Related
There are a few issues I wanted to see some opinions on. With Windows Vista being due to hit the shelves in February how many people are familiar with the huge underlying change in paradigm that Microsoft has undertaken? Also at this time it seems the Trusted Computing Platform Alliance (TCPA/TCG) is gaining momentum and a convergence of the two could spell the end of not just open source computing but the freedom to choose how an individual uses a PC.
There are a multitude of technical details that can be perused in the links bellow, but to sum up vista digital rights management:
*Vista encrypts so many of the internal connections within a computer that only someone who pays Microsoft will be able to write programs that many take for granted today.
*Vista imposes such an overhead on computing power via its encryption mechanism that many cheaper hardware manufactures will be pushed out of the market.
*The ability of Microsoft to revoke encryption keys used to allow drivers to work in various components (including graphics cards) can brick your hardware even though you do nothing wrong.
*Media that is fully paid for is still limited in its use because vista will not allow it to be played (if the bit is set on disk) on non secured hardware like my TV for example.
*Drivers for hardware can be revoked even when no violation of copyright occurs, just for not paying Microsoft its annual fees.
*Today’s popular security vendors (AKA Symantec etc) can not guarantee any product to continue working because Microsoft say they WILL be changing the kernel.
*The cost of hardware complying to drm (not performance specs) will push the price through the roof at the cheep end of town.
And as for TCPA:
*No one except those who pay to be in the club can control what information their hardware will communicate about them.
*Forget anonymity because it is not just an IP but a chip that will identify our computers online.
*Only sanctioned software will be able to run on a TCPA protected device where that is the desire of the maker. That kills developers like us. It kills p2p, it kills firefox, it kills linux, it kills other media players or any other thing that “they” deem against their interest if used.
*It leaves us vulnerable to government data collection without good reason. As with mobile phones (as demonstrated in FBI vs Ardito) these TCPA chips will have government backdoors forced open by the US.
Most people I talk to seem oblivious to this stuff. Dose anybody care? It scares the hell out of me.
http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/vista_cost.html
http://www.grc.com/sn/SN-074.htm
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/tcpa-faq.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trusted_Computing_Platform_Alliance
Ok, its about 3AM, weekend is upon us, and I finally have time to rant a little.
I heard about hardware copy protection and encryption before but only briefly and didn't pay much attention. The white-paper and subsequent podcast on the Vista security your links led me to was very interesting (even though I will not update to vista until all the hardware available to me burns out and no XP compatible replacements are around).
Now it is not unusual for M$ to make each subsequent system heavier than before so users can't even tell between performance of an 800MHz PIII and 2.8 P4 (ok, maybe this is a bit of exaggeration, but you get the point).
From what I understand about Vista so far, it will be the biggest piece of crap MS ever produced. Not just slow, but unstable and the best part - it won't do the only thing that suppose to really set it apart from existing systems: play high quality protected content.
In fact this is the one thing that helps me feel less threatened by this dream of "ultra secure" future MS, Intel and the rest of the bunch are planing.
An average consumer may not understand or care about things like "tilt bits", "driver revocation", or (this is my favorite) "graphics sub system reset" (problem with gwes.exe anyone ) but if they see new system that cost twice as much as conventional PC but is half as stable, half as fast and most importantly doesn't do what it was promised to do the market will vote and the idea dies.
One last thing. I've see quite a few "video rentals / sales" both on VHF and VCD that (while operating under legitimate business) utilized the oldest type of video piracy that is still widely spread on torrents and no DRM will ever stop or even slow down: video camera.
With video cameras getting smaller, high quality and less expansive the easiest way to steal content is to sneak on in to a premiere.
Well that's enough out of me for now. Feel free to point out any delusions, mistakes and whatever, but keep in mined this is just a rant.
well ms partly rewrote vista from scratch
rather then just build on top of XP which is still NT3.5 based many places
and even if there are good things about getting a clean slate then
it also mean untested software and new issues yet to be decovered by
users and hackers
imho then vista is a perfectly good reason to start dual boot ones XP with linux and start getting used to it and slowly start using it more and more and XP less and less
if the trend get widespread
more support for games and comercial programs ppl use in their everyday
will come to linux as well as for vista
another path would imho be to get a fancy dual 2 core intel based mac laptop and duel boot with macOsX and XP and ...
not that i'm advocating piracy but i really dont care much for way freedom
is being slowly killed on computers and internet
it's like they decovered that some ppl stole stuff online
and desided to lock everybody up to be sure to capture the crocks
The thing that bites me is the ability to lock out programs that are not accepted by the hardware or service provider. We already see a similar thing in smart phones where only oem code is allowed to do certain things. In microsofts own words (well close enough) from some of their spiel to content providers "a ce device is a windows platform that can not install third party software or hardware". Do they know something they are not telling us. I would hate to think that future ce devices are going to lock us out in favor of drm.
