It had to be said. It had to be said because no one else in the technology industry had the guts to say it. "I think it's time to stop giving Windows Phone a pass." Thanks, Joshua Topolsky. He's right. A few weeks ago I went back to my HTC HD7 for a few days while I was getting acquainted with the Android ROM scene, and to my utter surprise, most of my problems with Windows Phone 7 from when the platform was just released were still there.
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Member since:2005-11-29
I don't entirely agree. I think that managed code can still be an answer, but the design of the frameworks has to be something carefully done.
It is actually quite astounding how the WinDiv inside Microsoft did in a few years what DevDiv couldn't, which is make a XAML stack blindingly fast and fluid.
Silverlight is just a bunch of compromises for cross platform (Remember, the thing started as a cross platform BROWSER PLUGIN).
- XAML is parsed, not compiled (Honestly, not sure if this is still the case in WinRT, but I know WPF uses compiled XAML)
- Software rasterization, even for pixel effects. The only HW acceleration are GPU cache'd surfaces with BitmapCaching and (WP7 and SL5 only) composite thread animations like Opacity and RenderTransforms.
- On WP7 it uses the .NETCF which I would bet has code gen which isn't up to par for ARM. I remember reading somewhere that the Windows team made their ARM JITTer very efficient for the Metro Profile on Windows 8.
All in all, I wouldn't let a so-so (Because let me make this clear, it has rough edges but it's far from TERRIBLE.) experience on WP7 with managed code make you sour on the idea.
I believe the idea can work.
Member since:2011-05-19
Well, consider that WinDiv is many times the size of DevDiv. And that they used Silverlight as a guide for designing the WinRT API -- but removed half of the functions.
True, they had to write the runtime from scratch in C++. But remember that they had C# source code to look at as they were doing this rewrite. It's a lot easier to rewrite C# code in C++ than to write it from scratch the first time around.
In other words, they had a very constrained problem space. That left plenty of time for performance tuning, refactoring, etc.
"In the first episode of Microsoft's new film series 'On the Whiteboard', Editor Pamela Woon chats with two-time Oscar winner Randy Thom about the (often underestimated) importance of sound in human-technology interactions. Thom, the lead sound designer at Skywalker Ranch who worked on films such as The Incredibles, Castaway and Forrest Gump, says that people rarely consider the significance of those signature sounds that come from their trusty devices, whether it be a cell phone, a computer or a tablet."
"Microsoft has sensationally abandoned its controversial plans to restrict the sharing of XBox One games, and has also removed daily online authentication requirements for its forthcoming console", reports The Guardian. They had no choice. Still a good move."A snippet of code in the Steam digital distribution platform has revealed that Valve may be planning to let users easily share their games with friends in the future. The Verge has verified the code's authenticity, which was originally spotted by a member of the NeoGAF gaming forum; the code references a 'shared game library' and a notification that would alert a user when their games are currently in use by a borrower." This would change the, uh, game.
Official Apple statement on PRISM and privacy: "Regardless of the circumstances, our Legal team conducts an evaluation of each request and, only if appropriate, we retrieve and deliver the narrowest possible set of information to the authorities. In fact, from time to time when we see inconsistencies or inaccuracies in a request, we will refuse to fulfill it." This is basically Apple re-publishing their earlier statement in a more official manner. You either believe it, or you don't.
The open source Contiki operating system and its commercial Thingsquare distribution are making strides towards the connected home. According to a Computerworld article, a new LED light bulb manufacturer is putting small computers into their light bulbs. Each computer runs the Contiki OS, which gives each bulb an IP address and allows them to be controlled with a smartphone application. To connect the bulbs to the application, the bulbs use both Wi-Fi and the much lower power IEEE 802.15.4 mesh technology.
"Google asked the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on Tuesday to ease long-standing gag orders over data requests it makes, arguing that the company has a constitutional right to speak about information it's forced to give the government. The legal filing, which cites the First Amendment's guarantee of free speech, is the latest move by the California-based tech giant to protect its reputation in the aftermath of news reports about sweeping National Security Agency surveillance of Internet traffic." Draining the ditch after the cow has drowned in it."I can't find one person who has been using the Nexus 7 for an extended period of time, and hasn't seen a massive downgrade in performance. Just what kind of downgrade are we talking here? I cannot pick up my Nexus 7 without experiencing problems like a lag of ten seconds, or more, just to rotate the display; touches refusing to acknowledged; stuttering notification panel actions; and unresponsive apps." Fully and utterly agreed. My Nexus 7 was blazing-fast and awesome for a few months, and at some point, it just started sucking. Just like that. I've tried loads of ROMs, and nothing helps.A new release of the hobby operating system MenuetOS! The release notes are a bit non-descript, but you'll have to take what you can get: "updates and improvements (picview, httpc, ehci, ...)"."The Internet is one of the most transformative technologies of our lifetimes. But for 2 out of every 3 people on earth, a fast, affordable Internet connection is still out of reach. And this is far from being a solved problem. There are many terrestrial challenges to Internet connectivity - jungles, archipelagos, mountains. There are also major cost challenges. Right now, for example, in most of the countries in the southern hemisphere, the cost of an Internet connection is more than a month's income. Solving these problems isn't simply a question of time: it requires looking at the problem of access from new angles. So today we're unveiling our latest moonshot from Google[x]: balloon-powered Internet access." Insane."MineAssemble is a tiny bootable Minecraft clone written partly in x86 assembly. I made it first and foremost because a university assignment required me to implement a game in assembly for a computer systems course. Because I had never implemented anything more complex than a 'Hello World' bootloader before, I decided I wanted to learn about writing my own kernel code at the same time. Note that the goal of this project was not to write highly efficient hand-optimized assembly code, but rather to have fun and write code that balances readability and speed. This is primarily accomplished by proper commenting and consistent code structuring." Just cool.
Member since:
2006-08-26
I agree with your take on managed code. On something like a lower power, memory constrained device - go native.