Windows Mobile haters, why ?

[Tom]

I'm interested in finding out the reasons why people who don't like Wndows Mobile feel that way ?

I'd also like to know if people think 6.5 or 7 will improve those issues, and if overlays like HTC's Touchflo does ?

 

[boomhower]

It is an ancient OS that has been passed on. It is more complicated to use than other mobile OS's these days. I have been a WM for years. TFL3D made huge strides and is very nice but its like putting make-up on a pig, its still a pig underneath. 6.5 isn't going to do a lot either. I mean common, now support for a capacitive screen?!? The future resides with 7 but only time will tell how that works out.

 

[A5]

WinMo 6.5 is very similar to 6.1. It's still not very finger-friendly, but it gets the job done if you can deal with it. If you want a WinMo 7 preview, look at the Zune HD - that's about as much as anyone knows.

 

[Deeko]

Windows mobile is just an old system. I had a T-Mobile SDA/Dash years ago - I believe I got the SDA in early 2006. These were WM devices that got upgraded to WM 6 (which had very little difference in the interface). Its just clunky and old, and its horrendous for touch screen phones, even with Touch Flo on top of it.

WM6.5 is essentially 6.1 with bigger icons so its more touch friendly. Its a step in the right direction, but its still just a bandaid. WM7 is supposed to be "revolutionary", but that's all they'll say at this point, who knows what it will actually consist of.

 

[aceO07]

I don't fully understand the hate for WM either. However, I've only used WM on my PDA. I think it's decent on a 4" display. If it was 3" display, I imagine it'd be more difficult to use with fingers. Handwriting recognition with stylus is good.

 

[DivideBYZero]

Tried using a Touch Diamond yesterday and it was crying out for a stylus. Lame.

 

[TheStu]

Originally posted by: A5
WinMo 6.5 is very similar to 6.1. It's still not very finger-friendly, but it gets the job done if you can deal with it. If you want a WinMo 7 preview, look at the Zune HD - that's about as much as anyone knows.

My understanding was that the Zune HD is not using WinMo at its core, but something else. I have heard reports that iPhone devs were asked to develop games and whatnot for the Zune HD, and they (the devs) mentioned that Microsoft told them that it wasn't WinMo.

 

[kyzen]

I've been using Windows Mobile phones for several years, hated all of em. They're slow, difficult to find software for, and ugly. Most require a stylus, as had been said. I switched to an Android phone a couple of weeks ago (my first non-WinMo phone in over 4 years), and never intend to go back.

 

[erwos]

Originally posted by: TheStu

Originally posted by: A5
WinMo 6.5 is very similar to 6.1. It's still not very finger-friendly, but it gets the job done if you can deal with it. If you want a WinMo 7 preview, look at the Zune HD - that's about as much as anyone knows.

My understanding was that the Zune HD is not using WinMo at its core, but something else. I have heard reports that iPhone devs were asked to develop games and whatnot for the Zune HD, and they (the devs) mentioned that Microsoft told them that it wasn't WinMo.

My guess is that they're being disingenuous in order to head off the general stupidity of the WinMo-haters crowd. WinMo, and I am guessing, ZuneOS are both based off Windows Embedded (aka, Windows CE). Windows CE is perfectly fine as an underlying operating system - it's flexible, it's powerful, and it's fast.

What people object to on Windows Mobile is the _interface_, which is intended to be stylus driven, even now. I have some sympathy for this view, but the openness of the platform and its huge feature set are very big pluses.

 

[aceO07]

Originally posted by: kyzen
I've been using Windows Mobile phones for several years, hated all of em. They're slow, difficult to find software for, and ugly. Most require a stylus, as had been said. I switched to an Android phone a couple of weeks ago (my first non-WinMo phone in over 4 years), and never intend to go back.

You mean the phone hardware is slow and cheap. My iPAQ hx4700 from 2004 isn't slow and it runs WM just fine. In fact it does some thing faster than my G1 Android phone.

 

[kyzen]

Yes, probably the phone hardware. Still, after several years with WinMo, on a variety of devices (the last one being the HTC Touch Pro), it just seemed to get seriously bogged down after a few days of continual use. My MyTouch doesn't seem to have that problem yet, despite the fact that I do significantly more with it.

 

[yh125d]

I've had an HTC Kaiser for over a year now with 6.1, and I've never had a problem with the touch. I also never use the stylus. Maybe you old folks have fat fingers? I could see the problem if you use the on screen keyboard though

 

[hanoverphist]

i use the onscreen kbd and have huge fingers. i rarely break out the stylus, maybe when im casually surfing and have the tiime to. there is so many things you can do to the stock WM6.1 to make it faster, im surprised that any here (which is where i got the links from in the first place) dont mention them.

 

[HannibalX]

Originally posted by: Tom
Windows Mobile haters, why ?

It's popular to hate Microsoft anything.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

The problem is many WinMo phones marketed in the US are underpowered. 128MB ram, etc etc. HTC Touch Pro and Diamond 2 are going to be great and have had GREAT reception around the world.

blame the US for getting the shitty phones.

 

[WelshBloke]

Originally posted by: kyzen
I've been using Windows Mobile phones for several years, hated all of em. They're slow, difficult to find software for, and ugly. Most require a stylus, as had been said. I switched to an Android phone a couple of weeks ago (my first non-WinMo phone in over 4 years), and never intend to go back.

I've found free software to do just about everything I want.

What cant you find? Maybe someone here can help.

 

[erwos]

Oh, and just to put this to rest - the Zune HD's browser user agent is:
mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows CE; IEmobile 6.12; microsoft zune hd 4.1)

I'm thinking IE Mobile might see some insane usability improvements in the future!

 

[Icepick]

Originally posted by: DLeRium
The problem is many WinMo phones marketed in the US are underpowered. 128MB ram, etc etc. HTC Touch Pro and Diamond 2 are going to be great and have had GREAT reception around the world.

blame the US for getting the shitty phones.

I really like the Touch Pro 2. It's got a large, responsive screen and TouchFlo 3d does a great job covering up Windows Mobile. It's also got a large keyboard.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Originally posted by: Icepick

Originally posted by: DLeRium
The problem is many WinMo phones marketed in the US are underpowered. 128MB ram, etc etc. HTC Touch Pro and Diamond 2 are going to be great and have had GREAT reception around the world.

blame the US for getting the shitty phones.

I really like the Touch Pro 2. It's got a large, responsive screen and TouchFlo 3d does a great job covering up Windows Mobile. It's also got a large keyboard.

Yeah, as long as HTC pushes their phones into the US, then we'll get some quality stuff.

Crap that Moto has made and LG like the LG Incite have all been for US only. We've been getting really crappy WinMo phones. 128mb of RAM is NOT enough for WinMo.