Further more, what if other companies start insisting I use new features. What if my bank tells me I need to run vista to use their services or what if hardware manufacturers will not produce hardware that is free of trusted chips. Will I then be able to run an older os without the drm and tcpa.
Computers were originally build by nerds from odd pards. Us nerds are still capable of doing anything, its just a case of time verses benefit. I would not be willing to submit to a loss of control. The real problem is the millions of users who don't have what it takes to take control and who will not understand what they are loosing until it is already gone.
It’s been a bitter sweet journey for me and my tilt over the last year. We've been through many different ROMs many different Mods, and many different apps. We've spent hundreds of hours on this board searching for the newest and greatest tricks a tools we've even spent some times actually being productive. But 2 weeks ago we went our separate ways. In a spat of extreme frustration I renewed my contract with ma bell and enslaved myself to the blue and orange for another 2 years and purchased an iPhone.
While my Tilt could do just about anything I wanted it to do it could do none of it well or consistently. My #1 biggest frustration with the Tilt which ended up being the nail in the coffin was how windows mobile dealt with networking. It never worked reliably moving form edge to wifi and back was painful with apps needing to be restarted an occasionally the phone needing rebooted. Outlook would stop syncing with exchange for days at a time then after a reboot everything would be fine. It was never as simple as pick up the phone and surf the web or pick up the phone and check your email. A very close second is SPEED I had dumb phones 10 years ago that i could pick up and make a call with quicker than the tilt. The windows mobile interface is just not designed for hand held use. Even with the stylus it is extremely frustrating to navigate.
The apps I used most on the Tilt were as follows:
1. Push Exchange/Outlook for Calendar email and contacts <-- This is a must for any device that i will have now or in the future.
2. Beyond Pod for Podcasts <-- I have a long commute and podcasts are a godsend.
3. Palringo <---wonderful app but could not leave it open because of the battery drain
4. Kinoma Freeplay <-- the best media player for WINMO hands down they got a lot of stuff right I was all set to purchase the full version when 3g came to our area but still no 3G an now no Tilt
5. Windows remote desktop client <--- very handy worked well even over edge
6. Opera Mini <-- excellent browser especially for edge i dont thing there is anything that can beat it on edge. I would love to have seen a native version of opera mini because the JVM's (I tried them all) for WM suck I hate to open an application just to open an application yea there were some tricks and shortcuts but nothing completely seamless.
7. Gremote<-- excellent for controlling an HTPC or from the couch. This app paired with a capacitive touch screen would be amazing. Kudos to the author on this simple elegant app.
8. The Phone <-- The tilt was not a good phone. making a phone call to someone not in your address book was extremely painful however if the person is in your address book the smart dialer worked very well. I went through multiple dialer on multiple roms none of them worked well
Apps I used occasionally
1. ICS for tethering via usb <--- Great when it works active sync must be installed on the computer that you want to tether (for usb atleast).
2. WMwifirouter -- for when ICS failed <--- Must be plugged into the wall this program drains the battery faster than anything I have ever seen however it works very well
3. kevtris & Bubble Breaker <-- good to pass the time
4. Alarm clock <--- works as advertised
Now on to the iPhone. I have not Jail broken the iPhone yet. I'm not sure that I need to.
I'll start out with what I don't like
1. No background tasks <-- this reminds me of the days with my Palm IIIc
2. Running in the back ground is key to any instant messenger app so using Palringo on the iPhone is almost worthless
3. most apps do not exit gracefully or save state when you exit especially when you exit unexpectedly like when answering a call.
4. I hate the slide to unlock. You’re not going to accidentally dial someone with a capacitive screen when it’s in your pocket. It’s an unnecessary extra step
5. Lack of configuration options <-- I never thought I’d say this but this might be a blessing in disguise.
6. Lack of physical keyboard. It’s by far the best onscreen keyboard I’ve ever used but still not as good as the worst physical keyboard I have ever used.
7. Lack of a user exposed file I like to know where my files are and how to get to them. This hasn’t been a problem so far but I would feel better being able to browse a file system
That's really about all that I don't like about the iPhone here is what I like
1. Speed Speed Speed compared to my Tilt this thing is fast opening and closing most apps take about a second to open compared to 3 to 10 on my tilt depending on which app I open.
