Can somebody tell me what are Windows Phone 8 OS and hardware limitations ?

cuwe

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I read a lot about some lumias didn't support some apps , or the developers can't do much with their apps due to OS limitation . Why is this happening ? Can somebody tell me ?
 

a5cent

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I read a lot about some lumias didn't support some apps , or the developers can't do much with their apps due to OS limitation . Why is this happening ? Can somebody tell me ?

All OS' have restrictions that limit what can and what can't be done. There are literally thousands of answers to your question. Flexibility is sacrificed for many different reasons. Examples:
- security (no direct file system access)
- stability (limited native code support)
- battery life (limited multitasking)
etc etc etc etc
During OS development, thousands of similar choices must be made between properties that are mutually exclusive. That is what is at the heart of OS development. The character of any OS depends on what the developers felt were the best choices for their target audience.

Android is the wild west, where anything goes and end users ultimately carry most of the responsibility for security, because the OS and ecosystem can not. Apple's iOS is the exact opposite. WP is somewhere in between.

Note that this has absolutely nothing to do with the Lumia brand. This is solely about the OS, Windows Phone.
 

marcomura

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Apple's iOS is the exact opposite. WP is somewhere in between.
As developer, I can tell that WP is the most restricted environment... with iOS you have a little more flexibility accessing data, managing other apps and storage, and with background tasks.
 

Fade_z

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As developer, I can tell that WP is the most restricted environment... with iOS you have a little more flexibility accessing data, managing other apps and storage, and with background tasks.
Why do you think MS handles it this way? Is the RT/pro marketplace similar ? and could wp8.1 fix this
 

marcomura

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I think Microsoft is going through this way because the unsuccess achieved with windows mobile (which was totally open), and the success achieved by Apple during its first years with iOS.
I think that Microsoft is now trying to imitate the Apple philosophy to make the stuff simpler (even if feature-limited), and it's providing only what the majority of the customers wants (and understands), opening to new features depending on the public requests, and leaving out pro-users and people would like to use it's smartphone as a PDA (or as the powerful device its hardware would let it to be).
The RT/pro store is very similar: apps must comply a lot of restrictions but the environment is more open than Windows Phone (of course).
And no, 8.1 will not fix this... they may open the SDK a little bit, but it will be restricted forever (compared to the desktop environment).
 

a5cent

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As developer, I can tell that WP is the most restricted environment... with iOS you have a little more flexibility accessing data, managing other apps and storage, and with background tasks.

I'm also a developer. I would say it depends exactly on what you are assessing.
 

marcomura

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Now, my personal feelings: I don't like this philosophy (I prefer the android / windows mobile 6.x one).
We have powerful hardware which can allow us to do a lot of things, but we are limited from a OS which prevents curtains things to be done.

You can talk about security, battery life, UI responsiveness, etc... and you may be right: the more you are limited, the less you can mess-up.
But the more you are limited, the less you can innovate also... the coolest things are made exploiting the hardware powerful as much as possible, which means accessing directly to the file system, hooking OS events, accessing the device sensors, redefining buttons behavior, keeping code running unlimited in background...
Those are things that should be left only to pro developers (because amateurs will only abuse of them and create crappy apps which drains your battery or destroy your OS), but now they are not available to anyone (except for manufacturers) and this is just wrong.
 

marcomura

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This is designed to preserve battery life.
MS doesn't allow developers to leave an app running in background. For instance, pressing the start button while an app is open make it stop working.
Apps can have background agents to perform operations periodically, but this type of agents are fired only once every 30 minutes (+/- 10 min) and can execute only a subset of the available instructions.
 

Mio_WP

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Generally not. Just like iOS. However some "true" multitasking is allowed for playing music and a few other things.

When an app is tombstoned it will resume where You left it if the developer made it with the correct fast app switching programming.
 

EpicIncognitO

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Well said bro, one of the biggest reasons for massive battery life.
This is designed to preserve battery life.
MS doesn't allow developers to leave an app running in background. For instance, pressing the start button while an app is open make it stop working.
Apps can have background agents to perform operations periodically, but this type of agents are fired only once every 30 minutes (+/- 10 min) and can execute only a subset of the available instructions.
 

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