Just played with a WP7 phone, what a treat!

[TheStu]

Ignorant to the facts - followed by saying iOS came out 5 years ago (it was announced 4 years ago, released just under 3.5 years ago, that's a big difference).

Android didn't have their act together until 2.1, which only just came out a year ago, people tend to forget that. For as much as people rail on copy and paste, iOS didn't have it until last year, and even now Android's implementation isn't great.

Anyway, you have to realize the double edged sword. Before WP7 came out, the naysayers were gnashing their teeth that Microsoft was too slow, Microsoft needs to be in the marketplace now, the market is getting saturated, its getting too late, etc. Now they released under the strategy that they might not be quite at feature-parity with everyone else, but that what they do, they'd do well. They accomplished that - and then there are people like you kicking and screaming that they should have waiting to release at all. There's literally no winning with people that want to find a negative no matter what.

Also, regarding Verizon, you have to realize that that's just how they are. They said over and over that they didn't need the iPhone because they sold so many Android phones, and now suddenly its their baby. I can assure you once there are WP7 devices on the Verizon shelves (which, by the way, will launch with C&P), they will change their tune, and quickly.

They announced multitasking, IE9, and Kinect integration. You honestly don't think those are big announcements? That this year we'll get the addition of one of the most-missed features on the platform, as well as a huge improvement to the already solid browser?

Frankly, if someone feels the need to go to lengths to defend themselves as not being a Microsoft hater, when no one was accusing them as such, says something. Are you trying to convince yourself or us?

I think it says a lot that as a person that really loves OS X and the iPhone, I chose WinMoPho when I was ready for a new phone. They are doing some really interesting things with the UI that I can't wait to see play out even further, the typography and iconography wipe the floor with Android, and the keyboard is top notch (I keep hitting 'n' when I go for the spacebar though, need to work on that).

There are things that it does that I wish iOS did, such as facebook integration into the People Hub (and it only gives updates from people in my address book, so I don't have to hear about how some band I 'liked' is on tour in Scotland or something), the ease of navigation on the Zune player like swipe left/right for previous/next, the next 3 songs to be played, and of course the Zune marketplace if you have a ZunePass.

Also, really liking the back button, didn't think that I would.

 

[RedRooster]

You guys better stop talking about WP7, I'm on the verge of purchasing!

For anyone that listens to podcasts though, the one(very rare) thing I like about iTunes is the podcast subscriptions. How do podcasts work with the Zune software you install in Windows? Are there still subscriptions, or do you have to download them from their websites all the time and then sych em in the software?

 

[preslove]

I think it says a lot that as a person that really loves OS X and the iPhone, I chose WinMoPho when I was ready for a new phone. They are doing some really interesting things with the UI that I can't wait to see play out even further, the typography and iconography wipe the floor with Android, and the keyboard is top notch (I keep hitting 'n' when I go for the spacebar though, need to work on that).

There are things that it does that I wish iOS did, such as facebook integration into the People Hub (and it only gives updates from people in my address book, so I don't have to hear about how some band I 'liked' is on tour in Scotland or something), the ease of navigation on the Zune player like swipe left/right for previous/next, the next 3 songs to be played, and of course the Zune marketplace if you have a ZunePass.

Also, really liking the back button, didn't think that I would.

Wow, that is saying something.

If Nokia puts out a sexy WP7 phone in America with a good keyboard during my upgrade window, I am so getting it. Hopefully WP7 will have integrated Ovi maps by then, too. Free turn by turn navigation is one thing about android that is really really awesome.

 

[TheStu]

Wow, that is saying something.

If Nokia puts out a sexy WP7 phone in America with a good keyboard during my upgrade window, I am so getting it. Hopefully WP7 will have integrated Ovi maps by then, too. Free turn by turn navigation is one thing about android that is really really awesome.

Allegedly turn by turn is coming to Bing Maps, which aren't too bad as it is. They do have the nice feature of giving you landmarks in addition to street names (turn left onto Street Ave, at Sunoco station)

 

[gar655]

Got one for my wife for Xmas. She's not a techie. I didn't want to spend the money for the iPhone. Android is way too complicated for her.

