Is the grass really greener?
I had an interesting conversation with a client today after she noticed I was using a Lumia 920. She identified the device by its eye popping red and came running over saying “oh, let me see, that’s the Nokia isn’t it?!” The discoveries to follow would be interesting.
I answered, “yes, the Windows Phone 8 one,” the look on her face was clear, she had no idea what a Windows Phone was. All she knew was it was the Nokia phone she’s been seeing all over tv and she wanted to play with it. I found it fascinating that the Lumia could exist as a brand of its own without people even understanding what ran the thing!
But things got a bit more strange, she asked about “kids corner.” admittingly, that was one feature I never even took 2 minutes to play with. So here I was struggling to find this feature in the settings to show her, all the while confused as hell why of all the features in the world, she’s drawn to kids corner. “AJ is always calling my boss lol, I swear this feature would be a life savor.” Well then, we spoke for a bit more, and to close out the convo, she expressed she really likes the phone, but she just purchased her iPhone 4s a few months back. But here is the kicker, she says “thanks for the demo Ramon…” as she pulls down her notification curtain to see what she’d miss while we were chatting.
UGH! here she was completely infatuated by my Lumia, and I was on my side of the fence green with envy, wishing I had some sort of notification hub! Isn’t that interesting? Where does it stop?
iPhone users would kill for some cutting edge hardware, Android users would kill for iOS app quality and Windows Phone is somewhere in the middle. Is it just me? Or do we all look at other platforms silently wishing, dreaming and yes… Hating?!
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Don’t need a notification hub but i’d gladly take on Google Now. I think there are aspects of each major mobile platform we wish we had on our favorite platform. I’m almost always right next to my phone and almost always on my laptop so if I get a notification i’m not going to miss it often.
i’ll trade you google now for google+
Mmm, maybe a little. I’d love notifications hub too.
I think wishing for more is very common, in whatever we do.
Really? I’m always using the ME tile to check my notifications!
exactly. If Microsoft could allow us to swipe right (left is for kids corner) on the lock screen, and takes us to Me Tile, that should be enough I believe.
Honestly up until the horrible camera on the iPhone 5 I never had hardware envy except for a larger screen. I even got used to the 4 inch screen and only sometimes wish they could have made it slightly bigger as well as wider. But I have never had app envy obviously. After owning the Titan 2 I will say I miss the email and live tiles. They are so refreshing instead of the same size icons and folders that do nothing.
Ok, what is so great about a notification hub? I just dont get it. I wake my phone I see all my new emails, texts and calls on the lock screen. I slide up the curtain and I see them on individual tiles that I can choose to review or not. How is another app or section of the operating system going to make the experiance better? Why is this so important to people?
people don’t understand that the home screen IS the notification hub. Why do you want an extra swipe?
^This^
God forbid you challenge people to think outside the already incredibly small box that the mobile device users have stuffed themselves into (Long-ass run on sentence!)
Too much crying about nothing these past few weeks.
I’ve given this a little more thought (really, I was half asleep last night when I read this).
I was trying to figure out WHAT I’d need a notification hub FOR. (Not ever having seen it done on any other platform.) Messages? I can see that on my tile. Emails? FB posts? Tweets? Me tile or Twitter client tile. Missed phone calls/messages? Phone tile.
The only think I could come up with was a timelined-view of these notifications. And … that didn’t seem to be a deal-breaker.
So I’m going to backtrack and change my position (female perogative – shush): unless someone can tell me what your iOS or Android notification center can do that my live tiles CAN’T, I don’t know that I really DO need/want it. @Camilo, above, is right: the start screen IS my notification center – FB, Twitter, phone, games, everything.
So Smith, Simmons, enlighten us: what does the notification center do that WP’s live tiles don’t? This isn’t goading, it really is an honest, I-have-no-clue question.
Thank you Marti! I can understand a notification hub IF and ONLY IF it can be done within the OS… meaning don’t do what ios did and outright copy android. Otherwise crying that MS won’t do what the others are doing is complete bullshit.
Are you guys serious about this? Okay, how about being able to see all notifications in one place without having to open each individual app? How about being able to preview the notification without launching an app?
Not to be rude, but you guys need to take off the windows love goggles and see that on WP notifications suck!
An overview of all the notifications before opening them as well as time received is a neat addition.
What I would really miss from my android device if it didn’t anymore have the notification bar is shortcuts feature.
There are many toggles there from wi-fi and bluetooth to airplane mode and screen rotation on/off + the ability to add more or remove some.
An extremely usefull brightness control slider is in my notification menu too ( I don’t like auto-brightness )
App shortcuts can be placed there as well as music player controls although I don’t use either so I removed them.