131–140 of 205 posts
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I think the alphabet soup thrown around in this thread alone is indicative for what‘s wrong with Microsoft‘s native user interface story…
I can throw similar alphabet soups from other ecosystems, either one is in and gets them, or not.
One of the things I find very frustrating about Microsoft (and to a lesser extent Google) is how they will walk back nearly anything at the slightest pushback and cancel anything that isn't an immediate overnight success. The Kinect was really, really cool tech, and I dream about what could have been if MS had not made the Kinect thst came with the XBox One optional pretty much right after it was announced.
Microsoft tried the Kinect for 13 years. How long are they supposed to let a product run? It was a cool tech solution in search of a problem.
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Lacking 3rd party apps was more of a symptom than a root cause in my opinion. Instead of being scrappy and trying to do whatever it took to gain marketshare in an area they were behind in they put a ton of limitations on their platform and it tanked adoption because the people who were willing to switch and try something new were by definition people who were going to be frustrated with this behavior. Things like not…
Microsoft both directly and indirectly turned app developers away from Windows Phone. Mobile games at the time were all OpenGL ES, which Microsoft refused to support in favor of Direct3D. Then there was Microsoft's perpetual need to start over. WM6.5 to WP7 broke app compatibility. WP7 to WP8, entirely new APIs. WP8 to WM10 there was UWP and Continuum, again forcing major rewrites if you wanted the new features. And…
And obviously the lack of all the Google apps. Again there was obviously some manager on crack thinking that that'll get everyone to switch to the according Microsoft offerings, and maybe people just stop using YouTube. But surprise, it didn't work out!
Also the aggressive power saving which meant every time you were sending some photos on WhatsApp or other messenger, you had to make sure to keep the screen on and the app in the foreground until it's done uploading, otherwise there was a 90% chance it would get aborted and restarted next time you turned on the screen.
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I am by no means a Windows fan (Linux only sinds 2003) but Windows Phone/mobile was (and is, I have one still) awesome. Snappy, no frills, yet feature complete. Pretty interoperable. Pretty. Pity it's over.
I remember that quite differently. Windows Phone 7 lacked many basic functions like Bluetooth file transfer, the audio player didn't support gapless playback, alarm clock could not turn on your phone (a staple Nokia feature), Internet Explorer was always behind in supporting web standards (and Microsoft did not allow other browser engines). WP7 didn't even support front cameras until Mango Update. The snappiness of a…
I predict the death of Windows Phone will eventually cause Windows to be totally eclipsed by ChromeOS. Not today, not anytime soon, but Alphabet is in an INCREDIBLE strategic position JUST because of Android.
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I’ve been using macOS at home for about 23 years now, but what was the last really useful new feature they added?
Just to name an example: There is excellent integration between iDevices. With Windows you have Phone Link which allows access to messages and notifications, but it is a far cry from Apple Continuity. For things like access to the phone camera you still need 3rd party software.
Also in my experience the integration is not always as smooth as advertised (and hard to troubleshoot when it’s not)
I'm wondering if we're going to hear regret giving up on IE/Edge or other web browser tech a couple years down the road.
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Is it just me or is Windows phone looked back on with really heavy nostalgia? I never found it to be revolutionary or beautiful, and while I would welcome more players in the mobile space, I think Microsoft's behavior in every other part of its business makes me glad that their foray into mobile never took off.
Windows Phone and Zune are looked back with nostalgia. As someone that had both (including a Zune HD), I don't get it either. I wish I could go tell my teenage self to get over my short-lived "anti-Apple" phase and just ask for an iPod Touch in 2009.
I think the team behind 8 had just a lot of freedom and could work on their vision, but then with 10 everyone had to leave their mark somewhere because they knew how to "fix" it and get it to succeed.
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Did, and still do.
Desperately still do. I've been an Android user for over a decade but haven't bought a phone for myself for a while. Samsung won't update the Galaxy S8 any more and my bank decided it was too old to run their app. The others in my family are iPhone users and I dragged an iPhone 7 out of the drawer to give it a go. Now that google's apps and Chrome are native on the platform you can set up an iPhone as almost complete…
Just had a similar problem. My bank's iOS app didn't react for "confirm" button so I removed it which resulted with completely locking me out of online banking. Now I'm waiting for a bloody letter. The stale mobile duopoly, mobile as a first class citizen and web as a second class, plus "securitay" practices of banking are an infuriating experience.