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Hi everybody !
After a year of lurking, i've published my first app !
It's called Tick! and it's a simple timer but i've worked hard on making it easy to launch.
Since there is no wheel selector on the sdk, I've developed one to set the number of minutes wanted. With three clicks, you can launch a timer to remaind you that your pastas or your eggs are ready !
Your comments are welcome !
Since I'm new on the forum, I'm currently not allowed to post external links, so if you want to try it, search for Tick! on the market or SlideMe. I will put images, links and QR-Code as soon as i will be allowed !
RabugenTom
Nice app. Any plans on releasing the source
Any chance for an APK for those of us without data?
Nice
Good Work Buddy works perfectly on Xperia X10i
Thanks for the replies ! I've added the apk posted on the market.
I'm working on an improved version !
Agreed, Great work RabugenTom. Love the custom wheel selection.
Have to admit, though, I'm dying to have multiple timers. I'm not sure off the top of my head how they would fit in with your snazzy countdown timeline, but I'm sure it could be done.
+1 for release of the source
Love the app... Mightve been nice if it worked with 30sec increments as well but that might just be me, and there are other more robust timer apps for when you need that i guess.
One thing I noticed though... If the app is open and showing on the screen (IE - not in the background while working on something else or on one of the home screens), Tapping the app notification (in the notifications pane) will "reopen" the apps interface, and this can be done multiple times.
Basically you end up with multiple instances of the same timer... So if youre looking to go back to whatever was open before - home screen or other - by pressing the back button, youll just close the last instance you "opened" via the notification, taking you back to the previous instance of that same timer, and so on until you reach the first one that was opened when you started the app.
It doesnt seem to affect the functionality of the app in any way that ive seen, but it is rather odd.
Sort of like tapping the notification calls on the wrong "show" function, opening a new window rather than un-hiding the original.
Thanks for the feedbacks !
I'm working on an improved version with pause mode, multiple timers and 30s increments. I will maybe release the source later, after a lot of cleaning !
For the notifications, it's the behavior of android which works by intents. Theses are sort of messages send to applications. Intents depends on something they call Context. This is very powerful since you can launch (or do whatever you want to) an application in different ways, and the behavior of the application can depend on the intent. For example, when you launch an application from the launcher on the home screen, you actually send an intent to the application.
In the Tick! case, when you click on the notification, you send an intent to bring back to foreground (if hidden) or relaunch (if closed) the application GUI (which is different from the counting "engine" which is a background process called Service). The intent sent from the notification is different from the one you used to launch it, thats why it relaunch the GUI because the system thinks it is a different context (which is the case).
You can try it : launch from the launcher, launch a timer, go back to the home screen. Now, the GUI is no more in foreground. If you open the notification bar an click on the notification it will relaunch the GUI as expected, and if you continue to click on it again, it will do nothing (as expected). That's because the second time you launched the app, you did it by sending an intent from the notificiation bar, which is different from the one from the launcher.
Now, i don't find this behavior very annoying, and I don't want to write 100 lines of code to handle differents cases! A trivial solution may exist, but I'm too novice with Android to look at it. If someone knows this easy solution, it will be a pleasure to implement it !
Very nice timer. However I have found two problems:
1. When selecting the notification tone, "Default" plays my ringtone when previewing, but when used for real it plays the default notification sound instead.
2. I used Tick for a five minute countdown several hours ago, and afterwards I exited the program and cleared the notification, but it still prevented my phone from sleeping all these hours, draining the battery severely. I had to use a process killer to get my phone to sleep.
Do you really need to keep the phone from sleeping, even during the countdown? A timer is just an alarm with a countdown, and alarms work even when the phone is sleeping. You just have to update the progress every time the phone wakes up. Right?
Hi,
1-I will look on the notification problem. It is quite strange since it always worked for me. Note that the parameter are set for the notification at the launch of the counter. Every change you make will affect only new countdowns. When you exit the app, it always save the last parameters, even made during a countdown, and restore them at a relaunch. So it is strange, and since i've improved again the counting engine, I hope this will be solved in the coming release.
2-You're right, I've found conditions when the wake-lock is not released at the end of the countdown. It's set now. However, the wake-lock requested is partial and does only concern the CPU, not the screen. I've tested again your version on my unplugged G2 and it behave just well.
The CPU is required to fire an alarm even in sleep mode. Thats because i don't use the alarm service of the device which only check every new minute if there is something to do.
And when it's in sleep mode, only a tiny service is counting. The GUI is stopped and it's memory given back.
May I ask what model of phone you use?
RabugenTom said:
May I ask what model of phone you use?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm using an HTC Desire.
I've just added here (and on the market) the version 1.3 which resolves a lot of issues (for exemple, the service exits as soon as it's no more used, thanks to bugmenever) and adds a pause mode (long click on the button)
RabugenTom said:
Now, i don't find this behavior very annoying, and I don't want to write 100 lines of code to handle differents cases! A trivial solution may exist, but I'm too novice with Android to look at it. If someone knows this easy solution, it will be a pleasure to implement it !
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
im fairly certain there is something simple out there to handle this, but as opposed to you being novice with android, i have 0 experience programming for it. and youre right, its not THAT annoying, and certainly not worth most your work time at this point.
Happy to hear about all those plans though! look forward to seeing them in action
keep up the good work!
To begin, I am/was a "fanboy" of Windows and Windows Mobile. My first "smartphone" was the Toshiba 2032 running Windows Mobile 5. My next phone was a PPC-6700 using Windows Mobile 5 and my last phone was the PPC-6800 using Windows Mobile 6.1. I honestly detest the iPhone and Mac computers and go out of my way to stay clear of those "popular" items. I'm not even a fan of the Android operating system. I played on it for a while and it seemed "meh" to me. What I was looking for was an "iPhone Killer" in the HTC Arrive with WP7. What I got was the iPhone/Kiddie Phone Light....
Perhaps I had grown too accustomed to the various customization options offered by previous versions of Windows on cell phones. Perhaps Windows Phone 7 has decided to no longer be a "businessman's phone." I understand that the market was for general consumers but to shift so far away from their original product, well that just sucks.
The Good
1. THE SPEED OF THE HTC ARRIVE AND WP7 IS EXCELLENT. Apps load quick and easy and without lag. I am impressed by how quickly my phone restarts once completely shut down. I measured the time it took the PPC-6800 to load the operating system in minutes where the Arrive load time is measured in seconds.
2. THE SMOOTHNESS OF THE SCREEN OPERATION AND WP7. Flicking my thumb, I can quickly scroll across to another page or scroll down a long list of applications installed on my phone. It also works well within applications and using internet explorer.
3. THE MAIN START SCREEN. I like the way almost any app can be pinned to the main start screen for quick and easy access.
4. PLENTY OF PROGRAM MEMORY. I remember how I had to shut down programs on my PPC-6800 in order to conserve memory, especially if I was using Opera 10 for browsing the internet. So far, I have not had any slow-downs or freezes due to have various programs open on my phone.
5. THE PHONE INTERFACE. I like the way the phone works in that the screen goes black when you are using the phone up to your ear so that your cheek, ear, whatever doesn't hit any buttons and when you pull the phone away, it recognizes this and gives you the options to end call or open the keypad.
6. CALLS ARE CRYSTAL CLEAR. So far, the calls have been great, but I've only used it in an office setting or in my vehicle. I have yet to visit a construction jobsite with heavy machinery moving around. I'll see how it works in that scenario soon enough.
7. THE SCREEN. Wow! I love the screen. HD Movies are clear, colors are vibrant, it seems the screen is one of the best features.
8. THE CAMERA. Some may disagree, but I think the camera on this phone is good. Not great, but good. It is good enough to take photos. The only change I would make would be for the camera to remember the previous settings and not default back to 5MP.
The Bad
1. HUGE CHANGE FROM WINDOWS MOBILE. I think the Microsoft Programmers were too influenced by the Apple iOS and Android to stay with what they originally had in terms of "Windows" operating system. The name of the operating system is "Windows" so just keep it with actual windows on the phone. They moved so far away from the standard windows operating system that it isn't even recognizable. Was Windows Mobile really that bad? I was able to be quite productive with WM, let's hope WP7 proves to be the same.
