He addresses that question too under the heading "Then fix it." It is also addressed several more times in the comments area.
Well, the way he addresses it is to say it was too big of a project and they had other priorities. Again, like many other niceties we enjoyed, they decided it was in the "too hard" pile. Now I know businesses have to make decisions all the time based upon cost/benefit, and I would guess Microsoft asked themselves the question, if we invest in WiFi sync, will we sell enough additional licenses to justify the cost? It doesn't mean I have to like it though, and it may have been an additional reason for me to stick with the platform, since no one else seems to offer this now either (darn cloud ).
There's lots more interesting explanations on attributes of windows mobile in the Windows Mobile and Windows Embeded team blogs. It won't make any one feel better about not having a desired feature but it's always nice to know. One of my favourite ones is "The Emperor has no Close" which explains why the X button doesn't close apps.
You know, I remember that article from way back when, but when I saw the link I decided to re-read it. Two thoughts emerged after reading it and some of the comments:
1) Wow... if Microsoft spent half as much time listening to users and just giving them what they want, how much better the press would be on WinMo devices! and
2) When I read a comment like: (from The Emperor Has No Close post)
Friday, June 20, 2008 8:20 AM by LA
I've gotta say, when I bought my T-mobile Dash this week, I decided to ignore the complaints about Microsoft Mobile. For the most part, I'm glad I did. But I absolutely hate having to open the task manager every time I want to use my camera because I don't have enough memory to do so. It's irritating and wastes my time. Why would I want to have games or contacts running in the background, when now all I want to do is take a picture? I'd much rather wait an extra second or two for an app to load again 5 minutes later when I need it again, than keep it running in the background the whole time, doing nothing. The only way I can quit apps on this phone is through the task manager.
It just makes me question the whole logic of Microsoft's decision! I've had the same thing happen with my XV6800 - I try and launch the camera and it says "not enough memory"!!! WHAT - I thought this thing was smart enough to figure that stuff out on it's own!!! (OOPS, no, I have to go close stuff!)
Again, I'm going to give Microsoft some time - I'm going to try and remain optimistic that leadership is going to give up on the "we know best" and listen to what their customers want. IF they do this, they will RULE the mobile territory. If they don't, well, there will be a lot of people moving on to something else.
Reducing the pool of devices (if it happens) or rather, restricting the hardware specs might allow MS a little wiggle room to innovate. But if the leaked shots of WM 6.5 are accurate the UI designers need to come out from underneath the rock.
I'm glad to see that Microsoft finally realizes that they have a problem, but I worry that it may be too little, WAY too late! Especially if they're not really going to change much for another 18 months. They might as well give up now!
That said, I've been compiling my own little wish-list of things I'd want to see on my next phone and I'll share it with you all here:
• Fast data connection, able to be used while voice is used.
• Speaker, handset, Bluetooth. Actually, the handset use could be eliminated if the others are solid.
• GPS, including eGPS. My phone should know where it is all of the time.
• Spatial recognition, like a Wii controller. Accelerometers or similar. Proximity sensors. The phone should know if it is next to your face, vertical or horizontal, pointing at another device with which you want it to interact. Perhaps this would work in conjunction with the Bluetooth near field stuff.
• Voice interaction, two way. I tell it what I want and it talks back to me. I don't mind if this uses a connection to a server somewhere to make it work, as long as it's accurate and fast.
• Smart interaction. It should know (via GPS) where I am and (via my schedule) where I'm supposed to be. And act on it. Vibrate only while in meetings, send "I'm running late" messages, etc. (like the Palm Pre is rumored to do, according to James at jkontherun.)
• The ability to seamlessly connect to a full size keyboard and screen, like RedFly only better (with app support).
• A hard drive. If you can squeeze 160 GB into an iPod, why not my phone? Even if it adds a bit of thickness, it's worth it.
• Two cameras, including one for videoconferencing, and a GOOD one -- with zoom and a flash -- for picture taking.
• HTML email. With Exchange, Google, Windows Live (or Skynet or whatever it's called) full two-way synchronization.
• Ideally, full Outlook synchronization, with color categories, tasks, etc. And it should have a screen similar to the Outlook To-do Bar that combines flagged messages, tasks, and upcoming appointments.
