Ask Slashdot: Do You Miss Windows Phone? (theverge.com) 284
An anonymous reader writes: After recently switching on an old Windows Phone to create a silly April Fools' joke, The Verge's Tom Warren discovered just how much he missed Microsoft's mobile OS. Two of the biggest features that are hard to find/replicate on iOS and Android are the Metro design and Live Tiles. "Android and iOS still don't have system-wide dark modes, nearly 8 years after Windows Phone first introduced it," notes Warren. "Live Tiles were one of Windows Phone's most unique features. They enabled apps to show information on the home screen, similar to the widgets found on Android and iOS. You could almost pin anything useful to the home screen, and Live Tiles animated beautifully to flip over and provide tiny nuggets of information that made your phone feel far more personal and alive."
Some other neat features include the software keyboard, which Warren argues "is still far better than the defaults on iOS and Android," especially with the recently-added tracing feature that lets you swipe to write words. "Microsoft also experimented with features that were different to other mobile platforms, and some of the concepts still haven't really made their way to iOS or Android: Kid's Corner; Dedicated search button; Browser address bar; People hub; Unified messaging..." Aside from the competition aspect with Google and Apple, do you miss Windows Phone? What are some specific features you miss about the old mobile operating system?
Some other neat features include the software keyboard, which Warren argues "is still far better than the defaults on iOS and Android," especially with the recently-added tracing feature that lets you swipe to write words. "Microsoft also experimented with features that were different to other mobile platforms, and some of the concepts still haven't really made their way to iOS or Android: Kid's Corner; Dedicated search button; Browser address bar; People hub; Unified messaging..." Aside from the competition aspect with Google and Apple, do you miss Windows Phone? What are some specific features you miss about the old mobile operating system?
I Miss Windows In Everything I Own (Score:5, Funny)
Re:I Miss Windows In Everything I Own (Score:4, Insightful)
Do You Miss Windows Phone?
No. Next question.
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Do You Miss Windows Phone?
No. Next question.
I occasionally do miss windows phones, sometimes my aim is off.
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Windows Toilet is great. In fact I woke up this morning and my old toilet had automatically upgraded itself to a bidet! Boy was I in for a surprise!
Metro design and Live tiles?? (Score:5, Insightful)
Do you really need to ask if we miss Windows phone? Are you NUTS?
Re:Metro design and Live tiles?? (Score:5, Funny)
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No gun jokes? (Score:4, Insightful)
If I ever got a mod point to give, I'd probably give that an extra funny, though I was actually searching for gun-related jokes. Something along the lines of "I never miss my Windows Phone as long as I use my rifle. However it's pretty hard to hit it with my revolver." Projecting since my own aim with handguns was never that good?
Actually I think my first quasi-smartphone about 10 or 15 years back was running some kind of Windows OS. They've rebranded their small OS attempts so many time that I can't even remember what it was called. Fortunately I've mostly blacked out those memories except for lingering fears of Sharp and increased nausea towards my occasional involuntary usage of Microsoft software. Microsoft never understood such concepts as small or elegant, though they are great about stealing ideas and proclaiming "It ain't our fault and even when it is our fault you can't do anything to us. Nyah, nyah, nyah."
Then again, and as hard as it might be to believe, I was actually hoping Microsoft could offer a viable email alternative to Gmail. The EVIL of the google has become so much fresher and more pungeant... Maybe my memory is playing games, but I don't think I ever had such feelings of fear and trepidation towards Microsoft.
Re:Metro design and Live tiles?? (Score:5, Interesting)
My coworker has one and he loves it. It does have a good design, it's nicer than iOS in some ways, and the metro startscreen style works well with touch on a phone or tablet where it fails on a PC.
Re:Metro design and Live tiles?? (Score:4, Informative)
I don't miss it, because I still carry a Lumia 950 as my primary phone. Why do I do this? Because I've used Android, and the OS is slow and clunky and unintuitive to use, even though I've been using Android tablets for several years. And iOS? It looks like a pile of regurgitated icons splattered around a desktop leftover from Windows 95. The hardware may be decent enough, and things might play nice together if one is willing to invest in an entirely Apple household of hardware, but the basic layout and design of the UI on both iOS and Android is rubbish by comparison to Windows Phone.
