Microsoft ends notifications for Win-Phone 7.5 and 8.0 Microsoft's all-but-euthanized Windows Phone 7.5 and 8.0. The company last week reminded users that support had ended for the aforementioned versions of its mobile operating system and then delivered the bad news that "On February 20, 2018, Mobile Push Notification services will be turned off for Windows Phone 7.5 and Windows …
Windows Phone 8 / Windows 10 Mobile were the best of a bad bunch. I don't find any of the mobile operating systems particularly good, but WP was probably better (as an OS) than the others. But it never gained enough support to get the app eco-system going, in order to show what it wss really capable of.
A shame.
I currently use an Android device, but I miss a lot of features from WP that made life easier.
I wasn't particularly impressed by the live tiles, I don't want stuff constantly shifting on the screen or a bunch of haphazard sizes fit together like some weird version of tetris, but the one thing I kind of wished Apple would have stolen from the WP interface was making the icons bigger so there was much less space between them. Having small icons in a field of black always seemed like a waste to me, why not make them bigger and reduce that dead space? Just a small border a couple mm wide would be enough to visually separate them.
Apple has eliminated the bezel from their phones, now why not eliminate the bezel around the icons?
I really like the Tetris thing of different sized icons. It was about the only thing I liked about the Android UI too. Having used all 3 systems on my phones - though Android longest ago, so I'm out of date on what it can do nowadays...
It means I can create a custom screen where the buttons I use least are smaller. And a couple are huge, not to make them easier to press, but to divide the screen into different sections. I admit I'm an unusual user in that I want some functions to be usable when I'm out-and-about and not wearing reading glasses - so they should be bigger - and stuff where I'm going to need my glasses to operate them anyway (app store, settings etc), may as well have small icons.
That's the other thing I like, the ability to have a larger text size. So my address book and text messages can be readable without glasses.
I admit I'm an unusual user, but it is true for everyone that with phone UIs there are some tasks you need to do at moments when you're distracted and in awkward places. Answering/making calls, sat-nav while walking. These need to be easy, intuitive and have as few distractions as posisble Other tasks are done more deliberately - and so you can go to town on the details.
I got my Mum a Windows phone, and she said the other day that she was sad that she'd have to upgrad to something different soon. I'd say she's found it even easier to use than an iPad - although that could be because it does less.
Not all tiles are animated, and some allows for turning the animation off. Anyway, having some information visible at a glance is a big plus of tiles.
The "icon grid" which dates back to McIntosh and Windows 3.1 is a really outdated interface. But it does stimulate the "candies collector" weakness of many users.
"Just a small border a couple mm wide would be enough to visually separate them."
Which is exactly what you could do with the tiles in WP. You obviously haven't actually used a windows phone, just seen it. The tiles are not fixed sizes, they have 3 different sizes. Smallest would give you a grid of 6 x 9 on screen with only a mm between them, with animation completely disabled for it. only size 2 and 3 (2x2 and 2x4) are animated if enabled.
You picked the size and layout of each tile, what was in the tile (based on the app settings).
Yes. The only "live" tile I used was to show my calendar. very useful. And I sized the others according to importance. Biggest tiles for major utilities. Tiny ones for stuff I used from time to time. Medium for the rest. I had big and medium alternating, and the tiny ones grouped. I miss that.
I am still running my Lumia 630 running OS 8.1. It still does everything I need it for (make calls, run HERE maps and a limited set of business related applications, access the web if I am in dire need of info and don't have access to my PC). It still has extremely good battery life which is about the most important factor for me on a phone. I turn wifi and mobile data off when not in use and only need to charge it once a week. The camera is OK, but for serious photography I have a DSLR.
I can't see the appeal of playing games/watching video/serious web browsing on a tiny screen, so can leave that until I get access to a device with a proper screen.
Obviously other peoples use cases are different. This suits mine. I can't see any reason to change it.
And the cut-down experience of mobile websites also means that important information is missing.
As a basic example, these forums, on a mobile device, don't show when a post was made and the icons are missing... And this is common among many forums and comment systems.
