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The Gripes of a WinMo switchover!
Just got my Dell Streak this Wednesday, unlocked from dell direct (at the temporarily reduced price!). From order to receipt was just 48hrs! Which was quite nice!
As you may infer from the title, this is my first Android device, previous to this (and still somewhat current) I used the HTC HD2 running WM6.5, (and probably would not have switched had the 5” streak been available on WinMo!).
These are my first impressions (in a 48hr period) on switching over (and I should add that my views on the device may be somewhat inter-twined with that of the O.S, and vice-versa!)
Somewhat underwhelmed, as someone else pointed out (don’t know why), but hopefully will get more excited as time passes.
Bigger Screen! If what you’re after is a screen bigger than the HD2 4.3” then this is for you, as it increase the visual real-estate of the HD2 whilst keeping the slip form-factor and with negligible weight increase! The HD2 looks positively tiny in comparison, the galaxy S? looks like 3”. Quality? Quite good, LCD wise, as I cannot speak for AMOLED. Problems? Control of brightness! adjustable on the home screen, but seemingly with an inaccessible life of its own within opened apps. (I know if you check the ones that have settings options they supposedly give the option to copy the system default, but i don’t believe they really do!).
Landscape Default, immediately corrected with ADW home Launcher! Haven’t been able to load any others, probably due to it being v1.6 Donut! I am missing the fully-fledged abilities of my SPB shell though!
Utilities; be prepared to look for your own for the majors (app killer/Task manager, File explorer). Widgets seem rather limited (or non-existant), possibly due to it being Donut 1.6. Touchdown?!
Apps: Whilst this may be an Android selling point, I personally (and currently) only see this as complacent ease-of-accessibility. There may be a lot, but the ones that really count aren’t there in numbers like on WM. I’ve only found limited singles for my major requirements, so be prepared for some slight frustrations
Ebooks: If you are a major ebook reader like me, be prepared to have to convert your whole library to just one format. On my HD2 my primary app was uBook; which read html, txt, rtf, pdb, prc, formatted everything on the fly into numbered pages and automatically remembered the last page/position you were on (even after complete exit and unit power-off!). My first two options on Android, aldiko and laputa, wouldn’t give me access to my library on the card. The third, iReader, could read txt & html files from my card, but had no numbered pages (only a top-to-bottom kinetic scroll option), so after laboriously scrolling down to where I was in the book, imagine my horror when I accidentally used the back tab, which took me back to the SD card library, on going back in, right at the Top again! Okay, my bad lets see what happens when I jump to device home; go back in, yes it’s still at the same place. But should it completely close or be app killed, or device shut off, guess what? Right Back At The Top Again!
Fourth time was the charm with FBreader, which could access my card to read my ePub converted library (Nobody please mention calibre! This system hog slowed down my PC, when batch converting only 100 text/doc file, for over an hour!), although it still has no numbered pages and is still a top-down kinetic scroller (I have to book-mark paragraphs). Fingers crossed for when its completely shut off.
Comics: only one real option so far; ACV! Comics look brilliant (re: sharp/vibrant/colourful)on the 5”screen, with well adapted settings options for landscape and portrait viewing controls.
Videos: Rockplayer for all your multi-format needs! Unfortunately it’s got that subtle playback issue (slight scratchy audio and video sync) that other people have reported for which you have no recourse to tweak the settings, as there are none! Unlike Winmo
Photos: No file/folder differentiating photo manager like Resco’s yet! (No separate icon option for camcorder recording either)
Youtube: accesses and plays fine, but seems to default to the lowest quality (will see if I can update or change the default)
Internet Browsing: the default browser is surprisingly quite pleasant (speedy and easy to use), although some sites default to mobile, and it has this annoying issue (probably Dell related) of not showing the additional product page options in the Android marketplace if you have the device in Portrait mode! (Weird, I know!). Readeable (in portrait!) on NO ZOOM!
Navigation: I am not missing my use of stand-alone nav systems, as, from the little I have used it, Google Nav seems quite brilliant!
Audio managers/Players: seems to be only one major rated one so far (audio manager pro) which I have yet to use, but I do miss my S2P/Coreplayer apps
Games: Now this seems to be where the 5” screen and Android /marketplace seem to have a kissing spot. I have only d/l’d Robo Defender so far, but it is brilliant (nope, not over-using the word!), and with similar games to utilise the screen ,and system, the future is golden.
Social Networking: don’t use, but i do think Android’s widgets, with spaciousness of the screen would go together.
So, overall (and thank you for bearing with me in my diatribe), in switching over to the Dell Streak on Android; for the 5” Screen, yes its worth it. (For the O.S. on its own without the screen, and on 1.6, not really for me). (Not a hardcore Winmo fan perse, but it is much more mature and fully fleshed than Android! Even now with all major players, including its creators, seemingly having bailed!)
If you want to read comics on a larger screen DEFINITELY!
Ebooks, yes (but with the above caveats).
Video? Need more players w/ settings to tweak!
Surfing, yes!
Games, Definitely!
So, the future is bright, the future is: the Dell Streak on Android!
Thanks for the perspective. I'll be switching from WinMo 6.1 and appreciate the viewpoint as this will be my first Android as well.
GPS looks to be the killer app for me. Everything else will just be a bonus for those times where a laptop won't do. Mostly email, games and music when I'm stuck at the airport. No separate PSP, MP3, PND.
Still, I wonder if I'll be able to have my GPS (AT&T) and Trapster running at the same time AND be able to make calls as I can on the WinMo? I didn't do this often (and once forgot to plug the charger in and drained a full battery in 30 minutes!) - but THAT is multi-tasking.
(I'm still waiting to get a rental car with a USB port to see if I can with stream my Media player to the car radio.)
There are many reasons to move off WinMo, but it does OK by me.
Winmo certainly does!
