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Nobody Knows That I Use These Apps

jakelevine.me

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Re: Nobody Knows That I Use These Apps

#21

Post by kbenson »

MatthewPhillips wrote: post #16
kbenson wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Widgets just aren't comparable. I'm curios, I haven't used Windows Phone, what's not comparable?

The live-ness of tiles is overstated, in my opinion, but the concept of tiles is wonderful. Here's an example: you're going on a trip so you pin restaurants that look interesting from Urbanspoon, a map to your meeting location from Maps, and some sites you want to see from their web pages. It turns your home screen into a todo list, which is interesting to me.

Ah. From that description it sounds like there's not a real difference in what widgets allow apps to do, but there is in how easy it is to add and utilize widgets (with Windows being at one extreme, where all or most app icons are widgets)?

Do you think that's an accurate assessment?

Re: Nobody Knows That I Use These Apps

#22

Post by freehunter »

mcrittenden wrote: post #8
freehunter wrote: post #4

I love this about Windows Phone's Live Tiles. I never open my weather app. I hardly ever open the Facebook app. I hardly ever open my stock market app. I just check their Live Tile, and at a glance it tells me exactly what I need to know. It's the biggest thing I miss, by far, when I'm using my Android phone. The information density of Android and iOS doesn't even come close, even with a proper notification center. I…

What do live tiles have that android widgets are missing? Honest question.

taude thinks similarly to how I do. Live Tiles feel like a part of the ecosystem and there's not a widget available for every app I wish there was on Android. Then you have to factor in that there's just not that much room on the Android home screen, and widgets come in a variety of odd shapes and sizes.

Live Tiles are consistent, with only three square (rectangular) sizes to pick from. The fluid scrolling through them (rather than page by page) makes it feel more spacious. I have an entire home page dedicated to Facebook, for example, because the Facebook widget that shows me updates (and only one update at a time) takes up fully half the screen. The weather widget I use takes an entire line of icons, and the calendar widget takes up two columns by three rows. It's like playing a jigsaw puzzle trying to arrange a useful "live" home screen. Live Tiles are also visually consistent, which Android widgets are not (my Android home screen looks hideous).

A Live Tile is a app shortcut that also acts as a widget by displaying useful information. An Android widget is a widget that can also link to the application. That tiny difference is a huge gap in comparison.

Re: Nobody Knows That I Use These Apps

#23

Post by bryanl »

Isn't this what analytic packages are for? The app receiving the push message on your phone could anonymously provide analytics back to the server and with that knowledge alone, they know you are using it. Also additional analytics can be provided to see if you actually open the app.

Re: Nobody Knows That I Use These Apps

#24

Post by pmelendez »

kbenson wrote: post #9
freehunter wrote: post #4

I love this about Windows Phone's Live Tiles. I never open my weather app. I hardly ever open the Facebook app. I hardly ever open my stock market app. I just check their Live Tile, and at a glance it tells me exactly what I need to know. It's the biggest thing I miss, by far, when I'm using my Android phone. The information density of Android and iOS doesn't even come close, even with a proper notification center. I…

> Widgets just aren't comparable. I'm curios, I haven't used Windows Phone, what's not comparable?

taude already explained it but I will add my two cents. With widgets the look depends on the developer, which I found annoying when I had an android since I had to go through several screens just because some widgets where really big.

Live tiles are "free", they are the same icon that you would use to start the app and the look and feel is more uniform and rearrange between them in a more convenient way.

Also you can pin a lot of app specific items. For instance, from the people hub I can pin a tile of the whole app and/or pin specific people, and when you do that the tile itself seems like a different app. In my wife's tile I can see whatever she posted on Facebook or twitter, and also it serves as a shortcut to publish something on the wall, or to call or text her, it's just very convenient!

Re: Nobody Knows That I Use These Apps

#25

Post by freehunter »

kbenson wrote: post #21
MatthewPhillips wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The live-ness of tiles is overstated, in my opinion, but the concept of tiles is wonderful. Here's an example: you're going on a trip so you pin restaurants that look interesting from Urbanspoon, a map to your meeting location from Maps, and some sites you want to see from their web pages. It turns your home screen into a todo list, which is interesting to me.

Ah. From that description it sounds like there's not a real difference in what widgets allow apps to do, but there is in how easy it is to add and utilize widgets (with Windows being at one extreme, where all or most app icons are widgets)? Do you think that's an accurate assessment?

