yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Windows Phone 7 General] N8ter:
I miss the way Google integrates pretty much all their services in Android. They have an App with Push notifications, Log-In support for everything...

GMail

Google Reader

YouTube

Listen

Google Books

Google Talk

Microsoft took a short-cut with Windows Live and while the phone works well it does not have the "if I switch, I dunno how I'll get by" feeling that Android phones have. Google's services integration is that good, and that's why they are able to control OEMs with Market and Google Apps access (in addition to early access to Android source, of course).

If Microsoft have integrated Windows Live that well, and made the encessary stock Apps, I can only imagine how good this platform would be looking right now, but I guess it wasn't meant to be... Too busy building iOS apps, they are...

I haven't really switching from Android, I carry both devices everywhere with me so I dunno if that constitutes as a switch. WP7 is not ready to be my primary device at the moment, but the Zune Pass is nice and the HD7 has much better HD recording than the Vibrant. MUCH better...
[Windows Phone 7 General] amtrakcn:
I use 3 Gmail accounts, but only contact sync and market are useful to me.
[Windows Phone 7 General] N8ter:
Apps are generally better. YouTube is better on Android. Facebook and Twitter are better on Android. Push Notifications are better and more consistent on Android. There are no decent IM clients - at all - in WP7. Still cannot send Video in MMS or Email. It's just a terrible smartphone OS for communication, atm. SMS or GTFO. There is Flory for Facebook/GTalk... Am I the only one who's getting tired of shelling out my email address to a different company everytime I switch smartphone platforms/phones? Feature phones come with IM clients standard and don't require me to create another account just to chat wiht people.

There is no way to get notifications you missed. Once a Toast Notification is gone, it's gone. Nothing similar to the pull-down Notification Bar in Android or the Notifications screen in Windows Mobile 6.5 (HD2).

Most Apps do not cache data, which makes using the phone frustrating in many cases. Facebook Integration is actually pretty weak compared to what I expected... Weak enough that I think it was a waste of time and they should have just let apps integrate with the Contacts app and provide notifications for background updating the way the Android clients do.

No Tethering. Even iOS has this now...

DLNA is limited basically to one manufacturer (LG). DLNA is becomming a pretty standard feature on high end Andorid smartphones (Moto and Sammy phones have it, not sure about HTC haven't had an HTC Android in almost a year now...).

Has nothing to do with boredom. Every phone gets boring to the point that it's not anything "special" anymore after you have used it enough. It's just that there are some suprisingly gaping functionality holes and Microsoft seems quite content with them to the point that they think Twitter in People Hub is more important than things like Tethering, a decent IM Client, etc. It's just sort of insulting, TBQH...

TBQH, Battery life on all the smartphone platforms are pretty comparable...
[Windows Phone 7 General] N8ter:
That's fine. Lots of us use more than that. I always wonder why people think "I don't use that" is some grand rebuttal and completely destroys the value in some functionality of one platform or another...

Market can be basically replaced with Amazon App Market. The Value is mostly in Google's Apps. They are better than most alternatives and no other platform has such good integration with services as Android does via those apps. They are well developed and each of them remove the need to do yet another redundant "best <x>" query in a search engine - which is probably the first thing we do when moving to another platform.

Also, one thing I forgot to add - idiotically - is Google Maps. Nothing on the market is better and it's totally free. It works better on Android than any other platform. Bing on Windows Mobile was competitive, but Microsoft only has a Bastardized version in WP7. For shame...

That one App Alone is enough for most people to choose Android over WP7, even with all its issues.

The fact that Microsoft has such weak service integration in WP7, coupled with the fact that Bing on WP7 is useless even compared to Bing on WM 6.5, means that I am locked into keeping my Google account open and carrying my Android phone with me so I can get some things done. They missed the boat. They should have covered all the basics. I'm sure we all would not have minded waiting for some useless Facebook integration (with no push notifications or background updating apparently) in exchange for a decent WLM Client and Voice Guided Navitation in Bing Maps.

If you seriously think People Hub was worth the loss of Bing Maps (Voice Nav) or Windows Live for Windows Mobile (the IM portion), then I just don't know what to say... Wow?

