The Comprehensive WP Feature List | Missing

[andrelamont]

So after reading about how iOS is the most polished and refined mobile operating system
..after hearing Joshua Topolsky talk about how he wish HTC would put android on the 8X hardware (video source link needed)
...after reading Vlad Savov talk about how he wish Nokia made an android phone

I got mad at first then started being pragmatic and tried to figure out what Windows Phone is missing that makes tech journalist want for more.

So I grabbed my WP phone and started looking at the features set and listed what thing were missing or needed as a fair and balanced WP user. When I talk about OS features...it is compared to other mobile OS features and sometimes desktop OS as mobile phones are moving that direction.

So before MS adds any more whiz-bang-cool-OMG feature. My desire is for them to tie up the loose ends in the OS. Especially to quite people who write this 101 Reasons Not to Buy A Windows Phone 7.5 :: My-Symbian ~ My-Maemo ~ My-MeeGo Forum although I have to admit some points are valid.


This is the list I came up with and I need help from others to cleaning up the list: These things maybe added in WP8, WP9 or WP10 so it will be a living list.
PHONE

• Voice Mail scrubber (can move forward / backwards )
• Favorite List /
• Recent
• Calls: reply by SMS (pre-canned reponse or user defined )
• Do not Calls List: Block Calls text messages independent of carrier services or help
• Skype integration
• Enhanced History: Call duration
• Smart Dialer
• Number Filtering (as you type a list of contact appears thatt those numbers...saw this on iPhone )

ALARMS/CLOCK

• Multiple Clocks
• Timer
• Stop watch
• Live Tile support for timer / stop watch

*this has to be done at the OS level because 3rd party apps have to be suspended/tomb-stoned


CALCULATOR

• Programmer View
• Statistician view
• Show history
• Unit Conversion
• Date Conversion
• Worksheet/Mode for:

• Mortgage Calculation
• Vehical lease
• Fuel Economy

CALENDAR

• Weekly View

CAMERA

• Picture Crop
• Picture rotation
• Picture red-eye reduction
• HDR Photos
• Software shutter button in camera app

EMAIL

• Optional HTML signatures

WEB BROWSER

• Forward, Back, Refresh, Tab, Bookmarks buttons
• Save Images,PDF or Download File as...
• Private Browsing Mode
• Word wrap/automatic text reflow

MAPS

• Turn by Turn navigation with street names
• 3D view
• Voice Commands
• Offline Downloading of map for non-cellular areas or data package limitation
• Traffic and indication of what the problem is
• Multiple Language support
• Alternative routes
• Speed Camera Alerts

MARKETPLACE


MESSAGING

• Detailed Report view of all messages ( like reading carrier statement )

MUSIC / VIDEO

• Integration of all music apps into music/video hub ( may need API work )
• Accurate Forward / Backward scrubbing via finger touch
• Option to stop versus pause

PEOPLE


ME TILE I am assuming this as the default notification center

• 3rd Party notification
• Apps running in the background notification
• Missed phone calls and voice messages
• New email
• New text messages
• Reminders
• Calendar events
• Friend requests (Game Cent
• Stock ticker
• Weather Changes

VOICE RECORDER/DICTATION

• List voice recording
• List time, date and length
• Edit recording
• Label recording or tag them
• Share recordings

PICTURES

• Integration of all photo apps ( may need API work )

SETTING

• Pin-able setting ( quick on/off toggle for wifi/bluetooth, internet sharing and etc )
• Themes- 'c'mon man' 10 accent colors? If each RGB value could be stored in 4bytes so if we are currently only using 40bytes? I understand wanting to filter color choices to best show off WP8 so instead of adding a color which could lead to bad product representation...have an intern usability engineer find 64 or 128 colors! Worst case scenario you consume 512 bytes of storage.

