Make it under Android OS ! Or Bring back Maemo (Jolla?) !
Ok, am i dreaming? Then take a note of what will really make a Nokia device again my primary device, actually it is not, since i've got the iPhone 4s and lately the Samsung Galaxy S3 (I am permanently having the S3 and the 808 pureview on the pocket, the 4s in some specific cases too, the lumia is here to stay at home !) :
Let's start with the most obvious side of the story (UI), it's been now my second try to "adopt" WP OS with the lumia 800 (for 2 months) and now with the 900 (for a month) and im really trying hard to like and adopt it !
But man, it's just "not familiar", i feel myself manipulating an alien object, some kind of something new, and not adoptable instinctively (learn : IOS, Android and MeeGo Harmattan).
Let's not speak about me for a moment, when i give the device to anyone, their immediate inclination is to swipe sideways ! This is partially because of iOS but more precisely because of this is an instinct (another testament to Steve Jobs’ ao Apple as the whole understanding of human nature. This was a decision he made. He could have opted for vertical scrolling, but he didn’t) and when i asked them why they do swipe sideways, they said with no exception : "I don't know !" it's just natural...even my father who doesn't own a smartphone but a classic 6700, showed the same reaction ^^
Swiping up and down on the homescreen still never seems to feel natural after all this period of use. It's maybe tolerable for apps list because we have a very handy search capabilities but this doesn't apply to the "start" screen, WP8 will partially address this with the help of resizable tiles (so we can imitate the IOS "home screen" or Android widgetized true home screen) and the lack of folder management increase this intuitive dilemma, i don't know if WP8 will support folders on start screen...
Oversized fonts for headings waste screen space and result in low information density and don't make sense on such a small screen
Add to this that tile concept is really on an alpha stage for me, i mean, the "live" term should be seen more carefully as this isn't really "live" or "alive", for example :
- I have an sms received, the Message tile shows me there's 1 sms, but to read it, i have to open the Message application from this tile...is this live? Nope, i've expected SMS to scroll on the (resizeable) tile with its flipping animation ! With a swipe gesture (left or right) i should be able to reply or mark as read etc.
- I have a missed call? The name of the caller should be displayed without any interaction, again a swipe gesture on the tile should allows me to call back or send SMS.
- A new message on Facebook? On Twitter? I should be notified straight on the live tile !
I have to admit there're some apps that take advantage of this, like weather apps and prayer apps, Nokia trailers and few others but there's another problem, the tile flips every 3sec or more, and let alone in a hurry situation, even when you're on your living room, 3sec of wait to see an information is like waiting for an eternity !
Another point that really irritates me is the lack of notification signal (or vibration, or LED), could you learn from Symbian or the best of the best MeeGo Harmattan with the active lock screen? Or please make that Windows button blinks for missed events? It's not rocket science, it's a common sense...
So, the whole concept is nice, but it's fragmented and at some extension confusing in a way, it's not an unified experience mainly on the "live" concept, sorry but both IOS and Android are simplifying the UX with their notification center or live notification !
This "beta" feeling of the OS lands on other aspects too, what really, i mean really piss me off and won't for sure make a Nokia device my primary device is the following facts :
- No matter what you say or try to explain technically or not, there's no true multitasking, nearly all apps are frozen in the background except for some few built-in apps and resume apps takes ages, this is really pissing me off ! I mean, it's really pathetic, even IOS do a really much better work (let alone android, symbian or Maemo)
- Add to that, switching apps by pressing and holding the back button is in no way intuitive (nor long or double press on home button by the way) rather than provide a clear view of the open applications the user sees ridiculously large screen previews and is forced to scroll through them. What is meant to be a quick task (quicker than returning to the home screen or app list and reopening it from there) suddenly becomes time consuming. It’s strongly counter-intuitive and had Microsoft thought about it or understood it for even a second they would have made the home button switch apps and given a better preview of open applications.
And apps run in the background with absolutely no consistency. For example, downloading podcasts to the phone is a pain in the a** and most of applications stop running completely, a lot of applications don't work properly while on the background (whatsapp, badoo, foursquare etc.)
- Mr Elop ! Note that "your" OS is also a very closed perhaps more than Apple's one (at least, with a jailbreaked IOS, we reach a very satisfying level of customization and openness) so yeah there's no support of Divx/Xvid video codec, or FLAC
- Man i just want to drag and drop and don't want Zune to convert with loss of quality !
- Oh i can't, there's no support of mass storage mode ! Are we living on 2012? Hell no...Ok i can deal with skydrive (adopted already with dropbox) but some flexibility are needed here (as on Android), and not all people are comfortable with that.
- Hold on ! Wireless sync? Why not ! But why should i link the device to my charger ! Save battery? Give me the choice ! Don't follow Apple paths
- I want a filemanager, i want to have the freedom to create folders and place some specific files into some specific folders, a true smartphone that backup my computer when i'm in the go ! Maybe if the skydrive or dropbox integration are deep i can forget about that !
