What is amazing about WP7 Mango (from a webOS POV)

[nyquistjack]

The more I use my Arrive the more I am starting to really enjoy certain parts of it. I wanted to get a list going and see what other people think are the impressive parts. This will primarily take a "what's better here than webOS" slant, but feel free to comment on what is the goodness of WP7. I'll do another thread on the shortcomings.

Incredible:
Camera Button:
I liked the simplistic interface + gesture controls of webOS, but for someone who takes 4 trillion pics of my kids, being able to whip the phone out and hold the button down for 1 second and be ready to take a pic, its makes all the difference. As proof, the last time my wife took the kids to the zoo she took 5 pictures. Yesterday, with her arrive, she took 30, some of which were quite impressive

Speed:
I mean, I've said this all over. Mango is mind numbingly fast. It really doesn't even seem possible.

E-mail client:
Ooooh...so THAT's what e-mail threading is. Triaging my inbox with WP7 is a joy. Better than ANY client (desktop, web or mobile) that I've ever used. And the speed + elegance of the layout and animation make it actually fun checking email. (although there is something less than appealing for viewing actual emails, that's for another thread)

People App:
How awesome is that app? All my social networks, contacts, contact history, pictures all in one place. Not to mention the groups feature, blows my mind.

Speed:
Yeah...mentioning this again...

Visual Search thingy in Bing:
Right after I upgraded to Mango, I pointed that search thingy at a UPC code for the Wall-E bluray, before I could even think "what's that little box doing" I had a result for wall-e. A tap and a swipe later I had prices for a dozen locations selling that blu-ray, including some used for $5. I paid $25! My wife says, and I quote: "This could be the answer." "I said I thought the answer was 42." She looked at me confused and said "this could make it so easy to save money."

Metro UI:
Specifically the swipe side-to-side part of the UI. While apple may have only 1 physical buttons, there are a quadrillion software buttons. MS said "screens are small, hitting buttons and wasting screens pace with them sucks." And voila, metro. Really makes exploring an app a pleasure.

Good Features:
Tiles: Please don't flame me. I DO like tiles, but the lack of customizability drives me crazy. I know it starts to become a tiny bit androidy but I'd like to have the ability to create larger tiles, possibly some visual separators (horizontal lines or somethig) to keep things more organized. And maybe...just maybe...and additional page of tiles (but not sure if this will throw off the simplicity thing, but a 5+ screens of scrollies tends to make it a bit difficult to find what you need).

Picture app:
I like the general layout of the app. I also love the social network integration here as well. I only call it Good because the thumbnails are CRAZY small. I can barely see the pics in this things...

Calendar:
Quite pretty. I love the Agenda, something that webOS for some insane reason didn't have. But lack of a week view is sort of a dissapointment. Favorite feature...ITS FAST!


That's my list for now. Had to do this all from memory during lunch...my phone is sitting all alone in airplane mode in my car

 

[Tee]

Yup, that's the point I'm making in my video. Once people play around with wp7, they will be ecstatic of the design innovation ms is doing with WP. MS just need better marketing.

I would love for MS allow more customization with the tiles, but I understand that they want to keep the device running smoothly and not have too many threads slowing down the start tiles. I think they should have another pivot to the left of the tiles to allow devs and mods to create their own innovation whatever that maybe.

 

[nyquistjack]

Yup, that's the point I'm making in my video. Once people play around with wp7, they will be ecstatic of the design innovation ms is doing with WP. MS just need better marketing.

I would love for MS allow more customization with the tiles, but I understand that they want to keep the device running smoothly and not have too many threads slowing down the start tiles. I think they should have another pivot to the left of the tiles to allow devs and mods to create their own innovation whatever that maybe.

I am not entirely sure what MS is waiting for on advertising these phones. I've never seen a single advertisement. Maybe they wanted to get Mango out first? Hopefully this next round of devices will get them moving forward with that.

I've actually been saying to people over the last year that something has changed at MS. They seem to be catching and maybe even passing up other companies. For example, Windows Live Photo Gallery CRUSHES picassa imho. Also, look at the strides they've recently made in the browser space.

Also, I have hopes MS will follow through where HP failed, ecosystem integration. I want my phone, desktop, music player, refrigerator, and everything else to work together without apps. I want it to just work.

 

[Umm Yeah]

You can do a little organizing and customizing with titles. What I like is Mylivetile.com :: Windows Phone Live Tile Organiser. You can select a color background and text and the click on the "Generate" button and it will generate a screen matching what you typed in. Then just pin that browser window to your start screen and viola. Make as many as you'd like. It just doesn't allow for more detailed customization of tiles, backgrounds, etc.

 

[nyquistjack]

You can do a little organizing and customizing with titles. What I like is Mylivetile.com :: Windows Phone Live Tile Organiser. You can select a color background and text and the click on the "Generate" button and it will generate a screen matching what you typed in. Then just pin that browser window to your start screen and viola. Make as many as you'd like. It just doesn't allow for more detailed customization of tiles, backgrounds, etc.

Is the tile just a colored square with text or can it be linked to an application or something?

I did recently discover the ability to post a picture as a tile...more pics of my kids at my fingertips

 

[bear_lx]

You can do a little organizing and customizing with titles. What I like is Mylivetile.com :: Windows Phone Live Tile Organiser. You can select a color background and text and the click on the "Generate" button and it will generate a screen matching what you typed in. Then just pin that browser window to your start screen and viola. Make as many as you'd like. It just doesn't allow for more detailed customization of tiles, backgrounds, etc.

i never knew this, but what is the point of it? is it just a tile with custom colors? or can you use that tile to open specific apps? in otherwords, once it is created and pinned to home screen, what does it do?

 

[nyquistjack]

i never knew this, but what is the point of it? is it just a tile with custom colors? or can you use that tile to open specific apps? in otherwords, once it is created and pinned to home screen, what does it do?

LOL, for a second there I thought you copied my post...great minds and the like...

 

[bear_lx]

must have been posting at the same time, lol.... indeed they do!

 

[mmbond]

Welcome to the Windows Phone family nyquistjack. Thanks for your insightful observations!

 

[thed]

i never knew this, but what is the point of it? is it just a tile with custom colors? or can you use that tile to open specific apps? in otherwords, once it is created and pinned to home screen, what does it do?

The tile will be a link to mylivetile.com.

You can pin any web page to your home screen by zooming on a part of the page and selecting pin to start. This will create a tile that links to that page and looks like the part of the page that you zoomed in on. When you tap on it, it opens up IE and goes to that page. That's how Mylivetile works.

So it's not really useful for anything besides being a nice looking way to organize your other tiles.

 

[foosball]

Good Features:

Picture app:

I like the general layout of the app. I also love the social network integration here as well. I only call it Good because the thumbnails are CRAZY small. I can barely see the pics in this things...

Try this to make the thumbnails bigger....

1. Select a thumbnail.
2. Rotate screen to landscape mode.
3. Pinch to zoom smaller.

Should make a much more viewable thumbnail selection even if it has less thumbnails on the screen.

Sent from my HTC Arrive using Board Express

 

[nyquistjack]

Try this to make the thumbnails bigger....

1. Select a thumbnail.
2. Rotate screen to landscape mode.
3. Pinch to zoom smaller.

Should make a much more viewable thumbnail selection even if it has less thumbnails on the screen.

Sent from my HTC Arrive using Board Express

totally freaking awesome, had no idea that could be done. Thanks!