Android wear. A notification OS? - Wear OS Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I was looking forward to install apps, develop apps and use apps on the android wear. When I installed the android wear sdk, and ran the emulator, it didn't seem very "huge". Not much can be done!
http://developer.android.com/wear/notifications/creating.html
As linked above, Google tells us to that we can add support for wear in a few lines of code. What can be done, is limited to the buttons that can be added when swiping to the right page.
No other documentation suggest that we can make Android Wear specific apps. It's not possible to add controls and widgets (Editabletext, button, spinner etc.) like it's possible in full android. Now i know that the screen is small, and limitations has to apply..
But the limitations are counted. Imagine receiving an email, swipe right, theres a reply button, click on it, voice will be activated, speak your message, and it will send it. That's pretty cool, but not cool enough..
What if i would like to add someone to cc?, not possible using the sdk, what if i would like to add a different signature? not possible.
The idea is fine, and it's awesome to see something new, i could really see it's potential, but as of right now, i am kinda disappointed.

I was noticing this also from the non developer point of view. All the marketing of the product it's based on notifications, at least the Gear was able to support the installation of apk's and i was excited since Android was about to release his own watch it was going to unleash all the real power of the smartwatches, but getting notifications from my mom telling me to buy milk does not sound like very awesome to me.

When Android Wear was first announced, I also heard that it was only for notifications. If that is really the case, I'm not interested and will keep my Gear 2 for now.

I think notifications are one of the obvious benefits, but there's going to be a lot more that we figure out how to do with them.
Sure, the interface is restrictive, but that's kinda the idea. The real benefit will be adding that little extra special sauce to the notifications in the context of whatever else is going on. And notifications don't need to just be a note from Dear Old Mom... geolocation, sensors, and other things may come into play.
After reading most of the AD site I sorta feel like you do when you know in about a hour and and a half you're going to have to have a seat on the pot - I know I've got a potential big idea in there somewhere, but it's just not ready to come out yet.

johdaxx said:
I think notifications are one of the obvious benefits, but there's going to be a lot more that we figure out how to do with them.
Sure, the interface is restrictive, but that's kinda the idea. The real benefit will be adding that little extra special sauce to the notifications in the context of whatever else is going on. And notifications don't need to just be a note from Dear Old Mom... geolocation, sensors, and other things may come into play.
After reading most of the AD site I sorta feel like you do when you know in about a hour and and a half you're going to have to have a seat on the pot - I know I've got a potential big idea in there somewhere, but it's just not ready to come out yet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The only potential scenario i see working, is having a service, on the phone. That service will have created a notification, showing relevant information, let's say it's showing when sunrise and sunset (depending on the time of the day), if you swipe to the right, you can click on "Show someother info". When you tap that, it will start showing some other information, the service will then have altered the text on the notification.
Thats a potential and very possible scenario. Then again.. Is it really optimal? Apps that need to show this kind of information will take up all the notification space on the phone.

Related

Registered WP7 Developer looking for ideas!

As the title states, suggest away.
direct sync to outlook .pst
What the [email protected]#$% was MS thinking by leaving this out? Even the iphone syncs to outlook.
mightyeric said:
direct sync to outlook .pst
What the [email protected]#$% was MS thinking by leaving this out? Even the iphone syncs to outlook.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Jesus, how many times is this going to be brought up? The function is NOT there, and it was known BEFORE any device came out. Quit the *****ing and get a phone that supports it, or move on.
Anyways, I'd like a good sports app like Sportacular that has notifications when games start, during and after with the scores. Fantasy updates with custom rosters would be great too.
Not sure what the SDK will let you do, but is it possible to develop an app that can be pinned to the start page, that toggles 3g/wifi/bluetooth? I know we can just drop in to the Settings menu, but I would pay for an app that put those three in one easy place.
I would also like an app that rotates, like a slideshow I guess, all sorts of images from the various Xbox games I've been playing across the tile. That would look cool on the start page. Maybe it does a Bing image search to find the images to rotate, etc. I'm not a developer, but it was something I thought of earlier today.
dougp.me said:
Jesus, how many times is this going to be brought up? The function is NOT there, and it was known BEFORE any device came out. Quit the *****ing and get a phone that supports it, or move on.
Anyways, I'd like a good sports app like Sportacular that has notifications when games start, during and after with the scores. Fantasy updates with custom rosters would be great too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
this is comming in dec development almost done..
The direct sync with outlook is not possible with the WP7 SDK. That would have to be incorporated into the Zune sync software. The WP7 is meant to be a cloud device so I don't see this coming anytime soon.
The idea about toggling the radios is also not possible im afraid. The SDK does not give developers any direct access to the hardware like that. Hell, we can't even adjust the volume.
rruffman said:
this is comming in dec development almost done..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
love to see more on this...
JMackey said:
The idea about toggling the radios is also not possible im afraid. The SDK does not give developers any direct access to the hardware like that. Hell, we can't even adjust the volume.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That really blows. Just thinking about what various iPhone and Android apps can do easily, it seems this platform is much more closed than even iPhone's. The key to both Android and iPhones success has been as much the developer community as it has been the solid hardware the apps run on, maybe even more so the developers. The new WP7 hardware seems solid enough so far. If MS doesn't open up the SDK to a greater array of components, this will just continue to lag behind, even fall farther behind.
...Hoping someone can cook up some nice WP7 ROM's
ability to take any music file and assign it as a ringtone!
an independent youtube app that doesnt simply goto a web page. Also bein able to watch high def on 3g, and not only on a wifi connection.
TOA Duck said:
an independent youtube app that doesnt simply goto a web page. Also bein able to watch high def on 3g, and not only on a wifi connection.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There's already one in the Marketplace for free. You have to have the YouTube app installed to use it, but it allows for searching, etc. from within the App.
prubin said:
ability to take any music file and assign it as a ringtone!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is supposedly coming in January according to reports this morning. See: http://www.wpcentral.com/rumor-january-firmware-update-wp7-include-custom-ringer-support-more
(Sorry, forgot to multi-quote.)
not sure if you can make do this or not, but I would like to be able to connect to hidden networks. Also be able to use the device as a wifi router.
Could it be made downward compatible? It would be nice to be able to run some of my already-purchased software.
As an alternative, the single-largest bummer of making this switch for me will be loss of the two coolest apps I have EVER had – “Pocket Earth”, and “Pocket World” by Bluepoint Studios. These apps, especially Pocket Earth, were stunning! I don’t know their status, but if you could buy the rights and the code and somehow rewrite them for WP7, I suspect you would do very well.
I need programs which are NOT web-dependent. Dictionaries, translation programs, an atlas, etc. which are device-based. Traveling internationally is where one needs the language converters and I work a lot on the plane. I’d prefer to give up space in the device than to continually pay for international data.
Best of luck,
Dave
Battery indicator showing remaining strength in percentage or bars.
A recorder...
There are a few out there, but I need it to either have voice activated start/stop, or stop/start control from my bluetooth. I am a sports photographer, and if I can describe what is on a picture that I take right after I take it, it is much easier to do my captioning when I get home. But I don't have time to take the phone out of my pocket and start/stop after each play.
It seems a lot of the suggestions are things to do with hardware. The only hardware access the SDK gives developers is the GPS, Accelerometer, and the radio. We don't even have direct access to the camera. (When an app takes a picture, it opens the camera app then sends the taken picture back to the app).
riceboyler said:
There's already one in the Marketplace for free. You have to have the YouTube app installed to use it, but it allows for searching, etc. from within the App.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Will we ever be able to watch high quality youtube vids over 3g. Now you have to be on wifi. I know on iphone the vids are HQ over 3g.
1) Something that bypasses Exchange-enforced password entry. Android has it; and frankly, PIN enforcement is a meaningless layer of security that does nothing more than inconvenience the end-user.
2) Something that let's you copy synced Calendar entries and Contacts to the Phone instead of forcing them to exist in the stupid cloud. <--I would pay good money for this. Again, something that Android let's you do that I like.
Edited to Add:
3) An app that keeps the phone on and unlocked. I don't like this forced lock/timeout thing, I'd prefer to have complete control of when it is locked and when it isn't.
1) A Remote Desktop Application compatable with MS's current RDP services
2) Something that periodically rotates the Logon Screen Picture
3) Something that would quickly display Battery Life, Used/Remaining Storage, etc...
- MEK

