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So I bought my first non-WM smartphone. Below is documentation of my quest to replace, and surpass, the experience I was used to with my Touch Diamond 2 running Windows Mobile 6.5. I am what you would probably call a windows mobile 'power user'. I've been averaging about one new WM phone every 6 months since 2005, most of them HTC. But I always keep up on what the other platforms are doing. This is just the first time I've taken the leap, and I quickly became aware of what new doors Android opened for me in just the first few hours of using the Nexus One. The OS is nice, but like most people, it really comes down to the apps for me.
I was initially thinking I'd do a big blog review, but I've run out of motivation. There's plenty of info on the Nexus One hardware and Android out there, so I don't need to rehash that stuff. What I haven't seen a lot of, though, is detailed accounts of people switching and what exactly they found.
There remains a couple major things missing from Android. The lack of an OCS client is probably the biggest one for me professionally, but since it's a Microsoft product, I don't see that changing any time soon. That and the lack of xvid playback will keep me carrying around my TD2 as backup for the foreseeable future. But other than that, I'm extremely happy and will definitely be sticking with the Nexus for a while. The next post will be a comprehensive list of (practically) every app I've installed, what they do for me, and how they compare to their WM counterparts (if there are any).
On to the apps...
Android Apps I've installed and believe I will continue to use.
This is a bit of a brain dump, so I apologize for not editing more thoroughly. Hopefully it will be useful to some, and feel free to suggest other apps you think I should try.
Advanced Task Killer - List of running apps that allows you to easily kill unwanted tasks. Nice to have for an OS that allows background apps, but I don't actually notice it slowing down, it seems to manage memory and close apps as needed.
Aldiko (replacing mobiReader, much better) - eReader with nice UI and quick access to several libraries of free books. Found Doctorow's books right away.
Amazon store - really just easier than using the web browser, but it also does barcode scanning and some other useful stuff.
BeamReader (replacing Adobe's wm reader) - rarely needed, but have to be able to see pdfs on the go sometimes
Beelicious - direct (cached) access to my delicious bookmarks. UI could be better and it's a bit of a pain to wade through them all, but it's useful.
BeyondPod (replacing YomoMedia, HUGE improvement) - It took me years to find a podcast downloader for WM that worked at all, but beyondpod is amazing. The UI is superb and inuitive. The customization is great. I have it setup to download only at night while charging. It remembers my place in podcasts and creates 'smart playlists' to make it easier to start listening. It also integrates with google reader, which is hugely useful because I can add new podcasts I'd like to listen to anywhere from google reader and then import then very quickly into beyondpod later. Also worth noting is the homescreen widget, which gives me access to basic controls and status from my home screen, no need to always navigate back into the app.
Browser (replacing Opera mobile) - Really there's not much difference here. Neither android nor WM have flash or silverlight support yet (although you can sort of get it on WM through skyfire, but that's not performant enough to be an everyday thing). Usability is about the same, but since multitouch zoom isn't enabled on nexus yet (though the hardware can technically support it), you have to use the zoom in/out buttons. This isn't as nice as zooming on the TD2 (zoom bar) or the HD2 (multitouch). Android does links to outside applications better though. It recognizes when you are browsing to a youtube video or RSS feed and will prompt correctly.
Cab4me - Nice little app for finding nearby cab companies making it very easy to see which is rated best, has cars available, and place the call. Not a must-have, but it's one of the little things.
Camera - very fast, 5mp (same as on hd2 and td2 wm phones), the LED flash is certainly better than nothing. Geotagging is default.
Car Home - this is Google's navigation 'car mode'. I think is this very cool, but honestly I won't end up using it much because I have navigation built into my car.
Carr Matey - dedicated app for recording car location so you can find it again. Another little nice thing I didn't have before. Android is just so much better at doing location-aware apps right now.
Documents to Go (replacing ms office mobile) - I'm using the lite version, which does not allow editing, but I have just never had the need to edit office docs on my phone. Sometimes I get one in an email and want to read it though, and this looks to do that fine. I'm happy.
Evernote (replacing Evernote) - I'm using this more and more as a dumping ground for everything that's not in email but I want to remember. This is what I use anytime I want to take a quick note (audio or text), or take a picture of a wine bottle or business card for later reference. It syncs with the cloud immediately and I can search that from anywhere.
Flashlight - not a big deal, but nice to have.
flickr droid (replacing shozu) - i like to have an easy way to upload a picture to flickr, this gives me that. I really like how android allows it to integrate with the normal gallery app. So after I take a picture I just have to view it, select 'share', and then select flickr droid (or other things like email, twitter, etc). It's more centralized than WM.
Flip2Silent and Vibrate During Meeting (replacing WM + HTC ringer management) - The ringer management on android is lacking as compared to WM. I used to be able to have my phone automatically go to vibrate during meetings, and silence the ringer after I pick up the phone (so it doesn't continue to be loud and annoying while I'm deciding whether to answer), AND there was a pocket mode to switch to vibrate and louder ring when the phone detected it was in a pocket. Vibrate During Meeting gives me back the meeting function, but it only works with the google calendar, not the exchange touchdown calendar in which all my actual meetings are stored. My work-around is to sync my exchange calendar with google via desktop outlook, but this doesn't keep it updated unless I have a desktop logged in. The good news is that the developer of this app says he'll look into touchdown. Flip2Silent gives me the option to just lay the phone screen-side-down to mute the ringer/vibrate functions. This will work while a call is coming in and I want to ignore it.
Foursquare - App for checking into various locations. It's treated like a game, you get points, but also get to see where your friends are and if they happen to be near you. Plus people leave tips for places.
g-backup and mybackup (replacing myphone on wm) - MS's myphone app on wm will automatically backup all user data (sms, mms, pictures, video, docs, etc) to the cloud every night. It can also restore these for when you get a new phone or hard-reset your current phone. I got used to having this. All my email and contacts are in exchange or the cloud anyway, but I don't want to lose these other things. MyPhone is also nice because all that data is accessible via the web. g-backup is cool because it will upload all this stuff to gmail, so you have it there, but it can't restore anything. MyBackup will backup and restore most things, but not pictures/video. So I'm using them both, but I'd like a more comprehensive solution.
Gallery (replacing HTC photo gallery) - The nexus gallery is implemented in 3d and is pretty cool, but ultimately it works about as well as the HTC version (which is also flashy). They need to add multi-touch zooming.
GCDroid (replacing gcz) - This is my geocaching app, but only until the official geocaching.com android app comes out (which is soon and it will be cool if their iphone app is any indication). Even though there isn't an official app for wm, the community created apps were pretty good. GCDroid is barely usable, but overall this category will be an upgrade over wm soon.
Glympse (replacing Glympse) - Something I'll rarely use, but it's cool when it applies. You can send a link to anyone that will allow them to track you via a webbrowser for x-minutes. So if you say you're on your way, they can actually see how far along you are.
Gmail (replacing hotmail) - both MS and Google have their email services integrated tightly with their mobile os. I used to forward all my gmail to hotmail so I could easily get it on my phone, so now I just flipped it. I like gmail well enough, and there are certainly features that are ahead of hotmail. I'm just happy to happy to have my personal email pushed to my phone.