2. CUSTOM OPTIONS. The phone leaves little for customization in terms of giving the user options for color, background, theme or even the transfer of multimedia or files (see Ugly #1). It seems Microsoft has made the statement, "Do it OUR way or not at all!"
3. HARD KEY SENSITIVITY.. I can't count how many times my fingers have accidentally hit the "search, windows, or back" keys on the face of the phone while browsing, texting, or picking up the phone. I like having the keys there, but they are too sensitive to the touch!
4. PHONE VOLUME. The volume maxes out at the number "30" which seems fine for a quite office or home setting but at the gym, driving, outdoors, or at a jobsite, one should be able to crank it louder. I hope HTC or Microsoft can come out with some kind of fix or crack to allow for greater volume on this phone.
5. A KEYBOARD WITH A "SMILIES" BUTTON. Seriously? Is this a kid's phone or an adult's phone. I'm ok with smiley use, but to actually have a key that pops up options for various smilies? My 3 year old daughter uses this, not me. That should have been my first hint that this phone was made more for adolescent teenie-boppers and not a businessman.
6. FORCED INTEGRATION OF CONTACTS. The worst is from Face book directly into the phone. I know I can turn it off when looking at contacts, but why not give me the option to import them or not. There are people that are FB friends that I don't even speak to or haven't spoken to since High School. I should have just downloaded the FB app and skipped logging into the phone's built-in FB app which to me is worthless.
7. NO FOLDERS FOR APPS. At this time, I don't have an overabundance of apps for the phone, but as time goes by, I might have need for more. Why not have folders for apps or the option to place them in folders so that I don't have to scroll down through a long list. Sure, scrolling is quick, but with 100 apps (if possible) it could take a while.
8. PHONE TEMPERATURE. Remember when Dell's laptops would burn people's legs because they became so hot? Well, the HTC Arrive may not cause burns but it is the first smartphone I have experienced that actually radiates heat from the battery compartment. Maybe this is a heat exchange issue to allow the phone to cool off. Maybe it is a big problem to come.
9. BATTERY LIFE. I know many have complimented the battery life of the HTC Arrive but I have to state that it is not as good as it should be. I have to charge the phone at least once a day and it has actually shut down on me twice before I could charge it, whereas the old PPC-6800 gave me plenty of warning before shutting down. I am disappointed with the batter life and will need to purchase a spare for long trips where I can't stop to recharge the phone.
The Ugly
1. TRANSFER OF FILES. Honestly, why are we forced to use Zune to transfer files to WP7? I used a "hack" to allow me to open WP7 in my explorer but now what do I do? Do I just transfer files over? The files on the phone are not in the window so I have no idea where the files are going! And what about "syncing" Word and Excel documents? How do I do that without having to upload them to a skydrive??? I've already had problems trying to transfer a single photo from my computer to my phone. Let me choose how I want to transfer files. I'm not an idiot, I can work with computer hardware and software, I did it flawlessly on WM5 & WM6 but now it seems Microsoft doesn't trust me to do this on my own so I am forced to use Zune!
2. MS EXCHANGE SYNC ISSUES. I am not the only one that cannot sync my e-mail, calendar, or contacts with my Microsoft Exchange Server here at work. I've read numerous items on the net about these issues. I was hoping that a Microsoft Windows Phone 7 would work flawlessly with Microsoft Exchange Server. It used to be a piece of cake to use ActiveSync to establish a physical connection for the option to Sync this data. Why not bring back that option?
3. AUTOMATIC TILT. Honestly, why do I need to have my screen tilt automatically? I understand if I don't slide out the screen all the way I don't have to tilt it, but why not give me the option to tilt like the TP2? HTC really screwed up on this one. In order to type with my thumbs and view the screen in tilt mode, I have to bend my wrists forward to compensate for the angle. What is the reason for the tilt, anyway? The only reason I could come up with for the automatic tilt was to annoy HTC Arrive users so much that they would rather use the onscreen keyboard than to use the physical one. This way, HTC can stop making phones with a physical keyboard which costs more to manufacture in terms of parts and labor!
4. NO REMOVABLE MEMORY CARD. I know one can remove and replace it with skill (at least on the 7 Pro) and with voiding any warranty, but this was one of the WORST ideas yet! After painfully transferring multimedia with Zune and realizing I had to do a hard reset for another reason, I lost all the information that was on the card! At least with the PPC-6800 a hard reset just lost my phone settings and programs but not everything on the memory card!
5. FORCED TO USE ONLY ONE LIVE ACCOUNT. This sucks big time! If you enter a live account and need to change it to another one later (I get waaaay too much spam in my hotmail account - and have turned off syncing with it) one has to do a hard reset on the phone to return it to factory settings and delete everything, including what is on the internal memory card. See #4.
6. NO UPLOADING OF VIDEOS DIRECTLY FROM THE PHONE. Sure, I can upload photos I've taken with the camera but I have to transfer the video to my computer (through Zune, see #1) in order to upload it to Facebook? Honestly, quit treating us like children and let us work with what we know! Microsoft has added yet another barrier/step to a process that used to be so simple!
7. NO 4G, NO EASY ACCESS TO WIFI OPTIONS. I understand that "4G" is possibly on its way out, but why not have the phone have that option. I don't even know if I am getting 3G service with this phone! Also, the ONE thing I would have stolen from the Android OS is the ability to scroll to my left from the start screen and access my communication options, Airplane mode, WiFi, 3G, etc... Having to scroll down numerous apps to get to the phone communication settings is just plain idiotic.
If I were grading the phone I would give it a solid C+. No, I'm not returning it for an Android, I am too much of a Windows user to give this up. I'm not sure how much of a "fix" can be done with some of the issues so I guess I will have to wait for a new phone to come out next year. By comparison, when the HTC PPC-6800 came out, I graded that as a B+/A-.
You said it.
Everything you said is correct. I'm with you. They need to fix all these issues.
I have the Arrive and its like they put us on lock down. They need to unlock this.
I agree with your ideas and i...:
VERY, VERY, VERY UGLY
The phone doesn't have the confortable phonepad of wm6.5 that i could use to get the contact of everybody with some pression.
agree with u on some, disagree on some
overall, i find this an upgrade over my touch pro, but although the execution leaves much to be desired, it's ms's fault, not htc's
u didn't mention a nice feature.
tried sliding out the keyboard when using IE in landscape mode vs using ie in landscape mode without the keyboard slid out?
??????
so what's going on!!!
I really love to work with WM or WP .... but the new htc phones have android...
We can simply write program for WM with Visual Studio . and WM is so user friendly and programmable . I Really need a phone like Htc 7 Pro - but with this OS ....
my previous phones are : K-Jam and Touch Pro -- both of them have keyboard and good style and very very user friendly - Touch pro simply upgrade to WM 6.5 with good Roms Like : Tael Rom ..
maybe they force us to use android ??
Sorry guys. You want endless customization and a huge developer/hacker community, Android is the current platform for that. Android has basically become exactly what WinMo is/was: does a lot, can endlessly modify anything and everything, but user experience is mostly poor.
As far as UI and the complete experience, the Arrive is really the best phone I've seen. It is smooth, intuitive, and just looks great. The style is really unique.
That being said, I will be trading for an Epic tomorrow. While I really like the overall experience on the Arrive, the M$ "branding" really limits it for now. I understand they are trying to get a baseline across all carriers/devices, and it is still an early OS, but this isn't really a "smart" phone as far as I'm concerned.
Coming from WinMo, this phone seems just as useful as an iPhone. No real customization options, no Mass Storage device, no way to even download a file from the internet. IE is not bad(or Cube) but there's not even any other browsers that aren't based on IE yet.
I know it's still early on, but I would rather go with a phone for now that lets me do what I want to do, or can be customized to do so. And can multitask. I have used my Touch Pro to fix people's computers, and can run a mostly functional(if battery eating) Android. I can't even change the Arrive's ringtone(although I do like 8-Bit).
This is a great comment that I agree with 100%. If you want an experience that is very similar to what Windows Mobile used to be, Android is the platform for you. There is a huge developer/hacker community out there doing lots of awesome things for an unbelievable number of devices. If you could do it on WinMo, chances are you can duplicate it on Android and it'll be easier to do. So to the OP who doesn't want to go with Android because he's a Microsoft Fanboy - well, your loss.