Thanks for your write up bbmalver and welcome to the Streak Family
Nice to be here; thanks for the welcome!
Aldiko will see ebooks in epub format on your card if you add them to the import folder. Personally I find it an excellent eBook reader, surpassing both ubook and Haalireader which I've used on WinMo previously...
Sent from my Dell Streak using XDA App
I did try to use the import option, but after 2secs it would say no books found. Are you suggesting all the books need to be copied to its own import folder before it sees them?
Tried it; didn't work! But on going thru the many created folders on my sd card I found that although i had created my own ebook folder on the card, Aldiko had created an import folder within my own ebook library folder, to which i then had to copy the book before it could import it. Convoluted eh?!
Thanks for the general pointage! Some neat touch features, can jump to page, and, best of all, it also remembers my page! ta!
Welcome to the android family
also, you can build your own YouTube app from source (i think) so you can change the default quality from there.
No one seems to have done it yet for the streak but it's apparently very easy to do
Now thats rather cryptic MeltusTell us how, or point us there!
Hi, I wanted to know what you guys think of the Focus and is it a worth getting?
What are the ups and downs of windows phone 7?
Is there any major hardware issues that I should consider before getting one?
Thanks in advance
I bought the phone outright from Rogers for $630.00 and I don't have a single regret! I think WP7 is gonna be a VERY strong competitor against ios and android by the end of the year. Microsoft needs a few updates to give the devs more control to create better apps, it needs some more user customization, and as most complaints would be it doesn't have copy & paste (which I dont care about at all)
All these are coming in updates soon and once the ball really starts rollin' I think WP7 will be a major success.
Is it worth buying the Focus? ABSOLUTELY! I love the phone, its so fast, fluid, and feels great.
I have new hopes for MS now, and I think Im currently leaning towards WP7 more than android and ios.
just my opinion,,,,hope this helps.
Sweet! You won't regret it IMHO.
My top 5 tips for the Focus (extra important for someone like me outside US warranty cover):
1. TAKE TREMENDOUS care clipping on/off the rear plate-phone back. It is plastic, with a couple of tiny plastic clips holding it in. Break these.....replacment back plate or blu-tac required!
2. Think long and hard over a case (I got a body glove - review on this site). This can be a slippery little sucker once the back plate gets some natural body oils / sweat / humidity etc on it. It has such a small form factor – cases do not weight it down too much in my opinion.
3. Add expandable memory at your own risk until MS offer a certified list / approved card process. If you do – load up the phone above the 8GB limit ASAP to test stability over a week or so. If you add heaps of apps and custom info and then need to hard reset, you've wasted a decent amount of time.
4. Use the Samsung Profile app (marketplace) to move the MMS capability over to your preferred carrier if outside US (eg Telstra Australia = worked for me).
5. Remove the AT&T bloat/software if outside US App support.
From one very happy Aussie Focus owner.
Thanks guys I'm see about getting one in a few weeks.
So no custom roms for this device yet, no ones working with this or any of the WP7 phones?
Think again
Noz85 said:
Thanks guys I'm see about getting one in a few weeks.
So no custom roms for this device yet, no ones working with this or any of the WP7 phones?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you are, like me, a former WM 6.5 guy who liked to flash custom ROMs and are thinking about a WP7 device, you are on the wrong path my friend. Custom ROMs on a WP7 device? Have you not read anything in these threads? I went to the Focus from a FUZE with a 6.5.5 Energy ROM, and tweaked and upgraded constantly, including my apps. I did this becuase I wanted to and thought I needed to. It was insanity and I realize this now that I have the Focus. I no longer need to do that, and no longer want to do that. My apps update on their own, the OS will too, and I would like to see some OS updates but don't need them. If what you want to do is tweak, customize and burn new custom ROMs, look elsewhere than WP7.
While we're on topic, how is the call quality?
Call quality
mcorrie1121 said:
While we're on topic, how is the call quality?
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Click to collapse
The best of any smartphone I've ever used - Kaiser, Rhodium, iPhone 1st gen and 3GS. It REALLY sounds good. MUCH better radio than any of the other mentioned phones, as well, in terms of reception and coverage on AT&T in my location.
wspaw said:
The best of any smartphone I've ever used - Kaiser, Rhodium, iPhone 1st gen and 3GS. It REALLY sounds good. MUCH better radio than any of the other mentioned phones, as well, in terms of reception and coverage on AT&T in my location.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1
that I can definitely agree with! Excellent call quality!
Samsung Focus WP7 pros and cons
Check Youtube video: "The Dark Side of the Samsung Focus"
I am hearing some a mono tone noise in the background while using my Bluetooth headset, such as Jawbone Icon, Sound ID5 etc.
The App store is still at its infancy. The interface is sometimes sluggish and crash without response especially on 3rd party apps. There is no VOIP applications yet because MS hasn't released the API. The screen of the Focus is sometimes way too sensitive that I have to do a factory reset or complete shut down of the phone.
CONS:
- Bluetooth + 3G call interfere with WiFi signal.
- Camera Settings are Not Saved after usage. I have to re-set 720P for video everytime!
- No video upload to social network nor Youtube yet.
- No dedicate Youtube app beside the mobile web interface. I really like the latest Youtube app in Android where you can have full screen in landscape and a small video still running on top with comments and related links at the bottom.... too bad it's only limited to Froyo or above version.
- Bluetooth Remote Control Protocol (No track change, No Volume Control)
- No Hidden WiFi SSID
- No native multilingual input support such as Chinese text and voice input yet.
- Voice control sometimes forces you to quite to the home page and need to press and hold the Windows Button again.
- No HTML5, Text rendering engine is sometimes very slow which results in unreadable pixelated form when zoomed in.
- Lacking confirmation before shut down when press and hold the power/sleep button. Both iOS and Android prompt for shut down not WP7.
- Charging time is very long. Sometimes it takes 8 Hours to charge from 0 % to 100%.
