Live thoughts on the Oct 6 Event from an Android Central Moderator

[Laura Knotek]

I've posted on all of our sister sites, and I've posted on AndroidCentral before I became a mod on that site. Although I'm only using Windows and Android at the present time, I've used BlackBerry in the past, and I'm a fan of all things tech-related. If I had more money, I'd definitely have more tech gadgets from even more platforms. Many of us just like our tech toys, no matter what platform they run, or are interested in learning about new things (that we might want to get someday).

 

[Aquila]

I came here because windows mobile is the OS I know the least about.

Nexus 6 Assassin Edition. Android Central Moderator, Gonfaloniere

 

[etphoto]

Thanks AD for your post/thread.

 

[Aquila]

I has a sad: Microsoft Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL will be exclusive to AT&T in the US - GSMArena.com news

 

[Laura Knotek]

I has a sad: Microsoft Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL will be exclusive to AT&T in the US - GSMArena.com news

Microsoft should have sold these unlocked directly from their own stores (physical and online) like Motorola is doing with the Moto X Pure Edition.

 

[Aquila]

According to someone else on CNET the deal is not exclusive! Hurray!

 

[Tien-Lin Chang]

I only managed to watch through the Lumia part and TBH I feel a bit disappointed about the press, there's not much important things had been revealed.

We know it get top-spec SoC, screen and good to know that as flagship should be, other than that :

Camera - we only get roughly how good it might be from the host's mouth, not a single sample image been shown. We don't know how fast it actually focus (MSFT avoid to mention if 950/xl have phase-detective autofocus always, why?), how good the white balance/HDR will work (this is always the weak point of lumia cameras). We heard how god the RGB flash will be but c'mon at least you can show one photo to make sence of your words, that human/ghost phrase sucks like we all have no idea what red-eye reduction is and all the pictures taken before with flash are people trying to expend their halloween album? What a joke!

Basically there's no actual point revealed about the camera.

Continuum - being a very important (the most important maybe) feature that W10M excites people, they spend quite sometime in this part and it feels really fast and smooth. I like the ability you can power the screen yet still using the phone which is really nice feature. However, the demo lacks the most important feature of windows experience - the windows. You see he jump across the mail/word/powerpoint apps but in a way of metro UI style which is basically a waste of big screen (no split screnn for two apps, no windowlized apps in same screnn area) and make it no difference to android in terms of productivity. With the good support of MS apps on other platform and the ability to work over cloud, if the continuum really couldn't support multi-windows working in same screen then it's a deal breaker for me.

I'm a bit sad about the two big parts they spent the most of the session yet not providing much useful information for me to understand how 950/xl stands out the competitors.

UPDATED
I just did some homework, the 20mp 1/2.4" sensor seems from Toshiba and the newer one (T4KA7-121) with PDAF is only sample-out at Oct 2015 and will be mass-produced in Mar 2016. So I guess if Lumia 950/XL hit the market early than that then we can be sure they use the old T4KA7 sensor as HTC M9.

 

[Aquila]

Yeah I read in another thread that they glossed over the phones because everything but pricing had already been leaked.

Nexus 6 Assassin Edition. Android Central Moderator, Gonfaloniere

 

[tgp]

and make it no difference to android in terms of productivity.

I noticed this too; what he did on stage could be done with Android for years already. I once saw a demo with a Note II (released in 2012) showing almost exactly the same thing.

There had better be more than this to Continuum!

 

[Aquila]

I noticed this too; what he did on stage could be done with Android for years already. I once saw a demo with a Note II (released in 2012) showing almost exactly the same thing.

There had better be more than this to Continuum!

I don't think adopting features that users of other systems love is a bad thing (and not suggesting you're saying that) - honestly anything that Windows can do to get and keep customers is at this point necessary. If it's with features, even better.

 

[tgp]

I don't think adopting features that users of other systems love is a bad thing (and not suggesting you're saying that) - honestly anything that Windows can do to get and keep customers is at this point necessary. If it's with features, even better.

Yes I agree; I wasn't knocking adopting features of other systems. Obviously customers have been going for Android and iPhone. Microsoft needs to do what they're doing to get customers.