2. The display and capacitive touch screen together are both beautiful and extremely responsive
3. Visual Voice mail <-- love it I tried a bunch of visual voicemail apps for the tilt none worked as well as this. not making a call to check voice mail is great
4. The dialer <-- Its simple and it works when I dial a phone number all 10 digits show up as opposed to the tilt where I don’t think I ever dialed a 10 digit number correctly on the first try. I do miss the smart dialing from the tile though.
5. Networking <-- Other than problems with a hidden SSID's networking is smooth and transparent never had a problem switching from wifi to edge leaving WIFI on all day does not kill the battery haven’t had a problem with one app being able to access the internet while another cant
6. Battery <--- I can get through the whole day with a single charge on my iPhone I've even watched a half hour of streaming video over wifi at the end of the day before i was warned about a low battery. On my tilt if I used wifi or played back any kind of media or had Palringo open I needed to charge my Tilt before I got home in the evening.
I have yet to sync the phone with iTunes I haven't really found a need to yet. Although i probably will soon because there is a firmware update available
The apps I use
1. RSS Player <-- Great for downloading podcasts I can’t really compare it to how iTunes handles podcasts… I haven’t figured out how the iPod app handles audio playback especially in cases when you get a phone call while playing something. I will assume that the Apple apps have the power to run in the background
2. Orb Live <--- the 9.99 app was worth every penny it’s a sling box killer in I have access to my entire music collection my cable tv and recorded programs it works great and the video play back is great on the iPhone's screen
3. RDP lite <--- Simple RDP client it works well I am not limited to 640x480 as on the tilt it works more like the WM version of the Citrix Client
4. Stanza<--- I like ebooks I can read ebooks with this I actually prefer MS reader on the WM platform I have a trusty old Axim X5 with PPC 2002 on which I do a lot of reading at night. I can’t imagine buying a kindle and not being able to read in the dark on a side note the X5 has great rubber grips on the side and the buttons are in just the right place for page turns. you can probably pick one of these up for 10 bucks on eBay and have a great ebook reader for your night stand. While legitimate books are harder to find for MS reader most publishers produce versions of their books in the .lit format they are usually more expensive than kindle books but you'd have to buy a lot of books to make up for the price of the kindle.
I’ve spent hours on these forums tweaking and tinkering with my Tilt It was fun, I learned a lot but now I am done. Anybody else make the switch? I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on what you used on WM that you don’t have on the iPhone or what you have on the iPhone that you didn’t have on WM.
I might make the same move someday. I'm really on the fence as to whether I want to give WM another chance and get the Touch Pro 2, or just bail for the iPhone's snappy OS (background apps and openness be damned).
I can't stand how bad the Tilt is (and, I assume WM6 in general) at moving between WiFi and cellular data. I have to forcefully close Outlook since it always wants to stick to whichever method it first used. Does it do that for everyone, or just because I'm using IMAP?
It's going to be a tough choice this fall between the Touch Pro 2 and, presumably, an updated iPhone. I think I'm just very soured on WM. The resolution of the Pro2 and the keyboard have huge appeal to me. If Apple ups the resolution, I think I'll be sold on them, since their touchscreen is a lot more accurate for typing the I had even though possible.
I'm getting ready to ditch the Tilt as well. Too slow, hesitant, and mostly Windows related problems. Had to do a hard-reset which didn't work as the keys were frozen. Ended up flashing another ROM once I got past the Serial port in the Red-Green-White windows and it said USB.
I cannot believe even Microsoft has no news group on their Windows Mobile software. Probably would scare other manufacturers off if they did. Even the buggy ActiveSync as well.
I had a couple of Nokias with Symbian OS and they ran fine. Never hesitated at all or froze requiring a reset. And their volume was LOUD compared to the HTC.
The Tilt is a gadget boy's toy, but it really is buggy.
Maybe the Nokia N96 next. They offered on their website a trade-in of $84 for the old Tilt.
Mack
The network issues were the nail in the coffin for me. the speed problems and quick battery drain were a close second. So far every time I open up Safari my web pages load no pop ups telling me how its now trying to "dial" the network the seamless transition between wifi and GPRS lets me use the device and not think about which network I'm on. With the Tilt if I left the wifi on battery was dead by noon and I always had to manually put my Tilt to sleep because there was always some app that would keep it awake with the back light burning draining my battery.
This is great, 3 people with a total of 46 posts coming on the Kaiser forum to tell us how much they hate the Kaiser and love the iPhone,I personally could care less what you think and don't want to hear it.
We can't say goodbye if you don't actually LEAVE ................. Bye , farewell, au revoir, have you left yet ?