- Volume Button sometimes gets stuck depending on the surrounding temperature such as too cold at around 56ºF.
- Capacitive Buttons at the bottom are sometimes too sensitive which causes quitting a game and need to be restarted all over again.
- No Multitask or limited multi-task yet.
- A lot of games need to start from the beginning instead of pausing the state when quitting the app accidentally.
- No free turn-by-turn Navigation system.
- No Skype, fring, not even official Windows Live Messenger client yet (Zune HD has Windows Live Messenger already).
- No Front Facing Camera for video call
- Cannot change theme by default (without jailbreaking)
- Only Vibrate twice then ringtone instead of vibrating and ringtone simultaneously.
- No Threaded email
- Hard to manage tons of apps if MS still keep the same Metro UI without implementing some kind of folder system.
- Apps only sorted in Alphabetic order
- Text Message does not show nor highlight the phone number of the contact. I often get confused on which number did the caller call from, Google Voice, Mobile, Office, or Home??
- Cannot SMS to pager, home, and other category number except Mobile. Unless you type it in manually or go through the contact list.
- SMS doesn't use two colors or styles to distinguish you or the person you are trying to SMS to.
Pros:
- (Just Discovered) Able to record HD video with voice during any phone calls! No other Operating System can do that well and smooth. iPhone blocks the video capture during phone call, Symbian doesn't allow voice but video, Android camera is totally disabled, while the iOS allows you to take picture at least but not video.
- Thinnest and lightest WP7 phone
- 4" Super AMOLED screen
- Nice and loud speaker
- Chrome bezel and back cover.
- in-line and in-ear headphone with mic and volume control included
- Pin Apps, Songs, Website, People, etc to Home screen
- Large icons for touch
- Fast loading for MS's native interface
- Great Start for version 1.0 of the WP7. There are plenty of improvement and I'm sure MS will tackle the above issues in future updates.
Nice review, squarejp - thanks for sharing that.
User experience on the Focus is somewhat varied, I would say. Some prefer the plain glass "feel" versus having a third party screen protector like Zagg's InvisibleShield (my preference) on it, for example.
My experience with the Focus is that is an awesome phone. WP7 has some challenges ahead but I am optimistic (even if naively so) that most, if not all, of the issues will get hashed out over time. I'm very pleased with this phone and can't wait to see what the future holds for it!
Thanks guys looks like a solid device. I wasn't really looking to mod it just figured I'd ask. I got the aria for Modding anyways.
sent from my HTC Intruder
squarejp:
Some of Your cons seem to be a matter of personal preference, not an actual limitation of the phone. two colour sms? c'mon, if you can't tell that the bubble on the right is you and the bubble on the left is your sms partner, then Metro is obviously lost on you.
The best thing about this phone is what JamesAllen has said. it just works, you don't have to dicker around with it (that is unless of course you're taking it from one network to another).
If you want something to enable you to use the features most people expect in a smartphone while being able to enjoy an unlimited data plan, this is definitely a great phone.
Check out the Real CONS on Youtube.
Search "The Dark Side of The Samsung Focus"
Bluetooth + 3G interfere with WiFi signal.
Highly recommend this device and OS.
Put my nightmare X10 right back in the box.
can I chime in
the ONE thing that drives me crazy about the phone is the small landscape keyboard. I can live with almost all of the other nuances. My captivate keyboard spread accross the bottom of the screen and was really easy to type on. the landscape keyboard on WP7 is just too small.
I currently have an Atrix but I've been having many problems with it. I just came from a captivate that I really enjoyed but had grown bored with.
What I want to know is if anyone has experience with both the Focus and Captivate. If you came from one to the other are you happy with the change? I think a lot of my problem with the captivate was that I was just bored with android. WP7 looks very nice and it would almost be a relief to not feel the need to customize /root /upgrade /flash a new ROM every other day.
Any Android to WP7 converts who regret the change?
I actually just got a cheap Samsung Focus. I still have my captivate and was in the same boat as you. I was just sick of looking for froyo etc. I found a deal on one and really really enjoy it. I love the games on it as they are more cohesive than Android. Also, it just works. There aren't as many apps etc but the freakin GPS works spot on and quickly. It takes a little adjustment coming from Android to WP7 but I am almost completely swapped over. I will be using my captivate more like an ipod touch for the foreseeable future. I don't like bing as much as google but that has been my biggest problem so far.
I did make that leap. I got tired of a couple specific issues with the Capitivate. The GPS was terrible and took forever to lock on. The Focus is almost instant. The email updates on the Capitivate was eratic and would most times not automatically update. The email on the Focus has been great compared to that.
tanneji hit it -- there are more apps on Android, but I'm not missing any (well, besides Angry Birds, for now). The rest of the OS for WP7 is much better for me than Android. I sold my old phone and am not looking back.
My 2 cents
Being a previous Captivate owner from Aug'10 through Dec'10, here is a short list of pros/cons after making the change to the Focus:
Pro's:
*Flash for camera, and camera has side button to press instead of touching screen.
Con's:
*Univeral Volume. On captivate you can specify Ringtone/Music/Notifications/Etc
*No High Quality mode when watch youTube via 3G network... so the quality is terrible... better make sure you have wifi hooked up.
*No personal ring tones
*SD card is permenantly attached to phone when installed. No removing and putting into laptop for quick click 'n dragging.
Both:
*Both phones have promised updates that will never arrive.
*Battery life was the same for each, just make sure you plug it in at work.
I personally liked both phones, but I'm thinking I would have been very pleased with the new 4G HTC Inspire. It comes loaded w/Froyo (Gingerbread promised, if it ever happens).
Hey ... this is pretty interesting... I just bought a Captivate. I will say I do really like the Focus but the "update" is slow in coming. The captivate is nice phone and Android pretty much reminds me of iPhone with the individual icons on the screen. The set up is a bit more flexible (volume controls) and I do like the WIFI Hotspot feature of Android. The battery is aweful (same as Focus) but at least I can swap them out (same battery for both phones). iphone didn't allow easy battery swapping.