I usually use mobile surfing just in emergencies. It is much more comfortable reading text on an ergonomic 34" display than a 5" - 6" display in my hand.
I still have a Lumia 950, which was practically the same specification as my Nexus 5x, the latter is unusably slow since the last couple of Oreo updates (after pressing the home button, it can take around 5 seconds before the home screen is shown; the camer app is really bad, pressing the shutter button can have a delay of up to 6 seconds, before the phone take the image, not usable if you have a moving subject).
Due to app reliability and availability (Fitbit would need to be re-installed 3 - 4 times a day, because it would lose contact with my Charge, WhatsApp would go days before notifying me of new messages, then the hundreds would all be notified at once), I switched back to Android 2 years ago, but I still prefer the WP interface.
"As a basic example, these forums, on a mobile device, don't show when a post was made and the icons are missing... And this is common among many forums and comment systems."
Turn the browser to "desktop experience", will then be the same as on a computer, not the mobile version.
Lumia 730 here. Weird model names, as there was a 710 (Win Pho 7) and a 730 (Win Pho 8/10) - but no other 7** models. I've had both of them, and really liked them.
The Met Office app stopped working last week. It will no longer update and when I decided to try re-installing, it's disappeared from the app store. So they've obviously withdrawn it, and I now have a less easy to read weather app. Chiltern Railways have also removed theirs.
So even the few apps that were around are going away. Fortunately there aren't many that I regularly use. I have a tablet for apps - my phone is for work, reading email and talking. Or texting if I'm forced. With a side order of sat-nav.
I'm not paying iPhone prices, even though it's on the company. So I guess I'll be going back to 'Droid. It's a bit more faff for me, though I'll easily cope. But I'm not looking forward to supporting my Mum on it - she's needed almost no help with Windows Phone, except setting it up. My experience with Android suggests it's going to be a lot harder.
Nope. Android is a sinch these days, and the setup will walk you through everything. You can't really go wrong. WM on the other hand was a complete UI mess. Those stupid live tiles either didn't update (when they were meant to), or disappeared, or just didn't respond. They were never that intutive, and MS never really did what they promised with them and 3rd parties just weren't interested. All that black/white UI was also really nasty - MS trying to use the flat, monochrome look everywhere. We have colour all around us FFS, why do we want a smartphone to be drab and boring!
I don't want a smartphone to be drab and boring. Though I don't really care. I want it to be clear and simple.
Something that both and stock Android and iOS often fail dismally at.
I admit that live tiles didn't really work properly. Not that I care, because I pretty much don't want them. Widgets (or whatever Android now calls them) often aren't big enough to display the info you want, without opening the app. So a badge or number to tell you which apps have new info is fine.
Win Phone has both my personal and work emails as links on the home page with a number of unread messages on. That's fine for me. Same for missed calls and unread texts.
The advantage of Android is the infinite customisation. But the downside of that is complication. To get it "right" will I'm sure take me hours of trial and error.
> Android is a sinch these days, and the setup will walk you through everything. You can't really go wrong.
Really? When I recently switched to Android, as part of the set up it asked me to log in to my Google account, which I did. Now, I have two-factor authentication turned on, so the phone asks me to enter the code Google have sent me. Which they have. To the phone which hasn't yet finished set up so won't let me access any incoming text messages.
I've still not found out how to add contacts to the phone's contact list rather than sending them to the Google mothership. And why on earth do you need to give Google access to your entire life history and permission to monitor everything you do going forwards in order to ask the "assistant" what the time is?!
Anyone criticising the WP UI for being a mess *really* needs to cast a critical eye over the Android world, especially the non-stock distributions being sold by the likes of Sony / Samsung.
I have a Lumia 625 that I was given a few years ago, never put a sim card in, just used it as a mini tablet and camera, I'd noticed the IMDB app stopped working before Christmas and the Register app stopped working in the summer I think? I bookmarked the page, but it was never quite the same. I still receive personnel emails and I added my work account as well both were easy to set up and worked great. Live Tiles work really well for news, weather and photos. Its going to be missed, I've never owned an android or Apple phone, but when ever I have tried them, I've never quite clicked with the UI. It always amused me that the phone loads most gifs on forums quite easily and yet I seem to remember it was announced as some big thing in an iOS a few years ago, 512mb of RAM is starting to show though, a gif heavy forum will shut the browser and kick me back to the Start Menu.
