Microsoft Unveils Windows Phone 7 Lineup 391
adeelarshad82 writes "Microsoft officially unveiled its Windows Phone 7 mobile operating system, announcing that it will be available on a total of five devices in the US. Windows Phone 7 handsets from AT&T and T-Mobile will begin shipping in November, while devices from Sprint and Verizon will be available next year. In all, Microsoft announced nine Windows Phone 7 phones, the remainder of which will be available in Canada, Mexico, the UK, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Singapore, and Australia. It will debut in some European markets on Oct. 21. While early signs are encouraging for Windows Phone 7, it is being deemed as do or die for the future of Microsoft's business."
Seriously? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Seriously? (Score:4, Interesting)
I don't think they're shooting as much for marketshare, as they are to enforce licensing on everyone who is not Apple (and Apple while they're at it). IF they can't sell phones, they'll still make money off of the mobile industry (see also their wee lawsuit).
Re:Seriously? (Score:5, Interesting)
Mind you Droid is not without a few quirks,but the differences are phenomenal. Droid is clearly the better platform.
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Mind you Droid is not without a few quirks,but the differences are phenomenal. Droid is clearly the better platform.
Pedantic-Man(tm) says, "Droid is not a platform. Droid is a brand from Motorola. Android is the platform." :)
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Mind you Droid is not without a few quirks,but the differences are phenomenal. Droid is clearly the better platform.
Pedantic-Man(tm) says, "Droid is not a platform. Droid is a brand from Motorola. Android is the platform." :)
Pedantic-Man(tm) is an idiot. Droid is a trademark of LucasFilms, licensed to Verizon, for use on their Android phones. Hence the Droid Incredible, made by HTC, not Motorola.
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Pedantic-Man(tm) is an idiot. Droid is a trademark of LucasFilms, licensed to Verizon, for use on their Android phones. Hence the Droid Incredible, made by HTC, not Motorola.
Pedantic-Man(tm) is chastized! :)
Droid is still not a platform, though.
Re:Seriously? (Score:4, Funny)
> Droid is still not a platform, though.
R2D2, C3PO and the others would like a word with you, sir.
I'm not the Pedantic-Man(tm) they're looking for. Move along.
Re:Seriously? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Seriously? (Score:5, Insightful)
Even if MSFT has a basically credible mobile phone OS, what do they have to draw people away from Apple, Android, or Blackberry?
Re:Seriously? (Score:4, Informative)
what do they have to draw people away from Apple, Android, or Blackberry?
XBox Live integration
Windows Live integration
Office integration
Free "sync to cloud" and "find my phone"
ZunePass
Zune software is much better on Windows than iTunes
Works better with Windows (which is what most people use ... iPhone works better with OS X, so I don't think those people are the target)
I use iPhone on Windows, and I'm very much looking forward to being able to uninstall iTunes and never have to fire up that piece of crap again. And the ZunePass rocks (it's a great deal), and that too is enticing for me.
For business types (not me), the Office integration might be a draw. I can see that.
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What's crappy about it? As a game matching service, it seems to work well enough...not to mention the ton of stuff you have access to with a free account.
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It's a great service for gamers who have Xboxes. For general consumers that don't have an Xbox or Xbox Live, there isn't much of an advantage to having Xbox Live integration.
MobileMe is a great service for iPhone owners with MobileMe. For general consumers that don't have a MobileMe account, there isn't much of an advantage to having MobileMe integration.
See what I did there?
There are far more Xbox Live subscribers than MobileMe account holders. Only a tiny fraction of iphone owners get a mobileme account.
Re:MS's Crappy Online Gaming Service??? Really (Score:4, Insightful)
There are far more Xbox Live subscribers than MobileMe account holders. Only a tiny fraction of iphone owners get a mobileme account. Yet several of the iphones more interesting features are locked away behind that service. If WinMo7 offers mobileme features for free + extra stuff that ties into the gamer-centric xbl it will potentially be quite attractive to a LOT of people.
MobileMe is for consumers that use Windows, OS X, iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPads. Xbox Live is only for gamers that use Microsoft's Xbox gaming platform. Gee, which population is bigger? Consumers or Xbox gamers? Targeting such a niche population isn't a major benefit.