Microsoft made a LOT of blunders with Windows Phone, for sure... killing Project Astoria was probably one of the last nails in the coffin for the OS, as that would have allowed for the app ecosystem everyone wanted. Letting people get used to nifty features like truly unified messaging, and then pulling them back out, also was a big blunder, IMO, though possibly driven by the companies (facebook, etc.) that they originally had integration with.
Many of the features Windows Phone had are still not in any other mobile OS, and several have even (sadly) been stripped from the current versions of Windows Phone. Even so, if I could by a current handset (say, a Nokia 8) and load Windows Phone onto it instead of Android, I would do so in a heartbeat, because for everything I *really* need a phone to do, it just works.
Re:Metro design and Live tiles?? (Score:5, Interesting)
My dream phone would be one with a Windows (Metro) frontend build on top of an Android backend.
I really think the Metro design was, at least in theory, much better than the IOS/Android basic design ideas. Of course MIcrosoft did make a horrible blunder with the Metro design in Windows 8, which put many people off (me included at the time)
Sailfish OS ; webOS (Score:2)
IF the thing you like in Windows' Metro design are the "Live Tiles" :
- the concept of mobile app that still display useful stuff while in overview mode isn't new at all, HP/Palm webOS (full blown GNU/Linux, not Android related) used to do it. Whenever in "card" overview (looking from affar to all opened tabs, using the "deck of cards, grouped in 'hands' metaphor" specific to webOS - each card can still display its content).
- Jolla's Sailfish OS pushed the concept further: when in "peek mode" or on t
It wasn't bad honestly (Score:4, Insightful)
While the interface was unusable on a desktop it worked well enough on a phone. I picked up a phone on clearance and used it for a while. It was a $99 phone reduced to $19.99. For a low end model the interface was fast and never felt bogged down.
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The start screen was just bad overall. Here is just one example. I installed Office for someone on their new laptop and was trying to show them how to start it. No icons to be found anywhere. Turns out the giant menu can scroll but gives you no indication such as bars or even dots like phones do. How would anyone know that by looking at it? What about parking your cursor on the upper right of the screen to make an invisible menu appear? Again just bad design.
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The problem of the Start menu is a lack of automatic application categorization. Microsoft should have imposed this sort of thing [fossbytes.com] upon all devs, all the way back in '95. Is it too late to fix Windows now?
Re:It wasn't bad honestly (Score:5, Informative)
I never understood the animosity to the Windows 8 start screen. What is the use case for the cramped start menu? You are doing one thing, you are looking to launch an application. Why constrain that function to a corner of the screen? One thing, full screen, maximum real estate given to do that one thing. I am not launching an app and also scanning my desktop for some other reason. I switched my Windows 10 back to full screen start.
The full-screen part isn't the source of the animosity. The source is basically everything else. What you call "cramped", I see as "information density". As a go-to example, let's use Magix Vegas, formerly Sony Vegas. Is the program icon under "Magix", "Sony", "Vegas", or "Movie Studio"? With the multi-column paradigm, I can fit 48 items per column, and 6 columns on a 1920x1080 screen. Whichever one of them it's under, it'll be readily apparent in short order. On that same 1920x1080 screen, the Windows 8 Start Screen shows 35 entries - less than a single column in the older paradigm. Given that Windows 8 was rarely run on a tablet, for 99% of people the reduction in information density wasn't a tradeoff for which they received a benefit. Additional annoyances involved the 'charms' menu for which a UI cue was never implemented, and an unintuitive pinning procedure. Now, the go-to answer is always "just type what you want!" There's no UI cue for that, either, it's been possible since Windows Vista, and if that's the primary way of launching programs, then congratulations, we're all the way back to a command line paradigm.
As for the Windows Metro UI apps, they are still in Windows 10. I have no problems with those either.
That's fine. There are plenty of reasons to not-like Metro UI apps, not the least of which because of how limited they are.
Cant resize it? Again, what is the use case.
