The Zune music player in WP7 is *terrible*; lacking in so many features it's useless for playing audiobooks or podcasts. Let's look at what it's missing:
- No audio scrubbing. If you're listening to a long podcast you have to hold down track-skip to fast-forward, but it's slow and if you move your finger even a tiny bit it'll just skip to the next track. - No lyric support - No option to resume mp3s from where you last stopped listening. - No bookmarks - WP7 constantly forgets the last track played.
It's pathetic, to the point that I still have to carry an ipod around in addition to my WP7 phone (for language learning purposes). Zune desktop client isn't any better; the interface is a confusing mess.
in theory, yes. problem is:
1) Not all developers have implemented this, and even when they have put the extra effort in it's fairly limited (tile just shows a counter with no extra information, or information on the last notification received).
2) User has to pin every app that uses toasts to the start screen. They shouldn't have to - live tiles and notifications are completely different concepts.
3) The android / iOS notification centres give you a list of app notifications received *in the order they arrived*, meaning you can prioritise how you deal with them. No matter how well live tiles are implemented, WP7 apps can't talk to each other so this time-ordering is lost.
WP7 push notifications (toasts) are fairly useless, as there's no notification cache. When you receive one, your phone vibrates and it appears on the screen for 15 seconds..and then disappears, gone forever. If you missed it, too bad, you'll never know about it.
On the other hand, a toast push message can open an app when clicked by the user, so could be used as a mechanism for initiating an incoming Skype call.
Wait - so figures show there are more WP7 developers paying a yearly subscription fee than there are apps in Windows Marketplace?! Considering most mobile dev companies pump out multiple apps, that means a substantial number haven't released anything. This doesn't make any sense..
Are you positive they're "voting with their wallets" and not being given free subscriptions by MS?
I own a WP7 running Mango, It's a pretty decent device, which is fairly easy to use (i came from IOS). However, it's still a new OS with a few glaring omissions (no way to backup for example) and a not very full app-store. To answer your questions:
- Wifi works fine, though it switches off when you lock the phone. No you cant change this.
Getting pics off the phone is done by syncing with Zune via USB or over wifi. Bluetooth file transfers are not supported in the OS, so forget BT.
My girlfriend can use the phone fine and she's extremely non-techy. However, she finds the IPhone easier to use.
Chrome still can't display Asian fonts correctly. Japanese, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese and Korean Hanja are all rendered the same, even though they're all written differently.
This bug was first reported in 2008 and keeps getting pushed back; I literally can't believe this still hasn't been fixed, it completely breaks Asian support and means this browser can't be .
Oh a related issue; You can't choose fonts per encoding type, which means if you want to read English AND any Asian font, you can make one of them nice and readable but it breaks the look of the other.
So why didn't your company develop the concept a little, and then self-publish under Xbox Live Arcade? If it's that good it still would have sold tons, especially at a $4.99 price-point.
I'm actually rather surprised that nobody (especially Polaroid of all companies) has even attempted a digital camera with tiny printer built-in and enough film for a dozen photos.
Being in an altered state of mind isn't productive to society..
ha, you really believe that? What about artists and musicians?? To quote Bill Hicks
"If you don't think drugs have done good things for us, then take all of your records, tapes and CDs and burn them. Cause you know what? The musicians that made all that great music that's enhanced your lives throughout the years? Real f#cking high on drugs. The Beatles were so f#ckin' high they let Ringo sing a few songs."
Shooting someone in the back as they're fleeing automatically negates any claim of "self-defense". Tony Martin was never in any danger, they were leaving his home when he fired the fatal shot.
Also it would never be legal to shoot an unarmed burglar in the UK; that goes far beyond the legal definition of "reasonable force".
And another called "Shazam." You hit the "tag" button, and it records about 10 seconds of whatever song is playing in your vicinity. Then it looks up the song in a database and tells you the artist and song title.
Sony Ericsson phones have included this feature for years now - it's called TrackID.
For example, an apple iPod classic 80GB black - $228.54 in the USA, £140.97 in the UK. Using the current exchange rate, that's $280 US. $50 difference, about 20%. Less than the software, but it might be indicative.
VAT at 17.5% is added into all electronic goods in the UK. The extra 2.5% could be accounted for by higher shipping costs and the longer warrenty.
You're right most goods are more expensive here, but Apple actually prices their wares relatively fairly.
Slashdot Mirror
You appear to have confused the verb 'lose' with the adjective 'loose'
http://loseloose.com/
The Zune music player in WP7 is *terrible*; lacking in so many features it's useless for playing audiobooks or podcasts. Let's look at what it's missing:
- No audio scrubbing. If you're listening to a long podcast you have to hold down track-skip to fast-forward, but it's slow and if you move your finger even a tiny bit it'll just skip to the next track.
- No lyric support
- No option to resume mp3s from where you last stopped listening.
- No bookmarks
- WP7 constantly forgets the last track played.
It's pathetic, to the point that I still have to carry an ipod around in addition to my WP7 phone (for language learning purposes). Zune desktop client isn't any better; the interface is a confusing mess.
in theory, yes. problem is:
1) Not all developers have implemented this, and even when they have put the extra effort in it's fairly limited (tile just shows a counter with no extra information, or information on the last notification received).
