So, that's the tablet everyone's been hinting in. Interesting....not really a guy who could make use of a tablet, I suspect, but interesting nonetheless...
Of course, it won't beat iPad (which I believe is the current leader in the modern tablet market), which means it's doomed for failure. Like Android's tablets, apparently.
True. And I'm in the same boat--the single most alluring aspect of this is the UI. At the same time, I'm probably one of the people in the world who has the least use for a tablet, so this is still more alluring than an iPad or an Android.
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Not to be a MS shill or anything, but fuck me is that interface hot. Sorry but is it just me, but is the garden of icons just getting stale for anyone else? At least theres some real cool multitasking and finger gestures going on there.
So, that's the tablet everyone's been hinting in. Interesting....not really a guy who could make use of a tablet, I suspect, but interesting nonetheless...
Of course, it won't beat iPad (which I believe is the current leader in the modern tablet market), which means it's doomed for failure. Like Android's tablets, apparently.
The iPad isn't really a tablet and wacom as well as a few other companies have tablets that wipe the floor with the iPad. The iPad1 is lacking in so many ways because Apple had to beat everyone else to market with these dumb/lite tablets.
Once these Windows tablets support XBL and let you plug a Xbox controller or Kinect into the USB port(s) they will rule. And a forward facing camera with Skype that will be able to talk to almost anything.
Really glad they decided to go this way instead of the whole "port Windows Phone to tablets!" thing that some (just a few, but still some) people were asking for. It's great to have the option to choose between the finger-friendly UI or the legacy (current) one.
That being said, I'm kinda worried that they're going to make the finger-friendly one the default and not have a way to switch to the old one outside of launching a legacy app. It's still pretty early and there aren't a lot of details that say they'll go down that path, but it does seem like they want all new programs to be using the new style - it looks good and all, but it doesn't seem to be able to pull off some of the complexity you get with current programs (e.g. Photoshop or even Office in it's current form).
Again, too early to tell. Looking forward to using it on my tablet PC to tool around casually while in slate mode, then swing out the keyboard when there's work to be done.
EDIT: While we're still on the topic of looking at the future of Windows - I really hope the iPad/Android tablets don't cause Microsoft to drop capacitive (i.e. Wacom Penabled) stylus support for tablet PCs. Being able to scribble out diagrams or quick annotations without fudging around with the mouse is seriously awesome and insanely useful.
The problem always is that Microsoft shows off this amazing stuff but it always is 6, 8, 10 months from market. At current pace, that's like being out of the game for years.
Jump to about 2:20 for the beginning of the actual demo. Looks like the start menu is dead (at least by default): hitting the Start button in the legacy UI brings up the new Start screen.
The problem always is that Microsoft shows off this amazing stuff but it always is 6, 8, 10 months from market. At current pace, that's like being out of the game for years.
Yup. Windows 8 should hit beta this fall, release for fall 2012. Three years from W7 to W8, which is what they are trying to shoot for and avoid the gap like they had with XP.
Yeah, as a successor to Windows 7 in the desktop segment, it's probably just about the right timing. As a competitor to iOS in the tablet space, it's probably going to arrive 2 years late to the market. Who knows what gains Honeycomb will have made between now and then.
The problem always is that Microsoft shows off this amazing stuff but it always is 6, 8, 10 months from market. At current pace, that's like being out of the game for years.
Yup. Windows 8 should hit beta this fall, release for fall 2012. Three years from W7 to W8, which is what they are trying to shoot for and avoid the gap like they had with XP.
That and Windows 8 lifts a whole lot of UI tricks from WP7, which has been out for roughly a year.
Really glad they decided to go this way instead of the whole "port Windows Phone to tablets!" thing that some (just a few, but still some) people were asking for. It's great to have the option to choose between the finger-friendly UI or the legacy (current) one.
Well at the time the choice was Metro or just plain old Windows 7 ported to tabs like they did with XP.
I suspect this will be pretty highly configurable - maybe even "smart" in terms of configuration. Dock it and it will default to a classic UI, pull the tablet off and it goes Metro. At least I'd hope it could function like that.
Really, all I want is a OneNote terminal with a huge battery life. Being able to dock it and use it as a desktop machine would be icing.
