Updates – Excited Pixels

Tumblr user nugnug provides an excellent list of the core “what’s missing” in Windows Phone right now and that will continue being absent after the 7.8 update:

rotation lock – I surf the net when I’m lying down. Everyone does. This is such an important feature and yet, where the hell is it?

screen capture – I can’t take screenshots on my phone! What is this!? How can I blackmail people and post the stupid things they say on Facebook?

customized sounds for messaging, etc. – We can customize our ringtones, so why not the rest?

notification center – This ain’t happening. I already know this cause they didn’t have time to make it. Lame.

separate volume controls for phone sounds and media – I want to listen to music at a really low volume but that means I won’t be able to hear my phone ring. A dilemma that can be easily rectified.

the forward button and “find on page” function in IE – there’s a java fix someone else kindly made, but there shouldn’t be a need. It’s a basic function that should be included in all internet browsers.

Wifi turns off when in sleep mode – the biggest reason why my whatsapp messages arrive hours later is because my phone, which relies on only Wifi when I’m at home, turns off Wifi when it goes to sleep. Ugh.

Blutooth file transfers – I WANNA GIVE MY FRIENDS STUFF WITHOUT USING MY NET DATA BUT I CAN’T.

multi selection – let me delete multiple photos on my phone at a time. PLZZ.

editing the dictionary – there are some words I made up, I would like to delete please.

improvements in the calendar – by far the most used section of my phone, it holds all my schedules and Facebook events and works seamlessly. So why not build on it? Include a weekly view, allow me to change colours on some of my personal entries.

automatic sleep mode – not too fussy, but this would be really cool. If I set a time e.g. from 11pm to 8am, my phone will sleep between those hours and I won’t get any notifications between those times.

closing apps from the multitasking view – not too important

I have to admit that some of the items aren’t top of mind for me: I don’t really care about the sleep mode, don’t see the point of closing apps from the multitasking view, and am not interested in bluetooth sharing. That said, every other suggestion is much, much needed.

I would also add to the list that scrolling in the 7.8 update needs to change; in the older version 1 Windows Phones scrolling would accelerate the more your scrolled up or down, whereas the current generation of 7.5 phones feature a static scrolling rate. This speed simply feels slower than earlier – and less capable – hardware and software iterations of Windows Phone.

Jon Evans, over at TechCrunch:

More than two-thirds of iOS users had upgraded to iOS 5 a mere three months after its release. Anyone out there think that Ice Cream Sandwich will crack the 20% mark on Google’s platform pie chart by March? How about 10%? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

OS fragmentation is the single greatest problem Android faces, and it’s only going to get worse. Android’s massive success over the last year mean that there are now tens if not hundreds of millions of users whose handset manufacturers and carriers may or may not allow them to upgrade their OS someday; and the larger that number grows, the more loath app developers will become to turn their back on them. That unwillingness to use new features means Android apps will fall further and further behind their iOS equivalents, unless Google manages – via carrot stick, or both – to coerce Android carriers and manufacturers to prioritize OS upgrades.

Android fragmentation is a pain for developers and, perhaps even more worryingly, a danger for users who may not receive timely security updates. To be sure, Apple rules-the-roost when it comes to having better updated device, insofar as users tend to get their updates when they become available. Whether those updates contain needed security upgrades is another matter, of course, but Apple at least has the opportunity to improve security across their ecosystem.

Unfortunately, where Apple sees their customers as the people using the devices, Google (and RIM) both have mixed understandings of who are their customers. Google is trapped between handset manufacturers and carriers whereas RIM is largely paired with the carriers alone. Neither of these companies has a timely, direct, relationship with their end-users (save for RIM and their PlayBook, which has routine updates that bypass their mobile devices’ carrier-restrictions) and this ultimately ends up hurting those who own either companies’ mobile devices.