A Windows Phone 7 For Every Microsoftie 298
theodp writes "So, how can Microsoft guarantee its Windows Phone 7 devices will enjoy broader adoption than the ill-fated Kin? By giving every Microsoft employee a free one, that's how. A Microsoft spokesman confirmed the move, explaining that the idea is to thank employees for all their work, and make sure that they have experience with Windows Phone 7 devices. Microsoft has nearly 90,000 employees worldwide."
But it's mnade out of PEOPLE !! (Score:2, Funny)
Don't buy WP7. It's made out of PEOPLE !!
Re:But it's mnade out of PEOPLE !! (Score:5, Funny)
I could be worse - it could be made out of KINs instead of next of kins.
Hot new item @ microsoft - cases that make your iPhone look like a WP7 phone - complete with BSOD screen-saver.
The Balminator: "Hey - is that an iPhone?
Employee: "I wish - blue-screened again!"
The Balminator: "Okay, I guess I can find someone else to throw this chair at."
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Total Bullshit, Cynical Move by MS. Really worthy of some spleen and bile.
They stopped giving a damn about "their people" at least 5 years ago. For instance, last month, as the old fiscal year ended, they pulled all the soda cases from every office - replaced with vending machines. That's 1 year after they stopped all the regular food-service and snack items.
Any tech company in California or Western Europe has done the calculation. The expense on these things returns a fantastic benefit in the morale, p
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Uhh... That's nonsense. MS may be a shitty company to the rest of the world, but to their employees, they're pretty damn good. Dunno where you got that vending machine claim, but I suggest you stick it back from whence it came.
Re:But it's mnade out of PEOPLE !! (Score:4, Informative)
That's funny, I was just in several of the buildings in Redmond last week and found that all drinks -- even those in the cafeteria, are gratis. Paying isn't even an option -- there's simply nowhere to put the change.
For any personal issues you may find with Microsoft as a company, I have seen and heard nothing but good things from their employees.
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What Microsoft office are you in?
I'm sitting here as a Microsoft FTE in Redmond drinking my free soft drink.
This is Slashdot and we don't let facts get in the way of M$ bashing karmawhoring.
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If Coke were to give their employees free Coke just to increase their own market share and make their product look like it was doing better, then that would also be a cynical move. Basically forcing 90,000 to have the phone, whether they use it or not, just to make it not look like as big a failure as the Kin, is what's cynical -- not giving free schwag to employees. But then, its perhaps not the move itself which is cynically motivated, but the summary. Not that such a thing would ever happen...
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If Coke were to give their employees free Coke just to increase their own market share and make their product look like it was doing better, then that would also be a cynical move.
It's worse than that.
http://money.cnn.com/2003/06/13/news/funny/coke_pepsi/ [cnn.com]
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Would you like some cheese with that whine?
Always remember - you get what you pay for. You paid for marketing, bling, and glitz. That's what you got. If you wanted a telephone, you would have bought something without Microsoft on it.
They should expand the program (Score:3, Insightful)
I'll use a Windows Mobile phone, too... if it's free. Sure as hell never paying for another device running WinCE, the most pointless operating system ever.
It isn't even real Windows CE (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:It isn't even real Windows CE (Score:5, Informative)
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Have you seen androids marketplace lately?
An advantage of Android over WP7 and iOS is that the owner of the phone can turn on "Unknown sources" without paying an annual fee. So as long as you didn't get your phone from AT&T, you don't need the Market for free apps if the author provides an APK for download.
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I actually find that sorting by ranking tends to weed out most/all of that... I can't think of a time within the past month I went to find something and ran across a sound board or some stupid app without digging down a few pages.
Re:They should expand the program (Score:5, Funny)
The first one is always free.
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I'll use a Windows Mobile phone, too... if it's free.
Yeah, the phone is free, but the replacement printer cartridges are really expensive. That's where they are going to get their employees.
I think . . . or something like that . . .
Re:They should expand the program (Score:5, Insightful)
Wow, this is the entire content of a +5 Insightful post.
Could you at least give us a single piece of technical evidence to back that up? However anecdotal?
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Insightful, not informative. ;)
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When was the last time you touched WinCE? 1.0?
A hell of a lot has changed since then. Sure, it wasn't as awesome as Palm or Qtopia back then, but that was a decade ago.
