VINDICATION!!!!1!

"ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable)" (adabofoppo) 04/07/2018 at 10:15 • Filed to: Windows Phone, Microsoft, Eat Shit Google, And Apple

0

14

Suck it haters. Windows Phone was awesome.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

jimz > ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable) 04/07/2018 at 10:23

2

yes it was, it was the one I liked using the most. to me Windows Phone 7.5 was the best of the bunch in terms of UI. I thought the pivots and panoramas in apps were well thought out. And the Start Screen with Live tiles has never been matched for its combination of flexibility, usefulness, and ease of use. iOS is pretty damn inflexible; the use of the home screen as a dumping ground for app launcher icons is tired out. Android widgets have never been terribly useful. or reliable.

sadly I had to face facts and went back to the iPhone. I’m a heavy user of CarPlay and Android Auto just sucks in comparison. 

jimz > ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable) 04/07/2018 at 10:24

6

and I’ll note that there’s some irony in the Verge publishing this, since they were one of Windows Phone’s most relentless critics when it first launched.

JawzX2, Boost Addict. 1.6t, 2.7tt, 4.2t > ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable) 04/07/2018 at 10:26

3

As a former WP user and recent Android switcher...yup. I miss it too. y’know what else I miss, webOS... HP really screwed the pooch on that one.

facw > ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable) 04/07/2018 at 10:42

2

I mean, I think most reviewers felt that WP was the best mobile phone OS (unless they preferred webOS). iOS is dated, and Android is sort of clunky and hacked together.

Microsoft just was never able to get the ecosystem buy in they needed. There are a lot of reasons for that, though I think one huge problem was their decision to make a lot of devices AT&T exclusives. If you are trying to get people to adopt your device, you don’t want to make it so they have to switch carriers to do so. Especially when AT&T was mainly just going to keep pushing the iPhone.

ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable) > jimz 04/07/2018 at 10:43

1

Agreed about CarPlay versus AA. I have used both, and AA is a laughable pile of garbage compared to CarPlay. If iOS wasn’t so stale, I would have an iPhone now.

I have, if not an outright hostile, an uneasy, but working relationship with my OnePlus 5 using the MS launcher and Outlook. But Holy Cows make Swiss cheese! do I wish I could still use CarPlay whenever I need to get directions somewhere.

winterlegacy, here 'till the end > ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable) 04/07/2018 at 10:44

0

Windows Phone seemed kind of nice, but at the time they were releasing WP devices Android was also becoming quite a big thing. For me, the fact that I could fully customize my Android tablet (hooray for China releasing their devices rooted!) was enough to keep me in the Android ecosystem.

I honestly think another problem was that WP got some serious stigma from the release of Win8 from people who could connect the dots to the mobile platform.

ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable) > jimz 04/07/2018 at 10:47

3

Criticism in and of itself isn’t a bad thing. Sometimes the harshest critics are the ones who want the best for what they are criticizing. And I never felt The Verge was unfair about their points. Most were entirely valid. MS was >< close making a truly great OS, and I have felt for years that MS being in the mobile OS space improved iOS and Android.

I bought the Lumia 920 the day it was available on the AT&T’s website because of how different and refreshing it felt to use. I miss that feeling when using a phone.

ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable) > winterlegacy, here 'till the end 04/07/2018 at 10:50

2

I never understood the issue with Windows 8, and I guess that was because I was using a Windows Phone device. Tiles were exactly like icons. You click them and the open that program. This isn’t difficult to understand.

jimz > ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable) 04/07/2018 at 11:11

0

some people just can’t handle it when someone moves their cheese.

jimz > ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable) 04/07/2018 at 11:12

3

it wasn’t so much valid criticism, but moar liek Apple-centric “LOOL why are these idiots even trying M$ sux LOL”

jimz > ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable) 04/07/2018 at 11:18

1

honestly navigation was the one redeeming feature in AA. Everything else was a dumpster fire. well, that and the fact that you could use an alternative app like Waze. But the big problem was that when just using the map (no nav) the contrast was so low it looked like I was driving through a sea of light grey; it was nearly impossible to see the outlines of the roads.

the biggest dumpster fire was playing music. I had the 128 GB Pixel 2, so I loaded it up with all of my music files. unlike CarPlay, however, AA does not allow browsing through music files for more than a couple of scrolls. CarPlay will, so long as you’re not moving. And the Google Assistant was absolutely useless at trying to play music using voice commands. it utterly refused to search for anything locally on the phone, and would instead pull something from Google Play music which had nothing to do with what I actually asked for.

Siri, on the other hand, works as well (or better) than SYNC when it comes to this. I have to admit, Apple may be slow to change things or add new features, but they do tend to make sure the basics are rock solid first.

jimz > facw 04/07/2018 at 11:25

2

I doubt they wanted to make them AT&T exclusive, but that it’s relatively simple to release something for AT&T/T-Mobile using global hardware. Verizon and Sprint need CDMA hardware, and you also need their approval before the device can be granted the “honor” of working on their network. And VZW/Sprint were never eager to do much to support Microsoft.

winterlegacy, here 'till the end > ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable) 04/07/2018 at 15:03

0

For someone who’s used to clicking the start button to access a list of programs (i.e. how they did it since Win98 all the way to 7,) 8 was a smack in the face. Additionally their start menu hogged the entire screen instead of only taking up what it needed to.

I guess that’s because, again, I’m more of a traditional user, and expect certain things to be accessible. Windows 10's start menu is a step in the right direction IMO, but still isn’t what I’m looking for.

What I like about Windows 10's Start Menu is that it tries to be simpler, but still lets people use the Live Tiles if they’re familiar with mobile/touchscreen devices. What I don’t like is not having the option for a simple two-column list that I can have all of my entries in. One of my other problems is how Windows 10 handles signing out/locking - while I still use WINKEY+L to lock my computer, I’m used to clicking the shut down button to log out as well. I guess it makes more sense if you think about “if I click on my profile picture I should be able to log out” but at the same time it feels a little redundant.

boxrocket > ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable) 04/07/2018 at 19:45

1

I still daily my 950XL (using it to write this, actually!). My 1520, 1020 (favorite WP), 920 (close second) 520, 900, and Alcatel Fierce XL all still work great except the 1520's cracked screen.

I strongly hope Microsoft makes a Surface Phone, if only so that I can get an even more advanced camera than my 950XL, which is great and so fast, but is outclassed by the newest Android flagships. It has to have a camera button, though.