I've only had my Captivate for a week. A good phone but not a great phone. Nothing terrible about it except battery usage.
LS1Jabroni said:
Being a previous Captivate owner from Aug'10 through Dec'10, here is a short list of pros/cons after making the change to the Focus:
Pro's:
*Flash for camera, and camera has side button to press instead of touching screen.
Con's:
*Univeral Volume. On captivate you can specify Ringtone/Music/Notifications/Etc
*No High Quality mode when watch youTube via 3G network... so the quality is terrible... better make sure you have wifi hooked up.
*No personal ring tones
*SD card is permenantly attached to phone when installed. No removing and putting into laptop for quick click 'n dragging.
Both:
*Both phones have promised updates that will never arrive.
*Battery life was the same for each, just make sure you plug it in at work.
I personally liked both phones, but I'm thinking I would have been very pleased with the new 4G HTC Inspire. It comes loaded w/Froyo (Gingerbread promised, if it ever happens).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lol official 2.2 did come out for captivate
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
I have iPhone, Captivate, and Focus so I'm very objective.
As the operator said, Android is a disaster. Flashing new ROM in search of a better UI and feature has been annoying while iPhone just works perfectly for backup. The reason I went for Rooting and Updating Froyo and Cognition ROM and now back to Official UCKB7 Froyo ROM is because I just want Skype to work, able to use Titanium Backup to backup app data just like the iPhone.
WP7 still does not have backup feature to backup apps....... everything seems to be cloud base may be easy for normal people but it DOES NOT BACKUP MY APPS DATA nor APPS.... it's annoying when I want to upgrade the SD card to 32GB and figure I have to wipe everything away and re-download and reconfigure everything ... It's just makes me really really annoyed...
WP7's multitasking is weak so far... I'm still waiting for the WebOS task switching UI that Microsoft has promised to release soon. But I'm having buggy issues in WP7 like the screen being too sensitive sometimes, lacking VOIP and turn-by-turn GPS navigation app sucks.....
Damn I think I will go back to iPhone. **** Android's fragmentation!! The OS is not stable at all! Skype, Tango, and other apps always crash and slow. iPhone just works smoothly, same thing as WP7.
WP7 still has a lot to catch up.
I have both.
Captivate:
* Google's vast collection of cloud services, Google Maps, Google Navigation, Places, Translate, Google Voice and SkyMaps etc. All of them are severly lacking on WP7 side.
* Poor GPS
* Easily hackable to have wi-fi tethering and custom ROMs.
* No matter what I do, the phone is always sluggish on home screens.
* UI reminds me of old WM. Lack of innovations. The Android OS is basically a nature evolution of WM OS in many aspects.
* OS Updates are slow to come. Samsung is notorious for this.
* microSD card works
Focus:
* Very nice UI.
* Very fluid home screen
* Never used GPS (no useful Navigation apps) so can't say how much better it is (anything is better than Captivate's GPS).
* No easy tethering. No, I don't want dial-up modem type of tethering. I want wi-fi AP type of tethering or at least USB tethering without install or configure anything on the PC side.
* MS cloud services are very lacking.
* API is limited so useful apps are lacking.
* MS in charge of OS updates, not Samsung. Regardless of recent issues with update (which is still caused by Samsung), I'd expect phone Updates should be faster and better than Samsung ever can be.
* microSD doesn't work with majority of the card out there. So the storage capacity of the phone is lacking (8GB vs (16GB + microSD) on Captivate).
* WP7 is an OS heading the right direction.
Oh... -1 for Android. I just found out it doesn't play .WAV files ? (2.2) Off I go to find a fix. This is a total blunder on Googles part. I mean .WAV files are very common with voice mail to email messages. Sigh..... off I go...
PaullikesWINMO said:
Oh... -1 for Android. I just found out it doesn't play .WAV files ? (2.2) Off I go to find a fix. This is a total blunder on Googles part. I mean .WAV files are very common with voice mail to email messages. Sigh..... off I go...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It plays wav file just fine for me. It does not recognize it as music file hence won't show up in music library but if you use file explorer to open it, it will play without any problem.
How do you file explorer on an attachment in an email ?
I have a Captivate, Focus and an iPhone. I'd rank them Focus, Captivate, iPhone.
Focus
- More Stable
- Awesome UI
- Netflix
- Turns on in less than 7 minutes
- GPS Works
- Updates come from MS and not Samsung
- Xbox Live
Captivate
- Google Voice
- Multitask
- Been using Android for the last year, so it's what I'm used to
iPhone
- Visual Voicemail
- Pretty UI
So blah blah blah, what everyone else has already said. The Focus is awesome, but the Captivate has it's pros too.
LS1Jabroni said:
Being a previous Captivate owner from Aug'10 through Dec'10, here is a short list of pros/cons after making the change to the Focus:
Pro's:
*Flash for camera, and camera has side button to press instead of touching screen.
Con's:
*Univeral Volume. On captivate you can specify Ringtone/Music/Notifications/Etc
*No High Quality mode when watch youTube via 3G network... so the quality is terrible... better make sure you have wifi hooked up.
*No personal ring tones
*SD card is permenantly attached to phone when installed. No removing and putting into laptop for quick click 'n dragging.
Both:
*Both phones have promised updates that will never arrive.
*Battery life was the same for each, just make sure you plug it in at work.
I personally liked both phones, but I'm thinking I would have been very pleased with the new 4G HTC Inspire. It comes loaded w/Froyo (Gingerbread promised, if it ever happens).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
App Realtube allows high quality over 3g.
Landmine said:
iPhone
- Visual Voicemail
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
From what I was told (I don't have iPhone), Android's Google Voice voicemail imlementation (ability to transcribe voice into text) is way better than Visual Voicemail on iPhone.
