brotkasten
Member
That might be true for the iPad, because you can nothing do outside of apps, but it's different on a phone. I rarely use any apps on my phone, which is why the look and feel is more important to me there.
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Windows Phone |OT2|
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That might be true for the iPad, because you can nothing do outside of apps, but it's different on a phone. I rarely use any apps on my phone, which is why the look and feel is more important to me there.
brotkasten
Member
Hey, hey. Gary Whitta and RubxQub are not that old.
Folders were there when I had an iPhone and that was two years ago.
VanMardigan
has calmed down a bit.
Also, that Roboto shit got old real quick. ICS hasn't aged well, I hope Google puts some more effort into the look of the OS while maintaining and iterating on the awesome parts of ICS, like the multitasking and improved smoothness.
I want, like, 1000 new features in Apollo. And I want a spreadsheet that lists them all, in alphabetical order.
I want, like, 1000 new features in Apollo. And I want a spreadsheet that lists them all, in alphabetical order.
dream
Member
Right, but what are you doing on your phone? Making calls, messaging, calendars, etc -- all apps that are gradually (and very subtly) evolved across major versions of the OS. I get the feeling people want a radical Springboard redesign and I just can't see that happening because Springboard only exists to get users into their apps.
Even with folders I have six pages of 'em. It's just plain ugly.
hmm, the only thing I can think of is to keep deleting. Remember, games also count towards that magic number.
VanMardigan
has calmed down a bit.
Yo dawg I heard you like icons, so we put icons in your icons so you can click on an icon to click on an icon.
brotkasten
Member
It must be hard to understand for someone that isn't familiar with the concept of integrated services. Don't worry, now with iOS 6, you'll understand soon enough.
i agree. This year was my "make me leave Android" year. Apple didn't deliver (although they had the largest hurdle due to the ecosystem)... waiting on MS now
dream
Member
I agree with VanMardigan. ICS looks cheap and gaudy now, to the point where something like Sense 4.0 is a godsend.
Oh god, this is about People Hub, isn't it.
Oh god, this is about People Hub, isn't it.
Fjolle
Member
I feel that it looks stupid when i have 1-2 apps for each letter...
this explains everything about you not getting UI complaints on IOS... EVERYTHING
The experience of scrolling through your Apps an WP7 is definitely awesome and could not be better in any way, I agree. Especially when you have a lot of them installed. I'm so glad I can scroll down an endless list of Apps instead of flicking through pages.
Steelyuhas
Member
Nokia hardware. Believe!
Yeah the UI and basic UX design is the most important thing to me for a phone, and that's why I think Windows Phone is hands down the best mobile OS for my purposes. I don't have 200 apps on my phone, and there is a best section of apps that I actually use regularly. The Tiles home screen is perfect for me.
Yeah I wish I could get it to go away as well.
VanMardigan
has calmed down a bit.
What does MS have to do for you to leave the shitty, laggy, glitchy, hacky, gaudy, ugly-ass tron looking, battery life killing cause all your apps can do what they damn well please with your phone and data, anti-virus in the app store having, windows mobile spiritual successor world of Android?
I joke cause I care
Letter jump lists and app opening voice commands were introduced in Mango. C'mon son!
Or you could use voice command to launch any app at any time from anywhere, even the lock screen.
You will appreciate how useful that is when it comes to iOS 6.*
*if your device supports Siri
Or Microsoft could give users option to simply create folders. Voice commands don't show me 'all apps that I can edit photos with' or 'apps I need for my Japanese classes'. That's why you have folders on your PC and don't use the Search to find whatever you're looking for.
Pretty sure voice was there day one.
Well, I have heard out of the focus groups that the new Nokia will have sharp edges. So we can all commit mass suicide if needed.
The photo hub does that for you.
basically show me better hardware support, some nice integration into an ecosystem I'm already bought into (windows and xbox) and some effort on the 3rd party app side of things. I was on Android from the Nexus 1 release and the biggest pain point for me then was apps. I'm trying to avoid willingly putting myself back into that system.
