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What makes you stick with Windows Mobile?


Guest vinaymanro

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The Android doesn't have cool/reasonably priced phones

Well, what about Google Nexus One? I just bought HTC HD2 and was always a strong believer, that the WM phones have the best hardware, but now the game has dramatically changed - Google Nexus One has AMOLED screen, more memory plus other goodies compared to HTC HD2 ...

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Guest Sonicr360
The iPhone simply sucks (no multitasking or usefull free apps + really overpriced considering the hardware). It's just a stupid fab gadget... Most owners can't even use it to it's full potential (I bet that the "ohh shiny!", "my friend has one so I want one" or "Apple rocks and Windows sucks" accounts for more than 95% of the owners). I don't even like the iPod (extremelly overpriced PMP that tries to force you into using iTunes).

with over 100,000 apps on the apple store, and alot of them ARE free, there are some really useful apps. Our developers make some free ones, and have to say, they are extremely good.

I guess from the response you are going by "hear say" rather than actually seeing it for yourself and using the product?

I do not believe its a case of "apple sucks" or "Windows sucks", but in todays technology, WM fails in comparison to the likes of iPhone and even Android now.

I know I would not buy a WM or iphone just for music as there are cheaper options. But to have something all in one, its quite handy I guess.

Not a real music lover, but more into a device that fits my needs.

Android and iPhone shows WM has not aged well.

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Guest frmariam

Well I wouldn't consider the HD2 reasonably priced... And the Nexus isn't availble yet (the machine does look cool).But there's still all the other stuff that makes me stick with WinMo. For someone without these limitation it may be a good choice.

as a sidenote one thing I don't like in all new phones (including my own) is the lack of HW keys (unless you have a qwerty). I think this really limits gaming and usability (a HW key is always a HW key... the touchscreen isn't exactly the same).

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Guest frmariam

How may apps can an iPhone run at the same time? And you say WinMo fails...

I've used MacBooks. I've used my friends' iPhones many times and I still think they fall short. Can you point me a free TCPMP equivalent in the iPhone? How is the office suite in there (docx, xlsx, pptx and pdf)? Browser wise do you have flash/silverlight/java (Skyfire)? At least you have offline GPS now (Google maps just doesn't cut it).

The "Apple rocks and Windows sucks" is something that Apple has exploited to the max in their adds. Their OS isn't compatible with WinMo and they intend to keep it that way. They force us to use bootcamp in their hardware and their sof in Windows machines. What gives?

I didn't say there arent good ones, I said most are useless. Using the 100k argument is pointless. Thousands of tiny apps instead of a few ones that do it all? It doesn't matter how many there are, it's how good they are!

I won't further discuss this since I just express my opinion and don't think I need to defend it.

Edited by frmariam
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Guest Sonicr360

Frmariam

Oh please DO Discuss :) That's what this is about!

As I pointed out, WM is just old hat now! Dont forget, a Jailbroken iPhone can multi-task, and if the suggestions that iPhone4G is multi-task enabled, then that is an argument that you cannot stand by.

I use WM, but I dont have many apps open ... why waste the memory!

The majority of apps I have seen and used, plus seen developed shows that the WM platform just does not cut it anymore!

Sorry, but face facts.

I posted some links in this thread. Suggest you read some of the replies, because there are many that are either anti MS or anti Apple.

And right from the start, I did say you will get 2 camps ... one for Android/iPhone and one for die hard WM.

Luckily, I have exposure to the lot ;)

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Guest Sonicr360
as a sidenote one thing I don't like in all new phones (including my own) is the lack of HW keys (unless you have a qwerty). I think this really limits gaming and usability (a HW key is always a HW key... the touchscreen isn't exactly the same).

I sort of disagree now (I would have most likely agreed with you over 1 year ago though :)

I have always wanted a device to have more HW keys, but using the Android and iPhone, it just feels alot better.

Im fedup with the Stylus activity when I need to send SMS, and to be honest, the small qwerty keyboard on the TYTN2 is not helping me much!

But playing some games on other devices, I would not be too worried about it. The problem is, a gaming developer could make a game with a device like HD2, and would not be fully compatible with something like TYTN 2 due to button layouts.

That is where I think iPhone and Google are doing things right. A blank canvass, that can be used by all.

But it will not suit everyone .... one camp for HW and another camp for no additional HW keys ;)

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Guest Sonicr360

Forgot to mention, I could be wrong, but is there not a CorePlayer now for the iPhone?

