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Ballmer Slams Android As Cheap and Overcomplicated
jfruhlinger writes "On the day Android Ice Cream Sandwich was released, Steve Ballmer livened up the Web 2.0 conference by lobbing potshots at Google's mobile OS, calling it the choice of 'cheap' phones and claiming 'the biggest advantage we have over Android is that you don't need to be a computer scientist to use a Windows Phone.'"
Windows Phone 7 UI is really well done. It might come as a suprise, especially after Windows Mobiles, but it really is. It might even be better than iPhone's UI. Android is a copy of iPhone, but not that well done. On top of that it seems to change a lot between different manufacturers and versions. There's no unified look.
.NET and Visual Studio, which quite honestly is the best developing environment on the planet. So if you're an existing Windows developer, moving to Windows Phone 7 is piece of cake.
If you have looked at any of the Android tablets, they aren't really that well done either. iPad is a lot better and more polished product. And, Windows 8 tablets will have the advantage of being able to run standard Windows programs if they want to (.NET apps should work even without recompiling).
Like Ballmer says, they aren't even targeting the geek group. They are targeting both casual people and business people. They don't want to mess around with the system. iPhone is just for casual people, the artsy type and geeks who just want a good platform. However, to be fair, I find Windows Phone 7 to be a solid platform and Nokia should be able to make great hardware for it. On top of that it supports
He does have good points, and others have said the same before. Even Steve Jobs said the same. Instead of hating Ballmer for stating the truth, maybe we should work on Android to make it better. But as years go by, I find that GPL and Linux geeks fall under that a lot - they completely ignore what people actually want, and the answer is usually something along the lines "do it yourself". Sure, that's fine for a hobbyist project, but you shouldn't be surprised if people choose other products instead or point out why they do so.
Doesn't Windows have a lower TOC than Linux, according to Microsoft?
as a walled garden does.
Windows Phone 7 will be not-cheap and not-complex.
This means it will be expensive and not do half the stuff Android does.
This from the man who thought the iphone was too expensive and would never get a foothold in the business market. Real business savvy there. Why haven't they fired the guy yet again?
I get the impression Ballmer hasn't even used an Android phone. Exactly what part of the OS is complicated to use? Really, that's just an absurd, out-there statement.
Better known as 318230.
Everyone knows the iPhone is the phone for dumb people. Confirming Android as the phones for smart people leaves nothing for Windows.
The best thing about Android Ice Cream Sandwich is that Steve Ballmer has gone nowhere near it.
Linux O Muerte!
That sounds like same Ballmer who laughed at the iPhone because of how expensive it was: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eywi0h_Y5_U
Same negative marketing smack talk. Also, enjoy the irony that expensive phones are apparently now good, and cheap is bad. (although, of course, cheap isn't the same thing as inexpensive - it really *is* good to be neither expensive nor cheap).
I AM a Computer Scientist!
I have news for ballmer. Phone's "dont matter".
Steve famously said no one would buy an iPhone either. The fact the Microsoft still calls their offering a "phone" is a indicator of how they view the mobile space, about 15 years too late.
Specifically, it took me two missed calls to figure out how to answer them. But after that, doing everything and anything I wanted on that phone was cake. (And now ice cream too.)
Occasionally living proof of the Ballmer peak.
My wife loves her new Android phone. She will be so excited that she now has a Computer Science degree as well as her PoliSci degree.
So apply for a job at Microsoft and put down you have a Degree in CS and when they ask from where hold up your Android phone and point at at.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
Let's not forget; Ballmer isn't exactly fond of Google*. I'm not surprised he's got a mouthful of trash to talk.
"At that point, Mr. Ballmer picked up a chair and threw it across the room hitting a table in his office," Lucovosky recounted, adding that Ballmer then launched into a tirade about Google CEO Eric Schmidt. "I'm going to f***ing bury that guy, I have done it before, and I will do it again. I'm going to f***ing kill Google." Schmidt previously worked for Sun Microsystems and was the CEO of Novell.
[*] - http://news.cnet.com/2100-1014_3-5846243.html
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It's okay though... no one listens to Ballmer anymore these days except Microsoft employees because they have to.
Really Steve? Do you know just how stupid that makes you sound?
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
It's wise of ms to go after the high-price, low-IQ market.
"You don't need to be a computer scientist to use a Windows Phone. You don't need to be anything at all! Most WP users don't even exist!"
The biggest advantage that WP has over Android is that one thing Ballmer mentioned. The biggest advantage that Android has over WP is everything else.
Big surprise. A competitor slams their opponent's product.
For the matter of cheap, cheap is good. Cheap != directly relate to quality. If you can get a quality product for less, then less is definitely better.
As for complicated, to some degree. Really depends on the person. Compared to current generation smart phones, Android is particularly difficult. Sure, there is definite room for improvement but the current market of smart phone users don't have too much trouble with it. To say that you need a "computer scientist" to use an Android phone definitely goes against the many millions already using the phone (not all are technical users though are probably more technologically inclined as most smart phone users are).
"lobbing potshots at Google's mobile OS,"
Is that a step up or down from lobbing chairs?
...is that it isn't managed by Steve Ballmer.
It wasn't that long ago that Mr. Ballmer claimed that nobody would be buying Macs because they were more expensive, and nobody would "pay $500 for a logo"(despite the fact that that the price difference is nowhere near that, and you actually get a real OS instead of a toy, that wasn't mentioned). But now that the shoe is on the other foot all of a sudden he thinks people are willing to "pay for quality"(despite the fact that like every other Microsoft product WP7 is a steaming pile). So which is it Mr. Ballmer? Will people pay for a logo or won't they? Will people pay for quality?
Monstar L
Seriously, I have a Google Nexus One, I am one of the 165K that bought the thing.
... All the stuff I want to do.
It has been a joy. No Telecom crap. A few applications I can't uninstall (grrrrr) but the UI and functionality has been peachy. I am always showing off how easy it is to do multitasking, navigation, web searches,
My wife's Atrix? Not so much. Maybe now that Google is buying them, Google can scrape the sludge of a UI Motorola slathered on their phones.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFZrzg62Zj0
I wonder if he would have made that same statement about Microsoft's innovative efforts and visionary user experience without laughing just two years ago, pitting Eclair against Windows mobile 6. I dare him to use a Samsung Omnia II for more than five minutes without crushing it to bits.
Allow me to introduce myself. I'm the founder of the Anti-Steve Ballmer Society. In this letter, I will tell you what made me form such an organization and how I plan to use it to redefine in practical terms the immutable ideals that have guided us from the beginning. Please note that many of the conclusions I'm about to draw are based on cogent and virtually incontrovertible evidence provided by a set of people who have suffered immensely on account of Steve Ballmer.
At the same time, if onanism were an Olympic sport, Ballmer would clinch the gold medal. Don't let yourself be persuaded by vainglorious charlatans who secretly want to turn us into easy prey for cuckoo intrusive-types. It has been said that people like him make me sick. That makes sense to me. I believe it's true. But it surely implies that he says that he wants to make life better for everyone. Lacking a coherent ideology, however, he always ends up carving out space in the mainstream for duplicitous politics.
At the risk of sounding hopelessly insidious, the baneful nature of Ballmer's projects is not just a rumor. It is a fact to which I can testify. Ballmer's shell games are merely a stalking horse. They mask his secret intention to drive us into a state of apoplexy. Ballmer consumes, infests, and destroys. He lives off the death and destruction of others. For that reason alone we need to establish beyond a shred of doubt that Ballmer's latest "revelation" (really, hallucination) is that his contrivances won't be used for political retribution.
