Re: News - Microsoft to buy Nokia’s devices and services business
As a Nokia Lumia owner, I see this as good news.
Some manufacturers were moving away from WP8 anyway (perhaps they heard whispers about this deal?), and Nokia is by far and away the best manufacturer of WP8 devices.
This is going to be really important for boosting XBox One and Smartglass. They can still make smartphone integration work with Android and iOS, but it's important that every step forward for part of MS is a step forward for the others. Here's a big opportunity to swing the market share a little further in WP8's favour - nothing crazy, I expect, but a few more percentage points could make a massive difference in years to come - and also improve the standing of XBox One's OS.
Re: News - Microsoft to buy Nokia’s devices and services business
Quote:
Originally Posted by
aidanjt
Added a few important parts. The shareholders should sue.
http://www.google.co.uk/finance?cid=7000295
Actually by the time Elop was in charge it was around 8 a share. Down from well over 20. As they say when trading the trend is your friend. He didn't stop the trend at all. However Nokia was cash strapped, he sold some bits, whilst keeping the emerging services bit (Here mapping). He recognised the importance of that. Now lets have a look at HTC shall we?
http://www.google.co.uk/finance?cid=684102
Oh wow, they are trending worse than Nokia! About 12% of where they were in Q1-2011.
But no, I am sure it is all just a conspiracy....
Re: News - Microsoft to buy Nokia’s devices and services business
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Otherhand
Some manufacturers were moving away from WP8 anyway (perhaps they heard whispers about this deal?)
This deal has been speculated about every since the day MS and Nokia signed the big WP contract around a year-or-so ago.
Re: News - Microsoft to buy Nokia’s devices and services business
I hate tiles... PC and phone platforms it looks like it was designed by and intended for children.
Re: News - Microsoft to buy Nokia’s devices and services business
Quote:
Originally Posted by
addz17
...it looks like it was designed by and intended for children.
That's what everyone (including me) said about Windows XP when it came out, in hindsight, it turned out to be IMO the best Operating System Microsoft have made so far (barring maybe NT3.51) ;)
Re: News - Microsoft to buy Nokia’s devices and services business
This makes me sad :(
Nokia was good until microsoft took it.
Re: News - Microsoft to buy Nokia’s devices and services business
Quote:
Originally Posted by
hiyayhi
This makes me sad :(
Nokia was good until microsoft took it.
Harsh! I was starting to think they were beginning to turn a corner.
Re: News - Microsoft to buy Nokia’s devices and services business
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Otherhand
As a Nokia Lumia owner, I see this as good news. Some manufacturers were moving away from WP8 anyway (perhaps they heard whispers about this deal?), and Nokia is by far and away the best manufacturer of WP8 devices.
We've got an HTC 8S and a Lumia 620 in the house and personally I'd say they were pretty evenly matched. In fact if HTC hadn't crippled the 8S by cutting the amount of internal storage (which is where all your apps HAVE to go) then maybe I'd say it was a dead heat. The 8S has a bigger (/better?) screen but then again the 620 feels faster in use and has a better app bundle out-of-the-box.
I'm thinking of upgrading my S3 next year, and if NokiaSoft/MicroNokia have a decent sized (4.3-5" screen) high-end (quad core?) device with a uSD slot and a decent camera then it's perhaps in with a shout. On the other hand there's always the 2014 Galaxy (S5?) with Android-KitKat. Decisions, decisions...
Quote:
Originally Posted by
addz17
I hate tiles... PC and phone platforms it looks like it was designed by and intended for children.
Really don't agree (and I'm a diehard Android user!). For touch devices the tiles are a great idea. And I'm pretty impressed with the at-a-glance ability of the live tiles in WP8 - superb for those of us with, ahem, less than 20/20 vision. On the other hand, for a classic desktop (i.e. PC with mouse and keyboard) I'm pretty anti - which is why I'm less than impressed with desktop Windows 8. Getting back to the phones MS seem to have been able to make their tile interface in WP8 pretty zippy too - which is definitely a major plus point. And perhaps with a LeapMotion I'll even come to appreciate MUI.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Barakka
That's what everyone (including me) said about Windows XP when it came out, in hindsight, it turned out to be IMO the best Operating System Microsoft have made so far (barring maybe NT3.51) ;)
Nah, Windows7 64bit. I spent far, far too much time swearing at XP to more that "put up with it". Then again, that's probably down to the way I use my Windows PC's. Strangely enough the upgrade from XP->7 on my office PC has been the more beneficial.
Re: News - Microsoft to buy Nokia’s devices and services business
Quote:
Originally Posted by
crossy
I'm thinking of upgrading my S3 next year, and if NokiaSoft/MicroNokia have a decent sized (4.3-5" screen) high-end (quad core?) device with a uSD slot and a decent camera then it's perhaps in with a shout. On the other hand there's always the 2014 Galaxy (S5?) with Android-KitKat. Decisions, decisions...
You really, really, really don't need a quad core on Windows Phone. It isn't like Android in that respect. The only time the better processor helps is in browsing the web, generally I find my 4G connection the bottleneck there.
My single core 800mhz one still runs buttery smooth.
However, it appears your dream of uSD will not happen on the flagship phone :( Even with the 41megapixel 1020, they didn't put one in. It beggers belief. Myself I would really like a 1020, but I want a 64gb one because I know I will fill it.