Google Voice mail is awesome. I love it more than iPhone visual voicemail. It is practically the same thing however it also emails you the message and a transcription. The transcription is not that great but it will be quite awesome when they are able to understand accents a little better haha.
I used to have an HTC magic & captivate (used them for 2 years) but currently have the Iphone and use the Focus as my main phone.
Android had some very exciting features. I used to love being able to download a music album, then unzip it on the phone and play it right there and then. Having a file explorer was also amazing. Fragmentation between user experience varying from device to device is what killed it for me for the android platform..as well as the whole update limited by the carier fiasco.
WP7 in it's early stage is a better OS imo than Android was. It's IOS smooth and fluid and in the time I've used it, i've yet to have stability issues with the OS. With my Android phones, restarting the device was common to recover from force closes and lock ups.
I like the fact MSFT is taking the Apple route in the sense of 1 update for all. And I do think they will support their phones for a while to come, the way Apple till this day pushes out updates even for older hardware..3G/GS(albiet the real old stuff is no longer supported). Zune is the only thing I think is lagging with WP7. Itunes has alot more polish than Zune..but since Wp7 & zune are still relatively young.. i think they will still get there. More udpates, more APIs, more fun!
im interested to know what the community thinks of the pro's and con's of WP7 on our HD2's so far. this can include facts or opinions. i'll start it off...
pro - 720p recording
con - wont play divx movies
i have a bunch of cons honestly, but i'd like to hear what everyone else has to say first lol
Only big issues I have with WP7
1. nav software is absolute ****. Google Maps leaves it in the dust.
2. No quick toggle for wireless/bluetooth/3g etc...
yshi41 said:
Only big issues I have with WP7
1. nav software is absolute ****. Google Maps leaves it in the dust.
2. No quick toggle for wireless/bluetooth/3g etc...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah i've noticed the same couple things. having to go through several menu's to get to the wifi isn't very fun. there's probably an app somewhere, but honestly it's a feature that should be built right in.
as for the maps, im in total agreement. in fact im still using my old htc excalibur (tmobile dash) for it's ability to use garmin which doesn't require a data connection. not a good idea to depend on satellites if you go out hiking ya know lol. i prefer to have all my maps accessible from the memory card.
errr... flash browser?
i'm sticking with android for definate til they sort that one out!!!
youngdaddytc said:
yeah i've noticed the same couple things. having to go through several menu's to get to the wifi isn't very fun. there's probably an app somewhere, but honestly it's a feature that should be built right in.
as for the maps, im in total agreement. in fact im still using my old htc excalibur (tmobile dash) for it's ability to use garmin which doesn't require a data connection. not a good idea to depend on satellites if you go out hiking ya know lol. i prefer to have all my maps accessible from the memory card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Although I'm willing to put up with those things because the interface is so far ahead of android/iOS. It would be nice to get these fixed. I really seems like MS is going at this half assed, just like they did with the ZuneHD (another awesome device that never got proper marketing).
Oh and I forgot
3. Are they ever going to add a live tile for the freakin weather application.....grrrrr this one really pisses me off actually
Okay well lets see in reference to the above..
Bing Maps needs some updates, its actually ****ty compared to the iphone version.
In terms of toggling WIFI, 3g blah blah blah, no one really does this **** on a regular bases other than our little niche of people to suck out every last bit of battery life we can. So go make the app.
Weather tile. I think one of the weather apps has a live tile (I think weather bug)
Most of this stuff will be addressed in Mango as well as a flood of new API's. We will see a sex storm of new apps and cool stuff.
That said here are my Pros and Cons...
Pros
Beautiful UI
Speed
Zune Pass/Zune
Outlook Exchange
the switch from horizontal to vertical viewing in the browser.
Cons.
Some bugs here and there with updating.
Slow updates
Getting used to the function of the back button (though its pretty nice now)
HTC's offerings ****ing suck.
milli260876 said:
errr... flash browser?
i'm sticking with android for definate til they sort that one out!!!
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yeah pretty lame, no flash. that means sights like hulu are unusable to stream content. im guessing some of the ones i use regularly on my laptop like justin.tv are also probably no-go's. i decided to check the marketplace to see if the other browsers enable flash but they dont work either.
funny that im not seeing too many positives so far lol. one thing i do like is the overall design. i mean, it does LOOK pretty decent when im using it. but unfortunately there seems to be a lot of work windows still has to do to get this up to par. soooo....
pro - design
con - no flash
your not seeing as many positives, not because it doesnt have any but because its human nature to moan, vary rarely do we actively praise something.
WP7, why is it good? for me it has single handedly changed the way i view pdas/smartphones. Do i want to mod the hell out of it (ie WM / droid) no, not any more, i want it to work, and it does.
the down side? i would absolutely love for WP to have a WM sandbox, i dont care if it runs sluggish, but if WP could run WM programs it would be a beast.
Pros:
Live tile homescreen allows all the things I want as in apps and contacts etc
You can even pin map locations to get directions to - Phenomenal!
Volume change doesn't interrupt apps like 6.5 and sense did
You don't need to unlock the phone to change volume or switch to and from vibrate
Fast and slick no matter how many apps I go in and out of
XBox Live [games are great - NFS Undercover & Rise of Glory ftw]
web browser is simply the best
Bing searching is super slick especially using it to find and get to places
Even though they dumped activesync at least I can still sync via gmail
Cons: [although not deal breakers]
No wifi router
No RDP
No active sync & ability to connect as MSD
Can't run my TomTom & Garmin GPS apps which carried me through old WM
WP7 is so slick I simply won't be reverting back to 6.5 with sense and I've never had a penchant for iphone or android [or iGroan and Haemorrhoid] so I'm pleased as hell WP7 is so good. I'm also surprised as I wasn't impressed with the initial youtube "first looks" of WP7 as it looked boring as hell...