I guess I need to go and hunt out a 950 or something for another few years now.
a gif heavy forum will shut the browser and kick me back to the Start Menu.
I call that piss-poor stability, you do not ask me and that is fine ...
Crikey, these Windows Phone fanboys are funny ....
It always amused me that the phone loads most gifs on forums quite easily and yet I seem to remember it was announced as some big thing in an iOS a few years ago
Well, if 11 years is a "few years" for you, then yeah, I never tried the first iPhone, but I doubt it had trouble with that, my iPhone 3G back in the day had no trouble at all ... besides, the first iPhone could load SVG's, can Windows Phone ? BTW, I am not a big fan of animated gif's ...
Right from the start, in El Reg there were Winphone antagonists who dissed the phone on the basis that it was from Microsoft. Usually without having actually given it a chance. But generally the people who actually used the phones have liked them. I 'm no Microsoft fan (posts passim as Private Eye might say) But my Lumia was good to use. And the few apps I needed were available at first. It was when they became unsupported that I jumped ship
Those of us that can remember more than a week ago will recall M$ track record of abandoned hardware. Retarded 'world releases' that didn't include the world. Remember the Kin? It littered all TV programs as product placement then vanished without a trace. weeks later. M$ enjoys making stuff then shelving it and leaving sheep out of pocket. I predicted M$ phones would die an early death no matter how good they were.
The fact that someone at Microsoft believed they could sell the Kin in 2010 it is a clear sign they didn't get a clue about the mobile phone market - and the acquisition of Danger were really money thrown away. It looks the Zune failure never taught them anything.
With Nokia they had a chance to deliver a real mobile platform, but it was late and it would have required a multi-year effort and commitment. something someone like Nadella isn't strong enough to attempt - he just hopes to make money from the cloud while trying to limit damages elsewhere, he's a follower without a vision.
"... do people still get angry and pissy that other people dare to prefer a different phone brand to one they like?"
Hi Hans!
Sorry, did I touch a nerve there, you seem a little angry, maybe I am wrong, but I am sure there was an issue with gifs on iPhones 2 or 3 years ago, at least on my bosses phone, but then again, he's a boss, so, you know..
One of the things I liked and I am sure has been mentioned on The Reg before is that the Windows Phone always managed to do more with less, loading up 3 or 4 gifs on a forum page with "only" 512mb of RAM always seemed okay to me. Not sure if I ever viewed SVG files, I dont feel like my mobile browsing was any worse off if I some how missed them.
Is a non animated gif, not just a pic?
Either way, have a great day, maybe don't go driving through any heavy traffic today though eh?
The irony is that the Apps on the 950 are pretty good these days. Skype is basically stable (as in doesn't crash much - they change bits of it regularly).
The Office apps are excellent and improve all the time (shared access etc.)
Maps supports tabs like the desktop version (same code) and thus allows multiple places to be searched/visible at the same time - Google Maps still does not do that, even on a PC.
Of course, the maps can be offline, multiple whole countries. Nothing else comes close. The 3D stuff is very cool and Navigation doesn't require a data service.
Edge is fast, and given the 3-yr-old HW, really fast.
Mail, OneDrive, Photos, Messaging (Skype merges SMS/Skype, which is v. useful).
And things like the Translator are still active and useful. I still prefer the way Contacts work on WinPhone, all the contact history across all the mechanisms (email, SMS, Skype etc.).
I am sure there are 1000s upon 1000s of Apps it doesn't have but I have no real need of them, apart from wanting a Santander App that is. I have an RBS app and it is useful so I would like to have the other one - perhaps moving to RBS for that account is the answer.
I know I am in a minority but I have used Android and iOS a lot with work and I just don't find them as fluid or attractive, UI wise. More Apps is just not a good enough reason for me to switch.
Still, they haven't switched off Win10 notification so I guess I don't have to switch.