There are a lot of truly useful apps on WinMo which are not available on the App Store. The phones work better (longer battery life, typically better signal, better hands free, etc.) and typically, they're able to interface with your desktop tasks better (file/media sharing/copying, tethering, mail, browsing, GPS). With the HTC frontend (can'
Who pays for the (Score:2)
http://games.slashdot.org/story/10/06/01/0145232/Mobile-Game-Trojan-Calls-the-South-Pole?from=rss [slashdot.org]
Would the undocumented feature payment from MS go to the phone company?
Gir's Analysis: Doom, Doom, Doom (Score:5, Insightful)
It's absolutely mind-boggling that Windows Phone 7 is missing some very fundamental features, like copy/paste, third-party multitasking, and universal search.
Absolutely mind-boggling you say? How about absolutely doomed?
In the past, competitors like Apple were lambasted by the public for not having such features, so you'd think Microsoft would take precautions not to repeat such mistakes.
You don't understand, Microsoft is adept at watching Apple do something right or make progress and then totally just think that they're different and special and therefore won't suffer from those problems.
What's worse, the rest of the smartphone world isn't slowing down, and with Windows Phone 7 not scheduled to launch till the holidays, the divide could get deeper.
It's called releasing a phone that's already behind the curve. So, unless you have a product name that causes people to hemorrhage cash [youtube.com] regardless of the features, you're doomed. Like the release of the Zune. Except it appears Windows Phone 7 doesn't even have an exclusive 'squirt' functionality.
Criticisms aside, there's a lot we like about Windows Phone 7. The Zune integration is killer, and the core apps are much improved.
Zune integration is 'killer' you say? That's going to do it, huh? Well, everybody who owns a Zune now has the option to integrate it. All five of them. And the core apps are much improved? After suffering from the ailments of IE6 you think I want any version of Internet Exploder on my goddamn mobile device? You're insane. I don't care how refined it is.
We also commend Microsoft for being able to acknowledge that its old OS wasn't working and taking a chance on rebuilding something from the ground up.
Really? You're telling me that Microsoft owned up to and acknowledge its old OS wasn't working? I've never known Microsoft to tell their customers that something is wrong.
Long story short this product is doomed with a 97% confidence of certain doomage.
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Absolutely mind-boggling you say? How about absolutely doomed?
Indeed. Whilst people may have criticised the Apple Iphones for lacking these features (rightly so - just as we criticise any product lacking features, especially that other far cheaper bog standard products have had for years), there has also been plenty of defence of "But no one cares about these features" (or even, spinning it as a "good thing because it saves battery life" - event though the Iphones seem to guzzle battery life faster than oth
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Re:Gir's Analysis: Doom, Doom, Doom (Score:5, Insightful)
There is a concept in the marketing industry called "The Delta". The Delta is the thing your product has that not only distinguishes it from other products, but will get consumers to choose your product over the others -- despite other possible short comings.
The original iPhone came out without copy/paste, but it still offered some unique features that allowed people to "forgive" Apple on that aspect. The web browser, the interface, the coolness factor, etc. Apple claimed they didn't include copy/paste because they were trying to work out the way to have copy/paste on a touch interface without any menuing system. When the iPhone finally came out with copy/paste, most people praised it as simple, intuitive, and easy to use.
One problem with Windows 7 Phone is that the copy/paste issue has been solved. We know how to have a nice copy/paste interface. The other issue is that the Windows 7 Phone isn't unique. What's the "Delta" over the iPhone and Android phones? This isn't saying that Windows 7 Phone isn't competitive, but that whatever advantages it has must make people decide to buy the device over the iPhone which does come with copy/paste, 100K+ apps, a wide consumer environment, and its coolness factor.
If the Windows 7 Phone came out two years ago, it would be extremely competitive and people would be rushing out to buy it. As it stands now, it is just another app phone missing features that other app phones already have.
Re:Gir's Analysis: Doom, Doom, Doom (Score:5, Insightful)
This is Slashdot, we know that "delta" means difference... from Calculus. Just like marketing to take a clearly defined term and turn it into something vague. "What's your delta?".
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Re:Gir's Analysis: Doom, Doom, Doom (Score:5, Interesting)
You keep going on about Apple and features. I was involved with developing user training for the first gen iPhone and I can tell you, what features YOU want didn't make version one based on very careful market research and engineering tradeoffs.
It's not like Apple said, "nobody wants remote wipe so we aren't going to do it". Instead, they said, "we have X amount of schedule and Y amount of budget, so we have to decide what is more important to our target audience: a great iPod interface, or some dorky enterprise tools." And it's not like they just accidentally forgot to include copy/paste in the OS either--they practically invented copy/paste (they were the first to map them to their current keyboard shortcuts of command C and V, respectively).
