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After jealously observing the Facebook app on my wife's Blackberry Pearl, I am shocked that neither ShoZu, Snap2Face/Skybook nor FriendMobilizer have come close to matching the simple elegance of Facebook for Blackberry. Each of the aforementioned Windows Mobile apps, I believe, will fail to become very popular among users because they are trying to do fundamentally different things than the official Blackberry and iPhone apps.
So I'm going to attempt to specify the basic features that would make for the best "Facebook for Windows Mobile" application. The developer who carries these out will, I predict, quickly dominate the rest.
What we already have
A couple of mobile-friendly versions of the FB user interface. Whether you use http://m.facebook.com in PIE, or http://iphone.facebook.com in Opera Mobile/IrisBrowser, or indeed desktop-level Facebook in Skyfire/Opera Mini/etc., we already have great ways to passively view most of Facebook. FB apps for WM appear to have devoted most efforts to remaking their own, sometimes uglier interfaces for viewing the same information. While this introduces the possibility of offline synchronization, this is nowhere near a key functional benefit offered on Blackberry and iPhone. The trend is toward more users having data plans and ubiquitous data connections.
A way to access Facebook Chat. 3rd-party multiprotocol chat applications offer this for Windows Mobile already.
Several ways to update your status. You can do this through Facebook Mobile, SMS, etc.
A crappy way to upload mobile photos. You can send an MMS to [email protected] - not ideal and lacks the ability to place photos in specific albums, tag, etc. But it is a start.
A crappy way to receive notifications. The FB notifications feed is actually available via RSS, and several free RSS clients exist for Windows Mobile.
A really crappy way to new FB message alerts and everything else. Suppose you registered a new Gmail account devoted solely to receiving Facebook notification emails. You could register that address with your Facebook settings, set it as the address to receive email notifications and then turn on notifications for everything that happens on Facebook. After setting up this email account on your Windows Mobile device, you could receive regular alerts from Facebook on your mobile device. (Heck, with System SEVEN beta or some other service that utilizes the IMAP IDLE feature, you could essentially have "push" FB alerts).
What we don't have (but Blackberry does)
Based on the features listed at http://na.blackberry.com/eng/devices/features/social/facebook.jsp , you can see that the man feature that WM users don't have is "push"-style homescreen notifications. On the Blackberry homescreen, the number of new Facebook notifications and messages sits beside a little FB icon. It is updated immediately as new messages and notifications are received.
Thus I would propose the following specifications for a WM Facebook app (or suite of mini-apps). The Facebook Developers API should be used, not some unreliable html-parsing library.
1. New/unread FB messages and notifications on a "push" or rapid-refresh basis. This either means (a) a Today screen plugin that lists the unread message counts and points Pocket IE to the appropriate http://m.facebook.com link when tapped, (b) WM popup notifications of the same, or (c) a MAPI interface library that allows the FB Inbox and/or FB Notifications feed to be added as regular mail accounts in Pocket Outlook - letting WM take care of popups if the user so desires.
2. A photo upload and tagging tool. The user must be able to select a photo (or take one) and then choose to either add it to any existing album or create a new one, followed by the option to tag that photo.
3. Dedicated Facebook chat. If it is easy, of course.
Everything else on Facebook - contacts search, Phonebook, etc - is just as easy to access on the existing Facebook Mobile site. My instinct is that developers inevitably waste our memory with bloated software when they make "native" interfaces that just rehash the content at http://m.facebook.com/
Or am I missing something? Maybe others have thoughts. I'm no developer and I don't mean to sound demanding - I'm just trying to give developers some ideas here.
would be fine if someone would fix the iphone.facebook.com java problems
libpurple already incorporates facebook im but i dont think there is a client for windows mobile that uses it. As for uploading, you can upload pictures but not videos directly from a touch series phone (videos are uploaded to youtube). If the protection can be stripped from an ipa and the can be decrypted then I dont understand why we cant port the facebook.app. I have an iPhone 3G and an iPod Touch, both jailbroken. I'll SSH into them and grab the files for the facebook app but the rest needs to be done by someone else. Just give me sometime to find them.
1. New/unread FB messages and notifications on a "push" or rapid-refresh basis. This either means (a) a Today screen plugin that lists the unread message counts and points Pocket IE to the appropriate http://m.facebook.com link when tapped, (b) WM popup notifications of the same, or (c) a MAPI interface library that allows the FB Inbox and/or FB Notifications feed to be added as regular mail accounts in Pocket Outlook - letting WM take care of popups if the user so desires.