Something similar to TCPMP? Not that I use it on a WM device, as I am not too fussed about it !

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Guest frmariam

One thing about the Android is that many of the native cool apps are done by Google close sourced and paid (already included in the device price). I loved the fact that the system was OSS and it suposedly would bring forth free distros and stuff but the fact is that most apps currently being developed have limited access to the machine features. There's poor C++ support and they have to run from a crippling java sandbox (if I recal correctly). That is not what I thought when I first read about a Linux based OS for smartphones... Also if it goes the way of the Linux the OS will soon become very fragmented (too many versions or distros) and compatibility of apps will be broken.

No CorePlayer for iPhone yet I think (but it's being worked on). Also CorePlayer isn't free (and it was a dirty trick on the GPL they pulled when they killed TCPMP... only a few mods and plugins pop up every now and then but it's still a great player).

Multi tasking is a big deal. A jailbroken iPhone may multi-task but don't forget the warranty is lost in the process. 4G isn't out yet so one can only assume how well it will behave. I also don't know what will WinMo 7 bring...

The huge iPod user base made the acceptance and sale of the iPhone a lot easier and faster. The GUI was a big help (WinMo had a very poor today screen and vkeyboards... there were third party apps to cover those issues but the problem is many users either didn't know or bothered). The huge multitouch screen was one of the strong points.

The development isn't quite open in the iPhone platform now is it? And the conditions to distribute/install the apps on the device (app store...). Zodttd has done a lot of cool stuff for the iPhone (ok many were emus which live in a sort of grey area) that can't be installed in a non hacked machine. And like him there are more.

About gaming development the iPhone has it's life made easy because all the models are identical. In WinMo there are lots of hardware variations and every now and then manufacturers add their own hardware and drivers... Some of these things (like the drivers or hardware specific features) should really be corrected. I feel that Android will face the same issues in the future. The fact that the iPhone has some cool game is because they are easier to develop and the platform has more non-professional/everyday users than WinMo (more than a cool gadget WinMo phones are still very much working tools).

Currently I think I can get a better machine (hardware wise) for the price of an iPhone. And as far as OS, GUI and funtionality I've yet to find something the iPhone can do that a WinMo can't (well at least now that the HD2 was released). I'm just sorry for the devs the platform lost to the iPhone and Android. Microsoft has a long way to go regarding the relation with devs and documenting their product. But I surely wouldn't consider the platform as dead or deprecated.

Edited by frmariam
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Guest ThinKnot
thumb_22-Dec-2009_why.jpg

There are hardcore Apple iphone fanboys (and girls), those that live by Symbian, Blackberry addicts, a new mixed crowd following Android, and of course those that would die without their Windows Mobile...

Lately Windows Mobile has taken quite a bashing from other Mobile OS's and in some respects is lacking in some areas.

HTC who were dedicated to Windows Mobile, are now sharing that space with Android.

1) The question is why? Why do you stick with Windows Mobile?

2) What feature(s) make you stick with Windows Mobile?

3) What deters you from other Mobile OS devices?

That's an easy one.

I would have never learned so much about mobile phones, registry settings, hacks, and mods if

it weren't for the fact that WinMobile is so rickety, persnickity and wildly unstable.

ThinKnot

HTC Touch Pro2, WinMobile 6.1

Former TM SDA WinMobile 5.0

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1) The question is why? Why do you stick with Windows Mobile?

2) What feature(s) make you stick with Windows Mobile?

3) What deters you from other Mobile OS devices?

1) My current phone costs quite a bit so i want to use it as long as possible. It's menus and functions are organized in a way that fits me quite well unlike most other phone OSes.

2) It's more customizable than other phones, you can get custom versions of WM OSes. There's a lot of nice _FREE_ software available for it. It works like i want my phone to work.

3) I personaly dont buy any apple crap because they are expensive and lack basic properties or if they don't, they're just plain bad compared to other phones. BlackBerry has never felt like a phone i'd use. I've used some nokia phones but the menus etc. are organized by some retarded monkey. SonyEricsson makes nice usable phones but when i bought my phone they had no alternatives for what i was looking for.

