It seems like a design decision to not allow an app to initiate downloads so all of the podcast apps on windows phone suffer.
i could be misunderstanding you, but iirc (since i haven't done it in a while) i could download podcast via SlapDash Podcasts...?
Likewise it seems like a design decision to not allow file browsing or downloading of files to user created directories which may seem pretty minor.
this, i think and i hope will change in the future, and with some of the updates we are seeing with file selection i think it will come later this year, the addition of SD card slot should help with that as well
I move a lot of PDF's around for work and I can't even download one to my phone let alone send one from my phone via email.
sending i agree, the email app should allow selection of different files, but download? i mean i can download pdfs sent to my email and i can download them when i browse websites... so i don't know why you can't do it, unless it's different in WP8 (i still have my L800)
!!RANTING ALERT!!
I have developed apps for WP7 and have one awaiting certification for Windows 8, I have to say that I do not agree that those two things that you brought up are what's stopping devs from developing apps for WP, heck, what's stopping BBC from making a god damn news reader? alot of these devs are doing this out of spite imo, at least for WP8 you can program in native code so I don't understand why some of these people are out right saying they won't do it, even with market share argument it's stupid especially when you see them developing apps for Windows 8, the coding is 95% the same, just need to change the interface around a bit and it will work like a charm
take a look at Google, they are not developing for MS because of market share reason? fine, but MS built an app for them, and I'm pretty sure they are willing to give that app for Google for free if they would just allow WP to access YouTube, but noooo... there is not a single damn good reason they can come up with that I would agree with at this moment for this kind of behavior and you people are blaming Microsoft for not trying? sheeze...
--end of first rant...--
I think M$ could really help the platform by opening up some doors while keeping the standardization in place.
i think this is the part that is not as easy as people think it is, if you just "open" up the platform, then WP will look like android and worse like WM, the other side of the coin is there will also be less confidence in developers that their apps won't get pirated, ok with that out of the way (i just realized i think my "open" is probably not what you meant...) as far as file structures go, I think Microsoft is still struggling to figure out what is the best way to allow file management on a phone and how to allow apps to access those areas
the original reason with no file management on WP was for security reasons (at least that's what i read last year), with the addition of SD card mass storage device option, I think they are starting to figure out how to do this safely, here comes a different issue, they want to prevent apps from doing dumb things with an user's files so apps sandboxed (not the only reason, but whatever you get the point), for these apps to access files on Windows 8 we had to ask for permission, and if we try to ask for permission for Document Library there is even more restrictions such as the need to have a company account and explanation why we need access (reason why i couldn't do that in my app for Windows 8... =.=) with that happening I'm starting to think Microsoft is using Windows 8 to test out how the apps can interact with folders and eventually implement what they think will work on a phone
no guarantees, lots of speculation on this latter part, but having been early adopter for several things, i see a lot more reasons to keep supporting this system than not, heck have you seen pre-mango WP? and the amount of improvement with mango just within a year? and now with Apollo the improvement is astounding imo, there are still plenty of things that needs to improve, but Microsoft is on the right path and making alot more improvements then the other guys in a years worth of time (by that i mean by each major update... not sure how else to put it)
I was an early android adopter as well and I do remember the days of a sparce and terrible google market with no angry birds, no words with friends and no INSTAGRAM!!!! and in that respect Windows Phone store has much more to offer in the way of good apps than early android handsets ever did. I just fear that some of these restrictions are more than the market can bare and really just slowing down or downright stopping the development of third party apps.
now, im glad you do see the same thing i do in that WP's market place is not as bad as people make it out to be, and i think you will see things turn around quickly within the next year, and for developers like instagram? i hope they die a painful death in not providing any way for WP to access their social network, they are bought by fb now, so i don't believe this small dev no money to support WP crap flies any more, we have some of the best cameras out there as well
heck, remember how long it took for them to bother making anything for android? and the high horsed users even said android would pollute instagram with bad pictures (granted that's not instagram's fault) makes me feel like that social network is filled d***s...