2. A photo upload and tagging tool. The user must be able to select a photo (or take one) and then choose to either add it to any existing album or create a new one, followed by the option to tag that photo.
3. Dedicated Facebook chat. If it is easy, of course.
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Click to collapse
wFacebook will have ALL of these things that you mentioned. A little patience is all that is needed. I started developing this only 2 weeks ago Thanks for the breakdown though, it gives me something to work towards. I hope to have facebook chat up and running in the next release. Push style notifications will come as soon as I can figure out an "always signed on" connection to facebook. Photos and tagging are very easy to do, I just haven't gotten around to implementing it.
What you have to realize is that the blackberry apps and iPhone apps are both designed by facebook. They access facebook's data directly. Facebook does not allow this in its API so we have to find workarounds. Blackberry has nothing to do with it's facebook application (as far as I know). Facebook developed and maintains it.
Also, thanks for the tip on the rss feed. I did not know this and this may help with notifications!
Give computerjunkie some time....
And all the requested features will be hopefully implemented.
Btw since you have a BB and have positive feelings regarding it's user experience and user interface it would be great if you could dedicate some time to write down some detailed specs !
Ciao
Marco
The BB app doesn't really have a "push" notification system. All apps that use notifications, like Facebook and MySpace, are simple emails. When the same email account is registered under the BB profile, and Facebook profile, it recognizes the FB notification email as the app specific notification, and gives the notification instead of the email.
But, on the app, I really don't like it much, so I don't suggest it as your "template". All it really does is give you the notifications, allow you to update your status and view your friends list. You can't view profiles or photos through the app, it opens the browser, and you have to login! Further more, the news feed only shows the notifications, like birthdays and comments.
Try something like the BB MySpace app, I love that one! You can flow through pictures and view everything in the app.
wFacebook will be like the BB myspace app. You won't have to log in to the website to see info. It will be fetched from the application itself. Also, it will have push style notifications (maybe not ALL notifications but most: Wall, Inbox, photo comment, etc.). I am looking into an always on (or as close to always on) so when the notification occurs, wFacebook automatically fetches the info THEN notifies the user so all the user has to do is start up wFacebook and check the item. Also with the semi-always on connection, wFacebook users won't have to keep logging in to facebook which right now is taking about 1.5 minutes with wFacebook because of data speeds on mobile machines.
Problem with the xda app is it requires .NET 3.5
iphone.facebok.com in Skyfire is the best solution for me.
though I think a windows mobile facebook app is much needed I have to agree the very Bloated net cf is def not the way to go. I do appreciate all you are doing as this app has potential to be very useful . thanks again for all your hard work. pleasyo code in "C"
Ok, I've managed to get my 4 day old HD2 up and running pretty much how I'd like it to be (with a lot of thanks to the Cookie Monster for CHT), which means the Sense UI and everything "front of house" is looking good. However, behind the scenes, things like Exchange (IMO) are nowhere near as well integrated as could be. Here are my issues:
- Inbox is the only folder that shows any emails whatsoever - if I go into any subfolder and do a Menu > Send/Receive > I still don't get any mails appear - WTF?
- Even my Sent Items remains empty!
- Task and calendar reminder appears on-screen = great, but I can only snooze for something like 5 minutes - how can I change this?
- When a task reminder appears on the screen and I click it, all I get is a blank task, i.e. absolutely no info whatsoever. Which means I have to unlock the phone and go into tasks (currently something like 200+) and find the task that appeared, then go in a check out the notes, etc. How rubbish is this? Even on my Tytn II I could check reminders instantly.
- If someone calls/texts/emails and I want to add them to my contacts, they seem to go automatically into Exchange - this isn't good because if they're a friend then I want to keep their details separate - how is this possible?
- Folders appear to show emails from only the last 14 days or so - surely I can change this to 30 days or whatever? No ... ?
- Having come from Android, I'm used to having all my personal contacts in Googlemail - if I export this as a CSV and import into Outlook, will these contacts get lumped in with my Exchange contacts or will they remain "local" to Outlook? I'm hoping the latter because I DEFINITELY want to keep my personal contacts separate.