I could subscribe to TeleNav, but I'm busy keeping a second line so I can use my Vibrant for everything else WP7 is incapable of doing...
[Windows Phone 7 General] UbiMaiden:
I really don`t know why WP7 Marketplace is not world wide. My Visa and Mastercard is accepted everywhere, but not in WP7 Marketplace.

And then they wonder why peoples use homebrew or warez apps.
[Windows Phone 7 General] albo89:
switch from milestone to hd2 with wp7...i like it, but i miss wifi tethering, i need it so much
[Windows Phone 7 General] ohgood:
wp7 doesn't integrate calendar, contacts, email,etc just like google ? didn't know that. the hd7 I had for a week was interesting, but so limited I didn't. enjoy making it "mine". I don't run exchange, nor any other ms servers, so I assumed it was implemented just like gmail is on android. hmm
[Windows Phone 7 General] vetvito:
IM+ is going beta this week for you guys.
[Windows Phone 7 General] doministry:
It does via Hotmail.
[Windows Phone 7 General] doministry:
I agree here. You have to do more "around" the OS than on WP7.

But the abilities difference right now is astonishing.

Besides WP7 lack of many features I couldn't live without,

it's also a matter of some inconsistent solutions in some areas.

I would love to use WP7 but I just can't use as primary device.

It's so crippled ATM.
[Windows Phone 7 General] addicus:
First I think this is a great thread.

Second I will say my experience with the HD7 in the TMobile store was fantastic, but I still have not gotten one or would get any WP7 phone at this point. I am a HD2 user and still use WM6.5.3 with custom rom and there are some things I simply don't see WP7 having that I want such as a decent task manager for recently used programs, voice navigation in Bing (I use this a lot now) and a few small others. I still want more control and usability. With copy and paste arriving one of my biggest issues is no more.

That said - I use a WP7 interface on my HD2 and love how much simplier it is to use (Host 1.5). I truly do have a better experience with the phone. I wish they had given us older users a version of Zune to use on the phone also. More on topic - I would say that the WP7 experience is going to be what you make it. With the antitrust sanctions on MS being lifted we should see an increase in productivity and interoperability between MS products and this OS could really blossom in the next year.
[Windows Phone 7 General] TexUs:
Well I pulled the trigger to try it.

IMO those syncability arguments are BS. It's just doing it with a Microsoft account instead of Google account. Email, Calendar, Contacts sync with a Live account.

I do not plan on switching to a Live account though (Hotmail is terrible)... So I'll just be using Google Sync (you set it up as an Exchange server)- which gives you Email and Contact sync.

As far as Calendar- I don't have a need or desire to sync it (I never look at it but on my Phone)- just for backup. It can be backed up via the Live sync- so I'm good there.

The notifications are certainly done best on Android. No argument there. I'm simply happy- they are done via toast, and not the PITA popup boxes a la iOS.

As far as push notifications being consistent on Android, LOL. WP7 can't be worse. iOS was consistent, Android was anything but. Not a huge deal as I manually checked Facebook often enough- but WP7 can't be worse.

What I might miss:

Sockets. A given. Voice, Chat, all this falls under that. I can live without Google Voice though as the only "pro" for me is the transcript (which does terribly- making it not a "pro" at all)- I can live without it. Mainly, I'll miss Facebook Chat running in the background.

Google Nav will certainly be missed (better than a Garmin IMO) but come on: I have a Captivate. I don't even benefit from Google Nav because my GPS sucks. I'll be checking out Navigo.

As far as the rest of the integration, I never sign into YouTube, Reader, anything like that: I won't miss those.