Google maps (replacing google maps and bing) - This is definitely better than on WM, but ultimately it does the same stuff. It's smoother and a little easier to navigate (except, again, zooming is more difficult).
Meebo IM - nice to have an app that can log into ICQ, MSN, and GTalk all at once. Likely will rarely use it.
Messaging (replacing txt message HTC app) - this seems to be just what you'd expect. But at least it's very fast and predictable, unlike the HTC app which is sometimes laggy as hell.
Flixter Movies (replacing bing) - MS's bing app was good for finding local theaters and showtimes, this one does it with a bit more flash and some awesome additional features that i just found. It shows the rottentomatoes rating along with every movies. Plus, it has netflix integration, so it checks whether any movie is in my queue and lets me add it while browsing. It also has a list of recent dvd releases, which is great with the netflix thing. It also essentially serves as a mobile imdb. Very impressive.
Mother TED - dedicated app for watching TED talks. It seems ok but not great.
Music (replacing HTC media player) - Nothing special here. I don't know that I'll even use it much since i mostly listen to pandora or podcasts.
OpenTable - for the rare occasions when I make reservations (especially last minute) this will make it easy to find a place with an opening.
Pandora (NOT ON WM) - this is almost a reason to switch by itself. I hate that this isn't on wm yet. Very nicely implemented on android because it has a homescreen widget. I get all the basic controls without even having to go into the app, and I can use other apps while it plays in the background. Sound quality is great too.
Dialer - The android dialer is pretty basic, but it seems to get the job done. At least you can add a pause (with a comma) so that dialing conference numbers is somewhat doable (but still WAY harder than it should be, they don't do any smart parsing in meeting invites). This is still hard on WM though too.
PhoneFlicks (replacing official netflix wm app) - This is barely a replacement. Netflix's own app was better, this one is slower and harder to use, but at least I can do basic queue management from my phone, which is really nice sometimes.
SeattleBusBot - This is SO cool, and something I've wanted but couldn't find on wm. Seattle has the gps info of its buses available publicly, but their website is basically unusable on a phone (even on a desktop). This app will tell you exactly when a given bus is going to arrive, not just when it's scheduled.
Seesmic (replacing m.twitter.com on wm) - really good mobile twitter app. There are plenty of wm twitter apps, and HTC even builds one into the os now, but they tended to be slower. I think the HD2 is probably just as good as seesmic.
ShopSavvy - barcode scanning that tells you the closest places to get the given product and for how much. Haven't had a chance to see if this turns out to actually be useful, but I like the concept and test scans in the house have been accurate (which kinda surprises me because I had heard that phone barcode scanning doesn't work, but maybe the 5mp camera and snapdragon is making it more pratical).
TorrentFu (replacing starting torrents via Live mesh mobile) - This is a major upgrade (and rejected from itunes if I remember correctly). I finally switched to uTorrent on my server so I could use this. It uses the utorrent webui to connect, but exposes all the functionality like a local app. You can see progress, search for and start new torrents, and pause/resume. Very cool.
TripIt (replacing tripcase kinda) - I've only started experimenting with these two services, and i don't travel as much as I used to, but they are pretty good at what they do. Just forward your reservation emails and they build up a comprehensive itinerary and keep you updated. having a native app makes using these that much easier. Tripcase is on wm, tripit (which seems to be the better service) is on android.
tv.com - streaming tv from cbs, showtime, and some others. Haven't used this much, but always nice to have some free content.
Google Voice - At first I was skeptical about this because I don't have a real need to create a central phone number that rings all my phones, which was what i thought this service was for. Turns out you don't have to use that feature, and they also provide visual voicemail on android plus they send you transcriptions of the messages to your phone. so you can see who left messages and what they said (approximately) without even listening. So I'm definitely appreciating this feature.
Wapedia - native version of wikipedia. Nice and quick. why not?
y5 - Battery - This app is genius in its simplicity and value. It simply keeps track of where you are when you enable wifi, and remembers that going forward so it can automatically re-enable it when you come back to the same place. The rest of the time, it disables wifi to save battery. The end result here is that I never have to remember to turn wifi on or off when i come home or leave the house.
youtube (replacing youtube) - works well. nothing special to report except google's browser seems to be better at realizing when it should forward you to the youtube player.
yxflash (failing to replace coreplayer) - The only android app that claims to do xvid/divx decoding. I tried it on an xvid torrent that wm's coreplayer had no trouble with and it choked pretty hard. It played, but with extremely jittery video and slow sound. Not usable yet, but at least i know I might get something soon.
Touchdown (replacing exchange activesync on wm) - Saved the most important (and expensive @$22) for last. Without this app I wouldn't be able to sync my exchange data (contacts, email, calendar, tasks) with my phone because Android doesn't support all the required security features by default. (our company, like many these days, will not sync data with a platform that doesn't allow them to force the use of encryption, pin lock, and remote wipe) Beyond that, without the recently added feature of allowing me to flag emails for followup, I would not be able to switch to android because this workflow is too important to my everyday life.
Explanation: I check email on my phone often, and if I can respond then and there, I do, but if I can’t and need to follow up for any reason, I flag it. This creates a task in outlook which I will see the next time at my desk, so i KNOW i won't forget about it.
But there is an additional, more subtle, benefit at play here. And honestly, it's a little unfair to count it, but it makes such a huge difference in my enjoyment of my phone that I can't ignore it. I'm speaking about how the previously mentioned pin lock for exchange only applies (on android) to the touchdown app. I am not required to set a pin to unlock the phone itself. Ever since they turned on that requirement I've been punching in a 4 digit pin every damn time I wanted to glance at my phone, check the time, or even change the stupid volume! Now I'm finally free of that because google didn't bother to properly build in exchange support at the OS level. NICE! seriously though, this saves me so much annoyance it was almost worth the $530 by itself.
For a true windows power-user, it's worth shelling out the <$10 for Remote RDP. It works incredibly well, even when connecting to my Windows 7 PC from 3G across town (or presumably, the world).
The ability to USE MY HOME PC from ANYWHERE WITH NET ACCESS...
Absolutely incredible for a phone..
EDIT: my home net speed is pretty quick, which owes to fast remote access. Wifi will always be fast, though, and that's what this app is really designed for.
Good recommendation. Just downloaded the Remote RDP demo. Seems to work well.
Thank you for the run down... I just made the switch myself and a number of the apps you mentioned helped me fill some of my void from WM. I'm still a little pissed about the exchange issues but the real truth is any company I work for issues me a blackberry and doesn't allow other devices to connect to thier servers. I worked for one midsized company once that let me and that was the only time I was completely in love with my WM device. Since my personal email is through gmail the nexus one is really amazing as my personal phone.
Good Stuff! I'm in the same boat WM to Android and no turning back I'll check out some of the apps u listed...
One thing I'm looking for is a widget with power/memory/storage/sd gauges.
Always had this on the wm home for reference & cool stats!
If you geocache then GeoBeagle is the other main geocaching app. I don't cache much any more, but I have tried GeoBeagle and liked it, though I can't compare it to GCDroid...
Wanted to say thanks for the excellent app list. Touchdown is awesome. A way for me to connect to work without merging my exchange contacts with the rest of my phone. Now thats a win!