Social integration i dont really care. Skydrive integration I want to hear about. Music services. I already mostly like the UI (i still shake my head at/don't "get" mega fonts, but hoping higher resolution screens fix that a bit).
Its so hard to change software ecosystems. I'm not talking about apps... things like Chrome vs IE (i use the chrome mobile integration A LOT), gmail vs hotmail (this admittedly is a little easier), etc. Things that are built into Android that i use on a daily basis between my phone and computer. At least with MS i already have everything in the ecosystem. I dont have to use itunes on a PC, which is a HUGE turnoff.
and come on now, Tron looking was so 3.0... i'm DEFINITELY not looking to move for battery life improvements, because moving to WP doesn't change that
But I thought the smartphone beta test was over.
So does this mean that grouping similar things makes sense? Like... Folders?
VanMardigan
has calmed down a bit.
Since Windows Vista, typing what you need at the start screen is a much better way of getting what you want than digging through folders. Also, the concept of Libraries was meant to minimize the need for folders. I'm pretty sure most users now either use search or the jump lists to access the files and programs they want than to remember which folder they stored that particular file in.
Also, phones aren't PC's and shouldn't bring the complexity, security threats, and inconsistency of that environment. If you're an Android user, I apologize, I'm not intentionally targeting your platform again.
edit: gcubed, Google integration in terms of Calendar, Mail, and Contact support was surprisingly solid from the outset of Windows Phone. I really hope they continue to add hooks and improve on the Google integration since I'm a gmail/chrome/google calendar user, but I really can't say it was difficult going from Android to WP. In fact, moving ecosystems wasn't difficult for me ever, I've gone from iOS to Android to WP and if I had to go back to Android or iOS its the easiest thing in the world. Its not like the apps and stuff go away, you're always one login/sync away from getting all your stuff back. I tend to mix things up a bit, I have an iPad, Nexus 1 as a backup phone, and WP as my main phone and I seamlessly jump from one to the other. The phone is the most important device I own, and I'm definitely more comfortable with WP as the daily driver. Less demanding than Android, more exciting than iOS.
Not if it makes me jump through hoops and pukes up the UI even more.
brotkasten
Member
Hey, as a potential Android user I'm kinda offended!
God, I'm still laughing when I say that. 'potential Android user'. I'd probably still laugh at me, when I really get that Xperia phone
Like clicking on "Photos" and swiping to the left to see my Photo related apps?
VanMardigan
has calmed down a bit.
Not only that, but the grouping is done where it makes sense. You still have the app list with all of them alphabetically, but if you are in the photo hub, it makes sense to have them listed there. If you click on the ellipsis while looking at a photo, it also gives you the option of viewing apps related to photos.
I'm not a no-folder absolutist, but if an OS is smart about grouping apps and makes accessing them a breeze, then yeah, I'd rather not have folders.
Steelyuhas
Member
unfortunately for me the way i expect to be able to use some of those services on the OS makes me have to jump to a Live ecosystem (sharing calendars with my wife is one example that I can't do using Google integration on WP7 currently, tab sharing between browsers, and chrome to phone are others i use a lot, i'm hoping IE10 has some of that built in between the devices).
Apps are the least of my worries (besides having a few not available on WP7). I use my phone for integrated services way more then anything else.
Wordament. It's free so you have no excuse not to try it, even if you don't like "word" games.
There is a WP gaming thread here, but it isn't updated very often. Some of my personal favorites are,
Live enabled:
Chicken's Can't Fly
Glow Artisan
Orbital
Rocket Riot
Tentacles
Non-Live:
AlphaJax
Bouncy Mouse
ORB
Portals 2D
Trine's Hangman
The automatic grouping is only done for very few, very specific things. My IM program isn't listed when I click on messages, neither is WhatsApp. Skype isn't listed when I click on the Telephone button... or maybe I'd want it listed together with the messaging app? If the automatic grouping is a feature then it's incredibly inconsistent and I'd rather use two minutes of my own time to tell my phone 'X, Y, and Z should be in one place. Thanks'.