Bear with me - this is not a rant. I've dabbled with WinMo and Android in the last 2.5 years and the HD2 has the slickest front-end of any phone I've seen (now that I've got it running properly (excluding the faulty speaker which doesn't play any sound/ringing whatsoever - so it's going back for a return)). However, the backend of things like Exchange/Outlook integration seems particularly poor - especially for a Windows device. And this is holding me back from committing to the phone. IAW, I could spend all day playing with the Sense UI (CHT) but ultimately I need the device to serve me as a business tool, and it's just not happening.
Does anyone else have similar issues? How have you got round them?
TIA
SC
EDIT: Another issue with tasks = the options to sort them make it pretty impossible to manage them. I have about 50-75 reminders most of the time and in Outlook I won't use Start Date/Due Date for many of them beecause I'm be updating them all the time - which means I rely on reminders, and therefore sort them by reminder time. But the HD2 doesn't allow this, which means managing tasks - even just having a flip through to see what needs to be done over the next day or so - is unfeasible unless you spend ages updating your Start Dates or Due Dates. Even my Tytn II allowed me to manage them properly.
- Inbox is the only folder that shows any emails whatsoever - if I go into any subfolder and do a Menu > Send/Receive > I still don't get any mails appear - WTF? – Menu – Tools – Managed Folders – Click the ones you want to sync...
- Even my Sent Items remains empty! Tick it!
- Task and calendar reminder appears on-screen = great, but I can only snooze for something like 5 minutes - how can I change this? I don’t use exchange so I’m stuck on this one.
- When a task reminder appears on the screen and I click it, all I get is a blank task, i.e. absolutely no info whatsoever. Which means I have to unlock the phone and go into tasks (currently something like 200+) and find the task that appeared, then go in a check out the notes, etc. How rubbish is this? Even on my Tytn II I could check reminders instantly. Have you tried S2U2 – you can access the task from the lock screen and go directly to them – may not be the perfect solution.
- If someone calls/texts/emails and I want to add them to my contacts, they seem to go automatically into Exchange - this isn't good because if they're a friend then I want to keep their details separate - how is this possible?
- Folders appear to show emails from only the last 14 days or so - surely I can change this to 30 days or whatever? No ... ? The only way I can think of - at the moment – is through activesync – there is an option in the mail setting to the time for the sync’d mails.
- Having come from Android, I'm used to having all my personal contacts in Googlemail - if I export this as a CSV and import into Outlook, will these contacts get lumped in with my Exchange contacts or will they remain "local" to Outlook? I'm hoping the latter because I DEFINITELY want to keep my personal contacts separate. – From my dealings there is only one contact file – and you can only sync to the main contact file in outlook. I removed all of my business contact into a new folder in outlook – now they aren’t on the phone. If you want both I could only suggest using the categories. But even then you will get a very long list of all contacts. Not sure how else you could deal with this using the standard software.
Limited Help Sorry! But I hope some
Thanks for the tips Neville.
I didn't even see the Tools option for managing folders - everything is now sync'ing very nicely
Had a look at S2U2 but like you say, this isn't an ideal fix. I'm really looking for a better task manager - and at least one that lets me launch task info when the reminder alarm goes off. Is that too much to ask Mr WinMo/HTC?
Can't get Activesync to do anything other than sync 14 days or so. Ar5e, but not the end of the world.
I don't mind work and personal blended together in a single contact list - what I need to be sure of is that my personal contacts are not being dumped into my (Exchange?) works contacts. Like I say, Android managed this perfectly with Exchange and Googlemail, but WM doesn't seem quite so accommodating.
Cheers
SC
Neville.Holland said:
- Task and calendar reminder appears on-screen = great, but I can only snooze for something like 5 minutes - how can I change this? I don’t use exchange so I’m stuck on this one.
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Click to collapse
If you go into the options for the calendar there is an option for the default snooze time. Also you can set the reminder time on an individual basis when the entry is created.
Neville.Holland said:
- If someone calls/texts/emails and I want to add them to my contacts, they seem to go automatically into Exchange - this isn't good because if they're a friend then I want to keep their details separate - how is this possible?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's not. simple as that. In the first thread you started before you even got the phone i did tell you this. I really don't like it when people don't pay attention!
Neville.Holland said:
- Folders appear to show emails from only the last 14 days or so - surely I can change this to 30 days or whatever? No ... ? The only way I can think of - at the moment – is through activesync – there is an option in the mail setting to the time for the sync’d mails.
