Windows Phone 7 or Android for me?

[Fleon]

No, it can do multiple google calendars- I don't use gmail anymore, but there'a workaround method on the web somewhere.

messaging tile integrates WLM, text, and facebook chat. Nothing else at the moment. So in that respect, you'd be back in a different app- just like in Android/iOS. The 3rd party IM apps aren't quite as good as the iOS alternatives. Are close to the same as Trillian for Android. The 1st party IM stuff is the best in the industry- it correctly understands when you are at your computer and stops sending to your phone so you aren't getting the annoying beeping all the time. If you don't use WLM or FB chat, you won't see any benefit. If you do try it, you'll see that Google's chat service really sucks.

IM+ is ... ok. Nothing amazing. Nothing horrible, either I guess.


More apps use dropbox right now because the Skydrive APIs were non-existent before Mango. I've seen a few apps now that are using Skydrive, and I expect that we will see a lot more going forward. Skydrive is really very good as a cloud storage solution and offers a lot of space for free. Now if they could just get a decent desktop syncing application, I would drop Dropbox.


Pandora has been announce for Mango, if I recall. And Pandora is a bit better than last.fm. Neither are as good at predicting what I want to hear as Zune's Smart DJ, and neither allow me to listen to exactly what I want to hear like Zune, but I do hear you about not wanting to pay $15/month. I might suggest, if you get a WP7, that you try it out for 6 weeks (2 weeks for free trial, 1 month paid) to see the differences.

Agreed on the Android tweaking. There are a lot of things you can turn off to improve battery, but you end up micromanaging things when you want the functionality. If you are enjoying the tweaking, stay with Android- it's something you can't do with either of the other OS'.

The camera app, as you describe it, is very similar to what WP7 has baked in the OS itself.

Launcher 7 is cool - I tried it out on my Nook, in fact It's missing a lot of the fluidity and integration of a real WP7 device, however.


Bottom line, you are clearly tech-savvy enough to handle Android. If you are enjoying it, I don't think it's a mistake to keep what you have; you'll lose a ton of the finer control you have on exactly what the OS does with a WP7 device. You'll gain a much more consistent UI and stable existence. There are real pros and cons to each, and it's not something we can really decide for you

The only other problem I could think of with an Android existence is...well... Google itself. Bugs don't get fixed. There is no one to contact with problems. You will face huge issues if you change your email address. Here's my real-life story: my google account was linked to a Google Apps domain, and changing my password reset my links to every Android device I had associated with that email (let's call that email#1). There's no support helpdesk. If you call Samsung (the maker of my Android phone at that time) they blame Google. There's no one to contact at Google. Repeated emails and posts to their support forums went unanswered - and there were 6000+ posts complaining of my same problem. It's a common issue and it STILL exists 2 years later as a bug. I had to get a new gmail email and reset my device to get anything to install. And, even then, I still could never sync my old gmail account to my Android device. Now, with email#2, I bought a few more apps and eventually got a new Android device. One of the apps didn't show up as a purchased app on the new device, so I emailed the Google Market people. Never heard back from them. Tried again with a 3rd Android device. nope.

So here's my rundown, simply based on my experience:
You can't change your email
You can't transfer ownership of apps between accounts
You have to continually re-purchase the same apps when you transfer devices.
There is no one to fix your problems when you get stuck, including major bugs
Oh, I forget- no Exchange support with Android. Including consumer-type Exchange services like Hotmail. What a joke.

That is, in part, why outside of work, I use a WP7 phone.


Oh, btw, just in response, Hotmail uses Exchange, not IMAP. It's quite good and integrates excellently with the iPad/iPhone. Give it a shot.

 

[archer75]

Oh, btw, just in response, Hotmail uses Exchange, not IMAP. It's quite good and integrates excellently with the iPad/iPhone. Give it a shot.

The problem with lack of IMAP is messages I delete on one device are not sync'd with the website or other devices. So if I delete a message on my ipad that message still exists on my android and on the hotmail website.
This is for a MSN address but it goes to the same site. This ID also differs from my zune/xbox live ID.

Edit - I did change my xbox live ID to match my msn email account. And since that same ID is used for zune I logged into zune with that. So now one ID for everything. I set that ID up in android and can sync calendar/contacts and email.
Now I got the delete working. I was able to setup hotmail as an exchange server as opposed to a pop3 server on android. However mail on OSX doesn't support exchange so I can't get the same thing setup there. OSX does support exchange for calendars and contacts though. I wonder why not mail?

Edit - 2 Here's something pretty neat, I was playing around in windows and found that all the podcasts I download in itunes are automatically popluated in the zune software. This would allow me to use itunes to primarily manage podcasts but easily sync between ios and wp7 devices. Granted I primarily use OSX but the connector software looks like it will work there.