So I won't miss much. It's just the concept of learning a whole new OS. I'll probably make a post here about my switch after I've used it awhile.
[Windows Phone 7 General] z33dev33l:
Glad to see that thusfar you're enjoying it. I thought very little of it at first and only got it because somebody offered me an HD7 for a lame behold II so I jumped on it. I'm so glad I did. As far as I'm concerned it's the only OS that has room to improve without completely abandoning where it's already at.
[Windows Phone 7 General] addicus:
Glad you took the leap of faith TexUs. Keep us updated on how you like it periodically. The one thing I thing WP7 does is make it easy to use. I don't suspect you will be doing to much guessing on how to get to contacts, make a phone call, etc..... In the short time I used it the only thing that took me a bit to wrap my head around was the Zune player and that is because it was so much better than anything I'd ever used!!!
[Windows Phone 7 General] lar1r:
Still carry both with me. Not one phone is really better

Reasons I keep/use each phone.

Android

----------

720p mkv video support

GPS apps (with downloaded maps and turn by turn navigation)

Plethora of apps to try when bored (and apparent availability of more free apps)

Customization

WP7

------

Damn slick interface

Near Perfect Music Player

Great Office integration

Quality of games

Now if the WP7 phone at least integrated my top two usages - I'd ditch the android.
[Windows Phone 7 General] addicus:
WP7 will play 720 and 1080 files am I correct? They just can't be mkv files right.
[Windows Phone 7 General] vetvito:
Bing on ipad is amazing,

http://mobilitydigest.com/bing-for-...m_campaign=Feed:+FuzeMobility+(Fuze+Mobility)
[Windows Phone 7 General] amtrakcn:
Not really for this point. As far as I know only Galaxy S can hard-decode ur mkv file.

SGS experience is not applicable on all Android phones(One proof of fragmentation:D)
[Windows Phone 7 General] TexUs:
IDK why hardware manufacturers have to fudge up Android so badly. There's really nothing wrong with it and it's got great potential, but that's also its downfall because Google has no control over manufacturers.

It's also why I think WP7 is great middle ground :)
[Windows Phone 7 General] jessiethe3rd:
I have had WM, Android, and now WP7 devices. Android took the WM formula + the iPhone formula and created a great ecosystem of products with a LOT of capability. The Android OS is built for extensibility with open access to APIs and plenty of great modifications which allow for changes to the base UI. There's tons of apps and tons of great third part app providers just like Apple OS. There's no question that Android has been a good switch device for manly WM6/6.5 users to jump on... it's natural growth if you look just in this community is really here due to disatisfaction with the solutions that were in the channel. Essentially Microsoft left the door open after iPhone and Android walked right in.

So why WP7 instead of Android? Time for me is now money. I have no time to tinker with my UI to make it look pretty. I have no time to root and tinker to make certain features work. I have no time to concern myself with what features work with my phone and what features do not. I find the apps much better on WP7... they are designed to take advantage of the unique flow of metro. Well designed apps = easy to use and easy to enjoy apps. Features like Live Tiles make looking at and interacting with data drop dead simple. If there is one thing that Google Android gets wrong it's UI. Google is not a UI design company and that is why today HTC is growing faster and is bigger than Nokia and LG... they are growing on Google's weakness in UI Design.

Services!

Zune - best music experience period.

Xbox - top game experience and top social game experience (Xbox Points) on any platform

Office - I need to open office docs... easily done on WP7

Exchange Integration - beautiful and elegant although a tad bit underpowered.
[Windows Phone 7 General] doministry:
As for office it is not really true.

Many Android devices have integrated office app which easily does the same as WP7. But Office on WP7 is the most crippled and featureless app I've ever seen, it's ridiculous.

And WP7 has basic problems with basic operations like showing embedded pics in email any many others.
[Windows Phone 7 General] olurumsana02:
Timeframe?

Sorry to hi-jack the thread a bit, but does anyone have any idea when the HD7S is being released? Have two more weeks with this Atrix and would rather go back to WP7 again. Thanks in advance
[Windows Phone 7 General] dtboos:
Supposed to be sometime within the next couple weeks if I remember right. Should be soon.
[Windows Phone 7 General] ohgood:
get a dumbphone and watch your productivity soar.
[Windows Phone 7 General] N8ter:
Nope, it doesn't. It integrates it like any Exchange client.

Google's integration is deeper. It syncs Starred Status, Favorites, etc. WP7 doesn't do that. The Calendar even Syncs the weather information from your Google Calendar if you enable that (the option exists in WLCal, but the Calendar doesn't Sync it cause it's just a stock Exchange Client).