Re:MS's Crappy Online Gaming Service??? Really (Score:4, Informative)
There are roughly 2 million MobileMe subscribers vs 23 million Xbox Live Subscribers.
Gee, which population is bigger?
Indeed.
Targeting such a niche population isn't a major benefit.
"such a niche population"?
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I see what you did there. Neat fallacy, but let's make things honest (and more in line with GP's point):
* There are 23 million XBox gamers with XBox Live subscriptions
* meanwhile, there are roughly 1.5 - 2 billion human beings who could be reasonably considered as "consumers" out there.
But, you were busily counting one phone's potential pool, versus the paid result of the other. See the problem?
Now, to be perfectly fair, out of the 23m XBox gamers, you're going to have to remove the under-18 demographic, an
Re:Seriously? (Score:4, Insightful)
XBox isn't a monopoly. Windows Live isn't a monopoly. Zune is about as far from a monopoly as you can get. The online office apps that it works with are free to all. MS of 2010 isn't the MS of 2000.
Re:Seriously? (Score:4, Interesting)
That "killer" feature strikes me as something of a double edged sword though. Most analysts think a phone platform has to win enterprise adoption to really be successful, but what CTO for a large business is going to see xbox live integration as a selling point? Sure it's also got active sync and great exchange integration, but so does blackberry.
personally, i'd be interested in getting a device if there is an analog to the ipod touch (something i also wish existed for android, and no, i don't consider the weird chinese android devices an option). afaik the zune HD is not win 7 phone, yet. I have no interest in breaking my current phone contract though.
Targeting Is Off (re:Seriously?) (Score:3, Interesting)
The quirk is that like many other pieces of Microsoft technology, while truthfully claiming it is "cross platform" it is really only implemented and running smoothly in one central platform. Live is in Messenger but is only a thin/lightweight client. There is a web interface at xbox.com but again the functionality seems limited. Even on PC the support is highly variable and dependent on the vendor. It truly shines on the 360 though but even the version we see to day on the dash is only after years of ag
Do or die? (Score:4, Insightful)
If they don't get traction with 7, they can do 8. Or buy Nokia or RIM out of couch-cushion change. Or several dozen other ways to buy into the market that I haven't thought of but I'm sure someone in Redmond has, singly or in combination.
Re:Do or die? (Score:5, Interesting)
They already bought Danger Incorporated. If they buy RIM and repeat T-Mobile Sidekick disaster, PHBs should learn something about MS.
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They already bought Danger Incorporated. If they buy RIM and repeat T-Mobile Sidekick disaster, PHBs should learn something about MS.
If PHBs could learn, they wouldn't be PH.
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Danger was mostly consumer-level gear, wasn't it? Plus I think they were buying the engineering team.
Well the idea was that buying Danger would allow them to quickly develop a consumer phone that appealed to teenagers. The Danger Hiptop (known as Sidekicks) were very popular with teenagers as texting was all the rage then. The problem for MS is that internal decisions would delay and doom the product. Danger apps ran on Java. So MS being MS decided that every product must eat the MS dogfood so the next model would use Windows CE. The Pink Project fell under the Windows Mobile division and the head of
Re:Do or die? (Score:5, Interesting)
Dude, they will return to 80's tactics.
#1) Put out an "Update" that breaks connectivity between the desktop and the Iphone and Droid Phone. .......
#2) When the two fix the phone to make it work again do number 1
#3) repeat #1-#2 several times.
#4) Release WP8 pointing out that there phone never has problems communicating with your desktop
#5)
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When #1 happens, I will be looking for a Mac. It has now reached the point where my phone is more expensive and more important to me than my PC.
If they pull that trick again, it is bye bye Microsoft.
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here's the relevant bit, from TFA: ...there's lots of room for Microsoft. Consumers love their mobile phones, but they switch or upgrade as often as every one or two years. Also, consumers typically sign up with service providers like Verizon and AT&T and will happily switch to the next best phone. Who's to say an AT&T customer's next phone won't be a Windows Phone?
So until c
Before you scoff, Try it (Score:5, Interesting)
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Maybe true. Probably a case of too little too late. They had numerous years to get it together.
They can only follow, which is fine. But they had plenty of chances to lead.
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I wouldn't be surprised to see RIM gone in 3-4 years. Their niche has been the corporate world and integration with pre-existing corporate software. Even a half-assed attempt by Microsoft would be enough to take over RIM's customer base.