Personally, I've recently discovered that I'm either no longer a power user, or never really was one. Sure, I tethered used BT PAN and then WMWiFiRouter on the 6700, Mogul, Touch Pro, and then a similar solution on the Evo. But I've since moved to where my smartphone is no longer my primary internet connection. Windows Phone 7 does most everything else that I used my WM/Android phones for. There are still some gaps - I miss multitasking and Google Maps from Android, and I miss... well, I can't really say I miss anything from my WinMo days. Those days were great to begin with, but when I got my Evo, I swore I'd never go back. And yet it only took ten months for my love affair with Android to sour and I was right back to where I was with WinMo - endlessly customizing my device and never being truly satisfied with the results. Basically it comes down to UI performance for me, and right now iOS and WP7 are untouchable. Android has become a laggy mess (this was especially evident last weekend, when my friend showed me his brand new Droid2 Global and it was chugging and stuttering right out of the box). WebOS could have been a contender but terrible hardware and a glacial pace for updates have spoiled any momentum it once had. Which is a damn shame, because I think I'd like a Pre3 just as much as I like my Arrive, but the Arrive is here now and I've already fallen in love with it.
jaqual said:
As far as UI and the complete experience, the Arrive is really the best phone I've seen. It is smooth, intuitive, and just looks great. The style is really unique.
That being said, I will be trading for an Epic tomorrow. While I really like the overall experience on the Arrive, the M$ "branding" really limits it for now. I understand they are trying to get a baseline across all carriers/devices, and it is still an early OS, but this isn't really a "smart" phone as far as I'm concerned.
Coming from WinMo, this phone seems just as useful as an iPhone. No real customization options, no Mass Storage device, no way to even download a file from the internet. IE is not bad(or Cube) but there's not even any other browsers that aren't based on IE yet.
I know it's still early on, but I would rather go with a phone for now that lets me do what I want to do, or can be customized to do so. And can multitask. I have used my Touch Pro to fix people's computers, and can run a mostly functional(if battery eating) Android. I can't even change the Arrive's ringtone(although I do like 8-Bit).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You know, guys... I don't think it was Microsoft's intention to create the ultimate hacker phone.
thanks for the review with the anger.
i knew ms can do it again just like they did on winmo6.5.
now i know for sure not to touch anything cellphone related from ms.
Hmm, who has the anger issues?
I have upgraded from Mogul -> Touch Pro 2 -> HTC Arrive. All I can say that I am really happy with the update
I just got the Arrive and honestly, I love it. I haven't had any problems at all of any kind, ever.
I think the auto tilting thing will drive me nuts too... WHen I got my TP2 I used it a few times but, I can see how it got annoying and it's very rare that I tilt the screen now, unless it's got perfect with no light lost at a angle...I'd hate it
So let me preface by saying Ive gone from iPhone to Android and have been watching WP since launch and plan on it being my next OS after I can get a hold of an off contract Verizon phone relatively cheaply or when my upgrade is up. I love how fluid it seems with its native apps and I want to get away from my buggy and laggy/stuttering Droid X (Which is the same for everyone I know with one).
But there's some things that you really don't take into account when you don't actually use the device everyday, so I figured Id ask here and see how WP stacks up.
What I am looking for info on:
-I use Android's file system to store non-market/root APK's to reinstall apps after wiping/updating the phone and such. I would like to unlock my WP for things like screenshot utilities; how does that whole scene work in a quick summary? I know about Chevron, but how are these apps distributed, updated etc.?
-How are non-native apps with scrolling smoothness these days in Mango? I cant stand the lag and stuttering in Android.
-Can you download from IE to the file system with homebrew? How about natively?
-How does Skydrive work for installers/loading installers, PDF's and other non-Office files? Can you browse it like a filesystem, as I currently use it as a Network Drive on my PC anyways.
-Does the universal volume setup become an issue? I use my phone as my PMP with headphones all the time, then I need it to be on vibrate for class and in general, also alarms randomly, and occasionally I play games with the media on. Will I be missing alarms or leaving the ringer on in class if I don't pay close attention or is it mainly just when going headphones to media? I dont quite understand how it works specifically.
-Quick ways to toggle WiFi and screen brightness with homebrew?
-Back up options for app settings and things if a wipe happens?
-Do you find yourself ever getting annoyed with the animations or the app list for less used apps that still get accessed once in a while?
-How bad is board reader for browsing forums or the free reddit apps? They dont have great ratings.
-Am I going to be panning a lot in IE without text reflow? I usually browse/do everything in portrait and dont like landscape much FYI.
Anything you really miss about Android or iOS?
I only know of TouchXplorer for HTC for file management but im sure there are others for the other brands. Not sure how you would go about storing files for re installation. Dont think anyone has figured out how to invoke the xap installer from files on the phone. Most of these apps are found here on XDA
Most apps are pretty smooth. Depends on the dev. Id say they are all smoother than android though.
Dont think you can download to the file system from IE
You can access Skydrive from the office hub. You can open media files and pdfs etc. Once again not sure about install files.
I havent had a problem with the volume. I use my phone for media and games. I just put it on vibrate when i need to which is easy to do on the lock screen.
Cant toggle from the homescreen yet, there are apps that are shortcuts to the setting though
There is a homebrew backup program here on XDA somewhere
I dont get annoyed by the animations. They make for a nice experience
The XDA app is a version of board express i believe and its not too bad. I Haven't tried any of the Reddit apps
There is a bit of panning. I find its just easier to find a good zoom level that you can read it on
Hope i helped
Mike415 said:
What I am looking for info on:
-I use Android's file system to store non-market/root APK's to reinstall apps after wiping/updating the phone and such. I would like to unlock my WP for things like screenshot utilities; how does that whole scene work in a quick summary? I know about Chevron, but how are these apps distributed, updated etc.?
I've never used TouchXplorer, so I don't even know if it is compatible with Mango, but if it is it would be the only file explorer option I know of. WP is not designed as an open system, so file explorers are not officially supported.
-How are non-native apps with scrolling smoothness these days in Mango? I cant stand the lag and stuttering in Android.
I have around 175 third party apps installed on my phone, and at least half of them exhibit enough lag/stutter that it is noticeable, and some are quite annoying, even some of the major apps (such as Accuweather.com and USA Today). Generally, it seems that if an app is fetching data from the internet while it is also rendering to the display, you will probably notice some lag/stutter. I've never owned an Android, but from the videos I've seen on YouTube and also from what I've observed watching my son use his Samsung Captivate, the lag (at least in third party apps) is comparable.
-Can you download from IE to the file system with homebrew? How about natively?
All apps are sandboxed on WP, so downloading to "the filesystem" is not supported.
-How does Skydrive work for installers/loading installers, PDF's and other non-Office files? Can you browse it like a filesystem, as I currently use it as a Network Drive on my PC anyways.
Again, I don't know about homebrew, but generally speaking SkyDrive only supports photos and Office documents from your phone.
-Does the universal volume setup become an issue? I use my phone as my PMP with headphones all the time, then I need it to be on vibrate for class and in general, also alarms randomly, and occasionally I play games with the media on. Will I be missing alarms or leaving the ringer on in class if I don't pay close attention or is it mainly just when going headphones to media? I dont quite understand how it works specifically.
This one is a bit tricky. As far as missing alarms due to turning the ringer on or off, that is probably not likely. Turning vibrate-only mode on or off is remarkably simple on WP. Just wake up the phone, press either volume control, and then tap the ringer icon to toggle it on or off.
However, that is the good news. The bad news is that the universal volume means that having the volume high enough to be able to hear the phone ring from your pocket also means that any app, game or media will also blast out of the phone at annoyingly loud levels. And conversely, if you turn the volume down far enough to play a game or listen to music at a comfortable level, but forget to turn it back up when you are done, you will miss calls, guaranteed. It has happened to me more times than I care to count.
-Quick ways to toggle WiFi and screen brightness with homebrew?
Quick setting toggles are not supported. You can, however, get a reasonably adequate shortcuts to the four main toggles (WiFI, 3G, Airplane mode, and Bluetooth) on your start screen. The unfortunate annoyance is that, depending on how you lay out your start screen, you may have a few button presses/scroll swipes necessary to complete the toggle of a setting). As for brightness, there is no toggle support for that.
-Back up options for app settings and things if a wipe happens?
There is no support for backup of app settings, game saves or SMS messages, period. None at all. You can (using a homebrew app) perform a complete device backup, but it cannot be transferred to another device.