I agree that the WP7 UI is slick, fast and easy to use. Especially for a Gen 1 product.

 

[Deeko]

You guys better stop talking about WP7, I'm on the verge of purchasing!

For anyone that listens to podcasts though, the one(very rare) thing I like about iTunes is the podcast subscriptions. How do podcasts work with the Zune software you install in Windows? Are there still subscriptions, or do you have to download them from their websites all the time and then sych em in the software?

You subscribe through the Zune software and it will automatically download and sync them.

 

[TheStu]

You guys better stop talking about WP7, I'm on the verge of purchasing!

For anyone that listens to podcasts though, the one(very rare) thing I like about iTunes is the podcast subscriptions. How do podcasts work with the Zune software you install in Windows? Are there still subscriptions, or do you have to download them from their websites all the time and then sych em in the software?

If you tell the Zune software to watch the iTunes folder, it will auto add all your stuff, and it can get the podcasts from there.

 

[RedRooster]

Dang, that pretty much covers those off. Just checked the Zune site, it has all the podcasts I listen to anyways.
Is the LG Optimus a half decent phone? Its the only one I see people selling around here, must've been a truck highjacked or something. They outnumber every other windows phone 10:1 in the lightly used market.

 

[TheStu]

Dang, that pretty much covers those off. Just checked the Zune site, it has all the podcasts I listen to anyways.
Is the LG Optimus a half decent phone? Its the only one I see people selling around here, must've been a truck highjacked or something. They outnumber every other windows phone 10:1 in the lightly used market.

The Optimus is on TMo I think... there is also the HD7, but that thing is huge IMO. Definitely head to a store and check them out.

 

[RedRooster]

I've seen the Samsung in action, love the interface.
Up in Canada our Optimus' are very cheap and are the 850/1900 version, like your AT&T. Whereas the HD7s are hard to find and the eBay ones are only TMobile it looks like.
Just something to get my feet wet with until the second gen handsets come out. I'd imagine the experience is almost identical across all the devices considering they're all specced the same. Just don't want the ONE windows 7 phone that everyone thinks is a heap of junk, if there is, that'd be just my luck.

 

[TheStu]

I've seen the Samsung in action, love the interface.
Up in Canada our Optimus' are very cheap and are the 850/1900 version, like your AT&T. Whereas the HD7s are hard to find and the eBay ones are only TMobile it looks like.
Just something to get my feet wet with until the second gen handsets come out. I'd imagine the experience is almost identical across all the devices considering they're all specced the same. Just don't want the ONE windows 7 phone that everyone thinks is a heap of junk, if there is, that'd be just my luck.

The experience is the same across all of them, though the HTC YouTube app is better than the Microsoft one, and is obviously only available on HTC phones.

 

[finbarqs]

I just want my dell venue pro on sprint

 

[zerocool84]

The experience is the same across all of them, though the HTC YouTube app is better than the Microsoft one, and is obviously only available on HTC phones.

Yep the HTC version is great. I have it on my rooted phone.

 

[TheStu]

Yep the HTC version is great. I have it on my rooted phone.

They have it for Android too? I'll have to put it on my Incredible then, though I want to get CM onto it first.

 

[her209]

I hope Samsung brings the Omnia 7 or one similar to it to Sprint.

 

[chocobosandwich]

Ignorant to the facts - followed by saying iOS came out 5 years ago (it was announced 4 years ago, released just under 3.5 years ago, that's a big difference).

Android didn't have their act together until 2.1, which only just came out a year ago, people tend to forget that. For as much as people rail on copy and paste, iOS didn't have it until last year, and even now Android's implementation isn't great.

Anyway, you have to realize the double edged sword. Before WP7 came out, the naysayers were gnashing their teeth that Microsoft was too slow, Microsoft needs to be in the marketplace now, the market is getting saturated, its getting too late, etc. Now they released under the strategy that they might not be quite at feature-parity with everyone else, but that what they do, they'd do well. They accomplished that - and then there are people like you kicking and screaming that they should have waiting to release at all. There's literally no winning with people that want to find a negative no matter what.

