As for Super AMOLED, the downside is the pentile (RGBG as opppsoed to RGB) pixel arrangement which induces fuzziness in text. Displays with this screen contain 1/3 fewer subpixels compared to RGB, but with the same resolution. Lumia 900 is a clear black AMOLED technology with RGB pixels and looks amazing. I haven't seen a 920 obviously, but if it's anything like the 900 it will be gorgeous.
As for other impressive hardware in the 920, you have NFC, wireless charging, advanced optics (floating lens image stabilization), curved glass display, unibody design, super sensitive touchscreen (can touch with normal gloves on or even fingernails), and at 1280x768 on 4.5 inches has a higher pixel density (332) than the S3 (306), OneX (312), and iPhone 4S (326).
I can see notifications in the notifications bar pop up on my iPhone 4S or I can *gasp*, go into my facebook or twitter app instead of cluttering up my homescreen with their faces. Alternatively, I can alway "call" them.
You can do all this in Windows Phone too. The difference is there are no hubs in iOS, so the opposite isn't true. For me, the iOS equivalent to hubs is launching twitter and checking twitter feeds, then launching facebook and checking facebook feeds, then launching linkedin and checking linkedin feeds then launching... you get the pictures? Everything in WP is aggregated right there, and any app can hook into it. In my photos hub I have all my photo editing apps right there when I'm browsing my pictures... no need to search manually group them into a folder or search through an unorganized list.
Even better with tiles is I can pin a contact to the home screen and see updates for that one person across all social networks he or she is on. Or I can pin myself to the home screen and see all updates for me across all social networks. Or I can open the pictures hub and see all picture updates across all social networks, and comment or like them right there.
Seriously, the only negative thing you can say about the tile concept is you don't like the animations. The idea is solid, and the implementation works.
Not true, some of the features of Windows 8 including data counters, offline maps and turn by turn, xbox music, smartglass, are for sure coming to WP7 (some are already here). Microsoft released developer specific details of Windows Phone 8 at the Windows Phone developer summit. Most were hardware dependent, and the only non-hardware dependent feature talked about was the start screen. People thought that was it for WP8, but since then, tons of non-hardware dependent features have been leaked from the leaked SDK. At the developer summity Joe Belfiore, when asked if more features would be added, was very coy about the issue. Of course any features announced for WP7.8 at that time would also take the wraps off of WP8, which they're still keeping tight probably until Build 2012.
So the state of things are, more than just the start screen have already been brought to 7.8, the start screen will come in the future, and more features look like they'll be on the way. We are not getting Windows 8, but the state of things is a far cry from "pulling the plug."
he unified windows 8 product family was an opportunity for microsoft to really deliver a combined, integrated entertainment and productivity experience. And they didn't.
Not sure how exactly you can say this. I have Xbox, Windows 8 on a laptop, Windows 8 on a tablet, and Windows Phone 7. Music and videos are available across all devices. I can pause on one device and resume on another. For instance I can listen to music on my TV, pause it and continue listening in the car. Or I can watch a TV show on the TV, pause it and hop in bed, continuing it there.
My tablet or laptop (or soon phone) acts as a remote controller for my Xbox; I can browse for music or movies or do searches on the device in my hand and see the results on the screen. This is especially good when searching for music to play, which is much easier with a keyboard.
Documents I write on my desktop are available to all my other devices via SkyDrive, and pictures or movies I take on my phone are automatically synced with Skydrive. These are also synced wirelessly if I choose with my laptop, along with any music I download. Soon I'll be able to play a game on my phone, pause it, then resume it on my tablet or xbox.
Caendar, mail, contacts, messages, all sync between desktop, tablet, and phone. I can even turn my purely entertainment Windows 8 tablet into a fully functional productivity PC (capable of running all my current software including matlab, photoshop, and office) by plugging in a keyboard and mouse.
So please, I'd live you to point me to an ecosystem which can do all this as seamlessly.
the difference in screen size, input methods, memory size, processing power and battery restrictions make them utterly different.