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Click to collapse
It depends on your version of exchange. If it's 2003 it's hard coded to 7 days and can not be changed. IIRC, in exchange 2007 and exchange 2010 this can be changed. Ask you IT department to have a look at it.
Neville.Holland said:
- Having come from Android, I'm used to having all my personal contacts in Googlemail - if I export this as a CSV and import into Outlook, will these contacts get lumped in with my Exchange contacts or will they remain "local" to Outlook? I'm hoping the latter because I DEFINITELY want to keep my personal contacts separate. – From my dealings there is only one contact file – and you can only sync to the main contact file in outlook. I removed all of my business contact into a new folder in outlook – now they aren’t on the phone. If you want both I could only suggest using the categories. But even then you will get a very long list of all contacts. Not sure how else you could deal with this using the standard software.
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Click to collapse
It depends on how outlook is configured on the PC. If you have a profile for exchange and a profile for everything else or simply multiple mailboxes in the same profile you can create the divison there but you can only sync one mailbox over the air and this is always the defualt exchange mailbox.
EDIT: Another issue with tasks = the options to sort them make it pretty impossible to manage them. I have about 50-75 reminders most of the time and in Outlook I won't use Start Date/Due Date for many of them beecause I'm be updating them all the time - which means I rely on reminders, and therefore sort them by reminder time. But the HD2 doesn't allow this, which means managing tasks - even just having a flip through to see what needs to be done over the next day or so - is unfeasible unless you spend ages updating your Start Dates or Due Dates. Even my Tytn II allowed me to manage them properly.
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Click to collapse
Just set the start date for the day the job was created and really long due dates then set up a reminder for every 6 hours or something.
You do have a really large number of on going jobs and you really should be managing them better when they are created. I'm not defending WM6.5 here but it's not entirely a software issue, imo.
I'm a wannabe WinMo convert, and my new Droid X will arrive later today. As I surf the web trying to be as ready as possible for the transition, I'm struck by the fact that Android doesn't sync directly with Outlook. And to shortcut the immediate responses, I will never want to sync my personal & private info with "The Cloud" for all the world of hackers to see. The number of times (just within the past year alone) that we've all seen news reports of some supposedly secure Big Brother company having its servers hacked and its users' personal info stolen, means that cloud sync is not now - and may well never really be - a secure option.
From what I can gather from several hours of scouring the reviews, the cobbled-together 3rd-party apps that attempt to allow one to sync an Android phone directly to one's own computer - either via WiFi, BT or a USB cable - all fall short in some critical way or other, such as not including all of Outlook's data fields for a Contact. The data never appears on the phone, and when syncing back to the PC, those particular fields get erased on the PC too! So there's only limited success with "The Missing Sync" & "CompanionLink." (And Android-Sync is still a pre-alpha.)
This leads to the question. What desktop PIM software do you all use --- BESIDES Outlook?
Thanks!
Why don't you directly sync your X with the exchange server you're connected to with Outlook?
onelifexv said:
Why don't you directly sync your X with the exchange server you're connected to with Outlook?
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He didn't indicate he had an exchange server. Just Outlook on his desktop.
Mason,
As much as I agree with your privacy arguments (and believe me, my friends and associates argue about this all the time), I just don't think Android is going to be fully functional for you if don't "let it go" and put those contacts on your google account.
I went through this when Droid 1 Launched. I had all of my data on my exchange server, and refused to move it to Google. Android 2.01 worked with exchange, but just barely. The whole process frustrated me, and I ended up taking the phone back and getting a TouchPro2.
Since then, I've given in and begun migrating my company info over to Google Apps. I still have my exchange server in the meantime, but all of my mail, etc is going through Google Apps for Domains. This time around, with Droid X, my sync experience is working a lot better.
I know that's not what you want to hear. But if your not willing to put your data in Google's hands (and I don't really blame you for not wanting to), then take the phone back and wait for the new Win Phone 7 devices.
Thanks for your replies. I also used the Touch Pro2 earlier this year, and more recently, the LG Fathom. The latter may be the last of the WinMo 6.5 phones, and that's really a shame, since it really worked well, just lacking HTC's Sense, Motorola's sound quality, and the latest generation's innovative 4.3" capacitive screens. Of course it synced perfectly, and all contacts were immediately available for voice command dialing on the phone.
