Me, I don't care for thin phones--give me a phone with some substance and heft any day over a thin one. And I'll take a function I can decide not to use (and decide to use) over not having that choice at all.
And I hate texting. Keyboards are just amazingly useful for everything else the WP7 is capable of, from Office notes to internet browsing. If I actually texted, that'd just add one more thing.
EDIT: Plus, there's also the fact that even the best magical LED-shape-shifting screen is going to sacrifice part of the screen for a keyboard. A huge problem for me, that's basically made worse by a good soft keyboard.
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Apothe0sisHave you ever questioned the nature of your reality?Registered Userregular
Zune wants to update my phone again. Any idea why?
I haven't gotten prompted yet, but I haven't plugged my phone directly in a few days. I love wireless sync. I can set up stuff I want to sync and it does it overnight while we're sleeping. Very convenient. Syncs over photos too so I don't have to worry about them (though they also auto-upload to Skydrive).
The Dec. 6th update ended up being a Dec. 7th update, heh heh heh (that is, of course, assuming all issues are cleared up by tomorrow. Who knows?).
Double post for a general check in--anyone had been unfortunate enough to have their account information on their WP7? Being that we're using smartphones, I think we're as likely, if not more so, than the average XBL user to have CC data attached to our live accounts.
The guys in the "FIFA run amuck!" thread are literally loosing their shit (and not without reason)--though I haven't seen similar responses on other forums (haven't looked that hard though...maybe it's changed). Worth seeing if it's problematic on our end.
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Apothe0sisHave you ever questioned the nature of your reality?Registered Userregular
I haven't had an issue yet, XBox Live, WP7, and Zune account all together here, but I'm growing increasingly worried I should be changing my password on this account now that it's started happening.
Goddamn it, when did the whole internet become Twitter?
Anyway, basically, there's been theft of CC information--almost always attached to some overcharge on XBL (so, for example, an account name change, along with a charge for 2000 MS points.) It's pretty obvious when it happens (in the thread, it seems like more than half the people in the thread literally hadn't checked their Live accounts--all Xbox--in months).
Being that this is the internet (and particularly the PA forums), I seriously doubt the situation is as effecting 90% of Live accounts with payment information like the thread might suggest, so much as the normal internet reaction, "Well, it happened to you, me, and him, it must be happening everywhere, it's just the man is hiding it!" Still, it's a pain in the ass for those it happens to by all means (the answer is usually to explain the situation to your CC company, and then begin the long reclamation process for your account from Microsoft).
I made the jump to WP7(.5) this morning, upgrading from my old HTC Aria to a Focus S. What are the must-have apps for WP7? I know a lot about how the OS works but not a lot about what's out there in terms of apps and the like.
I honestly don't use much on there that doesn't come with the phone. I have a bunch of apps that I never really use. IMing is pretty much taken care of by the messaging app - it could use support for gtalk but most people are on msn or facebook chat. I use the weather app from MS, a youtube app, the TED app sometimes, Wordament, and public transport apps for my area. Oh and a flashlight app is essential.
Rowi is a great Twitter client, if you want more than the integrated functionality.
NextGen Reader is a decent Google Reader app.
AP Mobile may be worth checking out.
Those are all I use regularly. Bing itself is pretty neat for quick, simple queries - type "weather" for weather, "<airline name> <flight no.>" for flight details, etc. Haven't had a need to install a weather app because of it.
Man, that Xbox companion is pretty neat. Being able to work your phone like a remote is nifty, but maybe a bit...unnecessary.
As for Must-Have apps...well, Netflix, of course. It really depends on what you wnat you know? AP mobile used to be great, but it started crashing hardcore, dunno if they fixed that. Bing is a decent replacement for Spotify, a GQ code scanner and a few other things with Bing Vision. I do like Goggle Goggles better as a name though :-D
FTC: honk.
FTC: HONK.