Just so you know where to go, here are a bunch of other people enjoying their new phone
http://discussions.apple.com/category.jspa?categoryID=245
OK everyone, I have had both the tilt and Iphone. I have had my tilt since the begining and I have had a blast tweaking it into my personal reflection of my persona. i had an opportunity to get an Iphone through my work and i almost broke it with frustration. not only that it ask for $40 to connect and have internest access but I can't find my files anywhere where it is stored. I am a heavy Excel user and I had trouble with opening spreadsheets on outlook atachments. It took me a long time just to text a simple sentence since i have fat fingers. My tilt on the otherhand, I use both of my thumbs for texting and composing emails through outlook and it just boggles me that the iphone can be used by busy professionals. I still enjoy my tilt everyday. My favorite application is SLingbox, Avantgo, Tomtom, and about 50 games stored in my Micro 16g card. I have 18 of my favorite DVD movies stored and if you hook it up in your car through the headphone jack, you can watch and entertain your children on long trips. I love the tilt until some other HTC device replaces it.
You'll likely be back
I left my tilt...wanted something more finger-friendly, with a more touch-responsive (I.E. capacitive) screen. I opted for the Tmobile G1 using Android. The phone is gorgeous, the widescreen fabulous, trackball surprisingly useful, and the OS beautiful. I was blown away....and then reality set in.
The G1 is nearly useless without an internet connection, and I don't use a data plan, just wifi. The Android OS is indeed lovely, but there are only a handful of really useful programs. The tie-in with Google is worse than anything Microsoft ever crammed down your throat. 75% of video formats just don't work. I guess the bottom line is: crude. The applications are crude, the OS lacks so much as a file manager (tho 3rd party ones are available), and if you want to do anything vaguely resembling work, you are in the WRONG place.
Like a beautiful woman who's too dumb to use a toilet.
The G1 is up on ebay, and a new Tilt will be mailed to me tomorrow.
Hello Tilt
I wanted to get a iPhone and found some fundamental flaws. For a start, do you know that you can't do something as simple as "Cut & Paste"?
No removable battery. Try go on a trip for >5 hours and you know what you miss.
... a lot more.....
so, I bought myself a Tilt.
Hehehehe, any of you TyTN II/Tilt haters can send me your phones. I will gladly ship you a self addressed stamped BOX to dump your miserable horrible phone into, I will give it a proper pyrotechnic destruction (just trust me on that).
PM me or post here if you want a box sent to you for disposal of your terrible miserable lousy TyTN II/Tilt.
*grins*
I understand the fustration, my TyTNII have a love hate relationship, when it is running well I love it, even though the Touch Pro is out I won't upgrade. When it is slow and unresponsive I've looked at other phones and nothing does what this phone can do for the price.
I know people with Iphones and some are happy others are fustrated so YMMV.
I suggest jailbreaking and get an app from cydia called backgrounder it allows apps to run in the background which I think will be a solution to you IM apps!!
lol
denco7 said:
This is great, 3 people with a total of 46 posts coming on the Kaiser forum to tell us how much they hate the Kaiser and love the iPhone,I personally could care less what you think and don't what to hear it.
We can't say goodbye if you don't actually LEAVE ................. Bye , farewell, au revoir, have you left yet ?
Just so you know where to go, here are a bunch of other people enjoying their new phone
http://discussions.apple.com/category.jspa?categoryID=245
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
best post of the century?
Awww... the link actually worked
Denko7,
I was truly expecting to get rickrolled when I clicked on your link, only to find that i was inundated with actual Iphone stuff. For those of you who are confused about rickrolling someone (or a forum) just click the below link:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rickrolling
replacement of Kaiser
i don't feel....there is any phone on the market now that makes me wants to makes a jump from kaiser,
touch pro.....nah...
touchHD...tsk...still not good enough, sure will misss the keyboard
X1...makes me wanna laugh at Sony ericsson
coming:
N97...symbian platform still lack the variety compare to winmo
touchpro2...yawn!! (just a quick make up over TP1)
OmniaHD...maybe if they include hardware keyboard i'll think over
seems to me no one cares to just make an all rounder(with useability and reliability in mind) that dominates the market...
they just keep on producing tons of new models and incorporating flaws in them intentionally and kinda just to force the consumer into it
and people yelling "yay, consumers right"
denco7 said:
This is great, 3 people with a total of 46 posts coming on the Kaiser forum to tell us how much they hate the Kaiser and love the iPhone,I personally could care less what you think and don't want to hear it.
We can't say goodbye if you don't actually LEAVE ................. Bye , farewell, au revoir, have you left yet ?
Just so you know where to go, here are a bunch of other people enjoying their new phone
http://discussions.apple.com/category.jspa?categoryID=245
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Amen. I'm willing to hear negative opinions from someone who made an effort to use their phone. Not from someone who never tried to do anything with it
I'm as picky as they come, and I'm happy with my tilt. It takes some effort, but the roms that are out there now are ready to go after a flash. I'm waiting for a MUCH better phone before I leap. And honestly, my tilt will go to another family member.