In short, if you needed a business phone with enterprise features, you most likely already had a blackberry. If you wanted a consumer device that would suffice as a business phone (with limitations), then you might have bought an iPhone.
Re:Gir's Analysis: Doom, Doom, Doom (Score:5, Interesting)
Features, although great, cost you time and money (It's time and labor or T&L in my world). T&L represents development, QA, documentation, training, support, and long term maintenance from those teams as well.
Once you have a feature, you expect to have it forever. From Waynes World, Garth said it right. "We fear change. Change is Evil!". We can give you a different way to do it, or take away a feature. But who wants that?
BTW, the original comments ability to get some Invader Zim into a topic. Classic. Love JTHM.
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Whilst I agree with everything you say, for some bizzare reason lack of cut and paste doesn't seem to be as much of a deal breaker as we make out. It's implementation within the HTC Desire is a complete and utter disaster (tapping and holding can do at least 3 different possible things) and
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I've never known Microsoft to tell their customers that something is wrong.
In their defense, I think they actually did once. After years of denying that anything was wrong with Vista, they basically came out with 7 and said, "Ok, we know we screwed up before. Truth time: Our new OS is better, we promise."
Its not much, but they DID admit that vista sucked.
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Zune integration is 'killer' you say? That's going to do it, huh? Well, everybody who owns a Zune now has the option to integrate it. All five of them.
Hah, that reminds me of a quote from Chuck:
Chuck: "Morgan, hey, uh, buddy do we carry any Rush CDs in the store?"
Morgan: "No need, I got 'em all on my Zune"
Chuck: "You have a Zune?"
Morgan: "Are you kidding me? No, no, I'll grab my iPod"
Re:Gir's Analysis: Doom, Doom, Doom (Score:5, Interesting)
I have a hard time understanding why they are using the Windows brand for their phone OS. Does it share anything with their desktop OS? At this point (especially on a phone), the Windows brand has negative value. At least they didn't tack on a .net or live.
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Does it share anything with their desktop OS?
The Silverlight and .NET frameworks, for starters. Even if it didn't share anything with the desktop OS, there is likely still value in making people think it does.
At this point (especially on a phone), the Windows brand has negative value.
Certainly, the 'Windows Mobile' moniker on a phone is kind of like the 'Titanic' moniker for a boat or the 'Hindenburg' moniker for a dirigible. That being said, I don't think the 'Windows' brand as a whole has "negative value". It is the most widely deployed desktop OS in the world. As I said above, there is some utility in making people believe
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And does it even have "windows" at all?
Re:Gir's Analysis: Doom, Doom, Doom (Score:4, Insightful)
Windows may have negative value to people here on Slashdot. But if you're an executive for whom computers isn't your core business, Windows = business and Apple = schoolkids. Windows implies solid integration with Outlook, your windows shared files, doc files, etc. When you try to open that 30MB excel spreadsheet containing 5,000 separate sheets and every aspect of your business, it will open fine. (I've seen people with these. I accidentally erased one once.). Meeting invites will get through just fine, unlike that hippie kid in marketing with the Macintosh. And since you already know Windows thanks to that training seminar you went to, you should be fine with this.
Really, the competitor for a "Windows" based smartphone is the Blackberry, not the iPhone. And while RIM has been doing an all around good job, if you've been using a blackberry for years there are enough quirks that you'd probably want to switch to something easier to use and better.
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"Long story short this product is doomed with a 97% confidence of certain doomage."
Well, perhaps avoid doom if it gets rooted, then people can load Android on it. Make it a good phone.
Zune integration isn't a bad thing. (Score:2, Offtopic)
Frankly Microsoft's Zune Pass is really cool. The Zune HD is also a really nice device.
With the Zune Pass for $15 a month you get all the music you want.
You can then download $10 DRM free songs each month.
Not a bad deal at all. If I just wanted a music player I would really be tempted to get a Zune.
I wish that they offered it for my Android phone.
Yes I do not have a lot of hope for WinMo7 or WinPho7 or what ever they are calling it but in a way that is really too bad.
They have some good ideas and can produc
Re:Gir's Analysis: Doom, Doom, Doom (Score:5, Insightful)
Microsoft always admits that their products are flawed, after they release new versions. It's one of the ways they get people to get the next version.
Every version of Windows since 1995 have had what I call "purchase reassurance messages" during the install where they say "This is the best version of Windows yet!"; which is actually a backhanded way of saying "We know the previous version had many flaws and sucked out loud, but this one doesn't as much!"
