The light doesn't flicker. A shutter passes in front of a steady light source.
You have to be careful because a faster fps means less light per frame, which requires a brighter light to keep the same intensity of light on the screen.
I can't stand looking at a 60hz monitor. I can see the strobe and it gives me a headache/eye-strain within minutes.
Back in the days of CRT monitors, I could only ever work in front of one set to a 72hz refresh rate or higher.
60hz is not over-kill. It's under-kill. And 50hz is awful. Personally, I think they shouldn't double the 24fps of movies, they should triple it to 72fps.
I have to say that I think this criticism and line of reasoning are utter crap.
I heard all the same thing before the switch to digital. Everyone bemoned the "video" look, and lamented the passing of the "film" look. Then again with the switch to HD. "you see everyone's pores! the makeup is obvious!"
Complete bollocks.
It will take directors and artists a while to get use to the new tools, their paremeters, and their behavior, but they'll be making things look just as good and probably a whole lot better in a short period of time, once they gain experience. Just like they did with digital filming and projection, and just like they did with HD on TV.
This "crappy flickering smeary motion stuff looks better" nonsense just really needs to stop. You sound like the nay-sayers bemoaning the arrival of sound to moving pictures a hundred years ago. In other words, in ten or so years, you'll look back on these statements with shame and embarassment. And rightly so.
Sounds like the goal is to provide the ability to write a game once and it'll run on WIndows desktops and laptops, the XBox console, and their phone OS.
Which is almost doable right now, but I guess they hope to broaden the class of apps with which this is possible, and lessen the differences between these various platforms.
That's certifiably false, regardless of your experiences. I'd wager you have some dodgy hardware (memory going bad?) or a really awful 3rd party driver.
Because Win7 is as rock solid an OS as I've seen out of MS, and it's many times more stable and solid than XP ever was or could be.
Your experience is an abberation, and clearly the OS is not at fault here, something else is. You're blaming the wrong thing.
I have to wonder how many Windows users know they already have something like 25GB free available to them via Windows Live SkyDrive.
It's not like Microsoft makes this fact well known. And it's certainly not like Microsoft bends over backwards to make it easy to use.
But maybe this announcement will force Microsoft to get off its ass and actually push/promote/enhance what they already have. For instance, it would sure be nice if Windows Live SkyDrive had built-in Explorer integration (rather than relying on 3rd parties to make it useful), and that it were as easy to share links as it is with, say, DropBox.
Isn't C# a standard now? Doesn't Mono run on Unix? I hardly think that C# would completely disappear if MS did tomorrow (which, for the record, isn't likely to happen).
That's simply no longer true. C# is very good at performance, and isn't even remotely a "scripting language". And you can use "real" application programming techniques, just as in any other language.
I think your perception of.Net in general is dated, and that's especially true of C#.
I've done C, C++, Java, and half a dozen other languages in my development life.
While I loathe ASP.NET, I really like C#... better than I like Java in fact. The Visual Studio development environment (with ReSharper added on) is really nice (though it's no IntelliJ IDEA). And I make a good living doing C# development.
To judge me negatively for this choice seems... odd. Prejudicial. Baseless.
I can understand if it was VB all the way, but come on.
I think it brings an innovative new UI to the game (rather than the "me too" of Android's copying of iOS's aging UI). I think it brings a new concept in app development (with the Hubs and deep integration, rather than separate walled-garden app silos). I think it brings much easier development environment and better tools to developers. And the things like the dedicated camera button are spec'd out, so on the WP7 platform, it's NOT hardware dependent. It's a useful thing for WP7 users that they can just assume is there, regardless of model. Something that is NOT there on iOS, and which is only present on a very few select Android devices.
WP7 brings to the table a "middle-ground" between the monopoly of iOS (one manufacturer, one device in each generation, rigid control) and the anarchy and wild-west of Android (with device fragmentation, questionable timing of major updates, wildly varrying hardware specs, approaching hundreds of devices making choices difficult). We'll see how it goes, but it seems to be a good middle ground from where I'm standing... somewhere I'd rather be than the other two options currently available.
The fact that it isn't a choice is why it's not an option. It has nothing to do with an agenda.
Sure, bisexual people have more of a "choice" in how they express their sexualty than most people. But homsoexuals are homosexual, and heterosexuals are heterosexual. This is just a fact. Almost by definition.
