Two links to Marco Arment within a few days? Well, if you make good points: "Many Windows developers were upset that iOS development had to be done on a Mac, but it didn't hurt Apple: the most important developers for iOS apps were already using Macs. But the success of Windows 8 and Windows Phone in the consumer space requires many of those consumer-product developers, now entrenched in the Apple ecosystem, to care so much about Windows development that they want to use Windows to develop for it. How likely is that?" As usual a bit too Apple-centric (he implies - as explicit as possible while still being implicit - that only iOS developers can create great applications), but his point still stands. Judging by the abysmal quality of Microsoft's own Metro applications (Mail, Video, Music, People, IE10, etc.), even Microsoft doesn't know how to create great Metro applications.
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Member since:2008-07-15
You know, every time someone brings up app numbers, I want to smack them. App numbers mean nothing. It doesn't matter how many apps a platform has, but whether they have the apps people want or need to get things done. This goes for any platform. Enough of this "platform x has y number of apps" crap. It tells us nothing about the quality of the apps or the platform, and is only a stupid marketing tactic that demeans the intelligence of both the person saying it and those who read it.
Member since:2010-01-12
Also, "good apps" are only and advantage to the platform owner if they are not available on competing platforms, and can't be ported (or cloned by someone else) with minor efforts.
Even if Instapaper was _the killer app_ for iOS, would it be impossible for Microsoft to create something similar? Sure it would take some time and money, but not nearly as much as Macro and his huge ago wants you to believe!
PS. there are already some Instapaper clients for WP7.
Member since:2005-11-29
While it doesn't speak for quality, it DOES speak for momentum. It's undeniable that the Windows Phone marketplace has incredible momentum behind it.
Microsoft is pulling ALL the stops with regards to driving hard and fast adoption of the platform. Given that we've moved much closer to a unified platform in recent releases, this will have a catalyst effect over to Windows 8.
A *lot* of people I talk to within the developer community is doing porting work to Windows 8. I'm sure its the same story on a larger scale.
Windows Phone has over 20,000 developers. That's 20,000 able bodied souls who already know the key technologies needed to write Windows 8 apps.
If you take .NET and XAML as a whole, you get an even larger number of developers.
People continue to completely underestimate Microsoft's vast .NET army.
Member since:2005-08-02
Yeah but, I don't want or need 99975K calculators, rss readers and weather apps thank you very much!
Member since:2005-07-06
At an event earlier today, Microsoft unveiled the next Xbox - the third model, but confusingly named Xbox One. The big focus was TV, integrated Kinect, and all the other stuff we all expected to be forced down our throats. I think it took them 25 minutes to actually come to what should be the core of the story: gaming. Nothing groundbreaking in the gaming department, except for how Microsoft intends to handle the used games market and borrowing games from friends: pay up, buddy!
The day has finally come! Jolla has finally announced the launch device for its Sailfish operating system - and by god this is a looker. It's decidedly different from other phones out there, but it has good specifications and carries a relatively reasonably price tag - EUR 399, and it's up for pre-order today, shipping in the fourth quarter of this year.
Why does Google get so much credit in the technology industry? Why, despite the company's many obvious failings, do many geeks and enthusiasts still hold a somewhat positive view on the all-knowing technology giant? A specific talk at Google I/O this week provides the answer.
OSNews is a sponsor of this year's O'Reilly OSCON in Portland, Oregon, USA. A lucky OSNews reader will win a free three-day pass, including two tutorials days. To win the pass, post a comment on this story saying something about Open Source Software or OSCON. We'll pick a winner at random next week. If you don't have an OSNews account, you may email us your entry. Part of the conference is the 9th annual Open Source Awards, and today the 16th is the deadline for nominations. If you'd like to nominate an outstanding open source contributor, do it here. Read on for more information about OSCON. Update: The 20% discount code for OSNews readers is "OSN.""Windows is indeed slower than other operating systems in many scenarios, and the gap is worsening." That's one way to start an insider explanation of why Windows' performance isn't up to snuff. Written by someone who actually contributes code to the Windows NT kernel, the comment on Hacker News, later deleted but reposted with permission on Marc Bevand's blog, paints a very dreary picture of the state of Windows development. The root issue? Think of how Linux is developed, and you'll know the answer.
This is one of those news items that's fun to write, fun to read, fun to comment on, and where no one will be able to say anything unkind. It's all just one big ball of awesome fluffiness. TuneTracker, the BeOS radio automation software, has just released something very special: TuneTracker System 5, the first version designed entirely and specifically for Haiku. In fact, it actually includes Haiku in the software package. Better yet, TuneTracker also unveiled several system-in-a-box products - which have Haiku and TuneTracker pre-installed.
Exactly twenty years ago, a document was published that played a huge role in establishing the web as we know it today. Twenty years later, and this simple and straightforward document is proof of an irrefutable fact: while closed technologies can change markets, open technologies can change the world.Oh multitasking. That staple of computing that got thrown out the window with many modern smartphones. We got some rudimentary thing in its place - but even as multitasking on phone and tablets improves, its user-visible side remains cumbersome. Windows 8 has a neat implementation, and now it's time Android follows in it footsteps.They're here! Whether that excites you or not remains to be seen, but the Galaxy S4, which will most likely become the best selling Android smartphone of the year by a huge margin, has been reviewed by all the major sites, and there's lots of interesting conclusions in there - although I think most of you will get the gist.Nokia has posted its quarterly results for the first quarter of 2013, and just like the quarters that came before, there's not a whole lot of good news in there. The rise in Lumia sales still can't even dream of making up for the sales drop in Symbian phones, and when broken down in versions, the sales figures for Windows Phone 8 Lumias in particular are very disappointing. In North America, Nokia is getting slaughtered.
Member since:
2006-07-04
And those are metro apps. OK, a significant percentage are glorified RSS readers, but same goes for iOS. These Apple fanboys really need to get over themselves and their belief that "Everything is about Apple, nobody else need apply."
Edited 2012-06-23 18:36 UTC