2) User has to pin every app that uses toasts to the start screen. They shouldn't have to - live tiles and notifications are completely different concepts.
3) The android / iOS notification centres give you a list of app notifications received *in the order they arrived*, meaning you can prioritise how you deal with them. No matter how well live tiles are implemented, WP7 apps can't talk to each other so this time-ordering is lost.
WP7 push notifications (toasts) are fairly useless, as there's no notification cache. When you receive one, your phone vibrates and it appears on the screen for 15 seconds..and then disappears, gone forever. If you missed it, too bad, you'll never know about it.
On the other hand, a toast push message can open an app when clicked by the user, so could be used as a mechanism for initiating an incoming Skype call.
Incorrect - Nokia Lumia 800 and 710 both don't have a FFC.
Wait - so figures show there are more WP7 developers paying a yearly subscription fee than there are apps in Windows Marketplace?! Considering most mobile dev companies pump out multiple apps, that means a substantial number haven't released anything. This doesn't make any sense..
Are you positive they're "voting with their wallets" and not being given free subscriptions by MS?
I own a WP7 running Mango, It's a pretty decent device, which is fairly easy to use (i came from IOS). However, it's still a new OS with a few glaring omissions (no way to backup for example) and a not very full app-store. To answer your questions:
- Wifi works fine, though it switches off when you lock the phone. No you cant change this.
Getting pics off the phone is done by syncing with Zune via USB or over wifi. Bluetooth file transfers are not supported in the OS, so forget BT.
My girlfriend can use the phone fine and she's extremely non-techy. However, she finds the IPhone easier to use.
waaaay too much information dude..
Chrome still can't display Asian fonts correctly. Japanese, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese and Korean Hanja are all rendered the same, even though they're all written differently.
This bug was first reported in 2008 and keeps getting pushed back; I literally can't believe this still hasn't been fixed, it completely breaks Asian support and means this browser can't be .
Oh a related issue; You can't choose fonts per encoding type, which means if you want to read English AND any Asian font, you can make one of them nice and readable but it breaks the look of the other.
So why didn't your company develop the concept a little, and then self-publish under Xbox Live Arcade? If it's that good it still would have sold tons, especially at a $4.99 price-point.
in the UK, yes this is the case. Hence completely different suing culture.
The Sony Ericsson Cybershot series of phones contain CCD sensors. Very good picture quality, I no longer have a need for a digital camera.
Wouldn't it be a disaster if we were encouraged to produce new content rather than remix old stuff? oh noes...!
So how exactly does being able to generate money from work created 75 years ago encourage artists or publishers to create new work?!
interesting - source?
I'm actually rather surprised that nobody (especially Polaroid of all companies) has even attempted a digital camera with tiny printer built-in and enough film for a dozen photos.
http://www.polaroid.com/polaroidtwo/gb/
Imagine something like Men behaving badly americanized... horror.
*ahem*.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Men_Behaving_Badly_(U.S._TV_series)
Being in an altered state of mind isn't productive to society..
ha, you really believe that? What about artists and musicians?? To quote Bill Hicks
"If you don't think drugs have done good things for us, then take all of your records, tapes and CDs and burn them. Cause you know what? The musicians that made all that great music that's enhanced your lives throughout the years? Real f#cking high on drugs. The Beatles were so f#ckin' high they let Ringo sing a few songs."
Exactly - allow people to take the law into their own hands, and you get the above situation or even worse:
http://news.aol.com/article/boy-killed-while-trick-or-treating/234790
Shooting someone in the back as they're fleeing automatically negates any claim of "self-defense". Tony Martin was never in any danger, they were leaving his home when he fired the fatal shot.
Also it would never be legal to shoot an unarmed burglar in the UK; that goes far beyond the legal definition of "reasonable force".
I'm a semi-professional musician, who regularly plays guitar on tour etc. I also really enjoy playing Rock Band with my friends.
Do you also avoid driving games because you own a car? As the poster above says, Rock Band is just a fun video game, nothing more.
And colder.
And another called "Shazam." You hit the "tag" button, and it records about 10 seconds of whatever song is playing in your vicinity. Then it looks up the song in a database and tells you the artist and song title.
Sony Ericsson phones have included this feature for years now - it's called TrackID.
Yes don't bother upgrading; there is no reason for Creative to do this except to force consumers to buy their offical charger.
Here's a full thread discussing the issue: http://forums.creative.com/creativelabs/board/message?board.id=dap&message.id=168199&view=by_date_ascending&page=6
Same as the Creative Zen V or V Plus.
Mini USB charging port, but will only charge when plugged into a PC where the Creative drivers have been installed. What a retarded design decision.
For example, an apple iPod classic 80GB black - $228.54 in the USA, £140.97 in the UK. Using the current exchange rate, that's $280 US. $50 difference, about 20%. Less than the software, but it might be indicative.
VAT at 17.5% is added into all electronic goods in the UK. The extra 2.5% could be accounted for by higher shipping costs and the longer warrenty.
You're right most goods are more expensive here, but Apple actually prices their wares relatively fairly.