When I was little, my father would sometimes pick me up, put me on his knee, and say "It is my intent to initiate meaningful change." Hey, it's not my fault that Ballmer's polity appears to be growing in number. I indubitably pray that this is analogous to the flare-up of a candle just before extinction, yet I keep reminding myself that Ballmer is terrified that there might be an absolute reality outside himself, a reality that is what it is, regardless of his wishes, theories, hopes, daydreams, or decrees.
Ballmer likes violating his pledge not to visit misery and havoc upon countless millions. That's the most damnable thing about him. It's also why nothing unites people like a common enemy. That's why I would encourage everybody to take some shots of their own at Ballmer by reprimanding him for scattering about in profusion an abundance of pro-Ballmer diatribes. Taking that notion one step further, we can see that I have a dream that my children will be able to live in a world filled with open spaces and beautiful wilderness—not in a dark, neo-abusive world run by brown-nosing cheapskates. As the adherents of Randian objectivism believe, Ballmer is willing—even eager—to jettison his scruples in order to stay ahead of the pack. Furthermore, as the adherents of empiricism observe, Ballmer has hatched all sorts of oleaginous plans. Remember his attempt to put the prisoners in charge of running the prison? No? That's because Ballmer is so good at concealing his conceited, stroppy activities.
Of course, Ballmer's recommendations are not our only concern. To state the matter in a few words, education is already suffering as a direct result of Ballmer's fairy tales. That's the sort of statement that some people insist is bloodthirsty but which I believe is merely a statement of fact. And it's a statement that needs to be made because sometime in the future Ballmer will conduct business in a disaffected, spleeny way. Fortunately, that hasn't happened...yet. But it will unequivocally happen if we don't build a world overflowing with compassion and tolerance.
There are two reasons that induce me to submit Ballmer's newsgroup postings to a special examination: 1) Ballmer feels he has not only a right, but also a duty, to enthrone falsehood in the very center of human thought, and 2) he has been, still is, and always will remain more chauvinistic than improvident, ignorant lunkheads. I must admit that the second point in particular sometimes fills me with anxious co
I think he's confusing complexity with features and flexibility. IMHO android OS beats everything else in that area and thats what people really want right? features and flexibility?
The devs aren't ignoring anybody, they've created an os that CAN be simple to use but if you're not in the tech crowd and you start digging around you're gonna get buried and of course its going to seem complicated.
It's like clicking something that says "Advanced Settings" and then complaining about it being too complicated. If you see something you dont understand do yourself a favor and push the back button. simple.
I have a T-Mobile MyTouch 4g running Cyanogenmod 7.1 in my pocket right now. It's a very, very nice phone. I also have a friend who is looking to buy his first smartphone. He just wants the Internet in his pocket, and reading product barcodes to immediatly find reviews & prices interests him. No games or videoconferencing or anything fancy.
The main reason I told him to buy an iPhone is that if you go into a store to choose an Android phone there is no way to know if, when an OS update is released, you will receive it at all. The "latest-android" might be out, and you are wondering when you'll have it pushed to your phone. The carrier says to talk to the manufacturer, the manufacturer says they released it to the carrier, no-one knows for sure if you'll get it all. LG, Motorola, HTC, Samsung multiplied by T-mobile, ATT, Verizon and you have a huge matrix of possibilities and no-one can tell you before you choose a handset if that one will recieve OS updates, or how quickly.
Even folks on the same carrier but with different brand handsets see wildly different timeframes for updates.
I can update my Cyanogenmod myself, but he can't & shouldn't need to. He should just be able to walk out of the store with a smartphone and, when an OS update is released, just have it pumped into his phone right away.
Android phones are great for enthusiasts but for my friend & most other folks, the iPhone is a better choice.
"The biggest disadvantage we have is that nobody will touch a Windows phone with a 15 foot barge pole".
I would say out of Android, Apple OS, and Windows Phone, Windows is the most complicated. Ask any 3 year old! Plus, you need to be a complete dufe to even run Windows on a phone in the first place. #AndroidRules
Somehow their HTC Evo Shifts are working just fine, aside from the occasional broken screen. (& guess who gets to fix it) The only problem I've seen so far is bloatware bogging the things down by running on startup as services, & that's the CARRIER'S fault for following the WINDOWS pack-in model, AKA something you won't experience with vanilla Android or Cyanogenmod, just like you won't experience it w/ vanilla Windows that's like twice as expensive compared to what the volume licensees get.
As an Android user, should I take this as a compliment?
I don't think he does, he says stupid things fairly often. His mouth is like a font, with stupidity gushing forth. Given the dismal track record of previous Microsoft products that attempted to go up against the iPod (Zune), iTunes (MSN Music Store), and iPhone (Kin), their new offering will have an extreme uphill battle, and probably be abandoned just like its predecessors.
That'll be one major factor contributing to the new Windows phone's failure, it's hard to trust that Microsoft will stick with something when the going gets a little tough, and most people actually do learn when they've been burned by a vendor who sells them a bum product and then drops all support for it within months. Clearly, as CEO, he hasn't learned any lessons from previous dismal failures, either.
you don't need to be a computer scientist to use a
OK lets define "use" as making the computer bend to my will, rather than making me bend to the computer's will. In other words, I wanna install whatever software I want.
Rank the iphone, android, and windows phone in order of education requirements to jailbreak.
My very semi-serious research:
iphone is supposedly jailbreakable with like "click on a website" or something. Or at least it was. Then it either magically worked or was irrecoverably bricked. So I'd say this is roughly lower grade school level.
android takes all kinds of foolishness just to install cyanogenmod, but its well documented. You need about as much skill as it takes to bake a cake, which admittedly most of the marching morons can't do without setting the kitchen on fire. I'd say this is roughly college freshman level.
I don't think anyone uses windows phone so there is not much news out there. I'd say roughly PHD level because you'll be breaking new territory, using something no sane person has ever used before. Kind of like LSD in the early 60s.
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
Oh no ... thats a huge step down from slamming chairs as a sign of anger. think - a measly smartphone .... not striking at all.
Read radical news here
..it's inexpensive but powerful? Hmm.. I didn't see Android as quite that attractive but I'll give it a try. Thanks for the recommendation, Steve.
have blown by Android and iPhone, right?
If he's right (BIG "if") though, I have one thing to say to him:
"Welcome to OS/2-land, BITCH."
Paranoia is a Survival Trait!
Well, my sister is fairly intelligent but is by no means a geek or 'computer scientist'. She's lucky she can turn on a computer and use facebook. Despite her minimal computer knowledge and abilities, she's had no issues using and loving her Droid Incredible android phone over the last couple years. She loves it, and has no desire to move to an iPhone, and probably hasn't even ever heard of a Windows phone; though I'm pretty sure she's smart enough to avoid any phone that runs 'Windows'...
Balmer is an idiot and MS would do well to get rid of him.
Nothing to see here
Android can't beat the incredible value of Windows; at $98, it even features Reversi.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGvHNNOLnCk
I know it's common to bash MS on slashdot. I tried out a Windows Phone recently... Before grasping it I had a cocky smirk on my face thinking the phone would be complete trash. (I owned two windows CE phones before - hating them and getting rid of them quickly). I was pleasantly surprised using the phone and think it could be a real winner in my honest opinion. I have used Android/BlackBerry and iPhone and although the iPhone is a bunch of fun - I think the Windows Phone gets straight to the point and it's very (very!) responsive. I think Microsoft has a pretty good product here. Try one out before you bash. It may not be 'the best' but it's pretty respectable.