 

[Fleon]

The problem with lack of IMAP is messages I delete on one device are not sync'd with the website or other devices. So if I delete a message on my ipad that message still exists on my android and on the hotmail website.
This is for a MSN address but it goes to the same site. This ID also differs from my zune/xbox live ID.

Edit - 2 Here's something pretty neat, I was playing around in windows and found that all the podcasts I download in itunes are automatically popluated in the zune software. This would allow me to use itunes to primarily manage podcasts but easily sync between ios and wp7 devices. Granted I primarily use OSX but the connector software looks like it will work there.

Exchange does syncing like IMAP, so any devices that correctly do Exchange should work as well (or better, honestly) than IMAP for syncing changes. You might have some issues with Android, since it doesn't do exchange. That's the huge strike against it for me- it's inexcusable and 5 years behind the curve. Makes it a useless device for any kind of real work.

That's is great about the the podcast thing! Didn't know that!

 

[archer75]

Exchange does syncing like IMAP, so any devices that correctly do Exchange should work as well (or better, honestly) than IMAP for syncing changes. You might have some issues with Android, since it doesn't do exchange. That's the huge strike against it for me- it's inexcusable and 5 years behind the curve. Makes it a useless device for any kind of real work.

That's is great about the the podcast thing! Didn't know that!

But it is working on android. It does do exchange. Has supported it natively with version 2.0 of android. And it seems it had 3rd party support since late 2008.

When adding an account I picked corporate email instead of just an email account and it configured correctly and started working. Syncs email properly, calendar, etc.

Doesn't work for mail in OSX Lion and syncing doesn't working properly in ios even though I set it up as an exchange account.

Honestly I don't really get exchange though. All my google stuff syncs everything just fine. Even with OSX, both directions. Not sure what exchange gets me. So I guess that means I don't need it.

Now only if messenger supported google talk i'd be set!

 

[Fleon]

But it is working on android. It does do exchange. When adding an account I picked corporate email instead of must an email account and it configured correctly and started working. Syncs email properly, calendar, etc.

Doesn't work for mail in OSX Lion and syncing doesn't working properly in ios even though I set it up as an exchange account.

Honestly I don't really get exchange though. All my google stuff syncs everything just fine. Even with OSX, both directions.

I have 4 different Android devices. Unless you have a 3rd party thing that makes it work, Android does NOT do exchange out of the box. Not sure about the mail in OSX, but my iPhone syncs exchange perfectly. You must have something set wrong.

If you are getting your google stuff to sync, awesome. It's proprietary and doesn't work on a fair number of devices. It also has a number of redundancy issues- which is why companies use Exchange mostly. Exchange offers a much more full-featured experience, but a lot of consumers don't need all of the features it grants.

 

[Winterfang]

Today a client came out today with an HD7 looking for accessories. I show him some covers and the first thing to come out of his mouth was " I'm gonna be getting an Android next".

I didn't knew what to said, so I recommended the HTC Sensation but he told me his contract ends last year. So I just said to him that a big update will come out in the couple of months so his wait will no be as painful.


=( I wish everyone liked WP7 as much as me.

 

[archer75]

I have 4 different Android devices. Unless you have a 3rd party thing that makes it work, Android does NOT do exchange out of the box. Not sure about the mail in OSX, but my iPhone syncs exchange perfectly. You must have something set wrong.

If you are getting your google stuff to sync, awesome. It's proprietary and doesn't work on a fair number of devices. It also has a number of redundancy issues- which is why companies use Exchange mostly. Exchange offers a much more full-featured experience, but a lot of consumers don't need all of the features it grants.

google searching says exchange support in android since version 2. Native, not 3rd party. Syncing is working fine for me with hotmail/calendar/contacts. Not sure if it's missing something beyond that since I don't use this for business.

I setup ios following the guides, it's pretty simple. Nothing I delete in mail in ios is reflected in hotmail. Edit- I removed and re-added my exchange account on my ios devices and it's working now.
In fact now that I check OSX I see nothing has synced at all. I setup an exchange account but calendar and contacts are not syncing. Not reporting errors either. So that's rather frustrating.

I've yet to find somewhere where gmail/calender/contacts don't work. Granted I don't need it on a business level so I don't know about what features it may lack in that setting. But it works anywhere i've tried. I have more issues getting microsoft services working for me in more locations than I do google. Which is one of the reasons i've avoided it in the past, was just too much trouble.

I think at this point I need to spend some time on the WP7 marketplace checking if apps are there that I care about or if there are comparable apps. I'm finding all sorts of cool stuff on my android phone that makes it so much better and easier to use than ios for me. So it's just a question if WP7 has the same stuff or better. So far seems to be a mixed bag.

I got my wife setup on a hotmail account and using the calendar/excel/messenger and sharing the calendar and documents back and forth as we do with google services. I think it makes more sense to embrace the windows ecosystem if I were to get a windows phone as the integration is tighter with those services. So far she likes google services better but time will tell.