In terms of processing power, this is all true. But today, we're in a position where the computers in our pocket are just about as powerful as the onces on our desktops not even 7 years ago. There's a large class of applucations, especially for content consumption, that can be written for consumers across all platform types mentioned. Input and screen size are different issues, but that's where you have to re-implement a unique interface for each device. This is much easier than completely recoding everything from scratch for every platform, especially when the toolchain is streamlined by Microsoft.
people will be writing Windows XP apps for a while yet for maximum audience
Many of these people who still have XP also have a cellphone or tablet on which they probably spend more of their computer-facing time. Ever since I got my mom a tablet, she hasn't sat down at her desktop as that's where she does her email and reading. This whole tablet and smartphone thing isn't a fad, and it's quickly outpacing desktop PCs, a great many of which are corporate and other non-personal machines. By targeting XP + Windows 7 + Windows 8 (desktop) you might be targeting more physical machines, but you might be targeting less customers who would actually buy your app.
the entire attempt to shoehorn Metro into Windows 8 shows that they don't understand that you can't run a cellphone interface on a desktop, and vice-versa.
This statement just shows that you don't understand exactly the purpose of the Metro interface. Most people are completely afraid of their computers. They don't know how to manage their machines, they don't know how to configure them, they don't know how to fix them when things go wrong, they don't know how to discover and explore new functionality... Metro provides an easy, consistent, predictable UI. Search is always in the same place, settings is always in the same place, sharing is always in the same place, app behavior is predictable and consistent... these are all very real benefits no matter what platform you are on. Mouse and keyboard shortcuts are very prevalent, and there is nothing stopping any developer from making mouse or keyboard centric metro apps for desktop PCs and making them more touch friendly for tablets and phones.
Now they're pulling the plug entirely on WP7 upgrades. So any developers or customers who took a chance on WP7 are being told "sorry, please buy(-in) again"
They are not "pulling the plug" as there are still updates in line for WP7. Consumers are getting many features not related to hardware via the 7.8 update and various apps. For instance the apps Nokia showed off today are all available for the Lumia 900. Developers aren't being screwed either, as all WP7 apps are forward compatible with WP8.
Windows Phone 8 has SD card support for transferring any data you please to any platform you please. I'm not sure yet if this means plugging it in via USB will mount the SD card, but that's what Joe Belifore seems to indicate in his interviews. We shall see. Also updates are OTA in WP8. You can also alternatively sync files via SkyDrive which is available cross platform.
Windows Phone 7 isn't Windows only also; a syncing program has been available for OSX for a while.
No, but obviously expectations did not line up with what they delievered... so what exactly were they expecting is the question? The new Lumias are solid spec wise and offer some real advantages over competing phones (Windows Phone or otherwise), Windows Phone 8 addresses most concerns about the platform, app availability is increasing at an excellent rate, accessory support is expanding, Lumia devices are selling... so I'm not sure what Nokia could have done differently today that would really change what simply appears to be a fickle investor reaction.
Fact is, developing for Windows 8 is also developing for (for the most part) Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8 RT, and probably in the future Xbox 720 (or whatever they call it). Whether you like Metro or not, Windows 8 will be shipping on all Desktops and Laptops in the Fall, and will be a viable platform with an immediate install base. As bad as Vista was, it still managed to find its way on more computers than Mac OSX. Developers *will* code for Windows 8, they *will* code for Windows RT, and if the marginal benefit is in their favor they *will* code for Windows Phone 8. Maybe that marginal benefit will not be there at first, but the scales will tip.
But you're wrong... it doesn't work. The current mouse/keyboard only works when sitting at a desk.
That's like saying the wheel doesn't work unless it's rolling on the road. Try flying with it and you're screwed. The keyboard and mouse have been optimized to accomplish work on our desktop GUIs, and our GUIs have been optimized to work with mouse and keyboard. To point at this and say (as Valve is) "Things haven't changed much, there must be a problem with innovation" seems to sidestep the question of whether there is any real problem we have for which we need to innovate a solution.