The 2 apps I used most were WhatsApp and Fitbit. The former would lose contact with the Charge several times a day, saying that the phone could no longer make a connection to the watch and the phone needed to be restarted; interestingly, the phone still showed the watch as connected and de-installing and re-installing the app would fix the problem, but having to re-install the app or restart the phone 3 or 4 times a day is not practical.
WhatsApp would go for days without noticing that news messages had arrived, then you got a bunch of messages all together... Not really useful.
Also, VHS wasn't crappier. That's the myth that refuses to die...
The original Betamax tapes had a better image than VHS, but they were limited to one hour record/playback time. VHS tapes had twice the run length, and that mattered more to people than the image quality.
Soon, the Betamax run length was extended by slowing the tape speed, but that took with it the superior image quality. The larger VHS cassette size would always give it an advantage; more tape meant longer run time or faster tape speed (image quality).
VHS won because it better fit what consumers wanted, even if you ignore the restrictive licensing by Betamax patent holder Sony relative to VHS's JVC.
I actually still use WP7.5 (though 7.6 has also been released) for the simple reason that it was cheaper than Apple and not Google (call me paranoid if you will but I have problems putting some of my trust into Android). And this was a really nice alternative.
Looking back Microsoft really should have kept their promises and tried to appeal much more to the developer / geek market instead of trying to milk it dry. I mean... E 100,- payment for the right to mess with your own phone (developer unlock)? Also (for context): for a platform which had yet to proof itself. Who in their right mind would do that? Sure, this ridiculousness was soon dropped, but by that time it also really was too little and too late.
I really think it could have worked, when done right. Obviously the horror which was Windows 8 also didn't really help. When I told people how I thought that Metro wasn't all that bad I quickly attracted weird looks, do you really think those would buy into Windows Phone once they learned it ran Metro, that which many fully despised on Windows 8?
Oh well, I suppose we still have Blackberry. Oh wait, we don't because those have also been fully converted to Android.
They sent me one back in the day to test.
Huge slab of a device.
Now the OS itself felt unfinished in many ways but was fairly intuitive.
But one of the things that I feel definitely helped it to an early grave was the decision by MS to release version 8 (I think it was - it might've been a 7.x - it was some time ago) but not have it compatible with the earlier hardware.
So anyone who'd bought into their platform was screwed over and why stick with a manufacturer that throws their devices under the bus one version later? Not even Samsung do that.
It was 8. 7 got decent numbers of upgrades, including some of the features from 8, but 8 used a different kernel in a failed attempt to make it compatible with Metro apps for tablets and desktops.
Basically the whole reason for ruining the desktop Windows 8 was to have this seemless app ecosystem, and Sinofsky totally blew it - pissing off vast numbers of users in the process. D'oh!
I had a Win Pho 7, and later went to 8 with a small detour via an iPhone 5.
The other problem was that they fixed the kernel to future-proof 8, but didn't fix some of the missing features from 7. They did all the work under the bonnet - and barely touched userland. Total incompetence from Microsoft.
I think the problem is they weren't willing to bet the resources needed to make mobile work, but weren't willing to swallow their pride and just give up.
I'm convinced they could have got the cheap smartphone market before Android sub £200 phones were good enough and they really should have been able to get the corporate phone market too. And from that large segment of the market would then have had the heft to be able to launch an effort at the prestige high-end phones with Nokia's clever camera and sound tricks. But management weren't up to it! And they failed to cooperate with Nokia, even after Nokia had bet the farm on them - and when it was clear that Nokia were their only serious hardware partner.
I feel the phrase management clusterfuck seems apt. Or maybe omni-shambles?
MS did not endear themselves to mobile phone dev folk.
Back in the day original windows phones ran Win CE 5, then later Windows mobile 6 and 6.5 - these were all code compatible (worst case a recompile).
Later versions of windows phone were not code compatible and a non trivial code rewrite was required - alienating lots of the "early adoptier" devs who wrote apps for first incarnations of WM.
Many of those devs decided against massive rewrites and as essentially it was code again from scratch, changed to competing mobile platforms
.. and then MS wondered why there was a shortage of apps!