The operating system is literally called "Windows". If MS wanted to use a different paradigm, fine, call it "Tiles" and see how well that works. You're stating that you don't understand the animosity, yet you require users to justify their preferences. "Because f'k you, that's why" is the only necessary reason as to why window resizing over tiling is preferred. I may well want to see just the status bar of a background process, which takes 3% of a screen rather than 25. Snapping is helpful, tiling is useful, but to assume every situation lends itself to not-windowing is shortsighted.
You can tile them on the screen. Dock them to the sides. Arrange them to see multiple apps at once. I don;t see the issue.
Few argue the problem. Most argue the requirement.
Unity uses over a quarter of the screen for the launcher, is someone bitching about that? Not as much, because it's "Linux" and we are used to it being schizophrenic in UI design. *SMH*
Well, first off, you just called using a quarter of the screen a schizophrenic UI design while arguing that full screen was acceptable earlier. Second, the Unity UI also spent the last few years receiving its share of criticism. Finally, Linux has options on that front; using Kubuntu or Xubuntu or Ubuntu Mate are all entirely viable and listed on the main Ubuntu download page, and tutorials for switching between them are incredibly easy to find and follow. Linux makes it far easier to change one's desktop environment than Windows, and while I would love nothing more than to be able to load up a Windows computer and end up in KDE or Cinnamon, the system just doesn't do that.
And yes, I own and use a Windows 10 phone as my primary communications device and it is better by design. I don't need your stinking 'droid apps :P
I'm with you here. I've got maybe three dozen apps on my phone, in total, over half of which are either rooting/backup tools, or apps that could be readily replaced with a website if the developers wanted to put the slightest effort into one.
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Yes I do (Score:5, Funny)
That feeling that you were going to wait 30 minutes to do an SMS: "Don't turn your phone off while an update is being applied..."
Re:Yes I do (Score:5, Funny)
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I don't miss the OS, but I miss the camera (Score:5, Informative)
I liked WIndows Phone just fine -- and I make my living supporting Windows, so learning that OS was a good fit -- but I did not enjoy the two-year forced vacation from available apps. When I bought the Lumia, I lost access to SiriusXM, Square credit card payments, and other applications I had been using daily. I spent almost two years trying to find replacements with mixed results, and finally solved all the problems by ordering a Nexus 6P from Google.
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If you want the best photos, you should get an actual camera, not a phone.
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Yes, that can replace a point-and-shoot very well. But when you want serious quality, you need a serious camera, not a phone.
No, I'm glad it's dead because it killed Nokia. (Score:4, Interesting)
No, I'm glad it's dead because it killed Nokia.
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Unfortunately Ericsson went the same way. I'm still keeping an old R250s Pro alive. Battery cells in the battery pack are plain R6 cells (AA for you americans).
Re:No, I'm glad it's dead because it killed Nokia. (Score:4, Insightful)
Nokia was a walking corpse when MS bought them
Because their Microsoft-planted CEO Stephen Elop killed it from the inside. Nokia was doing pretty well before the disastrous move to Windows Phone.
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Usefull link about the Elop/Microsoft fiasco (Score:2)
a useful link [blogs.com] with a long history of how the Elop/Microsoft massacre happened upon Nokia.
What? (Score:4, Funny)
Are you kidding? I still have my Windows phone, it is called Windows 10. They dropped the phone hardware and moved the "live tiles" to their Desktop OS. However, I have to do all of my text messaging through Google Hangouts. It's a strange phone.
No, because I'm still using it (Score:5, Insightful)
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Yesterday some of my friends were taking pictures and were particularly praising the small live video thingy taken together with the photo on iOS and I simply thought about what else they have been missing these last years (two and half, I think).
Miss it? My phone wan't stolen! (Score:2)
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Back in 1990, DOS was a poor OS compared to Unix. The only thing it had was it could run in tiny cpus. As Moore's Law expanded the cpu capabilities it soaked it up like nobody's business. By the time the chips were powerful enough to run real unix, there was a huge install base for Windows, that could not be dislodged.
