yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Windows Phone 7 General] Peew971:
Have you read about Brandon Watson's challenge to Molly Wood? What about her first impressions? Do you feel her complaints are valid?

Please don't derail this thread into an Android/W7 argument (again!), she happens to have lots of followers and any of her criticism will resonate with many and in my opinion will help address some things faster (some things she hasn't discovered yet so try to give a her break on that).

I'm not running Mango so I'd like to hear from people who do and know if they agree with what she has to say.

http://news.cnet.com/molly-rants/
[Windows Phone 7 General] RoboDad:
The only problem with her review is that too many of her "cons" are simply based on ignorance (and I don't mean that in a pejorative sense). She didn't know the correct way to do something on WP7, and tried to apply Android techniques. When they didn't work, she assumed that the feature was either broken or missing.

If her followers read those criticisms and assume she is right, it may prevent them from giving WP7 a fair chance on their own.
[Windows Phone 7 General] Wyn6:
Yep. Tis already begun. Two commenters have said they won't buy based on "Molly's impressions" and "little annoyances" she's described.

Her only real beef should be with the navigation. Outside of that, she has an argument as to comparitive number of apps. Yet, she hasn't explored the marketplace thoroughly enough to actually talk about what's there. She just knows two apps she uses

aren't

there.

I'd give her some time with it and I'm certain she'll clear up some of the things she's already posted which are incorrect.
[Windows Phone 7 General] Peew971:
She will... She complained before on her podcast about not having an app for facebook chat then corrected it on her blog after she was told it's built-in. Hopefully the listeners also read the blog, otherwise some might be a lost cause already.
[Windows Phone 7 General] Casey_boy:
I'm really glad she's made such a fuss over the navigation and I really hope Microsoft pay attention. It's bloody stupid as it is - not matter what the reasons may be (I've heard licencing issues?) Microsoft need to sort this out.

She has some other valid points, but she hasn't (as she admits) touched upon a lot of the more unique features of WP7.5

Casey
[Windows Phone 7 General] Peew971:
Apparently turn by turn is indeed due to licensing issues but with Nokia owning Navteq this should be sorted in Tango (hopefully) or Apollo.
[Windows Phone 7 General] RoboDad:
I sure hope it is, because as it now stands, you can guarantee that it will be the cause of a lot of mocking from Android users. And comments such as this one I read on the article page aren't going to help much either:

It's one thing to defend Microsoft for having no choice but to implement the system as it is due to licensing issues, but it's quite another to try to make the absurd claim that this system is better in any way. It's not.
[Windows Phone 7 General] ohgood:
it wasn't a biased or negative critique. id say it was spot on, by a regular user trying to use it as a daily driver. speaking of daily driver, I had no idea navigation was so broken. ugh !

yes, ios and android are mentioned .... if you are surprised or annoyed by this, smell some coffe. ios and android are dominating the market for a few reasons, this review sheds light on them.

improve and enjoy some success microsoft !
[Windows Phone 7 General] Peew971:
The verdict is in, it's a 50/50. I read what she had to say and find her point about Skydrive fair. It needs to have a proper app and a desktop client with better functionality. For techies it might be fine but for an average user it's a bit of a mess.

Off to watch her video now...

http://news.cnet.com/8301-31322_3-20094766-256/windows-phone-7-challenge-week-2-the-verdict/?tag=mncol;title
[Windows Phone 7 General] doministry:
And also how can an average user FIND OUT that Facebook chat has an inbuilt Messenger?
[Windows Phone 7 General] naplesbill:
Sorry guys, but this review was amature at best. If you are going to call yourself a writer, and agree to do a test drive of a device, you owe to your readers to find the correct answers to any concerns or misunderstood features of said device. This is where she failed, and this is where CNET always fails.

This is nothing more than letting your Mom or Sister borrow your phone and you then ask them for an opinion. They are not allowed to seek actual advice, from an actually knowledgeable source.

This type of review is a disservice to technology in general. That is my opinion and that is why I do not use CNET for anything important.
[Windows Phone 7 General] Ren13B:
I agree completely. She made so many mistakes and it was obvious she didn't bother researching any of her so called problems. The majority of the stuff she said wrong was corrected in her comments which she clearly didn't read. What a joke.
[Windows Phone 7 General] Professor Simon Peach:
was Molly Wood ever a man ?
[Windows Phone 7 General] dtboos:
I dunno, but the poor girl looks 10 years older than she really is.

And a little less sex in the city marathons with a jar of burbon/jug of martini, and a little more technology knowledge would be nice. Especially for a CNET writer.
[Windows Phone 7 General] the_Enlightened:
Outlook and calendar

Watching a relative of mine having the Galaxy II, then I really understand how far behind email and calendar is... I just can't believe that she couldn't see that!!!

Merging mailboxes with threaded email... Outlook, Gmail, Live and Facebook calendar all in one with different colors... even better than the pc-version:)

Someone should have assisted her with this... someone who understands the value of it...
[Windows Phone 7 General] Peew971:
All that being said maybe it also means WP7 is not as simple as we all think for an average user.