- I want to have Google as my search engine, bing is just poor and not accurate ! Give me a choice !
- I hate the fact that Windows Live ID account cannot change country once set (somehow like on Google but not really)
- I want my Alarm clock to work even if the phone is turned off
- I want to be able to attach a file, any file (even if the format isn't supported) straight from the email client and with integrated file manager.
- I want to be able to update the firmware over the air (OTA)
- I want to stream multimedia contents with HDMI
- I want to stream my Music to my radio system (in the car or home) with an integrated FM transmitter !
- I want a permanent status bar for battery life, signal strength, carrier, 2G/3G wi-fi, Bluetooth status.
- I want to freely create and save playlists on the phone.
- I want an equalizer and a freely customizable one
- I want to be able to save draft sms messages.
- I want an enhanced call history to not only show phone number type
- I want to be able to save or use numbers in sms or email !
- I want to be able to edit forwarded emails
- The search button is of limited use and waste of space as it is hardwired to Bing, make it extended to phone contents
- I want a haptic feedback for keyboard, it's all about Facebooking, Twittering, SMS texting and emailing, addicted smartphone users send 100 SMS text messages per day and often shift to OTT services like Whatsapp
- I want to be able to download any file even if it's not supported
- What irritates me is that Wi-fi disconnects when screen sleeps, turn your screen off and the wifi goes to sleep after 30 seconds ! And as i can't use the Lumia (800 or 900) as my primary device (for the lack of all above points) i don't have a data plan on my other lines, just tell me, what logic is this? Turn of WiFi to save some battery and activate 3G to eat a lot more battery? Come On who's this stupid engineer who decided to validate this concept?
- I want to be able to transfer any file via bluetooth.
- I want to be able to filter call history into Missed Calls, Received Calls, Dialled Calls, Recent Calls, etc
- I want to be able to see call duration in call history.
- I want profiles manager !
- I want full back up and restore (Call log, SMS, contacts etc.)
If WP8 and Nokia gonna be address those points i'll definitely adopt the Lumia (not sure as my primary device) if not, the last Nokia maybe gonna be the next lumia 920, as actually, android is the most interesting OS available right now in the way of its sharing and syncing features and possibilities, I'm really really delighted and spoiled as i wished my N9 or symbian devices to do (sadly) !
Ok, am i dreaming? Then take a note of what will really make a Nokia device again my primary device, actually it is not, since i've got the iPhone 4s and lately the Samsung Galaxy S3 (I am permanently having the S3 and the 808 pureview on the pocket, the 4s in some specific cases too, the lumia is here to stay at home !) :
Let's start with the most obvious side of the story (UI), it's been now my second try to "adopt" WP OS with the lumia 800 (for 2 months) and now with the 900 (for a month) and im really trying hard to like and adopt it !
But man, it's just "not familiar", i feel myself manipulating an alien object, some kind of something new, and not adoptable instinctively (learn : IOS, Android and MeeGo Harmattan).
Let's not speak about me for a moment, when i give the device to anyone, their immediate inclination is to swipe sideways ! This is partially because of iOS but more precisely because of this is an instinct (another testament to Steve Jobs’ ao Apple as the whole understanding of human nature. This was a decision he made. He could have opted for vertical scrolling, but he didn’t) and when i asked them why they do swipe sideways, they said with no exception : "I don't know !" it's just natural...even my father who doesn't own a smartphone but a classic 6700, showed the same reaction ^^
Swiping up and down on the homescreen still never seems to feel natural after all this period of use. It's maybe tolerable for apps list because we have a very handy search capabilities but this doesn't apply to the "start" screen, WP8 will partially address this with the help of resizable tiles (so we can imitate the IOS "home screen" or Android widgetized true home screen) and the lack of folder management increase this intuitive dilemma, i don't know if WP8 will support folders on start screen...
Oversized fonts for headings waste screen space and result in low information density and don't make sense on such a small screen
Add to this that tile concept is really on an alpha stage for me, i mean, the "live" term should be seen more carefully as this isn't really "live" or "alive", for example :
- I have an sms received, the Message tile shows me there's 1 sms, but to read it, i have to open the Message application from this tile...is this live? Nope, i've expected SMS to scroll on the (resizeable) tile with its flipping animation ! With a swipe gesture (left or right) i should be able to reply or mark as read etc.
- I have a missed call? The name of the caller should be displayed without any interaction, again a swipe gesture on the tile should allows me to call back or send SMS.
- A new message on Facebook? On Twitter? I should be notified straight on the live tile !
