Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Microsoft, Samsung Take on Apple With New Smartphone Announcements
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Okay, thank you for clearing that up. On Engadget there was a post about MS releasing 2 versions of WP7, a business version and a media version. Maybe as we learn about the 2 different versions that clear things up, or maybe MS didn't want to waste time detailing features that every single new smartphone has, instead choosing to focus on what is genuinely new.
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 2.1-update1; en-gb; Nexus One Build/ERE27) AppleWebKit/530.17 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/530.17)
Judging by the lack of much discussion about Bada, I'm guessing its dead in the water in these parts? Of course anything Microsoft related was going to be a hot topic!
Why have Samsung bothered?
Judging by the lack of much discussion about Bada, I'm guessing its dead in the water in these parts? Of course anything Microsoft related was going to be a hot topic!
Why have Samsung bothered?
A lot better than 6x. A lot of new interesting features but the look still seems a bit scattered.
That's their problem for being so shortsighted then. The iPhone isn't the best mobile device because of a bunch of useless special effects: it's a success because it runs the most intuitive and simple mobile OS in the world.
I've been looking at the videos and pictures on Engadget and Giz, and I have to say, honestly, that I'm not very impressed. I commend them for starting from scratch with their OS, but it looks stark (that home screen...ugh.), not very user-friendly, and not very personal. I don't know, maybe it is because I have an iPhone and I'm biased, but it just doesn't look as good as what Apple has now, and probably won't look as good as what is coming out this summer. Good try MS, but in my opinion, Apple still makes the most user-friendly, easy to navigate, most practical OS.
...but again, I'm biased
...but again, I'm biased
I've been looking at the videos and pictures on Engadget and Giz, and I have to say, honestly, that I'm not very impressed. I commend them for starting from scratch with their OS, but it looks stark (that home screen...ugh.), not very user-friendly, and not very personal. I don't know, maybe it is because I have an iPhone and I'm biased, but it just doesn't look as good as what Apple has now, and probably won't look as good as what is coming out this summer. Good try MS, but in my opinion, Apple still makes the most user-friendly, easy to navigate, most practical OS.
...but again, I'm biased
Plus note that the photos are all taken in dark places (AKA fits the target audience of people who live in their mom's basement).
Right, I'm intrigued. With the new iPhone, all the damn Android phones (Motorola
), this and even Palms offerings I'm really excited that my contract is up with ATT in July. Hopefully we'll get more info from that conference in March about this.I initially don't like the interface as I see a lot of wasted space, not negative space, but I'm not blind so the icons don't need to be gigantic. I prefer andoid's approach of folders as well as a tray to house all the applications [hidden] so you really only have to sort through the one's you use most, ala, pinning them to the desktop or whatever they call it. It seems like a much better system.
A lot of people here are right about Apple's iPhone interface. It just isn't a decent way to organize apps or find / use them. I don't want to scroll. I want folders, stacks, anything that is better. I don't want to have to have icons everwhere, why not widgets, why not feeds, why not nothing (would that be so bad). With the WMP7 I see a lot of scrolling through their boxes/container apps and that seems tedious, especially if the function you want is far to the left. Right now on my iPhone I have an entire page for games but there's really got to be a better way then swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe, tap, or swipe left, search [type], tap (at least its less steps). I use games the least so they are naturally at the end of the home screens but still, this is not ideal. A list view (hello finder), tiny icons, heck I'd even accept voice commands over this, even in public
.
Yes, PC Magazine, because every consumer wants a hodgepodge of phone choices.
Windows Phone is like Plays for Sure all over again.Its not even a device, its an operating system and reference platform.
Haha, that gave me a nice little chuckle. In reality, this IS better than the old WinMo, and it will sell more, but in no way will this be the "iPhone killer" (like every other phone or OS that has been over-hyped).
Because it's an underwhelming yawnfest. Throw it on the pile with the Palm Pres, Android devices, Blackberry Storms, Samsung Omnias, etc. And on top of that, it's an OEM project. Yikes!
Microsoft's "really quite something" is an Apple concept OS submitted as a joke in early 2007 and tossed into the shredder. MS' best is a Cupertino blooper reel. Any competitor gong in without anything like Apple's ecosystem has to totally rethink the whole game to truly impress. That is, they have to pull an Apple in June 2007.
Another "barely good enough" smartphone that fails to excite and inspire. This is usual MS fare.
The absolute worst thing for MS and the "competition" is that iPhone development will continue. In fact, Apple has moved way beyond the smartphone paradigm into totally new touch-tablet territory. Apple just grows their ecosystem with bigger and better things while everyone else puts in practice time.
I suppose it "looks good" in the way those fruitcake high-fashion clothing design shows "look good". Which is to say, eye catching for being different, but obviously some definition of "looks good" which an ordinary non-fashion conscious user like myself just doesn't grok. Good at getting press for novelty, but not innovative in any way that is actually of practical value.
But then I thought the Zune HD looked like trash when I played with one too, so I guess I just don't see what the pundits do. Takes fluff animation way beyond useful and completely into the realm of pointless eye candy. OS navigation based on following words which don't even fit on the screen?! - sorry, but this emperor has no clothes.
But then I thought the Zune HD looked like trash when I played with one too, so I guess I just don't see what the pundits do. Takes fluff animation way beyond useful and completely into the realm of pointless eye candy. OS navigation based on following words which don't even fit on the screen?! - sorry, but this emperor has no clothes.
This is ...