Windows 95 is great! It will change everything! >>> Windows 95 is terrible! Windows 98 fixes all the problems! >>> Windows 98 has deep and serious flaws. Windows ME fixes that for the home user, and Windows 2000 is the ultimate answer for business! >>> Windows ME is shit! Windows XP will save the world! >>> Windows XP is old and outdated - just look at the UI. Windows Vista is the new way to do everything faster, and more reliably! >>> We realize that Windows Vista wasn't the best we could do, but Windows 7 is!
They've been doing this for decades, and people just keep buying in.
Assumptions Assumptions (Score:5, Informative)
I don't care how refined it is. In other words: I don't care how much MS does to step up their technology.
Not true. I own an XBox360. I have a partition with a legit copy of Windows XP at home on one of my desktops. But I will never ever use IE again. I even get a little sick when I have to use IE to update XP. Firefox, Chrome, Opera I'll take anything over IE. Having had to develop to support IE6 for the longest time, I am jaded. I am biased. But if you get burned by something, you usually don't reward the company by continuing to use that product. This is how I feel about IE. I don't want it on my phone.
I hate them and anything they do will not be good enough for me.
No, I'm critical of them and everything they do. Similar to when I tear apart Google or Apple. They are big players with big resources and bigger responsibilities. They do get things right once in a while, this phone and the Zune were not done right in my opinion.
I'm a raving fanboi with a chip on my shoulder and if you want an honest opinion of a product from a company that I hate you're not going to find it here.
Well, to use either-you're-with-us-or-against-us-black-and-white extremes, I can't criticize anything around here without being accused of being a raving fanboi. And who am I a fanboi of exactly?
I really wish they had an ignore button around here.
Yeah, it's called your foes list. Log in, change your relationship with me to 'foe' and then add a foe modifier of -6. As long as you're logged in, you'll never see my posts again. Please, do us both a favor.
Re:Assumptions Assumptions (Score:5, Funny)
But I will never ever use IE again. I even get a little sick when I have to use IE to update XP.
At one point, I memorized an FTP address for Mozilla so I wouldn't have to load IE to download Firefox on new installations.
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When I was doing tech support for HP desktops, I memorized the FTP address to download Ad-Aware via Windows' command line FTP client.
It wasn't out of a dislike of IE, more that if they were calling in, there was a 50% likelihood that their IE simply would not work due to spyware.
But only to true employees (Score:3, Insightful)
But only to true employees, not to temps and interns.
Re:But only to true employees (Score:5, Funny)
Actually, true employees get a WP7 phone.
Temps and interns get 2 WP7 phones, and a dozen KINs
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This sort of thing actually backfired on them a while ago - when I interned at Microsoft, we all got a free old-generation Zune. A year later, an entire generation of Microsoft interns got a free present: all our Zunes crashed. [slashdot.org] Just think about how horrible that was for PR: that entire crop of interns, who in theory are the future of the technology industry, got a first-hand look at how shitty Microsoft's products can be.
Eating your own dog food? (Score:2)
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Apple tried that too, but it seems their employees weren't able to keep their iphones for long enough without losing them...
It will be ridiculed here (Score:5, Informative)
Front-end and shared back-end? (Score:2)
What is the best practice for writing a cross-platform smartphone application?
I understand that an app will need a different front-end playing to the strengths of each platform. But one of the advantages of the model-view-controller [wikipedia.org] or multitier [wikipedia.org] pattern is supposed to be that that platform-specific front-ends can share one generic back-end containing all the business logic. But it appears that the runtime environments don't share support for popular programming languages that could be used for the back-e
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Android supports C++ too, so your best bet is to develop the core in C++, with java and obj-c frontends for Android and iPhone, and just pretend that the MS platform doesn't exist.
Or go mad with #define trickery to make your C++ code compile under CLI
Preprocessor to handle C++ vs. C++/CLI (Score:2)
Or go mad with #define trickery to make your C++ code compile under CLI
I'm interested. Can you recommend a web page that describes how to set up a suitable header file to make a single C++ translation unit compile in /clr:safe and unmanaged modes?
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I don't know if there's anything out there already, but I'd've thought it'd be possible with lots of #define insanity - basically #define around all the differences between the languages and end up writing in effectively a higher level language that abstracts down into the right language for a particular platform.
(So you'd still have to rewrite most of your existing code to fit your new syntax, but once that was done, you'd have code that could be compiled in multiple languages)
The code would end up ugly as
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Or just use something like Unity ;-)
Far from certain (Score:3, Funny)
They will put it in a drawer and keep using their iPhones.