You seem to be missing the point. Valve seems to be saying that they're not seeing the kind of innovation they want in the computer hardware space, and point to the keyboard and mouse saying "Look! These aren't changing to therefore there is no innovation."
The obvious answer is they're not changing because they don't need to. It's like pointing to the wheel and saying "It's still the same shape, there's no innovation there!" Yes, in 5 thousand years we've adding on whiz-bang features and materials, but its circumference is still pi*d because that's what works best. Anything else is sub-optimal.
For the mouse, perhaps it's not exactly *optimal* for for our current user interfaces its pretty much the best input we have. I think for any change in the input, we're going to also need a change in the software. History shows this to be the case, as the mouse didn't really do much until we needed it for a GUI. You point to voice recognition and eye tracking, and a whole slew of other input devices, yet you neglect the fact that all these things exist yet no one uses them. Again, I believe the reason is because the deviate from the optimal input device for our GUIs (mouse), and in order for some of these alternative inputs to become as mainstream as mouse, we're going to need a user interface to compliment them. That is to say, while voice command sucks for navigating our current 2D GUI, mouse would suck for navigating a voice-centric UI.
On a final note, I as well applaud Valve for looking into a better way of doing things. I just want to be cautious and say I hope their efforts are not misguided, and that in their quest to find a better mouse or other input device, they don't instead just invent something different for the sake of being different.
Is it just me, or are more and more blatant flamebait stories reaching the front page recently? What actual relevant, meaningful news is contained in this story?
Seriously, why not go full on flame and top it off with a comment on Linux's desktop share, so we can include them in the flamefest that's sure to follow? Or I guess maybe I just did that for you... you're welcome Slashdot editors.
The contention is that Microsoft screwed over its users, and this assertion is coming from people who a) don't use Windows Phone b) never intended to use Windows Phone c) have a history of campaigning against windows phone and d) have no actual data supporting their assertions. I've presented a survey from users who disagree. In one sentence you assert wpcentral is full of fanboys and only view WP in a positive view, yet in the next sentence you assert that since the numbers weren't overwhelmingly positive it goes to show even fanboys don't like the change. And you call me a spinmeister.
How about reaching the obvious conclusion: that wpcentral is not a site of fanboys and represents a varied opinion. I can't imagine you spend a lot of time there if you think the community is all fanboys. What we are is a community of *users* who, as users, are well aware of the shortcomings and limitations of our platform, and are well aware of what WP8 is bringing to the table. We bought these devices because they fit our needs best, and the existence of another OS in the future does not change the decision we made in the past to go with WP7. When they announced WP8, my Lumia 900 did not suddenly become a worse device, and it will be getting features from WP8, so its lifespan is increased.
Maybe developing with open source graphics drivers is great, but that's a different story than the state of graphics on open source.
Graphics on Ubuntu are terrible in my anecdotal experience. On my last laptop, installing Ubuntu 9.04 failed during install and dumped me at a command prompt because it didn't support the correct drivers to display the graphical install. That was the first and last time I attempted to run Ubuntu on that laptop. Or on my newer Envy 14 with dual ATi and Intel graphics. 10.10 installs fine, but then tells me there's an upgraded driver, which if installed will prevent the computer from booting. Wonderful. Then there's the fact that it's running both graphics cards at once because there's no hybrid support, so battery life is shit and I can't output HDMI. I can't run the newest 12.xx releases with Unity, since it says I need graphics acceleration and my machine can't handle it; it's probably looking at my Intel card and concluding it's not good enough, while ignoring my ATi card.
Then there's my quad core HP DV 7 laptop, which I can get HDMI output on. Except you have to configure it manually every single time you connect a monitor. I have to connect the monitor, detect it manually, enable it manually, then rearrange the monitor relationship manually every single time. Repeat if I want to disconnect.
Sorry, I won't be even considering running games on my Linux boxes/laptops. I'm running Windows 8 on my gaming laptop and it handles graphics, HDMI out, dual cards, dual monitors, Steam, all games (not just Source games) just fine. Why would I ever subject myself to the mess that is graphics on Linux?