Today I downloaded the trial of CompanionLink and installed DejaOffice on the Droid X. After the proper setup - which includes setting the Droid X to be in "USB Mass Storage" mode when connected via USB to the PC - it was able to sync calendar, contacts, notes and tasks.
BUT only in a manner of speaking. I promptly found out that I couldn't voice dial any of my contacts. Neither Calendar nor Contacts were sync'd with the Droid X's native Android apps; that required another, VERY long sync, having gone into DejaOffice's Sync Settings and selecting the options to ALSO sync with the Android native apps. And although I went into the Droid X's settings and deselected the option to sync my Google/G-mail account, I still suspect that my information went to the cloud - even though I didn't want it to - since the arrows under the Droid X's "3G" icon in the notification tray were gray the whole time, indicating data transmission. And despite all that, some of my contacts still mysteriously didn't make it into the native app, although they were in DejaContacts. So to voice dial someone inparticular, I STILL had to enter their contact info manually into the native Android contact app.
And all of my categories for all of my Notes were somehow stripped away when the Notes transferred into the Droid X; so now, they're all unfiled.
I don't know if I'm willing to put up with these headaches on a regular basis. But the preliminary reviews of Windows Phone 7 are very disappointing, and it can only be a matter of time before WM6.5 becomes so neglected that it's no longer usable. Oh well.
Zaphod! I remember fondly the Isaac Asimov novels.
MasonStorm said:
Thanks for your replies. I also used the Touch Pro2 earlier this year, and more recently, the LG Fathom. The latter may be the last of the WinMo 6.5 phones, and that's really a shame, since it really worked well, just lacking HTC's Sense, Motorola's sound quality, and the latest generation's innovative 4.3" capacitive screens. Of course it synced perfectly, and all contacts were immediately available for voice command dialing on the phone.
Today I downloaded the trial of CompanionLink and installed DejaOffice on the Droid X. After the proper setup - which includes setting the Droid X to be in "USB Mass Storage" mode when connected via USB to the PC - it was able to sync calendar, contacts, notes and tasks.
BUT only in a manner of speaking. I promptly found out that I couldn't voice dial any of my contacts. Neither Calendar nor Contacts were sync'd with the Droid X's native Android apps; that required another, VERY long sync, having gone into DejaOffice's Sync Settings and selecting the options to ALSO sync with the Android native apps. And although I went into the Droid X's settings and deselected the option to sync my Google/G-mail account, I still suspect that my information went to the cloud - even though I didn't want it to - since the arrows under the Droid X's "3G" icon in the notification tray were gray the whole time, indicating data transmission. And despite all that, some of my contacts still mysteriously didn't make it into the native app, although they were in DejaContacts. So to voice dial someone inparticular, I STILL had to enter their contact info manually into the native Android contact app.
And all of my categories for all of my Notes were somehow stripped away when the Notes transferred into the Droid X; so now, they're all unfiled.
I don't know if I'm willing to put up with these headaches on a regular basis. But the preliminary reviews of Windows Phone 7 are very disappointing, and it can only be a matter of time before WM6.5 becomes so neglected that it's no longer usable. Oh well.
Zaphod! I remember fondly the Isaac Asimov novels.
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Click to collapse
"It's like Deja Vu, All over again." These are the exact issues and problems I ran into in my first encounter with Droid. At the time, I felt like the TP2 was a viable alternative to the Droid (wasn't nearly as fast, but had nice screen, better keyboard, etc.) so I just bailed out.
Much like you, I don't believe there is a viable alternative any longer. I too have no enthusiasm for Win Phone 7, and highly doubt that any advanced hardware is going to come with win 6.5X at this time.
I will also pass along this small piece of advice. Either embrace the cloud, or dump the phone. The more 'interconnects' you put between you and your data, the more frustrating this will be. It would be shame to have all of this power, and then limit its potential.
Instead of starting a new thread I thought this would be the best place to ask. First time Android user long time WM user so excuse my ignorance. I have an exchange / outlook setup that is working great with the corp sync of android but I have Notes that of course MS thought it was a good idea not to sync OTA. I used to connect my WM phone via BT or USB and sync the Notes with ActiveSync every couple of days or so to make sure they were updated on both device and Outlook. I know I can't use ActiveSync, what kind of solution does Android provide for this type of sync? I am open to anything as long as it is free as I don't really want to spend money on something that used to be free under WM.
