Are "Live Tiles" (Mango) a gimmick?

[Muvolt]

Hello to all...

What is your opinion about live tiles in Mango? In every third party application I've tried, the live tiles are not working properly...they just don't update the info (or they update it after a long time, so they are not exactly "live"). Is this so difficult for Microsoft to make it work properly? I thought that after the disappointing implementation of this feature in previous updates, Mango could have fixed it...but it didn't. What are your thoughts?

I have tried all the shortcut apps available and almost all the weather apps with live tile support... most of them still use the option for some "techniques" (push notifications/ schedulers/ toast?) that most of the end users doesn't fully understand. Even with these workarounds, live tiles are almost dead...

 

[Winterfang]

The Live tiles are actually a great idea. Sadly right now they act like widgets that don't work half the time.

This update fixes that, third party developers just need to update this so the apps run on the background, once they do, it becomes incredibly useful.

 

[KingCrimson]

To me they are a gimmick until someone can prove how they really enhance the UX.

 

[Winterfang]

They enhance it, by not getting sued by apple

 

[incendy]

I like them, especially the contact tiles. Always fun to turn on the screen to check email etc and see what your close friends are up to at a glance. Even in apps that do not need to alert you of things it is nice to have an indication of the last thing you did in the app. Makes the interface feel alive and not so stale.

 

[gerrymad]

My live tiles work nicely. The contacts ones show activity. My BBC one shows headlines. The USA Today one has relevant pictures. My stock app shows a heat map of the stock I have selected (a lot of red there right now).

There are other live times as well and they are becoming more and more relevant.

 

[KingCrimson]

My live tiles work nicely. The contacts ones show activity. My BBC one shows headlines. The USA Today one has relevant pictures. My stock app shows a heat map of the stock I have selected (a lot of red there right now).

There are other live times as well and they are becoming more and more relevant.

That's good to hear that live tiles are actually providing useful feedback.

 

[red grenadine]

My Stocks is extremely useful - shows the top 6 stocks/indices on my watch list, their price and their % performance on the day.

Feed Reader flips around and lets me know how many unread items I have in my google reader and when it last checked. Again, extremely useful.

And the weather channel app is always nice.

I agree that more devs should be enhancing this. And honestly so should microsoft. I don't know if they've updated their old apps (e.g. world clock) to show a live tile, but they ought to.

The ESPN app really does need one. Wonder if there is a sports app that has good live tile functionality

 

[jrstroud88]

I love wp7 live tiles, NFL scores you can choose a game and the intervals you want it updating and it constantly refreshes the score on the tile, accuweather is pretty handy as a live tile, and facebook now makes getting my notifications super fast.

Wp7 is truly becoming the anti-app phone, I love it. Enhanced and streamlined my experience so much.

-- Sent from my HP TouchPad using Communities

 

[kallemia]

To me, it's no gimmick to glance over to my phone and get an instant update on the weather forecast, to see the latest astronomy picture of the day spanned across two tiles, to see that my next meeting is coming up in a few minutes, or when a friend has updated her fb status by looking at a contact tile, or even just a new random flick'r image. Even updated information that is just meant to please, the face of the latest musician I've been listening to...

And what's more, MS have removed distracting elements from the start screen... battery status, carrier, signal, bt status. All of that is information trying to insert itself in my life. Now I have some control over when I see it.

More control over information in my life, tailored by me, for me, not cookie-cutter. But displayed in a predictable format (unlike Android widgets).

It's one of the key features of WP 7 imo. I would probably go Android without it, if Android were less of a laggy/crashy experience.

Kalle

To me they are a gimmick until someone can prove how they really enhance the UX.

 

[cdook]

Yea I don't think it's a gimmick. I don't have to go into the app to see if I have new messages. Plus it's awesome having all the icons moving and flashing around. It's a very lively and animated OS.

 

[ninjaap]

Not a gimmick. Just a different way of doing things.

 

[astroXP]

Certainly not a gimmick but I do agree that some apps and even those Mangoised apps DO NOT show INSTANT feedback. E.G. Foursquare - even when I get to my leaderboard and go to the homescreen, my live tile still shows PREVIOUS scores even though I just got out of Foursquare.

 

[thed]

The ESPN app really does need one. Wonder if there is a sports app that has good live tile functionality

Check out Pro Sports Scores. It's free and has a nice tile. Its best for baseball IMO, since during a game the tile shows the score, count, outs, inning, pitcher, batter, and whether there are any runners on base. It looks great and updates more or less in real time. It doesn't provide as much information for other sports but still shows the score and time left. Could use a Mango update but I still highly recommend it.

I really don't see how you could call something like that a gimmick. I find it really useful and convenient.

Sent from my HTC Trophy using Board Express