Of 6400 respondants, 54% said they're happy, 20% said they're not but staying with windows phone, 20% said they're not sure, and only 6% said they're leaving Windows Phone.
Personally, I'm happy with the decision. They're moving the platform forward yet still porting features for legacy owners. I bought a Lumia 900 about a month before this news and I'm still happy with it. It does everything I want, and will be getting more features in the future. Most non-hardware related features are being ported back to the Lumia 900. By the time I'm ready for a new phone, Windows Phone 8 will be all the better.
As for you comparison to iOS, my Girlfriend has a 3GS. To say that it runs all the latest apps and the lates OS is a bit misleading, as she's missing features, and many of the latest apps and games built for 4 or 4S hardware cause her phone to lag and many of them just crash randomly. The same can be said for my iPad 1 and apps like Infinity Blade, Netflix, and MLB AtBat 2012. This is almost the same situation Microsoft is giving to Windows Phone users, except they're being upfront by calling it WP7.8 instead of WP8.
What exactly is so bad about it? With the new upcoming update, they've pretty much fixed all the complaints I've ever seen. New hardware should be on par with any other phone, there's a variety of hardware, the app ecosystem is increasing at at exponential rate. At this point, iOS is looking like the least capable of the group. iPhone still don't support external SD cards, and the hardware is limited to exactly what Apple offers. The only thing Apple still has going for it are apps, but that strength is ephemeral, especially when Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8 share a same codebase; I predict many developers of Windows 8 metro apps and games will port them right over to Windows Phone 8.
TFA sort of ends on what he should have started with - the different philosophies between linux and windows 8 - that could have made for a very interesting opinion piece that would have been worth posting on/. But it's not there.
That's because a rational discussion on the philosophical and design approaches of different user interfaces is not troll clickbait. The purpose of this article is to drive as many people here to flame about how Windows 8 is terrible and ugly and the worst OS in the world. And what do you know, take a look at first 5 posts below this one and you'll see exactly that.
Beat them to what punch? Skydrive has been around longer and offers more storage (way more if you've been a user for a while. My account has 25 GB for free), extra space is cheaper, it integrates with more mobile platforms, it integrates with a cloud and desktop office suite... I can't see any reason I would want to use Google Drive over Skydrive.
I think the distinction lies in where and how the company is making money. Apple, despite taking a cut 30% cut on apps and all its iTunes sales, still makes the vast majority of its profits through physical hardware sales. Microsoft still makes the vast majority of its money through software sales and services. With the Xbox in particular, the opportunity for revenue lies in software and media services, especially as the console is starting to transition into more of a general living room entertainment device rather than a gaming device. Even Microsoft is experimenting with selling the hardware as cheap as possible and subsidizing it with an Xbox live subscription, which hopefully leads to future media purchases.
And as for the surface, I think it's already done its job. The majority of the tablets revealed over the past week by Asus, Samsung, and Sony are all very Surface-like (in that they all focus on hybrid design for work rather than pure content consumption slates), as opposed to being iPad clones like the earlier Android tablet generation. To me, Surface appears to be Microsoft's attempt to steer the tablet space in a different direction rather than an attempt to claim the tablet space with their own hardware.
No, WP8 has full externally accessible SD support. It's not confirmed yet, but the language used at the developer's conference implies WP8 will have mass storage support as well for the SD card, with the ability to transfer files from phone to phone or phone to PC (or vice versa).
What this enables that’s different than what Windows Phone 7.5 has today is that an end user can add a micro SD card months after they buy the phone expanding their storage and then they can use it to transfer contents between their PC to their phone, from phone to phone, it can be used a distribution vehicle for apps and it supports all of things in a very natural, integrated way in the Metro experience.
Slashdot Mirror
The Snapdragon S4 MSM8960 is the same processor as in some versions of the S3 and One X: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snapdragon_S4#Snapdragon_S4
As for Super AMOLED, the downside is the pentile (RGBG as opppsoed to RGB) pixel arrangement which induces fuzziness in text. Displays with this screen contain 1/3 fewer subpixels compared to RGB, but with the same resolution. Lumia 900 is a clear black AMOLED technology with RGB pixels and looks amazing. I haven't seen a 920 obviously, but if it's anything like the 900 it will be gorgeous.