Not to get into another smartphone flame war, but I've never been impressed by Blackberry's ability to do anything. I know they were so much better than the competition pre-iPhone, but with iOS, Android, and (internationally) Symbian, I don't really understand how they exist
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iOS is focused on consumers, not business. Android is too young and nobody's polished it enough for business. Symbian does have offer lots of business devices but they're not by far as nicely integrated as what RIM offers, it's a wildly different range of products scattered across diffe
Re:Before you scoff, Try it (Score:4, Interesting)
The problem is that MS is entering into a very crowded market with few advantages. They can't rely on existing WinMo users because more of them are business users which is different from the consumer focused Windows Phone 7. It's pretty much surrendering the business crowd to Blackberry in that regard. It seems like a decent, solid OS but it starts out way behind Apple and Android. There also isn't any features that entices most people to get it. There are not many apps which uses the same walled garden approach as Apple. As with anything new (especially MS), I advise people to wait after the 1st gen for them to work out the kinks.
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The apps that I saw looked solid. But, on the other hand I'm curious about how well the browser is going to work. It ships with something like IE7 AFAIK, and it seems like it's not going to be a great experience. Are sites really going to have a mobile-webkit version and a mobile-ie version of their con
Re:As long as I have to pay $99 (Score:4, Informative)
Or you can get an Android phone. My Aria, despite the lack of "unknown sources" option, can still load other apps via the SDK. And the SDK is free too.
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You don't need the whole SDK, just ADB (which is bundled with the SDK). adb install app.apk. There is probably also a method to install from rooted (su'd) terminal on Android. pm install app.apk? I've only used pm for uninstalling, so that last command is a total guess.
Anyway, I concur with the previous AC. Google would have done themselves a benefit had they wrote an add-in for Visual Studio. It's not that difficult. Probably no one at Google uses VS, but that's not a good excuse to ignore it when welcomin
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Same here. I can use Eclipse, I just don't enjoy it. Visual Studio I actually like working with.
That being said, I'd still bet on Android as a success over WP7.
Re:As long as I have to pay $99 (Score:4, Informative)
The $99 fee is the annual Marketplace registration fee. To skip the market: Deploying XAP Files to Windows Phone 7 [markarteaga.com].
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The $99 fee is the annual Marketplace registration fee. To skip the market:
But how long will Microsoft let end users skip the market before clamping down? Consider XNA Creators Club from the same company, which requires a $99 per year fee just to run homemade games on your own console.
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Probably forever, unless they actually get a dominant position in the mobile market, which seems unlikely at this point.
With the XBox, they're still offering you a better deal than anyone else in town, so they know they have you over a barrel. I don't see that happening with the phones anytime soon.
Gamers rejoice, they launched with Tetris! (Score:3, Interesting)
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Wonder how much bloatware MS is going to get crammed in their OS
I'd imagine there will be a general baseline, but the carrier will likely have a huge affect on this (as they already do)
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Electronics Arts also announced the first wave of games coming to Windows Phone 7, including "Need for Speed Undercover," "Tetris," and "The Sims 3." Tetris? That's a launch title? Ouch. Need for speed came preinstaleld on my droid, much to my annoyance. Wonder how much bloatware MS is going to get crammed in their OS.
What's wrong with Tetris? It's one of the most popular games out there and it has been for a very long time. Also, I think it's up to carriers to "cram" bloatware into the phones. Similar to Android and Google, this is not much under MS's control.
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Tetris? That's a launch title? Ouch.
Tetris was a launch title for Game Boy, helping it succeed where previous cartridge-based handheld video game systems (Microvision [wikipedia.org] and Pokekon [wikipedia.org]) had failed.
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Image (Score:2)
Microsoft has been making pretty awesome products lately. I'm afraid, though, that many of them are failing because of their image, and in fact this is the very reason that I'm not even going to consider getting a Windows Phone 7 in the near future. Even if it is a better underlying platform than Android, the community will be what makes or breaks it, and to the community, Microsoft just isn't cool enough anymore.
Re:Image (Score:5, Funny)
Care to name any of those awesome products?
Zune?
Kin?
The red ring of death generator AKA XBOX 360?
