Live anywhere ushered in by Win Mo 7 ?

[Silent_Buddha]

So no drag&drop like you can currently do? I hate that, I dont want to install extra software just to do something like copy music or video.

But how will the wireless syncing work? I now use outlook on my home pc to sync contacts and the agenda but outlook isnt online so how is wm7 going to sync?

Not sure, I'm not interested enough to scour smartphone centric sites. And all the articles released during the launch didn't go into detail.

If I were to guess (and probably be completely wrong), I'd guess that MS were working on a new way to store/share your information, contacts, documents, etc. through their cloud computing initiative. That would allow "easy" or "seamless" sharing between multiple disparate devices with the ability to access your information from anywhere in the world.

Again, chances are that guess of mine is completely off base.

Regards,
SB

 

[joker454]

You must be talking about the windows version, the mac version of itunes works fine and fast, however the windows version is crappy.

I was talking about both. I use iTunes both on my overpriced problem riddled Mac, but I tried it on PC as well. Aside from bugs/crashes/usability issues, it's draconian only-works-on-one-machine-at-a-time nature ultimately limits it's long tern usefulness to me. I tolerate it for now since I have no choice (I don't really like other phones compared to iPhone) but I'm hoping the Winmo7 phone will be good enough for me to relegate the iPhone as a dev tool only.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

it's draconian only-works-on-one-machine-at-a-time nature ultimately limits it's long tern usefulness to me.

This is the worst feature of iTunes and is borderline criminial in my estimation! My sister wanted some new CDs ripped to her iPod, without access to her PC, which is where I learnt how crappy iTunes is. As she said, if she new the iPod would be this much trouble, she wouldn't have bought it. Any media player needs to be able to play drag-and-drop DRM-free files from a connected PC/console. By all means try to create user friendly software, but never withdraw the ease and straightforwardness of an obvious approach to handling ones files.

 

[Florin]

This is the worst feature of iTunes and is borderline criminial in my estimation! My sister wanted some new CDs ripped to her iPod, without access to her PC, which is where I learnt how crappy iTunes is.

If you switch from 'Automatically sync songs to my iPod' to 'Manually manage music' mode, you can add music from other machines. I use it with 'Only sync checked items' to have fine control over which playlists go from where.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Yes, we found the solution in the end. Point being though, it should be seemless and intuitive. It plays music files, ergo if I put a music file on it, it should play!

 

[NRP]

Well, this is interesting stuff. Looks like Apple's got some competitors now, which is good for us users.

 

[idsn6]

Yes, we found the solution in the end. Point being though, it should be seemless and intuitive. It plays music files, ergo if I put a music file on it, it should play!

It's "draconian" and "borderline criminal" that this optional setting was not obvious enough for you?

 

[Asher]

It's "draconian" and "borderline criminal" that this optional setting was not obvious enough for you?

It's an issue because no, it's not obvious enough. I've helped at least half a dozen upset friends/family on this already. It's a stupid default setting that upsets a lot of people.

 

[Florin]

It's an issue because no, it's not obvious enough. I've helped at least half a dozen upset friends/family on this already. It's a stupid default setting that upsets a lot of people.

Well, the thing is, most users are probably happy to have it in braindead mode. As in, add some music to my library on my computer, and it'll automagically end up on my ipod next time I hook it up.

That paradigm breaks if you start to use multiple computers, which is probably the less common use case of the two. So to me it kinda makes sense that the more flexible option is not the default.

But it'd surely be helpful if automatic mode would do more than just offer to wipe the ipod clean and start from scratch when you hook it up to another PC. It could just as easily offer to switch to manual mode imho.

Still, I'm not the one who has to man the support helpdesk at Apple, maybe they want to avoid opening this can of worms until users actively start to search for it.

 

[joker454]

If you switch from 'Automatically sync songs to my iPod' to 'Manually manage music' mode, you can add music from other machines. I use it with 'Only sync checked items' to have fine control over which playlists go from where.

That doesn't help for apps, contacts, notes, etc. I tried the using my iPhone with multiple machines, but I had my contacts wiped many times, notes duplicated, apps re-arranged and/or removed, etc. Eventually I just gave up and I only use it on one machine now which is limiting, but I'm tired of having to worry about my data being lost and/or scrambled.