As for other impressive hardware in the 920, you have NFC, wireless charging, advanced optics (floating lens image stabilization), curved glass display, unibody design, super sensitive touchscreen (can touch with normal gloves on or even fingernails), and at 1280x768 on 4.5 inches has a higher pixel density (332) than the S3 (306), OneX (312), and iPhone 4S (326).
I can see notifications in the notifications bar pop up on my iPhone 4S or I can *gasp*, go into my facebook or twitter app instead of cluttering up my homescreen with their faces. Alternatively, I can alway "call" them.
You can do all this in Windows Phone too. The difference is there are no hubs in iOS, so the opposite isn't true. For me, the iOS equivalent to hubs is launching twitter and checking twitter feeds, then launching facebook and checking facebook feeds, then launching linkedin and checking linkedin feeds then launching... you get the pictures? Everything in WP is aggregated right there, and any app can hook into it. In my photos hub I have all my photo editing apps right there when I'm browsing my pictures... no need to search manually group them into a folder or search through an unorganized list.
Even better with tiles is I can pin a contact to the home screen and see updates for that one person across all social networks he or she is on. Or I can pin myself to the home screen and see all updates for me across all social networks. Or I can open the pictures hub and see all picture updates across all social networks, and comment or like them right there.
Seriously, the only negative thing you can say about the tile concept is you don't like the animations. The idea is solid, and the implementation works.
Not true, some of the features of Windows 8 including data counters, offline maps and turn by turn, xbox music, smartglass, are for sure coming to WP7 (some are already here). Microsoft released developer specific details of Windows Phone 8 at the Windows Phone developer summit. Most were hardware dependent, and the only non-hardware dependent feature talked about was the start screen. People thought that was it for WP8, but since then, tons of non-hardware dependent features have been leaked from the leaked SDK. At the developer summity Joe Belfiore, when asked if more features would be added, was very coy about the issue. Of course any features announced for WP7.8 at that time would also take the wraps off of WP8, which they're still keeping tight probably until Build 2012.
So the state of things are, more than just the start screen have already been brought to 7.8, the start screen will come in the future, and more features look like they'll be on the way. We are not getting Windows 8, but the state of things is a far cry from "pulling the plug."
he unified windows 8 product family was an opportunity for microsoft to really deliver a combined, integrated entertainment and productivity experience. And they didn't.
Not sure how exactly you can say this. I have Xbox, Windows 8 on a laptop, Windows 8 on a tablet, and Windows Phone 7. Music and videos are available across all devices. I can pause on one device and resume on another. For instance I can listen to music on my TV, pause it and continue listening in the car. Or I can watch a TV show on the TV, pause it and hop in bed, continuing it there.
My tablet or laptop (or soon phone) acts as a remote controller for my Xbox; I can browse for music or movies or do searches on the device in my hand and see the results on the screen. This is especially good when searching for music to play, which is much easier with a keyboard.
Documents I write on my desktop are available to all my other devices via SkyDrive, and pictures or movies I take on my phone are automatically synced with Skydrive. These are also synced wirelessly if I choose with my laptop, along with any music I download. Soon I'll be able to play a game on my phone, pause it, then resume it on my tablet or xbox.
Caendar, mail, contacts, messages, all sync between desktop, tablet, and phone. I can even turn my purely entertainment Windows 8 tablet into a fully functional productivity PC (capable of running all my current software including matlab, photoshop, and office) by plugging in a keyboard and mouse.
So please, I'd live you to point me to an ecosystem which can do all this as seamlessly.
the difference in screen size, input methods, memory size, processing power and battery restrictions make them utterly different.
