Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Why I'm Close to Giving Up on Windows Phone 7, as a User and a Developer

blog.dantup.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 85 posts

Re: Why I'm Close to Giving Up on Windows Phone 7, as a User and a Developer

#51

Post by jawee »

alok-g wrote: post #18

Is it any better with Android? Here's a list of issues: -- Android resets your phone to factory settings without asking you or even giving a warning if you port a number to it. This deserves a class-action lawsuit. See here: http://androidforums.com/droid-x-support-troubleshooting/131... -- Using the built in email application, sent emails often stuck in the outbox. See here: http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/and…

Way to bring an OS not mentioned in the article into the discussion. But to be fair, I think your point about K-9 makes a great point about the power of open source. And now Google has the ability to merge those changes back in, but even if not, the choice is there for users. I, for one, have not had the problems listed that are revelant on my Droid 2 with Android 2.2 either on Motoblur or my current Liberty. The one time I needed to transfer 800MB (for quite a while, mind you!) of data from a Macbook Pro of a colleague to my phone there were no issues. I have connected to several hidden SSIDs as well. The other issues all relate to the use of the Google Accounts... and it is well known going in to the platform that it is current very Google-account dependent.

Re: Why I'm Close to Giving Up on Windows Phone 7, as a User and a Developer

#53

Post by rahoulb »

mahrain wrote: post #41

The worst thing about Microsoft is that they launch technologies / platforms without much success and then just close them up. I read that "Windows Live Spaces" is closing down, now Zune is closing shop... Imagine you invest time and energy in the Spaces network or a Zune setup, you're out of luck. Worse, there is no upgrade path.

Nowadays, I suspect Microsoft's strategy is "throw shit at the wall and see what sticks"

Re: Why I'm Close to Giving Up on Windows Phone 7, as a User and a Developer

#54

Post by WiseWeasel »

blub wrote: post #42
TomOfTTB wrote: post #7

I think this attitude has been the downfall of a lot of developers over the years. You fall in love with the development environment and then you transfer that love to the platform itself. The problem is sometimes great platforms aren't paired with great products. Microsoft is at least two generations behind Google and Apple at this point. Some would argue three generations. I'm a .net developer who loves C# too so I…

I don't think there are generational differences between any of the smartphone competitors right now. We're looking at missing functionality, unpolished app stores and so on. WP7 should be able to compete with Android and iOS if they fix the bugs and add missing items such as copy-paste and multitasking.

And replace their HTML rendering engine with webkit.

Re: Why I'm Close to Giving Up on Windows Phone 7, as a User and a Developer

#55

Post by recoiledsnake »

WiseWeasel wrote: post #54
blub wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think there are generational differences between any of the smartphone competitors right now. We're looking at missing functionality, unpolished app stores and so on. WP7 should be able to compete with Android and iOS if they fix the bugs and add missing items such as copy-paste and multitasking.

And replace their HTML rendering engine with webkit.

Why? They're already close to having IE9 on the phone.

Re: Why I'm Close to Giving Up on Windows Phone 7, as a User and a Developer

#56

Post by torpor »

TomOfTTB wrote: post #38
yason wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You fall in love with the development environment and then you transfer that love to the platform itself. The problem is sometimes great platforms aren't paired with great products. I hit into this with the Amiga in the 80's and 90's. Boom, Commodore goes down. Lots of anger ensued, got over it. Then did the same with BeOS in the late 90's. Boom, Be Inc goes down. Lots of frustration ensued, got over it. At this poin…

Yeah. OS/2 and Smalltalk for me. Thankfully the MVC pattern really picked up steam so it wasn't a complete waste

Same for me.. still got my BeBox, my SGI O2, and my NextStation though, right next to my PPC Powerbook G4 .. ;)

Re: Why I'm Close to Giving Up on Windows Phone 7, as a User and a Developer

#57

Post by recoiledsnake »

stretchwithme wrote: post #30

Why are you only close to giving up? Is this windows phone thing a significant platform? http://www.mobilecrunch.com/2010/12/07/microsoft-doesnt-expe... Mossberg asked: “So.. how long before you’re back into the market… back up to a good marketshare, up there with Android and Apple?” “I don’t know..” “Couple months?” “Longer than that.” “Couple years?” “Maybe.” Isn't it time to stop developing for OS/2?

That sounds realistic for a nascent platform. Even a super awesome OS will take time to displace the incumbents. You're disappointed that you didn't get BS marketing speak that it would defeat Apple and Google in 2 weeks or what?

Re: Why I'm Close to Giving Up on Windows Phone 7, as a User and a Developer

#58

Post by Strom »

swilliams wrote: post #17

The marketing for Windows Phone 7 was pretty extensive in the US. I don't watch much TV, but I definitely saw plenty of the "We need a phone to save us from our phones" ads. Was it really that much smaller in the UK? And have there really been NO bugfixes or patches (other than the notorious one he mentioned)? That's insane. Microsoft has got to know how far behind the ball they are... why aren't they pulling out all…

I've seen lots of those "We need a phone to save us from our phones" ads and I've never in my life seen an Android or an iPhone ad. So saying that Microsoft didn't advertise seems weird.

Re: Why I'm Close to Giving Up on Windows Phone 7, as a User and a Developer

#59

Post by daeken »

recoiledsnake wrote: post #55
WiseWeasel wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And replace their HTML rendering engine with webkit.

Why? They're already close to having IE9 on the phone.

I must say, I've been using WP7 for a little while now, and the browser is the only place I really have no serious complaints. While I'd love to be able to use canvas and the like, the browser is really smooth as it stands. I hope the IE9 update only makes it better.
Post reply on HN