Windows Phone 7 To Get Multi-Tasking, IE9, Xbox Integration

geek4 writes "Microsoft is planning to introduce multi-tasking and full integration with Internet Explorer 9 in future updates to its Windows Phone 7 mobile operating system later this year. IE9 on Windows Phone 7 will use the same core browsing engine as on PCs. Microsoft also talked about the importance of multi-tasking, and claims it can now offer fast task switching without causing serious detriment to the battery life. In particular, Microsoft said, this will improve the experience of using third party applications. In a demo, a Microsoft engineer showed how a music application called 'Slacker' could keep music playing in the background while the user moved between different applications. By holding down the 'back' button, users can also see all their recently accessed applications, allowing them to switch easily between them." Microsoft also demonstrated how they're integrating WP7 with Xbox 360 consoles, showing a video of players using their phones as an auxiliary touchscreen controller to interact with a Kinect game.

Comments

So?

[should_be_linear]

Roles are switched: MS is re-implementing experience that users are already accustomed to on Linux (Android). And expecting 3rd party developers to switch or at least "also support" their platform for 1% of users.

Re:So?

[MemoryDragon]

Jepp the problem here is that IE9 still is significantly subpar compared to mobile webkit. I am not going to optimize any site for WP7 and its shoddy browser if I can cover around 80% of all other phones without extra effort.
It would be about time for the IE team to get off their collective asses and deliver a competition to webkit and mozilla instead of being 4 years behind constantly.

Re:So?

[cbhacking]

How so? Serious question, what have you found that IE9 can't do but (mobile) WebKit can? The whole idea behind IE9 is that you can use exactly the same HTML(5) and CSS(3) as for other browsers, but IE9 will (sometimes) do it faster.

The current WP7 browser is based on IE7, so yeah, it's shoddy in that sense (it actually works well in the little testing I've given it, including some sites that mobile WebKit can't handle). The point of this announcement is that the next version of the WP7 browser *won't* be "shoddy" any more.

Re:Multi-tasking

[jokermatt999]

Come on, be fair. It took Apple waaay longer than that to figure it out.

It didn't have this already?

[Posting=!Working]

Am I the only one that's really surprised that multitasking wasn't already a feature? I thought it was weird when they announced it for the iPhone 4 like it was some huge breakthrough. Symbian might be a piece of crap as a smartphone OS, but, damn, they've had multitasking for 10 years now. It's not a hardware issue. How did this get ignored for so long in iOS and Windows phone?

Re:It didn't have this already?

[dunezone]

Pff, the Windows Phone SDK doesn't even give us access to the flash on the camera unless you're an OEM developer.

Re:It didn't have this already?

[LWATCDR]

It is sad that none of the other Smartphone OSs seem to multiask as well as WebOS. The card interface is actually very good.
Gee so WP7 will someday be as good as IOS, Android, WebOS, and Symbian. Gee sign me up......
BTW Windows Mobile has had multitasking for a long time as well. Microsoft took it out of WP7 because? Maybe because IOS didn't do it and they wanted to copy IOS?

Re:It didn't have this already?

[99BottlesOfBeerInMyF]

IOS STILL doesn't have actual multi-tasking... it just allows certain threads to continue running in the background.. but the app itself is suspended it's basically just fast app switching +

And and iPhone users are very thankful for the battery life that saves.

Re:It didn't have this already?

[shutdown -p now]

It's not at all a technical issue. Both iOS and WP7 can handle multitasking just fine on OS level, and you can see that in action if you use the stock apps (e.g. media player, which plays in background). It's strictly a limitation on third-party software, deliberately enforced.

Re:It didn't have this already?

[WARM3CH]

WP7 and old iPhone did supported all of the scenarios you presented. The point is in none of your examples 2 programs need to run at the same time. The suspend/resume model used in WP7 and old iPhone is/was sufficient for all those cases. What is new is the possibility to bug the CPU in two user programs at the same time (both OS can/could run multiple system tasks at the same time). It is sometimes needed but circumstances are much more limited than initially appears.

Sweetness

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm totally pumped for these new additions. It's true, they've been playing catch-up with WP7, but it's an incredible platform and the velocity of feature additions is quite impressive. I've developed for all three major platforms and I have to say, Silverlight with c# is a pretty amazing developer story. The UI is arguably the most attractive and innovative, the XBox and Office integration is unparalleled and the hardware holds its own. I sure would love to see some 4G support, though.

Astroturfing 101

[Flipao]

Don't make it sound like a press release, it's cringe inducing.

This is good

[Anonymous Coward]

This is good.

Before you reach out for the pitchforks and torches, let me finish the sentence: this is good for competition. Now that Nokia will ship WP7, Apple and Google will find themselves with a worthy competitor in the smartphone market. At least when it comes to user experience.

The UI Sells It

[g00head]

I'm a WP7 user, and very happy with my decision. I've used iOS, WM6, and Android - hated iOS and it's page after page of little icons, hated WM6 until HTC Sense (would have stayed with that on my HD2 if apps were coming out), and loved Android (HD2 and a Desire) except it began to feel like iOS+.

Metro is such a clean, fast interface, lets me see just what I want to see exactly when I want to see it. There's very little hunting/searching for something, as if I use it more than once per day I just pin it to the front page. It just fits extremely well how I want to use a phone.

Although I do have to say, if I couldn't have test-driven it on an HD2 I probably wouldn't have taken the leap to full fledged WP7 hardware. Kudos to MS for not legalbomb XDA from orbit when DFT released the ROM into the wild. If they continue to be smart, they'll let the mod community flourish they way they did with WM6 - that's the only thing that made the platform stay as relevant as it did, for as long as it did.