Hi Folks,
I wanted to share a concern of mine here.
Now that Microsoft governs EVERY aspect of hardware, how should manufacturers differentiate their offerings?
Will it just be by price and color of the case?
Price, design and storage capacity.
Unfortunately, they didn't tell them how to design their phones. Look at that LG crap, it's soooo ugly... that's not how they will be able to compete with the iPhone, which is what are apparently trying.
(granted, the iPhone's design is getting stale, but at least it's not ugly)
Screen size, type and quality, quality of camera, storage size, battery... But yes, there won't be much left for differentiation, although I personally find it great.
Keyboard or not keyboard.
Though it seems the OS doesn't work in landscape mode. Sucks, I hope they figure this out (though I doubt it).
You doubt that WP7 will have landscape mode?
It doesn't have it now.
And yes, I doubt that it will have it.
(I mean FULL landscape mode, not only messages and browser)
It doesn't work in the emulator but I've seen it in videos. It doesn't move the application bar but rotates the buttons. I'd say it makes sense on widescreen displays...They would have to do something with the homescreen though.
I've seen it in my own apps. But I want it to work in the whole system, INCLUDING the homescreen and every other place.
C:Sharp! said:
I've seen it in my own apps. But I want it to work in the whole system, INCLUDING the homescreen and every other place.
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Hi,
this is an interesting direction this discussion is going.
I would think that they will have to support it somehow - lest manufacturers like LG will be unhappy.
On the other hand: the Pre has the exactly same issue. On it, many apps are portrait only and it has no issues with that.
How often do we really see someone (non poweruser) use the QWERTY? Be honest!
How often do we really see someone (non poweruser) use the QWERTY? Be honest!
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That's why I doubt WP7 will support it.
Microsoft is copying Apple's approach, which means they're not adding anything, unless lots of people want it.
I've written some apps for WP7 and landscape worked. But unless it works in the whole system, this OS is of no use to me.
TAMHAN said:
Hi Folks,
I wanted to share a concern of mine here.
Now that Microsoft governs EVERY aspect of hardware, how should manufacturers differentiate their offerings?
Will it just be by price and color of the case?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think they should differentiate by telling MS to screw their "specs" to some degree and put a d-pad/trackball/optical mouse on the front of the device where they belong. I like minimum hardware specs, but number of button specs and screen hardware is nonsense imo. Basically I want a device with multitouch resistive screen tech, and some sort of up-down-left-right control on the front of the device. Honestly, what would MS do if Samsung put an optical mouse and camera on the front of their device? Would they sue? I highly doubt it.
Let to OEM take care of their controls, and MS should just focus on making the software experience nice. I just upgraded to the Omnia II, and I'm missing a physical dpad in a HUGE way. I don't miss the kb all the much with swype, but this dpad thing was killing me. I remapped my volume rocker to up and down so it's not as bad...but if I couldn't do the same on a wp7 device <cringe>.
But to answer your question more directly...right now they'll have to focus on things like ergonomics and style. But I hope that the late success of the HD2 under t-mobile shows MS that people actually like the openness of WM they just didn't like the default device experience and that makes an impact on what wp7 will actually turn out to be.
gom99 said:
I think they should differentiate by telling MS to screw their "specs" to some degree and put a d-pad/trackball/optical mouse on the front of the device where they belong. I like minimum hardware specs, but number of button specs and screen hardware is nonsense imo. Basically I want a device with multitouch resistive screen tech, and some sort of up-down-left-right control on the front of the device. Honestly, what would MS do if Samsung put an optical mouse and camera on the front of their device? Would they sue? I highly doubt it.
Let to OEM take care of their controls, and MS should just focus on making the software experience nice. I just upgraded to the Omnia II, and I'm missing a physical dpad in a HUGE way. I don't miss the kb all the much with swype, but this dpad thing was killing me. I remapped my volume rocker to up and down so it's not as bad...but if I couldn't do the same on a wp7 device <cringe>.
But to answer your question more directly...right now they'll have to focus on things like ergonomics and style. But I hope that the late success of the HD2 under t-mobile shows MS that people actually like the openness of WM they just didn't like the default device experience and that makes an impact on what wp7 will actually turn out to be.
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Metro UI is perfect for d-pad use, and I think it's ridiculous that they don't seem to be supporting it.
gom99 said:
Let to OEM take care of their controls, and MS should just focus on making the software experience nice.
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Thanks but no thanks. First you allow d-pad and next you see programs (games mostly, but not only) that don't function well without it. You allow OEMs to add non-standard controls and they start making drivers themselve, mucking up OS-wide conventions and standards (like HTC is doing with hardware keys left and right).