Mr. Balmer still thinks in terms of scaring undecided buyers into buying his stuff. Maybe he planned his speach a year ago but he seems to forget that millions already own an Android and 10's of millions have seen one in their neighboorhood. These people now all know that he is a lying turd. I think Mr. Balmer is a bad salesman; a good one never tells obvious untruths.
I don't think he does, he says stupid things fairly often. His mouth is like a font, with stupidity gushing forth.
And, given Microsoft's history, the font is almost certainly Comic Sans.
Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
Right Steve, that's why Android's doing so badly - cause you need a PhD in CS to use it.... Meantime I always here Paul Thorrott clamoring about how fragmented the Android market and market place are. I've had an Evo pretty much since they came out. I rooted it because I didn't feel like paying Sprint an extra $30/month for hotspot that I only use in a pinch anyway. And then I wanted gingerbread so I installed a ROM. Didn't need to do that. It's been over a year, closer to two and I don't feel fragmented or that behind and I definitely don't feel like I need to update anything. This Android based phone rarely has problems nor needs to be rebooted like my old Windows Mobile piece of crap used to. With that piece of shit I could get a frozen phone just trying to answer the phone sometimes...
Ballmer lobbing potshots is better than throwing chairs!
From a guy who's so desperate for relevance in mobile he has to bribe the management of an entire mobile hardware company and install a puppet CEO in order to have a hope of anyone listening. And still fail with a market share so small it's been relegated to the same status as Vista and Kin by m$ - i.e. it is never, ever, under any circumstances, uttered out loud.
"you don't need to be a computer scientist to use a Windows Phone.'"
My mom plays with my android phone when I go visit. She's about the farthest thing from a computer scientist I know. I still occasionally have to remind her how to move a file between directories (on Windows). She finds the android OS to be very intuitive, and would get one herself if she had any need for a smart phone.
Criticizing Android's faults is one thing, but descending into ridiculous hyperbole that no one in his right mind is going to believe is pretty stupid.
"I disagree with you" does not equal "flamebait."
I've been using my first Android phone for a little over 2 weeks. I think on the whole the capabilities are brilliant but there are some real frustrations. It's still a lot less frustrating to deal with than Windows, and this phone was cheap.
My frustrations with Android /system partition /data and /system partitions, plenty of crapware on the phone I got which I then removed, but no easy way to repartition.
- Forced update of "protected" apps on the
- Default calendar without search? (Google is a search company!)
- Default opt in for sharing every detail about your life with Google
- Need to root phone to get full functionality and remove garbage protected apps
- Separate
- Only some apps can have some portion moved off internal memory. Many phones have very limited internal memory. There are kludges to get around this if you root the phone (such as link2sd, or apps2sd and Titanium backup moving apps to SD card even if not marked to do so, but some apps don't play well with these solutions and you still end up limited)
- Incompatibility between versions of Android
The upside:
- Google voice is impressive
- Heaps of apps, some very good. Lots of apps to quickly look things up - from guitar tab to identifying a song that's playing. Great travel and web apps. Apps that use your phone's GPS into a fully featured instrument, not to mention games.
- Familiar Unix commands, even a terminal on the phone
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
I really hate when people say "you don't need to be a computer scientist".
My teenage daughters have no problem with over-complex Android. They love it. Just what level of intellect are they aiming WP7 at?
he's absolutely bang-on the money. I've tried using Android devices after several years using iDevices, and they are a human-factors disaster -- every single one of them. Like the Motorola Xoom. The first thirty seconds is "this loops slick", and the rest thirty seconds (before throwing the thing through the nearest sheet of plate glass), is "How TF do I use this Goddamned thing!?!?". Usability on Android is an afterthought.
Mod me down, fanboys.
This will never get modded up here, but windows phone UI is really innovative. Let's be sincere, android UI is very similar to Iphone, and very similar to blackberry too. A lot of icons, you push into one, and the app opens. How innovative. Windows phone UI is actually different, and beautiful.
And I don't work for Microsoft, nor I have a single windows install at home (or in the office) because in the desktop, windows sucks.
Just negate each statement that Ballmer says, and you will start to value him as a source of information.
How many top-level replies do you feel the need to make? Can't you just say your piece and move on?
As I said elsewhere, Ballmer is the CEO of Microsoft's middle age. It sits atop its Windows-Office business and literally pisses money in the direction of major competitors' product lines. Has the XBox division actually paid back the massive investment? Has Microsoft ever even been able to have a successful quarter in its long sad history of web portals/search engines? And we've seen Windows phones before, and once again, Microsoft is behind the game and trying to catch up. Apple has a corner on the market, Android is everywhere. Where's Microsoft going to fit their phone in?
I won't call where Microsoft is a decline, as they're still making money hand over fist, but by and large it's selling to the same customers over and over again. I doubt, if you peeled it away, you would find much in the way of actual growth.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
This is exactly what Steve Jobs said about Android a year ago. Microsoft is nothing, if not reliable in copying what Apple's already done in the past, not just with products, but with a CEO's views on android.
For the first time in my life, I agree with ballmer. Android is a very powerful device, yet, not as simple to use as a iPhone or WP7. For instance, it's great to have the ability to run multiple softwares at the same time, yet, it can make your phone very slow and dry your battery life very fast. If you are a geek, that's not a problem (you know what ur doing) but an ordinary person it can be a problem (that was a problem for my brother, a lawyer - "this phone sux the battery dies in a few hours"). I love the push method of apple, it just makes sense to centralize you internet connection in just one place. It saves a lot of resources (yes, it's not as powerful, but that's life). You may say the problem is not in the phone itself, but in the user, but I disagree. A (smart) phone should just work. iPhone and WP7 might not do everything android does, but I can rely on it. I can trust it will run everything just fine without I have to worry, close all apps, reboot the phone or whatever.
I'm a computer scientist with a masters degree, I like linux (I use it since 8 years ago and use it everyday at work, macosx at home), yet I just want my phone to work. I don't wanna hack it, install a new OS, etc and iPhone is just perfect for me. It does all I need and recommend it to everyone, unless you are a geek who really want to "wast" your time hacking a phone (it's just a freaking phone, get over it).
An MS shill in our very own board.
Hilarious.
Anyway, I rarely ever put any stock in the comments of someone who has a vested interest in the outcome.
I've used Windows 7 phones, I've used iphones, and I've used Android.. Android wins hands down for me for one simple reason: CUSTOMISATION.
I can make android do anything in any way I want. Right down to the lock screen.
I'm a diehard Apple fanboy so I'll almost always love a story that knocks Android down a peg or two but, seriously, this is the biggest load of crap possible.
:).
It's simply one of two things - he's either entirely out of touch or he's spreading FUD. Given that I don't believe he's out of touch (like some CEO's recently who have spouted off some of the dumbest nonsense that I think I've ever heard...), that leaves FUD. And Microsoft/Balmer has a long history of doing this so it's not the least bit surprising.
