Monday, October 25, 2010

What WP7 Devices lacks from?

altIn reading a review of Windows Phone 7 or the comments attached to them it is quite common to run accross a list of features which Windows Phone 7 lack, and which means the OS is doomed to fail.

I have therefore decided to commented on each item in this pretty standard list  to address these perceived "shortcomings".

No System-wide File Manager

- A System-wide File Manager is needed only when you want to deal with different type of File types organised in folders. WP7 has Documents, Albums which supports Folders which is more than enough for a mobile device.  Also you have Skydrive integration which has few file managing options.

No Video Calling

-Video Calling is a option for OEM’s in WP7. They can  choose it for their device if they want.

No Smart Dialling

-Smart Dialling allows you to call your fav.contacts easily. WP7 has various other ways to do the same task, for example you can pin your fav.contact in the start screen or you can use WP7’s speech recognition feature.

Limited third-party apps

- Its not fair to expect or compare a new platform with other established platforms .A new platform with 2000 quality apps is a very good number. Quality is more important than quantity.

No USB mass storage mode/No Bluetooth file transfers

-Piracy and Security is the main reason of not enabling this feature. It protects you from various problems. Want to share a file to your friend? Use Skydrive. Zune Client is good for file transfer between phone and PC.

No memory card support

-Using Memory card to store images is inferior when compared to storing it in your personal cloud like Skydrive, Facebook, etc,.

No multitasking

-True Multitasking drains phone’s battery life which is the main reason Microsoft planned not to implement it in the first release. And Microsoft knows multitasking better than its competitors because their previous mobile OS Windows Mobile had it. Current version of WP7 supports multitasking by tombstoning. Also applications such as Zune,Browser support multitasking.

No copy paste

-WP7 doesn't have copy paste. But it provides Smart Sensing to detect phone numbers,Address in a website,etc,.But its on the way through next update as confirmed by Joe Belfiore. Also Microsoft is evaluating Tuck&Paste concept which may arrive in future updates.

Too dependent on Zune software for computer file management and syncing

-Zune is the desktop client for WP7 and its very simple,intuitive to use. If you don't like it then use Windows Live Skydrive.

No music player equalisers

-WP7 doesn't have out of the box equaliser for avid music fans. But some WP7 devices such as from HTC has more than Music equalisers. They have Sound Enhancer app that shall deliver equalizer sound effects for a richer listening and viewing experience. Also, equalizer presets automatically mix bass, treble and vocal levels for maximum effect, whatever your type of music.

No Flash or Silverlight support in the web browser

-Yes,Its not supported as of now. But it wont be forever as in the case of iPhone. Microsoft is open to support Adobe Flash in its platform(Rumour: Adobe is going to release beta version of Flash for WP7 before this year). Silverlight support in browser is on the way.

No sign of free Bing maps Navigation so far

-Bing Maps provides navigation from Point A to Point B. But the turn-by-turn voice guided navigation is not available. But carrier's and  OEM’s can have their own navigation systems on their WP7 devices. For example Orange has its own navigation service built into the WP7 devices.

No DivX/XviD video support

- Its listed in MSDN support website that Windows Phone 7 has DivX/Xvid support. We have posted about it here already.

I’ve commented on these features based on my knowledge. if you have better comments or if you dont agree with the comments, Let us know in the comments section.

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