A d-pad might be a nice feature but if it's there it should be on all devices.
vangrieg said:
Thanks but no thanks. First you allow d-pad and next you see programs (games mostly, but not only) that don't function well without it. You allow OEMs to add non-standard controls and they start making drivers themselve, mucking up OS-wide conventions and standards (like HTC is doing with hardware keys left and right).
A d-pad might be a nice feature but if it's there it should be on all devices.
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You and your fragmentation ...optional keyboards already exist...you don't think that will come into play on games and applications? You can't keep a uniform xbox experience for a phone like you can for a console...people like different control. Heck even consoles are fragmented control wise, controllers, joysticks, steering wheels, guns, etc.
Let the people choose their controls they want for the task at hand.
We've had this discussion before, you fix this issue by having good sdks that allow you to easily create an application where you can set your controls based on your device.
I defintely need hardware buttons so I won't buy one unless it has a hardware keyboard. But we've seen tons of Windows Mobile devices and they all look different. Other then buttons and UI I'm sure that will follow to WP7. 3" to 5" screens, 8GB,16GB,32GB,64GB space. Color, material, qwerty. These will all be differentiaters.
gom99 said:
We've had this discussion before, you fix this issue by having good sdks that allow you to easily create an application where you can set your controls based on your device.
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Absolutely. You can also require fallback controls for applications that require directional buttons - in the shape of on-screen d-pad, or other mechanisms, anything.
The problem is, there are no sdks and no requirements. Therefore I say - no, it should never be just up to manufacturers. It has to be delivered by the OS, with proper infrastructure in policies in place.
By the way, I've never seen any official requirement that the number of hardware keys is limited. There are mandatory keys, but nothing says there can't be more. Or does it? I know it's a popular idea in forums for sure, but there's no definitive source for this.
vangrieg said:
By the way, I've never seen any official requirement that the number of hardware keys is limited. There are mandatory keys, but nothing says there can't be more. Or does it? I know it's a popular idea in forums for sure, but there's no definitive source for this.
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They're looking for the uniformity of the device, especially what the front of the device looks like with it's 3 buttons and the big mistake here is the lack of a d-pad-type control.
Also Microsoft issued a response saying that the hd2 had "too-many" buttons at MIX. So they seem to be sticking to their enforcement of device hardware key uniformity. But in my opinion it's silly...I honestly don't know how people Tolerate using the iphone with 2 buttons and a rocker.
Personally, I like D-pads/optical & physical trackballs, an ok/enter button, some kind of home key, and voice command buttons. I use the physical keys to control my device more than the touch screen, alot of my phone usuage is "one-hand" usage...primarily just thumb use.
Well, I'm not sure the wording used by MS meant exactly that, but anyway. I've used two devices without d-pad, the HD and the HD2, and also prefer one-handed operation with my thumb as the primary control. I must say that I miss d-pad occasionally, but exactly because some software developers didn't think about ways of handling their control elements without it. And therein lies the problem - relying on d-pad is just easy. Therefore if you know that some devices won't have it, you must force developers to write software that will work using other control mechanisms.
vangrieg said:
Well, I'm not sure the wording used by MS meant exactly that, but anyway. I've used two devices without d-pad, the HD and the HD2, and also prefer one-handed operation with my thumb as the primary control. I must say that I miss d-pad occasionally, but exactly because some software developers didn't think about ways of handling their control elements without it. And therein lies the problem - relying on d-pad is just easy. Therefore if you know that some devices won't have it, you must force developers to write software that will work using other control mechanisms.
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Like you said I don't ever really miss the D-Pad until I use old applications that don't have good touch input set up. This is when I slide to landscape with my Touch Pro2 and use the arrow keys.
To differentiate themselves from other OEMS, they should produce better hardware. Hopefully this will drive the build quality of there devices thru the roof.
I am comfortable with my iPhone and have nothing against AT&T. I am thinking of moving to the EVO for its large screen and less expensive family plans.
However, I am afraid I may miss features I am used to having on my iPhone.
Can anyone answer these two questions I haven't found answers to yet?
1. Do you from you list of contacts pick a list called favorites to more easily dial from than going through all contacts?
2. While typing (or replying to) email, can you select a block of text and then cut and paste it?
If anyone who knows both phones knows of other things I may miss from the iPhone let me know please. I went to the Sprint store yesterday but the sales person really wasn't helpful - he tried but did not know a lot.
HTC Sense has a favorite's widget you can use and there is a list of favorites when you bring up your contact list as well. I don't personally use it but some might find it handy.
Selecting text is definitely different than the iphone...it's not somthing I've found myself doing often so I can't answer that personally but I know the option is there to enter a "Select Text" mode when you long press on some text.