Watch out ebay (Score:2)
There will go straight to ebay and the money from the sale used to buy android terminals :-)
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You mean, someone will buy those phones on ebay?
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You beat me to it!
Coming soon: 89,999 windows phones on eBay. All except the one from the guy that actually likes windows 7 mobile.
GM did something similar in the late 90s (Score:5, Informative)
One of the perks of working for an auto company is the ability to lease a car at a drastically reduced rate. And once you reach a certain salary level, the auto company "pays" the lease so the car is effectively free.
There are controls - Chrysler, for example, wouldn't give employees Vipers or Prowlers - but there was a pretty broad selection of cars to choose from.
Except for a period in the late 90s/early oughts where the only GM company car was the Pontiac Aztek.
I'd drive past their plants/offices in Detroit and the employee parking lot was solid Azteks.
<NELSON>Ha-ha!</NELSON>
DG
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Barfy McBarfson, Batman! That looks like someone glued a Prius onto a Hilux.
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You should see one in pea green....
A puke-green Aztek is pretty much the perfect storm of automobile ugly.
DG
Who's going to pay for the service plan? (Score:3, Interesting)
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They'd be unlocked phones, though, so presumably people could just stick the SIM from their existing phone into it.
(At which point the phone's death claws grab hold of the SIM never to let it go again! Mwahahaaha!)
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Right, but then Microsoft's corporate partners would throw a decoupling of service and hardware exception and MS'd have to send out a bunch of spokespeople to reassure T-Mo and the rest that no, Microsoft isn't about to advocate people buying phones off-contract.
To thank their employees, heh (Score:3, Funny)
I bet they can't wait to receive this gift.
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I can't wait ...... (Score:4, Funny)
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Hey Steve, this phone's great, did you know it runs Linux really smooth?
*ducks chair*
Stupid (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm sorry but this is a stupid statement and a stupid article. Apple gives a large number of it's employees an iPhone and Google gives a large number of its an Android phone. It's call "eating your own dog food".
In addition they get a friendly pool of testers who can give them instant feedback (and probably quite detailed given that they'll naturally try to use it with the products they are managing) on the devices in real world situations (such as bugs, issues, integration with web services, exchange support) and can also simulate some scenarios (such large scale remote activation, wipe and locate) far better than a couple of devices in a lab can.
Finally, if you're a manufacturer of a product, it doesn't look very good if your employees all use your competitors does it? Whenever I've dealt with a Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Apple, HTC or LG rep I've never seen them use anything but their own phones and I'd be concerned about the statement they are making if they did.
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It's call "eating your own dog food".
It's boggling to me that this seems to have gone over the head of most of the people responding to this article.
In addition to everything you said being true, they're also giving their phone to (mostly) a bunch of developers. It wouldn't surprise me if some of them end up writing (as hobby/side projects) whatever key apps are available for Android/iPhone that Windows phone doesn't have -- and I assume there are a lot of them.
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It certainly makes sense as a company to do this.
It's only funny because unlike Google and Apple's devices, no one wants a W7 phone. Not even for free.
Hah! (Score:3, Funny)
Oblig (Score:4, Funny)
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...and 90,001 winPhone7 auctions appear on eBay...
Microsoft Marketing (Score:2, Insightful)
Windows Mobile is a pain in the ass! (Score:4, Interesting)
I've been using this so-called OS for a while and I am quite positive that when Microsoft made the move from the unstable, bluescreening, freezing, and crashing Windows 95/98/ME 16-bit kernel to the stable Windows NT 3.51/4.0/XP/2000 32-bit kernel they had to do something with the 16-bit operating system developers so they made them all work on Windows Mobile! This is the only logical explanation as to why Windows Mobile sucks so bad, freezes so often, crashes every week, and manages to screw up my phone ever few months on its own corrupting all data... for the last three Windows Mobile phones that I owned. All builds of Windows Mobile 6.5.5 are so horrible from one to another with major changes to the GUI and lack of stability that I have had to downgrade my phone back to 6.5.0 to get some stability and usefulness out of the phone.
Windows Mobile 7 is now made incompatible with 6.5 and earlier versions just sounds like Microsoft is trying to push OS/2 on people by calling it better than Windows 3.11 without the compatibility shims.
I'm just looking for a new Google Android based phone to come out on a CDMA (US - Sprint, Verizon) network that has GSM capabilities with a SIM card and a full-size keyboard, such as the HTC Touch Pro 2 that I currently have to use and endure the Windows Mobile crap. Once that is out I'm ditching Windows Mobile forever!