Also, regarding Verizon, you have to realize that that's just how they are. They said over and over that they didn't need the iPhone because they sold so many Android phones, and now suddenly its their baby. I can assure you once there are WP7 devices on the Verizon shelves (which, by the way, will launch with C&P), they will change their tune, and quickly.

They announced multitasking, IE9, and Kinect integration. You honestly don't think those are big announcements? That this year we'll get the addition of one of the most-missed features on the platform, as well as a huge improvement to the already solid browser?

Frankly, if someone feels the need to go to lengths to defend themselves as not being a Microsoft hater, when no one was accusing them as such, says something. Are you trying to convince yourself or us?

When people openly say they are ignoring my posts, I would think there is more than just a little ignorance going on. I've also linked and defended my arguments thoroughly enough about the lackluster WP7 climate. And referring to early adoption. When you have people like dougp defending the platform by saying all these requisite features are "yawn" and that iOS didn't have them when it started which makes it okay for WP7, an OS coming a good 4-5 years later, to not have them at all, well you see why I think some of you people are really living in your own fantasy land. The lack of negatives and failures into features propaganda really is something. And really, no one is even remotely hinting that I am an MS hater, right after my first post? Even if not, its just proper tact, and that "lengths to defend themselves" drivel is just a textbook poor excuse to not address the other party's valid concerns. Thw WP7 platform is not perfect, but some people just don't want to hear the flaws, because it conflicts with their own self-worth.

And guess what? I'm gonna "go to lengths to defend themselves" again by saying that I've owned a Samsung Wave Bada phone, but most of my time in the Bada forums involved pointing out the shortcomings of the platform, to the Bada sheeple's dismay, and telling all the frequent anti-Apple, anti-HTC, anti-Motorola people to go jump off a cliff. I don't know if it is some defense mechanism, for people to join a certain group and blindly rage about the infallibility of the group they belong to, but it is stupid. And I thought WP7 would have more functionally balanced users than screaming Android fans.

 

[cbn]

Coming from a Droid Incredible, I must say the WP7 experience beats the pants off of Android quite thoroughly.

For someone like me that values performance, integration, and ease of use WP7 is simply a better experience all around. The GUI is buttery smooth, it's literally like night and day between this and Android.

Android's lack of GPU acceleration is KILLING the overall user experience. My phone exhibits random slowdowns and stutters all the time that often makes things like typing txt messages a pain.

I would say once WP7 is paired with some truly great HW Android is DOA. It doesn't even compare right now IMHO.

Here is a video comparing Atrix 4G to WP7. (Yeah, I see what you are talking about.)

http://wmpoweruser.com/windows-phone-7-still-faster-than-nvidia-tegra-2-powered-motorola-atrix/

 

[TheStu]

When people openly say they are ignoring my posts, I would think there is more than just a little ignorance going on. I've also linked and defended my arguments thoroughly enough about the lackluster WP7 climate. And referring to early adoption. When you have people like dougp defending the platform by saying all these requisite features are "yawn" and that iOS didn't have them when it started which makes it okay for WP7, an OS coming a good 4-5 years later, to not have them at all, well you see why I think some of you people are really living in your own fantasy land. The lack of negatives and failures into features propaganda really is something.

Stop using the 5 year number, it is just wrong.

The original iPhone was previewed in Jan 07, and was released June 07. The App Store didn't come out for another year, and wasn't really announced until just before it came out.

Assuming Microsoft started working on WinPho7 the minute that the iPhone was announced, then yes the state it is in now is not real great, but all reports that I have read indicate that they didn't start work until at least a couple of years in. Developing an entire ecosystem and framework against a moving target. Their update schedule has been a complete joke, the update that isn't scheduled until late march was allegedly feature complete back in December, but apparently some carriers put the brakes on for reasons unknown.

WinMo got bad press toward the end of its life, Android is a free license and Google doesn't have much in the way of hardware requirements (if they have any), BB is an established platform, iOS is the media darling and WebOS... well, we'll have to see what the future holds for WebOS.