-Do you find yourself ever getting annoyed with the animations or the app list for less used apps that still get accessed once in a while?
Do the animations annoy me? Yes. Contrary to the apparently popular opinion here, I find much of the animation on the start screen to be gimmicky (the people hub, game hub, and "me" hub icons especially so). And many third party apps flip their icons for no reason at all, just for the sake of flipping it. For example Flixster flips the tile between a static photo of a currently-playing movie on one side (with the program icon in the corner), and the program icon filling the tile on the other side. It serves no purpose.
With that said, SOME of the app tiles are VERY useful, such as most weather apps, which usually flip between current conditions and forecast conditions. Being a weather junky, I love that feature.
Regarding the app list, it is more than just an annoyance, it is a major frustration for me, every single day. With no app grouping capabilities at all (I wouldn't care HOW it was implemented, I just want SOMETHING implemented), finding apps in a long list can be a real chore. I don't like it at all. If you only ever plan to have 20 or 30 apps, it might be OK. But if you need more than that, the number of taps and flicks and swipes needed to find and launch an app can be time-consuming.
-How bad is board reader for browsing forums or the free reddit apps? They dont have great ratings.
I've only used the trial version of Board Express, and didn't like it at all. Most of the reports from people here are that it is painfully bad to use.
-Am I going to be panning a lot in IE without text reflow? I usually browse/do everything in portrait and dont like landscape much FYI.
That depends entirely on the layout of the web sites you visit. On some sites, the tap-to-zoom works very well, and makes the text fill the screen (without reflow, of course) at a nominally readable size. But on other sites, it just doesn't help at all, and I end up panning quite a bit.
Anything you really miss about Android or iOS?
I've never owned either, so I can't say. However, unless things change I will most likely be moving to an iPhone within a couple of months. WP has a LOT going for it, but unfortunately (for me) it still has too many gaps in its features, and some of them are too annoying to just live with them and wait patiently on Microsoft.
I hope the features that I need do get added in future updates, because I'd be happy to switch back. But after reading the snarky attitude of many of the fans here, I can't help but wonder if that same attitude isn't prevalent at Microsoft, which would kind of imply that those features won't be coming any time soon.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My answers are in blue.
To be honest, from your questions, I would say you would be better off staying with android, don't get me wrong, i love wp7 and it does everthing i need it to do, but you may find some of the stuff you want is not available and get frustrated.
I just switched and am very happy! After two years on android, wp7 feels so smooth and coherent
IMHO, go to a store or carrier centre and request a WP7 and play with it, as from what I believe, everyone has their own preferences.
My advise would be to stay away if you're a tweaker, which is sounds like you are.
pillsburydoughman said:
My advise would be to stay away if you're a tweaker, which is sounds like you are.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was though, but sometimes you get sick of constantly flashing roms, chaning things around, and want something that just works.
I'm happy that now it seems as if I have much more time since I'm not constantly fiddling with my phone 24/7.
I guess that is dependent on the person themselves though
What I am looking for info on:
-I use Android's file system to store non-market/root APK's to reinstall apps after wiping/updating the phone and such. I would like to unlock my WP for things like screenshot utilities; how does that whole scene work in a quick summary? I know about Chevron, but how are these apps distributed, updated etc.?
*No, you will be stuck at your pc for deploying XAPs. However Dotcomp says there is a way to deploy XAPs from IE.
MS security is a complete joke, you can just download the XAPs from MS.
-How are non-native apps with scrolling smoothness these days in Mango? I cant stand the lag and stuttering in Android.
* Well get used to it, its the exact same on WP7. However there aren't many apps with long scroll list, most take advantage of Metro.
-Can you download from IE to the file system with homebrew? How about natively?
*NO, and no
-How does Skydrive work for installers/loading installers, PDF's and other non-Office files? Can you browse it like a filesystem, as I currently use it as a Network Drive on my PC anyways.
*Skydrive was a afterthought on this OS, my opinion. Works great for Office documents, OneNote, and pics. That's it.
-Does the universal volume setup become an issue? I use my phone as my PMP with headphones all the time, then I need it to be on vibrate for class and in general, also alarms randomly, and occasionally I play games with the media on. Will I be missing alarms or leaving the ringer on in class if I don't pay close attention or is it mainly just when going headphones to media? I dont quite understand how it works specifically.
* Depends on you. I'm used to multiple volume settings, so its a pain to me.
-Quick ways to toggle WiFi and screen brightness with homebrew?
* If you can call a wifi icon on homesreen quick, then yes, other than that NO.
-Back up options for app settings and things if a wipe happens?
*If on the go, NO. If at your PC, http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=19341502#post19341502
-Do you find yourself ever getting annoyed with the animations or the app list for less used apps that still get accessed once in a while?
* Actually the animations are what make this phone. They're pretty quick and elegant. I like the live tiles, but they ruin the glance and go concept, because I have to wait on it to flip.
The app list is horrid.
-How bad is board reader for browsing forums or the free reddit apps? They dont have great ratings.
*Board Express made by Tapatalk, is nothing like Tapatalk on Android or IOS. It is like a sick joke. The browser is faster on WP.
-Am I going to be panning a lot in IE without text reflow? I usually browse/do everything in portrait and dont like landscape much FYI.
* Double tap usually makes the text readable, but if the site has text and pictures you want to see, you're SOL.
Also if you like to read comments, or deal with a HTML5 website, you will find yourself having to load the full website a lot. I can't even get the smartphone version of mobile sites, IE9 doesn't render some correctly.
Anything you really miss about Android or iOS?
YES! GOOGLE APPS! GAMES!
Youtube on Android is the greatest, Lazytube comes close but you have to pay for it.
Im used to sitting on my couch and flinging websites and videos from my phone to the TV(google tv), impossible on WP7.
Custom SMS, ringtones, and email notifications. You can do custom ringtones but its a hassle.
I can say I like the Email on WP7, however its not instant like on IOS or Android.
Oh, there is no auto update option. If there is a app that needs updating you have to open the market and tell it to update.
---
All of that being sad, you could still be Happy using WP7. It just totally depends on what you use your phone for.
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my lady took over the vibrant, lol.
-------------
Another thing, some people say they get tired of flashing custom roms on Android. The exact same OPTION is avaliable on WP7. You don't HAVE to flash either.
there are no custom roms for my phone...
I was continually trying to get my phone smoother, and smoother on android.
I just don't feel the need to with this. Once again, just my own two cents. I never said that it would be the same for everyone
Thanks for the replies so far. It helped me get a better feeling for WP and it seems like I should really just wait for all the new OS updates like Ice Cream and iOS 5.x+/iPhone 5 before diving into WP. I am a slight tweaker of Android, but I don't actually want to do that very much anymore. I just want a phone that works and suits my needs. Android suits my needs, but doesn't really work great and it annoys me.
WP seems like it would be okay for me. Im not an app whore anymore since Ive been a smartphone user for several years now and I pretty much just like to be able to get the news, read some forums, text a lot, use yelp to find places to eat, and occasionally pass some time on leisure games. Android is pretty weak as far as finding decent games IMO and I think WP could actually be better in that regard (iPhone is the only one I would consider good for leisure games, but if Ive gotten by on Android this long I think WP could be okay, especially since I still would have an iPhone and Droid for those games). Right now, using Launcher 7 on Android I only use 2.5 screens of tiles so Im not going to have too much of an issue with the app list I think (Homebrew folders support will do me fine in that regard as I can toss all the leisure games in there also).
What I am still unclear on is viewing PDFs that are hosted on websites because its a situation that I run into frequently enough that I need it to be able to view PDFs from sites or Skydrive (Either one). Can I navigate with IE to a site with a link to a hosted PDF and view it or not?
Can I leave my phone on vibrate (no ring) and still play headphones without turning the ring back on in doing so? This would be a huge issue if not because I can't be having my phone go off in class all the time. I rarely take my phone off vibrate, so I want to make sure I can leave silent/vibrate on and still play Zune without turning the ringer back on.
Does vibrate mean that alarms only vibrate and dont sound? ie. do I need to take my phone off silent ringer/vibrate all night if I want to hear an alarm in the morning?
