Wozniak Praises 'Beautiful' Windows Phone 362
judgecorp writes "Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has praised the user interface of Microsoft's Windows Phone, saying that aspects of its user interface are more 'beautiful' than comparable sides to the iPhone. The comments, in a New Domain, follow on from a comment by Forrester boss George Colony who blogged that Apple would decline in the post-Jobs era. Both pieces have kicked off the kind of online argument you would expect."
Re:Windows Phone 7 (Score:5, Interesting)
I think your post misses one huge flaw with WP7
The developer API, it's too restrictive. No good way to get your apps to share data between each other. Only network connection allowed is HTTP. No single source of online storage (last I checked the SkyDrive API wasn't opened, so you can't use it, by the developer contract).
Yes, it has a clean and effective API, but in terms of functionality from 3rd party apps, it lacks, and would still lack, even if it had all the developers of iOS and Android combined.
Monumental failure. (Score:5, Interesting)
The UI may be great and the development environment good, but Microsoft, in a misguided attempt to lock developers to the platform (that only works when you have them to begin with), made it impossible to use c++ and OpenGL on them meaning every part of an Android or iOS game/app has to be rewritten to work on Windows Phone 7.
When you make it too hard, developers will stick with the platforms where the customers are; Android and iOS
Re:Monumental failure. (Score:4, Interesting)
Except Microsoft will eventually have tons of developers on the platform, unless you are suggesting that no one is going to pick up development for Windows 8. Once you start making Windows 8 desktop apps, they should be easy to convert to Windows 8 mobile apps.
Re:Windows Phone 7 (Score:5, Interesting)
Look, just because his name is similar to other first-posting newly created account names accused of being MS shills (TechNY/TechLA), the account was created just yesterday and he only made pro-MS and anti-Google postings since then doesn't mean anything. Doesn't mean anything at all ...
Sad, too, he's assumed to be an Apple mouthpiece.. (Score:5, Interesting)
Just because Woz originally helped found Apple Computer in the 70's doesn't mean he's a shill for Apple 30 years later, long after having worked as one of their employees, and after the company changed names (simply "Apple" today -- with the "Computer" part purposely deleted).
I really do think the man speaks honestly about technology he uses, no matter which vendor it comes from. He often likes Apple's products, and when he does, he'll tell you so. But the media seems to assume he's "supposed to be saying that" and jumps to conclusions whenever he says something good about a competing product instead.
As a big fan of the iPhone myself, I'd agree with Woz about Windows Phone 7 too. It *does* have a refreshing and attractive-looking UI to it -- something I'm doubly impressed came out of Microsoft, after their LONG standing belief that everything they designed should have a START button in the corner. (Even their embedded systems for such things as vehicle navigation systems still required developers to purposely code the software to completely hide the OS's UI underneath, because nobody wanted a touchscreen in their car or truck to look like it was just another PC running a version of Windows, with icons to double-click.)
Quality is irrelevant (Score:3, Interesting)
1. The intersection of MS fanboys and people with widespread credibility is exactly 0.
2. Nobody (apart from MS employees and shareholders) wants it to succeed. - Most people who care about tech gear want MS products to fail so the company will die and be replaced by several other, better companies.
3. We all want competition, good products, and good value, but nobody associates any of those things with microsoft. We all reasonably expect competitors products to be at least as good and better value.
4. We'll happily take an apple/google duopoly over another MS monopoly anyday.
So unless the phones are both outstanding compared to the competition, and much better value, nobody is going to care about them. This seems unlikely.
If MS wants people to care about it's brands and products, it needs to split itself up into it's various divisions. Smaller, independent businesses would be forced to compete and innovate instead of relying on marketing and monopoly to ensure success. If WP7 became a genuine underdog, it might actually get some credible supporters. But since this won't ever happen, it will simply die a long, painful and expensive death. So props to MS on the strategy so far.
Re:Windows Phone 7 (Score:5, Interesting)
Your complaint is hardly specific to Windows Phone 7 tho - I've not used it (consider that a caveat) so I can't comment on WP7, but I've had my fair share of UI glitches and software slide buttons sticking on both Android (HTC Desire, 2.1 iirc) and iPhone.
I've even had situations where the iPhone wont let me answer a call thats ringing, because the screen isnt responding to the slide - the call goes to voice mail, the screen reverts back to the lock screen, and suddenly everything works again.
I've had situations where I couldn't hang up the call on both the iPhone and Android. Now thats not a great situation to be in!
My iPhone also won't connect to my local pubs wifi, even when Im sat a couple of meters away from the router - won't see it, and if I try and connect manually it won't join the network.
So execution is really lacking all round.
Possible Fixes (Score:5, Interesting)
Don't allow posts from accounts less than a year old to appear as first post. Hold them in queue until a few dozen posts have been made. You could also slow them down a bit by requiring two mod-ups to raise their score one point.
AFAIK they already don't allow brand spankin' new accounts to moderate. The real challenge is dealing with established accounts that don't 'turf; but moderate up the turfers. It could be a political issue if you simply LART them.
I hypothesize that if a user's up-mods all go towards new accounts, that user is likely a shill. They certainly have a strange bias. There's not much reason to skew your mods towards new accounts. Yeah, sympathy for high ID numbers; wanting to make new users feel good; but that's not really productive. We can do without that.
There's still nothing to stop a determined bunch of 'turfers from gaining access. You should make them work for it though.
Re:Buyer beware! (Score:4, Interesting)
For people who buy Microsoft/Nokia's current flagship phone, the word on the street is that they are going to be screwed over, and Microsoft refuses to address the issue even when the big hitter tech journalists directly ask.
That's a big difference.
Re:Windows Phone 7 (Score:5, Interesting)
Probably due to hidden SSID which the phones can't handle.
http://windowsphonesecrets.com/2010/08/04/windows-phone-missing-feature-of-the-week-connect-to-hidden-wireless-
networks/
Re:And.....? (Score:5, Interesting)
Woz has 2 iphones as his primary devices. He says that Windows Phone 7 has a better interface than Android and chooses it over that platform, but he always carries multiple devices with him and still says his two iPhones (ATT and Verizon) are his primaries. Despite this, he praises a lot of aspects of the WP7 OS as better than iOS.
Here is a link to a audio recording of an interview with Woz where he talks about all his devices and why he likes WP7 over Android:
http://soundcloud.com/kopoint/the-report-steve-wozniak-interview [soundcloud.com]
Go to 6:25 to hear him say that iPhone is still his primary.
BTW, I carry a Lumia 900 for personal bias warning.