Observations on HTC Arrive and WP7

[dwlovell]

I have had my Arrive for just over a day now and I am glad I made the jump from the Palm Pre minus. I really liked the Pre and there are still some things it does better than WP7, but overall I am loving WP7. I really feel like this OS has exactly what I need distilled down to a slick, snappy interface.

A few things that would be nice if improved on however are:
1) Really really would like to have different volume control when I am in an app/game than the ringer volume. So frequently the app volumes seem very loud and I have to lower the volume to under 10 to sound "normal", at that point the ringer volume is anemic. The Pre was able to sense if you were in an app or playing music and have different volume levels for each mode. Hopefully this is coming in the future for WP7.

2) Some apps warn you when the <- will leave the app and others do not. When multitasking is here I am sure this annoyance is less of an issue, but it sucks to pay the resume penalty because some views in an app use the <- and others dont.

3) Calendar should have a week view, the month view isn't really practical for anything other than selecting a day thats farther away. The daily view could have some different theme options and pinch to zoom in/out of the daily view would be useful as well.

4) Should be able to put Office documents on SkyDrive.

5) Would be nice if USB sync'ing gave access to a file system for at least some areas of the device (photos/music/videos,etc). Zune gets the job done, but feels unnecessary just o copy wallpapers to the device.

6) When an app/game is downloaded and installed, it would be useful to have a link to launch it directly rather than going back to home screen then games..then link..etc.

7) Would be nice to customize the appearance of tiles. At a minimum change color per tile instead all tiles at once. The ideal world would allow me to change the image shown for a tile, but I wouldn't sacrifice battery life if thats the primary issue.

Those are really the only things I can think of right now, which is great because they are all minor. I am really excited about this platform.

 

[doublebullout]

It breaks my heart to see how first Palm and now HP have completely mishandled the Pre and webOS. I hope that Microsoft has been paying attention and taking notes. WP7 deserves far more attention than it is getting.

 

[eric12341]

1) there's an app in the marketplace that provides this functionality
3) agenda view shows all appointments as far as u have them.
4)its coming
5)there's a PC regedit that will allow this. bing for it.

 

[ashykat]

1) there's an app in the marketplace that provides this functionality

Which app would that be?

I love using the White Noise (by TMSOFT) app at night to help me fall asleep but I have to turn the volume way down so it's not crazy loud. The problem then of course is that my alarm volume is way down which is not so good.

 

[eric12341]

its called media volume settings search for it.

 

[patricksmangan]

Pictures app: for the tile and background, when it chooses a random picture, would be nice if it could reach into you facebook pictures and choose from there as well, if u have your fb account plugge into your phone.

Also, wish the fb tile on the start menu was live with numbered notifications.

 

[dwlovell]

1) there's an app in the marketplace that provides this functionality
3) agenda view shows all appointments as far as u have them.
4)its coming
5)there's a PC regedit that will allow this. bing for it.

Thanks for the information!

The "Media Volume Settings" app unfortunately appears to be broken by Nodo. Regardless this app is a bandaid for my problem, not a solution. It looks like it tries to fix the media/app volumes so you wouldnt "need" to adjust the master volume when you want them to have similar levels. My issue is that sometimes I might want to turn the app volume to 0 or faint whisper and have the ringer volume be completely unnafected and be at full volume. It would be nice if the OS had direct support for different volume levels for Ringer/Music/App and adjust the appropriate one based on whether you had an app runnings, media playering, otherwise adjust ringer volume, etc.

Agenda view is nice, but I still would like a week view with 5 columns representing the M-F work week and showing the blocks where meetings were present on any day in the week. The Pre had a week view very similar to the desktop version of Outlook and it was very useful.

Ill check out the regkey setting, thx for that!

 

[eric12341]

again who cares about a week view when u have all ur appointments in a list type view? as for the volume thing u can definitely put the ringer on vibrate and still have sound elsewhere,that's how id want it and that's how it is.

 

[Rich Edmonds]

The one thing I go crazy about in Agenda is when you scroll down (or up) and the dates flip through at the top. It's little touches like that.

 

[dwlovell]

again who cares about a week view when u have all ur appointments in a list type view? as for the volume thing u can definitely put the ringer on vibrate and still have sound elsewhere,that's how id want it and that's how it is.

