Comments on: Windows Mobile 7 to be “Revolutionary”

By: ast32

ast32 — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 20:24:56 +0000

They have an entire year to offer an amazing OS. Don't fail us again MS. Android 2.1 is out and iPhone is hardly a smart phone. Palm's new OS is a year out so that means they have room to easily improve in this OS war. I'm excited.

By: andrew

andrew — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 02:33:14 +0000

Here's what I worry about. What if 7 requires capacitive screens and the phones can't take stylus input? Then how do you actually work with the phone as opposed to viewing stuff and sending text messages? Does anyone know if stylus input will be possible?

By: manual_

manual_ — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 22:40:25 +0000

I doubt it's enough to give APIs ,drivers, SDK's or whatever to devs and expect good quality apps. Devs that take quality and app design seriously are an honorable exception rather than a rule. Good devs generally shouldn't fear restrictions as their apps will speak for themselves. Apart from some political decisions (like Google Voice) some control, coaching or precise gudelines are ok as they prevent flood of poorly designed apps that could possibly tarnish image of the device/os they are meant for. This is current state of WM where every dev uses own UI controls/paradigms. Which is possibly due to the lack of proper SDK. But no matter what the cause is WM7 shouldn't be a mess that WM is now. MS desperately needs to find a solution to this problem.

By: Chris

Chris — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:02:04 +0000

Thats not what i mean. Simple need not mean limited. With Apple you are limited, they take far far too much control. Its not as if the iPhone doesnt crash a lot anyway, it does, and when it does its a BIG pain.
WM needs a consistent set of APIs, drivers and a finger friendly front, but it doesnt need the heavy app restrictions, interface inflexibility and missing features that plague iPhone.

Apple make closed systems where all decisions are made for you, you dont need to think, and in reality, shouldnt too much. WM and Android (later) allow you to use your device your way

By: manual_

manual_ — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:57:12 +0000

"Apples stability is stability by limitation."
This is actually a good approach. If I can't make something work nicely because it has too many options and the outcome is a mess I prefer to keep it simple or even not do it at all untill I'll find a good solution. This is the path Apple seems to follow. Puting unusable or difficult to use things to the market results in making people frustrated – see the amount of bad comments WM gets (even if some people think there is a conspiracy against MS there are reasons for this bad publicity). Some people don't mind things being complicated. Most people, however will use "advanced" functions only when they'll be made simple. That's what Apple is doing. Making things simple. For me as a user consistent, stable and highly usable environment is a good thing even if it's achieved by limiting developers' freedom. Keeping things under control allows Apple to carefully shape its products in a way they want to. One of the sources of WM problems is MS' lack of any desire to control it.

By: Chris

Chris — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 10:36:14 +0000

Apples stability is stability by limitation. When there is less freedom in the OS and less apps that can mess things up you will have a stable system. The latter isnt so true for the iPhone, its more applicable to the desktops, but the former certainly is!
Apple have a LONG history of having apps banned for wild claims and misrepresentation. Personally i think any ad that has been banned or adjusted should have to have a public correction broadcast for it on prime time for 1 week. I notice that the O2 ad for the Palm Pre has also changed recently to remove the claim that its the only phone that can keep you connected to multiple social networks at the same time.

By: manual_

manual_ — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 09:08:03 +0000

Speaking of iPhone ads they were untrue because they showed unrealistic speed of the device. But I don't care if the device isn't exactly as snappy as in commercials. As long as the device performance is quick and doesn't annoy me I'm willing to forgive little lies. But in case of WM commercials those aren't "little lies";) Ads obviously doesn't show how annoying WM can be. And being able to compare Mac and Windows machine/OS directly (I was in same situation as you – mac@work/win@home) made me switch.

By: Jos Dewey

Jos Dewey — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 08:21:17 +0000

Haha, so true – and incidentally, you'll probably find more bandwagon jumpers on Twitter than anywhere else.

That whole site is filled with people who think their opinion means more than others'… hmm, maybe I should start Tweeting? :p

By: Jos Dewey

Jos Dewey — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 08:19:04 +0000

Yeah, I fell for the Mac thing for a few years back.

Then, after three years, my Macbook Pro just stopped working – it just went dead. And if that wasn't bad enough, when I went to look at what new model Apple had to offer me, they were still selling the same crap after three years, with just updated internals.

That, coupled with memories of the casing scolding my lap everytime I used it and denting every time I looked at it wrong, I crossed the street and bought myself an Asus and haven't been happier. I experienced first hand that Macs tend to freeze up and crash just as often as a decent Windows computer – the only problem is most people don't know how to keep Windows under control with updated drivers, free of viruses and malware.

So Apple shouldn't be advertising their machines as working smoothly and never crashing – they should advertise it as laymen-friendly because that's the biggest feature.

By: Jason

Jason — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 08:08:30 +0000

"Pessimists are usually more right than optimists….but optimists have more fun" – Robert Heinlein