PAX Prime 2014 Resistance Tournament Winner
appflow is a vastly superior form of discovering new apps than just searching the marketplace
touchdevelop is wacky, worth taking a look at. basically what happens when you have a bunch of bored microsoft engineers reimagine developing stuff for your TI-83 in a touchscreen environment.
honestly 95% of my functionality needs are taken care of by stock mango, though
honestly 95% of my functionality needs are taken care of by stock mango, though
This seems to be the thing people don't get about Windows Phone. What do I need a marketplace of 60 hojillion apps for when I only need a fraction of a hojillion?
honestly 95% of my functionality needs are taken care of by stock mango, though
This seems to be the thing people don't get about Windows Phone. What do I need a marketplace of 60 hojillion apps for when I only need a fraction of a hojillion?
I am the same way, when I read the post about what apps to get. Nearly everything I need is built in. Facebook, Twitter, messaging, it's all there in Mango. The few apps I do use are either games or little things like GasBuddy and Manga7 that aren't really "must have" but just stuff I use.
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jungleroomxIt's never too many graves, it's always not enough shovelsRegistered Userregular
Hopefully that means the app marketplace can foster the QUALITY over QUANTITY methodology of app development, and instead of half-assed trivia games, flashlight apps, and "game helpers" we get real innovation.
Yeah, probably not, but hey... the quality level seems to already be above the Android Market. I've seen a few developers (Most recently the guys from the 100 Pushups series of workouts) entirely forego the Android Market and decide on the WP7 as their alternate release.
Honestly, Apple App Store seems to be overwhelmingly about quantity (of shit) over quality (of anything, in any area). Between bad flash lights, fart sounds, and light saber apps, I'm pretty sure we're talking a very big portion of actual apps.
I think WP7 is only spared the same fact because the market is smaller.
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syndalisGetting ClassyOn the WallRegistered User, Loves Apple Productsregular
Honestly, Apple App Store seems to be overwhelmingly about quantity (of shit) over quality (of anything, in any area). Between bad flash lights, fart sounds, and light saber apps, I'm pretty sure we're talking a very big portion of actual apps.
I think WP7 is only spared the same fact because the market is smaller.
WP7 is a kickass platform, but what you said is horribly unfair.
It is generally the dominant platform that gets the absolute gems AND the shovelware. The NES, the PS2, Gameboy... and iOS. The ratio of shit to gems is skewed heavily towards shit, but that is only because there is a larger userbase and tons more software. The number of gems available borders on maddening; there are more good to great games / apps on those platforms than I could ever want to use or go through.
As of right now, I have hundreds of hours of backlog to dig through on my phone. And I have enough professional apps that I can run my entire business (short of when I need photoshop) on my iPad. The other mobile OSs just do not have that kind of depth yet.
That said, I really want to see WP7 (and eventually 8) get a bunch of developer support. I love that they didn't copy iOS, or stick to their old UI metaphor. They tried something bold and daring, and were rewarded with an amazing platform. I would like to see them become a solid contender in the field.
SW-4158-3990-6116
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
Honestly, Apple App Store seems to be overwhelmingly about quantity (of shit) over quality (of anything, in any area). Between bad flash lights, fart sounds, and light saber apps, I'm pretty sure we're talking a very big portion of actual apps.
I think WP7 is only spared the same fact because the market is smaller.
Pretty much. I think any app store with over 100,000 apps is likely to be just junk. I mean, how many quality apps can really be written/necessary? A search on any app store, wp7 included, for a game name will have many apps for "guides" to said game. They are a dollar, and useless, but for some reason they sell and are still made.
Honestly, Apple App Store seems to be overwhelmingly about quantity (of shit) over quality (of anything, in any area). Between bad flash lights, fart sounds, and light saber apps, I'm pretty sure we're talking a very big portion of actual apps.
I think WP7 is only spared the same fact because the market is smaller.
WP7 is a kickass platform, but what you said is horribly unfair.
It is generally the dominant platform that gets the absolute gems AND the shovelware. The NES, the PS2, Gameboy... and iOS. The ratio of shit to gems is skewed heavily towards shit, but that is only because there is a larger userbase and tons more software. The number of gems available borders on maddening; there are more good to great games / apps on those platforms than I could ever want to use or go through.
As of right now, I have hundreds of hours of backlog to dig through on my phone. And I have enough professional apps that I can run my entire business (short of when I need photoshop) on my iPad. The other mobile OSs just do not have that kind of depth yet.