--
I like how well Microsoft has seemingly written WP and I think eventually it will be great after Win8 and WP8. Maybe I just need to hold off for those phones and not waste money getting an off contract phone. If Win8+WP8+XBOX+Live services doesnt bring very tight integration and some nice new features, I think I'll lose all the faith Ive put into Microsoft the past 15 years.
Mike415 said:
Can I leave my phone on vibrate (no ring) and still play headphones without turning the ring back on in doing so? This would be a huge issue if not because I can't be having my phone go off in class all the time. I rarely take my phone off vibrate, so I want to make sure I can leave silent/vibrate on and still play Zune without turning the ringer back on.
Does vibrate mean that alarms only vibrate and dont sound? ie. do I need to take my phone off silent ringer/vibrate all night if I want to hear an alarm in the morning?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
With Mango both of these issues are addressed. You can put your ringer on vibrate and still listen to music, and even adjust the volume without affecting the "vibrate only" setting. However, when you turn the ringer back on, it will be on at the current volume setting, not what it was before.
Also, you can have the ringer on vibrate and still hear alarms. In fact, alarms are now treated as "special" by the OS, and they ignore both the volume and ringer (vibrate) settings. They start low, and get progressively louder until dismissed.
Mike415 said:
I like how well Microsoft has seemingly written WP and I think eventually it will be great after Win8 and WP8. Maybe I just need to hold off for those phones and not waste money getting an off contract phone. If Win8+WP8+XBOX+Live services doesnt bring very tight integration and some nice new features, I think I'll lose all the faith Ive put into Microsoft the past 15 years.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
WP will eventually be fantastic, and the ecosystem will mature. But I have to be honest and say that for me it isn't there yet, and it is unclear how long it will take to get there. If your only option right now is to go off contract to get a WP device, I would have to suggest that you wait at least until Apollo is released (which, by all credible accounts will be Q4 of next year).
My reason for saying this is because each time Microsoft does fix a problem, they do an admirable job. But they need to (IMO) be more aggressive with their release schedule. Following the "one small release mid year and one major release annually" model isn't enough. There should be smaller patch releases to address issues, rather than making people suffer with them for 6+ months.
Mike415 said:
Thanks for the replies so far. It helped me get a better feeling for WP and it seems like I should really just wait for all the new OS updates like Ice Cream and iOS 5.x+/iPhone 5 before diving into WP. I am a slight tweaker of Android, but I don't actually want to do that very much anymore. I just want a phone that works and suits my needs. Android suits my needs, but doesn't really work great and it annoys me.
WP seems like it would be okay for me. Im not an app whore anymore since Ive been a smartphone user for several years now and I pretty much just like to be able to get the news, read some forums, text a lot, use yelp to find places to eat, and occasionally pass some time on leisure games. Android is pretty weak as far as finding decent games IMO and I think WP could actually be better in that regard (iPhone is the only one I would consider good for leisure games, but if Ive gotten by on Android this long I think WP could be okay, especially since I still would have an iPhone and Droid for those games). Right now, using Launcher 7 on Android I only use 2.5 screens of tiles so Im not going to have too much of an issue with the app list I think (Homebrew folders support will do me fine in that regard as I can toss all the leisure games in there also).
What I am still unclear on is viewing PDFs that are hosted on websites because its a situation that I run into frequently enough that I need it to be able to view PDFs from sites or Skydrive (Either one). Can I navigate with IE to a site with a link to a hosted PDF and view it or not?
Can I leave my phone on vibrate (no ring) and still play headphones without turning the ring back on in doing so? This would be a huge issue if not because I can't be having my phone go off in class all the time. I rarely take my phone off vibrate, so I want to make sure I can leave silent/vibrate on and still play Zune without turning the ringer back on.
Does vibrate mean that alarms only vibrate and dont sound? ie. do I need to take my phone off silent ringer/vibrate all night if I want to hear an alarm in the morning?
--
I like how well Microsoft has seemingly written WP and I think eventually it will be great after Win8 and WP8. Maybe I just need to hold off for those phones and not waste money getting an off contract phone. If Win8+WP8+XBOX+Live services doesnt bring very tight integration and some nice new features, I think I'll lose all the faith Ive put into Microsoft the past 15 years.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi Mike,
Like you I mapped Skydrive as a network drive and simply drag/drop my pdf files there. PDFs are natively supported on wp7 once you download the official adobe pdf app.
The PDFs will show up on skydrive in the Office Hub. Infact if you use the Documents folder as the "root" of all your files and simple create folders within there, they will all show up in the office hub's skydrive folder. As you see I have a "PDF" folder with all my pdfs. You download them when you select it and it is saved to adobe's app storage locally on the phone.
Skydrive on the phone will also stream audio and video files! Sometimes my friends would share a video or some music with me and I'd be able to access it natively!
You can view any pdf or office document (provided it is in later version format i thnk office 2007 up) hosted on websites. It will download and open in adobe/office.
Also OneNote is absoulely terrific in the Office hub for syncing notes to the PC/web and phone. I use it extensively to manage my classes!
Hope this helped.
Mike415 said:
What I am still unclear on is viewing PDFs that are hosted on websites because its a situation that I run into frequently enough that I need it to be able to view PDFs from sites or Skydrive (Either one). Can I navigate with IE to a site with a link to a hosted PDF and view it or not?
Can I leave my phone on vibrate (no ring) and still play headphones without turning the ring back on in doing so? This would be a huge issue if not because I can't be having my phone go off in class all the time. I rarely take my phone off vibrate, so I want to make sure I can leave silent/vibrate on and still play Zune without turning the ringer back on.
Does vibrate mean that alarms only vibrate and dont sound? ie. do I need to take my phone off silent ringer/vibrate all night if I want to hear an alarm in the morning?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
PDF's are just working fine. Just install Adobe's PDF app and IE will automatically hook them and forward them to the app. Same on SkyDrive, you can even zip those PDF's as WP is able to look into zips.
As for the sound it should work the way you described. Volume control is for everything on the device but the button for vibration is only for the ringer. So if you mute your device via volume rocker then everything will be muted. If you only press the vibrate button then only the ringer will be silenced.
Awesome, guys. Great replies. The volume issues and PDF issues seem like they would be fine for situations like mine. Loved the screenshots!
Really I dont see too many issues not to switch over eventually, as the replies here have quelled my main doubts. As more apps come and current apps are optimized theres very little reason to not switch for most people. Its just that damn app list!
Good thing there's homebrew folders now though!
Mike415 said:
Awesome, guys. Great replies. The volume issues and PDF issues seem like they would be fine for situations like mine. Loved the screenshots!
Really I dont see too many issues not to switch over eventually, as the replies here have quelled my main doubts. As more apps come and current apps are optimized theres very little reason to not switch for most people. Its just that damn app list!
Good thing there's homebrew folders now though!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thankfully the games go into your xbox live folder though...
also you can tap a letter to quickly bring up all letters where you can quickscroll from letter to letter to find apps you have.
scoobysnacks said:
thankfully the games go into your xbox live folder though...
also you can tap a letter to quickly bring up all letters where you can quickscroll from letter to letter to find apps you have.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
and search too. I actually prefer the app list to iOS pages of icons. The applist I know exactly where to find it alphabectically using the jumplist. Need twitter? Tap a letter jump to T and its in that group. iOS its a "which page is it?' scenario.
The homebrew folders is also pretty nice. I use it for all my "News" apps and "Social" app but it doesnt have live tiles so it defeats the wp7 purpose of glance and go
scoobysnacks said:
thankfully the games go into your xbox live folder though...
also you can tap a letter to quickly bring up all letters where you can quickscroll from letter to letter to find apps you have.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
sayonical said:
and search too. I actually prefer the app list to iOS pages of icons. The applist I know exactly where to find it alphabectically using the jumplist. Need twitter? Tap a letter jump to T and its in that group. iOS its a "which page is it?' scenario.
The homebrew folders is also pretty nice. I use it for all my "News" apps and "Social" app but it doesnt have live tiles so it defeats the wp7 purpose of glance and go
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was just planning on throwing all my leisure games (non-XBOX LIVE) in folders. Does the XBOX Live hub hold non-Live games too? I wouldn't really need folders if all my games were in the XBOX hub, but I was thinking that it was only for Live games.
Mike415 said:
I was just planning on throwing all my leisure games (non-XBOX LIVE) in folders. Does the XBOX Live hub hold non-Live games too? I wouldn't really need folders if all my games were in the XBOX hub, but I was thinking that it was only for Live games.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the live hub holds all games!