When showing my iGroan mates the bing search, type in pizza, goto a shop, get directions and the map comes up with my location and direction they simply get blown away... Most comments are "Whoa, that IS quick"...
[redacted]
Some cool ideas there. A few comments (posted here because I don't see a way to leave feedback on the site):
1) I'd put the Charms bar on press-and-hold of a button, probably Search (which doesn't currently have any Hold action assigned). Double-tapping is an action that literally nothing else on the Windows Phone OS uses, and especially a button that is sometimes capacitive and sometimes physical (depending on phone model) it's not something I advocate adding now. I like the idea a lot, though, especially for its tie-in with Win8. One thing to add to the Charms bar though: as on Win8 (where it shows a bunch of status info when you open Charms), the Status Bar at the top of the screen should be always visible when showing Charms.
2) There's already a way to get to the task switcher; while it's OK to have multiple methods for achieving the same goal, it seems like there might be something more useful to do than duplicating functionality through a more round-about approach.
3) There should be a more visible cue about the notifications center. Either have something drop down from the top (perhaps a "you have <X> notifications" bar with an appbar-like pull indicator?) or add a button specifically for notifications (two-level Charms bar? Move it to the right edge of the screen? Not sure how best to handle that).
4) I know the whole "swipe down to close an app" thing is very commonly requested, and comes from WebOS, and vaguely resembles Win8, and... I still don't know if I want it. Closing an app is pretty close to literally never needed; backgrounded apps are not generally allowed to use any system resources (they may hold onto some RAM, but the system will take it from them if a foreground app needs it). Closing an app the "usual" way - by switching to it if needed, and then tapping Back until it goes away - also works, although it's more actions. My biggest concern would be that right now, it's not really possible to ever do the wrong thing on the task switcher view. Closing an app, though, is a destructive behavior - you lose the app's current state - and is something that would need to be carefully implemented to make sure it never happens by accident... or perhaps make it optional entirely.
5) The Xbox Music feature looks pretty good, although the drop-down switch between Albums/Songs/Artists/etc. might be a bit too... background. Also, the really basic problems of the new UI - things like songs getting duplicated when they exist both on the phone/SD card and on the "Music Cloud" - really need to be addressed. Highlighting the Search thing - I know you mentioned it earlier with global search, but it's good to have more focused search capabilities too - as the current lack of Search in the music app is a Problem.
6) "Windows and Windows Phone share the same store" is way, way more complex than anybody might be realizing. Leaving aside the fact that most Windows Store apps aren't written for the resolution or aspect ratio of Windows Phone and would therefore possibly look kind of crappy if they were usable at all, and the fact that app models of the two OSes are pretty different (for example, Windows Store apps are allowed to request filesystem access and are required to implement the Settings charm, while WP apps have neither of those things), the APIs are just different. WP8 can use a sort-of-subset of WinRT (the API for Win8 apps) but it's not the same thing (and Win8 can't run WP7 apps at all, not even close). Finally, there's the issue that even the most powerful WP8 are half as powerful as even the lowest-end WRT tablets, and that's going to make a lot of things that perform fine on things like Surface RT be unacceptably slow on a Lumia 920 and impossible to run on anything with lower specs.
7) IE11 is coming for sure. The sync feature would definitely be nice. I'd also like to see some version of (desktop) IE's feed reader (shared with desktop Outlook) get integrated into WP8.
8) Integration with photo services, in the same way as other parts of the phone are integrated with Facebook and LinkedIn and Twitter and so on... that is an excellent idea. Come to think of it, Facebook pictures are already integrated (a feature I never really use) so adding others should definitely be possible. It would be cool if apps could integrate that kind of stuff without explicit OS support, but that may be aiming too high.
Thanks for the good feedback!
Hmmm, concept by who?
that'd be me.
The sync of bookmarks from Desktop IE to WP IE has already been confirmed for a future version of WP. They didn't say which one exactlly so it might take until WP Blue.
I personally don't like the idea of having the icons in the settings - at least not at the end, just looks kinda weird. Perhaps it would work better if you put them in front and aligned them properly on a grid.
Camera settings actually return back to the defaults when you relaunch the Camera App (and didn't save your changes as defaults).
As for the charms bar - I like the idea of a universal sharing and search feature but I don't particularily like the implementation of it with the charms bar on Win8 and I really don't see it work well on WP.
I like it but MS always let's its users down and dismisses the best ideas and concepts. WP will go now where higher that where it currently is now because of MS's ignorance. The next 2 updates for Luminas that includes the Amber and the GR2 or whatever its called don't really bring much to WP at all; who cares about another clock on the screen or data sense? Or more camera tricks...? Really now!!
@sinister1: Does that post really help? Come on, there's no value in just being negative everywhere.
Also, you call Microsoft "ignorant", but I guarantee that they know far, far more about the smartphone market than you do. If you want to be persuasive, you need to come up with arguments that have more substance to them than effectively just calling MS names.
@KlausWidraw: I think I'm with StevieBallz on the suggestion to have the Settings icons be left-aligned; they do make the items easier to identify, but having a consistent horizontal position to look for them at would help. That said, the ability to re-order the options would be huge; I use some all the time (like Cellular, which is annoyingly just off the bottom of my screen) and others not at all (like "lock screen", "tap+send", or "theme") once I've set them up initially, and would like them out of the way to make room for the options that I care about.
GDR2/Amber as well as GDR1 before it and GDR3 after it are mere maintenance releases. No one expects an Update from Android 4.2.0 to 4.2.1 or 4.2.2 to bring major new functionality. No one expects updates from iOS 6.0 to 6.1 to bring major new features. Somehow everyone (contrary to all reporting on those topics) expects those maintenance releases in WP to do just that. Really new functionality will only arrive with WP8.1/Blue and this has been known pretty much since the WP Blue name first appeared in leaks.
