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!
http://www.onskreen.com/cornerstone/
would be fantastic to have this capability on the Nexus 10. but nobody ever seems to work with it. any particular reason why?
>http://www.onskreen.com/cornerstone
>but nobody ever seems to work with it. any particular reason why?
No interest. Probably why it went open-source (it wasn't originally). My guess is that pushing bits for 3 concurrent apps would require more than a simple launcher swap, ie low-level optimization, and the OnSkreen peeps weren't up to it. Something like this would need to be done by Google.
The reason for lack of interest is obvious. Up till recently, Android's focus has been on phones, and muti-windowing is irrelevant on those. Even now, phone is Android's primary focus given its market size. The tablet's unique traits are still mainly left unexplored. Witness that multi-user acct--an arguably essential feature--was implemented only now in the latest 4.2 release.
IMO, the 3-pane fixed layout looks clunky (and ugly, but aesthetics can change). The need to configure each panel is clumsy as well, as opposed to, say, Win8's split-window scheme where one can config each window on-the-fly. Win8 does have the advantage of edge-swiping, which gives it an extra layer of configurability.
The underlying weakness of both this and Win8's fixed dual-windows layout is the Achilles' heel of touch UI (relative to mouse UI)--the lack of a precise pointer that would allow easy manipulation of multiple, possibly overlapping windows. Pen input is an option, but is likely not the answer.
The issue is resolvable, and for mobile OS'es to take the next step up from phone displays to larger form-factors, it will need to be resolved. Take this and Win8's split-screen as the first baby steps.
e.mote said:
>http://www.onskreen.com/cornerstone
>but nobody ever seems to work with it. any particular reason why?
No interest. Probably why it went open-source (it wasn't originally). My guess is that pushing bits for 3 concurrent apps would require more than a simple launcher swap, ie low-level optimization, and the OnSkreen peeps weren't up to it. Something like this would need to be done by Google.
The reason for lack of interest is obvious. Up till recently, Android's focus has been on phones, and muti-windowing is irrelevant on those. Even now, phone is Android's primary focus given its market size. The tablet's unique traits are still mainly left unexplored. Witness that multi-user acct--an arguably essential feature--was implemented only now in the latest 4.2 release.
IMO, the 3-pane fixed layout looks clunky (and ugly, but aesthetics can change). The need to configure each panel is clumsy as well, as opposed to, say, Win8's split-window scheme where one can config each window on-the-fly. Win8 does have the advantage of edge-swiping, which gives it an extra layer of configurability.
The underlying weakness of both this and Win8's fixed dual-windows layout is the Achilles' heel of touch UI (relative to mouse UI)--the lack of a precise pointer that would allow easy manipulation of multiple, possibly overlapping windows. Pen input is an option, but is likely not the answer.
The issue is resolvable, and for mobile OS'es to take the next step up from phone displays to larger form-factors, it will need to be resolved. Take this and Win8's split-screen as the first baby steps.
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It doesnt help that when Cyanogenmod was considering baking Cornerstone into their builds, Google threatened to blacklist their roms from accessing the market/Google Play if they didnt change their mind due to potential compatibility issues... since then its seemed nobody wanted to risk touching it. Too bad, while I agree three panes were clunky, two panes like WinRT does could have been quite nice.
>It doesnt help that when Cyanogenmod was considering baking Cornerstone into their builds, Google threatened to blacklist their roms from accessing the market/Google Play if they didnt change their mind due to potential compatibility issues...
Didn't know that, but it makes sense. Fixed layouts like this (and Win8's) rely on specific criteria to work, ie a widescreen aspect in landscape mode. While MS can dictate the form-factor for Win devices, Android devices come in varying shapes, and fixed layouts are doomed to fail.
For multi-windowing to work, layout needs to be adjustable, as well as dynamically adjusts to both portrait and landscape orientations. Secondly, multi-window needs to be supported by all apps, not just some (like in Samsung's implementation). This means it needs to be in the OS, not an add-on.
Samsung's multi-window scheme is a more elaborate version, and is probably a precursor of what we'll see in Android. Note however that the Galaxy Note 10.1 in this example has pen input support, which obviates the Fat Finger syndrome. A platform-wide scheme will need to accommodate "imprecise" adjustments, which IMO will likely mean a snap-to-grid windowing system.
Edit: I added video for the 5.5" Galaxy Note 2 below. Even though the Note 2 supports S-Pen, apparently the cascading/adjustable window portion was dropped, and only the adjustable dual-window remains.
This makes sense for screen sizes 7" or smaller, and would be an improvement over Metro's current scheme. But the missing piece is for larger sizes WITHOUT the precision (and fiddliness) of pen input. This matters especially when tablets gain the use of external displays via Miracast. Again, my opinion is that cascading/overlapping windowing is still doable for Sausage Styluses, rather than just tiled, but snap-to-grid would be needed.
[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.