6 ms·

We're from the Microsoft Pix team, and we are interested in your feedback. Happy to answer questions.

by mspix 10y ago

suyash 10y ago
Can you make better windows phones please. Please create better apps for your platform before running towards iOS.
- the_watcher 10y ago
  Or, create apps for the platform used by 7x as many people before bothering creating them for the worst of them all.
  - coredog64 10y ago
    I wouldn't say Windows Phone is the worst. It performs well on low spec hardware, it gets updates, and the Nokia lineup provides better value than equivalently priced Android phones. Disclaimer: Posting from my Lumia 640
  - pjmlp 10y ago
    Having developed for all major three mobile platforms, I would order them as Windows Phone, iOS, Android in what concerns developer tooling, with Windows Phone having the best experience. Sadly Microsoft management has shot themselves on both foots multiple times.
    - the_watcher 10y ago
      For development, perhaps. I am speaking about actual usage.
ThomPete 10y ago
First of all I want to just say that I think it's great to see MS isn't giving up and keeping to try and reinvent yourself. Sooner or later you are going to get something really big right. Second of all. I think there is something wrong with the top animation, it's very janky.
vatotemking 10y ago
I can see that its only available for apple devices, is there a technical hurdle in doing this for android?
- brudgers 10y ago
  If I had to guess, the diversity of Android hardware and operating system versions in the wild make delivering a quality experience more difficult compared to the narrower range of Apple devices and their generally higher specification of processors and cameras. And if I were to wildly speculate, Apple phone owners are a more desirable demographic to pursue over the long run.
  - pawadu 10y ago
    Counterpoint: Microsoft Hyperlapse for Android https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.microsoft.hyperlapsemobile https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.microsoft....
- nandhp 10y ago
  I'm surprised it's iOS exclusive, but only because it means it's not available for Windows Phone.
  - brudgers 10y ago
    Windows Phone is no more. The current OS on Microsoft phones is Windows 10 Mobile. It includes Lumia Tools for editing and the Camera app appears to have similar image processing for faces and scenes based on my experience [yes, I own a Microsoft phone].
  - pawadu 10y ago
    Please get your facts straight before your distort them :) Windows phone (now w10 mobile) camera has supported these stuff for some years now (either natively or via extensions). Don't forget that "Live Photo" is Apples implementation of an old Nokia technology.
jlian 10y ago
Two confirmation dialogs (one from the app and one from iOS) for deleting an image seems kind of overkill. Can you make it just one?
- mspix 10y ago
  Good thought and we have heard feedback on this issue from others as well. We are working on a solution that simplifies the path to delete while still aligning to requirements for our app and iOS.
etendue 10y ago
I was on vacation recently and used Pix all over---I got many great photos that were clearly better than what I would have gotten with the stock app (the built-in comparison feature is a great idea), even on landscapes where there weren't faces to focus on. Pix also managed to take a fantastic Live Image of my sister and me, which is really special because I don't get to see her very often. Thanks to you all for that. Chief area that I think needs improvement is on general speed optimizations, startup is slow and feedback when taking a shot could be clearer (i.e., when is it done after I hit the shutter?).
- pawadu 10y ago
  Could you comment on the size of the generated files? live images in particular? On W10m live photos are just too large (10-15MB) to be sent to others.
  - etendue 10y ago
    The Live Image with my sister is an MP4 file, 852KB, 480x640 resolution, H.264 encoding.
dbg31415 10y ago
The marketing site is really bad. Here's a little feedback. http://imgur.com/a/ruxtS http://imgur.com/a/ruxtS As a shareholder, I get that not everything in research will be profitable... but I don't see how you'll be successful with this -- I don't see any ROI. I've played with the application and in the cases that you've showcased, yes... if you have a light source behind people when taking a picture, the picture won't look great. You've come up with some clever software that helps that I guess? Playing around with it... it sure didn't do anything amazing when I was taking pictures of my dogs, and it didn't help me take better selfies -- I'll have to wait until tomorrow to test it on people. As of right now I'm really scratching my head what the value of this is. I know that's hard to hear, and I know it takes courage to post on Hacker News... but really guys, you're Microsoft. Figure out what you're trying to do, and put adequate resources into it. This WordPress site is pretty amateur... a flat image with text you can't read on a phone to advertise the benefits of a mobile app? No guys, that's just really really bad. Do you not take pride in your work? Or were you rushed? Either way, why are you posting something half-baked here? You've got resources most companies on here would only dream of.
Tempest1981 10y ago
Looks cool! How big is your team, and are you in Redmond or Mountain View? What language(s) did you use? How long have you been working on this project? Is the Hyperlapse feature done server-side or on device?
eps 10y ago
Does Pix phone home?
- discordance 10y ago
  With user permission (1). It asks on first load. 1: https://imgur.com/a/MzpgV https://imgur.com/a/MzpgV
SquareWheel 10y ago
The linked landing page is nearly 40MB. What's the deal? http://i.imgur.com/70wES9O.png http://i.imgur.com/70wES9O.png On a 56K modem that would take 1.5 hours to download...
- yread 10y ago
  How long would it take over 1200 baud modem? Who cares? It's a page about a camera app it probably needs to have images. And it creates animations so it's useful to include samples of that, right? I like to moan about website sizes as well but here it's sort of justified.
  - SquareWheel 10y ago
    >It's a page about a camera app it probably needs to have images. See http://www.bing.com http://www.bing.com as a counter example. They load in a beautiful animated background, far larger and higher resolution than any image on the Pix site. Total page size? 364KB. Yes, it's over 100 times smaller. You can still have images and animations without it using absurd amounts of data. This is just sloppy optimization, especially for a mobile app where data usage is most important.
    - jimboj 10y ago
      Really? I can only see a heavily compressed jpg that uses 345kb, the page has nothing else on it. High compression is probably a bad idea if you're trying to show off the superior quality of your photos and videos.
- yitchelle 10y ago
  How many are still using a 56K modem? serious question.
  - rosege 10y ago
    if you work in a remote site and use vsat you could have a similar connection speed
bjornlouser 10y ago
Why did the woman switch from salad to the burger?