It's a good thing too, I have a ton of games
scoobysnacks said:
the live hub holds all games!
It's a good thing too, I have a ton of games
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The only drawback of the xbox live hub is that is missing the jump list. I'd really love to see it in there too.
On topic:
I'd really recommend you go into a mobile shop and try different devices. I for one came from Window Mobile 6.1 over 6.5 and Android (2.1 and 2.2) all the way to Windows Phone. First I was missing several things I know from my former mobile OSes. But once I got used to the limitations (which were a lot more before NoDo and Mango), I've never ever looked back. I'm a proud WP7 user. But it really depends on what you use your device for.
I'm swapping from Android to Windows Phone, and was hoping if anyone is bored enough to read this they might suggest some Windows Phone Apps that might suit my needs.
In no way do I expect anyone that hops in to respond to each type, or google around for me, but I expect I'm not the first person to make the Android -> Windows phone swap, so maybe some of you will have a quick idea of ones to try out. You don't need to spend a lot of time explaining every app, if you're busy. Every platform is different though, so rather than spend 10 hours looking for something that everyone in the community already knows, I thought I would just toss out some quick questions.
1. RSS feeds. On Android I use gReader Pro. It's a pretty basic app that allows easy setup for RSS feeds and syncs them with your google reader account. Not very exciting, but it's easy to use because my feeds are already set up via google, so a decent app that can do the same would be nice.
2. Google Voice. I'd like to make and receive texts, as well as make calls on wifi (receiving calls isn't a big deal, but would be a plus). I downloaded GoVoice, which seems like it will be pretty decent, but am open to suggsetions.
3. Podcasts. I used Doggcatcher on Android, which allows you to stream, download + save, and sync podcasts. It has a decent search function to help you get started.
4. Tasker. This one is more difficult to explain, but essentially it allows you to program a set of tasks, like a macro function. Essentially I have it set up for "Off" (as in data/wifi/bluetooth/gps/gsm disabled), "Data" (same as off but wifi enabled), "Loud" (same as data but with notifications and media volumes all the way up), and "Car" (same as Loud but wifi off and speakerphone and GPS enabled). Basically I use this to change the state of the GPS, WIFI, and volumes, so that I can quickly switch a number of settings at once. Great app, if you have some patience and have an Android kicking around.
5. Astrid Tasks. A pretty basic reminder app. I'm sure there are plenty of these for Windows Phone, but any suggestion would great. If it can store backups to the computer, or sync with a cloud based system, that would be a plus.
6*. Something to show running applications quickly. I'm not sure if this is actually an issue for Windows Phone, but sometimes apps go "rogue" on Android, so being able to make sure that a particular app isn't a battery drain would be nice. I was using System Panel on Android. If this isn't needed, disregard the question.
7. A good alarm app. I was using Gentle Alarm on Android, which has a widget to show you the next alarm that will go off, and allows easy creation of various alarms, which can be set for audible, vibration, specific days of the week to repeat on, etc. You can also ensure that alarms will always be audible, regardless of if everything else is muted, which is nice for at night when you don't need an email waking you up, but need to make sure the alarm is at maximum volume in the morning.
8. Anything else you can think of that is a must have for daily use. I'm a student and don't really have a lot of time to play with the phone for games, but hey, we all have to pass the time every once in a while.
9. Onenote. I like how this app syncs easily, but I can't view my handwritten notes that I write on my tablet. Is there a workaround that allows you to see these?
------ I'm only using this Lumia 710 on WIFI, essentially as a PDA + GPS, so anything handy that can prevent battery drain is a plus, as I don't require GPS to constantly be on, and I certainly don't need phone/data(non-wifi) to constantly be on.
In short, I appreciate any input you might have, even if it's only for one of the things I have listed. The phone seems great in general, and had most of the important things already installed (the email, calendar, navigation, office, etc., is fantastic as is, which is a great bonus compared to Android, where I had to use 3rd party apps for most of the core aspects).
Regards,
--bb
Weave
Skype
Music and Video with Zune
Not possible
Ask Ziggy
not needed
Default alarm
Board Express Pro
Sent from my HD7 using Board Express
---------- Post added at 06:16 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:14 PM ----------
Nokia Drive
Crackle
Nokia Creative Studio
Contract Killer
Sent from my HD7 using Board Express
---------- Post added at 06:18 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:16 PM ----------
Box
SkyDrive
MetroTube
Sent from my HD7 using Board Express
pvt_nemesis said:
Weave
Skype
Music and Video with Zune
Not possible
Ask Ziggy
not needed
Default alarm
Board Express Pro
Sent from my HD7 using Board Express
---------- Post added at 06:16 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:14 PM ----------
Nokia Drive
Crackle
Nokia Creative Studio
Contract Killer
Sent from my HD7 using Board Express
---------- Post added at 06:18 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:16 PM ----------
Box
SkyDrive
MetroTube
Sent from my HD7 using Board Express
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for all of the suggestions. That should keep me busy for quite awhile. :good:
Try also fantasia painter for photo editor. Is awesome and free. The only app i am missing since switching from wp7 to android
Sent from my HTC Explorer A310e using xda app-developers app
Before I get into my list, I'm just going to run down how apps and multi tasking work on WP7 in case you don't already know.
#1: No app can truly run in the background. The only way to get an app to continue running is either to have it up and prevent the screen from turning off, or (if supported by the app) allow it to run under the lockscreen, which means when you press the power button, only the screen turns off, the phone does not enter a sleep state.
-----------------The exception to this rule is when an app is playing music. If the app dev has done it correctly, he should have handed the music playing off to the system, so once you set up the music source in app, you should be able to minimize it and use the next/previous/play/pause controls. In fact you can even go to grooveshark's beta html5 in internet explorer; HTML5 can plug in to this system media playback! I was very excited to learn that. But at least on grooveshark, next/previous controls don't work.
#2: HOWEVER each app can have a "daemon" which is essentially a set of tasks that are run periodically by the system (minimum of every half hour). So if you use google latitude, latitude apps will only be able to update your position every half hour (or at longer intervals, but no shorter). This system of background daemons is actually very very good as it encourages unique thinking from the developer side, and still gives the user the benefits of true multi tasking without the battery drainage. What a daemon can do isn't that limited, but it's the fact that no internet connection can remain active in the background that poses a lot of problems (for example, IRC clients cannot have multi tasking for this reason). Since things can only run every half hour, you don't have to worry about things like turning off your gps, since nothing is allowed to just turn on the GPS and keep it on.
#3 : Also there's still push, of course. Lemme break that down for you: push notifications can either be through the live tile (rather than having a background daemon update the tile, things are pushed to it immediately as they arrive), or push can be used through statusbar notifications. One unfortunate oversight in this system is that if you have an app that you do not pin to the start menu, and if it has a notification and you did not hear it... there is no list of missed notifications. This doesn't come into play that often; for me it only happens with eBay, where I don't want to bother having that on my start screen but I might miss some alerts.
#4: Battery Saver mode is YOUR FRIEND. You can get nearly another day out of your phone (or I can with my Titan) when battery saver kicks in. You can enable it so that it turns on when the battery is low (%20), or manually. However, it disables all background daemons and push notification in order to save battery.
#5: Multi tasking and switching between apps. Hold down the back button to see the list of the last several apps you used (or in the case of my unlocked ROM, all of the apps you have used since boot). When you minimize an app (press the start button), it gets "dehydrated" which means it's just suspended to RAM. It works like you'd expect; start typing something in one app, switch over to another to look something up and switch back to the first to resume typing. To remove an app from the list, or "exit" the app (since it isn't actually running the only thing this does is remove clutter or perhaps free up some slots), you "back" out of them. Press the back button until the app goes away.
One of the reasons, in my opinion, that windows 8 is getting a lot of negative flack is because people don't know that live tiles are good. It doesn't help that, last time I checked, there were no useful live tile apps in the 8 marketplace yet. So frustrating! People hate what they don't understand, because hating on the internet is the standard state of existence. I encourage you to think about what you do on the internet every time you sit down on your computer, and see if you can find an app with live tile to do it for you. For me, I had a routine of checking my email(s), going through a lot of webcomics, reading news feeds, etc. That was my daily routine. Now with WP7, I have each aspect of my routine as a live tile, so I can literally replace that entire process with just looking at the start screen.