My point was that what was shown on stage is nothing new. It's new to Microsoft/WP, but not to mobile. Android had the same capabilities at least 3 years ago. There is probably a lot more to Continuum though that wasn't shown. I'm talking strictly about what we saw on the onstage demo.

This had one advantage that I can think of though: the phone could be used normally as a phone while Continuum was in use. I'm not sure if the Note II could be used like that while on the big screen.

However, Google does have Chromecast which has been around for a couple years, and it is a lot like Continuum in some ways. It is somewhat limited in scope, but you can use your phone normally while Chromecasting from it. The new one was released just last week; I don't have one and I don't know what new features, if any, it has.

 

[fatclue_98]

Thank you AD for coming here and posting your observations. If I were a spiteful person I'd tell you to slam every Windows Central member who goes on AC to post trash, but I'm like Michael Jackson: I'm a lover not a fighter. Like so many others here, I actually started on Treo Central before it was webOS Nation, but I've been on AC, iMore and CrackBerry too. There's nothing wrong with wanting to see if the grass is truly greener on the other side.

 

[Laura Knotek]

I don't think adopting features that users of other systems love is a bad thing (and not suggesting you're saying that) - honestly anything that Windows can do to get and keep customers is at this point necessary. If it's with features, even better.

Thank you AD for coming here and posting your observations. If I were a spiteful person I'd tell you to slam every Windows Central member who goes on AC to post trash, but I'm like Michael Jackson: I'm a lover not a fighter. Like so many others here, I actually started on Treo Central before it was webOS Nation, but I've been on AC, iMore and CrackBerry too. There's nothing wrong with wanting to see if the grass is truly greener on the other side.

I don't know if either of you listened to this podcast, but it's really good.

Vector 44: The legacy of webOS http://www.androidcentral.com/vector-44-legacy-webos

Sent from my rooted Nexus 7 (2013) running Stock/AOSP (Android 6.0 Marshmallow) ElementalX N7-5.00 using Tapatalk

 

[fatclue_98]

I don't know if either of you listened to this podcast, but it's really good.

Vector 44: The legacy of webOS Vector 44: The legacy of webOS | Android Central

Sent from my rooted Nexus 7 (2013) running Stock/AOSP (Android 6.0 Marshmallow) ElementalX N7-5.00 using Tapatalk

Do you see the tears streaming down my face? Thanks for tearing my heart out again Laura.

 

[Aquila]

I came to Android and computers in general pretty late in life, basically when I needed to in order to take an analyst job. webOS is pretty alien to me.

 

[Daniel Ratcliffe]

I originally came into smartphones when BlackBerry was all the rage in the UK. Still kinda peeved they went Android not Windows Phone as I feel a WP BlackBerry would have been such a harmonious partnership. As for the devices. Let's run through my summed up thoughts of them.
Lumia: Buying. Continuum on the 950 intrigues me. This will be my first purchase.
Surface: Meh. I have a Dell Venue 11 Pro that works similarly to Surface and has an i3. Pass.
Surface Book: Intriguing. I liked the hinge used in it. But I have both a gaming laptop and a MacBook Pro. I don't see anywhere this will fit in.
HoloLens: *drools maniacally then sees ?3k price tag* fuuuuuuuuuuuu...!
Band 2: I have a Band 1 that works fantastically already. Originally wrote off as something I wouldn't purchase but now considering it as the barometer may yet be useful for me.

 

[Aquila]

HoloLens looks AWESOME but yeah, expensive for a beta

 

[worldspy99]

I missed what "Hello" is.

Windows Hello is a biometric verification method that doesn't require use of a password.

It scans your Iris instead of needing a fingerprint...

 

[worldspy99]

Thank you AD for coming here and posting your observations. If I were a spiteful person I'd tell you to slam every Windows Central member who goes on AC to post trash, but I'm like Michael Jackson: I'm a lover not a fighter. Like so many others here, I actually started on Treo Central before it was webOS Nation, but I've been on AC, iMore and CrackBerry too. There's nothing wrong with wanting to see if the grass is truly greener on the other side.

My current device lineup - Enough said!

 

[fatclue_98]

I know I got you beat homeboy. I just need a fish-eye lens to capture all my devices.


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