Don't apologize for liking MS products. It's Apple marketing bullshit that made it cool to promote anyone but themselves. Yeah, they've had some good innovations and success, but clearly they aren't the only ones turning out great new technology.
Yeah, as a successor to Windows 7 in the desktop segment, it's probably just about the right timing. As a competitor to iOS in the tablet space, it's probably going to arrive 2 years late to the market. Who knows what gains Honeycomb will have made between now and then.
True, but I don't think Microsoft is thinking only of tablets. Touchscreen all-in-one PCs are gaining in popularity as well. Imagine if you could ditch the keyboard and mouse from the HP Touchsmart series and use only the screen? I think Microsoft is thinking on both fronts, making the UI more touch-friendly, but also making it compatible on different processors as well so people can then turn a touchsmart PC into a tablet that docks and is available on the go.
2 years is a long time, but customers are fickle, and while they may pick up an iPad 2 this year, they may get an Android tablet next year or something like an HP tablet with Windows 8 the following year that offers desktop functions plus tablet portability after that. Who knows where the market will go at this point.
Yeah, as a successor to Windows 7 in the desktop segment, it's probably just about the right timing. As a competitor to iOS in the tablet space, it's probably going to arrive 2 years late to the market. Who knows what gains Honeycomb will have made between now and then.
True, but I don't think Microsoft is thinking only of tablets. Touchscreen all-in-one PCs are gaining in popularity as well. Imagine if you could ditch the keyboard and mouse from the HP Touchsmart series and use only the screen?
As someone with a physical disability, I shudder at the thought.
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Yeah, as a successor to Windows 7 in the desktop segment, it's probably just about the right timing. As a competitor to iOS in the tablet space, it's probably going to arrive 2 years late to the market. Who knows what gains Honeycomb will have made between now and then.
True, but I don't think Microsoft is thinking only of tablets. Touchscreen all-in-one PCs are gaining in popularity as well. Imagine if you could ditch the keyboard and mouse from the HP Touchsmart series and use only the screen?
As someone with a physical disability, I shudder at the thought.
I'm not saying that you couldn't have peripherals, but for those who wanted it that way, they could manage without.
Has anyone got the HTC Trophy on Verizon yet? It is the ONLY WP7 phone on Verizon and I really want to give WP7 a fair shot vs. Android for my next phone, but everything I'm reading online says the Trophy isn't really that great compared to other WP7 phones on the market, and even worse compared to newer smartphones releasing now.
Is there another WP7 phone coming soon I should wait for?
Well, everything on my Trophy has been fast, and the touch screen and accelerometer are plenty responsive. The camera snaps pictures really fast. I mean, I guess other phones have higher resolution cameras, but it's a phone, 8MP is not going to make your crappy photos any better than 5MP. The only thing I can find that it's "deficient" in is that it just has a plain old LCD screen, and not a Super LCD, AMOLED, or Super AMOLED.
Well, everything on my Trophy has been fast, and the touch screen and accelerometer are plenty responsive. The camera snaps pictures really fast. I mean, I guess other phones have higher resolution cameras, but it's a phone, 8MP is not going to make your crappy photos any better than 5MP. The only thing I can find that it's "deficient" in is that it just has a plain old LCD screen, and not a Super LCD, AMOLED, or Super AMOLED.
Ok, awesome. It's really hard to find a really honest review online these days. Everyone is trying too hard to present a non-biased opinion on every angle instead of just saying, "It works well and didn't have any problems."
I'll have to get in store again without the kids and really get a chance to dig into the system. The store I was in had it roaming or something so I couldn't use any internet-dependent services and the kids weren't going to allow me time to get someone to fix it.
What would be good with Windows 8 is if the touch-based UI could boot first (if not instantly) and could be fully usable while the "standard" Windows is booting in the background. Apps and Internet can be enabled, and once your full computer's ready (after however long that is) you can get some serious stuff done. That'd be a design innovation that makes a computer so much easier to use if all you're doing is hopping on to do something quickly like (for example) read the latest Penny Arcade.
Further steps that could be taken would be to (definitely) replace Windows Media Player with Zune entirely, (in a perfect world) acquire Paint.NET and rename it "Paint", and get the marketing boys to think up cool names for all the "Windows Live" programs that didn't get absorbed into Bing to make them more "sexy" in line with the new UI; "LifeScribe" instead of Writer, for example.