Anyone? No one coming from a TP2 used notes?
I tried once more to sync the X locally, using the Mark/Space Missing Sync software (which requires Fliq Notes & Fliq Calendar to be installed on the phone, and Missing Sync on both the phone and the desktop). This too proved entirely too problematic, with ridiculously erroneous syncs that proved entirely unreliable for a business user.
It took another day of wrangling/justifying/coming to terms, but I finally relented and took Zaphod's advice to embrace the Cloud. gSyncit has proven to be a reliable, easy-to-use sync app for me, but it does require sending all of your stuff to Google, and then setting the phone to sync with Google. Calendar & Contacts work fine, and Notes works by syncing to Google Docs. The latter is then synced to the phone using the GDocs app, downloaded from the Marketplace. I've abandoned Tasks for now, but apparently it can sync by creating a 2nd calendar - a Tasks Calendar - in Google Calendar.
I'm also battling this Outlook to Droid X sync issue. I've come to realize the "best" way to resolve this is to give into Google's global domination plan and simply use my Google Calendar to sync via the cloud. However, I'm worried about duplication of meetings (which has happened in the past with the Dx using CompanionLink and DejaOffice, and with WM6.5 on my Imagio). My other question/issue is whether my contacts associated with my Gmail account have to be merged and subsequently synced with all my business contacts. My Gmail contacts include almost 1,000 email addresses, many of which I never use and don't recognize.
I'm also running Outlook 2007 with Win 7 64-bit. I've tried using Google Calendar Sync but it doesn't play nicely with 64-bit Win 7 (I guess that one sneaked up on Google?).
Any input is appreciated.
I work with small businesses helping them with handhelds and CRM. All my small businesses are using hosted exchange server for mail. Some use Blackberries, others iPhones, a tiny portion Windows Mobile and now I'm "dog-fooding" Android so I can find out what works. Believe it or not, only about 5% of my customers use Outlook tasks. Most rely on the calendar for task management. I myself do use tasks so I'm trialing Remember the Milk and syncing to it from Outlook using Gassumo Outlook to Remember the Milk sync. That's working quite well.
I've found that the contacts and calendar sync have some quirks that I'm coming to grips with - it seems sometimes to use File As, other times not to so sometimes the names are backwards. The calendar has been OK
I'm hoping PocketInformant for Android gets finished soon. They are beta testing now. I've been using it on Windows Mobile for years. It's very polished, those guys know how to build a handheld PIM.
Exchange is a great way to do OTA sync. You put the contact in Outlook and it's on your phone, same with calendar.
I'm a big OneNote user on the desktop, on Windows Mobile I used it only for a single purpose - to label photos I took of equipment I deploy. I would type the client, location, purpose and then take photos of the asset tags, serial numbers etc. To get them onto the desktop I had to USB sync but this system is very handy, if I needed to call Dell about a machine I have the asset tags right at hand. I'm looking at Evernote to take over that duty. I don't really care if it lives on OneNote, I just need to be able to annotate photos and get at them quickly during support calls.
So I have seen the HTC Desire changelog but didn't see as comprehensive one made for the Samsung Galaxy S (though I suck at searching )
I have only had my android phone (Samsung Galaxy S) for about 6 weeks but lkike my previous phones (windows mobile) I like to get into the nitty gritty and so notice somethings/changes that others may not
OK I installed Froyo the other day moving from eclair update1 and below are the changes I have noted and even a few that now appear to have gone. My Eclair already had things like mobile AP, New Market (update all etc) so these changes wont be mentioned
Homescreen
- Now supports pinch to zoom to move between panes
- The menu button text/icons are now a darker black compared to grey
- Email icon now shows total unread emails (used to show nothing)
- Power down phone options now uses coloured icons
- Power off function now no longer confirms you want to shutdown, just shuts down
- Samsung Widget option now longer exists all widgets now come under one menu "Widgets"
- Possible changes to last used apps on task manager up from 6 to 8??