It's your anti-gay agenda that blinds you to this, apparently.
The fact is, there are no ex-gays. There just aren't. They don't exist, at least as you imagine them. "gay" isn't a lifestyle. It has nothing to do with drugs or casual sex or barbara or liza or any of that stereotypical crap. I think a lot of so-called "ex-gays" are rejecting the empty, shallow, stereotypical "lifestyle" more than anything. They've confused it with sexual attraction somehow. Totally different. Maybe they felt a little same-sex attraction (being bi at some level), and so with black-and-white-thinking, they dove head-first in to the stereotypes. When they found that unsatisfying ultimately, they rejected it, thinking "I don't want to be gay" or "I'm not gay after all". That's confusion on their part, but understandable.
But you don't suddenly "turn" homosexual, or "turn" heterosexual. And you cannot be "cured" of homosexuality to become an "Ex-gay". That's just a ridiculously stupid notion, based almost entirely in ignorance and homophobia.
Well, the camera is certainly faster and better integrated than on the iPhone (or most Android devices). Dedicated camera button means you can take pictures quickly without having to go through all you have to on iOS to get to the point where you're ready to take a pic.
XBox Live integration is something you can't get anywhere else.
The Office integration is interesting, though won't be a big deal for me. Still, you won't find Word and Excel on other phones.
The Zune Pass for all-you-can-eat Music is pretty killer, actually... it's one of the better music and video phones out there.
Standard FM tuner that isn't present on other devices.
The Hubs concept of deep integration is really interesting and useful.
That's just off the top of my head. I'm sure I could come up with others if given more time and research.
(Disclaimer: I follow WP7 but don't own one... I use iOS/iPhone 4)
Honestly, I think WP7 is going to be a slow-burn. It started out way behind, but it's a decent mobile OS as far as it goes, with a lot of potential.
It's going to take a while to find traction. First, it has to "catch up" with what's already there (and that will take a while). There are also people who might be interested but who are already under contract with other phones (I fit in this category). I'm not even elegible to think about buying one for another year or so.
So there's a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem here, along with a late entry into a relatively saturated market. I think it's highly likely that they'll slowly grow over the next year or 18 months into third place, and likely stay there for several years... eating away at a slowly increasing share. I think the Nokia deal will seriously help this, but so will it's release this year on other networks (Verizon and T-Mobile and Sprint here in the States).
As long as Microsoft keeps the updates coming, and pushes updated hardware specs for a second generation that will keep pace with where iOS and Android are going, things will continue to improve.
The updates you refer to in (1) and (2) are the same update. They had some issues getting out the door and getting the update train running. Hopefully that's all smoothed out now.
And the first "real" update is scheduled for next week. It includes copy/paste, faster app launching, and a few other features.
A major update is scheduled for next fall, that includes a lot of new features, from multi-tasking to IE9/HTML5 support, etc. So yes, they DO have a plan to 'catch up', and in fact have been pretty clear in communicating it (they've showed off the fall update recently, demonstrating many of its new features).
Agreed. And this was their problem with Zune as well. The Zune80/120 was better than the iPod Classic in almost every way. Better UI on the device. Better software and better UI on the computer side of things. Better sound quality. Better quality earbuds. More and better features.
But thanks to the lame first generation, and the lack of any decent marketing from that point on... it completely (and undeservedly) fizzled in the marketplace.
WP7 can import your contacts from Facebook, from Windows Live Contacts, and other places, including google contacts.
WP7 is completely unrealted to WP6.5. It's a refresh and wipe and start-over. As such, I don't think it's yet ready for prime-time (still behind iPhone and Android in features, and will be playing catch-up for the next year or two... but also has some things that are simply better than iPhone or Android, because it started out fresh and doens't have historical baggage).
Anyway, there are lots of valid reasons to not want to move to WP7... it just doesn't seem to me that your reason is one of them.
You don't know any 'ex-gays' either. Because there is no such thing. There are only gay people who have gone back in the closet.
Homosexuality isn't a "lifestyle choice". That's absurdly ignorant.
And apparently you seem unaware of what gays have endured in this country and throughout history. No, it's not "the same" as what blacks went through (or jews, or any other oppressed minority), but there ARE parallels that are worth noting, and denying that is kind of ridiculous. In fact, trivializing the traumas that one minority endured just because they were different from another minority is kind of sickening.