Assistance with final year college project

Hi all!
I'm in my final year and we're supposed to do a project which is worth 200 marks overall. Most of us in our field have chosen to develop either android or iphone applications. My group and I have chosen adnroid.
Now, I'm in need of simple ideas for the apps. We have absolutely no idea on how to go about with the process. I've seen lots of people here develop stunning applications here! We're in need of ideas for developing simple apps.. which can be completed in a max of 2-3 months (considering the fact that we don't have any background knowledge on android development/programming. All we know is Java)
I'd initially suggested an automatic mobile credit recharge system, where in the app monitors you prepaid account balance from time to time and recharges the account once the credit falls below a user set value.
Although this seemed interesting at first, it can only be simulated with 2 databases (one for the mobile credit and another for the bank account)
After going through the type of apps here, I really want to develop something much better than this.
I'm open to all ideas, in fact, we don't mind developing an app that is already existing (for instance a profile manager or a data wallet etc) All we want is to have a fully complete app at the end of 2 months.
Please assist.
Thanks!
Secret Santa?
That's something that I thought up over winter break and whipped it up over a few days in the App Inventor. If you guys take your time, you can probably learn Android programming and design/code it in a month or so.
There are some "special" features that I added to make the app more useful but I'll leave that for you to think up.
I'll post back if I come up with anything else. I also need some app ideas, but just for recreational programming.
Thanks! I'm currently checking out appInventer.. I somehow find it hard to come up with ideas which is why I'm trying to find help from here :|
I think the credit recharger is a pretty cool idea, personally. But I understand that you might want something with more "impact"
I think part of the key to this would be figuring out what has not already been done to death. There are so many apps with 5, 6, 7, etc versions of the basically the same thing. I would try to find something to develop with less competition, even if it's more of a niche product. I'm trying to think of the things I've previously thought "I wish I had an app for ____" but I'm drawing a blank right now.
If I think of anything I'll be sure to post it back in here
DrDubzz said:
I think the credit recharger is a pretty cool idea, personally. But I understand that you might want something with more "impact"
I think part of the key to this would be figuring out what has not already been done to death. There are so many apps with 5, 6, 7, etc versions of the basically the same thing. I would try to find something to develop with less competition, even if it's more of a niche product. I'm trying to think of the things I've previously thought "I wish I had an app for ____" but I'm drawing a blank right now.
If I think of anything I'll be sure to post it back in here
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks! I checked out google appInventer tutorials.. theres one which says "no text while driving" -- basically sends back an sms to the sender that ur driving.. It seems interesting so I'm gonna see how best i can use it and pack some more useful stuff along with it.. and see how it all works out.
The reason why I'm giving the auto recharge a back seat is because it can't be implemented in real time.. it can only be simulated in a virtual environment.
You might want to think about doing something that takes advantage of the maps api. It's easy to do but it looks impressive and might help you get high marks.
A great idea?!
Graphics artist here,
Something I just thought of and just started searching for (literally) when I came across your thread, would be: Using the phone as a touch sensitive.. control for editing software, ie photoshop or paint.net. Basically turn the phone into a touchpad control for a computer.
Just an idea!
mirrorhelix said:
Graphics artist here,
Something I just thought of and just started searching for (literally) when I came across your thread, would be: Using the phone as a touch sensitive.. control for editing software, ie photoshop or paint.net. Basically turn the phone into a touchpad control for a computer.
Just an idea!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This would be great! I'd definitely pay a couple/few dollars for something along these lines if it was user-friendly
Thats a really awesome idea!! Converting the touchscreen into a tablet input for PS or any other photo manipulation software.. But the problem is that I don't know where to begin! :|
This is a college project so the idea isn't to make a unique and sell-able application... it's to demonstrate that you can work as part of a team to make an application from design to completion.
I'd try and think of a fun app (i wouldnt care if it's been done 100 times before) that everyone on your team wants to contribute to. If it's unique, brilliant, if not nevermind you've got some good experience working as a team and making an android app.
I do like the sound of the phone touchpad app, it's been done on iPhone by Logitech but i've not seen something for android. If it helps, http://blog.logitech.com/2010/01/29...-touch-into-a-wireless-trackpad-and-keyboard/ .
There are a ton of them on the market: Gmote, MyRemote, UnifiedRemote, etc.
It might be a good idea to email this developers to get a better picture of what to do.
Problem is that all of those tools rely heavily on WiFi so you'll have to understand networking.
biggler said:
This is a college project so the idea isn't to make a unique and sell-able application... it's to demonstrate that you can work as part of a team to make an application from design to completion.
I'd try and think of a fun app (i wouldnt care if it's been done 100 times before) that everyone on your team wants to contribute to. If it's unique, brilliant, if not nevermind you've got some good experience working as a team and making an android app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Bingo!! Which is exactly what my instructor said. I tried out the tutorials on appInventer.. I was toying with the idea of integrating more features into those itself. Is that a good idea? Although the concept is from Google, would it be ok to build on it? i'm particularly interested in "No texting while driving" and "Broadcast Hub" -- both these apps are awesome! Are there any notable features that I can add to make them better.
How about an app for the quick oil change places. It could show your last service and what was done. Show any upcoming maintenance and when your next oil change is due.
Maybe integrate Google Maps to show locations of service centers. Maybe offer a "e-coupon" if they use the app. Pretend they offer online scheduling and maybe show them "2 customers in bay, one waiting" - Estimated wait time 20 minutes" yada, yada
As an "older" programmer with 2 degrees, it's nice to see your college offering the mobile platform as a programming choice. Hell, all we got to write were COBOL and CICS mainframe applications and some semi-cool C++ projects.
Good Luck and Congratulations on getting your degree!!
What about a bluetooth hack to where u would be able to hack into someones phone and use their service for texting and calling. I heard of something like that when i was on my blackberry and was really into it. But it would be nice to get something like that on my Incredible
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA App
I think it would be a good idea to make an app that uses an existing web api for a popular website, could be facebook, ebay(do they have an api?) etc etc.
It's a good way to learn a lot of aspects of android development, with a useful product as the outcome.
It doesn't matter if there is already an app for that site, think of a different way of using the site on the mobile, and go from there.
I would like to see a program that reads the weather API and reflects the current weather and location on the wallpaper. This app would require graphics design, code to parse the weather feed, writing to the OS. When I was on Windows Mobile there was a skin for Weather Panel that did this but with Android's live walpaper it could be really cool.
Thanks for the ideas you guys! I really appreciate it. Everything seems interesting.. but the problem is we don't know where to begin or how to go about it.
I did the broadcast hub tutorial present in the app inventer page. It turned out good. Is there any way I can add functionality to this itself?
blueren said:
Thanks for the ideas you guys! I really appreciate it. Everything seems interesting.. but the problem is we don't know where to begin or how to go about it.
I did the broadcast hub tutorial present in the app inventer page. It turned out good. Is there any way I can add functionality to this itself?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do all the tutorials and learn the blocks, you can create lots of stuff. There is a app in the market that adds more features to the app inventor, app inventor extender
XDA App
A couple of suggestions:
- A chess PGN editor
- A simple picture/document management app where you take a photo using the camera, add some tags or other info, and save all details in a database. You can also provide search functionality and a viewer to retrieve pictures using the index you've built.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
I did some homework on topics and came across this.. A multilingual speech translator.
Talk in a language, it converts the speech to text, translates that text to a target language, and reads the translated text aloud.
Is this feasible? What is the difficulty level?
Also, is it possible to develop a call blocker app? I looked around but wherever I search, I only find fully built apps but not pointers on how to go about creating one by yourself.
Please assist.