What I do find surprising is how obvious he is about it. Love him or hate him, when Steve Jobs talked down about a competitor's product, it always seemed like he believed what he was saying (obviously I can't speak for what he did or did not believe but, for example, if he said he didn't think there was a market for 7" tablets, thereby saying all 7" tablets weren't going to sell well, you believed he believed there wasn't a market for 7" tablets). Balmer doesn't even make his trash talking remotely believable. How am I supposed to believe that Android is too confusing to use if I know he doesn't believe it? In fact, his inability to convince me that he believes what he's saying tells me that Android is not, in fact, too confusing to use (something I already knew, but now I know it even more...
Not only are his comments FUD but they're
obviously FUD. Anyone who believes the snake oil that he's selling is a fool (one of the many reasons I believe Ballmer's days as CEO of Microsoft are nearing an end...).
So? Its BALLMER. The guy who said that iPhones probably aren't going to sell at all, and windows phone and zune are going to do fantastic.
Nostradamus would be more relevant to modern tech predictions than Steve Ballmer.
GCS/MU/P d- s:- a-- C++++$ UL++ P+ L++ E+ W++ N o K- w--- O M+ V- PS+++ PE Y+ PGP t+ 5- X R++ tv+ b++ DI++ D++ G+ e++ h-
I really think the neatest thing about androin is the way it gets modded. I wonder how Ballmer and company will respond to people hacking windows phones? I bet it wont be pretty.
.. when you're a distant fifth place.
Look, Ballmer, I get that you don't like Android. So let's hear what's so awesome about Windows Phone.
There may be a reason why Android represented 46% of market share for 2011Q2 (according to Gartner). That many people can't find it that hard to use, otherwise it wouldn't be selling.
Where can I get one of these "Android/Blackberry" devices? Since when has RIM put Android on Blackberry phones??
Ballmer consistently and repeatedly talks out of his ass. Somebody needs to put a lid on this guy because the company is clearly directionless with him at the helm. I've used Windows Phone and it is indeed polished and a step in the right direction, but with this guy running the show, who knows what the fuck is going to happen. He has a history of making delusional, sensational claims that ultimately make him look like a crybaby who is ill-equipped to actually compete. If Windows Phone would have come out and been feature complete at the beginning, more people would have bought it and we likely wouldn't be having this argument. Windows Phone 7 itself is solid, but the market has decided. There are two clear winners: Android and iOS. Of note, I am an iOS AND Android user. I have an iPad and a Xoom, a G2 and an iPhone 4S. I am not loyal to one platform. I love the polish and reliability of iOS and the open nature of Android. This is not me advocating any platform in particular, just me pointing out that Ballmer is an asshat and it was a poor decision to put him in charge.
Metro *is* indeed innovative, and beautiful, but it's also very fragile. I was immediately taken by it, like you. I think a huge amount of respect must be given to the team that created something so different to everything else out there, whilst still working well. But sadly, not well enough for me. I found the interface to be too focussed on the zoomed/cropped typography and every app felt to similar and didn't get me thinking in "modes" which I need to do... in many ways it's not a GUI at all... it's a TUI (typographical user interface) and this is ultimately it's downfall... there's definately not enough design vocabulary outside of the type. And the tiles are easily destroyed with hideous work by 3rd parties...
Yeah, I think you're spot-on in your assessment, and I really like the "middle age" term here. It really applies. Just like the middle-aged guy who shows up to work to collect a paycheck, they're not climbing the ladder anymore, but they've built enough of a stable niche that they don't have to worry about being out on the street next week unless they really screw something up.
Ballmer forgot a significant cost component in the price of Windows Phone. The price of the phone plus the cost of your soul.
... is another man's flexibility. This is the same company that apparently thought giving people access to basic file attributes was too complicated, and so removed and obfuscated them in Windows 7 to the point that yet another third party shell-extension utility is needed to make up for it. (What's worse is that the labeled "Read Only" box now doesn't actually represent JUST the read-only attribute any more, but now also combines permissions and/or sharing states in some confusing fashion that even I haven't yet figured out... which is kinda exactly the opposite of simplification.)
... why he slams Android is that it does not ship with REVERSI.
'the biggest advantage we have over Android is that you don't need to be a computer scientist to use a Windows Phone.'". Clearly a good thing for the ms mobile department.
Is he saying Microsoft patented "Cheap and Overcomplicated"? Hasn't Microsoft blackmailed Samsung and HTC to pay them for Every android device they sell?
I think this is reverse psychology. By bashing the Android OS, which they get royalties from, it completely leaves out iOS and makes us kneejerk into wanting to buy an Android. So they get Royalties.
I guess the only solution is to get a Pre 4?
What if somebody sells a phone without an OS and lets you download the OS for free and you install it yourself. Do you get around having to pay Microsoft?
'Cheap and overcomplicated'? That sounds like Windows PC.
Everyone I know that has a Windows phone bought it second-hand to root and install Android on.
And my first Android phone I took from 1.0 to Cupcake. And then Eclair. If you owned a Windows CE phone, you updated it from CE to, well, nothing. It was burned in ROM. No updates.
Even the WP7 updates have been tortured events.
Ballmer has to say this crap though. It's his job to spew.
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
It may not be 'the best' but it's pretty respectable.
Look; I know you're shilling and all that, and I have a family to feed too, so I don't want to criticise, but could you please sound a bit less pathetic:
<beos_fan> BeOS is really not that bad; it's almost better than Windows and it really does interact well. BeOS may not be as effective as a Mac and it doesn't have the user friendliness of Twm but it's really good. Hell, I tried an AT&T Hobbit but I didn't like it one bit, but now that they've moved to the new PowerPC (TM) hardware I'm just amazed by how it does some of what the other systems do. It could be a real winner in my honest opinion. </beos_fan>
Just imagine that? No unpaid BeOS fan would ever descend to your level, so if you are going to carry out your profession for Microsoft, at least make it sound like you're trying to make it sound like you're enthusiastic.
=~ s,(.*),<sarcasm>$1</sarcasm>,g if any_point_you_wish();
MSFT's stock price has drifted down since 2000. AAPL is up over 2000% in the same period. That's what the market thinks of W8 phones and Ballmer's strategy.
an ill wind that blows no good
One of my coworkers has a Windows phone. After using it for about a year, he says it has some really nice innovations, but the UI gets in the way of doing certain things, and there hasn't been nearly the same level of development on it as Android or iOS.
My Other Computer Is A Data General Nova III.
IOS is a copy of Gnome.
Android is a copy of Gnome.
I haven't tried a WP7 device yet, but I give credit to Microsoft for at least trying something different, original and novel. Whether it works well or not is debatable, although it appears to be very good at showing dynamic information clearly on the home screen. On the other hand, I don't like the idea of being tied to Windows tech with my phones even though I mostly run Windows 7 (I want to have the flexibility of moving to a Linux distro if they ever come good), so it's of no real use for me.
To all newcomers - people here are very close-minded and can't handle complaints about Linux. Keep this in mind.
The only reason I couldn't figure out how to use my Droid 2 Global was because Android lacks the functionality to do what I wanted it to do. At first I thought it was a matter of being complicated and burying functionality with obscure settings and what-not. I wanted Android to behave like a full OS, I wanted to treat my smart phone essentially like a computer that is just really small. But, no, that kind of functionality just isn't there. And that's why I had a frustrating time accepting it's not complicated, it's actually overly limited. Don't even get me started on what a nightmare it's been to manage media on the damn thing.
/Android user.
//waiting for Windows desktop on my mobile phone
///Will pay for a device and OS that puts computing into my palm
Everyone I know that has a Windows phone bought it second-hand to root and install Android on.
