windows phone 7
9 Jul 2010 02:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mayoraaseiSo I spent the last few hours reading reviews and watching videos of the new windows OS for mobile, Windows Phone 7. I've been saying since last year that I want a Windows phone (if only because I hate Apple and I'm not madly keen on Google either), but clearly I wasn't paying any attention to the brand I'm supposedly supporting since I totally missed the hype about WP7.
It's not set to be released until October this year, and I'm guessing it won't actually hit the shelves until November, and Australia being removed in space and, for some reason, time from the rest of the world, we probably won't see it until Christmas. And obviously, because it's Microsoft, it's going to be full of glitches and crashalots and patches that only end up opening more backdoors and I don't think there's even a Ctrl+Alt+Del and why exactly did I want a MS phone in the first place? =/
But from the February conference when they unveiled the system, it seemed to receive a lot of glowing reviews. Admittedly, the most glowing and thorough reviews I've read are on Gizmodo, which got totally kicked in the teeth and screwed over by Apple over their iPhone "leak" that I wouldn't be surprised if there's some biased touch-ups going on.
Nevertheless, I had thought the best I'd settle for is some patchy poorly done Windows OS, but it turns out WP7 is a completely new "done from scratch" operating system that reworks the idea of a mobile OS and is innovative and fun and interesting. Is this really Microsoft we're talking about? O_o
To be honest when I saw pictures of the system, namely, this:
I thought, ugh, why does Windows always beat Windows in looking ugly and boring.
But then I watched a few videos of it being in action and it actually...looks cool. But I still hope we can change those ugly colours. They're so ugly...and Windows-like.
It doesn't sound as intuitive as the iPhone (and I think the Android is based off a similar organisation as iPhone) but I think it has the potential to be a lot more...well, what were the pretty words Gizmodo used...more human? More interactive? Something.
It organises applications and tasks into "hubs", which my measly Win98 brain translates into "folders" - I think this is the contention point for a lot of people. Some people like the organisation of the iPhone where you can scroll in and see everything, whereas with the hub system you will have to navigate through a tree to get to what you want.
But I'm the kind of person who leaves my computer desktop empty and puts practically every document into a folder, so it's exactly what I wanted but what the iPhone didn't have ♥
The hub system is customisable, so - like the desktop - you can stick a task/application/even a person on the main page. It is the phone for stalkers everywhere, because it automatically updates every word and every movement and every action...about a person, from their Facebook or Myspace or (presumably in the future) Twitter. This is for you, Twitlight fans.
The lack of intuitiveness may count against it. Kids like us who've grown up playing new gadgets will love the quirky navigation (and its cool flipping effects *_*) but the adults who took an hour figuring how to swipe the iPhone to answer a call will...take a long time.
I'm really looking for a phone that gives me functionality without the clunkiness of the Blackberry, so while the iPhone is fun as a time wasting device while on public transport, the fact that Windows mobile includes Office AND PDF READABILITY is a huge plus in its favour.
The few things that might turn me away would be:
1) Application (non)availability. That's my main reason for getting a smartphone in the first place. I'm not after 2803 iFart and 38927 iDrink applications, but I want to be able to load my medical texts on it (YES HOW SAD). Previously with WM6.5, you could install applications downloaded from external developers, but with WP7 you must download through their Windows "Marketplace", and they need to be re-written in Silverlight? There's some muttering between Microsoft and Adobe about Flash, so we still don't really know if the functionality will be supported...not that it matters, at this point.
Anyhow, all I really need is MIMS and possibly one or two clinical handbooks, a reference like Harrison's, and maybe a dictionary, so they're not difficult asks (and they're currently available on all three mobile platforms anyway). I'm really looking forward to this hub thing because it seems to have the potential for such an integrated experience...but it really depends on whether anyone will bother developing for that. Nevertheless imagine...searching up a disease puts you through to an entry in Harrison's...then in the investigations it puts you across to Oxford Handbook...then you wonder about management and you're taken straight to MIMS.
Ah...one can dream. LOL.
