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Ask Slashdot: Do You Miss Windows Phone? (theverge.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the blast-from-the-past dept.

An anonymous reader writes: After recently switching on an old Windows Phone to create a silly April Fools' joke, The Verge's Tom Warren discovered just how much he missed Microsoft's mobile OS. Two of the biggest features that are hard to find/replicate on iOS and Android are the Metro design and Live Tiles. "Android and iOS still don't have system-wide dark modes, nearly 8 years after Windows Phone first introduced it," notes Warren. "Live Tiles were one of Windows Phone's most unique features. They enabled apps to show information on the home screen, similar to the widgets found on Android and iOS. You could almost pin anything useful to the home screen, and Live Tiles animated beautifully to flip over and provide tiny nuggets of information that made your phone feel far more personal and alive."

Some other neat features include the software keyboard, which Warren argues "is still far better than the defaults on iOS and Android," especially with the recently-added tracing feature that lets you swipe to write words. "Microsoft also experimented with features that were different to other mobile platforms, and some of the concepts still haven't really made their way to iOS or Android: Kid's Corner; Dedicated search button; Browser address bar; People hub; Unified messaging..." Aside from the competition aspect with Google and Apple, do you miss Windows Phone? What are some specific features you miss about the old mobile operating system?

7 of 284 comments (clear)

  1. I Miss Windows In Everything I Own by OpenSourceAllTheWay · · Score: 5, Funny

    I use my toaster, and wish that it ran Windows. I use my washing machine, and wish that it ran Windows. I use my SmartTV and wish that it... could... be... made... to... Blue Screen Of Death somehow. I miss Windows in my toilet unit the most. How nice would it be to have the Windows Recycle Bin's "undo recycle" function in a toilet?

  2. Metro design and Live tiles?? by ruir · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Your calendar is surely off 7 days, today it is the 8th of April.
    Do you really need to ask if we miss Windows phone? Are you NUTS?

    1. Re:Metro design and Live tiles?? by burtosis · · Score: 5, Funny

      I ran into an old windows phone today. Then I put it in reverse and ran into it again. I miss that old windows phone sometimes.

    2. Re:Metro design and Live tiles?? by cyberpunkrocker · · Score: 5, Interesting

      My dream phone would be one with a Windows (Metro) frontend build on top of an Android backend.

      I really think the Metro design was, at least in theory, much better than the IOS/Android basic design ideas. Of course MIcrosoft did make a horrible blunder with the Metro design in Windows 8, which put many people off (me included at the time)

  3. Yes I do by aglider · · Score: 5, Funny

    That feeling that you were going to wait 30 minutes to do an SMS: "Don't turn your phone off while an update is being applied..."

    --
    Sent as ripples into the electromagnetic field. No single photon has been harmed in the process.
    1. Re:Yes I do by Fly+Swatter · · Score: 5, Funny

      Good thing there are no pesky updates to get in your way anymore. It is now the perfect phone.

  4. No, because I'm still using it by mdsharpe · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Love my Lumia 950, it works very well, does everything I need. Occasionally there's an app I wish I could use, but not enough to be a deal breaker. Microsoft did a great job making its apps responsive and I enjoy using the same software on my laptop and phone. I'm sure this will be an unpopular opinion but there was and still is nothing technically wrong with Windows Mobile. Sadly it looks like it won't be getting any further feature updates but the current version is still supported for quite a while yet.