In terms of processing power, this is all true. But today, we're in a position where the computers in our pocket are just about as powerful as the onces on our desktops not even 7 years ago. There's a large class of applucations, especially for content consumption, that can be written for consumers across all platform types mentioned. Input and screen size are different issues, but that's where you have to re-implement a unique interface for each device. This is much easier than completely recoding everything from scratch for every platform, especially when the toolchain is streamlined by Microsoft.
people will be writing Windows XP apps for a while yet for maximum audience
Many of these people who still have XP also have a cellphone or tablet on which they probably spend more of their computer-facing time. Ever since I got my mom a tablet, she hasn't sat down at her desktop as that's where she does her email and reading. This whole tablet and smartphone thing isn't a fad, and it's quickly outpacing desktop PCs, a great many of which are corporate and other non-personal machines. By targeting XP + Windows 7 + Windows 8 (desktop) you might be targeting more physical machines, but you might be targeting less customers who would actually buy your app.
the entire attempt to shoehorn Metro into Windows 8 shows that they don't understand that you can't run a cellphone interface on a desktop, and vice-versa.
This statement just shows that you don't understand exactly the purpose of the Metro interface. Most people are completely afraid of their computers. They don't know how to manage their machines, they don't know how to configure them, they don't know how to fix them when things go wrong, they don't know how to discover and explore new functionality... Metro provides an easy, consistent, predictable UI. Search is always in the same place, settings is always in the same place, sharing is always in the same place, app behavior is predictable and consistent... these are all very real benefits no matter what platform you are on. Mouse and keyboard shortcuts are very prevalent, and there is nothing stopping any developer from making mouse or keyboard centric metro apps for desktop PCs and making them more touch friendly for tablets and phones.
Now they're pulling the plug entirely on WP7 upgrades. So any developers or customers who took a chance on WP7 are being told "sorry, please buy(-in) again"
They are not "pulling the plug" as there are still updates in line for WP7. Consumers are getting many features not related to hardware via the 7.8 update and various apps. For instance the apps Nokia showed off today are all available for the Lumia 900. Developers aren't being screwed either, as all WP7 apps are forward compatible with WP8.
Windows Phone 8 has SD card support for transferring any data you please to any platform you please. I'm not sure yet if this means plugging it in via USB will mount the SD card, but that's what Joe Belifore seems to indicate in his interviews. We shall see. Also updates are OTA in WP8. You can also alternatively sync files via SkyDrive which is available cross platform.
Windows Phone 7 isn't Windows only also; a syncing program has been available for OSX for a while.
No, but obviously expectations did not line up with what they delievered... so what exactly were they expecting is the question? The new Lumias are solid spec wise and offer some real advantages over competing phones (Windows Phone or otherwise), Windows Phone 8 addresses most concerns about the platform, app availability is increasing at an excellent rate, accessory support is expanding, Lumia devices are selling... so I'm not sure what Nokia could have done differently today that would really change what simply appears to be a fickle investor reaction.
Fact is, developing for Windows 8 is also developing for (for the most part) Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8 RT, and probably in the future Xbox 720 (or whatever they call it). Whether you like Metro or not, Windows 8 will be shipping on all Desktops and Laptops in the Fall, and will be a viable platform with an immediate install base. As bad as Vista was, it still managed to find its way on more computers than Mac OSX. Developers *will* code for Windows 8, they *will* code for Windows RT, and if the marginal benefit is in their favor they *will* code for Windows Phone 8. Maybe that marginal benefit will not be there at first, but the scales will tip.
Apple's does the same thing after most announcements. Investors are a fickle bunch.
But you're wrong... it doesn't work. The current mouse/keyboard only works when sitting at a desk.
That's like saying the wheel doesn't work unless it's rolling on the road. Try flying with it and you're screwed. The keyboard and mouse have been optimized to accomplish work on our desktop GUIs, and our GUIs have been optimized to work with mouse and keyboard. To point at this and say (as Valve is) "Things haven't changed much, there must be a problem with innovation" seems to sidestep the question of whether there is any real problem we have for which we need to innovate a solution.
You seem to be missing the point. Valve seems to be saying that they're not seeing the kind of innovation they want in the computer hardware space, and point to the keyboard and mouse saying "Look! These aren't changing to therefore there is no innovation."
