Molly Wood has her Mango Phone

[EJNelly]

Her thoughts at the end of week one.

Windows Phone 7 Challenge: End of Week 1 | Molly Rants - CNET News

 

[Winterfang]

Great great read. I myself am I newb smartphone wise so my Nodo phone does everything for me but is great to read this from a power user such a Molly.

Good to know she likes the groups and text messaging ( things am very excited about and it's good to know it works ), I don't know how to use GPS so the fact that the maps sucks like she tells it's very disappointing. Even worse is the fact that it won't get fixed into the 2012 Apollo build possibly. Seems like Android is lightyears ahead of WP7 in functionality but I can't use Android to save my life so I'm gonna stick with WP =).

 

[ncxcstud]

Hmm, I took away from her that the maps feature isn't necessarily bad, but the Turn-by-turn functionality is inefficiently implemented. Mostly because you have to 'tap' the screen in order to get to the next route. But, that the directions it gives you are accurate and very, very user friendly.

 

[Winterfang]

From what I hear the turn by turn feedback is horribly implemented, giving you only chimes instead of voices. also randomly giving voices making it worse since you know it can could have being that way all the time.

Thankfully there's apparently good GPS apps that work like that or so I heard.

 

[hardrock1a]

I am really concerned about the turn by turn thing myself. It is EXTREMELY dangerous the way that it is in 7712. If 7720 rolls with this feature as is, it will be an HUGE negative against the OS, so much so that it could put most people off the OS all together. It is horribly implemented. Easy to miss your turn, no automatic warnings that your turn is coming, having to tap to get the directions, no automatic recalculation when you do miss the turn. I was using the "feature" to get home from the grocery store, and let just say that I would not want to use it to find anything unless I had a navigator in the car with me to pay attention to the phone.

We need to really start raising a stink about this with MS. It's not a "feature" if it is dangerously implemented. Walking, it would be ok, but driving should probably be locked out.

 

[theefman]

The navigation feature as is should be removed, its dangerous, probably lead to accidents and resulting lawsuits, and shows that Microsoft have no clue how to compete. Bing navigation actually works as expected on a Windows Mobile device, is present on their competitors platforms yet somehow MS came to the conclusion that this implementation was acceptable. Its baffling how they could possibly imagine it was anything other than poor, and one can only hope that they will listen to her criticism and fix it, cos they sure aren't listening to those who actually bought devices.

 

[3migo]

Great great read. I myself am I newb smartphone wise so my Nodo phone does everything for me but is great to read this from a power user such a Molly.

Good to know she likes the groups and text messaging ( things am very excited about and it's good to know it works ), I don't know how to use GPS so the fact that the maps sucks like she tells it's very disappointing. Even worse is the fact that it won't get fixed into the 2012 Apollo build possibly. Seems like Android is lightyears ahead of WP7 in functionality but I can't use Android to save my life so I'm gonna stick with WP =).

Android has also been out a lot longer. Google has had more time to sort through all the bugs and address them, while WP7 is still very young.

The one thing that bothers me about Mango, is that while you have group messaging, whenever you send/receive a group message, it counts as an MMS message, instead of an SMS. I really hope that Microsoft corrects that issue.

 

[Winterfang]

What's the difference between MMS and SMS?

 

[TheWeeBear]

What's the difference between MMS and SMS?

MMS can include a picture sent as a message and are usually chargable. SMS messages are just text and are usually included in your price plan. (Or a certain amount)

 

[TheWeeBear]

The one thing that bothers me about Mango, is that while you have group messaging, whenever you send/receive a group message, it counts as an MMS message, instead of an SMS. I really hope that Microsoft corrects that issue.

Group Messaging in Mango: the MMS gambit | wpcentral | Windows Phone News, Forums, and Reviews

Hope this helps 3migo

I was actually charged for sending group messages and thankfully noticed the charge sooner rather than later. I discovered it was the groups that were sending MMS instead of SMS's which i thought would be the default.

 

[Winterfang]

Ooh my plan don't cover those, so I'm not sending any group messages. Does the Facebook and MSN integration messages count as MMS or are they Data enable?

 

[cdook]

The navigation feature as is should be removed, its dangerous, probably lead to accidents and resulting lawsuits, and shows that Microsoft have no clue how to compete. Bing navigation actually works as expected on a Windows Mobile device, is present on their competitors platforms yet somehow MS came to the conclusion that this implementation was acceptable. Its baffling how they could possibly imagine it was anything other than poor, and one can only hope that they will listen to her criticism and fix it, cos they sure aren't listening to those who actually bought devices.

I totally agree. We've got this great new way go read and compose text messages that's going to save lives , but this GPS feature is going to make things worse. Hope it gets fixed or removed ASAP.

 

[mmbond]

The verdict is in. Molly Wood was pretty harsh but ultimately called it a push

Videos - Free video downloads and streaming video - CNET TV

 

[jmerrey]

I'm a little concerned about her saying that the nav feature was going to be important for her. It doesn't really matter why you have to touch the screen to get every direction update, the fact is you do have to, which makes it almost dangerous to use.

unfortunately, if we had proper navigation implementation, we'd have a winner in her eyes right now...

edit: and I think she's saying it's a push to be nice; she said she likes it, doesn't love it, and it won't be her next phone.

 

[mmbond]

unfortunately, if we had proper navigation implementation, we'd have a winner in her eyes right now...

edit: and I think she's saying it's a push to be nice; she said she likes it, doesn't love it, and it won't be her next phone.

probably, but she focused mostly on the negative. no doubt, the nav is awful, but enought to slam the phone when alternative nav options exist? she was lukewarm about practically everything that wp is celebrated about in most circles including zunepass...

bums me out because a lot of people visit cnet regularly and the outcome is not great. one of the risks you take when issuing a challenge. I can just see the flame wars commencing on engadget among other sites.

 

[DontHate707]

damnnnn can win em all i guess but ultimately shes needs a iphone plain and simple. and obviously ms needs to iron out the nav and use the "cloud" more.

 

[mmbond]

In the end, I think Brandon/MS should donate a grand to all the charities after each challenge as a true show of class. It would make for a win win for MS and the Challengee (is that a word?), by exposing all readers/viewers of the news what Brandon was doing to spread goodwill as well as awareness of WP in a fun and novel way.

 

[jmerrey]

I agree, they should donate the 1000 no matter what, good publicity. As for the challenge, I would say her assessment is very fair. MS is playing with the big boys now, and the general consumer doesn't care if you got a 3 year late start on OS development, if a patent is keeping you from implementing a service fully, or what. They really needed to hit a home run with Mango, and as much as we all like the interface, it's not a home run.

 

[cdook]

I have the impression that any press is good press. Even if Molly called WP7 trash it'd still help raise awareness. Plus she's familiar with it now so she might return to it some day. And I'm sure when a WP7 story is in the running she'll look into it more than before.

 

[Winterfang]

Sad to know she didn't like it. Even worse is that it happened for some very poorly made decisions by Microsoft. She seemed to had a good experience with it though just that those problems affected her personally.

Donate the money Brandon.