That said, I really want to see WP7 (and eventually 8) get a bunch of developer support. I love that they didn't copy iOS, or stick to their old UI metaphor. They tried something bold and daring, and were rewarded with an amazing platform. I would like to see them become a solid contender in the field.
So...in other words, if WP7 was able to get the same sort of platform strength, we'd see a spike in total crap applications?
Don't get me wrong, I know there are good apps for the iOS. There's just an overwhelming amount of total shit, and then sort of "Stealth shit"--things like lightsaber sounds, in my opinion, that is at least technically sound, and just happens to be shit. I think you'd see the same situation if the WP7 marketplace expanded to that same size. It seems to be an unfortunate fact of generally consumer-developed application marketplace, not something "unfair", given that I think a very similar problem exists on Android as well.
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Donovan PuppyfuckerA dagger in the dark isworth a thousand swords in the morningRegistered Userregular
Pretty much.
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jungleroomxIt's never too many graves, it's always not enough shovelsRegistered Userregular
I would say that Android has exacerbated the issue by not engaging in any sort of real quality control.
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jungleroomxIt's never too many graves, it's always not enough shovelsRegistered Userregular
Pretty much. I think any app store with over 100,000 apps is likely to be just junk. I mean, how many quality apps can really be written/necessary? A search on any app store, wp7 included, for a game name will have many apps for "guides" to said game. They are a dollar, and useless, but for some reason they sell and are still made.
Well, it's an inevitable human condition. There are hundreds of thousands of people who want to get rich writing apps, tens of thousands of people who actually create an app, but maybe hundreds of people who are actually good at it. The end result is what we have here, a system not completely unlike the shareware/BBS environment of the early/mid 1990's, just with a different delivery system.
Note I'm not discounting the hobbyist app creators. They are usually the ones who make those handy utilities that you can't live without or don't charge for their product.
Honestly, Apple App Store seems to be overwhelmingly about quantity (of shit) over quality (of anything, in any area). Between bad flash lights, fart sounds, and light saber apps, I'm pretty sure we're talking a very big portion of actual apps.
I think WP7 is only spared the same fact because the market is smaller.
WP7 is a kickass platform, but what you said is horribly unfair.
It is generally the dominant platform that gets the absolute gems AND the shovelware. The NES, the PS2, Gameboy... and iOS. The ratio of shit to gems is skewed heavily towards shit, but that is only because there is a larger userbase and tons more software. The number of gems available borders on maddening; there are more good to great games / apps on those platforms than I could ever want to use or go through.
As of right now, I have hundreds of hours of backlog to dig through on my phone. And I have enough professional apps that I can run my entire business (short of when I need photoshop) on my iPad. The other mobile OSs just do not have that kind of depth yet.
That said, I really want to see WP7 (and eventually 8) get a bunch of developer support. I love that they didn't copy iOS, or stick to their old UI metaphor. They tried something bold and daring, and were rewarded with an amazing platform. I would like to see them become a solid contender in the field.
At the same time, the potential buyer pool is smaller on the smaller platforms so the shovelware starts losing it's cost benefit ratio. I have an iPhone, a Droid2, and a WP7. Of all of them, the WP7 has the best app to crap ratio when I head to the marketplace. Maybe that is also because I've found less reason to go to the marketplace as well because everything I want my phone to do, Mango already does, and does better than the apps in the marketplace.
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syndalisGetting ClassyOn the WallRegistered User, Loves Apple Productsregular
I would say that Android has exacerbated the issue by not engaging in any sort of real quality control.
This. Also, the means of being able to get refunds for app purchases means that smaller simpler apps can't make any money at all on Android. I know tons of people who used the 8-24 hour window to "rent" a game, and then get their money back.
As it stands right now, Android is overpopulated with "freemium" apps where downloading is free, but you get nickel and dimed in-game and in-app for features. FTP clients where you have to pay extra to SFTP or extract ZIP files, games where entering the next dungeon costs 4 bucks, etc. Oh, and adWords EVERYWHERE. Tons of free software that is filled with banner ads and unskippable commercials.
iOS has some of that banner ad problem, but iAds are fairly skippable and unobtrusive. iOS also has a "freemium" problem right now, where some developers are selling a taste for 99c or giving it away, and then making you spend more money for more features. My best and most useful tool, Time Master (a time tracking, expense gathering, invoicing ubertool that plugs into quickbooks at end of year) cost 9.99 on the market, but I have easily spent an additional 30 bucks on added functionality, like the ability to fucking email an invoice. The software is great, but I would have much rather paid 40 bucks up front than be told it would only cost ten and then have to spend more to actually use it.