PS: Once that guy gets his Iphone, we should totally try to MMS him..... ;-)
I like the Tilt but...
.. I didn't foresee having to spend so much time tweaking and fixing it. What's more, the jog wheel stopped functioning in 9 months (and I am a REAL careful user, didn't drop it even once), the screen stopped responding 3 months later, and oh, Activesync has been ruining my contacts and schedules databases regularly to the point I simply stopped sync'ing, which is a pity.
I want a smart phone for productivity. That's the bottom line. While I enjoy tinkering around with it, being a software engineer myself, I'd rather not have to spend quite so much time on dealing with phone or WM's issues.
My lowly Nokia 7110 allowed me to be far more productive.
WMNovice said:
.. I didn't foresee having to spend so much time tweaking and fixing it. What's more, the jog wheel stopped functioning in 9 months (and I am a REAL careful user, didn't drop it even once), the screen stopped responding 3 months later, and oh, Activesync has been ruining my contacts and schedules databases regularly to the point I simply stopped sync'ing, which is a pity.
I want a smart phone for productivity. That's the bottom line. While I enjoy tinkering around with it, being a software engineer myself, I'd rather not have to spend quite so much time on dealing with phone or WM's issues.
My lowly Nokia 7110 allowed me to be far more productive.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I hate to tell you this, but the problems you describe above are due to user error... and probably it is the fact you are a software engineer in a world OTHER THAN Windows Mobile.
However, your comments about the phone being for productivitiy... you're right on! I don't care how perfect something is, if it doesn't work for _ME_, I'm not going to keep working it!
For people who enjoy tinkering
I enjoy tinkering with software as much as anyone else. But not on something as vital for business as a smart phone. And the problems I've described are not due to user error, but to a poorly designed and counter-intuitive Windows Mobile OS.
And clearly, WM-based phones, HTC or otherwise, have a lot of issues that serious users and seekers of productivity should be concerned about.
Try using Active Sync on WM 6.0 sensibly, for one. If you're not careful, your entire database of contacts and calendars can be wiped out by this treacherous piece of junk that goes under the name of software.
For those of you who spend an inordinate amount of time installing the latest ROM and checking out the latest "freeware", think about it: Is it worth spending so much time on a phone that could have been used productively elsewhere?
WMNovice said:
I enjoy tinkering with software as much as anyone else. But not on something as vital for business as a smart phone. And the problems I've described are not due to user error, but to a poorly designed and counter-intuitive Windows Mobile OS.
And clearly, WM-based phones, HTC or otherwise, have a lot of issues that serious users and seekers of productivity should be concerned about.
Try using Active Sync on WM 6.0 sensibly, for one. If you're not careful, your entire database of contacts and calendars can be wiped out by this treacherous piece of junk that goes under the name of software.
For those of you who spend an inordinate amount of time installing the latest ROM and checking out the latest "freeware", think about it: Is it worth spending so much time on a phone that could have been used productively elsewhere?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
HEhehehe, maybe the 'productivity' is entertainment in making something work? I for one, spent 60 minutes downloading (meaning, I spent 10 seconds clicking 'Download' and picking where to put it, then 59 minutes doing other things till it popped up saying it was done), then about 5 minutes flashing. Then, about 10 minutes putting my SIM back in, re-entering data connection stuff, and re-syncing my contacts. that was it, and I was up and running with a "for me" bug free PDA v17 ROM...
Inordinate is a rather subjective term... inordinate for my grandfather is picking the phone up in the first place... inordinate for me is spending more than one night of sleep setting it up... HEhehehe
Bottom line, to each his own... and for you, you don't like WinMo...
So, what DO you like? What other OS is giving you ANY business productivity other than making phone calls, sending text messages, and composing e-mail? Any mobile phone will do those things, what are you saying you are missing for productivity in the WM world that you get from any other? (honest question, I simply don't know and refuse to say you can't, unless you can prove to me you can't)
So, I'll gladly send you a SASE to send me your 'dead' Tilt... let me know!
Every time I think I want to switch phones, I go look at all the options from AT&T and Verizon on phonescoop and the bottom line is this:
Touch screen - check
MiniUSB connection instead of some shoddy input that ends up breaking after a month - check
Windows Mobile so I can configure it exactly how I want - check
Qwerty keyboard that isn't just on screen - check
I have yet to find another phone that meets all these and is anywhere near better than the Kaiser/Tilt. My sister has the iPhone and it's crap IMO. My best friend has the Voyager and it's worse than that! Another has the ENV2 which is actually nice if you don't care to ever do any configuring of software because there's no WM and the Verizon interface is so limited.
