[Palm network] Windows Phone 7 use Report of Apple iPhone developers

 

Justin Williams is a developer on the Apple platform. His masterpiece is the GTD tool today on the Mac platform and elements, a text processing tool on the iOS platform. Recently, his main mobile phone became Windows Phone 7, and then he wrote a long story. We excerpted his views on hardware and software, which is worth reading.

 

I am a Mac and iOS developer and have been usingIPhoneMobile phone. However, in the past few weeks, I tried to use a Windows Phone 7 phone, Samsung Focus, as the main machine. The reason for doing so is to find out what Microsoft has brought to us.

 

 

 

Fortunately, winodows Phone 7 has had a great experience, and I hope to see the future progress of Microsoft. Today, the biggest problem it faces is its application.ProgramAlthough there are already 5000 million apps in the store, I dare say that 4990 are full of junk products.

 

Hardware

 

I have been paying attention to Windows Phone 7 for a long time and have many reasons to persuade myself to open my wallet. First, I am a smartphone player and like to collect various interesting machines. As long as there are new machines available, I want to buy one for fun. I think Windows Phone 7 is not the same as any previous machine. It is not bad if I transfer to full-time. NET development.

 

Finally, I made up my mind to take Samsung Focus home for $500 so that I could enjoy it during the Christmas holiday. In fact, at&t has released three Windows Phone 7 -- HTC surround with slide speakers and LG quantum with a physical keyboard. But Samsung has the best reputation for this machine, so I chose it.

 

Its selling point is the AMOLED screen, which looks really good. I do not consciously want to compare it with the Retina screen of iPhone 4, but it is actually two completely different screens. Let alone the terrible screen of the iPhone 3gs.

 

 

In terms of hardware materials and workmanship, the iPhone 4 is an excellent example. It is very strong and fulfilling, And the quality is heavy enough. The focus on the other hand looks very light and cheap.

 

To be honest, I don't feel very good when I get it, because the shell is plastic, and it takes a lot of effort to slide the back shell to get out the battery and SIM card, every time there is an impulse to crash.

 

There is a dedicated camera button on the focus, which is more comfortable than the iPhone. Unfortunately, the camera's photo quality is inferior to that of the iPhone.

 

The battery life is still compatible. I didn't perform a rigorous test. From the perspective of daily use, continuous use is okay for a whole day.

 

Focus also has a micro SD slot, but Microsoft has warned users not to touch it easily. Only micro SD cards that have passed Windows Phone 7 Certification can be used, otherwise the system will be damaged.

 

 

 

Software

 

As a software developer, I really don't want to be troubled by hardware (like android). Let's focus on the software of Windows Phone 7.

 

I have never used Windows Mobile since I took the. NET Framework in college, because I think Treo and BlackBerry are even better. Windows Mobile is packed with menus and buttons on such a small screen and must be operated with a touch pen. This is terrible.

 

Windows Phone 7 does not inherit this bad tradition, but brings a new experience. In fact, it is not like a product with the "Windows" trademark. I think Microsoft should give it a new name.

 

Advantages:

 

Master screen tile: unlike other smartphones on the market, Windows Phone 7 uses the tile design, which is a mobile system consisting of multiple blocks.

 

You can drag and arrange a block as you would on IOS. The contact's hub can constantly update the Facebook status of friends. I really like this design and it looks like your mobile phone has a life.

 

Live: third-party applications certainly support live tile, but they are not as mature as Microsoft's own.

 

Integrate Facebook: if you are a heavy Facebook user, Windows Phone 7 is perfect for you, and its contacts have already integrated the Facebook function. You can view a person's phone number, email, short message, and Facebook status from the contact hub. Yes, no third-party programs are required.

 

 

 

Zune: I have registered a new Zune account. If I am a Windows user, I will love it. You can also pay $15 a month to download music. The biggest problem is the lack of Zune programs on Mac platforms.

 

View: the metro UI of Windows Phone 7 has a good overall feeling. I like the concepts of the view and panorama that it brings. You do not need to use buttons to control the view. You can use your fingers to control the sliding between the left and right sides of the view to see a wide array of animations.

 

Disadvantages:

 

Windows Phone 7 also has many unreliable features, some of which are annoying.

 

Slow program: we can see the smoothness of the operating system itself is great, without any delay. However, third-party programs are another thing. As long as network connections are used in the program, it seems to be slow.

 

For example, the official Twitter program can be started (the cache push is displayed) Nine seconds after the click, and a new push on the time line can be refreshed in five seconds.

 

The Facebook program is similar. It takes 12 seconds to start and obtain new data. It is hard to say that this is a program problem or a network problem. I only hope that later versions will get faster.

 

Text message: like the early Android system, in Windows Phone 7, you must add a "Mobile Phone" label to the phone number of a contact before the system can send text messages to him. If you save your phone number as "work" or "house electricity", you cannot send text messages. The iPhone is good. You can send text messages to any phone number.

 

Touch feedback: in third-party applications, there is no touch feedback after clicking. That is to say, you cannot fully check whether the location is correct.

 

Integration Service: As I said before, Facebook integration is really great. In contrast, other services are much worse. For example, the photo program can only synchronize photos of live skydriver and Facebook, but does not support Flickr. Every time I take a photo, I am prompted to upload it to skydriver. Why is it not Flickr?

 

Mac synchronization: Microsoft provides a Mac program to synchronize your mobile phone, but it can only synchronize podcast and copyrighted music. The biggest regret is that the calendar and contacts cannot be synchronized.

 

Caldav: I am a mobileme user, and calendar synchronization is bothering me. Now I have synchronized the calendar and contacts on my Mac to my Google account, and then synced them to Windows Phone via Google. This is really troublesome.

 

IE browser: the built-in IE browser of the mobile phone is not good. Although it is a little away from mobile safari, it is enough to show engadget, Gawker and daring fireball.

 

Copy and paste: this is an old problem. If you really need it, you will feel powerless.