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I'll bite: The Zune was fine, and way better than the equivalent Apple products at the time. Microsoft's only misstep was attaching their own name to it. (And I say this as a happy Mac/iPod user)
If I may add (Score:2)
Some other rather solid MS products (if a little developer oriented):
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I can't believe the MS folks are all amazed by powershell. Finally catching up to 30 years ago is not that impressive.
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Well, of course everything can be passed around with streams, since any kind of data is representable with a stream. The question at hand is the convenience of processing of said data. E.g. if you want to filter the output of ls, you have to parse its output stream, e.g. using grep or awk. This is very easy to get wrong, brittle since it does not permit significant variations to output format in future versions (even strict additions could break things), and inefficient performance-wise since you parse text
Re:If I may add (Score:4, Informative)
Sharepoint? You've never used it - Drupal is a lot better from almost every viewpoint.
Silverlight? So good its only got a 60% market share (accrding to Microsoft) and they're looking at partnering/buying Adobe for Flash.
Expression suite isn't so bad, but its a bit like FrontPage for the hackery it puts in your designs. Take a look at all the expression dlls the generated code references.
C# 4.0 - dynamic types (and crap like extension methods) is weakening the language. Now, you can slap code together like a scripting language, and most code will have just the same amount of quality to it as a lot of script has.
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Sharepoint? You've never used it - Drupal is a lot better from almost every viewpoint.
Unless you're a business that uses Office for everything. You know, like almost all of them.
I mean, I'd pretty much rather stick my hand in a lawn mower than be a Sharepoint developer, but it's good at what it's supposed to be good at -- even if that thing isn't sexy or what you'd want it to be.
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C# 4.0 - dynamic types (and crap like extension methods) is weakening the language. Now, you can slap code together like a scripting language, and most code will have just the same amount of quality to it as a lot of script has.
You cannot "slap code together" because C# still doesn't give you the way to define those dynamic classes easily, only to consume them (well, okay, ExpandoObject veers somewhat into JS territory, but without prototypes). "dynamic" stuff is intended to easily use code that is already written in a dynamically typed language or framework (Python, Ruby, COM IDispatch etc), not to write your own C# code that way. And that is how it is used, pretty much - so far the only production code with "dynamic" I've seen w
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Re:MS Garbage Products: Xbox,Kin,Bing,... (Score:4, Interesting)
"Some people had hardware issues -- oh no"
A 65 percent failure rate on a piece of consumer hardware?
A 1 percent failure rate would be insane. That would be 1 out of every 100 consoles consistently failed. Well made consoles like the PS3, Wii, PS2, GameCube have failure rates in the sub .1 percent range.
The Xbox 360 is a piece of garbage. Microsoft knew it was defective before they rushed it out the door back in 2005 and did nothing to fix the inherent design defects.
Microsoft deserves the hate of gamers and the console world. They are reaping what they sowed. The console world has prided itself that it was gaming that just worked. You plugged your new console in at the start of a generation and it kept working to the end of the generation. Microsoft' piece of garbage Xbox 360 made a mockery of that concept.
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A survey of 5,000 Xbox 360 owners shows failure rate of 54.2% [gamespot.com] with over 40% reporting a *second* failure.
Another survey of 500,000 [xboxer360.com] reports a failure rate of 42%.
The 65% failure number may be somewhat high, but the numbers in the two surveys I found aren't reassuring. There's no way that I would knowingly put my hard-earned money into a product that failed about half of the time. I can't believe that MS wasn't forced to recall the systems.
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30-40% is "some"?
I'll admit, I'm no fan of Windows 7 (I actually bought Pro edition for my gaming PC) but the only thing Microsoft proved with the 360 is that gamers will buy crap if you put a headset and gamer scores on it. While the controller is a neat setup (I had a N-64 "Super Pad 64" that was pretty much a dead ringer for the 360 left side and I loved it) you cannot still be oblivious to the fact that more than "some" of the 360s were terrible build quality.
Am I invited to the party? (Score:2)
Sure Steve. Except it was last weekend.
A real blast from what I hear.
I guess he reads the minimsft blog (Score:4, Informative)
mini's been saying the same thing - that WP7 is the product that will hopefully tie Microsoft together (but comments are weighing heavily towards the "or else" scenario)
KIN3 FTW !!!