That is my claim to say inferior product that defeated a superior product.
wait, what? (Score:2)
So...like Swype and the thousand other such apps? Yeah yeah, Swype was discontinued a couple months ago - doesn't mean you get to tout it as a unique feature suddenly.
If that's the sort of crap I was missing with the microsoft phone, then no - no regrets :P /P
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Heck, Google themselves have offered Gboard for years as a replacement for the default on Android. It does swipe-typing, voice-to-text, etc. And without the risk of exposing all your typed information to a third party (Google presumably already spies on you as much as they want, with or without Gboard installed).
Re: wait, what? (Score:2, Interesting)
I stopped using Google keyboard when I noticed that my e-banking account number (which begins with a letter but is mostly numbers) started to show up in the autocomplete suggestions when I was in other apps. Now I know it's somewhere on their servers, and who knows, it could appear on someone else autocomplete. So nice.
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In other apps, or on other devices?
Either way is worrying, since wherever it's stored is vulnerable to compromise. But other devices would mean it's stored on their server, whereas other apps could be a local private database. Not that I'd trust Google to go that route.
But then, I avoid doing anything financial on my phone. I decided it was a choice between being able to explore the app ecosystem, or use my phone for secure purposes, and the latter just wasn't that important to me.
Lumia 1020 still kicking here (Score:2, Informative)
I'll replace it when it's dead. For a long time nothing beat the camera. I like the simplistic UI, the tiles and I don't give a damn about app stores. Also the confounded looks I get from colleagues are amusing when they realize that... yes, I'm a *nix and network admin who uses a windows phone. Clear phone calls, text with great pictures, I've got everything I need. Only 2 complaints... outdated browser and it phonebook/contact UI isn't very intuitive.
That's an easy one: (Score:2)
No. Most definitely not.
You're welcome.
No (Score:2)
Metro and Live tiles? (Score:3)
Today I learnt there are people who not only liked live tiles but actually miss them too. I guess it takes all kinds really.
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Really. I can't imagine anything more ANNOYING and STUPID than a collection of constantly changing/animated "tiles." Reminds me of extremely annoying animated website ads.
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Have never used IE, ever. Have always used firefox. Have no love of Google at all. So, you were saying??
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Well, that's the thing about design; people's response to a design is subjective and emotional. People who don't understand that invariably believe that anyone who doesn't like the same things they do must be stupid.
I don't miss Windows Phone (Score:2)
I'm still using Windows Phone, so I can't really miss it.
I'd rather be using almost anything else though.
hmm (Score:2)
I miss it a bit. The interface was head and shoulders above iOS or Android, and performance was amazing on low-end hardware.
I do not miss having access to 95% of the apps that I wanted.
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(typo, that should read I do not miss not having access)
Exactly, I also miss its efficiency (Score:2)
Nope, at least on Android (Score:2)
System-wide dark mode: numerous screen filter apps exist
Tiles, etc: many custom launchers to try
Schadenfreude (Score:4, Insightful)
As someone who was hyped for MeeGo back then, the absolute commercial failure of Windows Phone has a bittersweet taste of justice.
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They were so commercially unsuccessful that I've never even seen a Windows phone. Why would I miss them?
After all, I already deal with the frustration of MS products on a regular basis, why would I want more of that?
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I've actually seen one or two in the wild, here in Brazil. For a brief moment WP was heavily discounted and sold well. But of course, "carriers dumping old stock that no one wanted at full price" is not a sustainable business model.
Windows phones should run windows programs (Score:2)
The big mistake with windows is not making the windows phone compatible with windows software.
here people will say "imcompatible hardware" to which I can respond with "emulation" to which they'll respond with "it will be slow" to which I can respond with "the phones are so much more powerful than older windows computers that even with inefficiency they can emulate all sorts of old windows programs"...
To this people will then say "why would anyone want to run old windows software on a phone"... well, a lot o
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To this people will then say "why would anyone want to run old windows software on a phone"... well, a lot of that software is actually really impressive. Furthermore, it expands the liberary of programs that can be run on the phone beyond what the android and iOS has which would make Microsoft competitive with android for a lot of things that they otherwise can't be due to a lack of software.