HTC Touch Pro with WM 6.5 Build 28014

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Guest spacemonkey

I got into winmo back almost at the beggining, when it started out it was light years ahead of what anyone else was doing, and I couldn't see myself ever going to another form of phone. However, as the years have past, everyone else has caught up and gone past where winmo was, and winmo is still stuck in it's bugs and bloated OS. So I've left. Here's my list of phones:

Orange SPV "Canary" - The original

Orange SPV E200 "Voyager"

Orange SPV C500 "Typhoon"

Qtek 9100 "Wizard" - Absolutely amazing, but also quite big

T-Mobile MDA Vario II "Hermes/TyTN" - awful phone, slow, no battery life. Basically I have yet to use a HTC 3G phone that wasn't rubbish

E650 "Vox" - Brilliant phone

Orange SPV C600 "Faraday" - Good solid little phone until it got too wet snowboarding

HTC Touch Diamond - nice style and usage, but too low battery and dropped calls continuously

Back to the specific questions

1) I don't, microsoft has dropped the ball and I'm sick of waiting around for them to produce something that actually works consistently

2) In the day it was all the message handling and apps

3) In the day it was their rubbish message handling and lack of apps

I now have an iphone, and it's back to how I was when I first got my SPV "Canary" I just can't put it down.

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Guest Sonicr360

Space Monkey

I am personally looking at the iPhone. Like me, it shows you have also been through many WM devices.

Does the iPhone do what you want it to do?

ie: Is there a good reason to go back to WM?

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Guest touficjohn
I now have an iphone, and it's back to how I was when I first got my SPV "Canary" I just can't put it down.

Again, like me quite a few WM devices and now seriously considering the iPhone.

Space Monkey

I am personally looking at the iPhone. Like me, it shows you have also been through many WM devices.

Does the iPhone do what you want it to do?

ie: Is there a good reason to go back to WM?

Does it?

Compared to winmo, whats the GPS like? Whats OTA activesync/exchange like?

Do you miss the homescreen? Is there any feature of WM that you actually miss?

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Guest spacemonkey
Again, like me quite a few WM devices and now seriously considering the iPhone.

Does it?

Compared to winmo, whats the GPS like? Whats OTA activesync/exchange like?

Do you miss the homescreen? Is there any feature of WM that you actually miss?

Not to divert the topic, but...

The actual GPS chips in the iphone are a bit rubbish, great for those "find a pizza restaurant near me" but at times it can be frustrating for satnav.

On OTA/exchange etc, my company runs with a 3rd party web hosted exchange, just pointed it at the server and it all works perfectly for mail/calendar/contacts. Push uses more battery, so I just run mine on pull.

If you "fix" your phone you can theme it etc, but it slows the phone down, and I'm happy enough with the vanilla iphone look. Search on "Winterboard" for the theming stuff.

The key thing though for me, is it just works, when I ring someone it works, when I hang up I don't have to hit the button 5 times. When I go to my mail, or sms's, wifi, videos or whatever, it just works first time everytime.

As to "Is there a good reason to go back to WM?"

I would be happy to return to WM if they genuinely sorted out the stability and battery life issues. In terms of features, WinMo has always had a great feature set, but the phones (especially every 3g winmo I've used) are just too unreliable, you get the fun of tweaking them, but the actual usage just annoys you on a daily basis.

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Guest techfellow
the ability to have multiple UIs. I am not stuck to on UI. If i wake up today and feel diffrent about Sense UI, then i'll uncheck it and run Default titanium. If i dont feel like looking at a zune then i'll install spb. If i dont feel like looking at android then i'll use regular ol function today screen where i can see everything at once glance.

hardware. winmo phones always had the best hardware and features to boot. its still like that today and i enjoy cutting edge.

Freedom of choise with core apps. Dont like IE? use opera. Dont like opera? use skyfire...and on and and on and on....

PIM! till this day no one matching windows mobile when it comes to PIM. Hand down, no need to even get into that.

Pocket outlook. say what you will, but pocket outlook is a champ and is second to none. the mail experence on windows phones are as good as it gets. no matter what the blackberry users say...send them a 6mb pic and see what happens to their beloved messaging phone.

COOKED ROMS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! your phone will never feel old no matter how old it gets. It is such a joy to read about all the new stuff and then have it on your phone the next day. All the little features that companines impliment and charge you for with the next version of the phone, you can have in minutes.

windows mobile is prime realestate baby!!!! no matter what they say! 10 year old windows CE is still kicking ass!

Could not have said it better myself. It does what I need it to do, Emails, contacts etc. for work, and with Kinoma play it handles my music and social network stuff for fun and games.