-- Barbie
So... (Score:3, Interesting)
Where is cut and paste and multitasking?
It will be interesting to see if Microsoft can get any buzz with this. It has to be better than IOS, Android, and WebOS. It is only available in the US on AT&T and maybe TMobile. So on AT&T will people buy it over the iPhone? Will AT&T push it much? TMobile is the smallest carrier but they are a good carrier. Will they push it over Android since they have a long record with Android and the G2 has just launched?
Microsoft is just in a very bad position. It isn't like the XBox where they came from nothing. They have a product that for the most part is boring and have been beaten up by both Apple and Android in this market.
Unless WP7 is just super great it will be blah... Or to put it better it will be the Next of Kin.
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iPhone survived 3 years without cut and paste. It's coming to WP7 just a few months after shipping (in early 2011). And it currently multi-tasks much like iOS does right now (mostly "fast app switching"). And a Verzion version is coming early next year. And it'll be available on Sprint too.
MS has their work cut out for them. But the product is compelling already. It'll be interesting to see if they can catch up, and how much this pushes the others in the space to innovate and improve.
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Yes but the Iphone has cut and paste now and has multi-tasking limited but a lot of people say it makes all the difference.
Android and WebOS have true multitasking as well.
I will add that Microsoft WinMo 6.5 also has multitasking and cut n paste.
Thing is that when IOS was lacking those features all it had to complete with was WinMo, RIM, Symbian, and PalmOS.
WM7 must face both IOS and Android in their current state and honestly I don't see a big draw yet. We will see but WM7 must compete with IOS4 and with
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Where is cut and paste and multitasking?
Just about the only time I use copy/paste on my phone is during setup, when I need to input my long, pseudorandom WPA key. It is certainly very useful during this time. Otherwise, in practice, I just don't use it very much.
No, it is not do or die (Score:5, Insightful)
MS still controls the desktop, and lots of high end business market. That is a very solid, very profitable market. Then of course there's their office suite, game console, and so on. Having a strong mobile market would do nothing but help them for sure, but if you think they have to "do it or die" you've got your head in the sand. MS is doing just fine.
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Re:No, it is not do or die (Score:5, Insightful)
they've also seen their share price wibble along going nowhere while Apple's streaks upwards. You may not think that matters but it does, a lot. If this doesn't show some promise for future MS growth, you can expect a little shareholder revolt, Ballmer being kicked out and maybe a ton of layoffs and re-organisation in the name of shareholder value. You will probably also see some divisions spun off to stand on their own feet (yep, online and entertainment divisions.... you'll get your crutch made of cash kicked away) and then we'll see if MS is still the powerhouse, or if other companies suddenly find themselve with a lot of attention from ex-Microsoft shops.
Let me put it this way - would you implement a Silverlight app today, when tomorrow it could be a dead technology replaced by Flash.Net? Its the same with businesses looking to implement their next set of apps, would they buy MS products if it looked like they were stumbling, or would they at least look at alternatives?
Re:No, it is not do or die (Score:4, Insightful)
They've had Windows CE based devices on the market for something like 15 years yet Apple's iPhone blew it away and quickly Android beat it into irrelevance. As the iPod / iTunes products opened peoples eyes to Apple and the Mac, what do you think Android and all the talk of Android powered TVs, Tablets, Netbooks, MIDs, GPS's, etc will do?
They "do or die" thing is an over statement but when the customers start to get choice at the brick and mortar stores, the fast slide down is upon them. Their brand is already drastically weaker and their stock price has been doing down while the others going up. And when large economies like Brazil( 5th in the world? ) is doing just fine using GNU LInux and open source software Microsoft has to spend billions annually to fend of more of that. I think they're slated to spend over $500 million just on marketing Windows Phone 7.
It's really not all roses in Redmond and with these little phones getting so much press hyping, Steve Ballmer's neck is sticking out in front of his investors and the board of directors. They have to see a success which relates to profits and limits the growth of the others. Something they've failed to do over and over without the advantage of leveraging the Windows desktop market position. IMO
LoB
slide-out speakers? (Score:5, Funny)
Wow. Just... wow. The HTC surround actually has a slide-out speaker (from Yamaha!)? I can't think of anything I want less in a cell phone. Maybe they should come out with an HTC ButteredPopcorn with a slide-out popcorn popper so I have something to snack on while reading all the (apparently deserved) MS-bashing around these phones.
missing some features (Score:5, Interesting)
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Of course I tried this on my Android phone (2.2) running Quick Office and it won't let me copy and paste either - even though all other apps seem to support this...