This is just my two cents, obviously. Microsoft has hit the nail on the head with Metro, and they just need to push it as hard as they can for Windows 8 to make it a success. It's actually a big move; neither Apple nor Google have been able to truly unify iOS/Mac OS and Android/Chrome OS despite obvious intentions to do so.
Not sure if anyone has played the card game Set, but my friend just released a free Win7 app that is basically a single player version of that game. You can search for Triplets or grab it at zune://navigate/?phoneappid=3c3e8fa7-fb8a-e011-986b-78e7d1fa76f8
Anyway, if you like it, hit any bugs, or want any features feel free to PM me and I can send feedback on to the developer.
Sorry but is it just me, but is the garden of icons just getting stale for anyone else? At least theres some real cool multitasking and finger gestures going on there.
Honestly, I've never had a problem with the current Windows setup. This new tile system seems less efficient to me.
Well, everything on my Trophy has been fast, and the touch screen and accelerometer are plenty responsive. The camera snaps pictures really fast. I mean, I guess other phones have higher resolution cameras, but it's a phone, 8MP is not going to make your crappy photos any better than 5MP. The only thing I can find that it's "deficient" in is that it just has a plain old LCD screen, and not a Super LCD, AMOLED, or Super AMOLED.
Ok, awesome. It's really hard to find a really honest review online these days. Everyone is trying too hard to present a non-biased opinion on every angle instead of just saying, "It works well and didn't have any problems."
I'll have to get in store again without the kids and really get a chance to dig into the system. The store I was in had it roaming or something so I couldn't use any internet-dependent services and the kids weren't going to allow me time to get someone to fix it.
Compared to my Blackberry Curve, my new Trophy is blistering fast. Granted, I don't have another WP7 to compare it with, but I have yet to find myself waiting for anything other than when loading a rather large app such as a game. Browsing is speedy, especially on wifi. I entered an appointment to meet someone and included the address. It surprised me when I clicked on the address and it automagically generated turn by turn directions from my current location in the time it took to animate the transition screen. Dayum.
All WP7 are supposed to have baseline hardware that should be up to snuff. I really haven't heard of any model being decidedly faster than others. Yet - wait until dual core models hit the shelves and Mango apps can take advantage of both cores.
My little sister here in Taichung has, to my surprise, an HTC 7 Mozart WP7 (I didn't think they sold WP7 in Taiwan). Sadly, she doesn't actually use it as a phone (she has no SIM card in it), nor does it have Chinese language support.
What exactly determines whether purchasing an app for WP7 requires a credit card, or can be charged to your phone? Individual phone policies? Individual app apolicies? I really wouldn't mind adding the charge to my phone, but apparently SuperTube requires I put in a new CC to purchase.
If only that was compatible with words with friends. My friends all have iphones or android phones.
If the game uses a web service as a go-between, then there is no real reason why these games can't be played across platforms.
Also, a single game is a terrible reason to switch phone OS's. But I'm sure there are people who would consider it if it were not for 2 year contracts.
Has anyone got the HTC Trophy on Verizon yet? It is the ONLY WP7 phone on Verizon and I really want to give WP7 a fair shot vs. Android for my next phone, but everything I'm reading online says the Trophy isn't really that great compared to other WP7 phones on the market, and even worse compared to newer smartphones releasing now.
Is there another WP7 phone coming soon I should wait for?
I just got the Trophy using that deal on the MS Store site:
4,000 ($50) MS Points
Free XBox360 Game
Trophy for $0.01
2 year contract extension
Pretty sweet deal. The hardware itself is fine - nothing special - but the operating system is fantastic. I'm coming from a MotoDroid 1 (which I rooted and have used many custom ROMs).
The interface is amazing (I also have a Zune HD and have always loved the Metro UI), by far my favorite of any smartphone. You lose some of the customization of Android, but you gain this slick, fluid continuity between every app and every menu. HTC, in my opinion, has always used really shitty cameras, and I still don't like this one, but it works. There is no beating a hardware keyboard, but texting and emails are pretty comfortable for a software keyboard.