However, I would say I think you will find a 920/925 ticks all the boxes (sans uSD) it has a stellar camera, large screen, great battery life and is almost cheap considering.
Re: News - Microsoft to buy Nokia’s devices and services business
I had windows phone in early days, than I had android than I had IOS, but I returned to android, now I found a htc diamond dirt cheap and it was like new, my old desires returned and I took it, I gave my samsung galaxy S2 to my wife lol. I am enjoying this phone. windows phone is my way. And if i get a good deal from future microsoft-nokia i will buy one and stay happy...
Re: News - Microsoft to buy Nokia’s devices and services business
Hopefully they won't mess up Nokia completely! BTW I've read that M$ is looking to buy blackberry. They seriously try to promote the windows mobile.
Re: News - Microsoft to buy Nokia’s devices and services business
Quote:
Originally Posted by
TheAnimus
You really, really, really don't need a quad core on Windows Phone. It isn't like Android in that respect. The only time the better processor helps is in browsing the web, generally I find my 4G connection the bottleneck there.
I did say "quad core?" - it's just that I've seen both the 8S and 620 stutter with what looks suspiciously like processor demand on occasion. Besides if it's a "high end" phone then you kind of expect a ridiculous processor spec... ;)
Quote:
Originally Posted by
TheAnimus
However, it appears your dream of uSD will not happen on the flagship phone :( Even with the 41megapixel 1020, they didn't put one in. It beggers belief. Myself I would really like a 1020, but I want a 64gb one because I know I will fill it.
However, I would say I think you will find a 920/925 ticks all the boxes (sans uSD) it has a stellar camera, large screen, great battery life and is almost cheap considering.
Yep, like you I know I'd fill the usual 16GB that a lot think is "reasonable", and I think even 32GB would be pushing it unless I was very selective about what music I stored and also had to be eager to offload photos. 920 series looks pretty reasonable, (1.5gig dual 'dragon), and actually I was more interested in the 820, (similar spec but expandable). Rather than the "2013" line, I'm more interested in what (if anything) we'll see from MWC 2014. To me, Nokia's been getting stronger and stronger, so I'm expecting great things from those MWC announcements.
Actually think that us consumers are pretty lucky these days to have to much choice in the mid to high-end.
Re: News - Microsoft to buy Nokia’s devices and services business
I was setting up an 820 IIRC for a relative and it had a note in the battery compartment saying use of uSD cards isn't recommended for performance reasons. Now, AFAIK WP won't store anything system-related on external storage but I suppose using rubbish cards could impact user experience when scrolling through photos/playing higher bitrate videos. Even decent uSD cards are likely to perform far worse than on-board eMMC when it comes to non-sequential workloads, so it makes sense to keep external storage for just media.
Don't get me wrong though, I'm not trying to come up with excuses or sound like PR staff, IMO the little note and/or a suggestion to use decent cards would be sufficient rather than removing the option altogether. In some cases it could be seen as an up-selling measure, but Lumia devices tend to only come in one capacity.
And TBF Android doesn't *need* a quad core processor either, and the extra cores can remain gated off when they're not being used. It really depends what you're doing with the device. Based on phones I've played with, I really don't think there's this huge performance benefit with WP when comparing apples to apples. As I've said before, WP uses a few interface/animation 'tricks' to make things look smooth, e.g. the little animations used to hide the fact something is loading in the background for a few moments.
Re: News - Microsoft to buy Nokia’s devices and services business
I agree with you that uSD cards are often dog slow, even my ultra expensive genuine (so many fakes) SanDisk often has a go slow, it appears to fight with the GoPro 3 as to who can be most unreliable.
However I really disagree with the Android one even my nexus 7 frequently stutters and hangs for seconds, these aren't something which can be plastered over by a transition animation. Basic key functionality here. I think that has driven users to want faster and faster devices, the S2 for instance, I found too slow, irksomely slow.
Re: News - Microsoft to buy Nokia’s devices and services business
I can't entirely disagree because I've not tried tons of phones extensively, but I just haven't personally experienced anything like stuttering/slowness on Android since ARM11 devices, whether tablets or phones. On my N4 I frequently have a dozen or more tabs open on Chrome, same again on Opera mini, composing an email in Gmail, and various other apps, while frequently switching between them and I've just not experienced anything I could call slowness/stuttering.
And while I don't have as much experience with it, I tried similar multitasking on the dual-A9 SIII-mini. While I'm not keen on the screen as I've said before, I still didn't notice any performance problems during my time playing with it.
For what you're experiencing I heard a great deal of N7 stutters have been resolved by the recent TRIM update, which suggests degrading IO performance rather than processing performance/efficiency as a problem. I also heard about Currents' auto-sync causing performance problems for some people, especially with no/weak network signal IIRC, but I've long since had that app disabled so wouldn't know.
Re: News - Microsoft to buy Nokia’s devices and services business
Quote:
Originally Posted by
watercooled
For what you're experiencing I heard a great deal of N7 stutters have been resolved by the recent TRIM update, which suggests degrading IO performance rather than processing performance/efficiency as a problem. I also heard about Currents' auto-sync causing performance problems for some people, especially with no/weak network signal IIRC, but I've long since had that app disabled so wouldn't know.
I've seen a lot of talk that disabling Google Now can dramatically cut down on the amount of unexplained sloth in Android. Certainly my S3 was a bit nippier with GN off, and to be honest it didn't strike me as the most useful function anyway.