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Guest CJ Rowlands

the main reasons for staying with windows mobile are:

Continual customization is possible. There always seems to be something new to do to it.

I know you can customize other OSs but no where near as windows mobile.

Despite the lack of apps on the windows mobile marketplace, there are still stupid numbers of new apps to install and for those of you who know how, you could program your own. (Although I know this is possible to do with other OSs but its still a valid point)

I would enjoy android but only to play with.

I want something which isnt so simple to use. If its so easy to use that it takes no effort what so ever it just becomes boring. Its like with Desktop forms of windows compared to other operating systems; as long as you know how to use it right and kit it up right, it has the potential for much more than you might think. 

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Guest hakkeshou

-.NET CF makes it the easiest to develop on (ok, maybe WebOS is being that it can all be done via JavaScript)

-It's maturity has brought along numerous apps and a huge modding community and all the great mods/roms

-It behaves more like a PC (i.e. un-modded can still run app from anywhere)

-Opera Mobile

-...

I could go on forever

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Guest magic_peanuts

Oh, WinMo, you are a funny beast. I first fell in love with you way back in 2002 with the original Orange SPV (zOMG YOU CAN GET WINDOWS ON A PHONE!!!). Your PIM was (and still is to be fair) outstanding, and I loved that I could run programs on you (apps is a sickly iPhone word). Your inadequacies were charming, they made me learn about ROM's and bootloaders and SIM locks, and there was that smug satisfaction of tweaking whatever Vario you were powering at the time and making it quicker or run something cool. I stayed mostly faithful when the first iPhone came out (sure, I had a fling when I had to run two phones for a while, but you understood right?). I had an even big test of our relationship when Android came out, I mean, look it it, it's sexy as hell. And now, as my contract on my Touch HD is up, you tease me with the HD2, that glorious slab of gadgety goodness, and I go weak at the knees with that Snapdragon processor and your new capacitive screen.

But my darling, I'm sick of your tantrums now. I don't want to wait half a second for you to realise I'm dialing a number. I don't want lag and poor frame rate when I'm trying to take a picture. I don't want you to take an age sending a text message. I don't want to repeat a keystroke because you missed it. I want quick. I want sexy. I want apps. I want to do everything in one device. Your HTC makeup is running thin, and what's underneath is slow and boring. So WinMo, this is it, I'm leaving you. Be it the Hero, Nexus, or iPhone, I'm still weighing up the pros and cons of each, but for us, we're through.

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Guest touficjohn
Oh, WinMo, you are a funny beast. I first fell in love with you way back in 2002 with the original Orange SPV (zOMG YOU CAN GET WINDOWS ON A PHONE!!!). Your PIM was (and still is to be fair) outstanding, and I loved that I could run programs on you (apps is a sickly iPhone word). Your inadequacies were charming, they made me learn about ROM's and bootloaders and SIM locks, and there was that smug satisfaction of tweaking whatever Vario you were powering at the time and making it quicker or run something cool. I stayed mostly faithful when the first iPhone came out (sure, I had a fling when I had to run two phones for a while, but you understood right?). I had an even big test of our relationship when Android came out, I mean, look it it, it's sexy as hell. And now, as my contract on my Touch HD is up, you tease me with the HD2, that glorious slab of gadgety goodness, and I go weak at the knees with that Snapdragon processor and your new capacitive screen.

But my darling, I'm sick of your tantrums now. I don't want to wait half a second for you to realise I'm dialing a number. I don't want lag and poor frame rate when I'm trying to take a picture. I don't want you to take an age sending a text message. I don't want to repeat a keystroke because you missed it. I want quick. I want sexy. I want apps. I want to do everything in one device. Your HTC makeup is running thin, and what's underneath is slow and boring. So WinMo, this is it, I'm leaving you. Be it the Hero, Nexus, or iPhone, I'm still weighing up the pros and cons of each, but for us, we're through.

:)

AMEN!

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I tried to have an open mind and bought the iphone, used it for 2 months and dumped it as soon as the HD2 came out. I also have an Android (HTC Hero) too as I need 2 phones sometimes. The thing that really turns me of about the iphone is that lack of multitasking as many have pointed out. How many times do you have someone call you and ask if you are free on a particular day and you cannot bring up the calendar to see? For people like us who use the phone for everything WM is still the only device that can do that.

