10-20-2010, 06:29 PM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 1,043
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jason Dunn
I know this won't make you any less grumpy - because that's what you enjoy - but in all the years of using the Zune software to transfer photos, music, and very large videos, I've never had a single corrupted photos, music or video file. I think there's much ado about nothing here.
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Much ado about nothing for you, and that's great. My wife has a small Zune, don't know what generation, but it has a little colour screen and can play movies - though she never uses that function, just uses MP3s for running, hour-long electronica tracks she customises for correct tempo in Audacity. It's a fairly minimal usage pattern for her, as she only adds or removes a track once in a while, might sometimes go a month or more without changing anything. But the Zune software has twice in the past two years automagically deleted some in one case, all in the other. She's completely at a loss as to explain this behavior. She's just connected, changed something, later disconnected the Zune once charged to take it on a run... and there's nothing there to listen to. She's no tech wizard, but as I said, she's at least somewhat familiar with running fairly sophisticated programs like Audacity. The Zune software confuses us both however, as it sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. She's kept it updated to current versions always. The device itself seems to work great, she's actually very happy with the hardware. The lack of an in-track bookmarking function, which she got very used to while 'borrowing' our daughter's iPod Nano, is something of an irritation... but that's way off topic I know.
You say that storing PIM data 'in the cloud' is something about which there ought to be no real fuss. If I understand you correctly, you seem to be comfortable letting someone else manage your contacts storage. Many people are not. We're in a transitional phase and I appreciate that. Many people are going to Facebook, Gmail, and other resources to store and share data. But for my 800+ contacts and my appointments I prefer to keep both storage and control of that data local, not away in some managed server where I have no real control over security or stability. In this case it's not about bandwidth, as you say, that is relatively trivial for PIM data. It's about privacy and control, and not wanting to relinquish either to Microsoft nor to anyone else. Those contacts aren't just my data, they're information about hundreds of people who don't necessarily grant permission for me to store said information 'in the cloud.'
I'm hardly prepared for the legal ramifications should some criminal employee in another country decide to sell such information to spammers, for example, or worse, to use it for identity theft. Control isn't about grumpiness or any other sort of attitude Jason, it's just about control, a legitimate concern these days, when data theft is all around us, and the consequences can be grave indeed.
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Gerard Ivan Samija
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10-20-2010, 07:47 PM
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Executive Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 29,160
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Gerard
Much ado about nothing for you, and that's great. My wife has a small Zune, don't know what generation, but it has a little colour screen and can play movies...But the Zune software has twice in the past two years automagically deleted some in one case, all in the other. She's completely at a loss as to explain this behavior.
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You're seriously complaining about a once-a-year bug?  Come on, software isn't perfect - it has bugs - and weird things happen now and then. It sucks that it happens, but I can't think of a single app that NEVER has issues. The Zune software is among the most reliable I've found, even if it's not 100% perfect.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gerard
You say that storing PIM data 'in the cloud' is something about which there ought to be no real fuss. If I understand you correctly, you seem to be comfortable letting someone else manage your contacts storage. Many people are not.
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Actually, I sort of agree with you - although personally I use hosted Exchange, so all my PIM data is up in the cloud, I just access it via desktop Outlook 2010 - I feel Microsoft made the wrong choice by focusing solely on the cloud. It will leave some users out in the cold, which is unfortunate. If you're using desktop Outlook, you're pretty much SOL.
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10-20-2010, 08:11 PM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 1,043
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My daughter's now-ancient iPod Nano (going on 4 years now maybe) has been 'fed' reliably using SharePod. Before that she used YamiPod for a few years, until finding it didn't get along with her new Macbook, but there were no losses, no bothersome glitches in all that time. For my part I've never had an issue with XnView in editing thousands upon thousands of images over the past 8 years or so. The software just works, and the recent versions provide ever-deeper functionality, still freeware, still reliable. nPOPuk gets my mail, keeps my mail, sends my mail. As I help develop this program I do test a lot of beta versions for new functionalities, and in those there are rare glitches, but in hundreds of test builds I've not lost one piece of email in over 4 years. Reliable software isn't as rare as you seem to find, but of course that depends on which softwares you run. I tend to use stuff which works better than average, uninstalling anything which does not. So Outlook hasn't been on my PC for a number of years... lost too many contacts, had too many doubled mysteriously, forcing searches for possible fixes. Microsoft's OS versions I'm more or less stuck with, owing to addictions to certain programs only available for Windows. And in fact I am VERY pleased with Windows 7 Ultimate N on my Asus netbook. It's been a rock. So what I'd like to see is Microsoft attempting similar reliability in their synch software. From what I've seen with Zune, that's not quite it. Losing data once per year may not seem a big deal to you, but I don't have time for that kind of junk, the hours upon hours one must dedicate to finding fixes, if at all.