@Seraph321 - want to add my thanks for your app info. i'll be getting an N1 soon and knowing there are options to some of my "must haves" apps/features/functionality (e.g., Exchange) will help shorten my learning curve. i'm not going to abandon WM because it will continue to serve as my work phone. the N1 will be my after work/personal phone until i'm comfortable tweaking Android. that's my plan, but once i have the N1 my plan may change!
Great write up, and welcome to Android
A few suggestions
Text Messaging
The two heavyweights are Chomp SMS and Handcent SMS. Both are considerably better than the default SMS app, it mostly comes down to personal preference.
Browser
Dolphin Browser is hands down the best browser on Android right now. Multi-touch zooming, delicious integration, tabs, themes, and much more.
Flashlight
Do a market search for Nexus One Torch. It utilizes the LED from the camera flash to use as a flashlight. Very bright.
Ringer Management
Locale manages your phone based off time and location. Never used it myself, but heard good things, and I believe it was and Android Developers Challenge winner or something.
Backup
I'm simple and only need to backup text messages (most everything else is stored via SD card or synced with Google anyway). I use SMS Backup to backup my texts to Gmail, and it works fantastic. Uploads directly to my mail account, archives the texts, puts them in threads according to contact, tags them, and marks them as read. I can then easily search my text conversations from my phone or desktop browser via Gmail, and don't have to worry about deleting conversations from my phone and losing something. I've never used g-backup, so it may have this function already.
Twitter
I've tried a couple Twitter apps (not Seismic, though I'll be trying that next) and have landed on Swift, which currently is the fastest, and the best looking Twitter app I've used. I'm not a giant twitter user, so I don't know if it supports all the features any other apps might, but it works great for me, and would recommend it.
That's all for now. I don't have my phone next to me or I'd give it a quick run through and suggest something you might be missing, but I'll have to do that another time.
As for getting multi-touch support in google maps, the browser, and gallery... just wait, it's been hacked in for the G1/MT3G, it will certainly be hacked in for the Nexus One.
I'm still up in the air between ASTRO File Manager and Linda File Manager, but a file manager is an important addition to your tools, if you plan on keeping a lot of documents/files on board. Additionally, I know at least Linda has the DownloadCrutch functionality, associating itself with every filetype so that the browser will allow you to download such. To me, this last bit is essential.
Great stuff, I think a lot of people will be going from WM to Nexus because MS have failed to deliver for so long & there is now a great alternative with an OS that can be modded and a really cool handset.
So far I am happy to leave the N1 standard (not rooted) and play with apps - it is a real joy to have so many available & a single source for them.
Never going back !
+1 for Dolphin Browser... definitely a big step up over the default browser IMHO
SpyderMS said:
Great write up, and welcome to Android
A few suggestions
Text Messaging
The two heavyweights are Chomp SMS and Handcent SMS. Both are considerably better than the default SMS app, it mostly comes down to personal preference.
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Click to collapse
Personally, I find the text bubbles childish and cheesy. I much prefer the stock sms app with sms popup.
bofslime said:
Personally, I find the text bubbles childish and cheesy. I much prefer the stock sms app with sms popup.
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I tend to agree though why doesnt the icon to the app on my home screen tell me how many unread SMS there are?
The Jones said:
I tend to agree though why doesnt the icon to the app on my home screen tell me how many unread SMS there are?
Click to expand...
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SMS Count
ok, at work with nothing to do, so I browsed through my phone, and here's a couple Apps you may be interested in. Some of these are useful, some are just kind of cool
AudioManager Widget
Nice little app that lets you adjust all your volume levels easily and quickly.
AppControl - Full Version
Best app manager I've used. Really fast, nice interface, and lots of options.
Barcode Scanner
Barcode scanning from the phone is fantastic. It's very pronounced in the Android community as well. You'll see barcodes not only on these forums, but on App websites like AndroLib.com, which let you scan the barcode, and instantly be linked to a website or Android Market page. It's not only useful on the Nexus One's 5mp camera and 1GHz processor either. Worked great on my G1.
Google Goggles
Take a picture of just about anything, and Google will search for relevant results.
Google Sky Map
Virtual Planetarium on your phone.
Layar Reality Browser 3.0
Augmented Reality browser. Displays information about objects in front of you overlayed on the camera display.
Pkt Auctions for eBay
If you use eBay at all, this is a great companion tool.
Shazam
Lets you identify music being played around you by letting your phone listen to and analyze it.
Personally, I find the text bubbles childish and cheesy. I much prefer the stock sms app with sms popup.
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Click to collapse
handcent settings -> conversation style.
handcent has a ton of settings options, including different settings for individual contacts (conversation style, font, notification tone, etc)
Thanks for all the suggestions. I've already spent too much work time today finding and installing the ones I like.
I don't actually do THAT much texting, so I'm sticking with the stock sms app for now, but I did install sms popup and set my girlfriend to popup. That's convenient.
Someone mentioned SMS backup, and yes, g-backup does the same thing only for more data, but they both need a scheduling option.
I see the nexus one torch app requires rooted access. I'm no stranger to hacking my gadgets, but this app (plus tethering, and maybe installing to the sd card) are the only things I've seen so far that have me interested in doing it. Can anyone provide some examples of why they consider rooting a must?
You mentioned Wi-Fi tethering already, but that reason alone is a pretty big reason. You may also want to theme your phone. Any kind of advancements that developers like Cyanogen come out with will require root as well. Cyanogen is known for pushing the envelope, helping to increase speed, and overall functionality of the G1, and other devices; not to mention you will get features from new versions of Android faster than those without root. I'm sure there are other reasons to, these are just off the top of my head. A lot of people are waiting until someone finds out how to reverse the bootloader unlocking process before they root, in order to preserve their warranty, and that's certainly a good idea if you don't have a lot of use for root at the moment. I did it, like most people that did, just because I can.
I'll make sure to watch the Cyanogen stuff closely. I never followed the G1 enhancements, so I guess I don't know what to expect. Sounds like it's likely I'll do it at some point though.
Is it easy to get all your apps, especially the ones that you paid for, back on your phone after rooting? Does the marketplace just remember it all and let you re-download?
I should just search for these answers.
Hi everyone,
I am currently a Windows Mobile user, Xperia X1a, and am looking to switch to an Android device sometime soon. Since the Nexus One is on Android 2.1, I figured this would be a good place to ask a few quick questions, if any kind user could help
1) Button mapping -> On Windows Mobile it is possible to map different applications/actions to a button, as well as a different action based on a short click or a long tap/hold. Is there something similar in android? I had trouble finding it in the base 2.1 build in the Android SDK emulator
2) Calendars -> I believe that Android support multiple Calendars on device, unlike Windows Mobile, is this true? Or is it multiple calendars synced to the main Google Calendar in the crowd? (My main issue is I want to sync my work and home calendars as 2 different calendars on the phone, something I have never successfully done through Windows Mobile)
3) Any alternatives to System Seven for syncing OWA email and calendar to the device? System seven only supports email right now
4) Any native app for Google Reader? I currently use SpeeedReader on WM which is not amazing, but gets the job done.... somewhat. Based on all my research even Android has to use the browser to access Google Reader.
5) DivX / Coreplayer/ any real video codec support? WM has Coreplayer, but most devices are too slow/crippled to take advantage of it. Nexus One and others have Snapdragon processor which is better than the current devices.
