7 ms·
Windows Phone 7 now on sale in the US
- cryptoz 16y agoI'm very interested to see how well this sells. If WP7 rocks the market, then Google and Apple will have to do incredible things to make even more awesome phones. Sounds exciting! On the other hand, I kind of want it to fail; it takes the mobile world in a direction I don't like. Mobile sites will no longer be able to use HTML5 if they want to support WP7. And I love HTML5. Also, it looks like you can only write managed C# apps that have to be approved in an app store :(
- alexro 16y agoI'm kind of confused what you wanted to say. HTML5 runs in a browser, so why it wouldn't be available on WP7? Or you mean javascript based solutions that bridge into the native API? Also, to program native apps for WP7 you need to use Silverlight, but you can do this in any language that runs on .Net (VB, IronPython, IronRuby etc), no?
- fname 16y agoWell, The browser on WP7 is based on IE7 and 8, so there's no native HTML5 support. Of course, a user could download another browser with HTML5 support in favor of IE.
- eli 16y agoIE8 does support a few of the less sexy HTML5 APIs like cross-document messaging. But no <canvas> games or Flash-less <video>
- yatsyk 16y agoSilverlight is only option for WP7 development now so no alternative browser in near future.
- trezor 16y agoTechnically you can use XNA too, and you can make a browser using that. Ofcourse that means you have to toss away all the platforms goods and libraries you have and produce that on your own as well. Not really the sexy option, no. So not saying it's going to happen, but technically speaking it's not impossible either.
- yatsyk 16y agoSure it is possible theoretically but not practically. If you want alternative browser for WP7 you need to create engine from scratch. You could not create browser that can compete with current 4 engines for one or two years. Quite possibly that we've never see new independent browser engine.
- isani 16y agoDownloading another browser isn't possible – at least if you don't want to use the IE rendering engine. UI development for WP7 apps is C# and Silverlight only. This is why Mozilla isn't making Firefox for WP7, for example.
- yatsyk 16y agoWP7 is the only modern mobile platform with bad html5 and even html and css support. All other mobile platforms use WebKit based browsers.
- runjake 16y agoIf you Google for "windows phone 7 html5" you'll get relevant results where Microsoft announces their intentions to specifically not support HTML5 on WP7. This is laughable and will of course change, but it just puts them further behind the release curve.
- johns 16y agoI got the sense from MS employees at PDC that the browser situation would be much improved within 6 months.
- yatsyk 16y agoIt would be the best for consumers and developers. Passing AcidTest + html5 support would be great.
- kenjackson 16y agoWhy would passing AcidTest be all that interesting? I get HTML5 support, but it seems like passing a test where the weights are on more obscure features would be low on my priority list.
- yatsyk 16y agoIs there any better way to measure css support in modern browsers?
- kenjackson 16y agoAcid2 is largely a CSS test (which IE passes just fine, AFAIK). ACID3 is largely DOM and Javascript.Here's a good article to read about the ACID3 test, from a name you probably know: http://meyerweb.com/eric/thoughts/2008/03/27/acid-redux/ http://meyerweb.com/eric/thoughts/2008/03/27/acid-redux/
- yatsyk 16y agoThank you for article. Acid3 is not so good CSS test but we don't have better mainstream css test anyway.
- daviding 16y agoAgreed, in fact they seemed to 'talk up' the future would be HTML5 so much that the Silverlight lack of mentions got a lot of (Silverlight) developers quite anxious [1]. I don't especially want it to fail, as the market is ripe for competition and it will keep pushing Apple and Google forward, but as an app developer that really just wants to stay on the 'pure web' now, it's an unwelcome extra column in the already big matrix of things to have to specially support... [1] http://www.silverlightshow.net/news/Silverlight-and-PDC.aspx http://www.silverlightshow.net/news/Silverlight-and-PDC.aspx
- rbanffy 16y ago> Google and Apple will have to do incredible things to make even more awesome phones. I think what they already have more than covers for WinMo 7's "awesomeness"...
- glhaynes 16y agoI think they could've made a bigger splash if they'd had some particularly fancy must-have hardware to sell it on - at least one model with something absolutely outstanding about it. As far as I've heard (admittedly I haven't followed it very closely), all the Windows Phone 7 phones [wow, that's awkward] are pretty similar to existing handset hardware, so this just feels mostly like an OS release. An OS that has some interesting features (and a few important things missing, too) and very few apps. And a shitty (at least from a dev standpoint) browser grrrrrrrrr.
- kenjackson 16y agoMeet the Dell Venue Pro. No other handset on the market like it today: http://en.community.dell.com/dell-blogs/Direct2Dell/b/direct2dell/archive/2010/10/11/meet-the-dell-venue-pro-smartphone-with-windows-phone-7.aspx http://en.community.dell.com/dell-blogs/Direct2Dell/b/direct...
- rbanffy 16y agoAn iPhone4-ish display excepted, what's so outstanding in it?
- kenjackson 16y agoFirst, it's 4.1 inch display, not an iPhone-ish display. But the real meat is the full size 800x480 display with a portrait keyboard slider. That's a pretty big deal, if that's something you're into as there is no other device on the market, that I know of, that has someting similar.
- dave1619 16y agoI had a chance to demo a couple of Windows 7 phones last week and was impressed at how smooth the navigation and inertia scrolling is. It reminds me of the iPhone experience, but less refined. I think it beats RIM and is very close to Android and WebOS. I think it will sell well if they can give free phones (after contract rebate) because most of the public is looking for the UX over OS potential.
- treblig 16y agoWhen there is some hardware with a physical keyboard as good as the Blackberry's, RIM is in serious trouble.
- aaronbrethorst 16y agoI'd love to try building an app or two for WP7, but I'm not about to pick up another phone contract merely for the privilege. Until MS has an iPod touch-like device (new Zune, perhaps?) it's just not going to happen for me. I wonder what Apple's App ecosystem would like right now if the iPod touch had never existed. I bet it wouldn't be nearly as robust.