The problem isn't that some software can be run on a phone. The problem is that some software shouldn't be run on a phone. For example, it's impressive if you run Photoshop on a phone. But with a tiny screen how effective can someone be at using Photoshop. Then there's the other problem with UI. Fine controls with photoshop at a minimum require a keyboard and mouse, but many pros use pressure sensitive pens and Wacom pads.
If we narrow our software only to type that people generally use and not specialty sof
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As to what should and shouldn't be run, I'll be the judge of that thanks.
As a customer, if MS had made an effort to offer this as a feature on their phones, I would have bought one instead... I am not alone in this matter.
I'm a customer. It is what I want. Business 101 would suggest that you simply not argue that point since your objective as a business is to get me to give you money. So... enough.
As to your windows mobile 6~8... I'm talking about making it compatible with Windows DESKTOP versions 95~Window
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As to what should and shouldn't be run, I'll be the judge of that thanks.
So what you're saying you should be able to dictate to developers like MS, Adobe, and any independent ones what they should make because you are the judge of things? Hey if you want to port all the Windows programs you like onto your phone, you can get a mobile developer license. But telling companies that they have to develop according to your needs and not what makes them the most money is a little egotistical.
As a customer, if MS had made an effort to offer this as a feature on their phones, I would have bought one instead... I am not alone in this matter.
If "Windows compatibility" was an actual selling feature of phones, you'd think MS would jump on
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strawmanning someone is not a great way to have a discussion...
http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/i... [kym-cdn.com]
We're done here.
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Yep, I use remote apps on my phone all the time and I wouldn't need to if I could run the stupid program on the phone itself.
Yes (Score:2)
Sure, my 2017 Android phone has all the apps, sure, but it's less responsive, less stable, buggier, and generally harder to use than my 2011 WP8 Nokia.
No, it was nice concept (Score:2)
My testing phone ran the latest WP version at the time 8.1 or something.
I came across a situation where I had to call emergency services. I tried calling with my primary(testing) phone and WP failed, the phone just crashed.
My second phone did work and the situation was solved. That was the day I decided to abandon WP platform and bought my first iphone.
Though I still use the work assigned WP, the sound quality i
There was a Windows phone? (Score:2)
Ha-ha! Sure! (Score:2)
What I miss is a competitive ecosystem but not the MS, Palm and Blackberry products in particular.
Re:Ha-ha! Sure! (Score:4, Interesting)
Microsoft fanboi detector (Score:2, Insightful)
This post is an excellent detector of Microsoft fanboys.
Anyone who claims to be using a WP today by choice is clearly a diehard Microsoft fan.
App support for WP was always bad and in recent years, important apps, such as banking apps have been withdrawn.
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I didn't use an Microsoft product by choice for about twenty years. But I just bought my third Windows phone.
First was a Lumia 635 that I picked up for $40 to use until I could get around to fixing the screen on my Moto G. I never got around to fixing the Moto. Kids still use the Lumia.
Next was a Lumia 650 that I got for free from Cricket as part of a promotion.
And then just last week I grabbed an Acer Jade Primo for $100 (including a case, dock, keyboard and mouse)
Why? Because Windows Phone sti
I miss the smootheness of scrolling the homescreen (Score:2)
The only thing I miss about Windows Phone 8 was the smoothness of sliding everything with my finger on the home screen. Apple has stutters here and there, Android has stutters by design as far as I can tell. I don't know what MS did there, but they should take a patent on it so these other two guys can license it, because they don't seem able to come up with a solution by themselves.
Definitely no (Score:2)
I run a Nokia with stock android and updates, whatsapp (runs faster + more features), HERE driving works better, firefox browser with blocker which is a huge improvement over the locked down Edge, microsoft tools (mail,onedrive,word et al) all do work at least as snappy and stable.
I postponed migration from Windows Mobile until banking apps where phased out and the Lumia started to get slower and slower (even after factory reset) and was not keen on Android after v1 v2 experiences.
WM had some nice features
Windows Phone is my Secret Mistress (Score:2)
I have an iPhone, some Android devices and a Windows 8 and Windows 10 phone. I iuse the W10 device as a backup phone and I really do like it. Lots of things in Windows Phone is much better than the iOSDroid way of doing things.