6) bluetooth handsfree - This appears to be a major problem according to forums and Google Bug tracker. A friend who has got into the vlingo beta for android confirmed that clicking on the "speak now" button enabled him to use the phone completely handsfree. Related to question 1, is there a way to change the bluetooth button to access vlingo app instead of the native app?
7) For a current Windows Mobile dude, who thought he knew most tweaks in WM. Just how hard is the learning curve for Android? (I know its the noobest question of all, but I would like some reassurance /stories to help transition over, I spent 5 years on WM devices )
Thank you so much for your time.
I was in the same situation as you: I've been on winmo for more than 7 yrs and I was dreading the shift. I got my N1 and kept my winmo device at hand and fully functional...only to discover 24hrs later that I totally forgot about it!
Basically, all you can do on winmo, you can do on Android, although sometimes in a slightly different manner and of course a different interface.
Major pros after 3 months of use: besides the hardware (amazing speed), very smooth UI, no need for soft-resets (on WM it was a daily burden), friendly community, rapidly developing apps...
Go for it
I've come from 5 ish years on Windows mobile to Android too, I'll try answer the questions from what I know.
1. Button Mapping -> It's possible to create shortcuts to applications on the phone's "desktop". It's also possible using the "Anycut" app to create specific actions (not used this myself so not sure of details). What I did love was you can create a shortcut to direct dial or direct text someone on your contacts list. Overall I found this much much easier and quicker on Android compared to WinMo.
2. I've only used Google Calendar and, yes, you can sync multiple calendars as they are setup on your desktop Google Calendar. I've found implementation of this is to be really good. If you're currently using Outlook it's possible to sync that to the browser Google Calendar and then to your mobile.
3. Everything works best and smoothest when linked with Gmail and Google Calendar. Afraid I don't know much more about OWA email, hopefully someone else will be along shortly to help on that score.
4. I've only used Google Reader from within the browser, but it's still slick and fast.
5. Don't think there's support for playing DivX yet. I believe Core Player are working on it but it could be some time.
6. Sorry, don't use Bluetooth headsets so can't advise. I think it is possible but sometimes fiddly depending on the headset.
7. For me the learning curve was extremely easy. I never found myself getting frustrated even right from the beginning, the UI to me seems very intuitive. In fact I'd say I was more frustrated with WinMo after 5 years than I was with Android after 5 minutes in terms of trying to figure out what I wanted to do.
Go for it, I think it's so refreshing going from WinMo to Android. Maybe less so going from the iPhone UI to Android because they are in some ways similar but in other ways quite different and you can get confused about which way to do things after being so used to the Apple way.
6. I use 2 different Bluetooth headsets and never had any problem.
The guys above did a pretty good job describing things. This is what i can contribute
1) Yes there is a long press and it allows you to create shortcuts and many other things to the home screens (in general it kind of works like a right click opening menus in many programs). There isn't really button mapping because there aren't buttons, everything is very intuitive.
4) for google reader there are several applications that link up to your subscriptions and will download them to your computer. I personally use newsrob for articles and google listen for podcasts. Both work well and sync with google reader nicely.
6) The only thing i've used bluetooth for was pairing it with the dock and streaming audio. I've never had a problem with that. But I guess that's not all that surprising since the dock was made solely to work with this phone.
Thanks Guys. I think that nearly all the items I asked about without getting a phone myself have been answered.
I suppose it will take months for me to build the kind of knowledge base/app library that I had with Windows Mobile, but keeping in tune with RSS feeds from various sites, I think I have found a tweak/app for nearly everything on Windows Mobile. Max a 1 time conversion is needed for the Call Log/eBooks/ SMS initial backup-synch. Looking forward to a snapdragon device that does NOT take 20 seconds to move from one screen to the next.
I don't suppose there are any other solutions out there for Outlook Web Access email/Calendar syncing, huh?
Thanks again!
after 3 months with the Ativ WP8 I start thinking to change to android (eventually Galaxy4) for good reasons
1. Incomplete BT stack - no keyboard to connect or certain consoles
2. Miserable sync with Outlook and One-Notes
3. Limited camera functions - e.g. where to save and to transfer to a PC)
4. Cannot use DropBox
5. Useless letters in apps
6. Want not and cannot allow certain info an the cloud (SkyDrive)
7. Calendar - no weekly, daily and to-do app
8. No basic info like battery status, signal strength, Wi-Fi visible as a top bar
9. Better organization for apps, e.g. based on importance and not just one long list to scroll, why not at least two
I am aware that WP8 is a great improvement and with good tools, but I have to decide what serves my daily needs the best. Is there any major update in the next few months to expect. Any suggestions
Not sure if trolling or just ...
Sell it to me.
Sent from rehab using XDA Windows Phone 8 App
mcosmin222 said:
Not sure if trolling or just ...
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Click to collapse
Not trolling mate, this isn't windowsphonecentral. You're not going to get an army of windows phone enthusiasts trying to go against this guy.
Lol trolls.
Sent from Lumia 810 using XDA Windows Phone 7 App
theguitarman94 said:
Not trolling mate, this isn't windowsphonecentral. You're not going to get an army of windows phone enthusiasts trying to go against this guy.[/QUOT]
Given his reasons, I am 100% convinced he is either a troll or too stupid to use a smartphone, in which case, Android/WP/IOS won't make much of a difference.
So I think he is a troll.
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I mean it is very difficult to find the signal strength
If you're not happy with how the phone handles things and if it can't do certain things you need it to do the best way to go is to sell the phone and get one that does. Given that you already tried to find solutions for some of those things and found out that they could not be done differently on WP you are left with only two options:
- live with how things are done/can be done (e.g. Jump Lists in the App List, pinning important Apps to the Start Screen)
- get rid of the phone and use something else in the hopes of it doing things the way you want them done
You can be sure not a troll nor stupid. I use mobile phones from the beginning and can very well distinguish pros and cons. We can and do build out own servers and use the phone as a business tool. Just see what MS did with the BT stack, incomplete, you cannot connect a simple keyboard which is needed when taking notes in conferences, Using the cloud for confidential information is a nono, DropBox does not work with WP8.... Me or someone else calling stupid shows where your standard is.
When I make a final decision to sell the phone you will be the first for an offer. It will come with a nice black leather case open front and 32 GB SD card. I need some additional research to find the right solution.
[email protected] said:
after 3 months with the Ativ WP8 I start thinking to change to android (eventually Galaxy4) for good reasons
1. Incomplete BT stack - no keyboard to connect or certain consoles
2. Miserable sync with Outlook and One-Notes
3. Limited camera functions - e.g. where to save and to transfer to a PC)
4. Cannot use DropBox
5. Useless letters in apps
6. Want not and cannot allow certain info an the cloud (SkyDrive)
7. Calendar - no weekly, daily and to-do app
8. No basic info like battery status, signal strength, Wi-Fi visible as a top bar
9. Better organization for apps, e.g. based on importance and not just one long list to scroll, why not at least two
I am aware that WP8 is a great improvement and with good tools, but I have to decide what serves my daily needs the best. Is there any major update in the next few months to expect. Any suggestions
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So to avoid wasting more thread space criticizing OP:
1. Yes, the BT stack is limited, but what's there works well (other phones have all sorts of issues with BT freezing on connect, etc.)
