My talk with the windows phone 7 employee

[MichaelBanning]

Hey Marc, I haven't received my LG Quantum yet, but I have two recommendations based on what I've been reading and researching:

1.) Landscape tile view: it wouldn't even have to change the size and shape of the tiles; just make the tiles rotate 90 degrees and then instead of scrolling up and down, you're scrolling left and right. The panel to see the list-view of apps instead of tiles could stay right where it is and be pulled down, and the list-view could also be scrolled either up and down or left and right. Whatever's easiest, but landscape definitely needs to happen.

2.) Holistic "MyPhone-esque" data transfer from one phone to the next: a singular, simple, and superior customer transition of data (including text messages, which can't currently be transferred via zune) from one Windows Phone to the customer's next Windows Phone, that comes standard on the Phone, would be a HUGE help, and would increase the longevity of my relationship with and use of these phones. It also makes sense with their vision, which seems to be for each person to easily access and express their Windows persona/data anytime anywhere, making the phone (as well as the pc, the xbox, etc.) simply a channel or medium (dare I say, a "window?") than it's own entity. If the focus is shifting away from just the physical products to the customer's data and life with and through Windows and the products, then something to help improve and streamline the transition from old phone to new phone seems to me be just as important as streamlining the transition from phone to pc to xbox.

 

[MarcMaiden]

Eggleston,

those are some good ideas! Ill also add them to the list. When I go into the store today ill send the list out and see what kind of response we get from our dear friend from microsoft

 

[Light Speed1]

i think they tested the homescreen landscape view and decided against it.

anyways, how would it work? I think theres a reason the iphone doesnt have landscape view. what would happen when you leave the phone flat on a table, how would the accelerometer decide to go landscape? or what if it goes landscape and you dont want that? its not failproof.

 

[spitothec]

I'm just gonna throw this out there.. I think there's a lot of misinformation in this thread and I think we're putting a little too much trust in the OP and his "source". There's a lot of things mentioned, and I don't see how it would be even remotely possible for them to include that many updates in a single patch 3 months after launch.

In fact, I doubt we'll be seeing Turn by Turn navigation next year at all.. that's not something I've even seen on the horizon and a HUGE task for MS to take on when they still have a list miles long of EASY things to correct.

 

[MichaelBanning]

i think they tested the homescreen landscape view and decided against it.

anyways, how would it work? I think theres a reason the iphone doesnt have landscape view. what would happen when you leave the phone flat on a table, how would the accelerometer decide to go landscape? or what if it goes landscape and you dont want that? its not failproof.

Your argument seems to be less against a landscape tile view and more against how a landscape view of anything could work. Other people - including Windows, which has a landscape view for their email, etc. - have figured out the answers to your questions already, which (I think) is that the phone keeps whatever view it had before being laid flat. All I'm asking for is for them to apply the same thing to the Home/Tile screen.

 

[Light Speed1]

Your argument seems to be less against a landscape tile view and more against how a landscape view of anything could work. Other people - including Windows, which has a landscape view for their email, etc. - have figured out the answers to your questions already, which (I think) is that the phone keeps whatever view it had before being laid flat. All I'm asking for is for them to apply the same thing to the Home/Tile screen.

it wont happen because it removes cohesiveness in the design. it could cause confusion too. All the other mobile OS do not function like this (except android) its prob been tested thoroughly .

 

[Light Speed1]

I'm just gonna throw this out there.. I think there's a lot of misinformation in this thread and I think we're putting a little too much trust in the OP and his "source". There's a lot of things mentioned, and I don't see how it would be even remotely possible for them to include that many updates in a single patch 3 months after launch.

In fact, I doubt we'll be seeing Turn by Turn navigation next year at all.. that's not something I've even seen on the horizon and a HUGE task for MS to take on when they still have a list miles long of EASY things to correct.

I disagree with you that navigation would be a "huge task." Windows Mobile had Bing Navigation but you apparently didnt know that. All they would have had to do is spruce it up for Windows Phone 7.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BJlv6doAJY

 

[MarcMaiden]

I'm just gonna throw this out there.. I think there's a lot of misinformation in this thread and I think we're putting a little too much trust in the OP and his "source". There's a lot of things mentioned, and I don't see how it would be even remotely possible for them to include that many updates in a single patch 3 months after launch.

In fact, I doubt we'll be seeing Turn by Turn navigation next year at all.. that's not something I've even seen on the horizon and a HUGE task for MS to take on when they still have a list miles long of EASY things to correct.

I dont blame you for not "trusting" me. I even said that all the info i got was preliminary and is not 100%.

that being said, I do not think 3 feautres is "too much" for one updage. Like the above post says, Bing navigation already exists.

 

[Daniel Rubino]

In fact, I doubt we'll be seeing Turn by Turn navigation next year at all.. that's not something I've even seen on the horizon and a HUGE task for MS to take on when they still have a list miles long of EASY things to correct.

While caution and skepticism is always warranted in these situations, the turn-by-turn stuff was mentioned in another rumor/leak weeks ago.

I'm actually leaning towards that part being true as Bing as been undergoing quite a change lately.

Also, it's not just a patch. Or rather there will be patches and then there will be firmware upgrades with the latter being quite large (~80mb+) and the former being quite small.

I expect the January update to be firmware and quite large.

 

[spitothec]

I understand that 6.5 had turn by turn, but 6.5 also had about 1.8 million things that WP7 still doesn't have. I don't see that being one of the larger things on MS's plate when there are so many things that people consider essential, that 6.5 had, that we haven't heard anything about.

Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see it and to some degree I hope I'm wrong, but when so many simple, necessary things are still missing from the phone, I can't see why they would be pulling people to work on something that's highly desired, but not really needed... and I hope they aren't.. because if we get turn by turn navigation before we get things as simple as searching for apps/music seperately or taking a screen shot, I'm going to start questioning my trust in this platform.

 

[Light Speed1]

"I understand that 6.5 had turn by turn, but 6.5 also had about 1.8 million things that WP7 still doesn't have. "

like what, copy and paste? oh wait its coming in january in an update.

 

[spitothec]

I don't have time to make a comprehensive list of what 7 is lacking compared to 6.5 but a quick browse through this very forum has most of it.

 

[Light Speed1]

I don't have time to make a comprehensive list of what 7 is lacking compared to 6.5 but a quick browse through this very forum has most of it.

the point im trying to make is that many things that its missing are minor (no matter how major or important you think they are), and they are being included in an update in january.... consumers care more about turn-by-turn navigation than tethering, so navigation obviously takes priority.

 

[gibbyhome]

any word from the Microsoft Man ??

 

[MarcMaiden]

im still waiting to hear from him. Its been a crazy week for all of us, Im sure ill be hearing from him soon to see how the black friday weekend went

 

[Lorenzo0917]

My wife and I just got the HTC Surround and LG Quantum and so far we are not very happy with them. Here is the list of things that we found.

1. PC installed Activesync no longer available. My wife did not want to have to upload all her local contacts, calendar and emails from Outlook into a new hotmail account and then download them to her phone. That is the only option.
2. Camera setting changes do not stick. Very annoying when you want to take pictures.
3. Pictures on the LG are blurry. Being photographers, we wanted the photos to be somewhat sharp. They are on my EVO 4g and her IPHONE 3G.
4. Removing an already configured email account was not possible. We had setup an active sync connection to a hotmail account that we wanted to remove. Only solution was to reset the phone to factory defaults.

So far that is what I have found. I am sure as I use the phone more in the coming days, I will find more challenges. I hope MS will releasing an update soon.
I think the LG will probably be replaced with the IPHONE 4 very soon.

Lorenzo

 

[nrfitchett4]

My wife and I just got the HTC Surround and LG Quantum and so far we are not very happy with them. Here is the list of things that we found.

1. PC installed Activesync no longer available. My wife did not want to have to upload all her local contacts, calendar and emails from Outlook into a new hotmail account and then download them to her phone. That is the only option.
2. Camera setting changes do not stick. Very annoying when you want to take pictures.
3. Pictures on the LG are blurry. Being photographers, we wanted the photos to be somewhat sharp. They are on my EVO 4g and her IPHONE 3G.
4. Removing an already configured email account was not possible. We had setup an active sync connection to a hotmail account that we wanted to remove. Only solution was to reset the phone to factory defaults.

So far that is what I have found. I am sure as I use the phone more in the coming days, I will find more challenges. I hope MS will releasing an update soon.
I think the LG will probably be replaced with the IPHONE 4 very soon.

Lorenzo

1. You can use outlook extender to get your contacts onto your phone. It is in the marketplace, but no there is no activesync anymore.
2. Known issue. Microsoft did that by design. We are hoping that it gets changed in the first update.
3. My photos have been fine, only motion shots are blurry (as every picture I've ever taken with any phone). I'm suprised any prof. photographer would be happy with any mobile phone shots.
4. The only email you can't delete is the one setup for windows live (first hotmail acct used). The rest can be deleted by long pressing on the acct under settings/ emails and accounts.

If you aren't willing to give the OS time to grow, then you would probably be happier with another phone.

 

[briguy992]

Figured this probably won't warrant its own thread for now (though he does promise details, possibly screenshots later today).

Windows Phone Update To Be Massive

Next update is "massive" and he claims they could have called it Windows Phone 8. He says they've also been working on this since before V1 shipped. This is a fairly common practice since the code branch gets shut down months before launch / shipping to test it, and some engineers will start work on the first big update, so the rest of the team can smoothly transition to the big update when they're done bug-hunting on the first version.

Can't wait for details, if he actually follows through and releases them!

 

[GP07]

Figured this probably won't warrant its own thread for now (though he does promise details, possibly screenshots later today).

Windows Phone Update To Be Massive

Next update is "massive" and he claims they could have called it Windows Phone 8. He says they've also been working on this since before V1 shipped. This is a fairly common practice since the code branch gets shut down months before launch / shipping to test it, and some engineers will start work on the first big update, so the rest of the team can smoothly transition to the big update when they're done bug-hunting on the first version.

Can't wait for details, if he actually follows through and releases them!

Ya, we know WP7 RTMed in early Sept but when did they sign-off on the code before they put it through testing is the key. It could've been a month before that, so really 4 or so months to work on a update is a good chunk of time. The more things they can add the better.

 

[briguy992]

Ya, we know WP7 RTMed in early Sept but when did they sign-off on the code before they put it through testing is the key. It could've been a month before that, so really 4 or so months to work on a update is a good chunk of time. The more things they can add the better.

Well it was likely well before a month that the code started to get frozen. Plus, before the code was frozen, a few weeks before that strings were frozen as well, which basically means no major user-facing parts can change (code is still in flux though), because they have to get the translations finished! I would say prob 2 months before that or so it started to get frozen, which meant that this update will have been worked on for about 6 months I'd say by the time it gets released (assuming a Jan release date).

Plus, I'm sure once they scoped out V1 a LONG time ago (probably last year once the pieces started to fall into place more), they knew what they would want in the updates, so I'm sure this has been scheduled and planned for a long time, which is how they've been able to do a lot of work in what seems like little time.

Still can't wait for details though.