Digital Compass never to be supported in the Dell Venue Pro

November 18, 2011 | By Surur

dellvpnocompass

The Chassis 1 specification for Windows Phone 7 demanded a Digital Compass, but the feature has not become available to developers until Mango.

The recent Mango update for the Dell Venue Pro however did not enable the feature for 3rd party developers, and now Dell’s support on Twitter has confirmed the feature will not be supported.

We know the Dell Venue Pro has a functioning compass. In fact there are homebrew apps which allow one to use it. Dell did not explain why, but it appears to be just another move by a company in the process of abandoning their customers.

Via WPCentral.com

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About Surur

Site Admin and Windows Phone enthusiast, he has been using Windows Mobile devices since before they were called PocketPC’s. He is currently sporting a HTC 7 Trophy.

Tagged dell, dell venue pro, digital compass, windows phone 7.5

Anonymous

Curses, there goes full support for Augmented Reality on Dell Venue Pro. Seems like Dell has lost their edge.

http://fxfp.com/ Alex F.

They never had any edge.

Anonymous

Alot of people who owns an Omnia 7 also don’t have a proper working compass, I.e. North faces south. Fragmentation starting to happen sadly.

http://fxfp.com/ Alex F.

Clearly you have no idea what ‘fragmentation’ means.

Anonymous

Correct me if I’m wrong but WP7 was to have the same experience on multiple devices… With lack of working hardware on some devices that limits its ability to use an app properly, while others can, how isnt that fragmentation? I think it’s clear that you dont know what fragmentation means. And its not microsofts fault, not in this case, it’s the bloody oems!

http://fxfp.com/ Alex F.

WP7 has same SOFTWARE experience on multiple devices. Difference in hardware however should exist and is not fragmentation – it is an important way for differentiation for OEMs, so that they can create phones that stand above competition. Nobody ever claimed that all Windows Phones will have compass (or get compass drivers at exactly the same time).

As long as the same apps (and same OS) run on all hardware – it is not fragmentation. Obviously some apps won’t work without compass (or front facing camera or gyro) because they are intended to work with it – but that is normal. The key here is to handle lack of hardware gracefully – and both WP OS APIs and Marketplace do it well.

Fragmentation in mobile space is better explained with Android – where different phones get different updates at different times and get abandoned at unspecified different time intervals. Windows Phone however is following Apple model of generations, where entire experience is much more predictable.

P.S. Omnia 7 compass issue should be fixed when the updated firmware finally rolls out (I think all phones should get it by the end of November).

Anonymous

Compass was a requirement for first-gen phones:
http://www.gsmarena.com/windows_phone_7_hardware_requirements_confirmed_two_wp7_phones_and_an_htc_hd3_rumor-news-1513.php
While what you say is true, and im hoping this firmware you speak of does fix the Omnia 7s compass, what about the dell venue pro owners? Lack of compass support is still a form of fragmentation that affects consumers, even tho this type of fragmentation isnt to do the the core OS. Its a tragedy that the buyers of the venue pro were expecting the same overall experience since they paid pretty much the same as every other first Gen phone.
Anonymous

Actually, Deodorant is correct. Most of what you have stated is also true, but not everything. Fragmentation rears its ugly head every time a developer needs to deal with potential variability in hardware AND/OR operating system configurations. For most types of apps, hardware variability is less difficult to deal with. Nevertheless, both hardware and OS variability are fragmentation! Depending on the types of differences, dealing with these (from a developers perspective) can be trivial or very work intensive and costly. Many in the android community state that the only people who care about fragmentation are geeks and software developers, i.e. for the average consumer fragmentation is irrelevant. In theory that is true, but it falls down in practice. At some point on the scale of rising hardware and OS variability, developers can no longer commit the resources required to ensure their products work as intended, across the entire range of differing hardware / OS combinations. This is a point the android community reached long ago. At that point, everyone suffers (usability issues, incompatibilities, more bugs), not just developers.

Finally, it is impossible to provide the same SOFTWARE experience on differing hardware! You can certainly offer identical software, but the experience of using it will be different. If what you stated was possible, there would never be a reason to buy new hardware. Also, the hardware variability you deem important for OEM’s to differentiate themselves with, is actually Illegal in the WP ecosystem. Most developers are more than happy about that. That is why the core specs of WP7 devices (CPU, GPU, i.e the SoC), to this day, are practically identical. The only thing OEM’s are legally free to differ on is wheather to use a 1GHz or a 1.4GHz version of the same processor… that is ALL.

http://www.facebook.com/chuckwhit Chuck Whitaker

Yes technically this is fragmentation but on a very low scale, when comparing to Android this is nothing of concern. I feel this is more of Dells problem since this is a Dell manufactured product.

http://twitter.com/Koki_v3 Koki_v3

Works fine on my Omnia 7.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=816451109 Mitchell Jared Skurnik

I am preparing documents to present a lawyer next week. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1352885 for more information.
http://twitter.com/ymala1 Yasir Alam

Everybody who purchased an ATT DVP should take to twitter and give this guy hell. He may not be responsible, but I know he was big in the development of the DVP in Dell, and he currently seems to be their mouthpiece on the issue.
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