The Critics Rave... for Microsoft?
nytimes.com
The Critics Rave... for Microsoft?
1–10 of 72 posts
Re: The Critics Rave... for Microsoft?
#2This is interesting, I feel like I'm starting to detect a pattern. It seems like every time Microsoft makes a product that is generally accepted to be good, they start spreading some of the team behind that product around the company as a way to try and infuse the rest of the machine with some of the new magic juice.
It makes sense, but I've never really heard of it being done much in the past.
Re: The Critics Rave... for Microsoft?
#3Facebook and Twitter are wired into Windows Phone
Is this truly the case or are these apps just leveraging developer APIs? The former would make Windows Phone an automatic never for me.
Re: The Critics Rave... for Microsoft?
#4This is interesting, I feel like I'm starting to detect a pattern. It seems like every time Microsoft makes a product that is generally accepted to be good , they start spreading some of the team behind that product around the company as a way to try and infuse the rest of the machine with some of the new magic juice. It makes sense, but I've never really heard of it being done much in the past.
I don't think it makes sense, a team is more than the sum of its parts.
Re: The Critics Rave... for Microsoft?
#5I actually Microsoft UI's have been good if not the best for usability in terms of accomplishing a task over time.
MS' main problem has been the "ugly on first blush" problem and even then, their interfaces have been ugly in the way an American cars, a twelve year old boy's toy hero or a supermarket tabloid are ugly. They've been flashy. lowest common denominators items that work perfectly for their intended purposes.
Re: The Critics Rave... for Microsoft?
#6Facebook and Twitter are wired into Windows Phone Is this truly the case or are these apps just leveraging developer APIs? The former would make Windows Phone an automatic never for me.
As far as I know, just leveraging APIs to unify contact lists. If you never set them up, you're not forced to interact with them.
Re: The Critics Rave... for Microsoft?
#7Having played with it a bit, I would say that I enjoy the using the interface and the OS has potential. They definitely need better ways to highlight or identify elements with contextual menus. It's a guessing game at the moment, at least for me.
Really, my biggest gripe is the lack of apps that meet the same levels of functionality as their Android/iOS counterparts. I feel like the stock Twitter app is terrible and none of the other Twitter apps are as good as the top 5-6 on the other platforms. The same goes for Facebook. That comprises a large percentage of my usage outside of built-in functionality.
I will say though, I dig the People hub for managing all of the contact information. The social networking built in is good for at-a-glance usage but wouldn't replace a dedicated client for me.
Re: The Critics Rave... for Microsoft?
#8Facebook and Twitter are wired into Windows Phone Is this truly the case or are these apps just leveraging developer APIs? The former would make Windows Phone an automatic never for me.
The OS allows one to optionally integrate twitter/facebook/linkedin feeds and contacts into the phone's core contacts/photos/activity apps, not unlike WebOS.
One unique feature on WP is the ability to group users (such as family or co-workers), and create live tiles on the main screen for such groups. New activity from those users (such as tweets, pictures, facebook postings, etc) will be visible at a quick glance. It enables me to keep in touch with important people without opening various apps and digging through mountains of noise.
Re: The Critics Rave... for Microsoft?
#9This is interesting, I feel like I'm starting to detect a pattern. It seems like every time Microsoft makes a product that is generally accepted to be good , they start spreading some of the team behind that product around the company as a way to try and infuse the rest of the machine with some of the new magic juice. It makes sense, but I've never really heard of it being done much in the past.
I don't think it makes sense, a team is more than the sum of its parts.
How is it any different than hiring from outside, where ostensibly you're trying to hire people to make the team better?
Re: The Critics Rave... for Microsoft?
#10Having played with it a bit, I would say that I enjoy the using the interface and the OS has potential. They definitely need better ways to highlight or identify elements with contextual menus. It's a guessing game at the moment, at least for me. Really, my biggest gripe is the lack of apps that meet the same levels of functionality as their Android/iOS counterparts. I feel like the stock Twitter app is terrible and…
I've had the Samsung Focus for the past 4 months. The OS itself is fantastic, but it's plainly on obvious that the apps on WP7 don't get nearly as much attention as their counterparts on iOS and Android. Hopefully with not adoption will come better apps.