The obvious answer is they're not changing because they don't need to. It's like pointing to the wheel and saying "It's still the same shape, there's no innovation there!" Yes, in 5 thousand years we've adding on whiz-bang features and materials, but its circumference is still pi*d because that's what works best. Anything else is sub-optimal.
For the mouse, perhaps it's not exactly *optimal* for for our current user interfaces its pretty much the best input we have. I think for any change in the input, we're going to also need a change in the software. History shows this to be the case, as the mouse didn't really do much until we needed it for a GUI. You point to voice recognition and eye tracking, and a whole slew of other input devices, yet you neglect the fact that all these things exist yet no one uses them. Again, I believe the reason is because the deviate from the optimal input device for our GUIs (mouse), and in order for some of these alternative inputs to become as mainstream as mouse, we're going to need a user interface to compliment them. That is to say, while voice command sucks for navigating our current 2D GUI, mouse would suck for navigating a voice-centric UI.
On a final note, I as well applaud Valve for looking into a better way of doing things. I just want to be cautious and say I hope their efforts are not misguided, and that in their quest to find a better mouse or other input device, they don't instead just invent something different for the sake of being different.
Even basic input, the keyboard and mouse, haven’t really changed in any meaningful way over the years
Maybe the reason for this is the basic form works. The design of the wheel hasn't changed much in a 5 thousand years either. I wonder why.
iOS includes iPads and iPods, which vastly outsell Android equivalents.
Is it just me, or are more and more blatant flamebait stories reaching the front page recently? What actual relevant, meaningful news is contained in this story?
Seriously, why not go full on flame and top it off with a comment on Linux's desktop share, so we can include them in the flamefest that's sure to follow? Or I guess maybe I just did that for you... you're welcome Slashdot editors.
It's a bit like a spam filter in that it increases the signal to noise ratio.
Have you seen the amount of shit in the app store? That $100 fee is doing nothing for the signal to noise ratio.
That's a poll put to the users of wpcentral.com
The contention is that Microsoft screwed over its users, and this assertion is coming from people who a) don't use Windows Phone b) never intended to use Windows Phone c) have a history of campaigning against windows phone and d) have no actual data supporting their assertions. I've presented a survey from users who disagree. In one sentence you assert wpcentral is full of fanboys and only view WP in a positive view, yet in the next sentence you assert that since the numbers weren't overwhelmingly positive it goes to show even fanboys don't like the change. And you call me a spinmeister.
How about reaching the obvious conclusion: that wpcentral is not a site of fanboys and represents a varied opinion. I can't imagine you spend a lot of time there if you think the community is all fanboys. What we are is a community of *users* who, as users, are well aware of the shortcomings and limitations of our platform, and are well aware of what WP8 is bringing to the table. We bought these devices because they fit our needs best, and the existence of another OS in the future does not change the decision we made in the past to go with WP7. When they announced WP8, my Lumia 900 did not suddenly become a worse device, and it will be getting features from WP8, so its lifespan is increased.
Maybe developing with open source graphics drivers is great, but that's a different story than the state of graphics on open source.
Graphics on Ubuntu are terrible in my anecdotal experience. On my last laptop, installing Ubuntu 9.04 failed during install and dumped me at a command prompt because it didn't support the correct drivers to display the graphical install. That was the first and last time I attempted to run Ubuntu on that laptop. Or on my newer Envy 14 with dual ATi and Intel graphics. 10.10 installs fine, but then tells me there's an upgraded driver, which if installed will prevent the computer from booting. Wonderful. Then there's the fact that it's running both graphics cards at once because there's no hybrid support, so battery life is shit and I can't output HDMI. I can't run the newest 12.xx releases with Unity, since it says I need graphics acceleration and my machine can't handle it; it's probably looking at my Intel card and concluding it's not good enough, while ignoring my ATi card.
Then there's my quad core HP DV 7 laptop, which I can get HDMI output on. Except you have to configure it manually every single time you connect a monitor. I have to connect the monitor, detect it manually, enable it manually, then rearrange the monitor relationship manually every single time. Repeat if I want to disconnect.
