WSJ: Windows Phone Update Is Not Massive
|All Things Digital (part of the Wall Street Journal) is reporting that the upcoming Windows Phone update will not be massive or an iPhone killer. It will add CDMA support and copy and paste, but they don’t indicate anything beside that. The reporter is Ina Fried who has had inside access to WP development in the past (even though she’s an iPhone user) and was given a dev device ahead of time to test among other things. She certainly has access to WP7 inside sources though and has proven this time and again. Of course, it’s all a question of what ‘massive’ means. No one is expecting multitasking with this update. We’re hearing the term ‘task switching’ instead. But if this update is CDMA, copy and paste, Bing turn-by-turn, task switching and tethering how would you rate it, cause I’m guessing that’s what we’re going to see.
So to be clear, two inside sources, one claiming it’s massive and one not…rumor v rumor. So we haven’t made much progress here in terms of facts…
We’ll know right after its released!
Checks and Balances, if MS doesn’t perform unlocking occurs.
For me copy and paste, Bing turn-by-turn and tethering are the only things I’m waiting on so if we see that in the first update I would be thrilled. Official support for custom ringtones would be nice too but not critical thanks to the Chevron folks.
Your short list would be fine with me for Q1-2011. Only things I would like to add is;
-user and commercial (official) ring tone access. Can’t imagine that this would have any impact on performance at all, especially with the WMA (48k) requirements. Just need to add a portal through Zune for paid ringtones and those you can add from your collection. Hey, and its another revenue stream. My files are all already converted.
-a fix for the alarm bug, so we can put this behind us. Whether it’s an HTC or Microsoft (or both) problem, just fix it and move on. Uless its too much of a challenge.
-make camera settings stick
On my wishlist though would be:
-option to change battery meter to digital readout
-insert Favorities screen between Start and Apps, so a single swipe left goes to Favorites (list) and a second swipe goes to All Apps. Just like with the Start screen, everything in Favorites would also be in Apps, so no issues when apps are updated. And you could pin apps to Favorites or remove from Favorites, same as you can do it today with Start. That would really simplify a long apps list and eliminate the need to add often, but not everyday, apps as a Start tile. Don’t think this would impact performance in any way. Or, a People style alphabet listing on Apps screen.
-haptic feedback for keyboard and keypad
-an active hub on the home screen for seeing and switching WiFi, BT & Data connections
Both are probably right. What Chris Walsh saw was probably much more than just the initial update that MS (via Ina Fried) is talking about. MS will release all those “massive” features in stages. That makes sense since we are pretty close to CDMA launch and they may have frozen the build with just the C&P and CDMA support. The rest will come soon afterwards, I think.
MicroSoft are not really in the mobile phones business however this is a very nice stepping stone to the ultimate mobile device – a device we now call a phone with some computer apps will become a computer with phone capabilities – in a current sized smartphone package.
I’m not sure why else MicroSoft would venture into mobile phones.
I have a feeling the update isn’t going to bs a good deal, as well. Might have to go with Android.
@shags38:
are you serious?
ya know – i heard McDonald’s was going to start serving breakfast.
LOL @ stefymarty. that was awesome
Improve Exchange support, please, Microsoft.
Also, the Office hub is very restrictive in its current form. It is pretty useless for those individuals who don’t use Sharepoint.
@stefymarty: Priceless!
I’d love to see even more Facebook integration in the People Hub, such that I can navigate to a friend’s photo albums and also access my inbox without ever having to use the Facebook app to do so.
Oh come on people – device encryption? How about that? I don’t want someone to know I had a free egg mcmuffin.