WEATHER

KEYBOARD

• You can now switch languages quickly with the dedicated language selector key on keyboard for QWERTY, QWERTZ, AZERTY, Dvorak, Colemak, and PC styles.
• Enhanced Emoticon Key
• Bluetooth keyboard support

FILE SYSTEM

• Able to access downloaded files (offline) even for devices w/out SD card support
• Multiple file deletion, selection
• Direct File transfer via bluetooth

SEARCH

• Universal Search for files, contacts, people and websites
• Able to specify where to search ( files or contacts or people...)

HARDWARE SUPPORT

• Bluetooth 4.0
• Quad Core
• Support for USB audio docks

PRINTING

• Print from browser, email, pdf or Office

SECURITY

• Alpha Numeric Pin lock
• Picture Password
• On-device Encryption
• External storage Encryption
• Cloud storage Encryption
• VPN

EDITING

• undo
• redo

BACKUP

MISC

• System wide dictionary
• Screen Orientation Lock
• Screenshot capture
• Relocate to another country without requiring HARD reset
• Wireless syncing without tying to Zune/iTunes. Media management without additional software.
• OS updates over the air...even major updates like iPhone with iOS5/iOS6
• Multiple User support (i.e guest mode)
• Option to persist cell signal, battery, time status bar all the time

DATA USAGE /METERING TOOL

• Allows warning alerts
• Cuts off data at user specified limits
• Detailed reports of application usages w/cutoffs
• Allows cellular, wifi and both report views

SOUND

• Custom SMS/MMS tones
• Custom vibrate patterns
• Sound Equalizer
• Separate volume for phone, speaker, music and etc

 

[andrelamont]

place holder for future updates

 

[mdameron]

Does Phone in WP8 default to the keypad screen or still to the recent calls? Hate that. Show me the digits.

 

[thed]

I'm confused about some of the things on the list. Threaded/Conversation view: what do you have in mind that is different from the way it is now? Underlining/Spell checker, wireless syncing, and custom ringtones are already in there.

 

[andrelamont]

I'm confused about some of the things on the list. Threaded/Conversation view: what do you have in mind that is different from the way it is now? Underlining/Spell checker, wireless syncing, and custom ringtones are already in there.

Thanks and fixed!

wireless syncing...I should have described desktopless syncing...meaning you don't need iTunes/Zune to manage your photos/music and video

 

[nzrocketman]

wow that looks like a lot of important items which i would use daily missing from windows phone

 

[ExcaliburII]

half there

over half the items listed are either known to be in WP8 or are already in WP7.5

 

[kregstrong]

2 very important things u listed for me, quick toggles for settings. And smart dialer. Example being on my phone I type da and it pops up dad or David and I click on one of those to dial. So convenient

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

 

[saintforlife]

Things that I miss on Windows Phone:

- System wide orintation lock

- Word wrap/automatic text reflow in Internet Explorer and Email Inbox

- Forward, Back, Refresh, Tab, Bookmarks buttons - all placed on Internet Explorer taskbar at all times. There is no reason to force users to do multiple taps for what should be simple tasks.

- Software shutter button in camera app (much easier to press a big SW button on the screen when you are trying to take a bunch of quick photos rather than pressing the HW button which is not very fast or intuitive)

- Option to persist cell signal, battery, time status bar all the time. If people want to auto hide it, they should be able to. But it should definitely be availble as an option if you want to keep it on your screen at all times.

It is possible to sometimes over do the minimalist design philosophy, and the very basic features which I list above show that Microsoft has made that mistake. Give users the choice of how they want to use the phone. Don't just leave it off altogether. It is very frustrating.

 

[sanshiro]

All due respect, but consider the source of that "101 Reasons" list -- it's mainly an exercise in expressing frustration for Nokia ditching Symbian and Meego in place of WP. While some things on the list are valid/useful, many others are simply not true or inaccurate; the main theme is that the person who compiled it is stuck in the past and doesn't recognize the evolution of smartphone user experience that would render a bunch of those features irrelevant. I was a long-time Symbian user, my N-series could do everything... but nothing well or with class; the experience was simply horrible.