So there. Have fun with all your subpar phones. I'll stay with mine.
Hi everyone
I want to buy this phone, but before that I would like to know from you guys
if you found any disadvantages of it ??
and is it really that I cannot use bluetooth to send file and music ...atc things
because WM 7 dont support it ????
wish you all to help me..
Hi, I got my HD7 delivered this afternoon and have traditionallly used HTC hardware from the HTC Exec upwards. The thing about the so called all singing, all dancing HD7 is that it's made in the guise of an iphone which means that unlike previous HTC's and windows OS you cannot interrogate this phone at all.
You have no access to the storage space, you can't arbitrarily use certain types of apps other than the limited few on the market place. Any exchange or updating of information has to be done via Zune or Windows Live.
Example : A great little app by the name of PIM Backup. Backed up email, sms's, any callse made that day, tasks, contacts.....basically any change of information was backed up automatically that day when you scheduled. You could even port the back ups to other HTC devices. Now, unless you've got a windows live account, you can't back up or sync previous information........not even via active sync as the usb on the HTC is purely for charging the phone and not for communication.
Windows Media Player has always been piss poor on all HTC devices so a beautiful little app call TCPMP allowed you to do all the things windows player couldn't do i.e play various types of media files without the need for conversion.......now, you can't use it because there's no way to port it onto your device.
In a nutshell you've got no controll over the device or the hardward and the phone itself is frustratingly poor.
Will happily sell this phone to anyone who wants to buy it off me as can't send it back now as it's my second choice after returning an equally poor Dell Steak.
Go for the HD2..................beautiful piece of hardware and fully customisable and can be plugged directly into PC via usb which gives you access to the storage on the phone itself.
I think the best option would be to read the many reviews online and also look at videos on Youtube. There are also websites that allow you to browse the Windows Market place so you can get a feel for what apps are available.
I have had my HD7 for 2 months now (since launch) and even though there are a few bugs and like the poster above said this phone is locked down, I wouldn't part with it now. Apps are appearing all the time (remember it's 2 months old, so pretty much a baby, Android and Apple are much older and dated looking systems), MS hasn't yet released any bug fixes or improvements but they are on the way.
Unlike the poster above, I think the HD7 is much better than the HD2 with WM 6.5, I have been a Windows Mobile (WinCE) users for about 10 years, the HD2 finally was the best Windows Mobile phone ever! The problem? Windows Mobile is dead! If you buy an HD2 now you're wasting your money. Outside of xda-devs, no one is developing for it anymore. Yes you can fudge Androind onto the HD2 (which I have), but that's just like having Windows Mobile anyway. Go figure!!!
If you want something to customise to hell, go for Android, if you want a phone that is groundbreaking go for WP7, if you want a phone with a well (and now looking dated) echo system, then go for Apple.
Or why don't you find a store that will let you hold one to try?
There is also this thread http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=847822 (note: it is the sticky of this forum) to look at.
Closed because there are enough of these thread.
Regrets, I’ve had a few. Been a lurker here for many years, after I purchased my XDA many moons ago. Really happy with it at the time and the custom roms and bits you cleaver guys developed for wm5, updated to wm6…but the phone was frustrating slow and had a habit of crashing.
I upgraded to a HTC HD Mini, again thank you for all the upgrades you guys did… wm6.5, something I wouldn’t have the first clue about. I recently damaged the LCD with isopropyl and had to replace the LCD and digitiser….whilst waiting for parts, and with the pretence that I potentially couldn’t fix the phone I ordered a Nokia Lumia 820.
I’ve had the Nokia 820 wp8 for 48 hours, I feel as if I’ve purchased a box of chocolates but can’t get past the cellophane.
I had to sign in to my Hotmail account to download a unit converter app, now the phone is receiving my Hotmail emails and I can’t uninstall it. Just done a factory reset.
Every time I pick the phone up it wants me to sign in, connect to wifi or gsm…I can’t even explore the files on the phone. Before I send the phone back is there a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel or have I made a mistake sticking with Microsoft, as an old fart I was hoping for some familiarity.
Charlie.
orbitalschool said:
Regrets, I’ve had a few. Been a lurker here for many years, after I purchased my XDA many moons ago. Really happy with it at the time and the custom roms and bits you cleaver guys developed for wm5, updated to wm6…but the phone was frustrating slow and had a habit of crashing.
