4 ms·

Windows Phone Zune

by belltaco 8y ago

Windows Phone Zune

haolez 8y ago
I’m a Linux die hard fan, but the Windows Phone was indeed a great product. I liked mine!
- osrec 8y ago
  Never owned one, but interested about what made it great?
  - eknkc 8y ago
    I had one. I think the interface was great. The OS was buttery smooth. Can't really remember the details but I really liked it.
    - osrec 8y ago
      Ah cool. Btw, my question was not sarcastic - just genuine curiosity.
  - haolez 8y ago
    Great user experience overall. Very fast and everything seemed tightly integrated.
  - ryl00 8y ago
    Flat/Metro UI, live tiles, jump lists, dark mode. (I'm still using mine as a daily driver)
  - rgoulter 8y ago
    Here are some examples of what I liked about using Windows Phone (7, 8): - The default keyboard is great. - Jump Lists: Alphabetical list navigation. (e.g. list of contacts, list of installed apps). For quickly getting to letter 'r', you tap one of the letters to bring up a grid with all the letters, then can easily tap which letter you want to get to. Whereas, iOS has a tiny list of letters on the side. Android sometimes has this tiny list of letters, too. I prefer "1 easy tap, 1 easy tap" is nicer to "1 fine/precise tap". - Icon-buttons would have labelled text. To save space (I guess), the text was omitted but was still accessible by expanding the menu. - IIRC, older WP models had a hardware camera button (on the side, for taking pictures or opening the camera app). Later on, the cheaper WP models dropped this. That said, the lack of apps is what really kills it. :/ e.g. you might only need 2 or 3 apps which you can find on Android or iOS, but not on WP.
maxxxxx 8y ago
I still don't understand how MS managed to mess up Windows Phone. My girlfriend had one for a while and it was excellent.
- city41 8y ago
  Windows Phone 7 didn’t come out until late 2010. Then WP8 required new hardware. By the time they could have built any kind of momentum Apple and Google were eons ahead of them. iPhone 4 was released before WP7. It’s a shame, my WP8 phone is still my favorite smart phone ever.
- Someone1234 8y ago
  Google's monopolistic abuse is a very under-reported part of this story. No Google app suite, which Google is absolutely allowed not to make. So Microsoft made the apps for free for Google, google said no, then Microsoft released their own brand clients (e.g. Microsoft YouTube client, Maps, etc) and Google shut it down with lawyers. Can any platform survive without Google ecosystem support? If Windows Phone was the case study then likely not.
  - asveikau 8y ago
    I commented something like this last time I saw this sentiment on HN. You forget, or I forgive you if you never knew, that google made really good apps on the old Windows Mobile. Google Maps was especially good on WinCE. Then Microsoft declared all Win32 apps dead in favor of a very half baked Silverlight runtime that didn't have such luxury features as sockets or scrolling that actually works. So if I were calling the shots on Google's end at that time, no way I am going to advocate for a massive rewrite onto a runtime that doesn't work well for a very small number of users. Microsoft's own boneheaded actions killed Google's goodwill for its mobile platform.
    - Someone1234 8y ago
      You likely have commented that multiple times, since it seems like a copy/paste to a completely different discussion. It isn't relevant here. Microsoft made the apps for Google, then when that failed released them themselves with no expectation of Google taking over/paying for support. So your point isn't at all relevant to what happened in the Windows Phone situation. As I said right at the start of my post: Google is fully entitled to refuse to produce apps for Windows Phone. That isn't the problem here, Google effectively blocked their API on that specific platform and their strong market position strangled the platform to death.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
visiblink 8y ago
I had a Zune 120 and I still miss it. What a great, simple player. On the other hand, it would have gotten a -7 rating on the ifixit scale. The hard drive got jostled one too many times and stopped working properly. I've fixed a lot of phones, but the Zune turned out to be unopenable, if that's even a word. Actually, that's a lie. It did ultimately open, but the casing cracked repeatedly.
ajflores1604 8y ago
The UI/UX design on the Zune HD is one of the best I've ever used on a handheld device. I also loved the contextual information that would be loaded on to the device for each artist. There'd be a short bio with links to different artists that were strong influences, and you could journey down a rabbit hole of discovery. The hardware was also extremely satisfying for the time. I think it was the first oled screen I ever laid eyes on, and I was a big fan of the sharp angled metal body. The only thing I wasn't a fan of was the volume controls that couldn't be easily controlled while the device was inside your pocket. But other than that, the zune hd as a whole is one of the few pieces of tech that I felt joy interacting with every time I picked it up.
mattdeboard 8y ago
Zune was ahead of its time
hashhar 8y ago
The Zune (media players) and Windows Phone (upto 8, not even 8.1). The fluid interface with focus on readability and content. The photos app was amazing. Live tiles are amazing. The music player and it's live tile was amazing. The performance was the same whether on a low end budget phone or the top of the line model. So many good ui and ux decisions like the lack of hamburger menus and placement of all menu items along the bottom of the screen with the extra items being hidden away in a drop-down using ellipsis. System wide light and dark themes jazzed up using an accent color that all of your apps respected. The People hub (contacts app) was the central point for all social media. Facebook and Twitter were integrated. I didn't need fb messenger. Skype and fb messenger were integrated with the messaging app. Damn, I wish we made it.