Likewise, take The Verge's or Engadget's or whatever iblog's opinions on the WP platform with a 50 lb. sack of salt.

That said, I recognize some useful things in your personal list, especially bothersome for me are the lack of:

- Better volume controls
- turn-by-turn with street names (I use a combination of Nokia maps/drive and Bing maps, but overall they are not as as useful in their current state as Google Maps on Android).

 

[Nataku4ca]

i don't understand some of the stuff... i mean as far as i know some of the stuff listed can't be done "by default" on other os as well and apps do exist for each os for those functions

-----
for calculator
Standard view
Scientific view

portrait gives u standard and landscape gives u scientific (i think thats what that is... right?)

-----
Integration of all music apps into music/video hub
PICTURES
aren't these already there? or u mean something else other then listing the apps?;

-----
ME TILE
the section u describes sounded like notification center... which i want too, but i wouldn't shove that under me tile, won't be as easy to get to

-----
Calendar
this one i think needs overhaul, lol

====
well i agree with most of your listed item, and like ExcaliburII says, alot of the listed item should vaporize when wp8 comes out, hopefully u can shrink this list dramatically when it happens

EDIT: each ----- signifies they have no relation to the previous item... just to clarify...

 

[AngryNil]

Timers and stopwatches can work just fine, and some already do. They are based on time, so an app can easily resume by taking the difference between the two times. I use an app called Timer by Christian Dullweber, it schedules alarms for its timers and resumes the stopwatch even if you relaunch the app.

 

[theefman]

Some of you may be better off skipping WP8 and going with an OS that fits your needs better to save on any future "wp sucks because it doesn't" threads....:dry

 

[pjs37]

I will think of more later perhaps but ones I noticed:

Maps
-Adding Contacts from Map Search Results

Mail
-Detecting shipment tracking numbers and allowing you to track the package (Probably covered by an iOS Patent)

 

[independentvolume]

Some of you may be better off skipping WP8 and going with an OS that fits your needs better to save on any future "wp sucks because it doesn't" threads....:dry

Or people could vent on a forum like this in an effort to get features they want. Kind of what forums are for, not just tongue slapping teh corporations.

 

[theefman]

Or people could vent on a forum like this in an effort to get features they want. Kind of what forums are for, not just tongue slapping teh corporations.

Nope, wrong forum. MS forums would be where to post this.

 

[andrelamont]

over half the items listed are either known to be in WP8 or are already in WP7.5

Yeah I figured some might be fixed in WP8 but I wanted to use 7.5 as the baseline and edit when later version of the OS are released

 

[andrelamont]

I will think of more later perhaps but ones I noticed:

Maps
-Adding Contacts from Map Search Results

Mail
-Detecting shipment tracking numbers and allowing you to track the package (Probably covered by an iOS Patent)

Can you explain more about this feature or provide a use case scenaior? I have never heard of it.

 

[independentvolume]

Nope, wrong forum. MS forums would be where to post this.

Your phone and PC both have back buttons you can hit to get out of threads you have no interest in. There is also an option to ignore users that don't share the same interests. Feel free to use these features as often as you would like.

 

[andrelamont]

Some of you may be better off skipping WP8 and going with an OS that fits your needs better to save on any future "wp sucks because it doesn't" threads....:dry

I dont believe any of my post have ever come close to saying wp sucks...I mean what kind of person would I be if I came here to say WP SUX!

I have owned 2 WP devices and will own three. (to be transparent I did purchased an iPhone 2007 but I no longer use it so dont hold it against me )

If my poor writing skills have led you or others to think that's my agenda then I apologize for it.

I know about complaining as I hear it every year when my Cleveland Browns season tanks after the 3rd game! Trust me this is not my agenda NOR is it my agenda to have a list sent to MS!! This is not a complaint thread.

Instead of me crossing off my own personal list of features MS needs to implement for feature parity I'd figured a community based one would be better. Hence this thread. I hope it stays this way and hope that it doesn't turn south