We're from the Microsoft Pix team, and we are interested in your feedback. Happy to answer questions.

by mspix 10y ago

We're from the Microsoft Pix team, and we are interested in your feedback. Happy to answer questions.

suyash 10y ago

Can you make better windows phones please. Please create better apps for your platform before running towards iOS.

the_watcher 10y ago
Or, create apps for the platform used by 7x as many people before bothering creating them for the worst of them all.
- coredog64 10y ago
  I wouldn't say Windows Phone is the worst. It performs well on low spec hardware, it gets updates, and the Nokia lineup provides better value than equivalently priced Android phones. Disclaimer: Posting from my Lumia 640
- pjmlp 10y ago
  Having developed for all major three mobile platforms, I would order them as Windows Phone, iOS, Android in what concerns developer tooling, with Windows Phone having the best experience. Sadly Microsoft management has shot themselves on both foots multiple times.
  - the_watcher 10y ago
    For development, perhaps. I am speaking about actual usage.

ThomPete 10y ago

First of all I want to just say that I think it's great to see MS isn't giving up and keeping to try and reinvent yourself. Sooner or later you are going to get something really big right. Second of all. I think there is something wrong with the top animation, it's very janky.

vatotemking 10y ago

I can see that its only available for apple devices, is there a technical hurdle in doing this for android?

brudgers 10y ago
If I had to guess, the diversity of Android hardware and operating system versions in the wild make delivering a quality experience more difficult compared to the narrower range of Apple devices and their generally higher specification of processors and cameras. And if I were to wildly speculate, Apple phone owners are a more desirable demographic to pursue over the long run.
- pawadu 10y ago
  Counterpoint: Microsoft Hyperlapse for Android https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.microsoft.hyperlapsemobile https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.microsoft....
nandhp 10y ago
I'm surprised it's iOS exclusive, but only because it means it's not available for Windows Phone.
- brudgers 10y ago
  Windows Phone is no more. The current OS on Microsoft phones is Windows 10 Mobile. It includes Lumia Tools for editing and the Camera app appears to have similar image processing for faces and scenes based on my experience [yes, I own a Microsoft phone].
- pawadu 10y ago
  Please get your facts straight before your distort them :) Windows phone (now w10 mobile) camera has supported these stuff for some years now (either natively or via extensions). Don't forget that "Live Photo" is Apples implementation of an old Nokia technology.