No gay person has ever been 'cured'. Gay is gay. Straight is straight. Bi is bi. Human sexuality is complex and varied.
It'll also be interesting to see what the future holds, given the overlap of utilities on Windows now: Windows Media Player, Windows Media Center, and the Zune Software. There are rumors of some consolidation there.
Zune 4.x is a great piece of software. Beautiful UI (blows anything Apple has done out of the water), functional, effective, and easy to use. So much better than iTunes that it's laughable.
The UI on the device itself is also superior.
Of course they had a very rocky start, and it didn't get decent until version 3.x... typical of all Microsoft products actually (first version is a disaster, second version is better but still painful, third versino actually works).
I don't understand why you refuse to watch video on Zune on the XBox 360?
They're only discontinuing the hardware and the brand. So they'll rename Zune on the XBox to something else, but it'll be the same thing, software- and service-wise.
Zune music and video on the XBox is pretty good, actually. Especially if you get a ZunePass and use the Smart DJ feature.
I'm not sure what you mean by "Zune Marketplace Requirements"... I think you're thinking it's more than what it is. Or something. I'm not sure what you're opposed to or avoiding here, in fact.
Well, there are some WP7 Marketplace improvements coming in the copy/paste update, with more improvements promised for later.
And yeah, the update is a little late, as they iron out some bumps and kinks in the update process.
You're still getting more timely updates than many who chose Android phones have gotten.
And a phone that is great for developers should ultimately have more and better apps. We'll see.
I purposely chose not to climb on the bleeding edge with this one, but about this time next year my iPhone contract will be up, and I'll be switching. I'll take a look at WP7, and if it's doing better, I'll try it out. if it's not, I'll probably go Android.
Modern telephones, with text messaging and call history (frequently available on the web as well, or via an app) don't have quite the same privacy as the old POTS dial-up corded phones of the past.
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The light doesn't flicker. A shutter passes in front of a steady light source.
You have to be careful because a faster fps means less light per frame, which requires a brighter light to keep the same intensity of light on the screen.
Completely crap.
I can't stand looking at a 60hz monitor. I can see the strobe and it gives me a headache/eye-strain within minutes.
Back in the days of CRT monitors, I could only ever work in front of one set to a 72hz refresh rate or higher.
60hz is not over-kill. It's under-kill. And 50hz is awful. Personally, I think they shouldn't double the 24fps of movies, they should triple it to 72fps.
I have to say that I think this criticism and line of reasoning are utter crap.
I heard all the same thing before the switch to digital. Everyone bemoned the "video" look, and lamented the passing of the "film" look. Then again with the switch to HD. "you see everyone's pores! the makeup is obvious!"
Complete bollocks.
It will take directors and artists a while to get use to the new tools, their paremeters, and their behavior, but they'll be making things look just as good and probably a whole lot better in a short period of time, once they gain experience. Just like they did with digital filming and projection, and just like they did with HD on TV.
This "crappy flickering smeary motion stuff looks better" nonsense just really needs to stop. You sound like the nay-sayers bemoaning the arrival of sound to moving pictures a hundred years ago. In other words, in ten or so years, you'll look back on these statements with shame and embarassment. And rightly so.
Sounds like the goal is to provide the ability to write a game once and it'll run on WIndows desktops and laptops, the XBox console, and their phone OS.
Which is almost doable right now, but I guess they hope to broaden the class of apps with which this is possible, and lessen the differences between these various platforms.
That's certifiably false, regardless of your experiences. I'd wager you have some dodgy hardware (memory going bad?) or a really awful 3rd party driver.
Because Win7 is as rock solid an OS as I've seen out of MS, and it's many times more stable and solid than XP ever was or could be.
Your experience is an abberation, and clearly the OS is not at fault here, something else is. You're blaming the wrong thing.
I have to wonder how many Windows users know they already have something like 25GB free available to them via Windows Live SkyDrive.
It's not like Microsoft makes this fact well known. And it's certainly not like Microsoft bends over backwards to make it easy to use.
But maybe this announcement will force Microsoft to get off its ass and actually push/promote/enhance what they already have. For instance, it would sure be nice if Windows Live SkyDrive had built-in Explorer integration (rather than relying on 3rd parties to make it useful), and that it were as easy to share links as it is with, say, DropBox.