2. If by "Outlook," you mean Outlook.com or an Exchange server, nothing syncs better with those than WP; same with OneNote; the only thing that would make sense is if you mean data stored in a local PST on the desktop Outlook app, which WP doesn't directly sync to-- valid point, but other platforms don't do native sync at all (or very well) either, so the only real comparison point is Windows Mobile 6.x lol; if you do want to do local Outlook syncing, try Akruto Sync
3. What's limited? Plug in a USB cable, or open your SkyDrive folder, and it's all there
4. Actually you can-- see the "Boxfiles" app
5. Don't know what you mean
6. Don't know what you mean
7. The Calendar app has daily, agenda, and month views, along with to-dos- what more are you looking for?
8. All of that is in the top bar- just tap it
9. That's what start screen pinning is for; the list itself has alphabetical and search functions
Good answer, but please see that DropBox (will try Boxfiles App)or Team Viewer or Dragon and other do not work, As an attorney- (working with very sensitive data) I cannot have data from clients in a cloud, I could loose my shirt. I need a weekly calendar which also shows to do and notes like in Outlook.. OneNote on the PC is not fully compatible with OneNote in WP8. I made it work, but it is a work around. In the list of Apps I have at least 10 single letters and when you click on it, it opens the full alphabet, nothing else. SkyDrive is for me only of limit use, A BT Keyboard is a deal breaker, I use the phone in meetings to take notes which later will be part of a client electronic file. Samsung Ativ is a nice phone, basically I like it, but it has to assist and function in my daily work. I do not care to store a lot of music or videos. Miss a good file manager. You mention the top bar, not on the Samsung above the tiles. It shows only the time. Imagine you have a fight with the IRS for hundred of thousand of $$ and I would as your attorney leave documents in your case on SkyDrive.
Thanks and have a great day with your coffee.
By the way, I am for over 10 years a MS Partner.
[email protected] said:
Good answer, but please see that DropBox (will try Boxfiles App)or Team Viewer or Dragon and other do not work, As an attorney- (working with very sensitive data) I cannot have data from clients in a cloud, I could loose my shirt. I need a weekly calendar which also shows to do and notes like in Outlook.. OneNote on the PC is not fully compatible with OneNote in WP8. I made it work, but it is a work around. In the list of Apps I have at least 10 single letters and when you click on it, it opens the full alphabet, nothing else. SkyDrive is for me only of limit use, A BT Keyboard is a deal breaker, I use the phone in meetings to take notes which later will be part of a client electronic file. Samsung Ativ is a nice phone, basically I like it, but it has to assist and function in my daily work. I do not care to store a lot of music or videos. Miss a good file manager. You mention the top bar, not on the Samsung above the tiles. It shows only the time. Imagine you have a fight with the IRS for hundred of thousand of $$ and I would as your attorney leave documents in your case on SkyDrive.
Thanks and have a great day with your coffee.
By the way, I am for over 10 years a MS Partner.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks
On the top bar, if you tap anywhere in the bar (on the time or anywhere to the left of it), the cell + Wifi + BT + battery status show up. They disappear after a few seconds in the interest of clean design (then show up only when there's a problem, like no signal or low battery). On the app list, in addition to the alphabetical jump-list, there's also a search button at the top-left.
The Calendar app has to-dos (see the "to-do" tab to the right of "agenda"). Week view is indeed missing-- MS should prob implement it in landscape view, as Apple did when it added week view in iOS 5. You can sort of approximate it by tapping month view -> day for each day of the week. Something weird about the month view is that if you look at it carefully on a 720p device in landscape, you'll notice the number of items matches how many you have scheduled for that day, but the actual text is gibberish (lorem ipsum) instead of your actual items, since it's not meant to be visible haha.
I've been a pretty heavy OneNote user- the WP8 app is not the full desktop app by any means, but it's better than what you get on Android or iOS. The local file manager issue is valid-- WP8 does not expose the file system in the interest of simplicity, which does make things less flexible than, say, Windows Mobile. I use SkyDrive as a sort of local drive, since everything in WP8 can save there-- but if you have concerns with consumer cloud services (SkyDrive, Dropbox, Box, Google Drive, etc.) being subpoenable, etc., that's a valid concern.
There is some motion in that space, though-- I know of many law firms that have switched to Office 365 for Exchange/Sharepoint/etc. (which is a lot more data than just files in SkyDrive), since the uptime and security is actually better than what they had in-house (http://www.microsoftbusinesshub.com/Industries/Legal). That includes "SkyDrive Pro," the Sharepoint file store.
If I can suggest something, take a look at the Surface RT, with the Type Cover. You'll get a full-blown Windows experience, with local files, full-blown Office 2013 (minus x86 macros) with desktop OneNote, etc., and a great keyboard, but 10-hour battery life, in a 1.5 lb form factor. There's a TeamViewer app for WinRT, and you can access almost anything a full PC can (here on XDA, people have even ported x86 desktop apps and an x86 emulator). I generally carry the Surface + WP8 everywhere now-- phone for quick stuff and Surface for longer content.
[email protected] said:
Good answer, but please see that DropBox (will try Boxfiles App)or Team Viewer or Dragon and other do not work, As an attorney- (working with very sensitive data) I cannot have data from clients in a cloud, I could loose my shirt. I need a weekly calendar which also shows to do and notes like in Outlook.. OneNote on the PC is not fully compatible with OneNote in WP8. I made it work, but it is a work around. In the list of Apps I have at least 10 single letters and when you click on it, it opens the full alphabet, nothing else. SkyDrive is for me only of limit use, A BT Keyboard is a deal breaker, I use the phone in meetings to take notes which later will be part of a client electronic file. Samsung Ativ is a nice phone, basically I like it, but it has to assist and function in my daily work. I do not care to store a lot of music or videos. Miss a good file manager. You mention the top bar, not on the Samsung above the tiles. It shows only the time. Imagine you have a fight with the IRS for hundred of thousand of $$ and I would as your attorney leave documents in your case on SkyDrive.
Thanks and have a great day with your coffee.
By the way, I am for over 10 years a MS Partner.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
U couldnt have data from ur clients on a cloud? Then u shouldnt use android
And if u want not to use Skydrive with Onenote u can also create Offline Word Documents and write down ur Meeting Information there.
And what exactly isnt working with One Note on PC and ur Phone?
But for what r u using dropbox? Isnt that a cloud too?
After u press a Letter in the Apps Menu the Alphabet is show so u can select the Letter u want ur App starts with.
For the Topbar u can always touch on the Clock to get the Whole Topbar shown with all Informations.
[email protected] said:
You can be sure not a troll nor stupid. I use mobile phones from the beginning and can very well distinguish pros and cons. We can and do build out own servers and use the phone as a business tool. Just see what MS did with the BT stack, incomplete, you cannot connect a simple keyboard which is needed when taking notes in conferences, Using the cloud for confidential information is a nono, DropBox does not work with WP8.... Me or someone else calling stupid shows where your standard is.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Androids bt stack is also incomplete. Most of the other things you mention are there. If its trully business usage you want then buy a WM device, not even your beloved android comes close to wm. The only thing wm doesn't do better is games and video playback and most of that is down to crap drivers from the oems
Sent from my Arc using xda app-developers app
Thanks for your answer but you should not imply like "not even your beloved android comes close to wm" never used it. You asked "And what exactly isnt working with One Note on PC and ur Phone?" On the PC I have in One Note a personal and office section. The office section can only be seen with Sky Drive.Why not having both section direct in the Phones One Note without Sky Drive. Any suggestion? I guess it is possible but do not know to get it done. It seems Logitech will bring a compatible Keyboard for the Ativ,
Calendar, I use Week View 8 what does the most I need, but you cannot change there appointments or to dos, you have to go through agenda.. We have Office 365 and have until today nit made a final decision.A replacement for Team Viewer not found except you run it through Internet Explorer.I will always listen and learn and keep things in an appropriate way.