Google's GMail Email Client is miles better than any ActiveSync Client for their service. It fully supports Conversations, Flags, Labels, Priority Inbox, etc. Everthing is pushed, even Google Reader app updates.

Microsoft Implemented a Proper Exchange protocol support for Hotmail. It's more "standard" than Google Sync.

Google does not use Google Sync/ActiveSync to Sync information on Android. It uses the Offline GMail Protocol which is proprietary to Google's services. Microsoft has DeltaSync, but it's optimized for desktop applications, so they did not use it for WP7. Implementing ActiveSync was probably much easier, anyways, and better on the phone's battery...

The Service integration is better on Android than on WP7.

The Google Talk app on Android is embarassingly thin, but it exists. All Microsoft needed was a WLM that looked like the SMS/MMS client, and that would have been good as long as it was always on (with the option to not log on/log off) and pushed. Matching some of this functionality is not difficult. They just didn't prioritize it.
[Windows Phone 7 General] N8ter:
The devil is in the details. Details you obviously don't know about becaue "It does via Hotmail." is all you could respond to him with.

Hotmail syncs via ActiveSync. Google uses Offline GMail Protocol. It is optimized for Google's services. The integration with Google Services in Android is much richer and certainly deeper than the integration with Microsoft Services on Android (most of which aren't integrated at all).

Google ties almost all of its services (worth mentioning) into it's Android OS.
[Windows Phone 7 General] N8ter:
Read my above posts. You have no clue what you're talking about. There is a big difference between the Native Google Services integration and some stock Exchange client. Android has that, too, you know...

Tell me how many people Sync their main Google Account on Android with the Exchange client instead of the Native Apps? None? Why? Cause Google's services integration on Android is wildly superior to a bare bones ActiveSync client. It's not a hard concept to grasp. If that was the case, why would Google bother developing and updating these applications? They have Google Sync for ActiveSync clients...
[Windows Phone 7 General] N8ter:
Yea the Bing apps on all platforms look great. I seen that on Engadget and the trolls immediately flew to the comment section. It's a sight to behold...
[Windows Phone 7 General] doministry:
Well anyway I'm off for now with WP7, especially when apparently my device has an update error which may need a hard reset (that's what I read from the forums).

That would be awesome, contrary to those super duper stability claims regarding WP. If WP would be still my primary device I would be so mad. But it's not.

Now I know what I was talking about before I got WP7. No regrets but this platform is so crippled ATM.
[Windows Phone 7 General] TexUs:
It's not stock Exchange. Stock Exchange is simply the solution for using Gmail on Windows Phone 7.

You know... the exact same method you'd do it if you want to use Hotmail on Android.

Tell me how many people sync their main Live account on Android with the Exchange client instead of the native apps? None?

lol- your arguments are ridiculous.

You're coming at it from the bias of using Google on both devices. Well, no $hit Microsoft is going to natively support their stuff better than Google's. Just like the vice-versa is true.

I could argue with you about how Microsoft integrates Live accounts (like Calendar sync) better on WP7 than on Android but that'd be just as silly as your argument.

No it integrates like Active Sync.

I'm not going to disagree Google integrates more stuff. Don't get me wrong.

But frankly everything you mentioned I don't care about. I can have a live tile for weather so... Why do I care about my calendar doing it? I never even used that feature on Android. Never sync'd my favorites (who uses favorites?), never used starred emails. Maybe if you care about that you'd have a point but I don't think most people care.

If you want to argue that these are features Gmail has that Hotmail doesn't, that's fine. However don't pretend both have it and only Gmail is able to sync them.

Now... Gmail is miles better than Hotmail, I've already said it. I'll still use it.

However... Would I stay on Android simply because it can sync Gmail features better,

that I don't even use

?

I use none of the features you mention except for Priority Inbox- and it doesn't even really matter to me because I don't get tons of useless email. Additionally even the Gmail app doesn't support Priority Inbox well. Yes, there's a label in there for it but it doesn't mimic what you get on the web, at all.
[Windows Phone 7 General] TexUs:
So I added a Google account to my phone and it synced Contacts, Email, and Calendar. All three.