Inter-application navigation is vastly better for one, and I like the tiles.
Read a book called "The Smashing Mobile Book Addendum"''s chapter on Windows Phone to see a good descript of how W10 phone works vs iOSDroid to see why it is better.
Specifically, Windows 7 phone (Score:2)
With my Verizon contract ending days before the new 'droid phones came out and with a 30-day return policy, I accepted the Windows phone to give me something to blog-rant (brant?) about until the droid phones arrived. The experience was amazing until Ballmer killed the device by announcing the merge-to-windows-8.
Metro wasn't a cosmetic touch up of Windows, it was a do-over. It was a UI entirely built around the phone/tablet from the very ground up, and it was as delicious, delightful, intuitive an experienc
The market misses WIndows Phone... (Score:2)
I don't miss Windows Phone, because I never had one. But I think the market misses it. This two-horse race between Android and iOS is boring, predictable and uninspired. Each copying the other (look ma, I've got a notch now too) to implement the other's latest features on their own grid-of-icons based OS while ignoring the inherent flaws. Android is a mess of an OS that rots over time until you have to do a factory reset, and iOS is a shrine to Apple's arrogance.
The phone market is HUGE and could easily
No Love for Windows Mobile/Pocket PC? (Score:2)
Still have fond memories of my iPaq 6315 rocking the Windows Mobile 2003 OS.
It could (natively) create office documents, do mapping, take pictures, had push email, etc. a few years before the iPhone and Android were a glimmer in the publics' eye. Any apps created for the .NET compact framework could be run without modification on desktop windows.
Them and the Treos were ahead of their time.
No (Score:2)
No, I don't miss it. I didn't even miss it when it was alive.
LOL (Score:2)
The Windows 'ecosystem' was a vast wasteland punctuated by the occasional pile of steaming horseshit.
You could every app except the one you actually wanted or needed. But Microsoft made up for it with lots and lots of "fart" and flashlight apps.
They had a calendar that couldn't make or set appointments, meetings, or add notes. You couldn't mark a day or set a reminder because it was a view-only calendar, period. It was both utterly worthless AND the #1 rated calendar app in the Windows app store.
Yes, definitely (Score:2)
I miss the build up... (Score:2)
I don't miss anything about Windows Mobile in particular (and I detest how it was allowed to influence the desktop OS in some weird, genetic abortion of design failure), but I do miss the time before it was released, when the ecosystem was full of promise. I miss the idea of a mobile OS which wasn't a walled garden, but also wasn't a cluster-f of unpatched, vendor "optimized" garbage, with tons of bloatware and more persistent bugs and usability issues than anyone would have thought possible. I miss the pro
Decent phones, actually. (Score:2)
It's still getting the occasional insider update and software updates, and Edge is much more capable and mature now than it was a few years ago.
Yeah, I miss Windows Phone (Score:2)
At least with every bullet so far.
Yes, actually (Score:2)
I miss it because I think there should be more competition in the mobile OS sector. I also miss Firefox OS and Sailfish (though it's sort of still alive) and all of the other small-fry alternatives to Android and iOS. Google and Apple have become way too complacent and are resting on their laurels. There is no real innovation in phone UIs, and the Windows Phone tile layout was a very interesting idea.
Sort of (Score:2)
I miss it because, without it, there is no alternative for Android to compete against. All Android has to do is not be IOS from Apple. Android steams ahead of that happily but Microsoft's offering might have given some options to those of us who remember Apples' legal shenanigans of past years. No tech giant is completely innocent of hiring lawyers but Apple did it to such an extent that it ruled itself out of doing business with anyone who can remember back more than 5 years.
I hoped that some of the of
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I will once it dies (Score:2)
I have a Lumia 928, and have already done a few repairs to keep it going. I can't stand Android or iOS, and for one time in its history, Microsoft got something like presenting a large amount of information almost ambiently.
I love the thing. I wish they had not abandoned it after flooding the market with cheap pointless phones, rather than present a decently priced flagship that worked well.
