Microsoft needs to be better at recycling their own code and ideas
It’s getting a bit frustrating on the sidelines here. Microsoft has some great ideas and then releases something new that ignores or destroys the past as though that never happened or only releases it for one of its product lines. A few quick examples:
– Everything good that Zune software had to offer was killed when Xbox music came out
– The email client on Windows Phones is still better than Windows RT
– Remember when Windows Mobile let you control music with your voice? How about that Windows Phone?
– The spellcheck on Windows Phones and Windows RT are different. Hell the spellcheck from Windows Phone 7.8 and Windows Phone 8 are different. And remember when WM used to let you edit your own dictionary and you could add shortcuts like ‘ttyl’ would autocorrect to ‘talk to you later’ if you wanted?
– And WM used to let you control the data on emails you received so it only got the first few kilobytes of data. Great to control a data plan and when traveling.
– I think IE for Windows Phone still has more options than Windows RT. The menu in RT got crushed.
– Remember Microsoft Reader?
– Why doesn’t TellMe flow to the PC?
– The entire Live line (like Movie Maker) isn’t available on my Surface RT?
– When Windows 7 came out they had a Touch Pack with mapping and a few games. You can’t load that on Windows 8 though.
– Nokia took over mapping from Bing on Windows Phones but now all the data is dead. I used to have things like store hours…I used to
Chime in here guys there are plenty more examples. MS needs to be better at writing once and using that code or optimizing it. And using their ideas on all lines. They’ve long been dinged for not being cohesive and having fighting between divisions. They need to get over it and fight as a damn team. Share their ideas and make it happen across all products – you know, like a real company.
Every MS employee should all be forced to look at their resumes and past releases and revive at least one concept. And since they already have the base code I don’t want to hear about a release in 2014.
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WP7 messaging showed a smiley icon when it received a “:-)”, WP8 doesn’t. Why have they removed that sweet feature.
When searching for an address in WP7 Bing, the address was recognized as an address and it was a 2-click operation to get spoken navigation from here to there. In WP8 no address is found. Instead we have to use Nokia Drive, which takes 7 (!) clicks to start navigation. Plus typing(!!) the address in the searchfield because copy/paste doesn’t work there. Please re-enable the Bing/Address search!
Wow. I had no idea those two issues you brought up existed. I’m still using my WP7.5 phone so i’ve been unaware this had happened.
7 clicks to do anything is about 3-4 clicks too many.
Good valid points.. I hope MS brings back some features from this list..