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Wozniak Praises 'Beautiful' Windows Phone

judgecorp writes "Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has praised the user interface of Microsoft's Windows Phone, saying that aspects of its user interface are more 'beautiful' than comparable sides to the iPhone. The comments, in a New Domain, follow on from a comment by Forrester boss George Colony who blogged that Apple would decline in the post-Jobs era. Both pieces have kicked off the kind of online argument you would expect."

18 of 362 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Windows Phone 7 by cptdondo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    OK, the hyper-coordination between articles praising the WinPhone and gushing first posts is getting annoying.... How about a 15 minute rule between article and first post? Or maybe restrict first post to accounts that have been around for more than 15 minutes?

  2. Who is this Wozniak guy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Probably some Anti-Apple shill.

  3. And.....? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So what if Woz praised something a competitor produced? He's entitled to his own opinion, negative or positive, and it says nothing about the state of Apple. Is Apple going to decline without Jobs? Who know, but Woz having an opinion is hardly a sign one way or the other. The only thing it does is dispell any notion that he's an arrogant prat who couldn't possible even deign to glance at a competitor's product without vomiting.

    Maybe this sort of thing gets to me too much, but I'm really fed up of this "you must be 100% for whichever brand-tribe you join!" guff. If he liked bits of another product then so what, that's competition for you.

    1. Re:And.....? by Zordak · · Score: 5, Funny

      I wonder what kind of phone he actually uses...

      Probably one cobbled together from parts he cannibalized from old radios, digital toasters, and Clinton-era computers, running a custom ROM he flashed to the BIOS chip and a barebones customized "GNU/Linux." He has to carry the motherboard and RAID in a hemp backpack (which doubles as his exercise regimen), it has a full QWERTY keyboard that he keeps in a side holster so he can run his EMACS-based SMS client, and the display is a naked LCD running on an ISA framebuffer card, connected by a ribbon cable coming out the side of the monitor. He suspends the monitor from a helmet so he can go "hands free."

      It ain't purdy, but IT IS FREE!

      --

      Today's Sesame Street was brought to you by the number e.
  4. Its not surprising that Wozniak stuck to tech by Chrisq · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Its not surprising that Wozniak stuck to tech rather than going into management. He gives his honest opinion, saying what he believes to be true. There is no place for this sort of thing in the boardroom.

  5. Re:Windows Phone 7 by ByOhTek · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I think your post misses one huge flaw with WP7
    The developer API, it's too restrictive. No good way to get your apps to share data between each other. Only network connection allowed is HTTP. No single source of online storage (last I checked the SkyDrive API wasn't opened, so you can't use it, by the developer contract).

    Yes, it has a clean and effective API, but in terms of functionality from 3rd party apps, it lacks, and would still lack, even if it had all the developers of iOS and Android combined.

    --
    Self proclaimed typo king, and inventor of the bear destroying coffee table (patent not pending).
  6. Monumental failure. by GauteL · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The UI may be great and the development environment good, but Microsoft, in a misguided attempt to lock developers to the platform (that only works when you have them to begin with), made it impossible to use c++ and OpenGL on them meaning every part of an Android or iOS game/app has to be rewritten to work on Windows Phone 7.

    When you make it too hard, developers will stick with the platforms where the customers are; Android and iOS

  7. Re:Windows Phone 7 by flibbidyfloo · · Score: 5, Informative

    Come on, that's not fair. The first poster, TechCar, has a long history of 8 posts dating all the way back to two days ago! :)

  8. Buyer beware! by MCSEBear · · Score: 5, Informative
    Since multiple industry journalists have stepped forward saying that current Windows Phones will not be eligible to receive an upgrade to Win Phone 8, it's difficult to think of current models as more than a scam.

    The one Windows Phone evangelist who claimed the current devices would be upgradable, quickly walked those statements back.

    Microsoft developer evangelist Nuno Silva apparently confused applications with devices when he claimed that users of Windows Phone 7 (aka Mango) would be able to upgrade to Windows Phone 8 (aka Apollo).

    Offering a mea culpa on his blog today, Silva said he was trying to echo Microsoft's own statements that existing Windows Phone apps would run under Apollo. But for some reason he gave the impression that current devices themselves would also be able to run the next version of Windows Phone.

    "I mistakenly confused app compatibility with phone updateability, which caused the rumors we saw yesterday," Silva wrote. "I did not intend to give the impression I was offering new guidance on any products under development or their upgradeability."

    The developer aroused hopes among the Windows Phone faithful by leading them to believe that Mango devices would be eligible to receive the Apollo upgrade. But various sources have been insisting for a while that there is no upgrade path.