Never Buy A Windows Mobile Device (Score:3, Insightful)
Please take it from my lengthy, extremely painful, dissatisfied experience. Never buy a Windows Mobile phone. Ever. I don't care WHAT they might have done to this version of the software, I can guarantee you it will not work a fraction as well as any alternatives.
I own an HTC Mogul PPC6800. I have never experienced a product so poor, so lacking in quality and completely failing to fulfill its most primary functions. Every day I have to use it I wonder to myself how it was even released. I have never seen such a poor product even be allowed to enter consumer hands in exchange for money. It is just that bad.
I felt this would be a good topic with which to share that experience.
Re:Never Buy A Windows Mobile Device (Score:5, Insightful)
But you didn't share any experience. You merely asserted it was a very poor product, without naming any reasons why you thought so.
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I can't speak for the OP but my own experience has been:
- UI. Microsoft tried to cram a Windows-type UI complete with menus and a start menu into a tiny, low-res screen. The result is complicated and awkward to figure out.
- Usability. Related to UI, we all know how no PC operating system is 100% perfect, but you can usually get the results you need by either fiddling with settings or analysing what went wrong. Take that, remove the ability to easily analyse what went wrong and make the glitches intermit
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Nightmare? Why?
alias pcp='synce-pcp' /Storage\ Card/images/photo.jpg /somewhere/on/your/local/box
pcp
If you'd rather use your phone as a USB mass storage device that is possible as well - just install wm5storage and you're set.
In a weird sense these Windows Mobile phones are actually quite hacker friendly. You treat them more or less like you would treat a bare-bones DOS or Windows 3.x mac
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laptops ain't going away soon (Score:2)
when you can type up a report and run a spreadsheet (comfortably!) on a phone, then it's time to worry.
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I think you want a Nokia E7 [arstechnica.com]. They say you can create powerpoints on it. Not sure about comfortably, but you can plug it into a TV via HDMI and bluetooth keyboard, so I guess that counts.
The final device that was introduced during the keynote was the E7, a smartphone with a four-inch touchscreen and a slide-out qwerty keyboard. Vanjoki describes it as a spiritual successor of the original Nokia communicator and the best business smartphone that the company has ever produced. The E7 looks a lot like a keyboar
Here is my opinion (Score:5, Interesting)
My problem with Microsoft is that they insist on programming everything in-house and lock you in to in-house networks and in-house apps. I prefer a rich ecosystem like the iPhone and Android where people can make their own apps and have them integrate into your social networking life.
Microsoft - once again - seems to want to make all your decisions for you and shove all their products down your throat.
I seriously wonder how many Microsofties will eat their company's dogfood and geniunely love it.
Y
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I actually disagree a bit with you... Apple and MS both have these in-built proclivities and they both are very limiting and self-serving, where they differ is that MS tends to be much less subtle about it and the obtrusiveness is what actually makes them seem more annoying. Apple does the same thing but much more slyly so folks don't notice or get as upset about it. Android is too new to really have an emerging theme on this, but I have a feeling the chaotic envoronment is not going to end as a nice, clean
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Microsoft is eventually going to have an application store similar to Apple's app store or Google's android marketplace, but the hardware isn't out yet and the vast majority of developers don'
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Um, Windows Phone 7 supports user-developed apps [wikipedia.org] and has an app store [wikipedia.org].
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Windows Phone 7 supports user-developed apps
From the page you linked: "Development in C++ will not be permitted." So how does one automatically translate an app written in standard C++ into C# or the verifiably type-safe subset of C++/CLI? I agree that the front-end of an app needs a rewrite per platform, but the back-end that implements business rules or game physics should be identical on all supported platforms.
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**Except for companies we allow. Like Adobe
Too little, too late (Score:2)
If you're into such gadgets and still don't have a smartphone (unlikely), other platforms offer better phones, more apps and a wider support and probably look better too...
Is it just me or is 10mm hardly thin for a 'thinnest' these days - after all, iPhone 4 is 9.3mm...