[Q] Please don't kill me for saying this

First of all, forgive me for a less than cogent post. This is an issue that has been on my mind and I'd like to have some other power users weigh in on this.
I am a user of both [jailbroken] iOS and Android. As you can see from my signature, I am fortunate enough to have a lot of different devices and as such have a firm understanding of the benefits and drawbacks of each platform. I have to say, Android is wonderful for it's openness and customizability (custom ROMs, themes, open apps, torrents, Swype, Power Strip, etc.). It's great that it's open source and freely modifiable by anyone (Except honeycomb, don't get me started). That said, it has some built in drawbacks. Architecturally, iOS seems to be a more solid platform, but some of the things in iOS that hold your hand are the same things that are considered a major hindrance to power users like us ("walled garden" app store, weird multitasking APIs like the 10 minute timeout, etc). I love how everything in the OS, including the apps, are composited (read: hardware accelerated). The SDK is amazing, and helps developers make incredible looking, cohesive applications. At the end of the day however, I am willing to sacrifice some of the usability for my freedom. Just as I live in the United States (not discriminating against any overseas users) and as such have to put up with some bull**** in order to have my civil liberties, I am eager to drop Apple completely on my laptop, desktop, tablet, and phone. I truly believe that they are an evil corporation and don't give a **** about anything except money and are unwilling in the slightest to cater to power users because of their [reasonable] fear of piracy and people breaking their devices. But I will no longer support them in their quest for erosion of my freedom in the name of profit. They will not get any more of my money.
So now that you have a little background on what I see, I have a few questions that maybe you guys can help me with as I try to transition to a fully Apple-free lifestyle.
1. I use an app called MyWi Ondemand to automatically tether my iPad to my iPhone over bluetooth whenever it needs an Internet connection (it's wifi only). Is there an app that is similar where I can tether my Galaxy Tab 10.1 to my Atrix 4G automatically, over bluetooth, as needed?
2. Is there an app that can automatically kill apps after a given amount of time (say 2 minutes - 20 minutes) for apps that persist in the background that I don't need hogging my battery (for instance, I have IM+ and it supports push notifications, but I don't want to have to hit menu->exit every time). I want to have it be killed when I hit the home button.
3. Where do you see the Android platform going? With Ice Cream Sandwich on the horizon, do you think that we'll get real hardware acceleration for scrolling and apps, etc.? Do you think we'll get an SDK that will help developers create great-looking apps across the board?
4. For former/current iOS users, what are some of the things you miss about iOS and how do you work around them or what solutions have you come up with?
5. Why did you choose Android over iOS? (I guess most Atrix 4G users in the states are on AT&T)
5. Anything you wanna say on topic!
I really don't wanna bring any fanboyism into this. Please understand, I don't want a flame war or "APPLE IS TEH SUX LOL!!!11" or "Android pwnz bc i hax0r!" I want people's honest opinion about why they made the decisions they did and hopefully the answers to my questions. Thanks so much!
1. its built into the os. WIRELESS AP. it doesnt use bluetooth, but it makes your phone into a wireless access point
2. instead of hitting the home button when leaving an app, hit the back button. it should kill the app. the home button doesnt exit, just allows you to swap to a different app. if android senses the app is resource hogging and you arent using it, it will kill it on its own.
3. dont know
4. as an iphone user for 3 years, i can honestly say, nothing. there is nothing i miss about IOS
5. i love to tinker
brashmadcap said:
First of all, forgive me for a less than cogent post. This is an issue that has been on my mind and I'd like to have some other power users weigh in on this.
I am a user of both [jailbroken] iOS and Android. As you can see from my signature, I am fortunate enough to have a lot of different devices and as such have a firm understanding of the benefits and drawbacks of each platform. I have to say, Android is wonderful for it's openness and customizability (custom ROMs, themes, open apps, torrents, Swype, Power Strip, etc.). It's great that it's open source and freely modifiable by anyone (Except honeycomb, don't get me started). That said, it has some built in drawbacks. Architecturally, iOS seems to be a more solid platform, but some of the things in iOS that hold your hand are the same things that are considered a major hindrance to power users like us ("walled garden" app store, weird multitasking APIs like the 10 minute timeout, etc). I love how everything in the OS, including the apps, are composited (read: hardware accelerated). The SDK is amazing, and helps developers make incredible looking, cohesive applications. At the end of the day however, I am willing to sacrifice some of the usability for my freedom. Just as I live in the United States (not discriminating against any overseas users) and as such have to put up with some bull**** in order to have my civil liberties, I am eager to drop Apple completely on my laptop, desktop, tablet, and phone. I truly believe that they are an evil corporation and don't give a **** about anything except money and are unwilling in the slightest to cater to power users because of their [reasonable] fear of piracy and people breaking their devices. But I will no longer support them in their quest for erosion of my freedom in the name of profit. They will not get any more of my money.
So now that you have a little background on what I see, I have a few questions that maybe you guys can help me with as I try to transition to a fully Apple-free lifestyle.
1. I use an app called MyWi Ondemand to automatically tether my iPad to my iPhone over bluetooth whenever it needs an Internet connection (it's wifi only). Is there an app that is similar where I can tether my Galaxy Tab 10.1 to my Atrix 4G automatically, over bluetooth, as needed?
2. Is there an app that can automatically kill apps after a given amount of time (say 2 minutes - 20 minutes) for apps that persist in the background that I don't need hogging my battery (for instance, I have IM+ and it supports push notifications, but I don't want to have to hit menu->exit every time). I want to have it be killed when I hit the home button.
3. Where do you see the Android platform going? With Ice Cream Sandwich on the horizon, do you think that we'll get real hardware acceleration for scrolling and apps, etc.? Do you think we'll get an SDK that will help developers create great-looking apps across the board?
4. For former/current iOS users, what are some of the things you miss about iOS and how do you work around them or what solutions have you come up with?
5. Why did you choose Android over iOS? (I guess most Atrix 4G users in the states are on AT&T)
5. Anything you wanna say on topic!
I really don't wanna bring any fanboyism into this. Please understand, I don't want a flame war or "APPLE IS TEH SUX LOL!!!11" or "Android pwnz bc i hax0r!" I want people's honest opinion about why they made the decisions they did and hopefully the answers to my questions. Thanks so much!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1: There's an app for everything in the market now
2: Advanced task killer and others can be put into different modes depending on how much control you give it. Beware of battery life though:https://market.android.com/details?id=biz.stachibana.TaskKiller&feature=search_result
3: Since we'll hopefully be getting ice cream sandwich roms the hardware we have is just the beginning: http://androidandme.com/2011/08/new...ming-consoles-will-be-replaced-by-snapdragon/
4: There's nothing to miss about ios except that the iphone's hardware is built to help speed up the ui. If you miss it too much then just use MIUI which is the leading competitor to Cyanogenmod (which i prefer).
5: I personally chose android since it's SUPER open and there's people like Kenneth Penn who's a badass. Also I hate apple since they sue everyone like HTC and motorola since HTC and motorola are coming out with better technology and hardware before they are.
As a former ios user, and on my second android device, the only thing I miss is the full backup capability of ios/itunes. It was nice to plug in a new phone and have it be exactly the way the old one was. Being on my second atrix this sucked caused the market was still only recognizing my previous atrix. But small price to pay for my freedom.
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App
Pirateghost said:
1. its built into the os. WIRELESS AP. it doesnt use bluetooth, but it makes your phone into a wireless access point
2. instead of hitting the home button when leaving an app, hit the back button. it should kill the app. the home button doesnt exit, just allows you to swap to a different app. if android senses the app is resource hogging and you arent using it, it will kill it on its own.
3. dont know
4. as an iphone user for 3 years, i can honestly say, nothing. there is nothing i miss about IOS
5. i love to tinker
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. Tethering over Wifi is specifically what I'm trying to avoid. I don't want to have to turn it on and off, I just want the tablet to query the device ONLY WHEN IT NEEDS A CONNECTION, then time out once it no longer needs it. Tethering over bluetooth, on demand. I assure you, this is a slick solution. It doesn't rape your battery.
2. I hate to sound callous, but that's absolutely untrue. Android will kill a background app only if it needs new resources for another app that's being loaded into memory at that time. And some apps can tell the OS that they HAVE to stay in memory; like a do not kill flag. Some ROMS like cyanogenmod, MIUI, do have an option to LONG HOLD the back button to force close an app however.
Thanks for your input.
shadowskorch said:
soles-will-be-replaced-by-snapdragon/[/url]
4: There's nothing to miss about ios except that the iphone's hardware is built to help speed up the ui. If you miss it too much then just use MIUI which is the leading competitor to Cyanogenmod (which i prefer).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
MIUI is great, I agree. I'll be excited when it comes out for the Atrix. The iPhone's SOFTWARE is built to speed up the UI, not the other way around. That's why an iPhone 3GS/4 screen scrolls more smoothly than an Atrix 4G or HTC Sensation, despite having an inferior 3D accelerator.
Once again, I'm not trying to insult anyone here and I'm grateful for the input. I'm trying to have an open dialogue so that we can all have some mutual understanding on this topic. Thanks for weighing in!
brashmadcap said:
First of all, forgive me for a less than cogent post. This is an issue that has been on my mind and I'd like to have some other power users weigh in on this.
I am a user of both [jailbroken] iOS and Android. As you can see from my signature, I am fortunate enough to have a lot of different devices and as such have a firm understanding of the benefits and drawbacks of each platform. I have to say, Android is wonderful for it's openness and customizability (custom ROMs, themes, open apps, torrents, Swype, Power Strip, etc.). It's great that it's open source and freely modifiable by anyone (Except honeycomb, don't get me started). That said, it has some built in drawbacks. Architecturally, iOS seems to be a more solid platform, but some of the things in iOS that hold your hand are the same things that are considered a major hindrance to power users like us ("walled garden" app store, weird multitasking APIs like the 10 minute timeout, etc). I love how everything in the OS, including the apps, are composited (read: hardware accelerated). The SDK is amazing, and helps developers make incredible looking, cohesive applications. At the end of the day however, I am willing to sacrifice some of the usability for my freedom. Just as I live in the United States (not discriminating against any overseas users) and as such have to put up with some bull**** in order to have my civil liberties, I am eager to drop Apple completely on my laptop, desktop, tablet, and phone. I truly believe that they are an evil corporation and don't give a **** about anything except money and are unwilling in the slightest to cater to power users because of their [reasonable] fear of piracy and people breaking their devices. But I will no longer support them in their quest for erosion of my freedom in the name of profit. They will not get any more of my money.
So now that you have a little background on what I see, I have a few questions that maybe you guys can help me with as I try to transition to a fully Apple-free lifestyle.
1. I use an app called MyWi Ondemand to automatically tether my iPad to my iPhone over bluetooth whenever it needs an Internet connection (it's wifi only). Is there an app that is similar where I can tether my Galaxy Tab 10.1 to my Atrix 4G automatically, over bluetooth, as needed?
2. Is there an app that can automatically kill apps after a given amount of time (say 2 minutes - 20 minutes) for apps that persist in the background that I don't need hogging my battery (for instance, I have IM+ and it supports push notifications, but I don't want to have to hit menu->exit every time). I want to have it be killed when I hit the home button.
3. Where do you see the Android platform going? With Ice Cream Sandwich on the horizon, do you think that we'll get real hardware acceleration for scrolling and apps, etc.? Do you think we'll get an SDK that will help developers create great-looking apps across the board?
4. For former/current iOS users, what are some of the things you miss about iOS and how do you work around them or what solutions have you come up with?
5. Why did you choose Android over iOS? (I guess most Atrix 4G users in the states are on AT&T)
5. Anything you wanna say on topic!
I really don't wanna bring any fanboyism into this. Please understand, I don't want a flame war or "APPLE IS TEH SUX LOL!!!11" or "Android pwnz bc i hax0r!" I want people's honest opinion about why they made the decisions they did and hopefully the answers to my questions. Thanks so much!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1) There are tons of tethering apps out there. I dont use tethering so I dont know of any specifics, but I'm sure what your looking for does exist.
2) Yep, they're called task killers. I would advise you be VERY careful with them, since improper usage can hurt your phone's performance and battery life due to conflicts with Android's own internal memory management. Read up on them (there are plenty of articles on the subject) and make sure its really something you need to run on your phone before installing. If you do install one, I've heard good things about Advanced Task Killer
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.rechild.advancedtaskkiller&hl=en
3) Hardware acceleration will probably come in the future, although nobody knows exactly when it will. I dont think it'll be ICS though, because that would be a big feature that Google would want to advertise. However, I think on hardware like the Atrix, hardware acceleration isnt really needed.
The SDK is constantly improving. Already its ahead of iOS in terms of being able to create scaling apps. As proof, look at how non-tablet optimized android apps run on tablets compared to iOS. On iOS, it has to blow the display up and make everything pixelated, and there's still a border because iOS runs on fixed resolutions. On Android, thats not an issue since everything is relative instead of fixed; while the layout might not be optimal, applications will run full-screen and look great on a tablet.
Google's also made some changes to the market that allow an application to contain multiple APKs, so developers can target tablets and phones from the same app in the same way Apple can.
4) I used to use a dumbphone with an ipod touch. The only thing I've really missed was smooth scrolling in the web browser. Using Opera Mobile (not Mini) solves that problem, just as smooth.
The other thing I missed was a jailbreak tweak called Multiflow, which gave iOS's multitasking a WebOS like card interface. While similar apps exist for Android, none currently work with the Atrix. I've gotten used to working without it, but if an Atrix compatible solution ever came up I'd jump to it without hesitation.
5) You've certainly made the right choice, choosing to abandon Apple because of how they treat power users. Even their desktop computers are starting to get locked down. Sure, you can still download stuff outside the app store in Lion, but I'll bet that wont last. Before too long their desktop OS will be just as limited as iOS is.
Jotokun said:
5) You've certainly made the right choice, choosing to abandon Apple because of how they treat power users. Even their desktop computers are starting to get locked down. Sure, you can still download stuff outside the app store in Lion, but I'll bet that wont last. Before too long their desktop OS will be just as limited as iOS is.
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Click to collapse
Exactly why I jumped ship my man. I saw the writing on the wall. OS X will be iOS in one or two releases. Plus I hear there is an ARM-based MacBook Air in the works. Makes me cringe. Way to destroy the best operating system evar, Apple.
Thanks!
brashmadcap said:
1. Tethering over Wifi is specifically what I'm trying to avoid. I don't want to have to turn it on and off, I just want the tablet to query the device ONLY WHEN IT NEEDS A CONNECTION, then time out once it no longer needs it. Tethering over bluetooth, on demand. I assure you, this is a slick solution. It doesn't rape your battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wifi tethering can be setup to "timeout" and turn itself off when not in use (it just doesn't currently turn itself back on which is why I have a widget on my home screen so I can turn it back on quicker ).
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App
brashmadcap said:
1. Tethering over Wifi is specifically what I'm trying to avoid. I don't want to have to turn it on and off, I just want the tablet to query the device ONLY WHEN IT NEEDS A CONNECTION, then time out once it no longer needs it. Tethering over bluetooth, on demand. I assure you, this is a slick solution. It doesn't rape your battery.
2. I hate to sound callous, but that's absolutely untrue. Android will kill a background app only if it needs new resources for another app that's being loaded into memory at that time. And some apps can tell the OS that they HAVE to stay in memory; like a do not kill flag. Some ROMS like cyanogenmod, MIUI, do have an option to LONG HOLD the back button to force close an app however.
Thanks for your input.
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Click to collapse
dont know about using bluetooth to tether, but theres an app for just about anything you want to do, and if you are technically inclined, you could just build your own solution.
as far as your comment on the background apps, what you are saying goes against pretty much everything i have read about how the processes work.
If the user leaves a task for a long time, the system clears the task of all activities except the root activity. When the user returns to the task again, it’s as the user left it, except that only the initial activity is present. The idea is that, after a time, users will likely have abandoned what they were doing before and are returning to the task to begin something new.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Activities, on the other hand, provide the user interface. They’re in a long-running conversation with the user and may remain active, even when idle, as long as the conversation continues. Similarly, services may also remain running for a long time. So Android has methods to shut down activities and services in an orderly way:
An activity can be shut down by calling its finish() method. One activity can shut down another activity (one it started with startActivityForResult()) by calling finishActivity().
A service can be stopped by calling its stopSelf() method, or by calling Context.stopService().
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Android is hard coded to automatically kill a task when more memory is needed.
Android is hard coded to automatically kill a task when it’s done doing what it needs to do.
Android is hard coded to automatically kill a task when you haven’t returned to it in a long time.
Most services (while possibly running in the background) use very little memory when not actively doing something.
A content provider is only doing something when there is a notification for it to give. Otherwise it uses very little memory.
Killing a process when it isn’t ready only causes it to have to reload itself and start from scratch when it’s needed again.
Because a task is likely running in the background for a reason, killing it will only cause it to re-spawn as soon as the activity that was using it looks for it again. And it will just have to start over again.
Killing certain processes can have undesirable side effects. Not receiving text messages, alarms not going off, and force closes just to name a few.
The only true way to prevent something from running at all on your phone would be to uninstall the .apk.
Most applications will exit themselves if you get out of it by hitting “back” until it closes rather than hitting the “home” button. But even with hitting home, Android will eventually kill it once it’s been in the background for a while.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
disclaimer: i am not necessarily arguing with you, but presenting items i have read and the way i understand them to be. this is just adding to the discussion and not meant to be confrontational.
Pirateghost said:
dont know about using bluetooth to tether, but theres an app for just about anything you want to do, and if you are technically inclined, you could just build your own solution.
as far as your comment on the background apps, what you are saying goes against pretty much everything i have read about how the processes work.
disclaimer: i am not necessarily arguing with you, but presenting items i have read and the way i understand them to be. this is just adding to the discussion and not meant to be confrontational.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow! Thanks for the comprehensive clarification!
in regards to tablet tethering through bluetooth "pdanet tablet beta" does exactly that.
1. Google "Wifi Tether for Root Users" and download the latest apk. Bluetooth tethering.
2. Advanced Task Killer. I'd advise against setting a kill time for all apps for the same reasons others have mentioned. It can jack up phone performance if used too much, but you can leave a link to the app within your notification bar for quick access during those times when you know a few rogue apps are running out of your control and they need to be killed.
The one thing I miss most about iOS is apps like BiteSMS that allows you to compose a text message from *any* application by just pressing volume up, then tapping the center of the screen. Even from the lockscreen.
It saves so much time from entering my PIN to unlock my device every time I want to send a message.
And note: I know apps exist that allow you to *reply* to a message even from the lockscreen. I'm talking about composing an entirely new one.
m0biusace said:
The one thing I miss most about iOS is apps like BiteSMS that allows you to compose a text message from *any* application by just pressing volume up, then tapping the center of the screen. Even from the lockscreen.
It saves so much time from entering my PIN to unlock my device every time I want to send a message.
And note: I know apps exist that allow you to *reply* to a message even from the lockscreen. I'm talking about composing an entirely new one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Handcent and ChompSMS (literally, the same developers of biteSMS, duplicate program just on android) offer this. Just configure it, hold the search key, and viola! Just no MMS from that screen.

From Tilt 2 (or Windows Mobile 6.5 with Sense) to Quantum

Thread dedicated to the initial challenges when changing from a Tilt 2 to an LG Quantum.
Why is this thread needed?
AT&T insurance for the Tilt 2 is now sending the LG Quantum as a replacement.
The phones are hardly comparable. Windows Phone 7 is vastly different than Windows Mobile 6.5. It is not HTC. Does not have Sense.
Windows Phone 7 has some very annoying characteristics that can be avoided if you set things up with specific care and knowledge originally.
I just got me replacement phone today. I will continue to update this thread with information as I find it. Hopefully it will help others in the process, since there will be more of us as insurance replaces people's phones.
Tips from day 1 of use
#1. Your intial live account can not be changed without a hard reset. Do not use an old hotmail account as you Windows Live ID. Create a new one. I recommend one that you will only use for this purpose. If you need to change it, you must wipe your phone (hard reset) to replace this. Your primary hotmail account cannot be removed and there is no way to not sync the contacts from it.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2430020
I recommend telling no one this id. Do not use the email for anything. Include some number or something, so it will not be guessed. do not store information in this account, such as emails or contacts, if it can be avoided. Plenty of other options like gmail for this purpose.
#2. Common email domains are easy to setup. Even custom ones are. But it first will try, then let's you configure.
#3. There is a list that has settings. Swipe from right to left to get to the list. Then go to settings. Now you can change things how old of emails to get and how much of it.
#4. Open an email with an attached pdf. Get the viewer. better to do this earlier than later when you need it. By default, the phone has no ability to view a pdf. The pdf viewer lets you do this.
#5. Stop looking for tasks, you won't find them. They don't sync with Exchange.
#6. There is not a built in twitter app. I am downloading moTweets, because I liked that before. I am using the Try option. There is also a free Twitter and a free Foursquare.
Looks like there is some map software. Not sure if it costs money yet.
Not finding Bing or Google Maps.
Bing is built in. just press the button in the lower right. Not sure why that is the only way to launch it though.
#7. Installed Zune with no issues on Windows Home 64 bit. It updates the software on the phone. You do not loose settings during this. Not like a ROM flash. Synced Videos, pictures, and music.
#8 Blue tooth paired easily. Remember most devices are 0000 for the pin.
#9 Found my WiFi and I connected it fine.
#10 Uninstall the bloat that AT&T puts on. It's not much, but you don't want apps that cost a monthly fee when free ones exist.
First impressions after 1 day
Allthough the look and feel is not customizable, it is very consistent.
A few things are not 100% obvious, but once learned is not difficult.
Things do just work.
Very fluid display. Nothing lags.
It's easy to get your stuff onto it. I need to still test copy and paste with Office.
I was thinking that I would be totally unhappy with the phone. But, I think it might just be doable. A non technical person should have no trouble with this phone.
Marketplace has alot of free apps.
Day 2
Not all clock alarm apps are equal.
Big Clock, which I downloaded from the marketplace failed to wake me this morning.
Tested the normal Alarms this morning and it did work with the screen locked.
As always test your alarm before you need it.
Annoyed that there are no snooze options. Just 5 minutes.
Glad Mango is coming soon. Mango gives all the snooze options we used to have.
Back in Windows Mobile 6.5 Digital Outcast gave us the snooze options that we were used to. M$ had taken them away.
For Win Phone 7, I haven't found a short term solution to this yet. Going to have to wait for Mango.
Liking the OS more and more. Marketplace makes the downloading and installing of apps very painless. Wish it was more clear about what has live tiles though.
AccuWeather weather app appears to be live. LG Clock and Weather does not appear to have a live tile, but lets you put in multiple cities.
Wish I could find the HTC tile with weather and clock. HTC Hub is not it.
Post #5
Intended to later have more info.
I like to have 5 posts of each thread I create.
As a potential future WP7 Device owner, I can't think of a better thread to follw than this one, so on behalf of myself and other TP2/Tilt2 owners who may one day move on, thank you very much for creating this thread...a lot of people move on from a deice earlier than the majority but don't leave the majority much of anything to work with in regards to what to move on to or to stay away from, or how to dial in the new device a better way than what the manufacturers have configured, so this thread is indeed very much appreciated...at least by me, and I am sure others as well.
While you will be missed in the Energy thread, I'm glad I have someone familiar to work with the new OS so should the time come, I will be versed as well as can be on what to expect, and do or not do...thank you for all you did for us with the Rhodium, and thank you in advance for all you will do for the WP7 community...you better the community here wherever you go or whichever thread you are posting in ....
Now for my first WP7 noob question...can the live tiles color be changed...and are there alternatives on this device to the live tiles?
GT247 said:
... Now for my first WP7 noob question...can the live tiles color be changed...and are there alternatives on this device to the live tiles?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes. They can be changed, but you get to change them all from 1 color to another.
slide the panels to the left. This now shows a list. Slide down to settings.
In the section titled Theme, tap it and pick a different color.
Other tiles, like music and video, and pictures get the image from what you have played or viewed.
The Me tile gets it's image from Facebook.
And apps can choose to follow the theme or provide their own image.
For the pictures tile, you can manually set it, by: "Open the Picture hub and tap and hold on an empty space and you'll get the option to select the picture you want." source of quote
End of day 2
Realizing that I do not dislike the phone or Windows Phone 7. This is very hard to admit.
With Windows Mobile 6.5 and 6.5.3 and Sense 2.5 with Cookie 2.0. It was fun figuring out all the ways to make the phone do what it should just do. With Windows phone 7. It just does them the way it is supposed to do it. It might not do it how you are used to it doing it, but it does it and it does it well. It can't do everything you're used to it doing, but it does what you actually need it to do and want it to do.
I was expecting to be extremely disappointed in the phone. But I'm not. Things work. You rotate to landscape. They still work. Energy Roms are much prettierand NRGZ28 did a fantastic job at making it do what it should do.
But Windows Phone 7 does a great job.
The things it falls short on will soon be corrected with Mango.
And no M$ did not pay me anything for this post. I am totally surprised that I would feel this way after just 2 days.
I suspected this would be the case....when everything runs faster and smoother and better without having to tweak it to do so, and the initial worry of not being able to tweak to your hearts content to make something you want to work work...when that worry wears off because you dont have to tweak it...well...when any worry wears off and you realize the new phone with the new OS actually really does improve a lot of things.. when everything opens up as your finger is leaving the screen and just starts doing what it's supposed to do...really...how can that be beat?
I'm glad you're giving us positive feedback, as I knew everything would run butter smooth, like yourself, I had reservations about liking the new platform and the new appearance and other changes you're going through with the new device could be overcome by functionality (lol)....
Yep....Mango should come out and lock you in my friend...I imagine after that you'll be glad that usb port died (just please, if you do end up happy about it, don't tell me so...cuz I'm bummed it happened still lol)
I'm curious as you explore...if there will be little things wp7 doesn't have, that the old winmo did...as I have two android devices and the tilt2, I'm finding some things lacking in "the other OS"...little settings (that are sort of kinda actually big deals, to me) are missing...one is...on the tilt2 I can select to show my caller ID to everyone, noone, or just to contacts...can you do that on the Quantum? Have you noticed a need to wonder how ram is controlled? Have you tried opening a zip?.....I'm happy you're on wp7 now (kinda)....I will want to buy a wp7 if someone I trust tells me theye tested it out, put it through it's paces and that it's a solid performer that's user friendly that I can count on to keep me connected to my customers and employees calls and messages and navigates me through my day and gives me awesome browsing and streaming media over the net between my appointments...yep...I'm paying attention to your thread my friend...my usb could go any day too....lol
Thought I found something that I could not do
Thought I could not accept an appointment from Outlook.
In the email, there is a link that takes you to your calender. You accept it from the tentative meeting. I like this better, because you can actually see what your day looks like when accepting it.
Have not found a free twitter program with a live tile.
For weather, the only free one with a live tile update seems to be The Weather Channel. Weather bug does not show anything on the tile. AccuWeather is not updated live.
As plain as the tiles look, they are clear too read. And everything scrolls so fast and smooth. I'll take plain with function for that responsiveness any day.
GT247 said:
I suspected this would be the case....when everything runs faster and smoother and better without having to tweak it to do so, and the initial worry of not being able to tweak to your hearts content to make something you want to work work...when that worry wears off because you dont have to tweak it...well...when any worry wears off and you realize the new phone with the new OS actually really does improve a lot of things.. when everything opens up as your finger is leaving the screen and just starts doing what it's supposed to do...really...how can that be beat?
I'm glad you're giving us positive feedback, as I knew everything would run butter smooth, like yourself, I had reservations about liking the new platform and the new appearance and other changes you're going through with the new device could be overcome by functionality (lol)....
Yep....Mango should come out and lock you in my friend...I imagine after that you'll be glad that usb port died (just please, if you do end up happy about it, don't tell me so...cuz I'm bummed it happened still lol)
I'm curious as you explore...if there will be little things wp7 doesn't have, that the old winmo did...as I have two android devices and the tilt2, I'm finding some things lacking in "the other OS"...little settings (that are sort of kinda actually big deals, to me) are missing...one is...on the tilt2 I can select to show my caller ID to everyone, noone, or just to contacts...can you do that on the Quantum? Have you noticed a need to wonder how ram is controlled? Have you tried opening a zip?.....I'm happy you're on wp7 now (kinda)....I will want to buy a wp7 if someone I trust tells me theye tested it out, put it through it's paces and that it's a solid performer that's user friendly that I can count on to keep me connected to my customers and employees calls and messages and navigates me through my day and gives me awesome browsing and streaming media over the net between my appointments...yep...I'm paying attention to your thread my friend...my usb could go any day too....lol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had no idea that you could control the caller id being sent on a per contact basis with the Tilt 2. I imagine it was just inserting *82 or something before dialing. Ultimately the carrier needs to handle the *82 since they do know your number when sending from the tower to the rest of the phone network.
Still early in the testing.
I don't know WP7 settings, on the tilt2, to control caller id setting, I go to start menu>settings>personal>phone>services and then from there I can select "call barring" "caller id" "call forwarding" "call waiting" and "voicemail and text messages"....once an item is highlighted I can click "get settings"...once "get settings" is selected it checks the network settings and then displays the current setting on the network...on the TP2 caller id settings they can be changed on the network from the device...I'm hoping this is possible on WP7
Another question I have is if pinch to zoom works in emails and other apps, not just the browser
GT247 said:
I don't know WP7 settings, on the tilt2, to control caller id setting, I go to start menu>settings>personal>phone>services and then from there I can select "call barring" "caller id" "call forwarding" "call waiting" and "voicemail and text messages"....once an item is highlighted I can click "get settings"...once "get settings" is selected it checks the network settings and then displays the current setting on the network...on the TP2 caller id settings they can be changed on the network from the device...I'm hoping this is possible on WP7
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
GT247 said:
Another question I have is if pinch to zoom works in emails and other apps, not just the browser
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
pinch to zoom works when reading emails, but not when replying or text messaging.
found the setting about sending caller id on the Quantum
Settings - Apps - Phone. You can pick send to everyone, no one, only contacts
when the device is on a call does the lockscreen lock the buttons and touchscreen? ie: is it a waste of time to try to lock the device while on a call? lol
GT247 said:
when the device is on a call does the lockscreen lock the buttons and touchscreen? ie: is it a waste of time to try to lock the device while on a call? lol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The exchange server that I use for work pushes a policy forcing the phone to lock.
Pressing the power button on the top not only shuts off the screen but it also locks it.
When I answer the phone, it is easy to unlock, if I want. Just slide up, and enter the code. Then I can do anything while on the call.
The proximity sensor disables the touch screen when you have it by your ear, so you don't actidentally hang up.
Something the phone does not have is physical talk and end buttons. But, I honestly have not had a need for them.
Custom Ringtones and Alert Sounds
Although it's real eay for a developer add ringtones to their device or for anyone that has unlocked it. It is annoying that they have locked this down.
Mango is supposed to allow custom ringtones, so just need to wait.
Supposed to be on September 15th.
Wow...ringtones are locked down? Amazing....really. Please don't think I'm knocking them for doing it, I'm sure there's a reason for it, I just find it surprising is all. Have you examined the GPS Capabilities?
GT247 said:
Wow...ringtones are locked down? Amazing....really. Please don't think I'm knocking them for doing it, I'm sure there's a reason for it, I just find it surprising is all. Have you examined the GPS Capabilities?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
GPS works great.
Good news is that the LG Quantum has a built in reg editor. Kind of clunky. Nothing like the good old Total Commander or Dot Fred Reg Editor.
And the location of there is an app the runs on your computer to make a xap files for ringtones.
And you can then sideload the xap onto the device and the ringtone remains.
First you need to unlock the device.
I have not unlocked mine yet. I should be able to unlock with just a few reg ediits. Haven't done it yet though.
On the 15th Mango officially will be available, and that allows custom ringtones without any hacks.
Some Good threads
Use your Windows Phone as a thumb drive.
Registry mods for WP7 - NoDo
Custom Ringtones
mp3 files work just fine, at least with the NoDo 7392 update.
All the built in ringtones seem to be mp3 as well
Lot of good links here

Windows Phone 8.1

So I've been inactive for a little while (partially because there wasn't really much happening that affected me). But I thought now would be a good time to talk about Windows Phone 8.1 and what it will bring (even though we're mostly speculating). The particularly interesting part to me is what will happen to phones such as mine (Ativ S Neo) now that Microsoft is buying out Nokia.
So here are my predictions (some of them are totally random):
1. Microsoft will make launching the camera faster by modeling it after Windows 8.1 (swipe down on lockscreen) however this could be replaced with a notification center, but either way, it will be used.
2. The notification icons can be touched as you're swiping the lockscreen away to launch the respective app. This is a more dubious prediction, but would be nice.
3. Nokia apps could be brought into the fold (integrated fully into Windows Phone). This is more likely to come with a GDR2 update or such since 8.1 is coming out right after the deal closes. It's also a hopeful prediction, but Microsoft had better make it happen.
4. Bigger square tiles. This is something I'm pretty confident about, and would love to see for things like Pictures and People apps, and would be awesome to see what developers do with them.
5. Group messaging. If they don't do this, I swear....
6. Notification center. This is of course going to happen, but what I'd love to see is not swiping down from the top, but perhaps swiping in from the left-hand side, and when you're on the Start screen, it would work beautifully with having the app drawer on the right (left notifications, middle Start, right apps).
7. Also, I'm guessing they'll integrate new app APIs in an effort to get ready for the move to one Windows store. This would also include APIs for Cortana integration, which I'll discuss in a minute.
8. Internet Explorer 11/sync with Windows 8.1. IE 11 is sorta given, but sync is one of those things they'd better do, because it would make my Windows experience even more seamless, and I love the way it happens on Windows 8.1 with multiple computers.
9. Cortana. This is something I can't wait for, and I just hope she integrates REALLY deeply into the Windows ecosystem, and eventually Xbox and Windows 8. First off, I realize Cortana is a codename, but I hope they let you name him/her. This way I can keep Cortana. It would also be sweet if you could make an avatar for her! For this section I'll be making sub-points.
I. However, here's what Cortana should be able to do: cue up music based on what she knows you want to listen to. This way when I'm biking to work, she can cue up some great Imagine Dragons radio for me. Or when I'm biking back I can just ask her to play music and she'll cue up some rap for me.
II. I should be able to talk to her in a natural way, instead of using keywords ("let my girlfriend know where I'm at" and Cortana says "I'm leaving work" or sends a map of where I am).
III. I also really hope the voice sounds natural and works offline. Working offline is probably the number one thing besides accuracy that I want. IV. Cortana shouldn't just be there when I ask her though, she should be ready before I ask. When my girlfriend texts and asks where I am, Cortana should say "your girlfriend wants to know where you are, should I tell her you're leaving work?". Or if I'm looking for a place to eat, Cortana should know from my texts that I'm going out with my girlfriend for a nice evening in San Diego and recommend somewhere based on the kind of food I like and the budget I work with, before I ask her. She should turn herself on before I go out the door and say "here's a place to eat at tonight".
V. Of course this wouldn't be an instant thing. She'd learn you over time, and change as your preferences change.
VI. She should also be situation-aware. For example, if someone from work sends me an email and I ask Cortana to reply, she should draft it in appropriate business language. When I send a Facebook message, it should include appropriate smileys and lingo.
VII. Cortana should be part of the camera experience. If I pull out my phone to take a picture on the beach with my girlfriend, it should already be on the camera app before I unlock (I don't press the camera button, just turn the screen on.) and be able to take pictures when I give my phone to someone else on the beach without them pressing a button. It would be even crazier if I could prop my phone up and Cortana can tell someone to move left or right to get better in the picture.
VIII. She should recognize me. When I speak, she should know by my voice that it's me, or even discretely use the camera now and then to make sure it's me and if not lock someone out.
Anyways, those are my insane Cortana expectations, and they also include many other system features.
10. All-in-one Windows integration, not just sync. Obviously this would be later in the year, with GDR2 or 3 and another Windows 8 update. However, this is when I'm playing music on my phone and open my computer, then the computer automatically starts playing it. I move into my living room and my Xbox turns on and starts playing the music. This wouldn't be just music, but that's an example of what I want to see.
So yeah, my expectations are insane, but I'm guessing I've hit a couple things right.(especially with Cortana, though she's the thing that I set my expectations most ridiculously high on ha). But what do you think? How much of this will be a reality? Is there something I've missed?
And Microsoft, if you're reading this, just do it. Make Cortana blow everything out of the water. :good:
Group messaging has been built into Windows Phone since WP7 (maybe it was Mango, but I think it was actually a release feature...). If your phone doesn't "support" it, that's a problem with your carrier, not the OS or the hardware. (I'm not entirely clear why anybody would use Sprint, honestly; at least AT&T and Verizon have the advantage of network coverage).
I like the notification center ideas. Swipe (pivot) from left could be useful on both the Start screen (opposite of the app list) and on the lock screen (opposite of Kid's Corner), quite possibly.
IE11 is already part of GDR3, I believe... probably IE12 by the time WP8.1 comes out.
New APIs are much needed. I reallllly hope they move towards less lockdown (make it more RT-like, at a minimum, with file pickers and whatnot). Well, or let us bypass this lockdown BS altogether...
Your "Windows integration" thing is kind of weird, for a few reasons. First of all, your phone can already do this (again, this applies all the way back to WP7) by using Bluetooth. I can play music through my laptop, control it through my laptop, etc. automatically; if my desktop had BT it could do the same. Second, the thing that I really want to see with regard to Windows integration is the ability to work like a Windows machine instead of some special second-class-citizen "device". Things like Homegroup support, ideally domain-joining support (not likely, but it would be really nice to be able to sign my phone into the work network and access internal resources seamlessly; this *may* come as part of the VPN functionality), printing support (not sure if WP8 currently supports printing at all, although it can "see" BT printers), Favorites/documents/settings (where applicable) sync (some of this is coming via Skydrive integration, but it *should* be at least as good as Win8.0 managed), solid built-in Remote Desktop support, and that kind of stuff.
GoodDayToDie said:
Group messaging has been built into Windows Phone since WP7 (maybe it was Mango, but I think it was actually a release feature...). If your phone doesn't "support" it, that's a problem with your carrier, not the OS or the hardware. (I'm not entirely clear why anybody would use Sprint, honestly; at least AT&T and Verizon have the advantage of network coverage).
I like the notification center ideas. Swipe (pivot) from left could be useful on both the Start screen (opposite of the app list) and on the lock screen (opposite of Kid's Corner), quite possibly.
IE11 is already part of GDR3, I believe... probably IE12 by the time WP8.1 comes out.
New APIs are much needed. I reallllly hope they move towards less lockdown (make it more RT-like, at a minimum, with file pickers and whatnot). Well, or let us bypass this lockdown BS altogether...
Your "Windows integration" thing is kind of weird, for a few reasons. First of all, your phone can already do this (again, this applies all the way back to WP7) by using Bluetooth. I can play music through my laptop, control it through my laptop, etc. automatically; if my desktop had BT it could do the same. Second, the thing that I really want to see with regard to Windows integration is the ability to work like a Windows machine instead of some special second-class-citizen "device". Things like Homegroup support, ideally domain-joining support (not likely, but it would be really nice to be able to sign my phone into the work network and access internal resources seamlessly; this *may* come as part of the VPN functionality), printing support (not sure if WP8 currently supports printing at all, although it can "see" BT printers), Favorites/documents/settings (where applicable) sync (some of this is coming via Skydrive integration, but it *should* be at least as good as Win8.0 managed), solid built-in Remote Desktop support, and that kind of stuff.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately Group messaging got dropped from Windows Phone on Verizon and Sprint from 7 to 8... I have no idea why.And with the music, I have desktop speakers hooked up to my laptop most of the time, but yeah, that was more a want than a prediction. And I have GDR3 and I don't believe it is an updated IE (I never saw something about that... But I could be wrong. Never noticed any improvements though) and yeah, I think you're very right on the VPN and domain stuff, they'll want to get businesses to want these for employees, and advertising it as working with existing infrastructure would be HUGE.
C-Lang said:
Unfortunately Group messaging got dropped from Windows Phone on Verizon and Sprint from 7 to 8... I have no idea why.And with the music, I have desktop speakers hooked up to my laptop most of the time, but yeah, that was more a want than a prediction. And I have GDR3 and I don't believe it is an updated IE (I never saw something about that... But I could be wrong. Never noticed any improvements though) and yeah, I think you're very right on the VPN and domain stuff, they'll want to get businesses to want these for employees, and advertising it as working with existing infrastructure would be HUGE.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
group messaging was added again on the 928 since gdr2 launched a while ago. I'm not sure if its been corrected with any of the others yet.
On top of that, I'm not all sure what MS has done between GDR3 preview and GDR3 RTM. (NOTE: it auto suggests the word preview after typing GDR3.)
I don't think that way can bet on anything yet for the 8.1 update... MS still is battling uphill, when it comes to a seamless integration with the "one windows experience".
My beef still:
Why wasn't Xbox video integrated at launch and why is MS touting finally as "coming soon" by word from Nokia, not MS announcing the news?
Why isn't MS leaving an option to "unlock" our phones beyond pushing development apps? There is still a quite a large amount of functionality that's missing from WP that's in your good old WM6. I can understand that started from scratch after seeing that the T-Mobile Sidekick UI worked well, while the Kin and the kin 2 for that matter was a flop.
I also have to agree wit @GoodDayToDie about some of the Domain features,, but I'd one up by adding DirectAccess support, after all MS hates being limited to VPNs.
I also recall seeing drivers inside the registry for printing while thinking,
What would I want to print directly from my phone? Photos?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm just not quite sure what Windows Phone's future is yet...
Essentially, I didn't find anything interesting coming out of Abu Dhabi.
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Just another wishlist, that wont happend.
You should be more realistic and read more infos about, what microsoft is going to do with there OS. A wishlist, what u would like to have and how they should done it, is just a wishlist that never will be happend.
dergutehirte said:
Just another wishlist, that wont happend.
You should be more realistic and read more infos about, what microsoft is going to do with there OS. A wishlist, what u would like to have and how they should done it, is just a wishlist that never will be happend.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Trust me, I've read everything there is to read and included it in my list. I included many realistic expectations, but all threw in a bunch of random stuff that could happen, whether its in the next update or not. Have you even read about Cortana? She's kind of what I described, albeit probably not THAT smart, but that's Microsoft's goal sort of from what we currently know. Now go do some reading before you speak up next time.
According to what has leaked so far, I still see 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, some of 9, and something like 10 as extremely realistic. Sure not everything will happen that way, but from Microsoft's goals and my extensive use of Windows 8/8.1 on multiple laptops/Surface and Surface 2 and my use of WP from WP 7.1 on and my Xbox and what I've seen of the Xbox One (which I've preordered, and watched every video there is to watch) this all could very well happen, although some of it will no doubt be an update or so away.
And as for my Cortana predictions, here's a great article to sum up what I've said and how it lines up with facts as we know them (Microsoft's goals and statements, leaks etc.) and it lines up PRETTY DARN WELL. And I quote Steve Ballmer "deeply personalized, based on the advanced, almost magical, intelligence in our cloud that learns more and more over time about people and the world". I don't know about you, but my predictions sound pretty reasonable to me.
This is not a "preview" in the sense of a "beta". It is, in fact, the RTM build... but in the proper sense of RTM (Release To Manufacturing) where "Manufacturing" here means the phone OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers). The OEMs may further customize things at this point, adding additional packages to the update. It then goes to the mobile operators, why may make yet more tweaks (usually, in my experience, this involves removing some stuff, like the ability to lock the phone to 3G only on AT&T, for example, but they also add their own ringtones and boot screens and similar cruft).
However, the bits from Microsoft are final and released. Those are not changing. I'm sure MS runs pre-release programs (betas) internally, and they had a public beta program for Mango (WP7.5), but it appears that no part of WP8 had any such external program.
1. Microsoft will make launching the camera faster by modeling it after Windows 8.1 (swipe down on lockscreen) however this could be replaced with a notification center, but either way, it will be used.
No yet. Only as second option.
2. The notification icons can be touched as you're swiping the lockscreen away to launch the respective app. This is a more dubious prediction, but would be nice.
Already has this since GDR2 as I know. You can tap on it to open that app from lock screen, swipe notification message in top from left to right side, to hide it.
3. Nokia apps could be brought into the fold (integrated fully into Windows Phone). This is more likely to come with a GDR2 update or such since 8.1 is coming out right after the deal closes. It's also a hopeful prediction, but Microsoft had better make it happen.
No. Nokia wants to be independent and leader. So if all OEM apps will be available for all other WP devices, than Nokia gonna lost part of market share.
4. Bigger square tiles. This is something I'm pretty confident about, and would love to see for things like Pictures and People apps, and would be awesome to see what developers do with them.
Developers, developers, developers only can do with own apps to make similar as People, Pictures. Go ahead.
5. Group messaging. If they don't do this, I swear....
What you mean Group Messaging? SMS or Social Messaging (Twitter/Facebook/Lync/Outlook?) Will be.
6. Notification center. This is of course going to happen, but what I'd love to see is not swiping down from the top, but perhaps swiping in from the left-hand side, and when you're on the Start screen, it would work beautifully with having the app drawer on the right (left notifications, middle Start, right apps).
-------- No comments --------
7. Also, I'm guessing they'll integrate new app APIs in an effort to get ready for the move to one Windows store. This would also include APIs for Cortana integration, which I'll discuss in a minute.
-------- No comments --------
8. Internet Explorer 11/sync with Windows 8.1. IE 11 is sorta given, but sync is one of those things they'd better do, because it would make my Windows experience even more seamless, and I love the way it happens on Windows 8.1 with multiple computers.
Will be. This calling ecosystem.
9. Cortana. This is something I can't wait for, and I just hope she integrates REALLY deeply into the Windows ecosystem, and eventually Xbox and Windows 8. First off, I realize Cortana is a codename, but I hope they let you name him/her. This way I can keep Cortana. It would also be sweet if you could make an avatar for her! For this section I'll be making sub-points.
I. However, here's what Cortana should be able to do: cue up music based on what she knows you want to listen to. This way when I'm biking to work, she can cue up some great Imagine Dragons radio for me. Or when I'm biking back I can just ask her to play music and she'll cue up some rap for me.
II. I should be able to talk to her in a natural way, instead of using keywords ("let my girlfriend know where I'm at" and Cortana says "I'm leaving work" or sends a map of where I am).
III. I also really hope the voice sounds natural and works offline. Working offline is probably the number one thing besides accuracy that I want. IV. Cortana shouldn't just be there when I ask her though, she should be ready before I ask. When my girlfriend texts and asks where I am, Cortana should say "your girlfriend wants to know where you are, should I tell her you're leaving work?". Or if I'm looking for a place to eat, Cortana should know from my texts that I'm going out with my girlfriend for a nice evening in San Diego and recommend somewhere based on the kind of food I like and the budget I work with, before I ask her. She should turn herself on before I go out the door and say "here's a place to eat at tonight".
V. Of course this wouldn't be an instant thing. She'd learn you over time, and change as your preferences change.
VI. She should also be situation-aware. For example, if someone from work sends me an email and I ask Cortana to reply, she should draft it in appropriate business language. When I send a Facebook message, it should include appropriate smileys and lingo.
VII. Cortana should be part of the camera experience. If I pull out my phone to take a picture on the beach with my girlfriend, it should already be on the camera app before I unlock (I don't press the camera button, just turn the screen on.) and be able to take pictures when I give my phone to someone else on the beach without them pressing a button. It would be even crazier if I could prop my phone up and Cortana can tell someone to move left or right to get better in the picture.
VIII. She should recognize me. When I speak, she should know by my voice that it's me, or even discretely use the camera now and then to make sure it's me and if not lock someone out.
Too much.................
Anyways, those are my insane Cortana expectations, and they also include many other system features.
10. All-in-one Windows integration, not just sync. Obviously this would be later in the year, with GDR2 or 3 and another Windows 8 update. However, this is when I'm playing music on my phone and open my computer, then the computer automatically starts playing it. I move into my living room and my Xbox turns on and starts playing the music. This wouldn't be just music, but that's an example of what I want to see.
Read my answer of question 8.
Notification icons != notification toasts. The ability to tap on Toasts to open the app has existed since well before WP8.

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