The other thing about live tiles and metro that people fail to understand is that active push notifications, where unnecessary are BAD, for a few different reasons. Push notifications are "active" and live tiles are "passive". This is because live tiles do not make any noise or otherwise prompt you to look at them; they are simply there and deliver content when you pull out your phone. Let me put this in perspective: say I pull out my phone to look up something on wikipedia. I can see that I have 2 new emails, some new RSS articles and a facebook notification. Number 1: I don't feel the urge to go and clear the unread count of all of these things, as I would if they were all aggregated in the statusbar like on android (because you need that statusbar for things, and if it's cluttered and you don't keep up on it, it quickly fills up and becomes overwhelming). I can leave them alone for now and go to wikipedia. Now if this were an android/IOS device, I would have gotten an audible notification for each of those three things, and I would have taken time out of whatever I was doing IN LIFE to tend to my phone.
Some points about stressors here (and when I say stressors, I don't mean overwhelming stress you can feel, but stress in the clinical sense, which is objective): having your phone beep at you constantly stresses you; for most people it's difficult to put their phone out of their mind until they have seen what the notification was. This is not good.
Moreover, feeling the need to go and clear unread counts/managing your statusbar is also somewhat of a stressor; if it starts overflowing you'll either learn to not use things that create notifications (somewhat limiting your experience with a smartphone), give up all hope and never look at the statusbar again, or just clear it out and miss out on things you wouldn't have if the information was presented in an orderly fashion.
Live tiles, being passive, are also more efficient in terms of time spent on the phone and your phone's battery life. Notice how in my example, I observed the new content only when I was already pulling out my phone to do something else. With things aggregating in bulk, I can view them in bulk at points of the day where I was already on my phone. This is opposed to pulling out my phone every 15 minutes because something new happened... which wastes time pulling your phone out of your pocket many times a day, wastes battery when turning the screen on/off many times a day, and if you use wifi; wastes even more battery when the wifi radio is turned on/off sporadically many times a day.
So yes, live tiles are an objectively less stressful approach to mobile devices and less distracting from tasks at hand. The same concepts can be applied to windows 8; rather than having popup notifications for all your facebook, email, rss, etc bombard you while you're trying to write a paper... all of that information is silently aggregated for you in the background.
------------The List-------------------
For alarms,
627.AM
Built in Alarm app.
For task / project management
Tasks by telerik
Or just use the built in calendar app
Or use Onenote and Pin your task list to the start screen.
For RSS
Wonder Reader hands down, none of the other google reader clients are quite as fully functional and polished.
Fuse is pretty but I never got the hang of using it.
For Wifi Video calls
Tango. It's pretty limited in that the android and IOS client are updated with better features, and you can only call other people with tango... but the service itself is more efficient and more reliable than the skype app was last time I tried it. Moreover it supports push for accepting calls, something skype doesn't. Also I like the concept of not having "online / offline" states. You call someone, and they choose to answer it or not. Why would I need to log into a phone...
I used to take notes on a tablet at school, and ran into the same problem as you. Only solution I know of is to print your notes back into onenote. You'll have duplicates of everything unfortunately.
Podcast functionality is built in.
For random recommendations...
das Image (Better image search)
Image Map (Renders all of your pictures on a map based on GPS loc info)
Dynamic Background (Unlock) (Updates the lockscreen picture every half hour choosing randomly from a pool of selected images)
Battery Status (Unlock) (Live tile for current battery percent, also tracks battery usage and graphs it for you)
EnClock (there is no stopwatch built in to WP7, and you never know when you need one)
eBay
HandyScan (Helps you take good pictures of papers, backs up to skydrive. Better to keep documents in here than with regular pictures).
Keep Alive (by jaxbot, it prevents wifi from turning off)
Nokia Drive (Unlock unless you get a nokia device)
MetroPaper (Read it later / pocket)
Metrotube + Supertube (youtube apps. 1 is awesome, 2 lets you download videos and even create offline "music" playlists)
Photo2cloud (back up full res photos to skydrive independent of PC)
Supreme Shortcuts (Unlock) (Lets you pin any setting page to the start screen)
WeatherLive (There are plenty of other weather apps... but weatherlive works, it's incredibly thorough, updates live tile using GPS location, is pretty, etc)
Zite (Gives you news articles based on google reader feeds and who you follow in twitter, good for every time I go to the toilet )
If you use IRC or SSH
The SSH Client Pro
TinyIRC
And now that you are a part of the WP community, you should invest in AND pin the live tiles of each to your start screen:
WPCentral
WMPoweruser
Games! I Don't like to play serious games on my phone; I like something I can whip out at any time and turn off at any time, no consequence. That said, I make an exception for the Final Fantasy updated / rerelease for WP7
COLLAPSE (Probably my favorite mobile game. It's an easy puzzle game, but satisfying to plow through at ludicrous speed. There are some very hard rounds with special conditions though.. story mode is dumb but it has unique challenges and you need to play through it to unlock all the quick play modes).
Final Fantasy
Wordament
Fruit Ninja
Dodonpachi Maximum (Genre: Bullet Hell. If you don't know what that means then try it before you buy it. If you love bullet hell; buy this. It's by CAVE).
Wizard's Choice (A casual text adventure).
link68759 said:
Lots of good info
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for the detailed response!
I've started using Onenote as a to-do list, but I made a recent post as to why that's causing me problems (or so it seems).
I seem to be syncing everything from onenote, and my device has basically filled up overnight as it downloaded my files. Microsoft told me to contact Nokia about it, and then disconnected?
It seemed like a good plan to me as well. I don't really need to see detailed graphs and notes on the phone, just a couple simple folders.
I may just reset the phone and give the other apps you suggested a shot, and not connect with my microsoft live ID at all. I went from plenty of space on the device to none, in a matter of days.
I'm not sure if podcasts were an issue as well, and how it saves and deletes them. I only stored what I would consider a small amount, maybe 200 megs or less.
Nokia drive works great. It takes up a lot of space, but I have it on my feature phone as well, and the GPS acquisition time on the Lumia 710 blows away my E5-00, and my Droid X. It's just incredibly fast at locking in.
I'll do a reset tomorrow and give the other apps a shot, and try to avoid anything that could be crushing my storage. All I really need for storage is email, nokia drive, and basic apps/news/podcasts, which on my android (nav aside) shouldn't really take more than 1 gig of space. A few small games to pass the time, and some apps for productivity, and I should be back in business.
Unfortunately I can't seem to find a way to determine what is using X amount of space, so I'll have to do a full wipe and install items slowly, to sort it out.
There isn't a proper app to view this kind of thing, is there?
Regards,
--bb
I'll reply to your other thread about one note.
You can't not connect with your live ID if you plan to download apps unfortunately.
For viewing used space, Zune does divide it up for you, I don't remember how specific it gets but it should be divided into space used by music, videos, podcasts, apps. I don't think it's possible for an app to view usage, because each app is sandboxed; that is they have their own folder on the device and they are not allowed to leave it.
Nokia Drive shouldn't need to take up a lot of space; you can just download the maps of where you live and where you might possibly go spontaneously, as opposed to your whole country XD. Yeah I've had good luck with my phones and GPS, WP7 in general does an excellent job with GPS.
Oh I forgot to mention in my first post; WPCentral and WMPoweruser are good because they do a lot of app/game reviews, usually the reviews are on new apps in the market. This is pretty much the only way I discover new apps
link68759 said:
I'll reply to your other thread about one note.
You can't not connect with your live ID if you plan to download apps unfortunately.
For viewing used space, Zune does divide it up for you, I don't remember how specific it gets but it should be divided into space used by music, videos, podcasts, apps. I don't think it's possible for an app to view usage, because each app is sandboxed; that is they have their own folder on the device and they are not allowed to leave it.
Nokia Drive shouldn't need to take up a lot of space; you can just download the maps of where you live and where you might possibly go spontaneously, as opposed to your whole country XD. Yeah I've had good luck with my phones and GPS, WP7 in general does an excellent job with GPS.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Gotcha!
I will look into setting up a new windows live account for OneNote to-do type lists. I know Office sometimes used to have issues with multiple live accounts on the same computer, in Windows 7, but I think that's mostly fixed now. I use google calendar anyways (to sync), so realistically it's not the end of the world for me to keep the accounts disconnected from my school Onenote live account.
