Since MIX10 is still under way, we're going to have quite a few Microsoft items this week, with Windows Phone 7 Series and Internet Explorer 9 being the main points of focus. We've been speculating a while now about if and how Microsoft would support multitasking on their upcoming mobile operating system reboot, and now we finally have answers: no, it won't do multitasking - at least, not right away.
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2005-07-13
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2006-01-04
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Lack of compatibility with every program written for previous windows mobile versions - check
Restrict the ability to recompile/write programs written in native code (C/C++) - check
Lack of capability for corporate development (one of the biggest strengths of previous winmo versions) - check
Lack of SQL storage (sqlite-like) - check
Users will have to check for app updates manually - check
The Register has some details: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/03/16/microsoft_windows_phone_7_d...
Edited 2010-03-16 16:59 UTC
Member since:2007-09-10
Member since:2005-07-08
Where does it lack for corporate development? I just don't see it.
Actually there's C# port of SQLite that works in Silverlight, not to mention that there's bunch of native .NET databases.
Member since:2010-02-03
Member since:2005-08-09
poor little apple...
http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-market-cap-apple-vs...
Edited 2010-03-16 17:44 UTC
Member since:2010-02-17
Member since:2005-07-06
Ah, but they've missed one key detail. Judging by the iPhone's success, the WM7 phones will have no hope unless their contact & calendar management is completely piss-poor.
Though I shouldn't single out the iPhone exclusively, that seems to be the case for most of the current crop of smart phones: they're great as portable web browsing/media playback devices, decent as phones, and fairly mediocre as PDAs/PIMs.
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2009-04-09
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2008-04-23
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Seriously, the multitasking on the N900 is a godsend, I can't imagine doing without it.
Is there anyone out there with some experience in mobile development who could explain in detail why multitasking seems to be so problematic? The excuses of battery life and responsiveness seem pretty weak to me. For example, I have seen graphics-heavy games on the iPhone and WinPhone (and Maemo too!) which drain the battery in no time. I have spoken to a few non-techies about this, and they seem to understand perfectly well that working the device harder will affect performance and battery life, but they don't care as long as there is an opportunity to recharge in time. This is also common knowledge with Bluetooth as well (AFAICT), but still people will use it if they want to.
This isn't 1995 and I think many people understand the limits of computing devices fairly well now. Only the most clueless user would open 5000 apps on a PC and then fail to understand why it's slowed to a crawl. Surely the same applies to phones too?
Edited 2010-03-17 00:36 UTC
Member since:2009-11-20
Pay us to create multitasking App. Then you will sell it through the only channel (which belonged to us). As you will pay to us, you will be unable to provide applications for free. So you have to use our the only allowed MSStore out there... This is the bussines, do you see?
Member since:2006-01-12
What hell you need multitask anyway on phone. Sure I can understand listening music and playing but WP7 supports that. If you code apps right and support resume then having multitask seems little needed. I been using WinMo phones for last 5 years and it's hard to remember when I really needed multitasking other than listening music while doing stuff. It just needs some rethinking how applications should work. Instead of doing stuff inside phone you can do it in cloud. Hell even Open Source is possible since tools are free so anyone can deploy those packs using those tools, hard yes, but possible.
Seriously WinMo6.5 is great tinkerer phone but boy it sucks in normal average person usage. I would take iPhone anyday for normal usage against WinMo if it wasn't stuck on single carrier. I just wish they would bring copy pasta to WP7.
Member since:2006-01-18
Seriously WinMo6.5 is great tinkerer phone but boy it sucks in normal average person usage. I would take iPhone anyday for normal usage against WinMo if it wasn't stuck on single carrier. I just wish they would bring copy pasta to WP7.
I am on android and I basically need the multitasking every day.
Have an IM running in the background ...
Have music running while surfing.
Page loads a little bit longer, push it into the background while you do something else, then jump there.
Btw. Android 2.1 has solved that issue once and for all (Android 2.1 had issues with multitasking like battery drain and slowing down)
I cannot even remember if the phone ever slowed down since I upgraded to 2.1 on my HERO (hacked rom), I constantly open apps switch between then, have in mind Android does the task killing itself)
and I cannot see any slowdown and one battery load lasts me 48 hours on UMTS currently (used to be 24 before 2.1)
Member since:
2008-08-09
The fact that apps can hook into the music player to run in the background is interesting. After all, I kind of suspect that the cases when one most wants to multitask on a phone falls into a couple of wide categories; doing multimedia in the background being one. If Microsoft takes the route of special-casing each of them there may be a chance for this combining the ease of use of single-tasking with the flexibility of multi-tasking.
All remains to be seen though.
Member since:
2005-07-06
Can't believe the path Microsoft has started for Windows Phone...
Tons of lock-ins (a la Apple - what a crap)
Apps only through AppsStore (crap)
Direct control over the devide (crap)
There is a reason while lots of us are keeping those iPhones away and MS seemed to forget.
The no-multi-tasking thing is bad but at least it has a technical explanation. A reduced list of designs is even a good thing. But the rest...
And btw, I can't really understand why you should cut multitasking off from a system which ALREADY had it while mobile CPUs power is increasing and battery life is increasing as well. Maybe if you didn't had m/t, it could be a choice not to implement it... but when you already have it...! Crap! This sounds like a decision coming out from marketing dept...
No external SD?? ahahaha Crazy! Apple was crazy to do that in 2006, Microsoft is even crazier to copy that in 2010 !
As someone said, Windows Mobile 6.5 (which runs my Omnia, right now) doesn't look that bad anymore. And a loyal Windows user must turn to Android now... what a crap! What's next? Will I need to install that GoogleOS toy too??