In that case, I'd say you know people who are more advanced than the average user. Quite a lot of people get a phone and just go with whatever is on there by default. Most people, actually. Those acquaintances of yours are probably not a good sample population to judge the adequacy of Windows or Android to the end user's wants and needs.
I have a T-Mobile MyTouch 4g running Cyanogenmod 7.1 in my pocket right now. It's a very, very nice phone. I also have a friend who is looking to buy his first smartphone. He just wants the Internet in his pocket, and reading product barcodes to immediatly find reviews & prices interests him. No games or videoconferencing or anything fancy.
So why the hell would he want CyanogenMod or updates past the version that came with the phone and works fine out of the box? Your argument for an iPhone for your friend makes no sense, with all due respect.
I8-D
but you do have to be an idiot.
I really think the neatest thing about androin is the way it gets modded
99% of people out there don't care at all
I bet it wont be pretty.
You'd lose that bet. There was an jailbreak tool that exploited a vulnerability to jailbreak WP7 phones. Microsoft closed the vulnerability but worked with the team in an official capacity to release an approve jailbreak tool. http://www.chevronwp7.com/post/6629433362/announcing-chevronwp7-labs
you don't need to be a computer scientist to develop Microsoft stuff neither
Since I find Android to be incredibly simple to use, as does my wife and and young child, I just want to know where we are supposed to contact Ballmer to be issued our Degrees in Science?
Even the WP7 updates have been tortured events.
Um, not quite. The last update nodo was a problem on a couple samsung models but worked fine on everything else. The current update Mango as of today available to 99% of Windows Phones worldwide, both old and new. It's easy to laugh at growing pains of a new platform, but when the Android platform is still a fragmented mess of version numbers after years you don't have much room to talk.
... Why does he do his utmost to help Android by making their phones $5 - $15 more expensive?
"the biggest advantage we have over Android is that you don't need to be a computer scientist to use a Windows Phone."
This is quite true, because you'd have to be an idiot to use a Windows Phone! I kid, I haven't try the new phones so I don't really know.
I have an HD7. It is a piece of shit.
The soylentnews experiment has been a dismal failure.
That doesn't look like a root. Seems more like an app for developers.
To bad it does not come on the types of hardware that you see in the Android space.
I would have gotten a winpho7 phone in September if the handsets available at the time were not over a year and a half old, or at a minimum had an AMOLED screen.
The new crop for Mango appear to be worth my while, but I am in a contract with my Galaxy S 4G until 2013.
Have you even used a Windows phone? One of your phones? No? Maybe? If you have, you'd see how absolutely terrible their performance, interface design, memory efficiency, networking and syncing with your PC is, and you would simply release a statement like this one as a form of public denial to try and spread your userbase, rather than offer your customers a functional product worth their money and time.
I can't even sync my Windows phone with my PC.
I have tried in the following OSes:
WinXP
WinXP64
Win2000
Win7 32 bit
Win7 64 bit
And on each of those OSes with the following Office suites:
Office 2k
Office 2003
Office 2007
Office 2010
No amount of drivers, permissions, or methods of connection ever result in a successful sync of 100% of your data 100% of the time. None. I don't know how you are even capable of releasing a product to the public that couldn't possibly make it through an acceptable QA test of the most basic functions.
I have and will continue to champion the downfall of your company forever more, until the day that I, or it, dies. I will discourage every person I know to work against the Windows and Microsoft brand, because your company's ego, poor product management, bad direction for development and developers, and irresponsible behavior in your industry has cost our society and world decades of progress in software, development, and human-machine interaction.
You probably go to sleep at night satisfied that you lead one of the largest developers and service providers in the world, convinced that you have carried technology and software for the human race so far in the last 20 years, but you have not. No; you have used and abused your business and its hold on the industry to repeatedly establish benefits and advantages for your company's gain regardless of the consequences outlined above. You have engaged in bad business practices, buying out and/or manipulating government restrictions, furthering the monopoly of your poorly designed products, and bringing the once-booming machine of technical ingenuity and progress of the entire world to a slow crawl.
Have a nice life, asshole. Enjoy your fucking yacht.
OP disclaimer:
- this post purely driven by several decades of setbacks, loss of assets or personal investment due to microsoft, its software, or its corporate behavior.
- have not worked (and never will) for this company.
- have no personal contact with any people at microsoft.
- have no knowledge of the inner workings of microsoft.
Actual Computer Scientists don't make much money compared to the idiots in management. Therefore, a phone for smart people is necessarily cheaper than a phone for morons.
Excuse me, but wasn't it Ballmer who started the bashing? Has Ballmer ever tried an Android phone?
Microsoft has failed in the smartphone market. We all know it - even you and Ballmer.
Windows phones are too simple, Android phones have to be rooted to get full functionality and updates. The only thing I'm rooting is a tree in my front yard. Sounds like I should get an iPhone.
What I Read:
"Steve says that the Android platform is the perfect one for Computer scientists"
I'm happy with my choice.
He appears to be saying that WP7 is for people who find Android too hard to use. I think it's fair to say that if you find something as simple as Android to be too hard to use you should probably get back to flipping burgers.
In a round about way he seems to be saying that WP7 is the mobile operating system for idiots.
Is there anything concrete you like about the Windows phone OS?
Windows for "smart" phones is not cheap, and it you have to be computer illiterate (or atleast completely unaware of ALL the alternatives) to enjoy using it.
Yep, Stevie Ballmer is finally right about something! Android is a good choice for cheap, awesome phones, while Windows is the choice for expensive, uncomplicated, shitty phones.
Or you can take the Aplle tack in this argument (I won't) and say this is all irrelevant because iOS is far superior to both WIndows and Android, and the iPhone is amazing hardware. There a lots of folks who believe both of these points and can't possibly be convinced to use anything else.
This is a hacked account, for which the owner can not be held responsible.
So tell me, is there a cadre of you "you're shilling" cocksuckers out there, or is it more of a dynamic movement where various douchebags independently decide they want to go out and call everyone a shill/astroturfer?
And if there's a cadre of you out there, who is the head douchebag and how do you elect him? Is he the guy with the bear that grows furthest down his neck, or the fattest one with the most ironic black tee-shirt and the most baselessly smug grimace?
Make your own! Launch Terminal and type:
say -v Cellos "Droid"
Does it support Active Sync encryption profiles for connecting to Exchange servers yet? Because when it first came out, it didn't support the encryption protocol invented by Microsoft for smart phones...
What are we going to do tonight Brain?
And it will be completely replaced and be a whole new pile of crap once Win8 is running on ARM, regardless of what MS says today.
An example of yet another "has been" ( tho obscenely wealthy "has been" i admit, but only due his friend Bill ) trying to cling desperately to old ways of doing business, instead of adapting.
Him stepping down would do Microsoft a world of good.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Those of you claiming android is easy to use aught to be honest and just admit your a masochist. Android may be flexible and powerful with the right hardware, but it isn't, in any way, easy. Ice Cream Sandwich is a step in the right direction, but it isn't easier than WP7, BB or iOS. To be fair though, there needs to be an industry standard metric for "easy".
A classic example of the proverb "Empty vessels make more noise", its waste of time to even think about it.
'cheap' phones
Yes, because we all know consumers prefer to be ripped off with expensive phones and over-priced plans.
'the biggest advantage we have over Android is that you don't need to be a computer scientist to use a Windows Phone.'