95% eye-candy and 1% usability and 4% additional marketing + help from the MS-friendly "tech-community."
Not necessarily true, but after the demo, it certainly makes one feels that the people who come up with this WP7S UI design never paid any attention to the usability. It still processes the same-old MS characteristics of UI:
1. Scrolling in all 4 directions to see things
2. Text being cutting off (rough, unpolished edge/detail --- even for a pre-beta demo)
3. multiple versions of the same thing planned
4. To find anything it is at least 3 levels down
5. To get anything done it is at least 5 levels down
6. To reach anything meaningful it is 3 levels down + scrolling in unpredictable directions
This is nothing more than utilizing the fact that most people is getting (will get) visually exhausted when seeing the same thing over and over for years. So the moment they see something completely different visually (with carefully selected eye-candies, they get overly excited --- that's how we sell stuff in America!
95% eye-candy and 1% usability and 4% additional marketing + help from the MS-friendly "tech-community."
Not necessarily true, but after the demo, it certainly makes one feels that the people who come up with this WP7S UI design never paid any attention to the usability. It still processes the same-old MS characteristics of UI:
1. Scrolling in all 4 directions to see things
2. Text being cutting off (rough, unpolished edge/detail --- even for a pre-beta demo)
3. multiple versions of the same thing planned
4. To find anything it is at least 3 levels down
5. To get anything done it is at least 5 levels down
6. To reach anything meaningful it is 3 levels down + scrolling in unpredictable directions
This is nothing more than utilizing the fact that most people is getting (will get) visually exhausted when seeing the same thing over and over for years. So the moment they see something completely different visually (with carefully selected eye-candies, they get overly excited --- that's how we sell stuff in America!
If it can't multitask, how can you run antivirus software?
It looks decent, I'm sure they'll sell a lot of phones. It's no iPhone killer.
It looks decent, I'm sure they'll sell a lot of phones. It's no iPhone killer.
Uhm, I understand that Flash 10.1 works on WM6.5 and Adobe and MS are working to get a Flash browser plugin on WM7, but it may not be implemented in time for the first devices carrying the OS.
But this is different than NO FLASH, the way it is on the iPhone.
XDA will likely port Flash 10.1+ on WM7 withing days after it comes out. Browsers like Skyfire will come in as well.
On my iPhone 3G S, NADA.... ZIP.... Not even on Cydia. Same for the iPad
Consider it momentarily hikacked...
It's late in the thread, so I'll do a minor hijack. First, it was just an offhand response to an adamant statement that doesn't necessarily have to be true. Conventionally, light years are used to measure distance. All I'm saying is, that's not the only use. How do you think they measure the age of the universe? The distance is a measure of time.
Look up gravitational lensing, just for instance. One use of light as a measure of time.
If an object emitting light is one million light years away (that's distance, indeed), it has taken the light one million years to arrive. Therefore the light is one million years old, and that's a measure of time. If you send a return message via light, all things being equal in a constant universe, the amount of time it will take is...one million years. Time.
If one is able to travel along the path of that same light, you are effectively moving in, and measuring, time. Like I said, it's your perspective.
It's late in the thread, so I'll do a minor hijack. First, it was just an offhand response to an adamant statement that doesn't necessarily have to be true. Conventionally, light years are used to measure distance. All I'm saying is, that's not the only use. How do you think they measure the age of the universe? The distance is a measure of time.
Look up gravitational lensing, just for instance. One use of light as a measure of time.
If an object emitting light is one million light years away (that's distance, indeed), it has taken the light one million years to arrive. Therefore the light is one million years old, and that's a measure of time. If you send a return message via light, all things being equal in a constant universe, the amount of time it will take is...one million years. Time.
If one is able to travel along the path of that same light, you are effectively moving in, and measuring, time. Like I said, it's your perspective.
Not bad, Microsoft. I like the design very much. It's not as monotone as the icon grid the iPhone uses. Very interesting.
As for Samsung, that's gotta be the worst iPhone OS clone I've ever seen. The colours are way too saturated, and the spacing between the icons is too small. It's very cluttered. What an eyesore.
As for Samsung, that's gotta be the worst iPhone OS clone I've ever seen. The colours are way too saturated, and the spacing between the icons is too small. It's very cluttered. What an eyesore.
Which I believe his point was, and I agree with, you don't just change the UI because some people would think it is boring. That is not a reason to change the look and feel of a UI.
Functionality is 1000% more important. You don't just change it because some people have massive ADD.
Well to me it looks very anti-stylish, like everything that Microsoft makes... I mean maybe it will be productive and good to use, or not, I can't tell, but it definitely doesn't look "cool" and pretty as the iPhone does. It matters a lot to me, but I know there are lots of people who care a lot about the usefulness and the customisation options more than the style of a device...
I'm trying to say that Apple has a sort of minimalistic and modern style with logical animations that I like, and nothing fancy that's really useless, and every other company is just trying to overcomplicate things. Less is more...
I'm not judging this phone, I mean this isn't enough info to say much about it, but just an impression... And I'm not saying the iPhone is perfect either, just that it's really going in the right direction, while others aren't... To me...
I'm trying to say that Apple has a sort of minimalistic and modern style with logical animations that I like, and nothing fancy that's really useless, and every other company is just trying to overcomplicate things. Less is more...
I'm not judging this phone, I mean this isn't enough info to say much about it, but just an impression... And I'm not saying the iPhone is perfect either, just that it's really going in the right direction, while others aren't... To me...