WP7, as best I can tell, does not have a userbase large enough to sustain a bunch of low cost shovelware, making it less attractive to the people who make "fart apps" on the iPhone (PS: I haven't seen a fart app on anyones iphone since, like iOS3, two years ago... I know they are still there, but you have to search for them and they don't get featured in the App Store) and I am uncertain of if there is a way for app developers to monetize their free products via in-app advertising like iOS and Android have, so it is likely those kinds of apps will never be an issue on this platform.
Pretty much. I think any app store with over 100,000 apps is likely to be just junk. I mean, how many quality apps can really be written/necessary? A search on any app store, wp7 included, for a game name will have many apps for "guides" to said game. They are a dollar, and useless, but for some reason they sell and are still made.
Well, it's an inevitable human condition. There are hundreds of thousands of people who want to get rich writing apps, tens of thousands of people who actually create an app, but maybe hundreds of people who are actually good at it. The end result is what we have here, a system not completely unlike the shareware/BBS environment of the early/mid 1990's, just with a different delivery system.
Note I'm not discounting the hobbyist app creators. They are usually the ones who make those handy utilities that you can't live without or don't charge for their product.
Emphasis on the later, rather than the former.
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jungleroomxIt's never too many graves, it's always not enough shovelsRegistered Userregular
edited December 2011
So, Microsoft has shoveled out Lync, Kinectimals, Skydrive, and apparently there is an Office suit...
... all of these for iOS. AFAIK, the iPhone versions are downgraded from their WP7 counterparts though, and the differentiation will probably increase even more when WP8 hits later next year.
It seems as though there is this campaign to kill Android. I personally see Android as software dumping (not to mention lazy programming, opting to use over-powered hardware to run a touchscreen OS that was optimized for keyboards), and as I see more and more of Google's business practices the less I like them.
That IS intresting that MS is putting it's Apps on the iOS market, dunno what there angle is, or even if there IS an angle.
The angle is that they are a software company and the App Store is a regulated market where their stuff is less likely to be hacked (In comparison to Android Market) and exposes the new MS programming ideas and UI/UX paradigm of Metro to a large audience. They are pushing Metro, and they are pushing it hard. Putting it on the AppStore will give them a new, viable install base of users and the money made there can be used to further WP7, just the the Android licensing deals.
I, for one, love the entire interface ideal behind it. We have high enough resolution monitors and screens where text and simple shapes can be clean, crisp, and visually appealing more now than ever and don't need the inclusion of "chromeishness" to offset the lack of crispness. Once people on the iPhone see the interface in motion on their iPhones, they may change their tune about the UI being "blocky" and "ugly".
Or not.
Besides, excessive amounts of exclusives make large companies look dickish. Despite their best efforts and excellent work in the past five years, MS is still the curmudgeonly old battleaxe who yells at people to get off her lawn in the eyes of many, many people.
exposes the new MS programming ideas and UI/UX paradigm of Metro to a large audience
Except that doesn't apply to Kinectimals or the SkyDrive app or OneNote... none of those are Metro on iOS. Skydrive isn't exactly all that Metro on Windows Phone either...
They also do a lot of subtle pushing. Key example: Silverlight.
I remember seeing a Facebook post about Silverlight and Microsoft, in which all my semi-hipster friends went, "Oh, well, who the fuck uses Silverlight?"
I asked if any of them used Netflix instant streaming. Delicious tears.
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syndalisGetting ClassyOn the WallRegistered User, Loves Apple Productsregular
Microsoft is a software company, and they have a new version of Office for OSX every few years, they make their RDP client for it, they license ActiveSync to Apple for both desktop and mobile applications...