Philosophical question (Score:5, Funny)
No (Score:3, Funny)
It's the beer glasses set on top of it that make the ring.
JUST ANNOUNCED! (Score:2)
Google has just announced it will be giving away a free DROID system to any person who uses google.
Take that MS!
I think it is great (Score:3, Insightful)
But why is this news? I mean, go figure, a company gives it's own employees a device it makes in house. Does this warrant discussion at /.?
Cruel and unusual punishment (Score:3, Funny)
Both Apple and Google did this with their phones (Score:2)
Apple gave away the original IPhone and Google did so as well.
I'm sure the other phone makers have similar employee incentives.
How exactly is this news? Or some sought of new idea by MSFT?
This is a great business strategy (Score:2)
In other news... (Score:2)
Microsoft reports over 90,000 preorders already for its new forthcoming Windows Phone 7.
Repeat of Zune? (Score:2)
Re:It'll be interesting... (Score:4, Insightful)
I'll agree that 'eating your own dogfood' is good for the phone's development team, but do you really think everyone else has any real input into it? Real customers don't even get real input unless there's an antenna-gate or something.
I've been wondering for a while why companies seem to be so inept at listening to their customers. I understand the concept of 'vocal minority' and all that, but certain things should just be obvious when someone complains about them. Like lack of 'cut and paste' functionality on a 'smart phone'. I'm sure someone at Apple said 'What about cut and paste?' and someone shrugged it off. I'll even admit that I don't see why it was a big deal. But it -was-. And even after thousands of people started mocking the iPhone for not having it, Apple continued to ignore the complaints. That's the part I find so hard to believe.
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It's because every bit of development takes resources, and it's well established that you can't just add more developers to get things done faster. I'm sure copy and paste wasn't a novel feature that the development team somehow forgot. More likely it just didn't make the cut for release.
I think it's very fundamental to why Microsoft hasn't been able to release compelling products - they worry about what every customer asks for and in the process deliver what no customer wants. It's _hard_ to avoid the kitc
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And even after thousands of people started mocking the iPhone for not having it, Apple continued to ignore the complaints. That's the part I find so hard to believe.
Apple has a better grip on consumer psychology than most companies. Promise and don't deliver, and you get lambasted. Far better to quietly work on improving the product without responding to every request from customers. Apple's sales figures show that the initial lack of copy and paste was not a game-ending omission on their part.
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I wonder how long before someone designs an iphone case that makes it look just like a common Windows phone 7 model?
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"Common"? Never gonna happen. They were practically giving KINs away at the end, and still nobody wanted them.
WP7 is Ballmer's last swing at bat. Within the year, he;s thrown his last chair.
Call the employee daily (Score:4, Interesting)
You can give your employees a phone, but you can't make them actually use it.
Call the employee on each day when the employee is scheduled to work. If the employee doesn't pick up, record it as an absence.
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What are you saying the Windows 7 mobile phone doesn't support call forwarding either?
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Take the simcard out and put it in a different handset..
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Take the simcard out and put it in a different handset..
I thought of two ways for Microsoft to work around that. For one thing, Verizon and Sprint don't use a removable CSIM; instead, the subscriber identity is hardwired into the phone. For another, the communication could be made through a WP7-exclusive app instead of a voice call.
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So, when the WP7 phone they hand out proves to have reception worse than the iPhone4+"deathgrip" employees will be recorded as absent and docked one day's pay per missed call. Nice!
One of the very best things about Windows Mobile up to now was the lack of locking it down. You could install any damn app you want, or code your own, and very easily install it. It is very easy to integrate into corporate environments and to develop tools for deploying app updates. This new locked-down WP7 completely destroys an
Re: (Score:2)
Old HTCs are Windows Mobile-only, they only started making Android phones last year. And Windows Mobile is the wost mobile phone OS out there.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Have any of you Zune haters actually used them??
Here's the problem. Unlike the iPod, where I can go to any electronics store and try one out, Zunes are always in a box, behind a glass case, or there's a fake one used for display. And since I don't know anybody who actually owns one, I've never been able to try one out.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Paul's take on that "review" http://windowsphonesecrets.com/2010/07/16/dont-bother-with-this-blog-post-disaster/ [windowsphonesecrets.com]
A more nuanced summary of the reviews: http://reddevnews.com/blogs/redmond-review/2010/07/wp7-and-the-court-of-pundit-opinion.aspx [reddevnews.com]