There are plenty of exciting things that developers get into, and among these things are all the new handsets that are now being given out. Google has been quite generous with the Nexus One (as well as the Motorola Milestone/DROID), in order to give developers a feel and an idea of how the entire OS works on a mobile phone and what users will be seeing from the finished product. This helped the Android OS developers get an insight into what apps the handset really needs.
Microsoft is taking a similar approach with Windows Phone 7. The new operating system has just reached its technical phase, which means that the OS is now ready to shipped out to developers and be tested for app evaluations and of course, further system testing.
Right off the bat, several complaints have already been given. While the lack of multitasking and “cut and paste” is expected, the lack of two basic features is really quite the bother. But what is most annoying about the new OS is how it handles contact lists.
WP7 does not have a contacts page. It does have a “Peoples” tab which is basically a combination of a contact list and Facebook contacts –not a good idea. While it does provide a comprehensive listing, it also does not differentiate between random acquaintances on the social networking account and people who are actually supposed to be in a mobile contact list.
The worst part about the feature is that it is automated and there is no way to filter which “friends” from Facebook will be added to the handset. For any user with several hundred friends on Facebook will not be able to use the contact list properly.
Of course, the new OS also has some positive traits. The UI is extremely dynamic, but thanks to the hardware requirements, all animations and transitions run smoothly.
Tags: apps, Google-Android, Microsoft, multitasking, Social-networking, Windows-Phone-7