• A solid browser. Of course.
• Touch-optimized, but with good handwriting recognition, too. Like a Tablet PC.
• A good note-taking and information-gathering tool, like OneNote or similar. Should make good use of the camera and voice, too.
• The OS and applications should be available and upgradeable independent of the phone carrier and the device manufacturer (OEM). The end-customers should be considered and their opinions given more weight relative to the OEMS and carriers.
• In a perfect world, the phone would handle both my work and personal data, and keep them separate! I'd have both work and personal email, contacts, and an integrated calendar that shows me events from both. And it would sync with the corporate back-end (likely Exchange) and whatever I use for my personal stuff.
It wasn't just seen as a security issue. It was a security issue. Business users expressing concern wasn't a factor. Information transmitted through ActiveSync over IPwas unencrypted. The problem would be present even if you were syncing over an ethernet cable connected to your router. Mike Calligro, of the Windows Embeded team (the team that develops Windows CE. Windows Mobile is derived from CE) took on the subject in 2006. ActiveSync was never intended to work over WiFi. It had been made to work over Ethernet for devices that were directly connected to a computer via an ethernet cable. Since it was working over IP when WiFi was added to devices it just automatically worked. It was designed as a protocol for devices that are physically connected.
First, thanks for the link. That's one article I hadn't seen before.
However, if you have a secured WiFi network (WEP, WPA, whatever), your data was being sent encrypted. (Yes, WEP is now easily crackable, but that's another issue.) What reasonable business is running their WiFi network unencrypted?
And, if your connection is encrypted, it's going to be hard for somebody to spoof your device.
As I've always suggested, they should have made an Administrative privilege that would disable LAN syncing. That way businesses could turn it on and consumers could leave it off.
And, as another user pointed out, that doesn't explain removing Backup/Restore and Category Sync from ActiveSync. (Well, technically, it's still there -- if you have a WM 2003 SE or earlier device -- so why disable it for WM 5 and later devices?)
He addresses that question too under the heading "Then fix it." It is also addressed several more times in the comments area.
There's lots more interesting explanations on attributes of windows mobile in the Windows Mobile and Windows Embeded team blogs. It won't make any one feel better about not having a desired feature but it's always nice to know. One of my favourite ones is "The Emperor has no Close" which explains why the X button doesn't close apps.
Yeah, he addresses that question. He says, "There are a number of things we can do to fix it, including adding encryption and authentication. All of them, however, are a ton of work that needs to get prioritized against all the other things we need to do in ActiveSync."
In other words, we don't care what you think. We're going to spend our time giving you features you don't want, and removing additional features you do want, instead of giving you the features you really want.
And he talks about the close button too, but his premise is wrong from start to finish. He characterizes us as wanting to 'have to' manage our own memory. That's not at all true, but their poor memory management requires it of us anyway. So, from the users' point of view, it's not a matter of who manages the memory, it's a matter of whether when we have to close apps because the device has slowed to a crawl, or because something won't startup, can we easily close those running program or do we have to go through half a dozen steps to find the command buried deep in the menus? It just doesn't work the way he says it does. And even if it did, there would still be legitimate reasons to close certain apps (see some of the examples in the comments below the blog) easily. Again, he's saying the same thing as with the Activesync over wi-fi issue. Your needs don't matter to us.
I'll be the first to admit that the things I am reading in this article sound like all the right things to say. Recongnizing their mistakes, acknowleging that phones are personal (even when owned by a business), the need for high-end hardware, etc. But MS has spent too long making every version of WinCE/Palm-sized PC/Pocket PC/WM worse than the previous one in one or two important ways, even as they give us one or two new features we like (and half a dozen that no one cares about) for me to take these statements at face value. Don't talk about doing great new things, MS, just do them.
Now all I can think about is Ballmer and Gates going all West Side Story on everyone
Nice one! Actually when it comes to Balmer all I can think about his him jumping up and down soaked in sweat screaming things like "developers, Developers, DEVELOPERS!". I've bumped into him a couple of times in Bellevue and each time I experienced a momentary wave of panic. -Some people are afraid of clowns, and I...
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