I guess I synced all of Nokia North America at once (1.9 or so gigs of a download). I certainly don't need more than 20% of it. In fact, my whole state, now that I look at it, is only 36 megs.
Now that you've given some ideas of how to approach it, I'm liking this more than any of my other previous phones (iPhone, BB Bold, Droid X, etc). It needs some time to grow as an operating system, and Nokia really needs to put an LED notification light on future models [shakes tiny fist], but I think they're back in the game!
Thank you very much for all of your help.
//Edit: I read your other post responding to mine. I think you're right. I could probably do a wipe, use the same account, but move the basic to-do lists to a separate folder, pin them, and make sure to never ever open the school folder itself in Office on the phone. That sounds like it would work ok as well, as I must have opened a school folder that overwhelmed it and just started syncing massive amounts of pdf's, inking, and so on, along with the simple things.
I just wanted to also mention that all that you typed out would make for a great sticky. That's a ton of great info.
Thank you again for all of the feedback.
You made some excellent points about how smartphones add lots of unnecessary stresses when they're constantly distracting us with notifications, as well as how live tiles really help ease you into information you need, and information you might not, but are willing to take a brief glance at. I'm a big Windows 8 fan, and have used RP, RTM Pro (currently), and RTM enterprise. I think Live Tiles are fantastic, whether it's on my phone, my convertible laptop, or my desktop. I think you're absolutely correct about how people just don't quite understand how handy it will be yet.
//BTW: I bookmarked your post as a sort of "zen" explanation I can refer back to, or link to a friend, so they understand the unity and purposes in the next stage in Windows products.
///Afterthought: I still would like a notification LED on the phone, as long as it's customizable. On Android and Blackberry I would always disable the light for all of the nonsense things, but keep it enabled for things like a missed call (because that could be my son needing a ride, or something else that's important), or for a severe weather alert. Random emails would just have to wait until I turned on the screen.
Sorry to bump my own thread again, but I have a question about three of the apps that link68759 mentioned.
"Supreme Shortcuts (Unlock) (Lets you pin any setting page to the start screen)"
"Battery Status (Unlock) (Live tile for current battery percent, also tracks battery usage and graphs it for you)"
"Keep Alive (by jaxbot, it prevents wifi from turning off)"
By "unlock" I'm assuming he meant an unlocked bootloader, and not locked to a cellular carrier? I did the basic test today, and mine appears to be locked, which is a shame because both of those functions would be great.
As far as "Keep Alive" goes, I can't seem to find that specific app/dev combo in the market. I don't use 3g/4g data on this phone, or any phone anymore, so is that an app that is better than keeping the scanning on, or is it a battery drain? I'm just not sure I follow the concept, because I can't find a description of it.
Regards,
--bb
bladebarrier said:
Sorry to bump my own thread again, but I have a question about three of the apps that link68759 mentioned.
"Supreme Shortcuts (Unlock) (Lets you pin any setting page to the start screen)"
"Battery Status (Unlock) (Live tile for current battery percent, also tracks battery usage and graphs it for you)"
"Keep Alive (by jaxbot, it prevents wifi from turning off)"
By "unlock" I'm assuming he meant an unlocked bootloader, and not locked to a cellular carrier? I did the basic test today, and mine appears to be locked, which is a shame because both of those functions would be great.
As far as "Keep Alive" goes, I can't seem to find that specific app/dev combo in the market. I don't use 3g/4g data on this phone, or any phone anymore, so is that an app that is better than keeping the scanning on, or is it a battery drain? I'm just not sure I follow the concept, because I can't find a description of it.
Regards,
--bb
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You'll need to flash a custom ROM, which you can luckily do on your 710.
The a wifi radio turning on/off takes more power than one that is idly connected. So if you use the phone frequently, it's better to stay connected. If you aren't going to touch it for many hours at a time, better to let it disconnect and turn off.
But if you aren't using cellular then you'll need wifi to update information in the background.
Some more here
Dialpad7
Handyscan
Photogram
Skype
Sleep Bug
Tango
UC Browser
whatspp= messenger
Yelp = to find nearby things
Coming from a couple years on the Windows platform mandated by the office but now they allow Android & I chose LG G3 - but there are some things on the Windows phone I miss and can;t find solutions for on the LG...
1 > The Nokia 920 had a great way of displaying the time on the time out screen - can't get that to work at all on the LG with any app..
2> The Windows platform will read texts to me while in the car on Bluetooth. There is an droid app called ReadItToMe but it is awfully inconsistent. I had heard the Samsungs come with svoice that do this well...anything similar for the LG?
3> Windows had a way of killing apps automatically in the background and keeping just 5 or so open...this allowed the battery to last for an entire day for over two years. I can not figure out how to do this on the LG. I dl Advanced task killer but it seems more manual than auto...maybe my fault.
Thanks for any productive input!
DPLOY said:
Coming from a couple years on the Windows platform mandated by the office but now they allow Android & I chose LG G3 - but there are some things on the Windows phone I miss and can;t find solutions for on the LG...
1 > The Nokia 920 had a great way of displaying the time on the time out screen - can't get that to work at all on the LG with any app..
2> The Windows platform will read texts to me while in the car on Bluetooth. There is an droid app called ReadItToMe but it is awfully inconsistent. I had heard the Samsungs come with svoice that do this well...anything similar for the LG?
3> Windows had a way of killing apps automatically in the background and keeping just 5 or so open...this allowed the battery to last for an entire day for over two years. I can not figure out how to do this on the LG. I dl Advanced task killer but it seems more manual than auto...maybe my fault.
Thanks for any productive input!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Welcome to android and in answer to your questions:
1. What you are referring to is a feature of some Nokia Lumia Windows Phones called Glance Screen and I have not seen any android phone with this feature. Sorry but I don't know of any apps that can do this as this currently appears to be hardware specific to the Lumia line of phones.
2. I believe the phone has the capability built in under "System Settings" "Sound", "Message/call voice notifications". There is an option for it to read text messages it loud. I think once you turn it on, it is on all the time though and not exclusive to bluetooth. If you are willing to buy an app and learn how to use it (depending on your knowledge it may be a steep learning curve), Tasker may be able to create a profile that sets the conditions under which this turns on.
3. This is an area of contention. I personally will no longer use Task killers. For the most part, various research and tests I have found states that it has no positive impact on the battery, and in some cases, actually makes worsens it. Android does a good job of managing memory and many of the active tasks should be left running (i.e. google services, weather, and/or any app you may want to keep in sync or have widgets for). In my opinion, ATK's only potential "good" use would be to kill a rogue app but you can do that without the program. I would focus more on the apps syncing in the background and how often they do so, along with other common things such as screen brightness, to get better battery life. For me, I will swear by Greenify over task killers (I am rooted so it is very effective) because certain persistant apps can be hibernated and can be set up to do so automatically when the screen shuts off. With Greenify, the apps remain hibernated while the screen is off and for the most part when the screen is on, unless I open the apps. An example is Facebook for android. I personally do not care about notifications received on my phone for my FB account. Even though I have chat, notifications, and contact sync off, FB persists to run as an active background process (not to be confused with cached background processes which get dumped as android needs active RAM). With Greenify, this is not an issue.
Thanks aybarrap1! I see you are in Jax near me - thanks for helping a local out!
I will try Greenify asap. Also - in the stock contact app how do you copy (or forward) someone's contact information & text it to someone else? WP made this easy but I can not figure it out...
THANKS AGAIN aybarrap1!
DPLOY said:
Thanks aybarrap1! I see you are in Jax near me - thanks for helping a local out!
I will try Greenify asap. Also - in the stock contact app how do you copy (or forward) someone's contact information & text it to someone else? WP made this easy but I can not figure it out...
THANKS AGAIN aybarrap1!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Open messaging, open the thread of the person you want to send TO (or create a new message), tap the paper clip button to the left of the text box to get a list of things to attach, then tap contact and select the contact to forward
DPLOY said:
Thanks aybarrap1! I see you are in Jax near me - thanks for helping a local out!
I will try Greenify asap.
THANKS AGAIN aybarrap1!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Glad to be of assistance. I don't think you will be disappointed with Greenify. Keep in mind you need to be rooted to be able to hibernate system apps.