Windows Phone Zune

haolez 8y ago

I’m a Linux die hard fan, but the Windows Phone was indeed a great product. I liked mine!

osrec 8y ago
Never owned one, but interested about what made it great?
- eknkc 8y ago
  I had one. I think the interface was great. The OS was buttery smooth. Can't really remember the details but I really liked it.
  - osrec 8y ago
    Ah cool. Btw, my question was not sarcastic - just genuine curiosity.
- haolez 8y ago
  Great user experience overall. Very fast and everything seemed tightly integrated.
- ryl00 8y ago
  Flat/Metro UI, live tiles, jump lists, dark mode. (I'm still using mine as a daily driver)
- rgoulter 8y ago
  Here are some examples of what I liked about using Windows Phone (7, 8): - The default keyboard is great. - Jump Lists: Alphabetical list navigation. (e.g. list of contacts, list of installed apps). For quickly getting to letter 'r', you tap one of the letters to bring up a grid with all the letters, then can easily tap which letter you want to get to. Whereas, iOS has a tiny list of letters on the side. Android sometimes has this tiny list of letters, too. I prefer "1 easy tap, 1 easy tap" is nicer to "1 fine/precise tap". - Icon-buttons would have labelled text. To save space (I guess), the text was omitted but was still accessible by expanding the menu. - IIRC, older WP models had a hardware camera button (on the side, for taking pictures or opening the camera app). Later on, the cheaper WP models dropped this. That said, the lack of apps is what really kills it. :/ e.g. you might only need 2 or 3 apps which you can find on Android or iOS, but not on WP.

maxxxxx 8y ago

I still don't understand how MS managed to mess up Windows Phone. My girlfriend had one for a while and it was excellent.

city41 8y ago
Windows Phone 7 didn’t come out until late 2010. Then WP8 required new hardware. By the time they could have built any kind of momentum Apple and Google were eons ahead of them. iPhone 4 was released before WP7. It’s a shame, my WP8 phone is still my favorite smart phone ever.
Someone1234 8y ago
Google's monopolistic abuse is a very under-reported part of this story. No Google app suite, which Google is absolutely allowed not to make. So Microsoft made the apps for free for Google, google said no, then Microsoft released their own brand clients (e.g. Microsoft YouTube client, Maps, etc) and Google shut it down with lawyers. Can any platform survive without Google ecosystem support? If Windows Phone was the case study then likely not.
- asveikau 8y ago
  I commented something like this last time I saw this sentiment on HN. You forget, or I forgive you if you never knew, that google made really good apps on the old Windows Mobile. Google Maps was especially good on WinCE. Then Microsoft declared all Win32 apps dead in favor of a very half baked Silverlight runtime that didn't have such luxury features as sockets or scrolling that actually works. So if I were calling the shots on Google's end at that time, no way I am going to advocate for a massive rewrite onto a runtime that doesn't work well for a very small number of users. Microsoft's own boneheaded actions killed Google's goodwill for its mobile platform.
  - Someone1234 8y ago
    You likely have commented that multiple times, since it seems like a copy/paste to a completely different discussion. It isn't relevant here. Microsoft made the apps for Google, then when that failed released them themselves with no expectation of Google taking over/paying for support. So your point isn't at all relevant to what happened in the Windows Phone situation. As I said right at the start of my post: Google is fully entitled to refuse to produce apps for Windows Phone. That isn't the problem here, Google effectively blocked their API on that specific platform and their strong market position strangled the platform to death.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

visiblink 8y ago

I had a Zune 120 and I still miss it. What a great, simple player. On the other hand, it would have gotten a -7 rating on the ifixit scale. The hard drive got jostled one too many times and stopped working properly. I've fixed a lot of phones, but the Zune turned out to be unopenable, if that's even a word. Actually, that's a lie. It did ultimately open, but the casing cracked repeatedly.

ajflores1604 8y ago

The UI/UX design on the Zune HD is one of the best I've ever used on a handheld device. I also loved the contextual information that would be loaded on to the device for each artist. There'd be a short bio with links to different artists that were strong influences, and you could journey down a rabbit hole of discovery. The hardware was also extremely satisfying for the time. I think it was the first oled screen I ever laid eyes on, and I was a big fan of the sharp angled metal body. The only thing I wasn't a fan of was the volume controls that couldn't be easily controlled while the device was inside your pocket. But other than that, the zune hd as a whole is one of the few pieces of tech that I felt joy interacting with every time I picked it up.

mattdeboard 8y ago

Zune was ahead of its time

hashhar 8y ago

The Zune (media players) and Windows Phone (upto 8, not even 8.1). The fluid interface with focus on readability and content. The photos app was amazing. Live tiles are amazing. The music player and it's live tile was amazing. The performance was the same whether on a low end budget phone or the top of the line model. So many good ui and ux decisions like the lack of hamburger menus and placement of all menu items along the bottom of the screen with the extra items being hidden away in a drop-down using ellipsis. System wide light and dark themes jazzed up using an accent color that all of your apps respected. The People hub (contacts app) was the central point for all social media. Facebook and Twitter were integrated. I didn't need fb messenger. Skype and fb messenger were integrated with the messaging app. Damn, I wish we made it.