- Auto rotation option added to notification quick bar
- Vibration removed from quick bar, some report GPS added but my eclair had GPS option
- New Data network mode added, enables you to disable GPRS/3G/HSDPA
Settings Menu
- Icons have been changed to colour in the main menu
- USB Settings moved from About Phone to Wireless & Network
- USB Tethering moved from USB Settings "PC Internet" to its on menu in Wireless Network
- New better VPN Settings under Wireless & Network
- Mobile AP now accepts 5 devices up from 3
- Sound and Display now split into seperation menus each option providing more user settings
- Loss of Font Size in Display (this may have moved can't find it)
- New Horizontal Calibration
- Only 4 default fonts sure there were moe :/
- New Sensor Aiding for GPS in "My Location"
- New options for screen lock now supports PIN, Password aswell as Pattern
- Newer version of Swype providing more user variables
- Automatic Date & Time now correctly supports BST
- USB Mass Storage now creates a full screen logo with mount button on homescreen instead of a notification.
Applications
- Calendar now supports Week View and Supports Exchange details
- Camera now records in 720p & changes from 3gp to h.264 mp4 codec
- Flip to front camera now added as own button instead of purely from "Shooting Mode" menu
- Email icon now shows total undread emails (used to show nothing)
- Default Email view is not the crappy yellow background and weird fonts Instead of having two display modes (yellow and a better white closer to iphone) you now have 6 modes.
- Text size again only 3 options they have got rid of the smaller font size??.
- New View Mode? Standard View or Conversation View
- Exchange connection now better supports administration policies
- When you have multiple email accounts it now shows a last sync time next to each account
- Internet Supports flash as we all know iplayer and lovefilm work mint
- Settings settings changes including options for text sizes, I don't think they want us running at tiny text settings.
- Files - Changes the word sd to external_sd
- New Option "Press Reader" but Service not availble yet
- Youtube App - HQ Setting now added as button on main screen instead of phone under menu.
- Youtube Settings menu now allows you to choose default between HD and SD and no longer defaults to HD
- When Uninstalling applications the apps now shift up instead of leaving random gaps throughout each screen though further testing is needed on this.
- Now supports Move to SD card where applicable
- Dialer now contains and orange button to messages
Misc/All
- New "Iphone" style magnifying glass when editing text fields
- Holding Back button and then pressing Home will take a screen shot
I agree with you...
Regards
Thanks for the list!
Samsung Galaxy S Froyo Change log
Hi. I have a few questions that I hope you can answer.
1.) Did you do the official Samsung Froyo update (KIES or OTA) on your Galaxy S?
2.) Exchange integration; Calender: Can you accept,decline, schedule, reschedule meetings?
3.) Exchange integration: Can you browse company global address book? (Company directory?)
4.) Music over Bluetooth headset working?
I work in a corporate company running exchange 2007 and the lack-of decent exchange integration in Galaxy S is becoming a deal breaker.
maansleroux said:
I work in a corporate company running exchange 2007 and the lack-of decent exchange integration in Galaxy S is becoming a deal breaker.
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I also work for a coperation also using Exchange 2007 and I have the same If not better access to Exchange from my galaxy S then the others on site who use iphones. I can access all my files, folders and attachements, my tasks, calendars it syncs with my outlook contacts and I can search my GAL when I need to.
maansleroux said:
Hi. I have a few questions that I hope you can answer.
1.) Did you do the official Samsung Froyo update (KIES or OTA) on your Galaxy S?
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Plan ole Kies update
maansleroux said:
2.) Exchange integration; Calender: Can you accept,decline, schedule, reschedule meetings?
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Though the meetings come through ok you don't have options to accept/decline etc . Your only option would be to connect via OWA to deal with meeting requests whilst out of the office and top be honest this is very usable and the OWA client renders very well on the Samsung Galaxy
maansleroux said:
3.) Exchange integration: Can you browse company global address book? (Company directory?)
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This is the Same as 2.1 where yu can search the GAL (it's fast) but you don't have a browsable list. Again if you did required more access to the GAL u could again use OWA.
maansleroux said:
4.) Music over Bluetooth headset working?
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Got a bluetooth headset but haven't tested this
To be honest the "Better Exchange support" that was listed in Froyo changes seems to be now the ability to view calendars (I dont think u could in 2.1) and also you can now perform a remote wipe incase you lost your phone. This feature used to exist on windows mobile and no seems to exist on Android??
Hey thanks for the reply. Was really good to see that I could at least access the GAL through the email client. What I was actually complaining about is the ability to add contacts from the GAL. So search for a contact and then saving all their details to your contacts from the GAL.
A friend of mine has the HTC Desire (I am fairly sure he has Android 2.1) And in contacts under the menu options he has "browse company directory" (Same as my old windows mobile 6.5).
