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  #1  
Old 04-16-2011, 07:30 PM
Steven McPherson
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Default Looking for a Good Rant on Windows Phone 7? Here's One...Maybe?

http://www.ithinkdiff.com/hey-micro...indows-phone-7/

"I love trying out new operating systems and gadgets. That's why I blog on technology. So despite any doubts I had on Microsoft's latest effort in the mobile arena, despite their history with Windows Mobile 6.5 (could have been way better than what it was) and KIN (duh!), I decided to give Windows Phone 7 a try."

If you are looking for a good rant on Windows Phone 7 you might want to check this out.  I went through each one of the rants in this article and while I find most of them accurate I also find that most of the comments are more related to this being a generation one OS than anything else.  In fairness, he points this out but I think by and large this is a great list of things that Microsoft could improve on.

Tops for me out of this article are:

  • Stop the Scrolling Madness:  The author has a lot of apps as do I and unfortunately I end up scrolling A LOT!  I realize this is more due to the clean simple UI of Windows Phone 7 and there is definitely a trade-off as soon as you start adding folders or drop down list or whatever.  I am not a UI genius, but I would love to see this improved.
  • Camera Settings Don't Save: This one was always a "Really?" to me.  I don't get it.  I don't think there is a good reason for the camera settings to not save.  
  • Dead Marketplace, Music and Video: I know this one is being worked on in "No-Do" but man that's aggravating and needs to be fixed.  

One's that I take issue with:

  • "Office is terrible. It's too basic and I'm unable to open a lot of simple Excel files which work on every other platform." - Ummm....I don't know what version of Office you are using but I love the version of Office on Windows Phone.  I am a OneNote fanatic and this app enables me to store my notebooks on a Windows Live SkyDrive and synchronize the whole NoteBook to my phone.  I can make changes where ever I am. Word, Excel and PowerPoint are awesome.  I have not idea how your docs are displaying correctly...especially Excel.  Seems way off to me.
  • "The ads are misleading. Taking photos with Windows Phone 7 is not faster than iPhone or even Android." - Might want to check the facts on this one as well.  This is a pretty well documented item.  You need only to look to Youtube and see the many demonstrations of this.   You can take a picture from "sleep mode" to "camera click" more quickly than any other platform.  So if you need to be quick on the draw in taking pictures Windows Phone is definitely the way to go.
  • "Slow apps. Try scrolling in the Facebook and Twitter apps. Elements will start disappearing if you scroll too fast. Also try zooming in and out, notice the choppiness? Is it the OS or the 1Ghz processor that fails to keep up with touch gestures?" - Umm....did you have bad phone?  I see none of what you are referring to.  My 1Ghz processor keeps up just fine.  As a matter of fact I've experienced this exact thing with Android phones, but yet to experience it with Windows Phone 7.

The one's that I put in the "Really?" Category:

  • "No virtual button in the camera app. Sure, you have a physical button but an option of a virtual shutter button wouldn't have done anyone any harm whatsoever. We're used to on screen keyboards and buttons so why don't you understand, Microsoft?" - No harm except clutter the UI.  I already have a camera button that my fingers already on...why do I need a button to start the camera?  This is definitely a personal preference (not judging) and it certainly wouldn't take a lot of screen real estate to plug one in, but I'm not sure its really needed.
  • "Brightness. Just low, medium and high. Why isn't there a slider for this? What age are we living in? I know you're a Nokia partner now, but you didn't have to take design cues from Nokia's series 40 phones." - Ummm...I'm going with personal preference here as well.  I never even touched the brightness since I've taken the thing out of the box.  I'm sure this will become an adaptive element as the hardware platform grows anyways, but I don't really need 100 different brightness elements as it might be with a slider.
  • "Resale value. Pathetic. The OS has had no positive impact on users so far. I’ve seen older Samsung Galaxy S handsets selling for more than Samsung Omnia 7." - I don't by a phone like I buy a car.  Resale value is not important to me, but doing a little research would show that you are off on this one.  I found Omnia 7's on eBay selling for $450+.

In fairness, I've think the author makes some pretty valid points and then he loses me on a few others with comments that might apply to a small set of users but really not necessarily to the masses.  There is a ton of room for improvement with Windows Phone 7, but I think Microsoft has done an astoundingly good job of releasing a version 1.0 product that gives users what they are looking for.  The OS is surely going to get better and Microsoft in my opinion has started with a version 1.0 product that is much more finished and complete than Android was.  They now have to tackle the refinement of the Apple's platform.

 
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Old 04-17-2011, 03:32 AM
txa1265
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Steven - I think that the fatal flaw is your 'assumption zero'. Twice you call this a '1.0 product'.

But even *Microsoft* doesn't call it that - I think you are buying the PR too much. It is called 'Windows Phone 7' ... which came after WiMo 6.5, 6.1, 6.0, 5.0 and so on back to the initial Pegasus devices in 1996.

Sure this is a reboot like they had to do with Win7 after one of the worst OS releases in history with Vista ... but it is still an OS with 15 years of history behind it.
 
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Old 04-17-2011, 03:57 PM
Steven McPherson
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Interesting but I'm not so sure that there's a real difference between a version 1.0 product and a "reboot" in this case. Experience that is gained from previous releases of the Windows Mobile OS is exactly what Microsoft needed to forget. Whether you call this a reboot or a version 1.0 product the difference is merely semantics. Microsoft had to go back to the drawing board throw out the core code and deliver a new product to market so as not lose the market. That sounds like a version 1.0 product to me.

We can argue about whether or not Microsoft's first attempt out the door was as a good as it should be or not but to me the distinction is clear. The product has issues, but Microsoft has also delivered a very compelling product with deep Microsoft Office, Zune and XBOX integration that makes this phone a leader.

BTW: Which Microsoft press are you referring to that I'm believing? :-)
 
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Old 04-17-2011, 04:02 PM
Lee Yuan Sheng
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I've spent some time with the Optimus 7, and I can agree with a lot of the above. Maybe I should write one of my own... :P
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Old 04-17-2011, 05:18 PM
txa1265
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Steven McPherson View Post
Interesting but I'm not so sure that there's a real difference between a version 1.0 product and a "reboot" in this case. Experience that is gained from previous releases of the Windows Mobile OS is exactly what Microsoft needed to forget. Whether you call this a reboot or a version 1.0 product the difference is merely semantics. Microsoft had to go back to the drawing board throw out the core code and deliver a new product to market so as not lose the market. That sounds like a version 1.0 product to me.

We can argue about whether or not Microsoft's first attempt out the door was as a good as it should be or not but to me the distinction is clear. The product has issues, but Microsoft has also delivered a very compelling product with deep Microsoft Office, Zune and XBOX integration that makes this phone a leader.

BTW: Which Microsoft press are you referring to that I'm believing? :-)
I think that calling WiMo 7 a 1.0 product is baloney. Same goes for ANY company making a successive product in a category in which they already offer products. Unless they fired everyone with any hands-on with earlier products, abandoned all the offices, reformatted the old disks, recycled all old products and shredded all documents ... it is still going to carry the legacy stuff along.

Actually I am not criticizing WiMo 7 - I agree that there is much to offer there, but since my work has a funky Exchange setup that won't work with the normal WiMo / iOS / WebOS / etc setups (only works with an app on Android), and Verizon doesn't have one ... I can't use it.

My main thing is that there is a certain amount of apologist stuff going on making excuses for missing features, slow updates and other issues based on treating MS like some sort of small-shop start-up. They aren't - they are a megalith with 15 years in this *exact* segment.

That's all I'm saying.
 
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