2) No sync with PC. This is really unfortunate, I think, and goes too far in pushing this phone towards social networking and removing its functionality as a...well, pretty much, a pocket PC. You can move movies and music through Zune, but apart from that you can't dump stuff onto it like a USB storage, which is really a shame, given that it has Office installed and I INTEND TO USE THEM.
3) No cut and paste. This, seriously, makes no sense. Start up a table in Excel and want to put it into your Word? YOU CAN'T DO IT. Wrote up something in Word and want to send it as an email without attaching, YOU CAN'T DO THAT EITHER. Because some douchebag in Microsoft thought that "our users won't need clipboard functionality". That had better change in the near future.....
4) No multitasking. This is really a step backwards from their previous system, but since WP7 is redesigned from scratch, I guess it's not surprising it will be missing a few things on first release. Nevertheless...that's going to count against it.
I'm kind of uncertain how they're going to market this. It's got at least five or six companies tied in to produce the hardware for it, but the new WP7 system has very strict hardware requirements, down to the type of buttons and screen resolution and camera resolution. I wonder how the phone makers are going to differentiate themselves from each other and compete.
I am looking forward to pretty shapes and pretty colours =D
Source: A B
It's not set to be released until October this year, and I'm guessing it won't actually hit the shelves until November, and Australia being removed in space and, for some reason, time from the rest of the world, we probably won't see it until Christmas. And obviously, because it's Microsoft, it's going to be full of glitches and crashalots and patches that only end up opening more backdoors and I don't think there's even a Ctrl+Alt+Del and why exactly did I want a MS phone in the first place? =/
But from the February conference when they unveiled the system, it seemed to receive a lot of glowing reviews. Admittedly, the most glowing and thorough reviews I've read are on Gizmodo, which got totally kicked in the teeth and screwed over by Apple over their iPhone "leak" that I wouldn't be surprised if there's some biased touch-ups going on.
Nevertheless, I had thought the best I'd settle for is some patchy poorly done Windows OS, but it turns out WP7 is a completely new "done from scratch" operating system that reworks the idea of a mobile OS and is innovative and fun and interesting. Is this really Microsoft we're talking about? O_o
To be honest when I saw pictures of the system, namely, this:
I thought, ugh, why does Windows always beat Windows in looking ugly and boring.
But then I watched a few videos of it being in action and it actually...looks cool. But I still hope we can change those ugly colours. They're so ugly...and Windows-like.
It doesn't sound as intuitive as the iPhone (and I think the Android is based off a similar organisation as iPhone) but I think it has the potential to be a lot more...well, what were the pretty words Gizmodo used...more human? More interactive? Something.
It organises applications and tasks into "hubs", which my measly Win98 brain translates into "folders" - I think this is the contention point for a lot of people. Some people like the organisation of the iPhone where you can scroll in and see everything, whereas with the hub system you will have to navigate through a tree to get to what you want.
But I'm the kind of person who leaves my computer desktop empty and puts practically every document into a folder, so it's exactly what I wanted but what the iPhone didn't have ♥
The hub system is customisable, so - like the desktop - you can stick a task/application/even a person on the main page. It is the phone for stalkers everywhere, because it automatically updates every word and every movement and every action...about a person, from their Facebook or Myspace or (presumably in the future) Twitter. This is for you, Twitlight fans.
The lack of intuitiveness may count against it. Kids like us who've grown up playing new gadgets will love the quirky navigation (and its cool flipping effects *_*) but the adults who took an hour figuring how to swipe the iPhone to answer a call will...take a long time.
I'm really looking for a phone that gives me functionality without the clunkiness of the Blackberry, so while the iPhone is fun as a time wasting device while on public transport, the fact that Windows mobile includes Office AND PDF READABILITY is a huge plus in its favour.
The few things that might turn me away would be:
1) Application (non)availability. That's my main reason for getting a smartphone in the first place. I'm not after 2803 iFart and 38927 iDrink applications, but I want to be able to load my medical texts on it (YES HOW SAD). Previously with WM6.5, you could install applications downloaded from external developers, but with WP7 you must download through their Windows "Marketplace", and they need to be re-written in Silverlight? There's some muttering between Microsoft and Adobe about Flash, so we still don't really know if the functionality will be supported...not that it matters, at this point.
