[jellypie]

I've just joined as I've just got a new Nokia Lumia 610. I got this to replace my HTC Desire S Android phone, as the screen cracked on this. I was curious to see what a Windows Phone was like, having used mainly Android smart phones and tablets of the last couple of years.

I have to say it came as something of a shock. One of the things that stunned me was that the Windows Phone is much more difficult to use with Windows 7 desktops and laptops than an Android device. This is just plain weird as it's a Microsoft product! I was expecting to be able to browse media on my PC and copy files backwards and forwards via WiFi at home. I can do this with Android using an app call ES Explorer. One of the things I used to do was use it to neaten up my files and folders on my networked pcs and fix stuff, as well as streaming media.

None of this seems possible on the Windows Phone. The only way I could get stuff on to my 610 was to use some awful product called Zune. With my android phone I could plug it in via USB and drag and drop files via removable storage.

Is there anyway to enable this sort of functionality on a Windows Phone? I'm sure I must me missing something, but it seems to me that Windows Phone isn't really very useful. There seem to be more restrictions than features!

On the plus side, it does seem to be more stable than Android. It also seems to have an amazing battery life. Is there anything I can do to improve my Windows Phone Experience?

[CodeCharm]

I'm not a Microsoft official, so take this as just a professional opinion:

I seem to remember Microsoft stating that they were taking a fairly aggressive stance towards ensuring stability and security on the WP. To that end, they decided not to expose the contents of the phone to apps yet. The nightmare scenario they wanted to avoid was that some rogue or malicious app might post all of your files onto reddit (or something like that) without your knowledge or consent, or that it might delete or corrupt them.

Obviously, it's not in the best interest of an app developer to do that sort of thing, but Microsoft wanted to make sure it wasn't left up to them to do the right thing. I know they would like to make the content available in a safe way, but as of the current release (OS 7.1 also called WP 7.5), it's not there.

I'm not in the Windows Phone 8 SDK preview, so I can't say whether this will be addressed in the upcoming release.

I know it's not as easy or convenient. But Microsoft has learned from the past: when something goes wrong on a Microsoft OS, nobody blames the app -- they blame Microsoft. I don't know why this is. When things go wrong on Android, it's usually the app that gets blamed. When an iPhone goes nuts, people somehow seem to ignore it and act as though powering the phone off and on is a natural thing to do, and blame nobody. Very weird.

So Microsoft has had to be a little more restrictive on what those apps can and can't do, so that your complaint of "it's not as easy" doesn't turn into "WTF?! ZOMG! What did my Windows Phone just do with my photos and music?!"

Like you, I'm holding out hope that the whole "managing my content" experience gets improved with the next major release.

[AngryNil]

No mass storage for WP7. There's no changing that, sorry. If you hate Zune and syncing clients that much, WP7 isn't for you.

WiFi syncing can be set up and is triggered after some time delay when your phone is on WiFi and charging.

[jellypie]

I'm not a Microsoft official, so take this as just a professional opinion:

I seem to remember Microsoft stating that they were taking a fairly aggressive stance towards ensuring stability and security on the WP. To that end, they decided not to expose the contents of the phone to apps yet. The nightmare scenario they wanted to avoid was that some rogue or malicious app might post all of your files onto reddit (or something like that) without your knowledge or consent, or that it might delete or corrupt them.

Obviously, it's not in the best interest of an app developer to do that sort of thing, but Microsoft wanted to make sure it wasn't left up to them to do the right thing. I know they would like to make the content available in a safe way, but as of the current release (OS 7.1 also called WP 7.5), it's not there.

I'm not in the Windows Phone 8 SDK preview, so I can't say whether this will be addressed in the upcoming release.

I know it's not as easy or convenient. But Microsoft has learned from the past: when something goes wrong on a Microsoft OS, nobody blames the app -- they blame Microsoft. I don't know why this is. When things go wrong on Android, it's usually the app that gets blamed. When an iPhone goes nuts, people somehow seem to ignore it and act as though powering the phone off and on is a natural thing to do, and blame nobody. Very weird.

So Microsoft has had to be a little more restrictive on what those apps can and can't do, so that your complaint of "it's not as easy" doesn't turn into "WTF?! ZOMG! What did my Windows Phone just do with my photos and music?!"

Like you, I'm holding out hope that the whole "managing my content" experience gets improved with the next major release.

Many thanks for the detailed response. I'll keep an eye out for future firmware updates. I guess my problem was that I was expecting a Windows Phone to work with Windows. We live and learn!

[jellypie]

No mass storage for WP7. There's no changing that, sorry. If you hate Zune and syncing clients that much, WP7 isn't for you.

WiFi syncing can be set up and is trigger after some time delay when your phone is on WiFi and charging.

Well, I guess that's better than nothing. What I'm wondering now is are there anyways to stream video to the phone? With Android, there are loads of 3rd party media players, that will play files via WiFi without any need to transcode the media. I'm guessing that this is probably a no as well.

On the plus side, the 610 does seem to work well as a telephone.