jlian 10y ago

Two confirmation dialogs (one from the app and one from iOS) for deleting an image seems kind of overkill. Can you make it just one?

mspix 10y ago
Good thought and we have heard feedback on this issue from others as well. We are working on a solution that simplifies the path to delete while still aligning to requirements for our app and iOS.

etendue 10y ago

I was on vacation recently and used Pix all over---I got many great photos that were clearly better than what I would have gotten with the stock app (the built-in comparison feature is a great idea), even on landscapes where there weren't faces to focus on. Pix also managed to take a fantastic Live Image of my sister and me, which is really special because I don't get to see her very often. Thanks to you all for that. Chief area that I think needs improvement is on general speed optimizations, startup is slow and feedback when taking a shot could be clearer (i.e., when is it done after I hit the shutter?).

pawadu 10y ago
Could you comment on the size of the generated files? live images in particular? On W10m live photos are just too large (10-15MB) to be sent to others.
- etendue 10y ago
  The Live Image with my sister is an MP4 file, 852KB, 480x640 resolution, H.264 encoding.

dbg31415 10y ago

The marketing site is really bad. Here's a little feedback. http://imgur.com/a/ruxtS http://imgur.com/a/ruxtS As a shareholder, I get that not everything in research will be profitable... but I don't see how you'll be successful with this -- I don't see any ROI. I've played with the application and in the cases that you've showcased, yes... if you have a light source behind people when taking a picture, the picture won't look great. You've come up with some clever software that helps that I guess? Playing around with it... it sure didn't do anything amazing when I was taking pictures of my dogs, and it didn't help me take better selfies -- I'll have to wait until tomorrow to test it on people. As of right now I'm really scratching my head what the value of this is. I know that's hard to hear, and I know it takes courage to post on Hacker News... but really guys, you're Microsoft. Figure out what you're trying to do, and put adequate resources into it. This WordPress site is pretty amateur... a flat image with text you can't read on a phone to advertise the benefits of a mobile app? No guys, that's just really really bad. Do you not take pride in your work? Or were you rushed? Either way, why are you posting something half-baked here? You've got resources most companies on here would only dream of.

Tempest1981 10y ago

Looks cool! How big is your team, and are you in Redmond or Mountain View? What language(s) did you use? How long have you been working on this project? Is the Hyperlapse feature done server-side or on device?

eps 10y ago

Does Pix phone home?

discordance 10y ago
With user permission (1). It asks on first load. 1: https://imgur.com/a/MzpgV https://imgur.com/a/MzpgV

SquareWheel 10y ago

The linked landing page is nearly 40MB. What's the deal? http://i.imgur.com/70wES9O.png http://i.imgur.com/70wES9O.png On a 56K modem that would take 1.5 hours to download...

yread 10y ago
How long would it take over 1200 baud modem? Who cares? It's a page about a camera app it probably needs to have images. And it creates animations so it's useful to include samples of that, right? I like to moan about website sizes as well but here it's sort of justified.
- SquareWheel 10y ago
  >It's a page about a camera app it probably needs to have images. See http://www.bing.com http://www.bing.com as a counter example. They load in a beautiful animated background, far larger and higher resolution than any image on the Pix site. Total page size? 364KB. Yes, it's over 100 times smaller. You can still have images and animations without it using absurd amounts of data. This is just sloppy optimization, especially for a mobile app where data usage is most important.
  - jimboj 10y ago
    Really? I can only see a heavily compressed jpg that uses 345kb, the page has nothing else on it. High compression is probably a bad idea if you're trying to show off the superior quality of your photos and videos.
yitchelle 10y ago
How many are still using a 56K modem? serious question.
- rosege 10y ago
  if you work in a remote site and use vsat you could have a similar connection speed

bjornlouser 10y ago

Why did the woman switch from salad to the burger?