Windows Mobile running standalone (with swappable storage card for keeping files in synch and making backups) suits my usage just fine. My reason for protesting in this thread regarding non-removable storage in WP7 is simple; it is one of a handful of reasons not to make the jump to this platform. Others being the heavy emphasis around social networking which I find irrelevant, the lack of access to open source/freeware applications (unless such developers decide to cough up cash for the 'right' to distribute through the MS store), and of course the lack of access to 'legacy' WM software, much of which is not being re-defined for WP7, and for at least the first year or two, similar functionalities not being available for WP7. Starting over with a new platform could be attractive, if that platform were supported by more than just flashy media and chat apps. But going back to the spartan software selection we had with the PPC in 2000 doesn't really appeal when there are better ways to spend one's time than playing catch-up.
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Gerard Ivan Samija
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10-21-2010, 03:02 AM
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Sage
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 740
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jason Dunn
PIM stuff - calender, contacts, email - is all cloud based now, yes, but compared to media synching PIM stuff is bandwidth light. I really don't understand the problem here.
Anyway, this is getting rather off topic, but I think the reality is that some people don't like change, don't want to change, and will refuse to change their ways while the rest of the world moves on. I see that in this thread, but no one is putting a gun to your head and forcing you to buy a WP7 phone.
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I am very well aware that through Zune I can sync my media to the desktop; my concerns are about Office and Onenote docs; in the real World many people and companies do not want or cannot do this.
You are right on one thing though: I got my first electronic PIM in 1982, hardly the description of someone who follows the rest of the World.....
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10-21-2010, 04:40 AM
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Executive Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 29,160
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Fritzly
I am very well aware that through Zune I can sync my media to the desktop; my concerns are about Office and Onenote docs; in the real World many people and companies do not want or cannot do this.
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I concur - the lack of an easy way to sync files to the device really sucks. I'm hoping someone will create a Dropbox client for WP7!
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10-23-2010, 04:25 PM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Aug 2005
Posts: 170
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I do not consider myself an advanced user, although I have flashed ROM's and the such. I would say more of an intermediate user that uses my devices to about 80% of their capabilities. The biggest issue I have with WP7 is the fact that M$ has changed course considerably with this new strategy. Too much in my opinion.
The main reason that I have preferred Windows Mobile over every other platform since my first WinCE device back in the early 90's, is FLEXIBILITY. Poke, prod, customize, swap storage cards etc.
Nuff said, I need to go and have a good cry.
P.S. Perhaps I will work on a nice eulogy when I have some time.
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Canadian Road Warrior
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10-23-2010, 06:37 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Jan 2008
Posts: 21
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Win Phone 7
I don't text or gab on the phone. I use my hacked Wizard like a laptop and have 8 2GB storage cards that I was looking forward to selling on eBay after I got the new T-mobile HTC-7. This no-swap SD card thing is a deal killer for me.
My new plan is to wait till the give away the HTC HD2 with the McDonald's Happy Meal and hack that phone with a smooth ROM.
Since my business takes me between Seattle & Los Angeles, and all my data is confidential by law. I can't risk loading it on MS Cloud.
What a bummer!
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10-24-2010, 08:33 PM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 1,043
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That is a really good point, the secure data comment. With any newer WM device, it's possible to go into Settings > System > Encryption and check the box which encrypts any and all data written to the storage card. This option has a warning, that encrypted data will ONLY be readable from that card within this same phone - which seems a bit risky to me in case of phone damage - and so it should be first backed up to an alternate secure location.
For my part, I've trusted Resco Explorer's encryption for some years, and before that used Lucifer. Not much in either case, mostly just to see if it works as I don't have anything secret to store... but having done a review once for pocketnow.com on Lucifer it seemed natural to test other options for file encryption. Resco's uncompressed and compressed file encryption seems quite solid. I experienced corruption of data in one instance some years ago, that's all.
But for a business/government agency user, having an encryptable, removable storage card seems a good idea. Maybe that's one of the motivators for MS preserving limited support for WM devices, as such agencies might be a bit leary of handing out devices without the encrypted card data option.
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Gerard Ivan Samija
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Linear Mode