Microsoft wanted the experience for the end user to be as close to identical across all the devices as possible without having to take on the entire onus of hardware development themselves, which is a shame, because the ZuneHD is a pretty well built piece of kit.

Also, remember that Microsoft is going after Apple, not Google with this one, and that is evidenced by this first outing. A strong, unified UI strategy, loads of resources for developers, solid media abilities, a desktop syncing system (that also needs to grow a bit. iTunes has ballooned beyond its original purpose certainly and could use cutting back, but I would love to see some of its features in the Zune software).

If Microsoft can get their update schedule to be faster paced, then I think we will see something even greater that what it is now.

 

[Puddle Jumper]

Here is a video comparing Atrix 4G to WP7. (Yeah, I see what you are talking about.)

http://wmpoweruser.com/windows-phone-7-still-faster-than-nvidia-tegra-2-powered-motorola-atrix/

Funny they picked a phone with Motoblur instead of one that has the stock Gallery app (whcih if I remember correctly may actually have gpu acceleration). I just tested that on my Galaxy S running 2.2 and it also substantially outperformed the Atrix so the only thing that test proved is Motoblur sucks.

Windows Phone 7 may be "smooth" but in any objective performance test it sucks. The Nexus 1 has the same SoC as all of the WP7 devices but completely demolishes them.

 

[zerocool84]

I don't know why people are trying to compare WP7 to Android. WP7 is just like the old iPhones, can't do more than one thing at a time. Of course that'd make it smooth.

 

[TheStu]

I don't know why people are trying to compare WP7 to Android. WP7 is just like the old iPhones, can't do more than one thing at a time. Of course that'd make it smooth.

I am still confused by this. Other than music, or maybe a tethering app... what exactly do you need running in the background, all the time, doing stuff, using cycles? I mean, i can listen to music while playing games, or browsing the web, or flipping through photos. Could probably do the same thing with tethering if I had it, and all the while email is syncing in the background.

No prejudice, just what exactly do you mean when you say these things? iOS pauses all the stuff in the background, except for the what... 4? allowed types of things, and the built in Microsoft apps support pausing as well I think that I read.

 

[VashHT]

Funny they picked a phone with Motoblur instead of one that has the stock Gallery app (whcih if I remember correctly may actually have gpu acceleration). I just tested that on my Galaxy S running 2.2 and it also substantially outperformed the Atrix so the only thing that test proved is Motoblur sucks.


Windows Phone 7 may be "smooth" but in any objective performance test it sucks. The Nexus 1 has the same SoC as all of the WP7 devices but completely demolishes them.

Android does load pages a lot faster but WP7 definitely has smoother scrolling. It's really a trade off right now, Android is planning on adding gpu acceleration which would fix their scrolling problems and WP7 is supposed to put IE9 out which hopefully is an improvement over the current browser. Honestly though I would rather have smoother scrolling and slower loading times than the other way around, I had several high end android phones and it really pissed me off that they would just choke on certain web pages.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

I am still confused by this. Other than msuci, or maybe a tethering app... what exactly do you need running in the background, all the time, doing stuff, using cycles? I mean, i can listen to music while playing games, or browsing the web, or flipping through photos. Could probably do the same thing with tethering if I had it, and all the while email is syncing in the background.

No prejudice, just what exactly do you mean when you say these things? iOS pauses all the stuff in the background, except for the what... 4? allowed types of things, and the built in Microsoft apps support pausing as well I think that I read.

These guys complain about multitasking but it's not like Android even has any decent multitasking.

Up til recently what the fuck used Push notifications on Android? GTalk? GVoice? That's it? Good God. It's not like Android multitasks like WebOS or Symbian. You can't close stuff half the time. The Android system determines whether it stays open or not or saves state. This is much like iOS. Granted you can have crap in the notification bar stay open.