GDRs mainly serve the purpose of fixing some bugs and enabling new hardware functionality that is required for device launches. It has been the same with WP7. There were updates like Tango that served to enable LTE. GDR2 now mainly serves to enable the new capabilities that Nokia required for their Lumia 925 and Eos Camera phones and to keep Google Mail usable. GDR1 was mainly bugfixes, GDR3 will enable new hardware like even higher resolution screens.
Amber then is bundled with the GDR2 update rollout but IS NOT a WP update. It is a device specific capability update like we have seen them by all OEMs in the past.
If there are two things I would change about WP (from a user perspective) those are:
1) A clock tile that updates real time, like the HTC one (srsly want one).
2) Battery saver profiles that let me choose what i want to remain active (bluetooth, wifi, mobile data, background tasks)
That's about it.
From a developer point of view, things are very, very different xD
GoodDayToDie said:
@sinister1: Does that post really help? Come on, there's no value in just being negative everywhere.
Also, you call Microsoft "ignorant", but I guarantee that they know far, far more about the smartphone market than you do. If you want to be persuasive, you need to come up with arguments that have more substance to them than effectively just calling MS names.
@KlausWidraw: I think I'm with StevieBallz on the suggestion to have the Settings icons be left-aligned; they do make the items easier to identify, but having a consistent horizontal position to look for them at would help. That said, the ability to re-order the options would be huge; I use some all the time (like Cellular, which is annoyingly just off the bottom of my screen) and others not at all (like "lock screen", "tap+send", or "theme") once I've set them up initially, and would like them out of the way to make room for the options that I care about.
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Sorry for being so negative but this is really how I feel and what's wrong with that? I know that not everyone will agree with my views or me with views of others but my negative feed back is feed back just like positive feed back is also feed back. I'm pretty sure that you have your gripes with other things.
I'm just feed up that devs come up with some of the brightest ideas and MS simply ignores them. Tell me what is so hard for them to open the OS just a little more for people to be creative? Seriously? Now the truth is the best substance. And of course if you still don't agree with me that's okay; I won't hold it against you because those are your opinions and the way you feel. Please don't take any of my rants personal as all they are, my personal opinions.
sinister1 said:
I'm just feed up that devs come up with some of the brightest ideas and MS simply ignores them. Tell me what is so hard for them to open the OS just a little more for people to be creative? Seriously?
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I have to agree with you on this one. There are some understandable things for security's sake, but its ridiculous how complicated it is to customize Windows Phone 8 or even WP7. With WP7, you could only have a static lockscreen (ignoring LockWidgets from WPH) and couldn't set a custom text notification sound (besides MS' and HTC's.) I could add a custom ringtone, but it was a pain to do, period. With WP8, its a tad easier. You can just copy and paste ringtones, lock screens are customizable, and alarm can be customized as well, as well as the battery percentage can be pinned to the lockscreen/start screen. But compared to the other 3 platforms (Andriod, iOS, and now discontinued Symbian) could virtually anything could be changed. I remember when the 7.8 Beta was out and there were swapped fonts in the roms. Its something that no one had even thought about modifying until it was an issue.
I do have to say the native apps ability is appreciated, but it seems that Interop is still an issue (except I have no idea how problematic it still is). I do have to say I don't know much of whats been going on, due to jumping ship getting Verizon's Trophy late in the game (like when I first signed up here) and then finally moved to WP8 with their 928. So I'm kinda in the dark as to what has been added from the GDR1, Nokia's supposed Amber update, whats in GDR2, future FM support, ect. I really just wish that MS would be a little more verbal about whats in WP8's updates. They were bad with WP7 and they aren't any better now.
Another feature that MS is completely missing is Xbox Video. Seems stupid for them to say their experience is coherent between all their devices when its clearly not.
Can u guys tell me ....which phones will get windows 8.1 update .????
Sent from my HTC Explorer A310e using xda app-developers app
Some people don't like customization.
Customization comes with the cost of performance. I had an android with "customization" and whenever i "customized it" it became really, really, really slow.
In order to even have customization working, the system has to waist a lot of CPU cycles on stuff like checking 1000000000000000 settings to figure out what it should render next, swap a gazillion artifacts from storage to memory etc etc.
I want my phone to do what I tell it to do. I don't give a damn about more customization than it already has, and so are 99% of all windows phone users, whom increase in numbers day by day.
If you are going to give feedback disguised as QQ, then you should head over to microsoft's site and make your voice actually count. You complaining here all day, on a freeking developer/hacker forums, will not help!
Windows 8.1 blue will probably loosen up the developers a bit, if they are going to implement all our suggestions. Which will come for all windows phone 8 phones.
@mcosmin: The conecpt the you trade performance for customization really isn't true. Yes, the phone could eke out a trivial amount of better performance by hardcoding its UI styles, but they don't do that. Things like accent colors, background colors, text styles, etc. are all stored in the registry; you don't have to modify a single line of system code to modify or create themes of your own, and they'll run just as fast. Other forms of customization, such as replacing some of the builtin libraries with custom ones, might be slower in certain circumstances, but only if the custom library either added new features (not just new customizations, but actual functionality that wasn't present before) or is simply very poorly coded. The first of those is a tradeoff, the second is easily fixed if people just share their source code.
@sinister1: It's not that I don't agree with you - I do, in fact, and frequently quite vociferously - I just don't see what value you're adding to this conversation by proclaiming it. This thread is to discuss mockups of UI changes to WP8, not to complain about OS lockdown in WP8 and Microsoft's apparent unwillingness to implement some requested changes.