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Guest SomeoneStoleMyYodafone

As a guy living in an iPhone-crazed country, and who is surrounded in his social circle by heckling iPhone and BB users, let me weigh in... without a trace of bias or vitriol ;)

No, for me, it's not what makes me stick with Windows Mobile - it's whether the alternatives are really that great.

Consider the other challengers:

- What can the iPhone OS offer me over WM? Tons of apps that, when boiled down, either just search websites or provide cheap advertising for services? Hey, I know how to use Google Search. The one area the iPhone really has the edge in is games... but I don't need a bazillion, just a few good ones.

- An executive of a certain mobile OS company once told me that "the BlackBerry has no right to exist". As arrogant as it sounds, he is right. Take away ancient hardware and a boring-looking OS and all you're left with is the BB messaging model, which has several critical flaws, and can be imitated by anyone.

- Palm webOS? Alas, Palm, if you had gotten your game on with GSM first, you might not be back in the quicksand now.

- Android is probably the closest to something I might jump ship to. But currently, the hardware isn't that great, and battery life on the HTC devices is abysmal. Sorry. Maybe when the Nexus One comes around.

- An informal survey shows that at least 15 of my friends spend over US$60 a month on both their phone and data bills, as well as iPhone apps. Where I live, this figure is quite normal. Call me a cheapskate, but I prefer tinkering with my phone and learning some arguably useful skills than whiling away useless hours on a game I paid $14.99 for. Oh yes, WM users know we can still get most apps for free if we know where to look. :)

On the other hand, in WM I have an OS that offers great sync support, compensates for its relative age with class-leading hardware such as the Omnia II and HD2, and above all else is customisable exactly the way I want it. As I always tell new "converts", "If you have a problem with WM, 99.9% of the time I can fix it."

Now for the obnoxious, snivelling nature of most iPhone users who, in any other company than their own kind, simply HAVE to come out with some disdainful put-down for any other device. Hearing them talk, you'd think that they developed the iPhone thems-

Oh wait, no biased vitriol B)

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Guest djphaze
Oh, WinMo, you are a funny beast. I first fell in love with you way back in 2002 with the original Orange SPV (zOMG YOU CAN GET WINDOWS ON A PHONE!!!). Your PIM was (and still is to be fair) outstanding, and I loved that I could run programs on you (apps is a sickly iPhone word). Your inadequacies were charming, they made me learn about ROM's and bootloaders and SIM locks, and there was that smug satisfaction of tweaking whatever Vario you were powering at the time and making it quicker or run something cool. I stayed mostly faithful when the first iPhone came out (sure, I had a fling when I had to run two phones for a while, but you understood right?). I had an even big test of our relationship when Android came out, I mean, look it it, it's sexy as hell. And now, as my contract on my Touch HD is up, you tease me with the HD2, that glorious slab of gadgety goodness, and I go weak at the knees with that Snapdragon processor and your new capacitive screen.

But my darling, I'm sick of your tantrums now. I don't want to wait half a second for you to realise I'm dialing a number. I don't want lag and poor frame rate when I'm trying to take a picture. I don't want you to take an age sending a text message. I don't want to repeat a keystroke because you missed it. I want quick. I want sexy. I want apps. I want to do everything in one device. Your HTC makeup is running thin, and what's underneath is slow and boring. So WinMo, this is it, I'm leaving you. Be it the Hero, Nexus, or iPhone, I'm still weighing up the pros and cons of each, but for us, we're through.

Exactly how I feel! I bought an HTC Touch Diamond 2 earlier this year and thought that its high specification would bring an end to the lagginess and slow running of WM and other applications, and I would for the first time in years have a phone with a near-perfect OS that was also very responsive... Unfortunately I was wrong!

I find it amazing that a 528MHz processor, ample what I assume would be high-speed RAM and plenty of flash storage cannot run a MOBILE OS smoothly... And to make things worse, HTC decide to disable any hardware video acceleration which is already present within the device! Many years ago a 500MHz processor would run a full-blown version of Windows along with applications, games... etc! I'm no expert here, clearly, but something doesn't seem quite right!

Windows Mobile appears to be a very, very ineffecient OS

The iPhone has lower specifications than my device, yet it does everything which it does far quicker and smoother than my TD2 :) The lagginess of this device actually stresses me out every time I try to make a call or send a message; phones aren't meant to be slow! Give me back my Nokia 5110!! lol

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