    Source here .

    If you buy one of these "beta test" phones, you will soon be stuck in a multi-year contract with a device that will not be upgradable to the current version of the OS. There is nothing beautiful about that. Do not buy before Win Phone 8 is released!

  9. Since 1984... by sycodon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    George Colony who blogged that Apple would decline in the post-Jobs era.

    Since day one of the Macintosh, or you might say day one of the IBM PC, people have been predicting the demise of Apple. With every new model and every new OS, legions of entrenched industry analysts stood up and said with certainty..."whoa, this may be the end of Apple".

    I guess if they just keep saying that, one day it will be true and they can pat themselves on the back for being so prescient.

    --
    When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
  10. Re:Windows Phone 7 by mwvdlee · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Look, just because his name is similar to other first-posting newly created account names accused of being MS shills (TechNY/TechLA), the account was created just yesterday and he only made pro-MS and anti-Google postings since then doesn't mean anything. Doesn't mean anything at all ...

    --
    Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
  11. Sad, too, he's assumed to be an Apple mouthpiece.. by King_TJ · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Just because Woz originally helped found Apple Computer in the 70's doesn't mean he's a shill for Apple 30 years later, long after having worked as one of their employees, and after the company changed names (simply "Apple" today -- with the "Computer" part purposely deleted).

    I really do think the man speaks honestly about technology he uses, no matter which vendor it comes from. He often likes Apple's products, and when he does, he'll tell you so. But the media seems to assume he's "supposed to be saying that" and jumps to conclusions whenever he says something good about a competing product instead.

    As a big fan of the iPhone myself, I'd agree with Woz about Windows Phone 7 too. It *does* have a refreshing and attractive-looking UI to it -- something I'm doubly impressed came out of Microsoft, after their LONG standing belief that everything they designed should have a START button in the corner. (Even their embedded systems for such things as vehicle navigation systems still required developers to purposely code the software to completely hide the OS's UI underneath, because nobody wanted a touchscreen in their car or truck to look like it was just another PC running a version of Windows, with icons to double-click.)

  12. Re:Windows Phone 7 by CowTipperGore · · Score: 5, Insightful

    TechCar is the latest iteration of a large group of astroturfing accounts. There's a bunch of high UID accounts with similar style names (two random words smashed together) that shill pro-Microsoft and anti-Google positions. Unsurprisingly, he was born yesterday to post in Bonch's story claiming Google management knew about the wifi harvesting. He shows up to defend a well-established anti-Google (and pro-Apple) shill and has since posted a series of anti-Linux, anti-Google, and pro-Microsoft comments.

    Assuming he follows the same pattern as the rest, mods will catch on in a week or two and his karma will plummet. The account will get put to sleep and a new one will be created.

  13. Re:Windows Phone 7 by localman57 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Yes, because anecdotal evidence tends to be more true.

    I've found that to be true in my personal experience.

  14. Re:Windows Phone 7 by Richard_at_work · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Your complaint is hardly specific to Windows Phone 7 tho - I've not used it (consider that a caveat) so I can't comment on WP7, but I've had my fair share of UI glitches and software slide buttons sticking on both Android (HTC Desire, 2.1 iirc) and iPhone.

    I've even had situations where the iPhone wont let me answer a call thats ringing, because the screen isnt responding to the slide - the call goes to voice mail, the screen reverts back to the lock screen, and suddenly everything works again.

    I've had situations where I couldn't hang up the call on both the iPhone and Android. Now thats not a great situation to be in!

    My iPhone also won't connect to my local pubs wifi, even when Im sat a couple of meters away from the router - won't see it, and if I try and connect manually it won't join the network.

    So execution is really lacking all round.

  15. Re:Windows Phone 7 by Mister+Whirly · · Score: 5, Insightful

    There's a reason, Woz has been an engineer and not a designer at Apple.

    Yeah - he actually invented things instead of putting pretty packages and a neat UI on existing things and marketing the hell out of them. He had the audacity to put function over form.

    --
    "But this one goes to 11!"
  16. Re:Windows Phone 7 by Gr8Apes · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's still a "windows" phone, advertised as such, so any failings in operation that appear to be software related will justly be seen as an MS failing.

    --
    The cesspool just got a check and balance.
  17. Re:Windows Phone 7 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Probably due to hidden SSID which the phones can't handle.

    http://windowsphonesecrets.com/2010/08/04/windows-phone-missing-feature-of-the-week-connect-to-hidden-wireless-
    networks/