What?! (Score:2)
Do I miss what?!
I never used it and therefore don't miss it. When Balmer was in charge of MS, he totally screwed the pooch on this. He was blinded by his hubris about so many things. It was a mistake leaving that guy in charge. I wonder how Bill felt about leaving his company in the hands of that guy.. I'm sure Nokia was happy to see MS buy up their company and then ditch everything as well.. Nokia made a mistake hiring their CEO from MS and should not have been surprised to see where things went after that
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Keyboard was far superior to Android/iPhone (Score:2)
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I miss the old Microsoft (around 2009 - 2011, Windows 7 times).
The Coca-Cola company tried to roll out "New Coke".
But the taste failed, and Coca-Cola returned to "Coke Classic".
Maybe Microsoft will get their users' message, and roll out "Windows 7 Classic" . . . ?
Re:No No (Score:2)
...or just "Windows Classic".
Perhaps they could do what WinAmp did when it's users were displeased with 3.0, and made 5.0 which was the best features of 2.0 and 3.0 combines -> 2+3=5 hence 5.0. Likewise, Microsoft could release Windows 17.
PS. I still use Windows 7, but miss the Windows 2000 UI and search-feature. Windows 2010 anyone?
Re:No No (Score:4, Interesting)
As someone who actively worked on part of the Winamp code base, this is something that always bothered me, much like the hate for Microsoft trying to do something different. The Winamp team came up with an amazing audio processing pipeline interface in Winamp 3. They also engineered one of the most flexible skinning interfaces ever seen on a desktop. Users couldn't use their visualizers and older skins, therefor it "sucked" and everyone bitched and didnt give two fucks about the innovations being created. Even with a compatibility layer added in Winamp 3, it wasn't enough. So the entire thing was scrapped, sadly. In the MS world, it is entirely the same. Just look what happened to WinFS or Photosynth. Just because something is "different" doesn't instantly make it "bad", but that's the general consumer consensus without even trying to try something new.
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The concept of no longer having "drive letters" scared the shit out of people, they revolted, so Microsoft dropped the entire project sadly.
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No and NO!!!
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In retrospect, that might have actually worked. Except for that bit where I don't think Microsoft wants to build platforms that don't run Windows, and I don't think another platform vendor would want to use Windows as a starting point.
When Microsoft tried re-inventing their mobile platform (WP7 through WM10), no one really cared and the platform was allowed to compete on its own merits. Of course because no one cared, it had to be propped up by Microsoft's large bank account and a plethora of dirt-cheap de
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When BlackBerry tried re-inventing their mobile platform (BB10), the hate was so overwhelmingly strong that the platform was never allowed to compete on its own merits. They constantly had crap thrown in their face, and most people even refused to believe that they had something new. Even though I'd argue they made a better platform, they didn't have Microsoft's large bank account or plethora of dirt-cheap devices. So once they fizzled out, it was with a far smaller user base.
I thought it was a bit more of an Osborne effect. Classic "BlackBerry OS" was starting to reach it's limits. While Android and iOS were getting better, RIM kept saying "BB10 is just around the corner, it will fix all the problems." When it did arrive, it was too little, too late. RIM was a little cocky though, thinking they still owned the smartphone market while they were being passed by.
Then there was the Blackberry Playbook. It ran an abortion of an OS. QNX based, but not really BB10. It also didn't supp
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Then there was the Blackberry Playbook. It ran an abortion of an OS. QNX based, but not really BB10. It also didn't support native email... on a Blackberry device.
This remark keeps getting repeated again, and again, and again. While a valid complaint, IMHO, its *not* the reason the PlayBook failed. As a developer who was actually paying attention when the PlayBook was being launched, the *real* problem was the lack of a decent SDK. At launch, the only public SDK was a roll-your-own-UI hodge-podge with Adobe Air. Nearly a year later, they added an NDK that offered little more in terms of UI than an OpenGL canvas. At this point, the PlayBook could do a decent job at
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If you think Android is the Ford Pinto, then Windows Phone is a Trabant in the car scale.
And iPhone is a Citroen. Perfect solutions of non-existing problems.
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