I came from the iPhone and left it when the 3Gs came out and the thing you'll probably need adjusting to is the game selection...android market is improving on that but it's not been around as much so it's lagging a little behind in that aspect.
Lastly, the one thing I missed absolutely most when I made the switch was the keyboard...I've yet to find a keyboard that does prediction as good at the iPhone's keyboard for the tap-to-type method.
However, if you're willing to try a different method, Swype has some distinct advantages for typing on a screen (look once for the first letter in a word and look away while dragging your thumb around the screen in the rough shape of where you think the keys would be and it works great for me).
Ultimately, I would conclude that the phones are just different...it's like going from Mac (in it's current incarnation) to Linux. There's some things they do share in common but a lot of what they do, they just do it differently and both pretty well.
Hi all... Well im new here and im glad to find tech fanatics like myself .. I joined in to find ways to make my phone better but i found myself spending most of my time here on wp7 forums.. Im interested in buying one but i have some concerns and i hope someone helps me here...
I need the arabic language so is there any word about an official rom yet? And if yes when will that be?
Im in a place where ppl forgot sms and started using whatsapp instead.. I looked it up and to my surprise i found that microsoft didnt provide APIs that enables apps to access the phone address, which is the core feature of whatsapp... Does anyone know when will it be possible to have whatsapo on a wp7 phone?
And thnx in advance
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not sure about when you'll get arabic support. the phone can already support it in the fact that your contacts can have the arabic characters in them, and you can receive messages in them, but just can't type in them.
as for extending the APIs to support more features, I believe that PIM and Socket support were two of the most popular requested features and we will probably hear more about it at MIX 2011 conference where hopefully MS reveals additional APIs to support this sort of thing, which would hopefully solve your "whatsapp" issue.
Believe me: I was just like this! I came here to see tips to my android, and caught myself look more and more in WP7 forums. And Brazil, Portuguese, is not supported too.
About the Arabic keyboard, you might look this: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=917886
If you Chevron Unlock your phone you can install your own language. That should do it. The only problem is.. Will it work after update? So, or you will be stuck before the Copy n Paste update, or they will find a solution and you will have the best without losing your configs. Anyway, I have an Android, an iPhone 4 and WP7. For sure WP7 have become my favorite one.
I dont miss copy n paste. And I love the Metro UI and all notification system (though it can be better, using the led).
About WhatsApp.. I think they are not that cool with this atitude. Yes, Microsoft API doesn't support their way to work. Okay, so, why not do the app another way? You could input the number!
So yes, there is another way, even if it is worse. But you have the option, at least. They just don't want it. Or maybe they are working in it.
Seriously, you wont regret trading your Android for WP7. Trust me (;
Maybe I am missing something but I can't get the autocorrect feature on any of my keyboards (including Swiftkey) to work inside S-Notes.
Did Samsung design this to actually disable any autocorrect on any keyboard? Why would they do that?
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Wow, 149 views and no one has any idea?
Is it actually possible that Samsung has intentionally disabled autocorrect by ANY keyboard in S-Notes? I love Samsung hardware but on the software side they continually make choices which confound. It's not that they write bad software. It's that they seem to PURPOSEFULLY make choices which harm the user. For instance, how hard would it be to give users the ability to create and save their own templates? How about typing styles? It would be incredibly simple yet they choose not to.
I am beginning to think Samsung hired the same guy who decided getting rid of the Start Button in Windows 8 was a brilliant idea to run their software development as well.
** Or it could be that Samsung's idea of "Customer Feedback" is an utterly lame Facebook page that looks like it is manned by high school students? They don't even have Forums for God's sake! S-Notes could have been a OneNote killer yet they just sort of said, "Nah, let's make it suck instead..."
Frustrated. S-Notes has been out for a while now and apparently they have no intention of improving it.
I never looked into it because I don't like autuocorrect. But I would checked either in the keyboard or language settings. It's probably something you just need to turn on.
I guess I'm not understanding exactly what you want. I use the stock Samsung keyboard and the Kii keyboard from the play store and they both have the suggested words pop up and try to correct my spelling when I either type things out using the keyboard or use the s pen in handwriting mode using the s note app. I'm on stock deodexed MA7. What are you wanting it to do?
he wants autocorrect where it automatically makes corrections even if he doesn't use the suggested words.
Same here!... I thought Swiftkey would mend this problem, but it DIDN'T !!!!
So only in S-Note even Swiftkey refuses to give suggestions and/ or autocorrection.
I'm really angry, 'cause I sort of planned on using it.
But since it already got on my nerves, that I constantly had to change from drawing mode to keyboard input whenever I opened a note, although the pen was not drawn(!), it's probably time to look into another app.