Don't get me wrong, WP7 is very simple and intuitive but if you need a manual to understand some features then it means it could be made simpler.

Maybe it's because she was coming from Android rather than say a feature phone and had expectations but the point remains. And she's right about Skydrive/Turn by Turn.
[Windows Phone 7 General] domineus:
if she got final mango like everyone else, there is a nice book to help the transition. right in the programs menu. with videos and text to speech for every, single, thing.
[Windows Phone 7 General] phoneguy 4567:
I agree.

If a person is coming from a standard phone to WP7 their impressions will be different, then those coming from another platform. I personally don't find any of the OS's easier or harder to use they're just different, with their own learning

curve. All reviewers bring their own personal bias into reviews IMO. The question is whether you think WP7 is better, not equal to other platforms. If you ask that type of question you have to take the good with the bad.

The map directions tapping is silly, MS should have known better then to even bother to include such a poorly implemented feature. If they don't have the rights to do it properly then don't do it.
[Windows Phone 7 General] drkfngthdragnlrd:
Than, they'd complain there's no default/built-in Turn by Turn Navigation. This is a no win scenario. People have to realize that MS was severely neutered by that anti-trust law suit. Now they are alot less aggressive & very careful so they are not sued again in this manor. Besides, people forget the 3rd Party apps like Garmin/etc & the fact that Nokia's map app is coming. The Mango Turn by Turn Navigation is nothing more than a way to tie people over till that comes.

Now, don't get me wrong, WP7 & Mango are far from perfect, but MS is working on it. They just posted a job listing to bring better PC/WP7 USB syncing of docs/etc.

Finally! Microsoft planning to connect Windows Phone and the desktop

Molly is supposed to be a power user btw, & she got so many things wrong in her review. I have to wonder if she even tried. It took her 2 weeks to set up WP7, it took me 2 hours tops. She must of never looked in the Office/Pictures Hub as she claims there's no Skydrive integration. Her review is nothing more than a joke. Scott Adams did a better review & he's an "average user," go figure.....
[Windows Phone 7 General] Casey_boy:
I think the only thing Molly can do now is to read up and post another review along the lines of "When I learnt how to use it" which should correct most of her errors.

Of course, as has been pointed out, if she genuinely made these errors then there must be a reason...(and I'm not going to say she's stupid).
[Windows Phone 7 General] drkfngthdragnlrd:
Maybe means, it's a generalization/approximation & if I really wanted to, which i don't, because I'm lazy & my room mate has my camera. Plus it's isn't of good quality so you really wouldn't get the see the details of the smoothness. Nothing compares to showing it to someone in person. I just sold my co-worker on WP7 over Android. Granted I will say in Android defense he's got a MetroPCS Android LG device.

@ Flash loading time: Yeah, I can't. Not that I need too. Flash is an old technology & a cheap form of web programming. None of the sites I visit use it. Now yes, this is a problem for some, but in the end. It's up to Adobe to make it & MS to make WP7 compatible to receive it. What i don't get though, is the what is the point of the browser comparisons. There's too many variables; data speeds, ping, connection strength, server load, browser being used, etc.
[Windows Phone 7 General] lqaddict:
Nope it is called excuses and this part of xda is full of it.
[Windows Phone 7 General] drkfngthdragnlrd:
Sorry, it's not an excuse. It's the truth, but you can believe what ever you like. What's the point of making a video on a garbage digital camera where'd you not see the details? It'd be all blurry & pixelated. If I had a decent HD camcorder, than I would. Sadly the best video recorder I have is my HD7, which can't record itself. Maybe, there's a member reading this thread who has a WP7 & a decent camcorder who can/will do it. What I'd love to see is a comparison between a WP7 device, an Android device with stock ROM from a decent OEM with good coding on 1st Gen Snapdragon same as WP7, an Android Dual Core or even 1.5 GHz Single with good OEM drivers/coding, & a iPhone 4 comparison showing only built in parts of the OS comparing speed. Each device controlled by a separate person who knows what they are doing & everything setup. This way we'd have a true comparison on speed from making calls, finding a contact, finding a picture, playing music/videos, editing an office document, etc. Sadly, the odds of this are slim to none. Once again I will say that there are Android devices that "can" keep up with a WP7, but in a whole, most do not. This is the problem. They lack of a stable user experience across all Android devices. The 2 I've played with in the last week are a sad example.
[Windows Phone 7 General] lqaddict:
Not looking for your video recording skills, since we are talking about speed - distance covered in time, so since distance is fixed the time is the only variable, all you need is a device that record and reproduce time accurately, the video quality of no essence.
[Windows Phone 7 General] drkfngthdragnlrd:
I have good skills (aside from a shaky hand due to my fast metabolism), it's the camera in question here. As to video quality, how so? My camera has bad FPS. So, it'd look choppy even though it's not IRL. Sorry, I don't know how else to explain this. Like I said, maybe another member can/will do this with a decent camera. Mine wasn't built for video, it was built for pictures & it does that great.

