Windows Phone 7 in-depth preview • Hacker News Board

Re: Windows Phone 7 in-depth preview

#41

Post by pavs » Mon, Jul 19, 2010, 4:36 PM UTC

endtime wrote: post #34

pavs wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course its my personal opinion. I don't claim to speak for everyone nor did I run any public poll. Everything I said in my comment is my own opinion from my own experience (with other mobile OS), unless otherwise stated.

Well, your tone and language were authoritative. Typically, if you aren't stating a fact you should qualify it with something like "I think".

Regardless of my tone. How can this be anything other than my opinion? Isn't it obvious that it is my opinion?

Re: Windows Phone 7 in-depth preview

#42

Post by nooneelse » Mon, Jul 19, 2010, 6:14 PM UTC

GiraffeNecktie wrote: post #29

clark-kent wrote: post #24

The 2D UI is a big risk considering the competition. iPhone 1.0 had a nice 3D feel to it. The WP7 OS seems very responsive and snappy. But the lack of wow factor might be because of the 2D UI and monochrome color scheme. It lacks depth and looks plain.

3d is a little overrated. The most recent Ubuntu has gone with a very plain 2d look for icons and it looks very clean and polished.

And with "do this for me now" use cases, quite common for phones (such as "did someone just tell me something relevant in that message I just got" or "what was that building number again?" while walking down a street thinking about some larger goal), I find visual clarity all the more appealing. So "plain" might be just what the use cases call for. Several icons or buttons all made to be 3-d and pretty with candy-round edges and bright colors, each wanting to impress me with slickness or compete to stick in my memory better are just more distraction from that one shape or word my visual cortex is primed by the task to find.

Re: Windows Phone 7 in-depth preview

#43

Post by endtime » Mon, Jul 19, 2010, 10:18 PM UTC

pavs wrote: post #41

endtime wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, your tone and language were authoritative. Typically, if you aren't stating a fact you should qualify it with something like "I think".

Regardless of my tone. How can this be anything other than my opinion? Isn't it obvious that it is my opinion?

No, that's why I asked. You were stating something in direct contradiction with the article, and (going purely on prior) you probably haven't actually used a WP7 phone, so the implication was that you had more than opinion behind your comment.

Re: Windows Phone 7 in-depth preview

#44

Post by wallflower » Tue, Jul 20, 2010, 5:08 PM UTC

desigooner wrote: post #33

wallflower wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Are there other examples of Windows Phone 7 being designed for expert/informed users? To use Windows Mobile, you had to deal with ActiveSync. To use ActiveSync, you have to be fairly tolerant and technically proficient. For example, when upgrading the OS, you have the responsibility(1) of manually backing up all your contacts, data, apps. Contrast this with iTunes (yes, iTunes isn't elegant) - when iOS 4 came out -…

There is no ActiveSync component to WinPhone7 .. The data (photos, contacts, documents, settings, etc) is all synced up to cloud via a live.com account (which even includes the newly announced feature of tracking the phone in case of loss or theft ala mobileme) The data can also be synced via the Zune software on a desktop much like iTunes (but Zune Software is a far better experience in my opinion when it comes to m…

Looks like the Zune was a good investment into consumer friendly software

Re: Windows Phone 7 in-depth preview

#45

Post by gizmomagico » Wed, Jul 21, 2010, 9:33 AM UTC

hop wrote: post #5

watmough wrote: post #2

There's some unfinished, but clear documentation on this page: http://developer.windowsphone.com/windows-phone-7/ In particular, this PDF gives a great flavor of designing for Windows Phone 7: http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9713252 Overall, I'm quite impressed. They've aimed at a similar target as Apple did with the original iPhone. Make it fast, clean and strip away as many features as you dare.

That would all be impressive if this was 2006, unfortunately, they are largely copying the iPhone with just a different graphic design theme. It is symptomatic of bigger problems in Microsoft's innovation lag.

> unfortunately, they are largely copying the iPhone with just a different graphic design theme.

Doesn't the same apply to Android as well?