I upgraded to a HTC HD Mini, again thank you for all the upgrades you guys did… wm6.5, something I wouldn’t have the first clue about. I recently damaged the LCD with isopropyl and had to replace the LCD and digitiser….whilst waiting for parts, and with the pretence that I potentially couldn’t fix the phone I ordered a Nokia Lumia 820.
I’ve had the Nokia 820 wp8 for 48 hours, I feel as if I’ve purchased a box of chocolates but can’t get past the cellophane.
I had to sign in to my Hotmail account to download a unit converter app, now the phone is receiving my Hotmail emails and I can’t uninstall it. Just done a factory reset.
Every time I pick the phone up it wants me to sign in, connect to wifi or gsm…I can’t even explore the files on the phone. Before I send the phone back is there a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel or have I made a mistake sticking with Microsoft, as an old fart I was hoping for some familiarity.
Charlie.
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I'm sorry. What is wrong with what you've just said? android and ios are the same. You can't use a marketplace without signing in. and the files are mostly subordinate to the apps that can read them, android is an exception for what as been for a long time in the phone market, but it does the whole contacts/gmail/etc thing as wp8. You might be able to disable email syncro though, if you dislike that much reading email on a phone. Can you explain to us WHY did you buy a smartphone if you don't use any of the characteristics that makes one so?
The wp8 experience is one of seamless integration with social networks, work networks (email, office documents),apps services, you can't have that without a Microsoft account.
sireangelus said:
I'm sorry. What is wrong with what you've just said? android and ios are the same. You can't use a marketplace without signing in. and the files are mostly subordinate to the apps that can read them, android is an exception for what as been for a long time in the phone market, but it does the whole contacts/gmail/etc thing as wp8. You might be able to disable email syncro though, if you dislike that much reading email on a phone. Can you explain to us WHY did you buy a smartphone if you don't use any of the characteristics that makes one so?
The wp8 experience is one of seamless integration with social networks, work networks (email, office documents),apps services, you can't have that without a Microsoft account.
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Thanks for the reply,
I guess I was hoping wp8 was going to be more like windows, for example the phone has built in gps but I have no way of accessing it…ie grid reference.
The reason I went for a smart phone, ie htc hd mini is ease of carrying a single device when traveling. I don’t need wifi or a GSM reception to use the htc for satnav (map grid and tomtom), radio or to watch films or listen to mp3’s.
For work, I need a phone, camera, gps, removable sd, replaceable battery and entertainment when stuck in boring hotel rooms.
orbitalschool said:
Thanks for the reply,
I guess I was hoping wp8 was going to be more like windows, for example the phone has built in gps but I have no way of accessing it…ie grid reference.
The reason I went for a smart phone, ie htc hd mini is ease of carrying a single device when traveling. I don’t need wifi or a GSM reception to use the htc for satnav (map grid and tomtom), radio or to watch films or listen to mp3’s.
For work, I need a phone, camera, gps, removable sd, replaceable battery and entertainment when stuck in boring hotel rooms.
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lol first.. what use is gps without a map. and wp8 has native offline maps ready to download. you're trying to use a modern smartphone like a nokia 6600, that's why you're having problem. Try using it the way it's supposed to - the modern always online world.
By the way, yes, you absolutely can disable email sync (not sure why you'd want to; email sync is incredibly handy, one of the things I use every single day on my phone, but OK) either when you set up the account, or by going to Settings -> Email + Accounts and tapping on the account in question.
Installing apps does, indeed, require store access (OK, mostly; there's limited support for sideloading, and one of the things the hacking community is working on is improving that). Store access is tied to you Microsoft account (as on Win8 or Steam or something like that).
The old days of "it's a handheld computer!" (not that that was ever entirely true) are largely gone, although, again, this is the kind of thing that we're trying to bring back.
If you download the maps onto the device it includes a license for worlwide offline navigation (in supported countries - that means: if they have the mapping data, which they have I believe for ~ 80 countries worldwide). The same Maps are used in Here Maps and if downloaded work offline as well.
There is no file explorer though. If you transfer files to the Documents folder they will show up in the office hub. If you put files in the music folder they will show up in the Music Hub, etc.
So all in all you can't be completely offline due to the application store but otherwise you should be able to do everything you want with your WP8 device, although it works differently.
GoodDayToDie said:
By the way, yes, you absolutely can disable email sync (not sure why you'd want to; email sync is incredibly handy, one of the things I use every single day on my phone, but OK) either when you set up the account, or by going to Settings -> Email + Accounts and tapping on the account in question.
Installing apps does, indeed, require store access (OK, mostly; there's limited support for sideloading, and one of the things the hacking community is working on is improving that). Store access is tied to you Microsoft account (as on Win8 or Steam or something like that).