With that option he can search the GAL and save to his contacts. This is obviously great since you then have all the contact detail of the contact. I was wondering if you could do that in the galaxy S Froyo update.
Depending on the size of your company your GAL could be massive containing many private, public, distribution lists etc I wouldn't want any of that lot in my phones contacts cluttering it up If I really did I would save the contact from the GAL into my Outlook contacts which then my phone syncs with via the Exchange server.
In regards to the HTC Desire, my brother in law uses on of those i'll ask him this morning if his does then this is an HTC thing and not an Android.
I also came from using Windows mobile various versions from older CE to 6.1 (did use 6.5 for a bit on my Omnia) and to be fair the intergration was better on those phones because it actually used a MS Outlook client.
Would just be great to add/save a new contact from GAL like on the HTC Desire. but im sure I read somewhere that its standard on froyo.
Emexrulsier said:
- Camera now records in 720p & changes from 3gp to h.264 mp4 codec
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Mine 2.1 (JF3/JM1) was already recording 720p. And there's no codec change - it's only the file extension (.mp4 instead of .3gp) that changes. Internally it's still 3GP4.
- When Uninstalling applications the apps now shift up instead of leaving random gaps throughout each screen though further testing is needed on this.
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Nope. I'm still getting gaps after uninstalls. JPO.
Kies 2.2 here... International I9000 (Hong Kong) connecting to a 2007 Exchange infrastructure. I have zero visibility to my company's GAL. However on my iPhone I can search it up and down.
When @ 2.1 I ended up writing a .NET app to read our domain for "people" and created a csv of people within departments of interest.
I'd love to clear my Google contacts. Our Data Security team would likely be a smidge peeved if they knew I basically exported our forest and loaded it into Google Contacts.
Hello
We are developers of the windows phone platform.
We have chosen this platform because in our opinion it is superior to other established phone platforms and we like creating apps that users enjoy and that help to emerge the windows phone platform.
We also think that nowadays there are some features that a user simply expects a Smartphone to “have”. One of these features is a great calendar.
The current windows phone 8 programming API lacks of some important features that hinder developers from creating a fully features calendar application.
- There is no programming interface to edit or delete existing appointments => Vote Here
- Access to calendar categories (private, office, birthdays, …) is not provided => Vote Here
- Access to sub-calendar of an account to recover name and color setting is not provided => Vote Here
- Information for private appointments is not returned => Vote Here
- No way to access “Task” in windows live and exchange => Vote Here
The built in calendar has all of this options but they are not accessible for developers.
In order to let developers improve your calendar experience, let Microsoft hear you voice. You can use the link above to vote for those missing features.
Hannes and Olivier
PS : Other persons are also asking for this improvements : message
Hello,
You can not access the built in calendar but you can make your own framework to provide the same functionalists. You can also use Live connect to sync with the hotmail calendar(which is the core of the built-in calendar anyway).
The only thing that the built in has and the custom do not is the notification and live tile update. The built-in calendar acts like a real time application, whereas any custom requires a background process to update, or interaction from the user.
mcosmin222 said:
Hello,
You can not access the built in calendar but you can make your own framework to provide the same functionalists. You can also use Live connect to sync with the hotmail calendar(which is the core of the built-in calendar anyway).
The only thing that the built in has and the custom do not is the notification and live tile update. The built-in calendar acts like a real time application, whereas any custom requires a background process to update, or interaction from the user.
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hi,
that true - a developer can use the windows live sdk to CRUD calendar entries in the windows live calendar.
The major drawback: Appointments created/modified/deleted do not show up in the WP calendar - they show up the next time, the windows live calendar has been synced back to the phone calendar.
Next problem: A user have to give it's permissions to access the live calendar - this is possible but not the best way to do it - it should be done with a "ModifyAppointmentTask" and a "DeleteAppointmentTask" where a user have to give his permission to modify/delete calendar entries.
Next thing: A developer has to create an access layer for ALL caledar types a user has configured on his phone (exchange, google, facebook ...). When a users wants to create appointments in one of these calendars he has to sign in to the specific calendar. Of course this is not as user friendly as the built in calendar.
Most important thing: All this methods to CRUD calendar entries already exist (the built in calendar uses them) - making them accessible for a developer via a Task (like the new "SaveAppointmentsTask") imho. is the best way this can + should be done.
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