You make it sound like this affects Windows phone users.
Windows Phone 8.1 is unaffected and will carry on working, and even that's old already. Windows 10 Mobile is very much still supported, and will have push notifications for YEARS yet.
7.5 and 8.0 are now ancient and not used by anyone.
Just saying...
Alas, I never did see one in the wild, so nothing changes for me there. Microsoft abandoned mobile, the obvious future of personal computing, at exactly the same time the world moved over to it.
It now dances to it's arch enemies tune. Have you seen how many apps they have on the Play Store now? It tugs it's forelock every time they see them. The Beast does a little dance on it's hind legs every time they snap their fingers. I could go on, but that would be moving from comedy to cruelty.
Basil Fawlty: "Still, you know best dear."
I've still got my Lumia 1020 somewhere, bought for the superb camera primarily but I was more than happy with the Windows UI. Unfortunately in the end it was the lack of app availability (and support for the apps that were there) that killed it.
I've ended up back with Apple largely 'cause that's what we use at work.
It's somewhat telling that your perfectly reasonable reminisce about a phone which you enjoyed the experience of, should be down-voted.
You're not obnoxious about another system, you're not saying it's superior, or even giving an opinion on a specific feature for somebody to disagree with, yet someone out there is so disgruntled that you enjoyed a Microsoft product they had to show their disapproval.
Nice.
"... an iOS and Android duopoly... "
This raises an interesting situation: Back in the late 90s-early 00s, the vast majority of desktop hardware, regardless of brand, ran Windows - except for Apple, whose computers ran their own OS. And then Microsoft tried to tie their browser to their OS and got the crap sued out of them for anti-competitive behaviour.
Fast-forward 20 or so years: the vast majority of smartphone hardware, regardless of brand, runs Android - except for Apply, whose iPhones run their own OS. And these Android devices ship with Chrome installed, and are largely tied to Play and the other Google services...
And then Microsoft tried to tie their browser to their OS and got the crap sued out of them for anti-competitive behaviour.
Not exactly. I mean, what you wrote is true, but it's not why MS was sued.
Certain PC manufacturers wanted to include Netscape on their products. Microsoft let these vendors know that the only browser they were allowed to have preinstalled on their products was Internet Explorer, and it had to have an icon on the desktop prominently displayed in the default configuration. If the OEM did not follow this command, they would be denied Windows to sell preinstalled on their PCs. How many PCs would they be able to sell without Windows?
That was the anti-competitive behavior. Having IE installed with Windows would have been fine if MS had not tried to use their OS monopoly to crush Netscape. They did a lot more than simply bundle them together!
The thing about IE being built-in and supposedly uninstallable wasn't directly part of the anti-competitive behavior. It was a function of MS having predicted what was going to happen, a pre-emptive move to prevent the eventual plaintiffs from succeeding with the demand that IE be separated from Windows. If Windows could be installed without IE by OEMs, those OEMs could choose to install Netscape instead of IE. A new PC was expected to have a browser preinstalled... and if every PC that had Windows also had IE, that box was ticked before Netscape entered into it.
heh, my old 1520:- awesome screen, cpu, storage, camera, nice interface... no apps though...
Vodafone sent it to me as a 4G test pilot upgrade from my Lumia 800 - with a resulting "hell yes" and a 2 year £40pcm contract. in an empty box with a charger. no packaging. just rattling around in a standard courier box. not a scratch. still got it, and awaiting someone to slot windows4arm into an install package for it as Voda won't let it pull down the win10mobile update.
have been on apple since, as I get them for free as part of my job. I think the last android that actually impressed me was the wife's htc one m8. neeeeearly got one myself... but hey, y'know, free iPhones. waddaya gonna do?
I still use my Lumia 930. Good camera (especially for its time), good performance and I like the clean interface of Windows Phone and the tiles.
The problem Windows Phone always has (aside from lack of apps) was that Microsoft never really worked hard on fixing the small annoying things. I recall the flashlight for example, until Win Phone 10 came along, you couldn't (even with an app) turn it on without having to PIN in to the phone. Which is just plain stupid, because there are no security implications and it's the kind of thing you need to access quickly. Same with music player, I should at least have the option of running it without logging in.