Oh wait. Until Android runs out of memory and kills it. It's so fucking stupid when people complain about the fact that Android is the GOLD STANDARD for multitasking or something. Go use Symbian or WebOS. You keep shit open for as long as it wants. Until your device freaks out like when Windows runs out of memory. That's true multitasking. Otherwise, if you think Android telling you what IT thinks can stay open is multitasking, then you might as well worship Steve Jobs too because Apple's multitasking is quite darn similar. To differentiate between two types of "pseudo" multitasking is not much of a feat.

Windows Phone 7 may be "smooth" but in any objective performance test it sucks. The Nexus 1 has the same SoC as all of the WP7 devices but completely demolishes them.

Those are synthetic benchmarks. No one gives a shit about those half the time. It's usability. Take my Droid 1, crank it up to 1.1ghz, and the OMAP processor crushes the Snapdragon in IPC. Then what? This is what happened last Thursday. I fired up my browser to login to a game. Panning/scrolling around in the Android browser is choppy. I tried to copy and paste a link. I ended up copying not just the 1 phrase I needed, but a whole sentence. Retry with Android's shitty copy and paste. Browser crashes and exits.

I say fuck that, fire up my tether app and pull out my iPod Touch 4G. Smooth browsing, easy copy and paste. Bam. All while my music is playing nonstop on my iPod Touch.

What matters is usability. Look at Google Maps. Great 5.0 features. But just basic panning around is not 60fps smooth like an iPhone. My Google Maps hangs up sometimes on me. You can blame it on my 256MB ram or whatever, but my 1.1ghz clock speeds aren't slow at all. Oh wait but my iPod Touch's 256MB ram seems fine even though its a neutered iPhone 4 with only half the RAM... I guess not all OSes are built as efficiently.

 

[zerocool84]

These guys complain about multitasking but it's not like Android even has any decent multitasking.

Up til recently what the fuck used Push notifications on Android? GTalk? GVoice? That's it? Good God. It's not like Android multitasks like WebOS or Symbian. You can't close stuff half the time. The Android system determines whether it stays open or not or saves state. This is much like iOS. Granted you can have crap in the notification bar stay open.

Oh wait. Until Android runs out of memory and kills it. It's so fucking stupid when people complain about the fact that Android is the GOLD STANDARD for multitasking or something. Go use Symbian or WebOS. You keep shit open for as long as it wants. Until your device freaks out like when Windows runs out of memory. That's true multitasking. Otherwise, if you think Android telling you what IT thinks can stay open is multitasking, then you might as well worship Steve Jobs too because Apple's multitasking is quite darn similar. To differentiate between two types of "pseudo" multitasking is not much of a feat.



Those are synthetic benchmarks. No one gives a shit about those half the time. It's usability. Take my Droid 1, crank it up to 1.1ghz, and the OMAP processor crushes the Snapdragon in IPC. Then what? This is what happened last Thursday. I fired up my browser to login to a game. Panning/scrolling around in the Android browser is choppy. I tried to copy and paste a link. I ended up copying not just the 1 phrase I needed, but a whole sentence. Retry with Android's shitty copy and paste. Browser crashes and exits.

I say fuck that, fire up my tether app and pull out my iPod Touch 4G. Smooth browsing, easy copy and paste. Bam. All while my music is playing nonstop on my iPod Touch.

What matters is usability. Look at Google Maps. Great 5.0 features. But just basic panning around is not 60fps smooth like an iPhone. My Google Maps hangs up sometimes on me. You can blame it on my 256MB ram or whatever, but my 1.1ghz clock speeds aren't slow at all. Oh wait but my iPod Touch's 256MB ram seems fine even though its a neutered iPhone 4 with only half the RAM... I guess not all OSes are built as efficiently.

Every time you talk about Android, it's like the phones came in your room at night and raped you at smartphone point. Such hostility.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Every time you talk about Android, it's like the phones came in your room at night and raped you at smartphone point. Such hostility.

And you talk about iOS with such hostility and bias. It's pretty obvious from a UI standpoint Android has a long way to go. Why Google can't get it's act together is beyond me.

At least I'm speaking of both OSes because I use both hand in hand. There's a reason why I still have an Android phone and why I may look at an Android phone soon. But I will be seriously evaluating the iPhone 5.