Basically, Microsoft is in the business of pushing their platforms and making money. And since Windows and WP7 are just two of their many platforms (Office, xbox live, active directory, exchange, .net, silverlight), it behooves them to put those non-OS platforms on as many systems as humanly possible.
I expect a feature-competitive version of Mobile Office on the iPad within the year, better active directory management of mobile devices of all stripes and brands in the next version of Server... maybe even allowing Microsoft's games to plug into xbox live on your phone and do cross-platform multiplayer (there are already multiple competing game network services on iOS, it would be super bizarre for apple to block that).
And all of this is a net positive for Microsoft; not only because they make money when people buy their stuff, but because the more people look positively on Microsoft, and the more Microsoft software they use, wherever they use it, the more likely they are to buy into a Microsoft phone or tablet down the road.
It is odd to think Microsoft needs a "Halo" effect, ala what the iPod did for Apple... but in the mobile space, they are in desperate need of some growth, and letting people out there see what Microsoft is capable of in this space would go a long way.
SW-4158-3990-6116
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
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jungleroomxIt's never too many graves, it's always not enough shovelsRegistered Userregular
It is odd to think Microsoft needs a "Halo" effect, ala what the iPod did for Apple... but in the mobile space, they are in desperate need of some growth, and letting people out there see what Microsoft is capable of in this space would go a long way.
I think they need the image change. Like was said before, Microsoft has made some impressive jumps with Windows 7 and Windows Phone 7, but the general consensus on MS products is they are buggy, bloated, and prone to crashing. After Vista I was about to jump ship to the Mac ecosystem, but Win 7 drew me back and WP7 solidified me in this brand new and sorta exciting cross-platform awesomeness and freshness that MS has put out. They're promising to deliver tablets that aren't simply luxury products but laptop alternatives, which is going to either fail due to pricing or blow the current tablet market out of the water. I have a feeling that laptops are either going to wane in popularity or simply be drawn down to a more niche market if a company can deliver tablet computing similar to laptop computing. Power users will still opt for the laptop, however.
Imagine being able to use a tablet for Photoshop and not having it be a huge struggle against system capabilities.
I think the growth will come naturally once the preconceived notions of Microsoft being a stuffed-suit, doddering, old-man-run clusterfuck of a corporation are dispelled. The only way they'll be dispelled is if people see it.
We've already got some pretty big tech bloggers like Robert X Cringley and John Gruber who are notorious iOS purists that are singing the praises (despite, they say, every bone in their body protesting) of Windows Phone 7. MS has something truly special in this whole movement and in Metro, and I'm firmly along for the ride.
Also, T-Mo has officially picked up the Nokia Lumia 710. Launches Jan 11. $50 subsidized. I guess that's a start, hopefully some carriers will get the Lumia 800. Or, even better, that Nokia will make a better phone than that and release it here...
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jungleroomxIt's never too many graves, it's always not enough shovelsRegistered Userregular
Also, T-Mo has officially picked up the Nokia Lumia 710. Launches Jan 11. $50 subsidized. I guess that's a start, hopefully some carriers will get the Lumia 800. Or, even better, that Nokia will make a better phone than that and release it here...
RUMOR MILL: AT&T and possibly Verizon are fielding an LTE-capable Lumia 800. Could be the long rumored Ace. Guess we'll find out.
It is odd to think Microsoft needs a "Halo" effect, ala what the iPod did for Apple... but in the mobile space, they are in desperate need of some growth, and letting people out there see what Microsoft is capable of in this space would go a long way.
I think they need the image change. Like was said before, Microsoft has made some impressive jumps with Windows 7 and Windows Phone 7, but the general consensus on MS products is they are buggy, bloated, and prone to crashing. After Vista I was about to jump ship to the Mac ecosystem, but Win 7 drew me back and WP7 solidified me in this brand new and sorta exciting cross-platform awesomeness and freshness that MS has put out. They're promising to deliver tablets that aren't simply luxury products but laptop alternatives, which is going to either fail due to pricing or blow the current tablet market out of the water. I have a feeling that laptops are either going to wane in popularity or simply be drawn down to a more niche market if a company can deliver tablet computing similar to laptop computing. Power users will still opt for the laptop, however.