GoodDayToDie said:
@mscosmin: The conecpt the you trade performance for customization really isn't true. Yes, the phone could eke out a trivial amount of better performance by hardcoding its UI styles, but they don't do that. Things like accent colors, background colors, text styles, etc. are all stored in the registry; you don't have to modify a single line of system code to modify or create themes of your own, and they'll run just as fast. Other forms of customization, such as replacing some of the builtin libraries with custom ones, might be slower in certain circumstances, but only if the custom library either added new features (not just new customizations, but actual functionality that wasn't present before) or is simply very poorly coded. The first of those is a tradeoff, the second is easily fixed if people just share their source code.
@sinister1: It's not that I don't agree with you - I do, in fact, and frequently quite vociferously - I just don't see what value you're adding to this conversation by proclaiming it. This thread is to discuss mockups of UI changes to WP8, not to complain about OS lockdown in WP8 and Microsoft's apparent unwillingness to implement some requested changes.
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And how many people do you think will be able to do proper customization? Windows Phone shouldn't be Android with squares instead of rounded edge widgets.
And solid colors like the ones WP uses will always be faster than a image on the background, or some sort of gradients or whatever they they propose to have around the phone.
How many people will do "proper" customization? As many as want to. Who are you to say what is or is not "proper" for how I want my phone to look?
Of all the things wrong with Android (the battery drain due to background services not exiting automatically, the more stuttery UI on all but the highest-end phones due to poorer optimization, the ability for malicious apps to send premium SMS completely invisibly to the user, etc.) you choose to pick on the customizations? Nobody is suggesting that we want Android with WP-like tiles; in that case we would have bought Android phones and installed one of the several Metro-style home screen customizations. On the other hand, if I want a Windows Phone with "rounded edge widgets" and am willing to put in the effort to develop them, I see no reason I shouldn't be allowed to.
WP uses the graphics processor for its UI. Those "solid colors" are just textures like any other. A gradient, an image, a partially translucent image... they're all the same to the GPU. The performance cost would be unmeasurably small.
GoodDayToDie said:
How many people will do "proper" customization? As many as want to. Who are you to say what is or is not "proper" for how I want my phone to look?
Of all the things wrong with Android (the battery drain due to background services not exiting automatically, the more stuttery UI on all but the highest-end phones due to poorer optimization, the ability for malicious apps to send premium SMS completely invisibly to the user, etc.) you choose to pick on the customizations? Nobody is suggesting that we want Android with WP-like tiles; in that case we would have bought Android phones and installed one of the several Metro-style home screen customizations. On the other hand, if I want a Windows Phone with "rounded edge widgets" and am willing to put in the effort to develop them, I see no reason I shouldn't be allowed to.
WP uses the graphics processor for its UI. Those "solid colors" are just textures like any other. A gradient, an image, a partially translucent image... they're all the same to the GPU. The performance cost would be unmeasurably small.
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It's not about the GPU.
It's about the CPU. The more complex the image is, the bigger the size, the more time wasted for CPU to process it.
Add to that the fact it needs to purge/load from memory several times a day (in the case of a background wallpaper for startscreen), and the performance loss and battery drain is suddenly no longer unmeasurably small.
You're talking about a difference of microseconds. Not milliseconds, microseconds. Several times a day. And telling me that this is *not* below the noise threshold of any measurement system we have today, never mind human perception?!?
Also, consider people who use apps (with their own tiles, not just system tiles that are mostly blank and therefore rendered as mostly a solid color) on their lock screen. You know, the whole "meet <person>" advertising campaign Microsoft has been running for this OS? Those app tiles take just as long for the CPU to decode and send the texture to the GPU as the customized tiles we're talking about here...
Except, customized tiles aren't even the point. If you don't want to customize your tiles because saving a few millionths of a second per day - a saving which will never amount to a whole second over your entire lifetime, much less that of the phone - you don't have to. The rest of us want features; customization is merely one of those features. It gets a lot of discussion because:
A) It's an obvious feature to have. MS advertises personalization. People like being able to change how things look, be it their clothing or their front yard or their Windows background. For some reason, though, they can't change their Windows Phone background.
B) It's really, really simple to implement. I mean, there are tons of third party apps, some rather sophisticated, to do this. Microsoft doesn't have to jump through the crazy hoops that we did, and they have the documentation on how the OS works as well.
c) It really does not affect performance. There's no cost. Look at the custom themes and custom system tray icons and so forth on WP7, and try telling me with a straight face the percentage by which it impacts performance to use them.
GoodDayToDie said:
You're talking about a difference of microseconds. Not milliseconds, microseconds. Several times a day. And telling me that this is *not* below the noise threshold of any measurement system we have today, never mind human perception?!?
Also, consider people who use apps (with their own tiles, not just system tiles that are mostly blank and therefore rendered as mostly a solid color) on their lock screen. You know, the whole "meet <person>" advertising campaign Microsoft has been running for this OS? Those app tiles take just as long for the CPU to decode and send the texture to the GPU as the customized tiles we're talking about here...
Except, customized tiles aren't even the point. If you don't want to customize your tiles because saving a few millionths of a second per day - a saving which will never amount to a whole second over your entire lifetime, much less that of the phone - you don't have to. The rest of us want features; customization is merely one of those features. It gets a lot of discussion because:
A) It's an obvious feature to have. MS advertises personalization. People like being able to change how things look, be it their clothing or their front yard or their Windows background. For some reason, though, they can't change their Windows Phone background.
B) It's really, really simple to implement. I mean, there are tons of third party apps, some rather sophisticated, to do this. Microsoft doesn't have to jump through the crazy hoops that we did, and they have the documentation on how the OS works as well.
c) It really does not affect performance. There's no cost. Look at the custom themes and custom system tray icons and so forth on WP7, and try telling me with a straight face the percentage by which it impacts performance to use them.
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Don't compare the WP7 theme mods and stuff like that which were made by hackers that knew what they were doing.
If Microsoft allows this officially on the marketplace, it will be flooded by poor apps.
Anyway, we seem to not be talking about the same thing. We should let it rest.