[email protected] said:
Thanks for your answer but you should not imply like "not even your beloved android comes close to wm" never used it. You asked "And what exactly isnt working with One Note on PC and ur Phone?" On the PC I have in One Note a personal and office section. The office section can only be seen with Sky Drive.Why not having both section direct in the Phones One Note without Sky Drive. Any suggestion? I guess it is possible but do not know to get it done. It seems Logitech will bring a compatible Keyboard for the Ativ,
Calendar, I use Week View 8 what does the most I need, but you cannot change there appointments or to dos, you have to go through agenda.. We have Office 365 and have until today nit made a final decision.A replacement for Team Viewer not found except you run it through Internet Explorer.I will always listen and learn and keep things in an appropriate way.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I like vnc better then teamviewer personally. Ive never had as problem with one note or outlook syncing. I also enjoy the android os on my tablet. Perhaps that might be a solution for you. I use my Aviv s to provide internet to my android tablet.
Sent from my A100 using xda app-developers app
[email protected] said:
Good answer, but please see that DropBox (will try Boxfiles App)or Team Viewer or Dragon and other do not work, As an attorney- (working with very sensitive data) I cannot have data from clients in a cloud, I could loose my shirt. I need a weekly calendar which also shows to do and notes like in Outlook.. OneNote on the PC is not fully compatible with OneNote in WP8. I made it work, but it is a work around. In the list of Apps I have at least 10 single letters and when you click on it, it opens the full alphabet, nothing else. SkyDrive is for me only of limit use, A BT Keyboard is a deal breaker, I use the phone in meetings to take notes which later will be part of a client electronic file. Samsung Ativ is a nice phone, basically I like it, but it has to assist and function in my daily work. I do not care to store a lot of music or videos. Miss a good file manager. You mention the top bar, not on the Samsung above the tiles. It shows only the time. Imagine you have a fight with the IRS for hundred of thousand of $$ and I would as your attorney leave documents in your case on SkyDrive.
Thanks and have a great day with your coffee.
By the way, I am for over 10 years a MS Partner.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If there is one thing that WP does infinitely better than Android, that is protecting your privacy.
Hell, on android you can even get spyware and trojan downloaded from the marketplace, and you will never even know it. If you want privacy, go for WP and stick with it.
mcosmin222 said:
If there is one thing that WP does infinitely better than Android, that is protecting your privacy.
Hell, on android you can even get spyware and trojan downloaded from the marketplace, and you will never even know it. If you want privacy, go for WP and stick with it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LOL.......it seems that 95% of WP apps require access to your location, and they send this also to Microsoft. Having access to my location is fine, as long as it makes sense.
Darkjamzi said:
LOL.......it seems that 95% of WP apps require access to your location, and they send this also to Microsoft. Having access to my location is fine, as long as it makes sense.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
cause yeh LOL google maps location process doesn't run like 100% if time in the background on ANY android phone.
Here’s the gist of a thread I started @ WPCentral that I wanted to bring over to XDA to get an additional perspective.(Let's be honest...XDA is a bit cooler than WP Central good )
How about allowing for users to create 2 custom Hubs? The Custom Hub would have two panes – the default being a notifications list, and the second being a list of all the apps added to that hub.
How about allowing Kids Korner to be a Hub where parents can add in apps and other educational stuff for the kids to look at (then at the bottom of Kid’s corner, put a menu option that allows the parents to put in a password to get into the rest of the phone)?
How about expanding the Lenses idea to give third party apps the option to pick one key feature of their app that gets integrated into a Hub?
How about tighter integration between Hubs? For example taking the option of in the phone dialer to hit the phonebook icon and get sent to the People Hub and using it this way…if I’m in the Calendar Hub and make a reminder note to meet with someone, or to call someone, that note shows up under that person’s name in the People Hub. If I want to edit that, when I am in the people hub I hit that note which sends me back to the Calendar to change it.
These are just some thoughts I had on how MSFT could flesh WP8 out and give it an edge. I think RIM is trying to do that in its BlackBerry 10 Blackberry Hub, but MSFT has more resources in WP8 to make things more seamless and less cluttered.
Here’s the link to the original thread:
http://forums.wpcentral.com/windows-phone-8/220854-hubs-over-folders-lenses-improve-core-apps.html
But I’d love to get feedback here on XDA.
HMm not so sure this is really worth it. Besides, to integrate an app with a specific hub is a specific job the developer needs to do. In order to integrate with the music+video hub, for instance, you need to do specific thing. Same goes for people/photo/whatever hub.
Having a custom hub is very difficult for the apps to integrate properly with it and sloopy developers might actually ruin the entire experience with poor integration.
While i see where you are going with this (notification center), the need is really not that big.
The kids corner is a completely different thing and is not similar to a hub in any way.
EDIT: the news/notification thing in the hub is something the apps do, and not the hub itself. The hub just centralizes them in a ... hub. In order for the hub to know what to centralize and from who, the apps must call specific APIs.
mcosmin222 said:
HMm not so sure this is really worth it. Besides, to integrate an app with a specific hub is a specific job the developer needs to do. In order to integrate with the music+video hub, for instance, you need to do specific thing. Same goes for people/photo/whatever hub.
Having a custom hub is very difficult for the apps to integrate properly with it and sloopy developers might actually ruin the entire experience with poor integration.
While i see where you are going with this (notification center), the need is really not that big.
The kids corner is a completely different thing and is not similar to a hub in any way.
EDIT: the news/notification thing in the hub is something the apps do, and not the hub itself. The hub just centralizes them in a ... hub. In order for the hub to know what to centralize and from who, the apps must call specific APIs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok. I think I follow along with you comment.
But MSFT does have these some of these elements in play in the OS itself, so why not use them more effectively? I know Apple has a more stringent control of apps that get approved before going in the app store, so could MSFT enforce these add-ons?
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
Microsoft regularlly provides the Options and in my experience developers will use them by themselves, simply because it increases the usability of their Apps a lot more than it adds required effort. It's rather a problem how to implement this in a way that does prevent a badly written App from affecting the system's Performance and stability.
That especially gets a Problem when Apps are allowed to surface data somewhere as could be seen by the problems Skype originally caused with the People Hub Integration.
I'm pretty sure Microsoft will add more Integration Points into the System with the next API update - let's just wait and see.
As for making usage of some of those Integration Points mandatory. I don't believe that to be a good idea. I also don't believe that it is necessary. Developers regularly complain that they can't integrate somewhere so I really believe that if they were allowed to do it they would do it by themselves. This is also necessary because the Integration regularly involves the Transfer of data to the invoked App (Images, Files, etc.)