I think Microsoft were actually doing pretty well with Windows Phone in some markets. Could have been a viable third option - the unfragmented uniformity and direct from vendor updates you get with an Apple device, but the wide choice of devices and lower price you get with Android. Instead like too many things, they threw money at it, kept moving the goalposts for developers and throwing their install base under a bus with each shift to a new, better code base.
I loved my 930 too, there are still things you could do *really quickly* with it that you simply cannot do with the iShinyThing (which is what I moved to when the battery just died one day, and landfill android never really appealed.)
Many of the layouts were just intuitive, connecting to APs was a doddle, the built in social media integration from early on was just something else and I really liked live tiles.
Ultimately what killed it was politics, they could have got over the kernel pain eventually - but the phone guys weren't in Nadella's 'tribe' and anyone who knows about the inner workings of MS will know that the tribalism is fierce and the victors are rarely gracious.
MS mobile interface is still the best for one handed operations, its a shame they never got fully behind it.Im still miffed my models never got the 10 update they were promised, but we all knew with 512 mg if memory, it was going to be a sqeaker if we ever did. Yes IE sucks on it, don't even think of going to /. On it, crashes every time...
Nokia did go all-in on Windows Phone, but did so as it entered what turned out to be terminal decline.
I have to keep reminding myself that correlation does not imply causation. That's the post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy.
Even so, it's possible that betting the farm on Win Phone killed Nokia.
It's also possible that Nokia was killed by Elop being a fucktard who did many idiotic things, of which betting the farm on Win Phone was just one.
It's also possible that betting the farm on Win Phone delayed the end, but didn't delay it long enough that Nokia could release new hardware based on unicorns farting rainbows and shitting gold.
We can only speculate.
I've said a few times and I'll say it again - Windows Phone is / was a good platform. The bad thing is how Microsoft treated it. Instead of regular updates adding features that people wanted they treated it like Windows with big updates once a year at best. Early in Android's life they iterated quickly with features coming thick and fast and I really feel if they'd done similar that it would have had wider adoption.
The UI took a little getting used to but it was clean, quick and suffered none of the normal slowdown or jittery scrolling I'd associate with iOS and Android at the time. It's almost criminal how badly they failed with this but that's Microsoft for you. It probably didn't help that they effectively released an OS that was a dead-end with no upgrade path for phone owners in WinPho 7. Any early adopters were basically screwed in a massive way for giving it a chance. Yes, their phones still worked but most new features were only available to WinPho 8 devices.
I will miss the potential it brought with a fresh take on things. I will not miss how badly Microsoft handled it and failed users, developers and the OS by treating it like Windows in almost every way.
I wonder if their detour into ARM territory will lead to the same kind of fallout as with WinMo?
I mean, windows on ARM does not have all the features you'd expect on Intel/AMD hardware... plus driver issues to sort out as well. Sure, ARM chippery have good battery life, but if drivers are lacking... (which was also a problem for IBM's OS/2 Warp and other operating systems).
Reminds me of the failed x64 version of XP, and Vista.
Only time will tell if v1.00 of the ARM foray will be a success or disaster. ARM is a different kind of beast, and you will not get x86/x64 code to run on it, unless in a VM or with WINE.
Hilarity to ensue as sysadmins try to get M$ office to install, only to find out that it is not compatible with ARM ....
Have M$ given thought to the dearth of apps on that specific platform, or are they hoping that software Morlocks will code for ARM-based Windows as well out of the goodness of their hearts?
My Windows phone is on the bedside table. If somebody messages me on Facebook Messenger, then my Windows phone is the first to notice, it buzzes quietly and its screen lights up. So I turn my attention from my laptop, pick up my Android phone, and see what's new on FB Messenger.
I use my Blackberry Playbook every day too. If I have email, then there's a red LED on the old Playbook that blinks. I can see it blinking, it lights up the wall in a dark room. So when the Playbook blinks, then I pick up my Android phone and check my email. Once Gmail has calmed down, then the Playbook automatically stops blinking. That part is pretty cool.
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