My contract was up, so I went for this deal. I came out with a new phone and a gain of about $100 in schwag. Since I love WP7 now, I will definitely upgrade to a dual-core when they come out with the Mango update probably around this fall.
If only that was compatible with words with friends. My friends all have iphones or android phones.
If the game uses a web service as a go-between, then there is no real reason why these games can't be played across platforms.
Also, a single game is a terrible reason to switch phone OS's. But I'm sure there are people who would consider it if it were not for 2 year contracts.
I have a phone that can switch between 5 or so operating systems with ease so I have the luxury of impulse-switching
Right now I'm just running android but when I dual booted WP7 and Android, yeah, I partitioned the SD. WP7 got the NAND and half the SD card, Android ran off the other half. Usually when I "switch" though I mean I just flash a new WP7 or Android rom. Or WM6.5 or Ubuntu or whatever.
I did end up coming back to wp7, at least for now. It is just really difficult to resist even if I have practical reasons to prefer Android. My design erection is just off the chain right now.
If Microsoft brought out turn-by-turn navigation that was anywhere near as comprehensive as Google Nav, I would probably be scouring eBay for an HTC Arrive right now. I think I'd be willing to tolerate any other deficiencies in the ecosystem.
I could probably list 10 good, logical reasons to stay with Android off the top of my head, but I'm really prefering WP7 so much more.
Could be as simple as being able to list the same number, or more, logical reasons to not. With phones, we're talking about what matters to the user.
I seriously considered Android for some time before I finally bought a WP7. Ultimately, I had a list of good, logical reasons that Android wouldn't work. One of them was Netflix.
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My excitement over this made me realize that I *really* enjoy the UI.
Of course, it won't beat iPad (which I believe is the current leader in the modern tablet market), which means it's doomed for failure. Like Android's tablets, apparently.
Plus above all else to me, it looks really slick.
The iPad isn't really a tablet and wacom as well as a few other companies have tablets that wipe the floor with the iPad. The iPad1 is lacking in so many ways because Apple had to beat everyone else to market with these dumb/lite tablets.
Once these Windows tablets support XBL and let you plug a Xbox controller or Kinect into the USB port(s) they will rule. And a forward facing camera with Skype that will be able to talk to almost anything.
That being said, I'm kinda worried that they're going to make the finger-friendly one the default and not have a way to switch to the old one outside of launching a legacy app. It's still pretty early and there aren't a lot of details that say they'll go down that path, but it does seem like they want all new programs to be using the new style - it looks good and all, but it doesn't seem to be able to pull off some of the complexity you get with current programs (e.g. Photoshop or even Office in it's current form).
Again, too early to tell. Looking forward to using it on my tablet PC to tool around casually while in slate mode, then swing out the keyboard when there's work to be done.
EDIT: While we're still on the topic of looking at the future of Windows - I really hope the iPad/Android tablets don't cause Microsoft to drop capacitive (i.e. Wacom Penabled) stylus support for tablet PCs. Being able to scribble out diagrams or quick annotations without fudging around with the mouse is seriously awesome and insanely useful.
Jump to about 2:20 for the beginning of the actual demo. Looks like the start menu is dead (at least by default): hitting the Start button in the legacy UI brings up the new Start screen.
Yup. Windows 8 should hit beta this fall, release for fall 2012. Three years from W7 to W8, which is what they are trying to shoot for and avoid the gap like they had with XP.
That and Windows 8 lifts a whole lot of UI tricks from WP7, which has been out for roughly a year.
Well at the time the choice was Metro or just plain old Windows 7 ported to tabs like they did with XP.
Really, all I want is a OneNote terminal with a huge battery life. Being able to dock it and use it as a desktop machine would be icing.
Don't apologize for liking MS products. It's Apple marketing bullshit that made it cool to promote anyone but themselves. Yeah, they've had some good innovations and success, but clearly they aren't the only ones turning out great new technology.
True, but I don't think Microsoft is thinking only of tablets. Touchscreen all-in-one PCs are gaining in popularity as well. Imagine if you could ditch the keyboard and mouse from the HP Touchsmart series and use only the screen? I think Microsoft is thinking on both fronts, making the UI more touch-friendly, but also making it compatible on different processors as well so people can then turn a touchsmart PC into a tablet that docks and is available on the go.