The old days of "it's a handheld computer!" (not that that was ever entirely true) are largely gone, although, again, this is the kind of thing that we're trying to bring back.
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There are many annoying things about my HD mini wm6.5, but since I've fixed the screen and got the reception back as good as new (antenna connection) I've found a new respect for the phone. I'm thinking about sending the Nokia wp8 back, prematurely it feels as I haven't received the new sim or sd card yet, so I haven't actually used it. I'm also considering purchasing another HD mini as back up.
I wish I had the level of understanding you guys have, I'd love the ability to be able to program and customize the device to my liking but the reality is I'm hanging on coattails. I was hoping wp8 would be an improved version of wm6.5.
Thanks for the advice.
Charlie.
The difference between Windows Phone and Windows Mobile is deeper than the branding, but the branding is intended as a tip-off that they are *not* the same thing.
Windows Phone is a smartphone in the sense that iOS is a smartphone; it's pretty "smart" for a phone, but even Microsoft wouldn't have marketed it as a "PocketPC".
orbitalschool said:
There are many annoying things about my HD mini wm6.5, but since I've fixed the screen and got the reception back as good as new (antenna connection) I've found a new respect for the phone. I'm thinking about sending the Nokia wp8 back, prematurely it feels as I haven't received the new sim or sd card yet, so I haven't actually used it. I'm also considering purchasing another HD mini as back up.
I wish I had the level of understanding you guys have, I'd love the ability to be able to program and customize the device to my liking but the reality is I'm hanging on coattails. I was hoping wp8 would be an improved version of wm6.5.
Thanks for the advice.
Charlie.
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The point is that there is very little amount of "personalization" possible. Try to use it instead as it is.
I have been looking all around the internet for a way to network a Windows Phone 8 to a homegroup. I am an Android user and will remain one, however I would like to also have the benefits of a WP. I bought a Nokia Lumia 520 (T-Mobile), however I have no plans to activate it. I bought the $99 phone to access a NAS, upload and dl content from it. All I have found at this point is how to connected it to WiFi when I google Network Windows Phone 8. I am not trying to connect it to the internet I am trying to network the phone. I would like to be able to map the phones memory as a drive. Does anybody know how to do this?
Not even close to possible, not at this time.
First of all, WP8 has no support for SMB (the network protocol used for Windows messaging). There are apps which implement it, at least partially, but that's it.
Second, the vast majority of the WP8 file system is inaccessible to users. All that you would be able to access is things like documents and music, and the isolated storage of whatever app you used.
Third, why would you do this? I mean, you can buy a few gigs of NAS for a hell of a lot cheaper than $100, with better performance characteristics and without reserving a bunch of space for an OS.
I've held for some time that WP8 devices should be able to connect to Homegroups (and ideally other SMB networks) but MS doesn't seem to care. That was mostly so I could transfer files onto and off of the phone while using it as my phone, though, not as some ludicrously overpriced bit of networked storage...
GoodDayToDie said:
Not even close to possible, not at this time.
First of all, WP8 has no support for SMB (the network protocol used for Windows messaging). There are apps which implement it, at least partially, but that's it.
Second, the vast majority of the WP8 file system is inaccessible to users. All that you would be able to access is things like documents and music, and the isolated storage of whatever app you used.
Third, why would you do this? I mean, you can buy a few gigs of NAS for a hell of a lot cheaper than $100, with better performance characteristics and without reserving a bunch of space for an OS.
I've held for some time that WP8 devices should be able to connect to Homegroups (and ideally other SMB networks) but MS doesn't seem to care. That was mostly so I could transfer files onto and off of the phone while using it as my phone, though, not as some ludicrously overpriced bit of networked storage...
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I already have a NAS. I wanted to be able to pull video and music files from the NAS and on to my phone. I also wanted to be able to use the NAS as a source of storage for the phone. It would have been sweet to have my NAS as a mapped drive on my WP..... I am saddened to know that my Android can kind of do this with SAMBA, but my WP can not. I have seen many people get blasted on here for complaining about WP after they buy the phone and not doing the research before hand. I guess I shouldn't have assumed a windows phone would integrate into my windows network.
Edit:
I did thank you for answering my question, however I didn't overlook your desire to degrade my post. I never said I wanted to use it as an overpriced NAS, I said I wanted to be able to map the memory of the phone to transfer files off of my NAS and on to my phone.
Apologies for misunderstanding your intentions; when you mentioned connecting the phone to the network and mapping its storage as drive, but not activating it, that's what it sounded like. Yeah... while it is too bad you bought the phone without checking this first, one really would assume that Windows Phone 8 could connect to Windows networks...
I used Metro File manager to access SMB in the past, I don't know what are you trying to do.