Stevie, I think what you've said is fair. I suppose MSFT could just use their own apps like Photosynth and Skype as a way to sure more seamless integration instead of making that a mandatory process for all devs.
Do people even see the need for such integration in the platform going forward?
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
In general I believe that it can make for a more fluid experience if there are well done Integration points. Camera Lenses or the Image editing capabilities are a great example for this. Another is the possibility to have an App specific contact store (like Skype does it now).
What I believe would greatly improve the concept would be Message Integration into the Messaging Hub and the ability to create an app specific calendar store that is also availble inside the Standard calendar App.
Also nice would be the possibility to register Apps for all filetypes. Currently you can only consume files inside your App that are not assigned to System Apps (e.g. MP3 or JPEG Images).
So in short: yes, those integrations can greatly improve the workflow and I'd love to see Microsoft in the end deliver on the promise of Hubs they gave when introducing them. When you want to do something with Images, open the Image Hub. If you want to message someone open the Messaging Hub, etc.
If it were up to me, here’s how I’d organize the Hubs in WP8. I’d love to hear other’s thoughts:
Store: Same. Just better Secondary links from the all the other Hubs. This and People Hub should be the two primary Hubs where all other Hubs have shortcut links to.
Photos: Same. Shortcut Links to Store, People, Search, Content Manager
Music and Videos. Same. Shortcuts to Store, People, Search, Content manager
Games: Same. Better shortcut links to Store. Also links to People, Search, Content manager
Productivity: Office + Calendar + Note Apps + Voice Personal Assistants here (allow Tell Me to be an app where you can add commands to it).
- 3rd party apps list include: any note, calendar, language, Office Assistant Apps.
- Secondary shortcuts to People (especially Rooms), Content Manager, Wallet, Store
Content Manager: Skydrive and a page showing list of downloaded content here...not a full file manager where you can move stuff around on the phone itself, but a general downloads folder.
- 3rd part apps include Box and other upload apps
- Secondary Hub links – Photos, Music + Videos, Office
People: You manage contacts and social media here.
- Me Tile: Notifications...and have the option to reply to an individual tweet or FB post or Skype message from a listed contact here.
- 3rd party apps include: All social media apps
- Secondary shortcuts: all the other hubs.
Messaging: Emails, SMS, Skype IM is here.
- 3rd party apps include all IM apps, FB messenger, shortcut to Skype.
- Shortcuts to People, Store, Phone
Navigation: All Maps and Transit apps here.
- Some of Local Scout functionality here (also accessible in the Search Hub).
- Secondary Shortcuts to Search, People, Store.
Search: Same, except adding one more page to list search related apps.
- Secondary short cuts to Navigation, People, Store, Content Manager
Phone: Skype (calling features, video chat) and Dialer are primary options here. Other apps that tap into this Hub (or get listed here) are 3rd party Video Apps
- Secondary shortcuts to People, Messaging.
Wallet: Holds Credit Cards and Financial Apps
- Secondary shortcuts to Search, Store, Productivity (in particular – calendar), People
Corporate: Same. Allow Corporate IT to do their thing. Better links to the Productivity, Office
Custom Hubs: Users are allowed to create only two. A two pane look – default page with app related notifications and a second page with the app list.
It is still a hybrid mix of hubs and apps – if you don’t want to use a Hub, don’t use it.
Sent from my Lumia 810 using Board Express
My head hurts. It is just too complicated.
This implementation can go wrong in soooooooooooooooo many ways, it will be a wonder if a developer manages to get it right for every scenario.
I believe you're making it more complicated than it needs to be and a lot of what you are talking about is already there. I don't need an explicit link to go from Calendar to people. If I open an appointment and swipe to attendants I can tap on any of them to be taken to their contacts page inside the people Hub (as it should be).
It's a good idea to have those kinds of shortcuts around that are contextually aware but adding a load of Buttons to jump somewhere else is mainly getting the UI cluttered or getting confusing/annoying.
Some of those connections you mention are already there - e.g. Store in Music/Videos.
What actually would be a nice idea is to allow productivity Apps to tie into the Office Hub similarily to how it works with imaging Apps in the Pictures Hub.
Some of the other stuff you mention is also there. Cloud Storage applications can integrate themselves into the system for automated Uploads similarily to SkyDrive but currently limited to Pictures so it can definitely be improved upon.
TellMe is also extensible to allow Apps to tie into it and use voice command functionality. Audible would be one App that takes advantage of this. It doesn't really make sense for all Apps though. E.g. a picture taking App will require the ViewFinder etc. so it would not benefit that much from Voice Control (and it is quite a hazzle to implement this - especially if the App is getting localized in several languages).
As for search - if there would be something like a search charm on Windows 8 it should tie into the Bing App which already has a permanent shortcut in the search button.
I guess your idea would be to allow people to jump easily from Hub to Hub without going to the Homescreen. Having Links for this in every other Hub just isn't the way to go there. A possibility would be to add all the Hubs at the bottom of the Task Switcher Screen. So you would long press on the back button and would get the Thumbnails of running Apps and at the bottom the icons for People, Calendar, Messaging, Pictures, Music/Video and Office. I'm not sure if that would be an improvement over just going via the Home screen though.
So in short: more integration of Apps into the OS: yes, more context aware integration of Apps with each other: yes, adding loads of shortcuts: no
StevieBallz said:
I believe you're making it more complicated than it needs to be and a lot of what you are talking about is already there. I don't need an explicit link to go from Calendar to people. If I open an appointment and swipe to attendants I can tap on any of them to be taken to their contacts page inside the people Hub (as it should be).
It's a good idea to have those kinds of shortcuts around that are contextually aware but adding a load of Buttons to jump somewhere else is mainly getting the UI cluttered or getting confusing/annoying.
Some of those connections you mention are already there - e.g. Store in Music/Videos.
What actually would be a nice idea is to allow productivity Apps to tie into the Office Hub similarily to how it works with imaging Apps in the Pictures Hub.
Some of the other stuff you mention is also there. Cloud Storage applications can integrate themselves into the system for automated Uploads similarily to SkyDrive but currently limited to Pictures so it can definitely be improved upon.
TellMe is also extensible to allow Apps to tie into it and use voice command functionality. Audible would be one App that takes advantage of this. It doesn't really make sense for all Apps though. E.g. a picture taking App will require the ViewFinder etc. so it would not benefit that much from Voice Control (and it is quite a hazzle to implement this - especially if the App is getting localized in several languages).
As for search - if there would be something like a search charm on Windows 8 it should tie into the Bing App which already has a permanent shortcut in the search button.
I guess your idea would be to allow people to jump easily from Hub to Hub without going to the Homescreen. Having Links for this in every other Hub just isn't the way to go there. A possibility would be to add all the Hubs at the bottom of the Task Switcher Screen. So you would long press on the back button and would get the Thumbnails of running Apps and at the bottom the icons for People, Calendar, Messaging, Pictures, Music/Video and Office. I'm not sure if that would be an improvement over just going via the Home screen though.
So in short: more integration of Apps into the OS: yes, more context aware integration of Apps with each other: yes, adding loads of shortcuts: no
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Stevie, I like much of your suggestions. The goal here isn't to clutter the OS - if it were up to me I would use the contextual menus and a few other existing options in the OS to facilitate moving from Hub to Hub instead of adding extra buttons.
