Windows Phone 7 - Page 3

Yes!  Down Down Windows Phone 7!! 

http://www.tomsguide.com/us/WP7-windows-Phone-iOS-Froyo-comScore,news-12104.html

I like the trend.  Next time MS wants to hijack external SD Cards and slave them maybe they'll think twice.  More Karma for their tyrannical corporate war against the free-will of the consumer and trying to mimic Apple's bad behavior.

I love mine regardless of how many others own them. Then, I loved my Sega Saturn and Dreamcast too ... 

That's too bad. I do genuinely think WP7 has a lot more potential than Android. I do love this idea people seem to have that Android is this big, fluffy open world of happiness.

Though, I think the real test Android is going to have is with software patents. It violates quite a number of them on a fundamental level, from what I've been reading. If that turns out to be true they'll either have to start paying royalties (and, thus, start becoming a lot more commercial), find an alternative (and be off the market while they do) or die off.

Either that or this trend against software patents will continue until they're simply gotten rid of entirely.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DougofTheAbaci 

That's too bad. I do genuinely think WP7 has a lot more potential than Android. I do love this idea people seem to have that Android is this big, fluffy open world of happiness.

 

Though, I think the real test Android is going to have is with software patents. It violates quite a number of them on a fundamental level, from what I've been reading. If that turns out to be true they'll either have to start paying royalties (and, thus, start becoming a lot more commercial), find an alternative (and be off the market while they do) or die off.

 

Either that or this trend against software patents will continue until they're simply gotten rid of entirely.

Fluffy or not, at least I can swap out my uSD cards.  That's even worse than Apple not even giving you an external slot.  It's obvious Google is pushing numbers and market share first.  Everything else will be dealt with later when they can no longer put it off.

Which has worked out so well for so many other companies in the past... Though I do agree that iOS devices not having an SD slot is something of an oversight. Sort of. I say sort of because the focus of the device isn't as a camera and for most people 16 GB or 32 GB is enough.

Heck, the most fun I had when I used to sell PCs was when someone would say, "Do you think there's enough space on this laptop? It only has 500 GB." To which I usually respond, "...How much data do you actual have now?" Then, I'm a major proponent of not keeping everything on my computer. Mostly because it's cheaper, more convenient, more secure, more stable and so forth to keep it on a DAS or NAS.

But back to the topic, I wasn't aware WP7 did anything special to SD cards. That's... Rather disheartening. There's so much about WP7 that they're doing right that I hate to see them doing stuff like this so wrong.

Android definitely does have a lot of room to grow in. Now if only they'd deal with those little things like software version fragmentation, the horrible UI and the patent issues... The part that makes me saddest is if they leave the UI part until later either people will get used to it, as they have with Windows, or they'll finally change it and people will be confused all over again.

As for patents, I'm still of the humble opinion that they are far more of a hinderance than help in just about any industry but in the tech world they're downright idiotic and backwards. Like Microsoft patenting XML... That still pisses me off.

Oh that was definitely not an oversight by Apple.  Deliberate marketing strategy for stimulating upgrades.  How many times have you heard, "I can't wait for the 32GB version!"  Then the 64GB and then the 128GB version, etc.  Don't forget, the iPhone is an iTouch first and foremost w/ a phone added.  That's how it all started.  As a media/music player. 

That's why I buy Thinkpads w/ swappable drive bays.  Among others.  

I was set to jump on the WP7 bandwagon.  Then I heard they wanted to follow the Apple authoritarian control model which was a red flag.  I was still considering it until early adopters noticed their new uSD cards were now under the control of WP7 and could no longer be used in other devices!  Death knell for me.  It is a clean, crisp interface though.

Eh. I don't get the problem people have with companies coming out with newer, better hardware. No one is forcing you to get a new one. If your self-image is so weak that a company simply coming out with a new phone forces you to buy one then that's pretty sad. I'm using 'you' in the general, not you specifically.

As for the authoritarian bit. Meh. I see the Android ecosystem right now and their "open" model isn't winning them any real advantage over Apple's closed model. In fact, it's causing loads of issues. There's a great deal of fragmentation between one implementation of Android and another. Companies can allow rooting, or not, or no updates, or some updates... There are a couple of different Android app stores with different catalogues that actually have compatibility issues...

