipe to hide the software keyboard.

For example, I click in a text field, finish typing and want to close the keyboard to move to the next field. I end up having to click somewhere in the form that is empty space in order to minimize the keyboard.

Is there a better work around?

(I just tried using the back button and it minimizes the keyboard - DOH!)

NVM
Yeah, just press the back button. It took me some time to get that.
 
The the same lines though, they really need to have a way for a developer to disable the soft keys or repurpose them for something else. Or maybe at least require double-taps (or "are you sure?") before they work.

I checked out the Rocket Riot demo and it's cool, but I kept hitting the Start button when swiping the right side of the screen to shoot a rocket.
 
dLMN8R said:
The the same lines though, they really need to have a way for a developer to disable the soft keys or repurpose them for something else. Or maybe at least require double-taps (or "are you sure?") before they work.

I checked out the Rocket Riot demo and it's cool, but I kept hitting the Start button when swiping the right side of the screen to shoot a rocket.

I think that's more an indictment of capacitive keys.

That's my wife's biggest complaint from using the Focus.

Capacitive keys are a form over function travesty.
 
dLMN8R said:
The the same lines though, they really need to have a way for a developer to disable the soft keys or repurpose them for something else. Or maybe at least require double-taps (or "are you sure?") before they work.

I checked out the Rocket Riot demo and it's cool, but I kept hitting the Start button when swiping the right side of the screen to shoot a rocket.
Some apps handle this by having a popup appear to confirm that you want to close the app, but it is not consistent.

As for Rocket Riot in particular, I had that problem at first until I noticed that the screen is basically split in half (for controls that is), so you don't need to be swiping on the far right near the buttons (or left depending on which way you hold the phone). Once I got used to swiping closer to the middle of the screen I haven't had any accidental button presses. On that note, I highly recommend people trying Rocket Riot; since the latest game update it now works on my Focus and I must say that despite the relatively high price, it is a terrific game that is absolutely worth the money in my opinion.
 
kazinova said:
Zune software update? Is it WP7.1 time nao pleez!
Wow, they updates the Zune Software? Did they change the App Management? :o There's something happening, I'm excited, but on a PC where almost anything is blocked. :/
 
snap0212 said:
Wow, they updates the Zune Software? Did they change the App Management? :o There's something happening, I'm excited, but on a PC where almost anything is blocked. :/

Most of what I've read says that there aren't any major changes, maybe just background stuff to support the update? It even has the same version number. People do say it loads and runs faster though.
 
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