Windows Phone 7 already does allow user created folders in certain cases (contacts). No reason why it shouldn't be a feature in general.
If you want to personally manage all those apps, be my guest. I'd rather have an uncluttered and undated UI and not deal with it.
If something is that important, I'll pin it to start which is effectively a favorites folder with special functionality (live tiles).
VanMardigan
has calmed down a bit.
Send to WP7 is an app that works like Chrome-to-Phone it even has the little icon next to the omnibar just like Chrome-to-Phone. I use it all the time, I fell in love with that functionality on Android and thankfully haven't had to give that up. Calendar sharing you'd have to switch to a Live calendar right now, yeah, although Google/MS have done some surprising things in terms of allowing functionality, so it may be in Apollo. For example, someone somewhere flipped a switch and, voila, you can now do a full gmail search from the mail app so you can search for messages that aren't stored locally on the phone. No idea how that happened, it just went live one day and worked really well. I expect deeper integration of Google services, I'm sure most MS folks use Gmail/Google Calendar. The only thing I don't see happening is Google Docs support, cause that's one of the few instances where the MS solution (Office) is better than the Google one.
i seriously wouldn't miss Docs at all. At best quickoffice can bring them closer to par, but thats not something that will keep me from switching. If I can get similar integration without having to wholly migrate services then i'm just looking at what I think of the future of the platform and neat WP8/W8/Xbox interop features as well as hardware.
Do most apps use WP design guidelines or are they wholly ported iOS apps
VanMardigan
has calmed down a bit.
It's kinda funny that iOS6 just had its big blowout and we are discussing Android/WP7 instead. Man, Apple really underdelivered. And I say that knowing full well that Apple fans were overjoyed and overwhelmed during the presentation when offered a $2100 laptop. As sweet as that thing looked....it's still a $2100 laptop. As good as the new Maps, FB integration and Siri improvements were, they didn't fix the biggest gripe I had with the OS, which is the launcher/home screen.
edit:
edit:
In my experience, the vast majority of apps make an effort to replicate the metro experience rather than the iOS experience. I know that's not the case on Android, so at least that's one positive thing you can say about third party apps on WP.
i was underwhelmed by it as well. One of the biggest announcements was feature parity with competitive platforms. Great for current users, but nothing stuck out that makes me want to switch
hmm... very nice. Now i need to know the status of xfinity streaming (hbo go exist yet on WP7?) and a viable option on Verizon Wireless (which is a "i'll believe it when i see it" answer)
hmm... very nice. Now i need to know the status of xfinity streaming (hbo go exist yet on WP7?) and a viable option on Verizon Wireless (which is a "i'll believe it when i see it" answer)
I'm not sure when they will change the home screen, honestly. All I know is Apollo better not suck or I am going to Finland.
So WP8 speculation? what do you think we will see?
I think you can look at Windows 8 to see a lot of what is to come. A lot of it is a given already, new kernal, better hardware etc... WinRT.
I could see them adding the charms bar in W8 as hardware buttons on the Phone:
which would mean app contracts would come to the phone which will be very powerful.
W8 search is also very powerful, so i expect that to be coming to the phone as well. Honestly, i expect most if not all of the features of Metro in W8 to come to the Phone. Can't wait till the 20th. (I wouldn't be surprised if they call it Windows 8 Phone.)
I think you can look at Windows 8 to see a lot of what is to come. A lot of it is a given already, new kernal, better hardware etc... WinRT.
I could see them adding the charms bar in W8 as hardware buttons on the Phone:
which would mean app contracts would come to the phone which will be very powerful.
W8 search is also very powerful, so i expect that to be coming to the phone as well. Honestly, i expect most if not all of the features of Metro in W8 to come to the Phone. Can't wait till the 20th. (I wouldn't be surprised if they call it Windows 8 Phone.)
yeah probably, so many rumors etc.. i forget which ones have been all but confirmed and which are just speculation.
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