Based on how the OS is, there may not be a need to have list of all the hubs at the bottom. The goal is to jump from certain Hubs to each other based on "common user tasks that would involve multiple Hubs or steps that can be reduced". Now if you want to do things the current way, fine. More I think some would welcome more intuition.
I was just trying to describe a smoother way to leverage the existing strengths of the OS and to see where MSFT could make the quickest improvements. No question, the OS is smooth but if they build out these extensions, you can have an improved user experience. My apologies if my explanation was convoluted.
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Should MSFT eventually push an all Hub version of WP8?
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What do you mean by "All Hub"? The Hubs are a thematic grouping but I guess we will always have certain use cases that don't exactlly lend themselves to being integrated into one of those Hubs so putting everything into the Hubs probably isn't the best idea. Giving developers the integration points to integrate their data into the Hubs if it is suitable should be the priority.
I agree. Apps are mostly isolated programs running on their own. If apps could talk to each other more easily we can have more interesting behaviors and abilities that no other mobile os has. For quality control, just give the user a on off switch for each app just like the background task.
I just got a Shield TV, and I love it. I'm probably going to root it tonight to tinker further.
One issue I have with it is how annoying it is to configure, side-load apps, upload files to, etc. I'd love to have a web console for it, and I'm willing to do most/all of the heavy lifting for the front-end and server-side web development perspective. I'm going to need help on other fronts, however.
I'm a full-stack web developer. Most of what I've done professionally is PHP, but I'm not married to that. I'm also pretty good at configuring apache/nginx/ha-proxy/etc. Though once upon a time, I wrote front-end applications in Java and C++, that's ancient history, and I don't really have time to re-learn those skills and the Android SDK. Also, I'm not much of a designer, so unless I'm just using a pretty stock framework like Bootstrap, I'll need someone else to provide the art.
What I'm envisioning is an app that we can have in the play store that has a very simple UI to:
- install an SSH server
- install bash
- install web server/app server
- install DDNS client
- launch server on boot
- check server for new versions of the software it installed
Stuff I want the web interface to do:
- install/uninstall apps (file submission, URLs, etc.)
- 1-click installs of common things people want (Kodi, Amazon Prime Video, etc.)
- start/stop sshd
- manage mounting/unmounting NFS/AFS/CIFS/etc. shares (is this even possible on Android?)
- restart the device
- configure most settings on the device, including some hidden stuff
- file management
So, what I can do:
- script the download/install/upgrade of stuff on already rooted box in bash
- write back-end web code in PHP, Python, or Go
- write HTML/CSS/JS for front-end
What I need help with:
- writing the Android TV app to trigger the install script
- some help understanding/bootstrapping the process (what's installed by default on Android? What's the minimum we can get away with? Do we need Python?)
- someone to design the app (honestly, this can wait until we've got a baseline functionality if we like)
Anyone interested in joining me?
I'm leaning towards Go for the web app, because the binary can (in theory) be deployed standalone, and can be its own web server, obviating the need for apache or nginx or whatever. Also, performance and memory utilization -- PHP and Python are fairly expensive to run, and this is a really minor background thing.
This would be open source on Github.
While I unfortunately don't have a machine to helpwith code, nor the time for the code, I thought I'd give you a dev/modders look on the possibility/dificulty of things. Please don't think that I am discredditing this idea, in fact, I like it. Just want to passibly help you consider dev order and dificulty oy each item as listed, and hopefully add my own as others may have interest.
- install/uninstall apps (file submission, URLs, etc.) <-- Would be pretty easy. Users should provide apks, or you'll need a site that stores a lot of them.
- 1-click installs of common things people want (Kodi, Amazon Prime Video, etc.) <-- Similar to last point. You'll have to have a mirror of updated apks, weather you or another host provides it. You'll probably need a web scraper if going to an external host.
- start/stop sshd <-- I suggest dropbear, even if it's not my cup of tea. It can be easily found in other apps and should find code in open source ones to get you started.
- manage mounting/unmounting NFS/AFS/CIFS/etc. shares (is this even possible on Android?) <-- can be done. Check Kodi or other open source apps for code, though there are usually caviats to each approach. Luckly Android has fuse in most kernels these days.
- restart the device <-- Very easy
- configure most settings on the device, including some hidden stuff <-- Gonna be a long process, but you can probably reverse engeneer the apks and parse the XML files for a shortcut.
- file management <-- Super easy. Use the ssh server, or adb connection.
Over all, I think a lot of this is possible. Luckly these machines have the beef for a web server, and several are ported last I checked, though they may be out of date. Even still, check their codebase for a massive head start as they are mostly required to keep open source by licence (Apache excluded, though some still are). I would also suggest these features as they would be somewhat easy to imprement once the base file management is started, and would broaden the scope to bring in more users, support and interest, and hopefully devs.
-Rom Manager for emulators.
Mass File Renamer based on Filebot (Both are java, so should not be TOO hard to port) as many buy this box for Kodi.
I'll think of more.
I'm not an app dev, though I do rom modding and sometimes porting, and I can offer insite to things, so if you have questions on specifics, please pm me. If I get some free time, and a dev machine, I'll let you know antd get things going in the right direction. May also want to, once this idea is flushed out, post something in a more general android TV/ App Development thread for cleanness and to get devs on board (don't post in dev till there is code to show on github though please.
Something like remix os would be nice, this x1 has a lots of power
Sent from my trltetmo using Tapatalk
This is a great idea. This device is in serious need of developer attention. Im not a dev at all but Ive gotten pretty familiar with this device and Android OS in general, especially after spending so much time digging around trying to make android things happen that apparently were not indended for Android TV. I will be more than happy to be a tester and keep up so as to offer any ideas and some of the ways Ive found to do stuff.
@kdb424 - Thanks for the info. I'm working on a prototype right now. First build is going to list a bunch of stuff from the setting status, and allow you to reboot the device. I'll post the Github repo when I have that.
Great ideas!
There is a tool sorta in development already that does a lot of this (I've mentioned it on the Shield Zone a couple of times)
https://sites.google.com/site/nvidiashieldtvutilityapp/home/
My main needs (personally) is a means to move files to and from and my current solution is a free FTP server that works even when the Shield TV is sleeping.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.theolivetree.ftpserver
... works very well despite having to side load, has a terrible interface, etc. Set and forget. What's great is, I can use my file-manager-on-steroids Directory Opus to manage files since it is a standard FTP connection.
@darkuni - Yeah, I saw that, but I've got no Windows PC's in the house -- 2 Macs, a Chromebook, a Linux server, phones and tablets. I'm an old-school UNIX guy, and Windows doesn't strike my fancy. Plus, it seems like the sort of thing a web app is best for. No need for a fat client.
darkuni said:
Great ideas!
My main needs (personally) is a means to move files to and from and my current solution is a free FTP server that works even when the Shield TV is sleeping.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.theolivetree.ftpserver
... works very well despite having to side load, has a terrible interface, etc. Set and forget. What's great is, I can use my file-manager-on-steroids Directory Opus to manage files since it is a standard FTP connection.
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Thanks for that I'll give it a go. I use ES file manager currently but it closes the server when you exit the app. Will also try this on a couple of FireTV Sticks I have dotted around the house as Kodi boxes :good: