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an iPod Touch/iPhone can play 3d games, utilise the g-sensor and run smoothly - for example racing games. Tilt the iPhone, the car turns.
Why can't our phones run these sort of games? Or is it just the case they haven't yet been produced?
From what I'm aware a Diamond is more powerful than an iPhone therefore these games "shouldn't" be a problem?
Shoot me down in flames if I'm wrong, just kinda thought there should be iPhone-esque software for these phones now.
I am right with you, i keep thinking the same thing.
Because Apple has crazy fanboys and they provided a simple infrastructure to facilitate payment and downloading (appstore). They also gimped the iphone out of the box so as to pretty much require people to sign up for the appstore if they actually want to use it, ensuring that they have the user base they need for it.
Now the iphone has several million users - how many Diamonds do you think are sold? Windows mobile itself is bigger, but the capabilities of the phones running it vary too much that profiting from making advanced games is as feasible.
I have wondered about this as well. I think the problem is 3 fold
Firstly, the Diamond has 3d and graphics performance issues for sure. Sometimes my Diamond will slow down terribly when running some simple animations. I have read that HTC are notorious for providing poor graphics drivers and this could be part of the reason.
Secondly, I actually dont think Windows Mobile is capable of doing what the iPhone UI is capable of in terms of interactive gaming.
Thirdly, Apple provide your at home developers a great business model to go out and develop great games and apps for the phone. Plus with the Appstore they know that if they develop something good, people will see it - there is only one place to get apps from - and the developer will make money.
For me, the iPhone is not the right phone, but I would love Windows Mobile and HTC to be able to do what the iPhone and Apple can do.
The iPhone has v-sync, so the 3d graphics are drawn smoothly with no tearing and sadly win mo just does not. At least that is what my mate said who is a games developer. The power is there but you just can't get it to the wheels! This just makes it fundamentally unappealing to a lot of developers.
yeah totally agree, i love the diamond, but i've been using windows mobile for years now, and each new model HAS generally got better and better. however the iPhone is just something else.. for people who aren't nerds and into mucking around iwth their phone etc, i could never recommend a windows mobile over an iPhone. its just so much more polished compared to the diamond.
i'm an AMD fan too, godamnit why do i always have to back the underdog
Yes, even though i have a diamond and have had great fun tweaking it, i still can't help but envy the iPhone users for their graphically superior games and video playback prowess .
Another explanation would be that iPhone games are developed solely for... u guessed it, iPhones! ...whereas WinMo games have to be developed to run across many different devices, with (or lack of) accelerometers, touch screens etc. Therefore, to achieve this interoperability / compatibility across the many different devices, compromises have to be made.
That said, there are still gd games for our beloved devices, my favourite being PDAMill, whom develop aesthetically pleasing games with intuitive controls, and they're cheap too.
Nudge.
So all in all, will it become possible? And what's vsync? Portable to diamonds?
I think V sync is something to do with the way images are drawn to the screen, and it is just not implemented in win mo, I don't know if it could be written into the drivers or of it is a hardware thing, but then I don't actually have a clue what I'm talking about! Can anyone confirm this?
vsync actually makes bad performance even worse since it forces the back buffer to wait until right after a screen refresh before it copies its data to the frame buffer.
it's great if the device is capable of rendering an FPS that is higher than the refresh rate, but in the diamond case it's just another fps thief
if you want games like iphone get an ipod touch. The diamond never advertised gaming as a capability. Think of it this way: The iphone is like a mac with mediocre hardware but also comes with a mid range video card. The diamond/touch pro are like PC's with raging motherboard/cpu/ram combo, but bottom entry level video card. You can get a lot done with the PC, but the fun factor lies in the mac.
Go buy virtual pool mobile, it runs great and it's very fun. Its the best pool video game ive ever seen actually.
Simple reason
The reason to me is simple: Apple cares about user experience. Just look at win mobile contacts, or explorer. Do you think this software is made for 2008-2009 hardware? Now look at iphone's ones... Seriously, Microsoft has the power to make good things for mobile users, but they released win mo 6.1 one year ago, which is mainly the same OS that existed in 2003.
Silly we when we buy pocketpc running on windows mobile.
Just to revive a dead thread for quite a good reason..
I've seen a few videos on Youtube and also a few write ups on the wonderful Tinterweb in relation to Windows Mobile devices running and successfully playing iPhone games through emulation.
Is this just simple hear-say or fake ? I've been thinking for a long time about focusing simply on making the graphical capabilities of the diamond better through customising the graphics drivers. That's the main flaw for me.
According to a few posts the graphics card has 64MB dedicated memory.. is this right?
If so, these things SHOULD be capable of running bloody good games but the drivers are just nowhere near good enough. I did hear about changing to ATI drivers - is this right? If so, where can I find the info on this cause I would like to maybe bash at hybrid-combining the drivers and modifying them a bit as to allow maybe a bit more fluid graphics. If you check one of my other posts on the Diamond, I've been complaining about split-graphics. It's really getting on my nerves as I'd rather just see a full picture move around my screen fluidly. None of this "split it up" rubbish.
Cheers
Driver dev
This seems to be a good thread with most/all of the available drivers posted.
well I have been enjoying copy + paste and fully working GPS on my Diamond ever since
now why hasn't Apple offered this so far?
I guess each company chooses their own battles
glumetu said:
well I have been enjoying copy + paste and fully working GPS on my Diamond ever since
now why hasn't Apple offered this so far?
I guess each company chooses their own battles
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hrrm.. In the new 3.0 SDK update for iPhone 3G and iPod Touch which will be released soon there is copy and paste + redo.. in a very stylish and functional way.
And there will be mms + almost every single function that the iPhone was lacking before + some more.. many, many new stuff for improved gaming, new OS improvements etc.
I watched the presentation on the apple website..
Shoddy_me said:
Hrrm.. In the new 3.0 SDK update for iPhone 3G and iPod Touch which will be released soon there is copy and paste + redo.. in a very stylish and functional way.
And there will be mms + almost every single function that the iPhone was lacking before + some more.. many, many new stuff for improved gaming, new OS improvements etc.
I watched the presentation on the apple website..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Stuff that should have been released last year. The only reason Apple is releasing it when they are is because people's 2 year contracts are starting to expire, and Apple wants to try and persuade them from leaving by finally giving them features they've been demanding from day 1.
Honestly, it doesn't surprise me in the slightest. I knew Apple would do that.
Heres my question:
Smart phones and windows mobile operating system have been around for something like, oh, 15 years now. Why is it some EMO company like Apple releases a phone (badly I might add) and it becomes THE Benchmark for mobile devices? Its just purely unbelievable to me that so many people obsess over "well the iphone can do this, and it can do that.. I want my ______ to do what the iphone does..." If you like the turd and all its glory so much, why don't you just buy one and get it over with??
the iphone is so easy to use, thats why so many people bought one. when everyone has something, it becomes the norm to judge other things by. think of the model t from ford
Model T?
Confused.com. Is that the foreign (for me) Focus? lol
Anyways, I've looked about and the ATI drivers have given me the power boost I'm happy with. However - My images are still split on the screen.
Still trying to get this fixed...
FIRST: the intention of this post it not to flame. These is just my point of view and I would love to hear some other people’s point of view.
This is just an observation from a real cell phone junkie who is coming from WinMo and iPhone to android and is a bit disappointed.
It just feels like the Android platform is overrated and half baked. While it has its “Google apps” advantage, most of the other parts of it are seriously lacking.
Coming from an iPhone(which I hated because of apple’s dictatorship and because it feels like a dumbphone) and the HD2, which is a brilliant device with a very capable OS which has stability issues and lack of new useful apps development, I wanted to try something new with Android. It should have been the prefect mix between openness and development of new useful apps (which WinMo lacks). So far I have been nothing but disappointed.
Some of the issue I noticed and why I think Android is really overrated are:
- Very low end apps. Most of them are poorly designed and unstable. There are a few good apps but none from the major players.
- BUGGY apps!!! One of the reason WinMo was failing is because of cross device support for apps. Apps that would work on one device would not work on another because of different hardware chipsets. I was sure that Google would see this is a point of failure and will make sure this won’t happen with Android. WRONG: almost every app I downloaded has bugs and is not working properly with the N1 and if you just read the comments for the various apps you see the horror. So many people complain about FC’s and instability of the apps. This means that Google simply failed in this area and there is no real cross device support. Each app needs to be tweaked to work on each hardware set to get it right. This is going to be a huge point of failure for the platform.
- Crippled copy and paste. Seriously? You can’t copy and paste from everywhere in version 2.1??? didn’t they learn from apple?
- No built in Tethering. Again this is OS version 2.1 and there is no tethering option unless you root you phone.
- Feels sluggish at time: even on a 1Ghz processor the phone does feel sluggish at time (and yes I close my apps with task manager). Some say it is because the RAM was not fully utilized in this OS. Why have Google released a phone that suppose to have 512MB RAM with only half active? Didn’t they think it would cause bad experience?
- Very poor multimedia support: and I mean VERY poor. Even the built in YouTube Video player will not rescale the video to show on the entire screen if the video was not encoded specifically to the N1 resolution, not to mention other video apps who will NEVER show videos at full screen as they were designed for lower resolutions. There is really no way to watch DIVX or XVID and everything needs to be converted. There are dozens of media players on the market and NONE can do either tasks! And yxflash, the only player that can supposedly play DIVX is doing such a poor job it is a joke. WinMo has ONE player that beats all dozens on the android market. I read somewhere it isrelated to the SDK being very limited in Multimedia. I find it hard to believe that Google is trying to compete with apple witch such a poor Multimedia support. I even purchased OrbLive and the picture quality is extremely poor because they were forced to use the only codec that Android can support for streaming which is 3gp and has very poor quality.
- No big brand name apps: Skype, Sling and many other big brands are simply not there. I know you can use Fring as an alternative (or Nimbuzz) but both are very buggy and have delay when using skype calling. You also can’t turn off the screen when you use the VOIP apps as it is causing the sound to break.
- VPN: very poor support. I can’t get the connection to stay connected while it works just fine on the HD2 and iPhone. The latest software update from Google completely broke VPN support and now it won’t connect at all.
- There is no real way to backup all you apps AND settings of the apps unless you have rooted your phone. If you want to upgrade your ROM or change ROM’s you need to reinstall everything (unless you are rooted and then you can backup your apps settings as well). This is something that should be implemented out of the box. WinMo has exactly the same problem.
- Failure in the gaming area. There are maybe 20 good games on the Market that actually use OpenGL 3d. other games look like they are from the mid 90s. I was hoping to see better games on Android than on WinMo. I guess I was wrong here as well.
I wanted to like Android, I really did, and maybe it will get better with time, however currently it has exactly the issues as WinMo phones has (buggy apps mainly, some OS slowdowns ) and if Google is not going to address these issues they will find themselves in the same position as Microsoft is finding itself now.
For now I’ll have to go back using my HD2 and just wait until Android gets a little better and more usable for me. I just really don’t understand people hate WinMo so much if Android is not much better (at least from my consumer standpoint).
Thanks for reading.
Number one reason and the only one I need to hate WinMo is Internet Exploder. It's broken badly. They had better fix this in 7 or they are done. The fact that you have to use a third party browser to do anything useful is total BS.
I think for most people, who don't want to think to hard, Iphone OS is probably a better choice. The interface is dead simple and there are a ton of apps. Most people won't realize that they are being fenced in.
The majority of your rambling is about apps. I don't think anyone overrates Android's app catalog. Everyone knows it's much smaller than the iPhone's.
It's not overrated in the way that people tend to praise it, which is openness and customization.
I agree on IE but like the fact that you can chose various browsers.
App support is dreadful compared to the Iphone but you have to look at the sales figures in ITMS vs. Market; $ = incentive. Yes right now it's apples and oranges but when someone is researching what device to buy and what carrier to swear allegiance to for 2 years, there are certain variables considered.
Take a heavy facebook user. The iphone fbook app is solid. Yes it has issues, but compared to the android solution, there is no contest. The fact that you have to use m.facebook.com when linking from your notifications panel in android is quite unacceptable (just one of many issues people have brought up). Pandora on the iphone is also quite a bit better than on android.
I disagree in regards to your comment about the phone being snappy. I have my old iphone 3g and my nexus 1 sitting side by side and real world feel says that the n1 wins in performance.
For me there are two things I wish were present with the nexus one/androidOS that are present on the iphone.
1 - app support. That is targeting android.
2 - the keyboard. For some reason I can type far more accurately and with greater speed on the iphone than on my n1. Not a deal breaker at all
You bring up tethering. There is no native tethering on the iphone without jailbreaking or paying for an app (pdanet) for the official stateside carrier (att). Your nexus one has the ability to install pdanet and you can tether all you want at a small price. Of course, you can root your phone and suddenly this ask is satisfied; just like jailbreaking and updating your carrier file.
If you want to talk about setbacks; how about the lack of MMS for the first gen iphones while the 3g/3gs both have this. No reason whatsoever to not include the functionality in the 2g other than slow deprecation of support for the phone...that just sucks.
There are plenty of solid games in Market for your device. I had to watch a video "50 android games" to be made aware of quite a few of these tiles.
For me, nothing you wrote kept me from migrating back to android after spending a year with an iphone (g1->iphone->n1; the entire time I had the iphone I missed my g1) But I am not the target audience device manufs are going after...almost nobody here is.
All your points are valid and are what the atypical customer thinks about, cares about and bases their monetary decisions on.
Good post
deprecate said:
App support is dreadful compared to the Iphone but you have to look at the sales figures in ITMS vs. Market; $ = incentive. Yes right now it's apples and oranges but when someone is researching what device to buy and what carrier to swear allegiance to for 2 years, there are certain variables considered.
Take a heavy facebook user. The iphone fbook app is solid. Yes it has issues, but compared to the android solution, there is no contest. The fact that you have to use m.facebook.com when linking from your notifications panel in android is quite unacceptable (just one of many issues people have brought up). Pandora on the iphone is also quite a bit better than on android.
I disagree in regards to your comment about the phone being snappy. I have my old iphone 3g and my nexus 1 sitting side by side and real world feel says that the n1 wins in performance.
For me there are two things I wish were present with the nexus one/androidOS that are present on the iphone.
1 - app support. That is targeting android.
2 - the keyboard. For some reason I can type far more accurately and with greater speed on the iphone than on my n1. Not a deal breaker at all
You bring up tethering. There is no native tethering on the iphone without jailbreaking or paying for an app (pdanet) for the official stateside carrier (att). Your nexus one has the ability to install pdanet and you can tether all you want at a small price. Of course, you can root your phone and suddenly this ask is satisfied; just like jailbreaking and updating your carrier file.
If you want to talk about setbacks; how about the lack of MMS for the first gen iphones while the 3g/3gs both have this. No reason whatsoever to not include the functionality in the 2g other than slow deprecation of support for the phone...that just sucks.
There are plenty of solid games in Market for your device. I had to watch a video "50 android games" to be made aware of quite a few of these tiles.
For me, nothing you wrote kept me from migrating back to android after spending a year with an iphone (g1->iphone->n1; the entire time I had the iphone I missed my g1) But I am not the target audience device manufs are going after...almost nobody here is.
All your points are valid and are what the atypical customer thinks about, cares about and bases their monetary decisions on.
Good post
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for all the replies.
However please keep in mind that in my original post, i was hardly making any comparison to the iPhone and at the end of my post i stated that i am going back to the HD2 . The iPhone is the last platform i am going back to, even with all the apps. i Just cant keep with the Apple / Jailbreakers game and all the limitations.
You do have native tethering on the iPhone, only it is disabled because at&t does not want you to have it. in other countries it works out of the box. no Jailbreak needed.
I agree that market share = incentive for developers however i am a bit worried that with the current state of the SDK, we will see the same old issues with cross device support for apps, and this is exactly where WinMo failed and the iPhone won (because there is only one device to support (chipset wise), so far)
If only the apps that are in the market now would work better, my point of view will be much different.
I want to use Skype, OK there is no real skype app so i tried to use Fring...DELAY on the call. unusable. I tried to use Nimbuzz, it is better but you cant turn off the screen so the battery dies fast.
I want to watch a movie > need to convert.
I want to watch live TV > there is still not a single app that can actually do this. ORB's app is really bad at the current version.
I want to tether > need to root (i am ok with this) but wireless tether never connected to my laptop. unusable. Wired tether worked fine.
I did watch the 50 best games on Android Video and the are in par with WinMo's games and so far WinMo is giving better usability. but the OS is not so stable hehe...
I guess there is no perfect phone.
Overall is the lack of actual functionally is what killed it for me. I hope it will get better in the future and then i can give it another try
as you said, there is no perfect phone. but give it a little time, android is only a year old after all. i for one have little to no problems with FCs from any of the apps i'm using, so it also depends on what you like to do with your phone.
my main issue atm. is the lack of good bluetooth enabled voice dialing (and lack of any voice dialing at all for non-english users).
and the pet peeve would be the missing framework for the trackball colors.
other than that i'm really enjoiying the relative openess of the platform, and having cyanogen as a developer
Tether without root with PDAnet. This program works great.
Looks like the OP need's to have a read over yonder
There's also been a great deal of talk in the development forum regarding new openGL support in 2.0.
App space has been limited in android and thats a factor, but this is being resolved and we will start to see more 'pretty' applications, but I would argue that android has just as many useful and good applications as the iPhone.
The ONLY windows mobile device that I would trade my Nexus One for is an HD2. It'd be a tough decision though. My touch pro 2 was fun from a customization stand point because I seemed to flash a new rom at least once every couple of days. However, it was painful to use, it was slow, required frequent restarts, work-arounds galore, etc etc. Android may have some bugs, but I have far less trouble with day to day use with my Nexus than I did with my TP2. The hardware power of the HD2 would probably alleviate the thing that killed the TP2 for me and that was the annoying speed (or lack thereof).
Iphone OS is boring, but it works reliably. Safari mobile on my Ipod touch is a great browsing experience (nexus is better though, simply due to the power).
The only major problem I have with Android 2.1 on my nexus is its lack of full exchange support. However, if I really cared that much about it I would drop the $20 to get Touchdown and be done with it. Oh, and I would really love it if a full version of Epocrates made its way to android sometime soon.
This is of course for my uses, and in my experience. Therefore, I am just adding my opinion to the bunch...
Firstly, how can you say the N1 is laggy? Seriously? Especially compared to a WinMo device, and even the iPhone 3GS. The N1 is hands down the fastest smart phone I have ever used, whether it be my own personally owned smart phone, or one I was testing for work. Most actions are instant or near instant in their result, and the only time I find myself waiting at all is when data transfer from the network is involved, and it does that faster on my N1 than any other phone I have tried! Actually, I can load some websites faster than my computer, and I am not talking about sites that use flash either.
Secondly, yes a 1 year old OS platform does not have the same level of app support that a 4 year old platform has(iPhone/iTouch) or a decade old platform (WM). However, it is an open source platform that is growing quickly. While not all 15K apps are perfect for every device, this is true of the WM platform and the iPhone platform. There are plenty of great apps, that don't reqiure root.
Thirdly, the Android OS supports the same media playback functions as the iPhone OS... and actually can handle more in some regards. The N1 will have native flash support someday(hopefully very soon), where as Apple has picked a fight with Adobe, and likely never will have flash support. To say the Android OS, and the N1 falls short in multi-media compared to the iPhone is ignorant, to say the least. WM does support more formats, but at the same time that is a result of a OS in developement a lot longer than Android, as well the current Android OS can support Divx, et al, but companies like CorePlayer do not want to make an app until this support is in the SDK natively, and CorePlayer has pointed out they are working closely with Google, and it looks as though Android 2.5(Froyo).
Fourthly, as someone that sells cell phones for a living, the Android OS is the best smart phone OS for me to sell to consumers by a long ways. It is much more functional than the BB OS, yet maintains the ease of use. iPhone OS lacks most of the top smart phone functions, and WinMo is too slow and buggy. While 3rd party apps are not perfect, this is true of any platform, and at least with Android it will force close instead of freeze the phone. As well, the apps that are quality work very well and blow most other stuff out of the water, ie CameraFX. I have yet to have a customer complain that a free app wasn't working right... nor complain that the phones were buggy.
I was someone that came from winmo.
Android is much more polished than wimo, but it's barebones out of the box.
Winmo is much more packed with utilities out of the box, but lacks the polish of android.
That has alot to do with the timeframes of when these things derived. Android thrives on the "there's an app for that!" ecosystem.
Up until winmo (6.1?) there was no place to just get a quick app, so MS had to implement more things to give a better out of box experience. Too bad they lacked cleanliness.
Yes, Android has bugs and Yes, Market is poor compared to iPhone. But if you sum things up, I think Android wins. And Nexus wins as well, since I has the best hardware on the market today (or one of the best) 1Ghz CPU + AMOLED display + big resolution
Sorry, double post.
- There is no real way to backup all you apps AND settings of the apps unless you have rooted your phone. If you want to upgrade your ROM or change ROM’s you need to reinstall everything (unless you are rooted and then you can backup your apps settings as well). This is something that should be implemented out of the box. WinMo has exactly the same problem.
Give the market a closer look, and download MyBackup - it does indeed backup apps and settings, along with other things like bookmarks, contacts, the usual. This is the only point I could point out from your post without having to go into extensive detail ._.
As well, to add to my last post, there is multi-phone support with the apps and the Android OS... if this wasn't so, why would the Moto apps work on the Nexus One? While an app written for Android 1.0/1.5/1.6 might not work on 2.1 perfectly, this does not change the fact an app written with the 2.1 SDK will work on any phone running 2.1(actually, SDK 2.0+ will work with any 2.0+ phone, minus live wallpapers.)
But that is to be expected, just as an app written for iPhone OS 1.0 won't work properly with 3.1.3, or WM5.0 apps won't work with WM6.5 properly.
Isn't this a pointless debate.
It like like trying to debate good vs evil, butter vs margarine, pro-choice vs pro-life?
He seems to have come up with his own very logical, sound reasons why and why not android is over rated. There are countless arguments for both sides and I've read all 15 post of this. Android like the iPhone OS like Windows, like symbian all have their strong and weak points. No perfect phone OS out there. But rather whiny and complain of this and that maybe improve it, like some of the really great developers here which advances Android OS and make it great for all of us users.
In the end do I care if you move to Window mobile...not really. Hope you are happy. Move on. Have a nice life.
amen sir
this thread is only worthy of a one line reply. ...
Well... Having never used a WinMo device. I can't argue that side of things... I owned a Blackberry (NEVER again!!!!), and I own an iPod Touch. Sure, the iTouch isn't the phone, but they're certainly one in the same. My iTouch is jailbroken btw.
With that said, I've never owned a better overall device than the N1. Don't get me wrong, it has its quirks and issues. But man, this thing IS my Media Player, my GPS, my overall entertainment "finder" (Where/Places/Aloqa), Grocery Lists, Forum browser (I'd say I'm 50/50 with Phone and PC while surfing web and forums now).
Sure, the apps could use some work... But, with quality devices being placed on the market, the apps WILL follow. Realize that the main reason the apps market isn't bigger, is because of the strangle-hold that Apple currently has on the market. Many Devs have invested into Apple development and have customers there. It's hard to talk them into changing their ways. In time, they'll sure move over to Android though.
With that said, the apps I get... Work for me. Just the basics: Handcent, Meebo, Car Home, Where/Places, "OurGroceries", Mixzing (Still not my ideal choice, but it gets the job done for now... And yes, I've tried Meridian, nemoPlayer, Stock, and TuneWiki), "Listen", and so on.
Yes, I've deleted as many apps as I still have on my phone (Many more than listed above)... But I've stuck with some that get the job done. If I could ask for only 2 other apps, it'd be Mint.com and Audible.com... Otherwise, I can be content in knowing I have my ideal communication device, with some GPS goodness, and it plays through my car speakers wirelessly.
So no... I don't consider it overrated, but rather too young. It'll mature in time.
My contract is over soon, and it is a great time to get a new phone because I have so many choices being a Verizon owner. When I saw the HTC 8X i fell in love with the design. It apparently fits great in the hand, feels thin, and is silky smooth in terms of hardware.
However, I knew i needed more options, so, being a current Android user and loving its software, I started to anticipate the HTC DROID DNA, a 5' 1080p beast of a phone supposedly coming out around the same time as the 8X (end of November). I continued to do research on both and found out that I like the WP8 Start Screen a lot more than I like Android's homescreens.
But I am afraid of the software of WP8. It's great and all, but I may miss the PhotoSphere, live widgets, quick settings, apps (!!), and outstanding developer support that Android offered. I'm afraid I will need those features down the line and not be able to use them with my WP8 device. I have a Surface and a Zune and want integration. However, Android has SkyDrive and Xbox Music available in Google Play.
So I'm kind of in a pickle right now. I want integration and functionality, but Android has everything and then some. Help guys! What do you suggest I do? Stay on Android or switch to WP8? Personal experiences would be helpful; however, blanket statements/generalizations will not be tolerated because I hate them very much. Also because there are always two sides to those statements, and I want this to be a friendly thread, not one that I am going to regret posting. Thanks in advance for your help, guys!
I suggest you start using paragraphs.
You have a lot of apps in the windows phone marketplace. Probably not with the same name, but if you need something, you usually find that something.
IMO, Windows Phone is vastly superior to android in many, many ways. They give you a lot more control over your devices (apps can't do things behind your back without your approval unlike on android), the system is a lot more stable, the battery life is usually better due to hardware optimizations, and much more smooth. I suggest you pick a nokia instead though, they have great apps in there, including free music downloads through nokia music.
mcosmin222 said:
I suggest you start using paragraphs.
You have a lot of apps in the windows phone marketplace. Probably not with the same name, but if you need something, you usually find that something.
IMO, Windows Phone is vastly superior to android in many, many ways. They give you a lot more control over your devices (apps can't do things behind your back without your approval unlike on android), the system is a lot more stable, the battery life is usually better due to hardware optimizations, and much more smooth. I suggest you pick a nokia instead though, they have great apps in there, including free music downloads through nokia music.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would've wanted the L920, but I'm not waiting 6 months for it to come to Verizon. Nokia apps aren't necessary for me; I don't drive and don't really use Maps too often.
Drive and maps aren't the only things nokia has. In fact, these two are available to all windows phones 8.
I don't need them, tbh. However, I'd be happy to take them if a high-end Nokia phone came out on Verizon. Anyway, off-topic. What about Xbox Music and SkyDrive? They are on both Android and WP8.
i really like the new devices. im sure once microsoft sees how they sell apps and such will be growing. im on the same boat although im not ready for an upgrade for another year and a half these new phones will be plenty caught up with development and should be pretty similar to all these new phones coming out within the next few months.
I'm due for an upgrade with Verizon in December. I was looking at Nokia 920. Too bad it's not Available Until 6 months.
Sent from my DROID RAZR using xda premium
So you guys are saying that i won't miss out on all the features of Android?
Sent from my PIMPED OUT MIUI 4.1.1 Fascinate
You physically cannot tell the difference between 720p and 1080p on a small screen that is found on a phone (think like 26 to 32 inches is where you can start seeing it)
Just so the screen resolution isn't what sways your final choice.
However I find myself missing my WP a lot ever since it broke and I got stuck with the GS3. For me WP is just better. Specifically the keyboard is way better in WP.
As for applications WP has all the ones I use anyways. Fun fact I find I use my android less than I used my WP. I think its because for me it seems to take longer to get to the application I want to use and it feels that android has less smooth scrolling than WP. Of course I'm on stock which is probably why its slow, but my WP was stock too.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda app-developers app
Dadstar said:
I don't need them, tbh. However, I'd be happy to take them if a high-end Nokia phone came out on Verizon. Anyway, off-topic. What about Xbox Music and SkyDrive? They are on both Android and WP8.
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Both of them will obviously be on WP, since they are microsoft's creation. You will also like Nokia Music -> free unlimited music.
PhotoSphere seems to me to be very similar to Microsoft's Photosynth which has been available for iOS and Windows Phone for a long time.
Concerning Apps I would suggest you ask around the forums for particular Apps that you need, so people can tell you wether they exist or if there is a viable Alternative. XBox Music will be coming to additional platforms but as far as I know it currently isn't available and following Microsoft's track record with those things you will have it available on iOS months before it arrives on Android.
SkyDrive is available as an App on Android. The difference in usage is in the integration. SkyDrive Images show up in the Pictures Hub pretty much the same as if they were on the device itself. I just drop an Image into the according folder on my PC and it shows up where all my pictures show up. It's the same with office documents (if you use those).
So while the functionality itself is there on Android the experience of using it is superior on Windows Phone. But this works the other way round as well. While GMail works reasonably well on WP it simply works better with the GMail App on Android.
Wow. I'm getting really excited for my 8X now. Thanks guys!
Sent from my PIMPED OUT MIUI 4.1.1 Fascinate
I'm kinda in the same boat as OP. Currently enjoying my Galaxy Nexus but I'm mad that it's got VZW's taint all over it. Does Microsoft handle the updates for WP8 and doesn't take BS carriers when it comes to pushing them out? I like constant security updates, and Android just can't seem to handle that.
I want a Nokia because I've heard they're great but the 822's display won't cut it with it's resolution for me if it's anything like PenTile. I'm thinking about ditching VZW when my contract is up if it doesn't get the Nexus 4 (doubtful it will) so I don't know if I'd use my upgrade on any of VZW's WP8 lineup. The Nexus 4 still has these beat when it comes to unsubsidized pricing.
The only other thing keeping me from WP8 is that I heard there was a lack of a good turn-by-turn app and no notification center. Both of these are kind of turn-offs. But the UX, fluidity, Start, and Microsoft-handled updates are quite enticing.
Same dilemmas for me guys. I'm working at Nokia and have tested both new Lumia devices and they really are awesome. While I like the design of the 820 and how it feels in the hand, the display of the 920 is far superior. The 820 has just an average display imo, it is bright but not very sharp, given the low res and poor pixel density (217 lol..). Other than that it is quite the smooth operator and really a pleasure to handle. The thing about it's big brother is that it is kind of uncomfortable to hold and I don't like the rather sharp edges.
I am now debating with myself if I should go for a WP8 device since the OS is just awesome or get one of these http://android-sale.com/xiaomi-phone-2.html as soon as it becomes available. You cannot deny the bang for your buck with these, though I am a bit afraid when it comes to warranty and customer support + you cannot really play with the device beforehand. I was waiting for the new Nexus but I think it is disappointing and especially fragile with that glass backcover. I was even considering an iphone because of the smoothness since I've really grown to hate the android lag which is present even on latest quad cores....But after using a 4S for a whole evening I cannot imagine myself doing this daily, it is just too limiting and I fail to see how people say it is so 'easy' and it 'just works' - well it just works with more steps than android or wp...But that is another topic of course.
As for the apps, I am currently using around 40-50 apps on my droid and all of them (EXCEPT DROPBOX, mind you..) are available on WP. The development frameworks for WP8 and the support for DirectX, and also the shared core with windows 8 will surely attract alot of devs and app number will grow in the coming year. I have to say that the windows phone store might not have so many offerings, but the design, fluidity and and general look is just stunning. So is the whole WP8 ui. For example, I think the so much praised iOS app store looks terrible and is a pain to navigate throug. Play Store on the other hand is very functional and easy to use but looks plain and boring.
Well well, this is my pov, I think I will be getting a WP after all but let's see. Maybe I will buy the xiaomi device if it is possible, simply because of the price/spec ratio + I love MIUI, since it is as if you are not using android.
You don't need dropbox, you have skydrive.
mcosmin222 said:
You don't need dropbox, you have skydrive.
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I have to disagree with you, dropbox is very light and useful, also a lot of users have quite some storage space on dropbox and would like to have it available. Not to mention that I know a friend of mine has a small company where they run 100Gb+ shared dropbox folders full of working data. They sure cannot force all employees to go windows phone because of skydrive or the other way around. So yeah, lack of dropbox IS a big minus.
You still have dropbox on WP. just checked xD
mcosmin222 said:
You still have dropbox on WP. just checked xD
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Isn't it some 3rd party app? Btw I think I'm fully converted now, just played around with the city lens app and tried some offline maps. **** is ca$h
Dadstar said:
Wow. I'm getting really excited for my 8X now. Thanks guys!
Sent from my PIMPED OUT MIUI 4.1.1 Fascinate
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Hi Dadstar, I recently switched from a Lumina 710 (Windows 7.8) to a Samsung Galaxy Note II (Android-Jelly Bean) and I will give you some of my perceptions.
1. Note II is a remarkable phone, unbelievable screen, and some really cool apps.
2. Lumina 710 was a solid phone, but after the screen size of the Note II, I could never go back and settle for a small screen.
That being said, the Lumina 710 is way ahead of the Note II in voice dialing over bluetooth. I would never have to get my Lumina out of my pocket to make a call (I have about 1200 contacts in Outlook with multiple listings for each), but with the Note II, it is a constant battle of it being slow to decide who it thinks I want to call and then gives me multiple choices on the screen. So it really defeats the role of voice dialing over bluetooth and that is a deal breaker for me and I am sending the Note II back within the 14 day trial period. Hopefully, Tmobile will come out with a new Windows 8 phone soon. Ken B.
Google announced Nexus 4 for 350$! Thats a steal..but as the dust settled, and the picture became clearer, it is for anything but that price..So, I am with the OP on this one too...
8X or N4??
On one side, you have a large display, quad core processor et all...and on the other you have a dual core, with the same sized screen as I have now. Also, with Android, there are tons of apps and games I can get (sometimes for free).
SO, Will i sacrifice a smoother OS for an OS that may not be that smooth but has tons of other features...?
First i'd like to say I am not what you would call a power user, or a person who looks for things that are wrong, rather i'm a person that uses a device and notices issues as they occur. So, after having the View for 2 days, my Note pro 12.2 is up for sale. I enjoyed the Note Pro for its large size, but I wanted bigger, and the View is it, for me that is. My first thought when I took the View out of the box, was Damn, this thing is big. Its dwarfs all of my devices, hell, it even makes my 32 inch tv seem small, if that makes sense. It is heavy, for a tablet, but it will stay on my desk, so the weight isnt a problem. I have a 10 inch tablet that I take out and about.
Its running 5.1.1 which runs smooth and fast. Using chrome to stay up on the numerous sites I visit daily, works fine. First issue I noticed was many of the sites I visit don't utilize the full 18.4 inches. USA today gives me a desktop view, as well as Android central, but sites like CNN, XDA, Android police, the Verge, and Cnet, and many others treat the View as a tablet. Hopefully Samsung or Google will include a desktop setting in a future update.
As far as games, I play a lot of Madden, and it does utilize the full screen size, and its great. In fact its gonna take some getting use to because its so in your face, like being at a theatre sitting in the front row. As far as I could tell it ran as well as the Note Pro. Samsung also included and app called S console which allows you to connect a bluetooth game pad to the tablet. I downloaded Modern Combat 5, which i'm not very good at, and it ran as well as when playing on my Nexus Player, no stuter as far as I could tell.
Google Newstand, Plus, Earth, Maps, Youtube, Music, Gmail, Xfinity Tv, Showbox, Hd Cinema all use the full 18.4 inches. Samsung also included a Smart manager, which allows you to free up memory, which is nice. No need to download a Ram manger.
Speakers are nice, they are located on the back of the View. I will say, when the View is in the upright position the sound seems muffled, less highs, more bass, but when laying down sound seems to be more balanced. When I get my notifications on my cell its more tingy, all highs, with the View, the notification has high and lows, which is different, but nice.
Battery life for what I use it for is great, better than the Note pro. I went 2 days without charging. With the Note pro I had to charge every day. I dont let my devices go below 30 percent before charging.
As far the Views 1080 x 1980 display, for me its fine. Compared to my Note pro I really dont see that big a difference, but compared to my Galaxy tab S, the S is by far a superior display.
Split screen is fine, Samsung has had this feature for years, and as always, works well but the apps are limited. I will say for such a large screen, it would be nice to open 4 seperate windows as well as cascade windows, but that is not what the tablet was designed for.
Cost was a big factor for me, and I got lucky and through Amazons open box sale I was able to get the View at 468.00, no tax free shipping. that was 28.00 dollars more than I paid for my Note Pro, which I purchase refurbushed. Yes, I'm a bargin shopper.
My wish list:
All apps optimized for the full size of the View.
Better speaker placement, and equalizer settings.
More than just 2 viewing angles.
Be able to remove/disble TV service screen.
Sold by T-mobile.
I hope this helps anyone on the fence about the View. Feel free to ask me any questions and i'll do my best to answer them.
"Love is in need of Love", Stevie Wonder.
I've had my AT&T version for about a week and love it. Some thoughts...
It's a media device. Compared to the Note 12 which I consider a productivity device the features aren't there. The GV's stock e-mail client is bare bones, it doesn't have S Voice, Remote PC has to be side loaded, and Scrapbook is missing. Feature and h/w wise it's equivalent to a mid-range Samsung tablet, not their flagships.
The display has 127 PPI which is fine for distance viewing but woeful for reading text. For reference the 2011 OG Galaxy Tab had 149 PPI. You'll go blind trying to use the GV for productivity. But it's great as a 1080P TV.
As a portable TV the GV is fantastic. There's a remote app for it I use with my Note 5 and you can do anything via the remote you can do on the device. I use it as my bedroom TV rather than replacing my old 720P 32" TV with a newer one.
Big caveat. If your cable provider supports the GV for live broadcasts you can save money by not having to pay for extra equipment on additional TVs. I'm on DIRECTV and they do. If you can't get live TV than the GV is a giant Hulu watcher and at the price the value becomes questionable. At least to me.
Another caveat. The AT&T version is configured differently than the Wi-Fi versions. Rather than the streaming screen with access to popular video apps it's hard coded to the DIRECTV home page. Great if you're on DIRECTV, a big feature loss if you're not.
The GV is the ultimate business presentation device and there are two apps Samsung provides in Samsung Apps to create and present business presentations. I've used it a couple of times and its blown new customers away.
So the GV isn't for everyone. As a movable TV and business presentation device it's in a class by itself. It's great for media consumption but the price is a lot to pay to watch Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu. As a giant tablet it's a fail. The PPI is dreadful and the s/w and h/w specs are nowhere near flagship class. So whether you're happy with the GV or not depends on how you plan to use it taking in to account the steep price.
I am using my galaxy view now for three weeks and love it.Former tablet was a notepro 12.2.The only thing i had to get used to was the screen resolution.Flashed the latest firmware from January and this beast is flying.No lag and gaming and watching movies etc is great on the view!
Really happy so far!!
Has anyone used this as a second monitor?
Thanks for the info.
Just got my Verizon version and I love it... for those that want a portable BIG screen for all things android this is it. This is designed for around the house portability. .. not put in your school pack pack portable.
Sent from my SM-T677V using XDA-Developers mobile app
this is the perfect solution for me.
Since the birth of my daughter the wife and I agreed that I need to smoke outdoors ( I live in the Netherlands ) so I've placed a Base tent on the roof Terrace with a comfortable armchair and heater, add the Galaxy View with Kodi and IPTV and I can watch everything I want outside without having to freeze during the winter
I have had mine for over a week now the at&t. one with the 64gb storage and 4g and I just love the size and all apps I tried so far work just great and gaming is awesome on this unit as you feel part of the game..screen looks great for what it is and I am one happy camper with this view.
Lenovo looking to introduce a direct competitor
http://www.phonesreview.co.uk/2016/05/11/new-lenovo-pb2-690n-18-4-inch-tablet-specs-spot/
Hello everyone here, I see everyone here has different kinds of galaxy views, I am interested in buying one despite the answer I'm going to get because getting this would greatly help with my travels, the question I ask is can you use it as a phone via bluetooth? like a direct line to say at&t or verizon, not that google way people are used to using it as? I also had a note pro 12.2 but I gave it to a family memeber because I couldn't use it as a phone via bluetooth (only verizon models did, I had a at&t one). I'm just hoping that it has in some models but if it doesn't that's also alright, the pros outweighs the con. I'll just hope that I'll try to do the same I did with the note pro which was sideload the apps needed and changing a few files here and there to make it work (or do the google voice thing).
oldgamer31 said:
Hello everyone here, I see everyone here has different kinds of galaxy views, I am interested in buying one despite the answer I'm going to get because getting this would greatly help with my travels, the question I ask is can you use it as a phone via bluetooth? like a direct line to say at&t or verizon, not that google way people are used to using it as? I also had a note pro 12.2 but I gave it to a family memeber because I couldn't use it as a phone via bluetooth (only verizon models did, I had a at&t one). I'm just hoping that it has in some models but if it doesn't that's also alright, the pros outweighs the con. I'll just hope that I'll try to do the same I did with the note pro which was sideload the apps needed and changing a few files here and there to make it work (or do the google voice thing).
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Not that I can tell. Was in the same boat with my Note Pro 12.2.
So there is one of these in the AT&T variant that I can pick up locally for $200 or less. Is it worth it? Has it been updated past 5.1.1? I've been researching and can't find any answers.
Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk
not at the moment. It should be hopefully
Hello.
So I managed to get a OnePlus Watch when pre-orders went live about a month ago. It was delivered today. After spending almost 24 hours with it, here are my thoughts (might be a little long winded).
1. It is missing ALOT of basic features, chief among which are tap-to-wake and no Google app support. The no Google support is major seeing as you cannot sync apps to the watch properly. My LG urbane does a million more things than the OP watch does.
2. Heavy focus on fitness. I like that they're trying to get people more active but come on, at this point it's basically a fitness tracker. For the price they're selling for, there are much better options out there that are dedicated to fitness. This is meant to be a proper smart watch from a company that is trying to take on the big boys like Samsung and Apple (obviously they have very little chance against Apple but, they can at least give it a go). With their recent products like the OP 8 and 9 series, they're starting to tell the world that they're no longer going to hold back and that their Nord line is for users that are on a tight budget but want something "premium feeling". To come out with a smart watch that focuses heavily on fitness and 0 Google support or features was a mistake.
3. It was clearly rushed to market. Very obviously, it was rushed to market before it was even ready. Personally, I believe that the hardcore OP fans put pressure on them to release a budget friendly smart watch. OP caved and just released what they had. Given more time for development and refinement, this could have been a solid product and I would have happily paid around the £200/€200 mark for it.
4. Notification issues. This has to be in top 3 gripes about the device. When you receive a notification on your phone, it pops up on the watch like normal but, you can't do much with it. If it's a group chat notification and you're getting quite a few messages, the notifications will not stack into one. Instead, you'll get several notifications on the watch about it. Dismissing a notification from the watch also doesn't dismiss it from the phone too and vice versa. There have been several times where I've dismissed from the watch, only to look at my phone later and it still showing up there or vice versa.
5. Poor step counter accuracy. MKBHD pointed this out in his review. I thought that maybe it could have been an issue with his review unit but no, it's an actual thing with the watch. A normal work day would get me 5000-7000 steps according to my LG urbane, the OP watch only registerd 3300. How?
That's my little rant over
Anyways, what's your experience with the watch been like so far? Overall, this watch has a lot of potential but it was let down due to OP wanting to get it to market as soon as possible. This needed a lot more development time and refinement. I'll keep a hold of it for now and see what improvements they bring in the near future.
5H1R42
thanks for your reviews.
MKBHD made me hesitating ; ''buy for what is is, not what it will become''
Cyberpunk like, rush ****, and then is a kinda waste of money.
Anyway, since I did NOT own any watch, and I was looking for a simple smart watch that looks classy (not like a gadget) , I hit on that watch. It was a good 'deal' here in canada, since 20$ off, no duty fee, no shipping and only 1 tax.
Hopefully one plus wont let this watch down. They are pretty good for old phone updates anyway, I guess they will do it on this watch.
I also wish some dev do great port on this watch, I dont know it it will be possible tho...
Any idea how to change the firmware? I got one from aliexpress, when they went out of stock in the US, and it can't be paired with the oneplus health app, only with the chinese oppo app.
I think the firmware is way behind (A38, vs B48 as of today), and I would like to have the oneplus app and updates... Half of this app is in chinese.
Thanks
RSchmauk said:
Any idea how to change the firmware? I got one from aliexpress, when they went out of stock in the US, and it can't be paired with the oneplus health app, only with the chinese oppo app.
I think the firmware is way behind (A38, vs B48 as of today), and I would like to have the oneplus app and updates... Half of this app is in chinese.
Thanks
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OnePlus Community
Introducing our new OnePlus Community experience, with a completely revamped structure, built from the ground-up.
forums.oneplus.com
Barmenchik said:
OnePlus Community
Introducing our new OnePlus Community experience, with a completely revamped structure, built from the ground-up.
forums.oneplus.com
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Thank you, I will try it.
Is there any hacky way to pair it to a iPhone for some alerts, until official iOS support arrives?
Hello guys. Help me pls
Updated to the global firmware and the exclusive watchfaces cyberpunk edition disappeared. Can you help me with the return of the cyberpunk firmware?
Contact 1+ and ask them about the watch faces, and see if you can liberate some firmware for our hopeful/eventually getting google wear on this B# either via official means or otherwise with the help of the sleepless xda unsung heros.
So I got the watch about the first wave from the store app (which I have not been able to reinstall since after the crash the 7pro had otw to 11) and I'm very impressed with the slick hardware... Shame on them not going the 'lazy' route and doing the Google wear thing, but instead doing their own thing and seemingly not even half-assing many a feature available on a cheap Chinese 30$ watch (with 3g/lte mind you) just because their æsthetic/simplicity metric. If I had nfc ability, the ability to just get coords via gps, or even midi sounds for timers then I could understand not using the hardware to full potential, but as some of the hardware isn't even being used right now, or at least the software provided doesn't allow it's use, the positive isn't much but here is what I got:
The damn thing at least lasts forever, even with 24/7 heart/0² monitoring... (I use only low light levels, no aod)
The first day I had it, I jumped in a pool and everyone was trying to tell me that maybe I should take it off, but it recorded all my strokes & movement amazingly well (if only it was exportable to kml/anything). I shower with it too, w/e.
Charge time is warped to a good ratio of charge/use, so realistically not much miss in data if monitoring is what you're after...
It's quite nice looking, responsive, and screen is anything but dainty. I don't think it's ever lagged.
The fact it does play music via BT is quite decent for a musician, as you can play someone your music on the fly considering there is a speaker with bt on in the vicinity. It's storage is huge as the space that could have gone to good use leaves gigs available...
I hope that oppo seriously gets to convince them that they must make wear a thing so we can choose to kill our batteries like we intend to, rather than have them force 2weeks battery life because it's good for them, rather than our choice to live with that allowance, or be realistic about how ridiculous we know we are being watching netflix on it...
It should be my call afterall. We'll see how it plays out, at least my sister with the iwatch was like "You don't have to charge it everyday, 2weeks!?” That made it almost acceptable...