I have to admit there're some apps that take advantage of this, like weather apps and prayer apps, Nokia trailers and few others but there's another problem, the tile flips every 3sec or more, and let alone in a hurry situation, even when you're on your living room, 3sec of wait to see an information is like waiting for an eternity !
Another point that really irritates me is the lack of notification signal (or vibration, or LED), could you learn from Symbian or the best of the best MeeGo Harmattan with the active lock screen? Or please make that Windows button blinks for missed events? It's not rocket science, it's a common sense...
So, the whole concept is nice, but it's fragmented and at some extension confusing in a way, it's not an unified experience mainly on the "live" concept, sorry but both IOS and Android are simplifying the UX with their notification center or live notification !
This "beta" feeling of the OS lands on other aspects too, what really, i mean really piss me off and won't for sure make a Nokia device my primary device is the following facts :
- No matter what you say or try to explain technically or not, there's no true multitasking, nearly all apps are frozen in the background except for some few built-in apps and resume apps takes ages, this is really pissing me off ! I mean, it's really pathetic, even IOS do a really much better work (let alone android, symbian or Maemo)
- Add to that, switching apps by pressing and holding the back button is in no way intuitive (nor long or double press on home button by the way) rather than provide a clear view of the open applications the user sees ridiculously large screen previews and is forced to scroll through them. What is meant to be a quick task (quicker than returning to the home screen or app list and reopening it from there) suddenly becomes time consuming. It’s strongly counter-intuitive and had Microsoft thought about it or understood it for even a second they would have made the home button switch apps and given a better preview of open applications.
And apps run in the background with absolutely no consistency. For example, downloading podcasts to the phone is a pain in the a** and most of applications stop running completely, a lot of applications don't work properly while on the background (whatsapp, badoo, foursquare etc.)
- Mr Elop ! Note that "your" OS is also a very closed perhaps more than Apple's one (at least, with a jailbreaked IOS, we reach a very satisfying level of customization and openness) so yeah there's no support of Divx/Xvid video codec, or FLAC
- Man i just want to drag and drop and don't want Zune to convert with loss of quality !
- Oh i can't, there's no support of mass storage mode ! Are we living on 2012? Hell no...Ok i can deal with skydrive (adopted already with dropbox) but some flexibility are needed here (as on Android), and not all people are comfortable with that.
- Hold on ! Wireless sync? Why not ! But why should i link the device to my charger ! Save battery? Give me the choice ! Don't follow Apple paths
- I want a filemanager, i want to have the freedom to create folders and place some specific files into some specific folders, a true smartphone that backup my computer when i'm in the go ! Maybe if the skydrive or dropbox integration are deep i can forget about that !
- I want to have Google as my search engine, bing is just poor and not accurate ! Give me a choice !
- I hate the fact that Windows Live ID account cannot change country once set (somehow like on Google but not really)
- I want my Alarm clock to work even if the phone is turned off
- I want to be able to attach a file, any file (even if the format isn't supported) straight from the email client and with integrated file manager.
- I want to be able to update the firmware over the air (OTA)
- I want to stream multimedia contents with HDMI
- I want to stream my Music to my radio system (in the car or home) with an integrated FM transmitter !
- I want a permanent status bar for battery life, signal strength, carrier, 2G/3G wi-fi, Bluetooth status.
- I want to freely create and save playlists on the phone.
- I want an equalizer and a freely customizable one
- I want to be able to save draft sms messages.
- I want an enhanced call history to not only show phone number type
- I want to be able to save or use numbers in sms or email !
- I want to be able to edit forwarded emails
- The search button is of limited use and waste of space as it is hardwired to Bing, make it extended to phone contents
- I want a haptic feedback for keyboard, it's all about Facebooking, Twittering, SMS texting and emailing, addicted smartphone users send 100 SMS text messages per day and often shift to OTT services like Whatsapp
- I want to be able to download any file even if it's not supported
- What irritates me is that Wi-fi disconnects when screen sleeps, turn your screen off and the wifi goes to sleep after 30 seconds ! And as i can't use the Lumia (800 or 900) as my primary device (for the lack of all above points) i don't have a data plan on my other lines, just tell me, what logic is this? Turn of WiFi to save some battery and activate 3G to eat a lot more battery? Come On who's this stupid engineer who decided to validate this concept?
- I want to be able to transfer any file via bluetooth.
- I want to be able to filter call history into Missed Calls, Received Calls, Dialled Calls, Recent Calls, etc
- I want to be able to see call duration in call history.
- I want profiles manager !
- I want full back up and restore (Call log, SMS, contacts etc.)
If WP8 and Nokia gonna be address those points i'll definitely adopt the Lumia (not sure as my primary device) if not, the last Nokia maybe gonna be the next lumia 920, as actually, android is the most interesting OS available right now in the way of its sharing and syncing features and possibilities, I'm really really delighted and spoiled as i wished my N9 or symbian devices to do (sadly) !
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