There are a number of instances where any sound volume from apps/games would annoy people around me. I would want to lower the game/app volume to almost nothing but when I finish the game and put the phone back into my pocket, I expect the phone to ring at full volume without having to remember to raise the volume again. This is not currently possibly and would be nice if they could add it. Its not deal-breaking or anything.

 

[patricksmangan]

again who cares about a week view when u have all ur appointments in a list type view? as for the volume thing u can definitely put the ringer on vibrate and still have sound elsewhere,that's how id want it and that's how it is.

I like seeing my week and availability. The os does need a week view option.

 

[Duvi]

i'm not sure what everyone is using, but i use gmail and you can always log on to the mobile website and that calendar shows "week view". in fact, i can't seem to get anything, but week view.

 

[onemadrssn]

again who cares about a week view when u have all ur appointments in a list type view? as for the volume thing u can definitely put the ringer on vibrate and still have sound elsewhere,that's how id want it and that's how it is.

regarding calender:
i want week view. agenda view is pretty, but does not help me see free spots for appointments in my week. i want a grid where i can easily look across and see what i have at 3pm every day of the week for example. pretty often people scheduling time with me tell me they are free only at a certain time of day but are flexible regarding day of the week.

also, month view is a bit disappointing. i liked how it was on webOS a lot, how it basically filled in the days on month view based on how full those days were. so if you had 4 hours worth of appointments on a certain day, that day would be shaded half way (4 hours being half of a work day). available days would be all empty and full days would be fully shaded and etc. it was nice when someone asks "how does a week from thursday look for you?" and i was able to easily answer "it's pretty busy" or "i'm all open".

while on the topic, i wish the calender synced with my facebook events as well. not a deal breaker by any means but it would be nice.

regarding sound volumes:
there definitely needs to be a differentiation between "media" volume, and "system" volume. System volume being notifications, ringers, and any other OS level sounds. Media volume being everything else (games, music, etc).

dwlovell explained this need perfectly imo. i too like to keep my game volume at a minimum and music (using my headphones) seems to be perfect at "8" or "10". on the flip side, i want me ringer loud enough so i can hear it from anywhere in my apartment, or around "20".

i'm not sure what everyone is using, but i use gmail and you can always log on to the mobile website and that calendar shows "week view". in fact, i can't seem to get anything, but week view.

we're using the calender app which is built into the phone and syncs with your accounts



i sure hope some microsoft windows phone analysts read this and pass all of our suggestions onto the product managers

 

[Duvi]

@onemadrssn - agenda view doesn't show the times? if it does, if it's not on the agenda, then that spot should be free. or are there some appointments that don't show up for a particular reason in agenda view?

 

[onemadrssn]

@duvi, it does show the times. but take this fairly common scenario for example:
"i'm free at 2pm, what day is good for you?".
In agenda view, I would need to scroll up and down and remember in my head which days I have something at or around 2pm, and which I am free around 2pm.
With week view it would be easy to see across the screen what I am doing at 2pm everyday. In addition, it would be easy to see if there is something at 1:30 for example which might conflict.

 

[rexalbel]

New from webos as well

I also am new from webos. I was an avid webos user and was disappointed that I had to leave but I do not see webos for phones fulfilling my needs in the near future. Wp7 has me impressed with great social features and media fears. Some things I would like to see not mentioned above are

1. Browser which saves passwords, and supports HTML as well as uses toxin mobile sites, not basic mobile sites.

2. Better calendar sync. Webos had a superior calendar experience which let me pick custom reoccurring events, pic event end times, allowed for multiple calendars within an account, and allowed apps to add events to calendar.

3. Tasks app similar to what was on windpws mobile. I loved the task app on windows mobile and was sad to not see a modern version of it, but rather nothing..

4. Notes.

5. Delphic integration into office, or skydive integration on computers and quickoffice. Reason for this, is so I can easily edit docs on a pc and work on them on my phone and tablets seamlessly.

7. Streaming barcode scanner, not picture taking ones.

8. Notifications list

There's probably other things but these pop out to me. Overall I am seeing a lot of potential in this os!