Imagine being able to use a tablet for Photoshop and not having it be a huge struggle against system capabilities.
I think the growth will come naturally once the preconceived notions of Microsoft being a stuffed-suit, doddering, old-man-run clusterfuck of a corporation are dispelled. The only way they'll be dispelled is if people see it.
We've already got some pretty big tech bloggers like Robert X Cringley and John Gruber who are notorious iOS purists that are singing the praises (despite, they say, every bone in their body protesting) of Windows Phone 7. MS has something truly special in this whole movement and in Metro, and I'm firmly along for the ride.
I am posting from one of said "laptop alternatives". I bought it to replace my Xoom whose hardware and software weren't meeting my needs. Now I have an awesome portable Cintiq with excellent handwriting analysis. Oh and it runs TF2 at max settings.
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Me, I don't care for thin phones--give me a phone with some substance and heft any day over a thin one. And I'll take a function I can decide not to use (and decide to use) over not having that choice at all.
And I hate texting. Keyboards are just amazingly useful for everything else the WP7 is capable of, from Office notes to internet browsing. If I actually texted, that'd just add one more thing.
EDIT: Plus, there's also the fact that even the best magical LED-shape-shifting screen is going to sacrifice part of the screen for a keyboard. A huge problem for me, that's basically made worse by a good soft keyboard.
More Xbox/WP7 integration is always a good thing.
Double post for a general check in--anyone had been unfortunate enough to have their account information on their WP7? Being that we're using smartphones, I think we're as likely, if not more so, than the average XBL user to have CC data attached to our live accounts.
The guys in the "FIFA run amuck!" thread are literally loosing their shit (and not without reason)--though I haven't seen similar responses on other forums (haven't looked that hard though...maybe it's changed). Worth seeing if it's problematic on our end.
Anyway, basically, there's been theft of CC information--almost always attached to some overcharge on XBL (so, for example, an account name change, along with a charge for 2000 MS points.) It's pretty obvious when it happens (in the thread, it seems like more than half the people in the thread literally hadn't checked their Live accounts--all Xbox--in months).
Being that this is the internet (and particularly the PA forums), I seriously doubt the situation is as effecting 90% of Live accounts with payment information like the thread might suggest, so much as the normal internet reaction, "Well, it happened to you, me, and him, it must be happening everywhere, it's just the man is hiding it!" Still, it's a pain in the ass for those it happens to by all means (the answer is usually to explain the situation to your CC company, and then begin the long reclamation process for your account from Microsoft).
NextGen Reader is a decent Google Reader app.
AP Mobile may be worth checking out.
Those are all I use regularly. Bing itself is pretty neat for quick, simple queries - type "weather" for weather, "<airline name> <flight no.>" for flight details, etc. Haven't had a need to install a weather app because of it.
As for Must-Have apps...well, Netflix, of course. It really depends on what you wnat you know? AP mobile used to be great, but it started crashing hardcore, dunno if they fixed that. Bing is a decent replacement for Spotify, a GQ code scanner and a few other things with Bing Vision. I do like Goggle Goggles better as a name though :-D
FTC: HONK.
PAX Prime 2014 Resistance Tournament Winner
touchdevelop is wacky, worth taking a look at. basically what happens when you have a bunch of bored microsoft engineers reimagine developing stuff for your TI-83 in a touchscreen environment.
honestly 95% of my functionality needs are taken care of by stock mango, though
SuperTube is good, and let's you download (which in turn is only watchable in SuperTube I think), but the interface is a bit rougher than MetroTube's.
I am the same way, when I read the post about what apps to get. Nearly everything I need is built in. Facebook, Twitter, messaging, it's all there in Mango. The few apps I do use are either games or little things like GasBuddy and Manga7 that aren't really "must have" but just stuff I use.
Yeah, probably not, but hey... the quality level seems to already be above the Android Market. I've seen a few developers (Most recently the guys from the 100 Pushups series of workouts) entirely forego the Android Market and decide on the WP7 as their alternate release.
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsphone/en-us/apps/collections.aspx
I think WP7 is only spared the same fact because the market is smaller.
