Engadget Played With a WP7 Prototype
Good to see that MS is letting some third parties play with actual devices…even if it was being closely supervised:) Engadget was provided with a Samsung prototype which they say will never hit the streets. This makes sense though. This is a phone slapped together to test WP7 and we should all expect that WP7 will be on an updated chassis that’s slimmed down and more modern and not a year old casing. So let’s ignore the hardware. Regarding the software, they say:
That testing is going quite well, as far as we can see — Microsoft’s people are starting to carry WP7 devices as their personal phones now, and while the software is still quite buggy, the build we saw in action was noticeably faster than before.
Faster = good. Quite buggy = bad. We’re supposed to be near ready to release to manufacturers so it shouldn’t be buggy any longer. It could be problems with the hardware but that’s mere speculation…it could also be shitty software:) Also of interest, take a look at this photo. Again, no details are provided but the image is clearly not taking up the entire screen. We’ll just have to wait…
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Based on the comment above it looks like early WP7 users can expect a whole bunch of pushed updates. But no worries. All the apps that you will ever need are built-in to the ROM and all of your data will be in the cloud, Any purchased apps will com from Marketplace. Can’t tweak anyway and why change any of the settings. I am sure MS set the most appropriate defaults.
So will this happen maybe once a week on Wednesdays. In the middle of a conversation with the boss, your phone will simply power off and reload the OS. Then it will reload your purchased apps, followed by your data, photos, videos, music, etc. I can’t wait.
Or it cuts off in the middle of conversation with your boss and never comes on again! Yay for forced OTA updates!
aren’t you ladies being a little dramatic? You use a computer – it gets updates and asks if you want to install them or not. We know that large updates will be by USB/wifi only. Why would you presume that the method will be any different than a PC, or iphone or Android?
As for reloading your info – we know apps will reload based on your password and we expect all user data to be backed up a la MyPhone or whatever the new version will be named.
But DavidK, this is Microsoft’s last big chance (really) in the mobile phone arena. So when they find a glitch and a fix don’t you think they will be compelled to push that fix out and not wait for users to complain while they struggle with the glitch. Sort of like taking your Castor Oil today so you feel better tomorrow. Have you never had a critical update pushed to a PC or server. Microsoft’s mantra has always been to work meticulously on one component of an OS and then almost completely ignore another. It’s bound to happen.
And even if Microsoft gives you the option to choose where and when you want to load an update (I really do hope they offer that option in the first release….and not coming soon) are they going to make it clear to new Smartphone users what the update involves. I hope they do. Waiting an hour for everything to load and update will not be a very pleasant experience, which will make users reluctant (if allowed) to do it again, causing them to work with crippled devices while spouting obcenities about Microsoft.
I honestly want to see Microsoft succeed (although I may be buying my Tilt2 & HD2 handsets from eBay for many years to come) but they need to understand the reality of the market and that is users want a postive experience out of the box, not incremental improvements and updates. So let Steve Ballmer get up on a podium once a year and tickle us with all the new features and improvements of WP7 (or 8 or 9), but don’t bog us down with things that should have been right and there the first time.
I got an email for Microsoft Office 2010 yesterday. Who the hell needs Office 2010. I thought Office 2003 was damn near perfect. So move some resources over to WP7 and just get it right already. Forget about this partial release crap. This is war baby. Time for Microsoft to step up to the plate and take a swing for the rafters. I do hope they don’t strike out. Don’t even want to contemplate the alternative.
ok I agree that at the beginning we can expect more updates than we will as it gets more mature. Looking at Android, it was getting biweely updates at the beginning. MS is not going to do that. That’s why the release date is Holiday 2010 and not August 2010 by the way. That’s also why they said it was a v1.0 release (whereas Google admitted its initial release was a v.8). As for location of updates, WP7 has one file system so there’s no choise as to where to install. There will be both small updates (OTA) and larger ones (that require wifi of USB – same as the iPhone). I wouldn’t expect a real disruption to the phone. Unlinke 6.5 they created an OS that can be upgraded incrementally (like your PC) so patches can be installed, soft reset and good to go. I presume the only major change that would wipe and have to reload may be when they upgrade the CE core but that’s a bit off for now;)
We know some things will be missing from the initial release – cut and paste, broader multi-tasking, some APIs, etc. These are all relatively minor. Really – running Silverlight and XNA on a damn phone is pretty sick no matter how you look at it:) Silverlight can do lots of tricks like streaming full HD video and we’ll see a lot of apps include streaming real time tv plus the ability to interact with the screen (like the HSN app but let’s think about that applied to sports maybe). And XNA means xbox quality games come to a phone. Another mistep is no native framework for multiplayer games…again – they want a perfect usabiltiy experience and then they’ll fill in these gaps. Call me an earlier adapter – i want in! 🙂
OK, I will let you off the hook this time. But remember, WP7 is not being created for you and I (although we may benefit from it). It’s being engineered (or better be) for the millions of non-Smartphone users ready for something new and current users who are not content with the iPhone or Android platforms. We experts may be able to tolerate incremental updates and a few “what the heck just happened to my phone” events (hey, we do today), but anything short of near perfect from the launch for the masses is going to cause the kind of reaction that will cripple the platform. First impressions mean everything.