Translation: Nobody who has a remote understanding of a computer would ever even consider touching a Windows Phone.
CN
See, Steve, the fact is that I am a computer scientist. So I can tell the difference in product quality, without finding out the hard way.
But don't feel too bad about it. If I were an aircraft engineer, I probably wouldn't fly on a Microsoft plane, either.
Parity: What to do when the weekend comes.
"fragmented mess of version numbers "
Yup. More than one rev a year will cause some problems. Those who complain about the pace of updates, the pace of hardware improvements, well, you can always go to the iPhone and a fairly predictable release schedule, or WP7 and a much more sedate pace of innovation.
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
How to respond to such statements? I mean, he really got us there. I need a sound that sounds like a joke rimshot. Oh wait! I have it!
ZZZZZZUNNNNEEE!!!
Thats right kids, the cheap shots came from the guy who touted the Zune, Bing, Bob, Clippy, and all of those other craptacular products.
The last major android version released for smartphones was in December 2010.... not exactly lightspeed.
....mmmm the point I guess is that HE CAN'T.... its been none too obvious that MS has completely stagnated during the past DECADE. As an admitted stock holder of MSFT who is quite disappointed, I say this with all seriousness. Ballmer has got to go if MS is going to go anywhere itself...
So, with $9 you can side-load upto 10 apps tied to your MS Live ID.
http://www.i-programmer.info/news/83-mobliephone/3195-the-madness-of-chevronwp7-more-a-parole-than-a-jailbreak.html
Anyone else that wants to use your app has to pay $9 and side-load too.
Ballmer is not a computer scientist since he should be using WP, and if he is not a computer scientist, why the bloody hell does he have a right to evaluate operating systems?
Considering Android is so far out in market penetration compared to Windows Phone this is sounding like sour grapes from Ballmer.
Don't get me wrong, the interface on Windows Phone 7 isn't half bad (could do with some cool skins), Phone 7 with HTC Sense looks amazing and the interface is simple to use.
However the marketplace still doesn't have a diverse range of apps and games that the App Store and Android Marketplace have. Impart from that iOS5, Windows Phone 7 and Android are all pretty much on equel footing. They all preform the same functions, they are very easy to use and except the iPhone: modern releases have dual core phones.
Microsoft right now is paying the price for having a really bad product. Windows Mobile had a cumborsome interface, too reliant on a pen & too office/corporate focused for mainstream adoption not to mention I found it to be an unreliable, horribly designed product.
The whole "Windows on Phones" as a brand has been tarnished in the past. Its a matter of advertising.
Still with that being said, I stand by what I said: he's just coming off as a sore loser. Especially when the whole "cheap" argument goes out the window when you look at what has actually been selling (Samsung Galaxy S & SII, HTC Desire, Motorola Droid, etc).
Make SELinux enforcing again!
If you define "overcomplicated" as being able to do things a Windows 7 phone can't do, then sure.
And yes, you don't have to be a computer scientist to poke tiles on a Windows 7 phone. But if all the other versions of Windows are any indication, you do have to be a computer scientist to keep it running.
It so happens that yesterday we bought a new phone for my wife at the Verizon store. After looking at a variety of android, apple and blackberry phones, she ended up with the HTC Rhyme mostly because she liked the accessories. (But also partly because her daughter could act as tech support.)
I couldn't help but notice that there was exactly one (1) Windows 7 phone in the entire store. The place was crowded, and nobody was touching it. Good work Balmer. You've made a simple smartphone. Good luck with that.
My daughter (who just recently upgraded from a Galaxy to a Bionic) had an interesting point. If you're stuck on a plane for 3 hours, what do you want? Something really really simple, or something a little more complicated?
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
How do you know a new platform will be a success? When Ballmer says it's crap.
I haven't, but I have a friend that moved from an iphone to a winphone7 phone, mostly based on the slick look in the store (it does look pretty cool).
Over time, she's come to absolutely loathe this phone—it's apparently insanely flaky, dysfunctional, and full of weird bugs and "clunk."
The impression I get is that they've got some good designers doing the interface (I dunno how usable it is, but does look good), but serious problems with (software) quality control.
We live, as we dream -- alone....
In this case we are not bashing windows phones, we are bashing Balmer's unsubstantiated bashing of Android phones. You do not need to be a computer scientist to use android. That's an unbelievably ridiculous statement.
'the biggest advantage we have over Android is that you don't need to be a computer scientist to use a Windows Phone'
Then how come the only people I know with a Windows phone are MicroSoft employees. Oh, wait, MicroSoft hires salespeople, lawyers, and mid-level managers, not computer scientists.
I am Spartacus, what do you want?
Taking a look at your posting history, ouch! I guess a pedophile walking around with in a kindergarden with his penis out would be less obvious.
'nuff said.
To avoid corruption, one must remain dishonest.
Windows is overcomplicated nad 'cheap'... Maybe android is too complicated for Balmer, common people are using it just fine. The one thing that is missing to perfection is the release of the sourcde codes - I hope that the developers will in the end win over the bean counters.
I got my transformer a few months ago because I was familiar with my android phone and wanted something i could edit documents with. I could have bought a netbook, but it was intriguing to have the option of a tablet or i could turn it into a netbook.. but then i find out...not a single word processor has spelling and grammar checking!
The keyboard checkers that check as you type are fine for creating text messages i guess. I find them annoying, myself...but its simply crazy that a computer built in 2011 cant do the same thing my portable word processing typewriter could do in 1989.
The dev forums response "there are plenty of dictionary apps available if you cant spell a word". BRILLIANT! Now we are talking pre-desktop publishing entirely.
I guess it was my fault for assuming that pay software labled as word processing would have such a fundamental feature, but it has turned my $400 transformer from a netbook/tablet into a web browsing dumb terminal/toy.
Lame
you don't need to be a computer scientist to use a Windows Phone.'"
True. You need to be a total idiot.
Really, Balmer, that was way too easy. You need to realize where MS is this decade: Nobody loves you anymore, and your monopoly is crumbling. You've done an excellent job delaying the downfall of MS, but as the company is a dinosaur unable to re-invent itself, playing the FUD card again and again and again will accomplish one thing: Using it up.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
- Default calendar without search? (Google is a search company!)
Install another one.
- Default opt in for sharing every detail about your life with Google
Erm no. The default is to opt out on all Google phones. If it was changed to opt in then you can blame your handset manufacturer / carrier for that one. Not an Android issue.
- Need to root phone to get full functionality and remove garbage protected apps
Android doesn't ship with crapware, they are carrier / manufacturer added. Not an Android issue.
- Separate /data and /system partitions, plenty of crapware on the phone I got which I then removed, but no easy way to repartition.
I actually see this as a plus. Pretty much every other phone / mp3 player / other little thing I've ever updated manages to nuke everything including settings in the process. Also /system only holds the system so there's no need to repartition it. EVER. My phone shipped with less than 10mb free on /system and it hasn't changed in over 2 years of use.
- Only some apps can have some portion moved off internal memory. Many phones have very limited internal memory. There are kludges to get around this if you root the phone (such as link2sd, or apps2sd and Titanium backup moving apps to SD card even if not marked to do so, but some apps don't play well with these solutions and you still end up limited)
I agree with this one.
- Incompatibility between versions of Android
What incompatibilities? I have over 230 apps on my phone. Not a single problem going from Froyo to Gingerbread or upgrading through a few different versions of Gingerbread. I heard of compatibility problems between Donut and Eclair but then what major OS revision doesn't break something, other than an OS that only provides you a hand full of APIs?