And then there's how open Android actually is. Go and ask Google for the source code and see how far you get. It's more open than iOS or WP7, but it's only about as open as Flash is and if I'm going to use something because it's open it has to be a lot more open than that.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DougofTheAbaci 

Eh. I don't get the problem people have with companies coming out with newer, better hardware.

 

More storage they could have easily implemented from the get go = better hardware?  There's more marketing and economics (profits) involved in the upgrade cycle than groundbreaking RnD.

 

No one is forcing you to get a new one.

 

Sure they are.  That's why there is no expandable memory slot and never will be.  You either join the annual upgrade program or ditch the company altogether.  Those are your choices.  Send an email to sjobs@apple.com and ask him why no slot past, present or future.

Yeah, Google isn't perfect.  What's the alternative?  Meego?  

Ugh. I could pick apart your argument like a neural surgeon dissecting a brain but instead I'm going to give you the bullet points because it's late, I'm tired and this is off-topic:

• You can say it was easy all you like but I can guarantee it wasn't. The cost and technical considerations alone would make it a nightmare to just throw a 32 GB flash module into an iPhone gen 1. Just ask RIM. It took them years to figure it out even after the iPhone hit.
• According to Apple's annual report for 2010, they spent about $690,000,000 on marketing and about $1,800,000,000 on R&D. So there goes that theory.
• Creating a new device does not make the preceding version suddenly cease to function. You can still use a gen 1 iPhone today if you so choose. Or are you saying people have to buy new cars and computers every year, too?

Anyway, back to the topic at hand. I did a little digging and found what you are talking about. For those who don't know, basically, when you insert an SD card into your Samsung WP7 phone (and likely any other WP7 phone) it expands the file system onto that SD card. Think of it like running RAID0 in a computer with two hard drives. The SD card you've inserted becomes an extension of the phones own filesystem and, as such, cannot be removed without breaking the filesystem. Now, it's not permanent but it is hard to undo.

The idea behind this is that it gives users a way to expand the total capacity of the device without having to replace the entire device. Though, to change the cards you have to format the entire phone (which is a bit sucky but does make sense from a technical standpoint).

Basically, what this doesn't allow you to do is have five SD cards that you keep photos, music, movies, documents, ect. on that you swap in and out of the device at any time. However, you can still get all your data off your phone by syncing it with your computer so there's not too much of a fuss there.

Personally, I don't think this is much of a deal-breaker because of how I use my phone. It's not a mass media storage device. I have my my laptop for that and soon (hopefully) a tablet. Not to mention it's only a matter of time before someone figures out a work-around. Heck, on the iPhone you can now buy external hard drives that connect wirelessly to the device to stream media.

You really don't want to get this back on topic, do you? You're starting to get personally insulting so I'm just going to stop my end of the debate here.

Quote:

Originally Posted by revolink24 

I've suffered with an Android phone for a year, always keeping it updated, making sure not to overload with apps and background services, and it's still a buggy, slow, pile of crap.

While I'm not always the biggest fan of Apples App-Store-only policy for acquiring apps, it does have it's benefits. For example, I don't have to worry about installing an app that's going to make my phone unstable or severely laggy because Apple simply wouldn't allow it in the store. I know people like to say Apple is being restrictive in the app store just for the money aspect, which is certainly there because they are a business, but there's also a large part that's about experience and a curated experience tends to mean a better experience for the average user. If you can only install safe, stable, approved apps on your phone than you'll never be able to complain that your phone is slow or the OS is unstable when, in point of fact, it's the Peggle Extreme 2000 app you got which is full of resource leaks.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DougofTheAbaci 

You really don't want to get this back on topic, do you? You're starting to get personally insulting so I'm just going to stop my end of the debate here.

x2 on all counts.

Well to brings things back on topic, I don't think WP7 is going anywhere. Outside of the US the Xbox didn't do very well if I remember, MS just kept pouring money down the drain with it until they won their market share with 360. Mobile phone business is too big for MS to give up on, they'll keep plugging away and claw themselves something in the end. They will be competitors one day just by virtue of the patience their cash affords them.

For me, I love the WP7 UI. It might not have the depth of the more established smart phones but what it does it does extremely well and Windows 8 looks pant-wettingly good. I think when 8 comes out and people get exposed to the live tiles thing, it'll draw more people towards WP7. We'll see.