Anyhow, all I really need is MIMS and possibly one or two clinical handbooks, a reference like Harrison's, and maybe a dictionary, so they're not difficult asks (and they're currently available on all three mobile platforms anyway). I'm really looking forward to this hub thing because it seems to have the potential for such an integrated experience...but it really depends on whether anyone will bother developing for that. Nevertheless imagine...searching up a disease puts you through to an entry in Harrison's...then in the investigations it puts you across to Oxford Handbook...then you wonder about management and you're taken straight to MIMS.
Ah...one can dream. LOL.
2) No sync with PC. This is really unfortunate, I think, and goes too far in pushing this phone towards social networking and removing its functionality as a...well, pretty much, a pocket PC. You can move movies and music through Zune, but apart from that you can't dump stuff onto it like a USB storage, which is really a shame, given that it has Office installed and I INTEND TO USE THEM.
3) No cut and paste. This, seriously, makes no sense. Start up a table in Excel and want to put it into your Word? YOU CAN'T DO IT. Wrote up something in Word and want to send it as an email without attaching, YOU CAN'T DO THAT EITHER. Because some douchebag in Microsoft thought that "our users won't need clipboard functionality". That had better change in the near future.....
4) No multitasking. This is really a step backwards from their previous system, but since WP7 is redesigned from scratch, I guess it's not surprising it will be missing a few things on first release. Nevertheless...that's going to count against it.
I'm kind of uncertain how they're going to market this. It's got at least five or six companies tied in to produce the hardware for it, but the new WP7 system has very strict hardware requirements, down to the type of buttons and screen resolution and camera resolution. I wonder how the phone makers are going to differentiate themselves from each other and compete.
I am looking forward to pretty shapes and pretty colours =D
Source: A B
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no subject
Date: 2010-07-09 12:09 pm (UTC)and the iphone has pdf readers (u just need to download the application).
but i must say...this phone's outer appearance is pretty =DD but i don't like the UI that much haha
no subject
Date: 2010-07-09 01:30 pm (UTC)Why would I get the ipad? =___= Am I going to walk around the ward with a giant piece of unwieldy slab in my bag when I need to check med dosing? I might as well carry the MIMS prescribing book. The whole point about smartphones is that they are mini-computers. I'm not getting a phone for its games, neither am I going to get an e-book reader like Kindle just by itself. The more I can fit into one device, the less I have to carry on ward rounds. I'm not an Apple fanboy buying devices to fill a collection...not when I have to walk around for 8+ hours with it in my bag along with other things like A DIARY and A PHONE.
I think you misunderstand and think I'm going to use my phone as my sole resource for learning. The phone is only going to be a resource when I have no other way of accessing information. It's a tool of convenience, and neither a textbook nor a toy ==;
Oh, that and the fact that some of the texts I need are easier accessed as web databases than downloaded as applications.
I like the direct PDF functionality instead of going by-ways to get past whatever's going on between Adobe and Apple. Yes, a huge bias comes into this because I enjoy a lot of Adobe's products and whatever's going on there is annoying, even if it's Adobe's fault =P I'm sort of hoping in the future that more Adobe products will get rewritten for the Windows phone because their relationship at least seems a lot less ginger...but somehow I doubt we can ever hope to do our page layouts on our phones =P
I also like the direct Office functionality because so many lectures are either PPTs or PDFs. Oh, and I do also like the fact it has a proper text editing program like Word, even though I'm sure there's some app out there for iphone too. I don't like jotting down notes on the iphone when there's the option of proper text editing. Again...it's all a matter of convenience and functionality with a generous dosing of brand bias =P
Yes I realise it's long but I also realise I didn't talk much in my original post about why I want the Windows phone (as opposed to why I wouldn't want it), so here you go =P But I object to your disbelief at using a phone as a resource...you clearly don't do med! =P