Get her to update from XP to Win7 and she'll curse less.
Isn't C# a standard now? Doesn't Mono run on Unix? I hardly think that C# would completely disappear if MS did tomorrow (which, for the record, isn't likely to happen).
That's simply no longer true. C# is very good at performance, and isn't even remotely a "scripting language". And you can use "real" application programming techniques, just as in any other language.
I think your perception of .Net in general is dated, and that's especially true of C#.
I've done C, C++, Java, and half a dozen other languages in my development life.
While I loathe ASP.NET, I really like C# ... better than I like Java in fact. The Visual Studio development environment (with ReSharper added on) is really nice (though it's no IntelliJ IDEA). And I make a good living doing C# development.
To judge me negatively for this choice seems... odd. Prejudicial. Baseless.
I can understand if it was VB all the way, but come on.
I guess we'll have to agree to disagree.
I think it brings an innovative new UI to the game (rather than the "me too" of Android's copying of iOS's aging UI). I think it brings a new concept in app development (with the Hubs and deep integration, rather than separate walled-garden app silos). I think it brings much easier development environment and better tools to developers. And the things like the dedicated camera button are spec'd out, so on the WP7 platform, it's NOT hardware dependent. It's a useful thing for WP7 users that they can just assume is there, regardless of model. Something that is NOT there on iOS, and which is only present on a very few select Android devices.
WP7 brings to the table a "middle-ground" between the monopoly of iOS (one manufacturer, one device in each generation, rigid control) and the anarchy and wild-west of Android (with device fragmentation, questionable timing of major updates, wildly varrying hardware specs, approaching hundreds of devices making choices difficult). We'll see how it goes, but it seems to be a good middle ground from where I'm standing... somewhere I'd rather be than the other two options currently available.
Isn't that the only perspective that actually matters to users? Which is what we're talking about here?
The fact that it isn't a choice is why it's not an option. It has nothing to do with an agenda.
Sure, bisexual people have more of a "choice" in how they express their sexualty than most people. But homsoexuals are homosexual, and heterosexuals are heterosexual. This is just a fact. Almost by definition.
It's your anti-gay agenda that blinds you to this, apparently.
The fact is, there are no ex-gays. There just aren't. They don't exist, at least as you imagine them. "gay" isn't a lifestyle. It has nothing to do with drugs or casual sex or barbara or liza or any of that stereotypical crap. I think a lot of so-called "ex-gays" are rejecting the empty, shallow, stereotypical "lifestyle" more than anything. They've confused it with sexual attraction somehow. Totally different. Maybe they felt a little same-sex attraction (being bi at some level), and so with black-and-white-thinking, they dove head-first in to the stereotypes. When they found that unsatisfying ultimately, they rejected it, thinking "I don't want to be gay" or "I'm not gay after all". That's confusion on their part, but understandable.
But you don't suddenly "turn" homosexual, or "turn" heterosexual. And you cannot be "cured" of homosexuality to become an "Ex-gay". That's just a ridiculously stupid notion, based almost entirely in ignorance and homophobia.
Well, the camera is certainly faster and better integrated than on the iPhone (or most Android devices). Dedicated camera button means you can take pictures quickly without having to go through all you have to on iOS to get to the point where you're ready to take a pic.
XBox Live integration is something you can't get anywhere else.
The Office integration is interesting, though won't be a big deal for me. Still, you won't find Word and Excel on other phones.
The Zune Pass for all-you-can-eat Music is pretty killer, actually... it's one of the better music and video phones out there.
Standard FM tuner that isn't present on other devices.
The Hubs concept of deep integration is really interesting and useful.
That's just off the top of my head. I'm sure I could come up with others if given more time and research.
(Disclaimer: I follow WP7 but don't own one... I use iOS/iPhone 4)
Honestly, I think WP7 is going to be a slow-burn. It started out way behind, but it's a decent mobile OS as far as it goes, with a lot of potential.
It's going to take a while to find traction. First, it has to "catch up" with what's already there (and that will take a while). There are also people who might be interested but who are already under contract with other phones (I fit in this category). I'm not even elegible to think about buying one for another year or so.