It is generally the dominant platform that gets the absolute gems AND the shovelware. The NES, the PS2, Gameboy... and iOS. The ratio of shit to gems is skewed heavily towards shit, but that is only because there is a larger userbase and tons more software. The number of gems available borders on maddening; there are more good to great games / apps on those platforms than I could ever want to use or go through.
As of right now, I have hundreds of hours of backlog to dig through on my phone. And I have enough professional apps that I can run my entire business (short of when I need photoshop) on my iPad. The other mobile OSs just do not have that kind of depth yet.
That said, I really want to see WP7 (and eventually 8) get a bunch of developer support. I love that they didn't copy iOS, or stick to their old UI metaphor. They tried something bold and daring, and were rewarded with an amazing platform. I would like to see them become a solid contender in the field.
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
Pretty much. I think any app store with over 100,000 apps is likely to be just junk. I mean, how many quality apps can really be written/necessary? A search on any app store, wp7 included, for a game name will have many apps for "guides" to said game. They are a dollar, and useless, but for some reason they sell and are still made.
So...in other words, if WP7 was able to get the same sort of platform strength, we'd see a spike in total crap applications?
Don't get me wrong, I know there are good apps for the iOS. There's just an overwhelming amount of total shit, and then sort of "Stealth shit"--things like lightsaber sounds, in my opinion, that is at least technically sound, and just happens to be shit. I think you'd see the same situation if the WP7 marketplace expanded to that same size. It seems to be an unfortunate fact of generally consumer-developed application marketplace, not something "unfair", given that I think a very similar problem exists on Android as well.
Well, it's an inevitable human condition. There are hundreds of thousands of people who want to get rich writing apps, tens of thousands of people who actually create an app, but maybe hundreds of people who are actually good at it. The end result is what we have here, a system not completely unlike the shareware/BBS environment of the early/mid 1990's, just with a different delivery system.
Note I'm not discounting the hobbyist app creators. They are usually the ones who make those handy utilities that you can't live without or don't charge for their product.
At the same time, the potential buyer pool is smaller on the smaller platforms so the shovelware starts losing it's cost benefit ratio. I have an iPhone, a Droid2, and a WP7. Of all of them, the WP7 has the best app to crap ratio when I head to the marketplace. Maybe that is also because I've found less reason to go to the marketplace as well because everything I want my phone to do, Mango already does, and does better than the apps in the marketplace.
As it stands right now, Android is overpopulated with "freemium" apps where downloading is free, but you get nickel and dimed in-game and in-app for features. FTP clients where you have to pay extra to SFTP or extract ZIP files, games where entering the next dungeon costs 4 bucks, etc. Oh, and adWords EVERYWHERE. Tons of free software that is filled with banner ads and unskippable commercials.
iOS has some of that banner ad problem, but iAds are fairly skippable and unobtrusive. iOS also has a "freemium" problem right now, where some developers are selling a taste for 99c or giving it away, and then making you spend more money for more features. My best and most useful tool, Time Master (a time tracking, expense gathering, invoicing ubertool that plugs into quickbooks at end of year) cost 9.99 on the market, but I have easily spent an additional 30 bucks on added functionality, like the ability to fucking email an invoice. The software is great, but I would have much rather paid 40 bucks up front than be told it would only cost ten and then have to spend more to actually use it.
WP7, as best I can tell, does not have a userbase large enough to sustain a bunch of low cost shovelware, making it less attractive to the people who make "fart apps" on the iPhone (PS: I haven't seen a fart app on anyones iphone since, like iOS3, two years ago... I know they are still there, but you have to search for them and they don't get featured in the App Store) and I am uncertain of if there is a way for app developers to monetize their free products via in-app advertising like iOS and Android have, so it is likely those kinds of apps will never be an issue on this platform.
edit: Turns out MS already has in-app ads.
http://advertising.microsoft.com/mobile-apps
As the userbase grows, so will use of these tools; I wonder how obtrusive the ads are to the UX?
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
google's lack of giving a fuck about what's on their market is both boon and curse
edit: you can see the WP7 in-app advertising in the official minesweeper/sudoku apps
Emphasis on the later, rather than the former.
... all of these for iOS. AFAIK, the iPhone versions are downgraded from their WP7 counterparts though, and the differentiation will probably increase even more when WP8 hits later next year.