 

[Florin]

That doesn't help for apps, contacts, notes, etc. I tried the using my iPhone with multiple machines, but I had my contacts wiped many times, notes duplicated, apps re-arranged and/or removed, etc. Eventually I just gave up and I only use it on one machine now which is limiting, but I'm tired of having to worry about my data being lost and/or scrambled.

True, that doesn't help for that kind of data, but this problem isn't confined to iTunes. I've had duplication issues happen frequently when using Activesync on Windows mobile devices from more than one computer, which is why there are 10s of de-duplicator utilities available for Outlook. And Blackberries don't even pretend to try support synching to a single user account from multiple Blackberry Enterprise servers.

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

Well if you set it up wrong that is what happens. I never had dupicates or whatever syncing between my WM phone, laptop and pc. As long as you make sure to select the syncing where it checks for dates of creation etc your good to go in my experience.

 

[AzBat]

Make your voice heard about Xbox Live on Windows Phone 7 Series. Microsoft's Ozymandias(aka Andre Vrignaud) has posted on his blog seeking feedback(product team will see it)...

http://www.ozymandias.com/your-thoughts-on-xbox-live-and-windows-phone

I've already posted.

Tommy McClain

 

[scently]

This is really cool, it is a video showing cross platform gaming and development between the 360, windows and WP7S.
http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/06/microsoft-shows-off-single-game-running-on-windows-windows-phon/

 

[eastmen]

This is really cool, it is a video showing cross platform gaming and development between the 360, windows and WP7S.
http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/06/microsoft-shows-off-single-game-running-on-windows-windows-phon/

yea t seems cool. I really think that being able to play say hexic on my 360 then getting on the bus to the city and bringing out my phone and picking up the game right where I left off is amazing.

 

[NeoTechni]

I was waiting for PSN integration and remote play through more devices, as envisioned by Sony but it looks like Sony may be much slower in its integration than MS

Eh? Sony has already put RemotePlay on some of their cell phones.
PSP can play PS1 games and PSN minis from PS3, even sharing save data.

Sony has already done this!

Though I remember an MS rep telling me MS planned this about a year ago. About the time I sold my Zune for an ipod touch.

Make a zune phone

I was under the impression that's what WinMo7 is...

You're definitely in the minority, because all WM versions have absolutely terrible usability,

You're definitely in the minority that feel that way

WinMo6 is very user friendly, and has more features than iphone will ever get. Look at how long copy/paste and tethering took

 

[NeoTechni]

Aren't Sony rolling out their PSN services through their internet enabled TVs?

March 21st

The PSP is not a widely used device though

56.8 million isnt widely used? There are less iphones than that.

Sony was planning to do it with phones and other devices too

And they have

The XMB was supposed to see its way in more devices as well

And it has! It's in bluray players, TVs, cell phones!

 

[joker454]

So does anyone think they are just too late with this? Live on phones seems uber cool to me, but I wonder if they are just too far behind to catch up in the phone space. Apple and Sony aren't really threats, Apple's restrictive practices will always limit their potential and Sony can't be trusted to put together a proper long term business plan that isn't full of holes. But Google seems really on the ball with their phones and long term plan, plus they share app revenue with phone partners and don't charge OS licensing fees. Makes me wonder if Android will totally take over. Microsoft has come from behind before but that was only against easy foes like Apple who like to shoot themselves in battle, they haven't really faced a hungry foe like Google before.

 

[scently]

Android's fragmented model is not really good, especially when it comes to gaming, too much hardware variety.

 

[joker454]

Android's fragmented model is not really good, especially when it comes to gaming, too much hardware variety.

That's true, but what I often here from people when it comes to phones is who cares about games? In other words, as far as becoming a major player games are not really the main determining factor. As long as there are some decent games apps, the usual solitaire, defense type games, etc, then it won't be a major issue. More important is stuff like cloud, tethering, choice of real keyboard or no keyboard, stability, etc...

In my case I have an iPhone currently and I do have some games on it. But issues like no physical keyboard, no tethering ability, no multi tasking, atrocious iTunes, etc, are pushing me to other phones even though I know there won't be as many games on it.

Having said all that, if games do matter significantly then ironically MS waiting so long to bring out a good phone could be a big advantage as their base spec should be really high, so all games will support it compared to say iPhone where 3gs is rarely supported on games.