Sorry, I won't be even considering running games on my Linux boxes/laptops. I'm running Windows 8 on my gaming laptop and it handles graphics, HDMI out, dual cards, dual monitors, Steam, all games (not just Source games) just fine. Why would I ever subject myself to the mess that is graphics on Linux?
Apple actually used Lumias as an example of a phone that they don't feel violates Apple trade dress.
Except according to actual WP7 owners, the 7.8 solution is fine: http://www.wpcentral.com/poll-results-majority-windows-phone-users-happy-proposed-78-update
Of 6400 respondants, 54% said they're happy, 20% said they're not but staying with windows phone, 20% said they're not sure, and only 6% said they're leaving Windows Phone.
Personally, I'm happy with the decision. They're moving the platform forward yet still porting features for legacy owners. I bought a Lumia 900 about a month before this news and I'm still happy with it. It does everything I want, and will be getting more features in the future. Most non-hardware related features are being ported back to the Lumia 900. By the time I'm ready for a new phone, Windows Phone 8 will be all the better.
As for you comparison to iOS, my Girlfriend has a 3GS. To say that it runs all the latest apps and the lates OS is a bit misleading, as she's missing features, and many of the latest apps and games built for 4 or 4S hardware cause her phone to lag and many of them just crash randomly. The same can be said for my iPad 1 and apps like Infinity Blade, Netflix, and MLB AtBat 2012. This is almost the same situation Microsoft is giving to Windows Phone users, except they're being upfront by calling it WP7.8 instead of WP8.
What exactly is so bad about it? With the new upcoming update, they've pretty much fixed all the complaints I've ever seen. New hardware should be on par with any other phone, there's a variety of hardware, the app ecosystem is increasing at at exponential rate. At this point, iOS is looking like the least capable of the group. iPhone still don't support external SD cards, and the hardware is limited to exactly what Apple offers. The only thing Apple still has going for it are apps, but that strength is ephemeral, especially when Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8 share a same codebase; I predict many developers of Windows 8 metro apps and games will port them right over to Windows Phone 8.
TFA sort of ends on what he should have started with - the different philosophies between linux and windows 8 - that could have made for a very interesting opinion piece that would have been worth posting on /. But it's not there.
That's because a rational discussion on the philosophical and design approaches of different user interfaces is not troll clickbait. The purpose of this article is to drive as many people here to flame about how Windows 8 is terrible and ugly and the worst OS in the world. And what do you know, take a look at first 5 posts below this one and you'll see exactly that.
Beat them to what punch? Skydrive has been around longer and offers more storage (way more if you've been a user for a while. My account has 25 GB for free), extra space is cheaper, it integrates with more mobile platforms, it integrates with a cloud and desktop office suite... I can't see any reason I would want to use Google Drive over Skydrive.
I think the distinction lies in where and how the company is making money. Apple, despite taking a cut 30% cut on apps and all its iTunes sales, still makes the vast majority of its profits through physical hardware sales. Microsoft still makes the vast majority of its money through software sales and services. With the Xbox in particular, the opportunity for revenue lies in software and media services, especially as the console is starting to transition into more of a general living room entertainment device rather than a gaming device. Even Microsoft is experimenting with selling the hardware as cheap as possible and subsidizing it with an Xbox live subscription, which hopefully leads to future media purchases.
And as for the surface, I think it's already done its job. The majority of the tablets revealed over the past week by Asus, Samsung, and Sony are all very Surface-like (in that they all focus on hybrid design for work rather than pure content consumption slates), as opposed to being iPad clones like the earlier Android tablet generation. To me, Surface appears to be Microsoft's attempt to steer the tablet space in a different direction rather than an attempt to claim the tablet space with their own hardware.
What this enables that’s different than what Windows Phone 7.5 has today is that an end user can add a micro SD card months after they buy the phone expanding their storage and then they can use it to transfer contents between their PC to their phone, from phone to phone, it can be used a distribution vehicle for apps and it supports all of things in a very natural, integrated way in the Metro experience.