I have plenty of pet peeves but few are directed at Android, and most are like yours directed towards manufacturer stupidities and carrier crapware.
Recent history in IT could be written by reversing every FUD potshot Ballmer has ever uttered.
Hahaha ms, you dumb asses.
learn from history, ie like Dos/win3.1
Hire 500 engineers, port WinMob to all android devices and let anyone and their geek, download and install it.
You want $$ per seat? Get lost MS, give it away. Make dollars on the apps.
You cant wait till 2018 for a unified IEEE mobile-platform standard like the AT PC. Since most phones use common SOCs we are practically there except custom radio hardware, and non standard IO channels.
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
Don't worry, Steve Jobs is dead now, so there is nothing to copy anymore.
Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
Ever see the glyphs on pyramids?
Sure its not a screen, but its still rows of icons.
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
All that learning for MS mobile 6.x out the window.
What a waste of effort learning that shite.
If you have to constantly make new apis, and dump the old one it means you were a shit designer who cant for shit make something so truly perfect that lasts.
OTOH, obj c sucks, because no one else uses it.
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
I have an Android phone - a SGS2. I had another one before that. It's probably the best you can get, if you don't want to be locked in iOS or the like, without being able to run whatever app *you* decide to run.
But, it does feel cheap, as in, the experience is not consistent. It lags at times, gods knows why. It's not the hardware - they all do that, in fact, the SGS2 being the most powerful, its the one that lags the less often. Some things or settings are clumsy. Stuff like ad-hoc wifi is unreliable. That's cheap.
And it does feel a little complex. Can you read the battery graph without being an engineer or any prior explanation? Takes a lot of guessing. Can you find your way int he settings without being a geek?
I don't have a W7 mobile device neither tested one in hand, so I can't compare. It might be just as bad ;-)
That said, the main incentive is always going to be (for me): am I going to be able to run absolutely anything I want, however *I* decide to? And generally only open-source guarantees that.
Agreed that he shares the same first name (Steve) as that of a giant in the industry; no matter what, he still can't and will never be able to do a 'Job's. Instead of improving his own company's practices and principles, what possible good does it to do anyone by criticizing your rivals, who are doing a much better job than you!
For fuck sake, is there anyone here over 30? Steve Ballmer is famous for excited, sweaty tirades. Anyone here old enough should remember Ballmer's old Windows commercials. They guy isn't stupid, but he's not clever either. He's big on marketing hype. He has always been that way. Why would anyone ever expect Ballmer to not say silly things about his competition?
... about producing cheap over-complicated products
Developers Developers Developers Developers...
And Im a fat lying ba5t4rd
I thought Apple had that covered...
My wife - who is anything but a techie - has come to embrace her Android smartphone. These days she can't do without it... Now, admittedly, I have rooted her phone as well as my own to give her all of the benefits of an Android - but you have to do that for every phone out there if you want it to be functional. Of course MS will make it so that even if you root it, it will still be useless... That is what they do...
Ballmer often spews idiotic statements. It's a fairly reliable indicator that he may in fact be an idiot. The "cheap phone" remark suggests Microsoft cannot compete in the mobile device arena and are desperately attempting to place themselves in the Apple iPhone class and price point. Good luck with that.
I know that I am starting to sound like a Microsoft shill by defending them all the time but I have had a Windows Phone 7 for a few months now and I think it is an outstanding reboot of Windows phones.
The old Windows Mobile was horrible and they needed to rewrite the entire thing.
I like Metro, I like the integration with Sharepoint, Office, and using ActiveSync for my Exchange accounts. Now with the Mango my phone is also integrated with my Office365 account and Skydrive.
I know that the Windows Phone 7 is not popular at all, and in fact if you go into a store you will be steered away from them. Microsoft needs to market the hell out of the fact they actually have a *good* OS and user experience. It is fast, clean and easy to use. I think that most people trashing Windows Phone 7 have never used one for even a day.
I feel that Windows Phone is the middle of the road choice between Apple and Android right now: Apple is more locked down and Android is more open (and fragmented).
My wife has an Android and it *is* much more complicated. She is pretty tech savvy and it still took her some time to figure out some of the apps/features of the phone.
Then again, compared to the clean Metro tile interface, both iPhone and Android look horrendously busy to me now.
After all, Ballmer is expensive and simple. You can't expect him to grasp true elegance or real value.
Ah, the talking sphincter again...
Seriously folks, he likely uses a Blackberry, and agreed, never used an Android before. The only reason that he is saying these things is an attempt to cause confusion in the market, commonly known as FUD (Fear Uncertainty and Doubt). This is all that Microsoft has to go on these days. Their browser market share is plummeting, and from what I've seen of their dev podcasts, their strategy to reclaim that share if through this MetroApp's bull#$@!, which essentially requires you to 1) Use a Windows PC, 2) Use IE. So all this talk is about raising doubts in the minds of consumers so that their whole MetroApp concept can gain traction and hopefully bring life to Windows8. Being that Microsoft still dominates the desktop market, this may be true. However, Microsoft has not chance in the smartphone market, and their strategy will fail unless they come up with IE for Android and iPhone.
Not even if they paid me.
MS has a history of abusing their market position. I can't imagine the nightmare their phones will be if they ever become the #1 OS for phones.
Every day, EVERY DAY I'm dealing with some kind Windows issue. Why would I also want that kind of user experience on my phone?
Democrats or Republicans. They are both taking us to the same place and they are not afraid of us anymore.
HEY LOOK!
Told yah so! I got a point knocked off for drawing attention to their game, I knew all I had to do was sit back and watch.
Now the real question:
Does this one get modded down in an attempt to draw attention away from the facts, or does it get ignored to prove I'm wrong and I don't know what I'm talking about thereby discrediting my whole line of reasoning?
I've been to court and I've had many political arguments, I know how these games work. It's the goal of the other side of this argument to discredit me and make my thought processes appear to be asinine by presenting no-win scenarios. However I have called you out, any action you take from this point backs up my argument including no action, as no action would make it appear as though I have an unfounded conspiracy theory. Any defense has already been ripped to shreds and will be ripped to shreds further.
Apple fan boys are so obsessive with promoting the image of a giant corporation, of they type they say they hate, they have off-site coordination so that mod points may be spent accordingly.
The preceding post was not a Slashvertisement.
Ballmer is Rush Limbaugh's slightly less evil twin (IOW, a BFI).
the ship is leaving port without you
> My mom plays with my android phone when I go visit.
That's odd. Usually when I go visit, she plays with my BALLS.
You know... because that one that happened like yesterday doesn't count... or honeycomb. Android updates have pretty much been every 6 months or so. And there is a HUGE step up between gingerbread and ICS and yet that only off by 4 months on he 6 month release schedule.
BUT, I do have to say that things can be confusing on Android. Does anyone know why they had to partition at all? Could they not have just used unionfs with one big partition, or would they run into kernel panics because the filesystem device drivers would not be available during wake/sleep cycles? Or did they want the SD card to be FAT32 so it would be visible in Windows/Mac?
The reason I bring this up is that I got my wife a cheap LG phone, and it has been a fairly happy experience. However, it only has a couple hundred megabytes available to apps and trying to explain to my wife that she needed to move the apps to the SD card to make more room was not a pleasant conversation to have with your wife. It went something along the lines of:
"Why do I need to manage the space on my phone? Why doesn't it just use all the space available on the card?"