2 years is a long time, but customers are fickle, and while they may pick up an iPad 2 this year, they may get an Android tablet next year or something like an HP tablet with Windows 8 the following year that offers desktop functions plus tablet portability after that. Who knows where the market will go at this point.
As someone with a physical disability, I shudder at the thought.
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I'm not saying that you couldn't have peripherals, but for those who wanted it that way, they could manage without.
Has anyone got the HTC Trophy on Verizon yet? It is the ONLY WP7 phone on Verizon and I really want to give WP7 a fair shot vs. Android for my next phone, but everything I'm reading online says the Trophy isn't really that great compared to other WP7 phones on the market, and even worse compared to newer smartphones releasing now.
Is there another WP7 phone coming soon I should wait for?
Ok, awesome. It's really hard to find a really honest review online these days. Everyone is trying too hard to present a non-biased opinion on every angle instead of just saying, "It works well and didn't have any problems."
I'll have to get in store again without the kids and really get a chance to dig into the system. The store I was in had it roaming or something so I couldn't use any internet-dependent services and the kids weren't going to allow me time to get someone to fix it.
Further steps that could be taken would be to (definitely) replace Windows Media Player with Zune entirely, (in a perfect world) acquire Paint.NET and rename it "Paint", and get the marketing boys to think up cool names for all the "Windows Live" programs that didn't get absorbed into Bing to make them more "sexy" in line with the new UI; "LifeScribe" instead of Writer, for example.
This is just my two cents, obviously. Microsoft has hit the nail on the head with Metro, and they just need to push it as hard as they can for Windows 8 to make it a success. It's actually a big move; neither Apple nor Google have been able to truly unify iOS/Mac OS and Android/Chrome OS despite obvious intentions to do so.
Anyway, if you like it, hit any bugs, or want any features feel free to PM me and I can send feedback on to the developer.
Honestly, I've never had a problem with the current Windows setup. This new tile system seems less efficient to me.
Compared to my Blackberry Curve, my new Trophy is blistering fast. Granted, I don't have another WP7 to compare it with, but I have yet to find myself waiting for anything other than when loading a rather large app such as a game. Browsing is speedy, especially on wifi. I entered an appointment to meet someone and included the address. It surprised me when I clicked on the address and it automagically generated turn by turn directions from my current location in the time it took to animate the transition screen. Dayum.
All WP7 are supposed to have baseline hardware that should be up to snuff. I really haven't heard of any model being decidedly faster than others. Yet - wait until dual core models hit the shelves and Mango apps can take advantage of both cores.
The camera is much nicer than my Venue Pro.
What exactly determines whether purchasing an app for WP7 requires a credit card, or can be charged to your phone? Individual phone policies? Individual app apolicies? I really wouldn't mind adding the charge to my phone, but apparently SuperTube requires I put in a new CC to purchase.
It does have AlphaJax, though.
If the game uses a web service as a go-between, then there is no real reason why these games can't be played across platforms.
Also, a single game is a terrible reason to switch phone OS's. But I'm sure there are people who would consider it if it were not for 2 year contracts.
4,000 ($50) MS Points
Free XBox360 Game
Trophy for $0.01
2 year contract extension
Pretty sweet deal. The hardware itself is fine - nothing special - but the operating system is fantastic. I'm coming from a MotoDroid 1 (which I rooted and have used many custom ROMs).
The interface is amazing (I also have a Zune HD and have always loved the Metro UI), by far my favorite of any smartphone. You lose some of the customization of Android, but you gain this slick, fluid continuity between every app and every menu. HTC, in my opinion, has always used really shitty cameras, and I still don't like this one, but it works. There is no beating a hardware keyboard, but texting and emails are pretty comfortable for a software keyboard.
My contract was up, so I went for this deal. I came out with a new phone and a gain of about $100 in schwag. Since I love WP7 now, I will definitely upgrade to a dual-core when they come out with the Mango update probably around this fall.
I have a phone that can switch between 5 or so operating systems with ease so I have the luxury of impulse-switching
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Could be as simple as being able to list the same number, or more, logical reasons to not. With phones, we're talking about what matters to the user.
I seriously considered Android for some time before I finally bought a WP7. Ultimately, I had a list of good, logical reasons that Android wouldn't work. One of them was Netflix.