So there's a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem here, along with a late entry into a relatively saturated market. I think it's highly likely that they'll slowly grow over the next year or 18 months into third place, and likely stay there for several years... eating away at a slowly increasing share. I think the Nokia deal will seriously help this, but so will it's release this year on other networks (Verizon and T-Mobile and Sprint here in the States).
As long as Microsoft keeps the updates coming, and pushes updated hardware specs for a second generation that will keep pace with where iOS and Android are going, things will continue to improve.
You're confused or uninformed (or misinformed).
The updates you refer to in (1) and (2) are the same update. They had some issues getting out the door and getting the update train running. Hopefully that's all smoothed out now.
And the first "real" update is scheduled for next week. It includes copy/paste, faster app launching, and a few other features.
A major update is scheduled for next fall, that includes a lot of new features, from multi-tasking to IE9/HTML5 support, etc. So yes, they DO have a plan to 'catch up', and in fact have been pretty clear in communicating it (they've showed off the fall update recently, demonstrating many of its new features).
Agreed. And this was their problem with Zune as well. The Zune80/120 was better than the iPod Classic in almost every way. Better UI on the device. Better software and better UI on the computer side of things. Better sound quality. Better quality earbuds. More and better features.
But thanks to the lame first generation, and the lack of any decent marketing from that point on... it completely (and undeservedly) fizzled in the marketplace.
WP6.5 has no relation to WP7.
WP7 can import your contacts from Facebook, from Windows Live Contacts, and other places, including google contacts.
WP7 is completely unrealted to WP6.5. It's a refresh and wipe and start-over. As such, I don't think it's yet ready for prime-time (still behind iPhone and Android in features, and will be playing catch-up for the next year or two... but also has some things that are simply better than iPhone or Android, because it started out fresh and doens't have historical baggage).
Anyway, there are lots of valid reasons to not want to move to WP7... it just doesn't seem to me that your reason is one of them.
You don't know any 'ex-gays' either. Because there is no such thing. There are only gay people who have gone back in the closet.
Homosexuality isn't a "lifestyle choice". That's absurdly ignorant.
And apparently you seem unaware of what gays have endured in this country and throughout history. No, it's not "the same" as what blacks went through (or jews, or any other oppressed minority), but there ARE parallels that are worth noting, and denying that is kind of ridiculous. In fact, trivializing the traumas that one minority endured just because they were different from another minority is kind of sickening.
No gay person has ever been 'cured'. Gay is gay. Straight is straight. Bi is bi. Human sexuality is complex and varied.
It'll be interesting to see if they rename it.
It'll also be interesting to see what the future holds, given the overlap of utilities on Windows now: Windows Media Player, Windows Media Center, and the Zune Software. There are rumors of some consolidation there.
The Zune experience is already in every WP7 phone sold. I'm not sure what you're trying to get at here.
I respectfully disagree.
Zune 4.x is a great piece of software. Beautiful UI (blows anything Apple has done out of the water), functional, effective, and easy to use. So much better than iTunes that it's laughable.
The UI on the device itself is also superior.
Of course they had a very rocky start, and it didn't get decent until version 3.x ... typical of all Microsoft products actually (first version is a disaster, second version is better but still painful, third versino actually works).
I don't understand why you refuse to watch video on Zune on the XBox 360?
They're only discontinuing the hardware and the brand. So they'll rename Zune on the XBox to something else, but it'll be the same thing, software- and service-wise.
Zune music and video on the XBox is pretty good, actually. Especially if you get a ZunePass and use the Smart DJ feature.
I'm not sure what you mean by "Zune Marketplace Requirements"... I think you're thinking it's more than what it is. Or something. I'm not sure what you're opposed to or avoiding here, in fact.
Well, there are some WP7 Marketplace improvements coming in the copy/paste update, with more improvements promised for later.
And yeah, the update is a little late, as they iron out some bumps and kinks in the update process.
You're still getting more timely updates than many who chose Android phones have gotten.
And a phone that is great for developers should ultimately have more and better apps. We'll see.
I purposely chose not to climb on the bleeding edge with this one, but about this time next year my iPhone contract will be up, and I'll be switching. I'll take a look at WP7, and if it's doing better, I'll try it out. if it's not, I'll probably go Android.
Modern telephones, with text messaging and call history (frequently available on the web as well, or via an app) don't have quite the same privacy as the old POTS dial-up corded phones of the past.