To Which I replied, "I am not sure, probably because they had technical limitations for putting data on the SD card"
After that it degraded into accusations that I was too cheap to buy an iphone which can install thousands of apps. I went with my standard no walled garden, no fucking AT&T (or verizon).
Anyone know? I am genuinely curious, but too loaded to go find proper answers.
You may not need to be a computer scientist to use a windows phone but you do need to be a computer scientist to keep ms from stealing your life if you use one, or anyone who happens by for that matter. I had a windows mobile phone so I can tell you they are as or more complicated than the competition and securing the damn thing was virtually impossible.
What I'm saying is that the software cycle isn't the culprit for the breadth of Android version out there. ICS will launch some time in December 2011. That's almost a full year between major releases for phones. So it's not like the upgrades are coming so fast carriers and manufacturers can't keep up. And yet there are still phones out there that won't see Gingerbread, let alone ICS. Contrast this with Windows Phone, where 100% of windows phones are eligible to upgrade to Mango.
So tell me, is there a cadre of you "you're shilling" cocksuckers out there, or is it more of a dynamic movement where various douchebags independently decide they want to go out and call everyone a shill/astroturfer?
And if there's a cadre of you out there, who is the head douchebag and how do you elect him? Is he the guy with the bear that grows furthest down his neck, or the fattest one with the most ironic black tee-shirt and the most baselessly smug grimace?
Ooooh don't we get irate. I was just trying to be polite. I didn't want to suggest that he might write the post spontaneously. You are right by the way, our chief is the head bear wrestler.
=~ s,(.*),<sarcasm>$1</sarcasm>,g if any_point_you_wish();
Also, does it integrate well with Miami Vice? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGvHNNOLnCk
Haha, yeah - my cool neckbeard joke got ruined by my stupid typo. But you should still consider yourself totally _slammed_.
Would you go into a little more detail please? I've been curious about the Zune HD and Windows Phone UIs, I'm mostly an iOS user now. The iOS interface has become cumbersome to me as I've installed more software. I'm now running 6 full screens of apps. I use folders, but I can only keep 12 apps in any one folder. I prioritize placement of my most used apps to the leftmost screens and use folders to group apps based on common purpose (socializing, listening to music, shopping, accounting, etc). I still end up with apps scattered around, and I still find myself navigating a lot more than I'd like in order to get to anything past the first screen. I can't think of a better solution on iOS. Typographical user interfaces appeal to me. I feel like I'm faster on them. That Start Menu in WP7 looks like it can become a cluttered mess really fast.
Typical RTFM attitude.
- Default calendar without search? (Google is a search company!)
Install another one.
I've installed 4. Each of them provides pieces of functionality that should be in any good calendar, but not found in the others.
- Default opt in for sharing every detail about your life with Google
Erm no. The default is to opt out on all Google phones. If it was changed to opt in then you can blame your handset manufacturer / carrier for that one. Not an Android issue.
You're talking nonsense. The minute you want to use calendar or contacts it prompts you to create a Google account and the defaults on several handsets I've seen are to share with Google.
- Need to root phone to get full functionality and remove garbage protected apps
Android doesn't ship with crapware, they are carrier / manufacturer added. Not an Android issue.
Android provides the mechanisms and locks down the phone such that most people don't know how to remove the crapware.
- Separate /data and /system partitions, plenty of crapware on the phone I got which I then removed, but no easy way to repartition.
I actually see this as a plus. Pretty much every other phone / mp3 player / other little thing I've ever updated manages to nuke everything including settings in the process. Also /system only holds the system so there's no need to repartition it. EVER. My phone shipped with less than 10mb free on /system and it hasn't changed in over 2 years of use.
Of course you see this as a plus.
In my world I'm running out of space on /data and have 32MB in /system I'd like to make use of.
- Incompatibility between versions of Android
What incompatibilities? I have over 230 apps on my phone. Not a single problem going from Froyo to Gingerbread or upgrading through a few different versions of Gingerbread. I heard of compatibility problems between Donut and Eclair but then what major OS revision doesn't break something, other than an OS that only provides you a hand full of APIs?
I have plenty of pet peeves but few are directed at Android, and most are like yours directed towards manufacturer stupidities and carrier crapware.
Go and take a look at Market and you'll find many applications that have been broken on certain phones. One app - a profile manager - had to remove options due to new security restrictions.
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
I've installed 4. Each of them provides pieces of functionality that should be in any good calendar, but not found in the others.
Still an app related issue. You going to bag all of the apps or still direct your anger at the platform instead?
You're talking nonsense. The minute you want to use calendar or contacts it prompts you to create a Google account and the defaults on several handsets I've seen are to share with Google.
THIS is nonesense. You do NOT have to have a Google account to use contacts or the calendar. Or Google Maps, Google Navigation for that matter. Actually pretty much the only three apps on my phone that have not worked without a Google account was the Google Reader, the Google Marketplace and Google+. Otherwise your phone is fully functional if you click cancel whenever prompted to setup and account. Also most if not all phone ship with location services and features the like which share data to third parties switched off by default and prompt you to turn them on as well as display a disclaimer when you first start the phone (again something you can cancel out of and still have a fully functional phone.
So again, Google Phone does not ship with anything enabled by default and is functional (except for the above mentioned) without. You should try it.
Android provides the mechanisms and locks down the phone such that most people don't know how to remove the crapware.
Actually it doesn't, it only provides basic user access controls Linux style. The handset manufactures then add their own stuff as well as bend over backwards for the carriers to stay on their good side. There is no evil "tick this checkbox here to fuck over users" option in the Android system. But that's the beauty and the ugly face of Open source. The Beauty is you can install Cyanogen Mod. The Ugly is that it's open source so the manufacturers and carriers can do whatever the hell they want regardless of what Android ships to developers with.
Want an example of this, buy a Google Nexus S and bask in the glory of Android without crapware. I wonder if you blame Google for the state of Android then rather than the Carriers.
In my world I'm running out of space on /data and have 32MB in /system I'd like to make use of.
Sounds more like you need a phone without a pathetically small internal partition. There's tonnes of those around too.
Go and take a look at Market and you'll find many applications that have been broken on certain phones. One app - a profile manager - had to remove options due to new security restrictions.
Yes the alternative of APIs so limited that you wouldn't have a profile manager to begin with is soo much better. In other news I'm pissed that Commander Keen no longer works on Windows 7.
Quite frankly if you're using an app that doesn't work in a new system because the developer won't fix it that's a risk you run. I'd rather new features than put up with old Apps. Fruit Ninja was a classic. The team steadfastly refused to put multitouch support on Android for nearly a year after Eclair came out despite their iPhone version having it. Again not an Android issue but a lazy developer issue. The market place also supports versioning based on the OS version of the client so there's no reason for buggy apps other than lazyness or shoddy programming.
Short of a Walled Garden (tm) Google really couldn't have made it any more easier for developers. :thumbs up:
Although the Android UX has much to improve; Windows Phone is not even in equation for me. I had a phone with Windows Mobile (Samsung Omnia II), and it had everything that I don't like in Windows. Believe me, it was like hell to tap on X buttons to close windows on a mobile phone.
I'm happily using an iPhone now, and my next phone will probably an Android or Blackberry device. But as I sad, Windows Phone is not even an the part of the mobile OS' equation.