Yeah, a Live Tile is a widget, but it's a well integrated widget. It's an application shortcut that displays information while still looking like an application shortcut. Widgets are completely separate, visually. Windows Live Tiles don't need to be specifically added, if you add an app shortcut to your start screen it's automatically also a widget that looks visually consistent with the rest of the OS.

Your assessment is not too far off. Live Tiles is a more elegant way of handling widgets.

Re: Nobody Knows That I Use These Apps

#26

Post by hammock »

freehunter wrote: post #4

I love this about Windows Phone's Live Tiles. I never open my weather app. I hardly ever open the Facebook app. I hardly ever open my stock market app. I just check their Live Tile, and at a glance it tells me exactly what I need to know. It's the biggest thing I miss, by far, when I'm using my Android phone. The information density of Android and iOS doesn't even come close, even with a proper notification center. I…

Google Now will get you there. http://www.google.com/landing/now/

Re: Nobody Knows That I Use These Apps

#27

Post by resu_nimda »

Spooky23 wrote: post #5

I'm the exact opposite -- using Facebook for many years and experimenting with many apps has trained me to avoid allowing applications to interact with me out of band. Back in the day, I was getting harassed about my friend's achievements in Farmville or Mafia Wars on Facebook. More recently, some app my wife installed lets me know every time I'm within a quarter mile of a Target store. The beauty of iOS is that I do…

I mean, the responsibility is sort of on you to manage what notifications you receive. This seems a bit like installing a bunch of toolbars and Bonzi Buddy and then claiming that your browser sucks. (for the record, I had numerous Farmville-playing friends and never received push notifications about that).

> The beauty of iOS is that I don't need to deal with a dozen little icons demanding attention like in Windows.

This is confusing to me. Aside from Java updates and similar things that are largely hidden, what icons in Windows demand your attention? One thing I don't like about iOS is all the badges on icons, which, to my psyche, are much more demanding.

Re: Nobody Knows That I Use These Apps

#28

Post by MatthewPhillips »

kbenson wrote: post #21
MatthewPhillips wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The live-ness of tiles is overstated, in my opinion, but the concept of tiles is wonderful. Here's an example: you're going on a trip so you pin restaurants that look interesting from Urbanspoon, a map to your meeting location from Maps, and some sites you want to see from their web pages. It turns your home screen into a todo list, which is interesting to me.

Ah. From that description it sounds like there's not a real difference in what widgets allow apps to do, but there is in how easy it is to add and utilize widgets (with Windows being at one extreme, where all or most app icons are widgets)? Do you think that's an accurate assessment?

Sort of, I guess the biggest difference is in how you add them. Adding widgets is an intentional thing; you decide you want a weather widget on your screen. A tile is something you discover and decide to keep for later. So you find a restaurant you like, you pin it. You don't say "I want to pin something, let me look through a list of pinnable things and pick one".

Re: Nobody Knows That I Use These Apps

#29

Post by fyi80 »

freehunter wrote: post #22
mcrittenden wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do live tiles have that android widgets are missing? Honest question.

taude thinks similarly to how I do. Live Tiles feel like a part of the ecosystem and there's not a widget available for every app I wish there was on Android. Then you have to factor in that there's just not that much room on the Android home screen, and widgets come in a variety of odd shapes and sizes. Live Tiles are consistent, with only three square (rectangular) sizes to pick from. The fluid scrolling through th…

The non-discrete page-flipping (so you can scroll one column at a time, instead of a whole screen) is nice. I don't know any Android launcher that can do that.

Re: Nobody Knows That I Use These Apps

#30

Post by B-Con »

freehunter wrote: post #22
mcrittenden wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do live tiles have that android widgets are missing? Honest question.

taude thinks similarly to how I do. Live Tiles feel like a part of the ecosystem and there's not a widget available for every app I wish there was on Android. Then you have to factor in that there's just not that much room on the Android home screen, and widgets come in a variety of odd shapes and sizes. Live Tiles are consistent, with only three square (rectangular) sizes to pick from. The fluid scrolling through th…

In short: It's not an inherent or technical difference so much as an ecosystem difference. Win8 developers think about Live Tiles differently than Android developers do about widgets. (Right?)
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