It seems as though there is this campaign to kill Android. I personally see Android as software dumping (not to mention lazy programming, opting to use over-powered hardware to run a touchscreen OS that was optimized for keyboards), and as I see more and more of Google's business practices the less I like them.
FTC: HONK.
PAX Prime 2014 Resistance Tournament Winner
The angle is that they are a software company and the App Store is a regulated market where their stuff is less likely to be hacked (In comparison to Android Market) and exposes the new MS programming ideas and UI/UX paradigm of Metro to a large audience. They are pushing Metro, and they are pushing it hard. Putting it on the AppStore will give them a new, viable install base of users and the money made there can be used to further WP7, just the the Android licensing deals.
I, for one, love the entire interface ideal behind it. We have high enough resolution monitors and screens where text and simple shapes can be clean, crisp, and visually appealing more now than ever and don't need the inclusion of "chromeishness" to offset the lack of crispness. Once people on the iPhone see the interface in motion on their iPhones, they may change their tune about the UI being "blocky" and "ugly".
Or not.
Besides, excessive amounts of exclusives make large companies look dickish. Despite their best efforts and excellent work in the past five years, MS is still the curmudgeonly old battleaxe who yells at people to get off her lawn in the eyes of many, many people.
I remember seeing a Facebook post about Silverlight and Microsoft, in which all my semi-hipster friends went, "Oh, well, who the fuck uses Silverlight?"
I asked if any of them used Netflix instant streaming. Delicious tears.
Basically, Microsoft is in the business of pushing their platforms and making money. And since Windows and WP7 are just two of their many platforms (Office, xbox live, active directory, exchange, .net, silverlight), it behooves them to put those non-OS platforms on as many systems as humanly possible.
I expect a feature-competitive version of Mobile Office on the iPad within the year, better active directory management of mobile devices of all stripes and brands in the next version of Server... maybe even allowing Microsoft's games to plug into xbox live on your phone and do cross-platform multiplayer (there are already multiple competing game network services on iOS, it would be super bizarre for apple to block that).
And all of this is a net positive for Microsoft; not only because they make money when people buy their stuff, but because the more people look positively on Microsoft, and the more Microsoft software they use, wherever they use it, the more likely they are to buy into a Microsoft phone or tablet down the road.
It is odd to think Microsoft needs a "Halo" effect, ala what the iPod did for Apple... but in the mobile space, they are in desperate need of some growth, and letting people out there see what Microsoft is capable of in this space would go a long way.
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
I think they need the image change. Like was said before, Microsoft has made some impressive jumps with Windows 7 and Windows Phone 7, but the general consensus on MS products is they are buggy, bloated, and prone to crashing. After Vista I was about to jump ship to the Mac ecosystem, but Win 7 drew me back and WP7 solidified me in this brand new and sorta exciting cross-platform awesomeness and freshness that MS has put out. They're promising to deliver tablets that aren't simply luxury products but laptop alternatives, which is going to either fail due to pricing or blow the current tablet market out of the water. I have a feeling that laptops are either going to wane in popularity or simply be drawn down to a more niche market if a company can deliver tablet computing similar to laptop computing. Power users will still opt for the laptop, however.
Imagine being able to use a tablet for Photoshop and not having it be a huge struggle against system capabilities.
I think the growth will come naturally once the preconceived notions of Microsoft being a stuffed-suit, doddering, old-man-run clusterfuck of a corporation are dispelled. The only way they'll be dispelled is if people see it.
We've already got some pretty big tech bloggers like Robert X Cringley and John Gruber who are notorious iOS purists that are singing the praises (despite, they say, every bone in their body protesting) of Windows Phone 7. MS has something truly special in this whole movement and in Metro, and I'm firmly along for the ride.
RUMOR MILL: AT&T and possibly Verizon are fielding an LTE-capable Lumia 800. Could be the long rumored Ace. Guess we'll find out.
I am posting from one of said "laptop alternatives". I bought it to replace my Xoom whose hardware and software weren't meeting my needs. Now I have an awesome portable Cintiq with excellent handwriting analysis. Oh and it runs TF2 at max settings.