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  #1  
Old 06-18-2010, 04:00 AM
Jason Dunn
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Default No Gyroscope in Windows Phone 7: Do We Care?

http://www.electronista.com/article...oscope.support/

"Windows Phone 7 won't support gyroscope functions in earlier devices, Microsoft's Brandon Watson said in a Channel9 interview. The OS may have it eventually, but not at launch, and Watson agrees it's a good idea. The issue was brought up by the inclusion of a gyroscope in iPhone 4, which will support it immediately."

Image courtesy of Clipart Etc.

One of the criticisms that has been levelled at Windows Phone 7 is that the hardware specifications matched up where to where Apple was with the iPhone in 2009 - and in many ways surpassed it. But now that the iPhone 4 has been announced, and will be out shortly, the official Windows Phone 7 specs don't look quite so good in comparison. To be sure, they're still a high bar compared to many phones on the market, but with the iPhone 4's Retina screen boasting around 60% more pixels than a WVGA screen, Apple has the high ground again. One of the hardware features in the iPhone 4 that Windows Phone 7 lacks is a gyroscope - a device that performs functions similar to that of an accelerometer, but does so with greater precision.

So, does anyone care? Frankly, I think the screen deficit is far more significant - having or not having a gyroscope isn't going to sell or not sell Windows Phone 7 devices.

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Old 06-18-2010, 04:27 AM
Fritzly
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I wonder when this agony will end....
A much better strategy would have been to announce clearly and in one session what this device will have and will not.
The way MS is handling it is way more damaging.
 
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  #3  
Old 06-18-2010, 01:38 PM
Craig Horlacher
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I agree the screen real estate is more valuable than the gyro but Apple took it too far with the retina. They did a disservice to customers by making it too high to be fully useful.

I'm basing this on the DPI. The iPhone 4 has 326DPI. My last device had a 4" 480x640 screen which is a 200dpi. This was great! I could make things small in application and completely utilize the screen real estate that was available. My current device has a 2.8" 640x480 screen which is 285.7dpi. This is too high, at least for me. The way I know is text at the same settings in the same applications is no longer easily readable. That means I had to set the applications to use font sizes that are one step higher. That means I can't see as much on the screen at a time, which defeats the practical purpose of having high screen resolution.

So, for what it's worth, in my experience the sweet spot would be somewhere between 200dpi and 285dpi.

Another drawback is it may get lower frame rates on animation and video because it takes more horsepower to push out those extra pixels that aren't being well used.

I just think the retina is more proof that Apple is more marketing than engineering. They realized they were behind the game with their screen resolution. Steve J. insisted they had to be higher than everyone else. Now they are and the only result is they're customers are paying more for their screens then everyone else with no real added benefit at that screen size.

I'll give Apple props for their battery in the iPhone. I think htc and moto really need to put more effort into that. I sure hope the Moto Droid X has good battery life.

It will be interesting to see what the WinPho7 devices are really like when they're actually released in comparison to everything else that will be out there by the time they are.
 
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Old 06-18-2010, 04:42 PM
subzerohf
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I don't think the extra dpi on the iPhone 4 will do a diservice to the customers. Because an application written for the iPhone can pretty much be ported to the iPad without any stretching. The iPhone 4 resolution almost matches that on an iPad. Besides, the chip and ram on the iPhone 4 have been upgraded significantly. The bottom line is end-user experience. We shall see how the iPhone compares to a WinMo 7 phone in those terms, hopefully in the next few months. Then I will decide whether to switch back to Win Mo
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Old 06-19-2010, 04:31 AM
caywen
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Default Resolution is not a huge deal

At some point, higher resolution gives diminishing returns in terms of overall usability. There is a reason why so many people keep buying 320x480 iPhones instead of higher resolution Android devices.

I think the difference between 800x480 and 960x640 really isn't going to be very striking on a 3.5" screen. So many other factors are going to far outweigh the resolution difference.

That said, iPhone is sure to continue its domination, and WP7 will likely take a good 2 years to become truly competitive. Microsoft needs to open the lower layers of its SDK's so that 3rd party game dev tools like Unity and GarageGames can start to add real value. Microsoft's XNA-only strategy here is misguided.

Microsoft also needs to tie the next WinPhone (8?) to Xbox 4 in a huge way. And start striking some serious media deals to put Zune Marketplace on par with iTunes.

Finally, WinPhone8 needs to integrate with Windows 8 in really interesting and useful ways.

If they can do that, they can succeed in their 3-5 year timeframe they gave themselves. Otherwise, it's all a waste of time, because iPhone has the brand and Android is the commodity.
 
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Old 06-20-2010, 04:28 PM
Deslock
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Quote:
Originally Posted by vector View Post
I agree the screen real estate is more valuable than the gyro but Apple took it too far with the retina. They did a disservice to customers by making it too high to be fully useful.
It's nonsensical to say that's a disservice unless there's a noticeable performance hit, decrease in battery life, cost increase, or sizing/scaling issues.

As far as performance goes, we don't know yet if iPhone4 will be fast enough to render all those pixels smoothly, but it is reportedly zippy.

The cost is known and isn't an issue.

Battery life is reportedly good.

That leaves scaling, and anyone who has used an iPhone or iPad knows that it's not an issue. Things were hard to read on my hx4705 and Axim X50v, but they didn't size webpages dynamically (or quickly and conveniently like iOS does; no worrying about font sizes... just drag and zoom) and because iPhone4 quadrupled the pixels, apps that don't scale well will simply be quadrupled (but look better due to the extra anti-aliasing for most text and graphics... having seen this in action on the iPad, I can tell you it works).

Quote:
Originally Posted by vector View Post
I just think the retina is more proof that Apple is more marketing than engineering. They realized they were behind the game with their screen resolution. Steve J. insisted they had to be higher than everyone else.
Obviously the resolution was chosen to maintain compatibility with existing apps. They knew they had to step it up because of competition from high-end Android devices. But yes the term "retina" is more of Apple's puke inducing marketing (like "magical"). I don't think that supports your assertion that Apple is more marketing than engineering.
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