If you already have a capable phone - I can't really think of a single feature that could be considered an upgrade over latest in Symbian, Android or iOS...
Missing Enterprise features (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm not going to talk heavily about whether or not Windows Phone 7 is a good consumer phone. Only time will tell what kind of market adoption it will have verses the iPhone, Android, and Blackberries already present in the market.
I will, however, bemoan the complete lack of enterprise-ready features. Support for Exchange and and Office are good, but it's still a step backward from Windows Mobile 6.5. There's no support for 3rd party or enterprise apps. No mention of tethering or security certificates. Enterprise features such as have been promised at a future date, but I need a enterprise ready phone now. Maybe the Windows mobile 6.5 platform can be stretched to cover this need another year or two. But at this point, they're very little reason not to accept the reduced set of enterprise features and move to Android or the iPhone.
In its rush to grab a chunk of the consumer market, Microsoft may lose what market it had in the enterprise world.
Angry Birds say WTF? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Angry Birds say WTF? (Score:5, Funny)
Already Angry Angry Birds Developers Even Angrier
Lineup (Score:2)
So, are we going to need Windows Phone 7 Professional to be able to make phone calls and Windows Phone 7 Ultimate to have cut and paste?
did anyone see the browser? (Score:5, Insightful)
MS didn't show it in the demo (that I saw).
The quality of the browser is paramount. Do we know if it's any good? Their last one sure wasn't.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
It's very good for "everyday web" but is not perfect. It doesn't support HTML5 yet - apparently IE9's rendering engine will be ported Soon(tm) but has not yet been - but damn near everything pages rendered perfectly including a few pages that mobile Webkit browsers fail at (most seemed to involve frames, which are old but not-yet-dead tech). It's fast and the zooming is super-smooth. I've only played with it for a few minutes, but all the reviews I read state that the browser experience is excellent even if
Ballmer's too old to throw chairs, now it's phones (Score:2)
WINDOWS 1.0 TILES! WINDOWS 1.0 TILES! WINDOWS 1.0 TILES!
yeah, the act's old, but so is that interface.
don't forget to tip the waiters! -- I'll be here 5 to life, tell your friends.
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Definitely a shill. Been waving the blue, red, green & yellow flag since the Win7 beta: http://slashdot.org/~SpryGuy [slashdot.org]
He just LOVES the office ribbon too.
Why not go straight to Android? (Score:4, Interesting)
"And the iPhone seems to have gotten a little long in the tooth, falling behind Android in many areas, feeling very rigid and "controlled", with few choices."
I don't know if you haven't really read anything about WP7, but it is cloning the Old iPhone, no "cut n' Past", no real multi-tasking, no flash, no side loading applications.
If iPhone "rigid and controlled" is bothering you, it won't change much in WP7, why not go to Android. What do you think WP7 will give you that Android won't?
Re: (Score:2)
ZunePass. XBox Live Integration. Office integration. A better UI and UI concept (imho).
I guess that will matter to Microsoft fans. But I don't have Xbox, don't want to rent music and don't actually want a "smartphone".
But I do pay attention to technology, and I find it amusing to watch each new release of phones where everyone goes all gaga over a phone. "Ooooh look, square boxes for an interface, I must have it!!!".
I don't have a smartphone, they just seem like a huge waste of money to me.
Re: (Score:2)
1. renting music is lame
2. I have a PS3.
3. I use open office.
Re: (Score:2)
WP7 will be somewhat less rigid and controlled than iPhone (starting with the fact that there are multiple form-factors for hardware, and multiple carriers). It's in between iOS and Android. iOS is too controlled, and Android is too out-of-control.
Considering Apple controls everything about their own product, the iPhone, saying WP7 is less rigid is a useless comparison. MS had dictated a lot on the WP7 phones much more so than Android which is a better comparison. My understanding that this is one reason why Verizon said no to it. In a competitive market like cell phones, you have to do something that separates you from the crowd. MS dictating how most of the phones look and act alike destroys your uniqueness. And how do you know that MS will b
Re: (Score:2)
iTunes has got to be one of the worst, most bloated, most annoying applications I've ever loaded on my PC
Have you tried Media Monkey [mediamonkey.com]? You can sync your files and not have to worry about iTunes (although it still has to be installed). I use it almost exclusively for all my media files.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)