Which means- I get all the same benefits I did out of my Android account. I'm letting it sync all my Music and stuff through Zune ATM.
[Windows Phone 7 General] rwholden:
I'm on android right... just waiting for new devices before buying wp7... been using it a bit on my hd2 and love it!
[Windows Phone 7 General] adesonic:
As with all these things, it sends what you want from a phone. I have a busy life, I want a phone that handles my email on the go, gives me access to the Internet, has a dedicated stocks app, a good calendar and tasks solution (even if it is partly third party), a good reader (kindle) and an easy way to read and create office docs. WP7 does it all for me with no messing about (although skydrive docs integration is badly needed). IOS bores me , I find android fiddly and webOS up to now has not had good enough hardware, never tried symbian but understand that that is fiddly too.
[Windows Phone 7 General] nrfitchett4:
Still confused about Gmail sync. I can sync email, contacts and primary Calender without setting it up exchange style.
[Windows Phone 7 General] TexUs:
Yeah me either. It syncs just fine on mine, too.

Most of these scare tactics, I just don't see.

My disappointments are what I already knew.

1) Notifications. Needs to be some easier way (like Android) that tells you you have unread texts, etc. I realize they want simple. So I understand them not doing it like Android fully. But some icon in the status bar to tell me there's unread texts IMO would be a huge feature.

2) Live tiles and push... I knew this going in obviously. But "Live" tiles that aren't Live... come on.

Other than that... It's slightly laggy at times. Not during transitions- not at all. When I say lag I mean, I tap something, and it takes it a second or two to kick it off. This happens in the market alot.

One beef I didn't know going in- WP doesn't cache data like AT ALL. The apps should be allowed to cache data so you don't have to wait for an OTA sync to see anything.
[Windows Phone 7 General] vangrieg:
Actually, there's a lot of caching going on, and of course apps are allowed to cache data. They are even encouraged to do so by Microsoft who did a number of tutorials on the matter and even went so far as to create something called Sync Framework, which is completely open and free to use. Not every app developer uses caching though, and sometimes it's annoying.
[Windows Phone 7 General] N8ter:
On Android Gmail Users Google's Offline Sync Protocol, which is pushed. Did you read my post, the one he responded to and obviously failed to understand? Google does not use ActiveSync for GMail or any of its services.

Google Sync was implemented only to allow iOS/WM/WebOS users to Sync their Google Mail/Contacts/Calendars on those devices, and ActiveSync/POP3/IMAP is woefully inferior to Google's Apps/Protocols for Google Services data.
[Windows Phone 7 General] N8ter:
There isn't a lot of caching going on in third party applications. Most of them start with a blank screen and you have to wait for them to download everything, which means you end up waiting twice as long as you have to to see what you need to see.

If you're driving down the interstate and trying to get some information off your device, you can be in for a surprise when you realize you can't get it because the application didn't cache it and can't download it because you don't have a signal...

But you can always try again in a few miles.

Start up the Android Twitter/Seesmic App, and then Start up the WP7 Twitter/Seesmic and there is an immediate difference. The Android App has all the old information from the last (and background) syncs ready for you. The WP7 application will have a blank screen and proceed to download all the data from the Twitter servers.
[Windows Phone 7 General] vangrieg:
There's enough caching in third party applications I use. I was commenting the "WP doesn't cache data like AT ALL" remark most of all. There's nothing that prevents third party applications from caching, there's even a special framework for that. Developers choose to cache data or not, but that's not a limitation of the OS.

Now, if all Twitter clients don't cache data and start with blank screens, that's a problem for users of the OS, I agree. I personally don't use Twitter so I don't care.
[Windows Phone 7 General] TexUs:
N8ter is simply a H8ter...

Gripe and complain that it doesn't use the Google Offline Sync... Yadayada... WHO THE HELL CARES?

If Active Sync gives me push email, contacts, and calendar sync, WHO THE HELL CARES? The end result is the same.