EDIT: And to be fair, I don't know anyone with a decent Android device. If I'd do this, I'd want to be fair. My ex.'s Android is a bad example of Android. She has a MetroPCS Huawei M835.
[Windows Phone 7 General] doministry:
First it's yet to be seen how well WP7 will perform on REALLY different devices, with different hardware and power. It's hard to compare it now.

Secondly - regarding this idiotic fluidity war on this forum - there are definitely areas where WP7 excels and Android has it's areas where it excels as well.

And regarding how much more functionality and openess Android has, the comparison is still not really fair.

But each time I take some better Android devices to test it, I see the experience is great. Android is also just faster in many areas.

WP7 is definitely almost without freezes and cuts, but is also sometimes just slower.

But it's true that on lower specs Android devices the experience is worse. However I was surprised again how well SE X10 Mini on 600mHz performs.
[Windows Phone 7 General] drkfngthdragnlrd:
I completely agree, honestly. Either you like your Mobile OS choice or not. If not, than try another. Everybody has they opinions & tastes. I personally just don't like Android. That's all there is too it. WP7 isn't perfect either, but all in all I just like it. It does everything I need without issues. You're also right about different hardware, MS limited hardware for a reason.

Lastly, The original G1 on T-Mobile performed pretty well too, but this was the very first Android device & HTC didn't mess with it much.
[Windows Phone 7 General] N8ter:
WP7 launched with tons of performance issues. Was it badly coded? Scrolling lists? Lag in third party apps everywhere which suddenly disappear when you upgrade to Mango. That was a platform issue, obviously. There was a reason updates were failing left and right and they had to issue a non-factor patch to "make the update process go more smoothly." Huge Security Holes with certificates (patched).

Volatile PUSH that required many users to factory reset their phones to get them to work again.

Grats to us, though. We got to participate in probably the most expensive (for consumers) Beta Test the world has EVER seen. WP 7.0...

@ Bold: Galaxy S II - Coming to a Carrier Near you Soon.
[Windows Phone 7 General] N8ter:
You're copping out. Flash is really not much different than Silverlight, and if you Silverlight was in WP7 you'd probably be raving it. Both of them have more similarities than differences. Flash's main use is serving up web media, so it's not a cheap form of web programming. It's a gateway to get to over half the media hosted on the web. If your device does not support it, then Developers have to do twice the work to support you and with things like HTML5 not being standardized yet even if they use HTML5 Audio/Video it's not guaranteed that your phone will support the codec (esp a Windows Phone which is weak IRT codec support)in all cases.

That's why flash is a big deal.

Most people don't care about flash games those are terrible to use on a phone screen since they're designed for large screens and mouse+kb. They care about being able to get to Navigational elements on pages and getting to the media embedded on websites like Engadget, which WP7 is basically incompatible with due to the lack of Flash Support.

Even Flash Lite, like what was supported in Windows Mobile and Symbian (and Android) for years, would have sufficed that purpose, IMO.

I'm continually suprised with how ignorantly people bash Flash. It's not the Mother Teresa of web technologies, but it's certainly not nearly as bad as you people make it out to be.

You can smooth out many of those variables by testing them against the same server, same website, same code, etc. The only thing different is the phone. I the cell radio (or software stack/drivers) in one phone is worse than the other, well then that's not the Web's fault. My Experience with the HD7 leads me to believe that if that's an issue, though, then most Android phones will wipe the floor with it because this phone has one of the worst/weakest cell radios I've ever encountered, ever.

EDIT: And with Android having such high marketshare still rising at a steady rate there is less incentive for people to consider. Also, the only Tablet certified for government use (BB Playbook) also supports Flash. This is something Microsoft should have been working with Adobe on since months if not a year before WP7 release, if they intend to bring it. However, I'm not so sure of that, since they own a competing Silverlight platform.
[Windows Phone 7 General] vetvito:
You know Opera pawns every browser in smoothness don't you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-yeAs-2X6U&feature=youtube_gdata_player

That's with text reflow, flash, on a old Nexus, and without your beloved hardware acceleration. Smooth is choice, functionality is king.

You guys have silly arguments. "Oh my HD7 is smoother. "
[Windows Phone 7 General] z33dev33l:
well, smoother, cleaner, better coded, more capability on the gaming front, better social networking integration, has everything you need out of the box, no fear that I'll get malware downloading a generic angry birds, great for media with the best mp3 player of all time built in, and generally nicer... But we try not to brag.
[Windows Phone 7 General] drkfngthdragnlrd:
Nope, I could care less about Silverlight either. I call Flash a cheap programming method by web programmers, not because of videos/flash games. I'm talking about websites they use flash for everything where basic HTML would work because their too lazy to program a decent website. I hate these flash website. Even the most basic web programmer with minimum HTML/Div class knowledge can make one of these Flash websites.
[Windows Phone 7 General] drkfngthdragnlrd:
Yes, first release was a Beta, but it hasn't been a Beta for a long while. All OS's have security holes, at least MS closed them pretty fast. Performance problems? never saw them. Only 3rd party app the take forever to load is Navigon Select or homebrew apps, but they use hacks/native code which cause the lag. Update? they underestimated how much Samsung would screw up with their Firmware. Some focus users still don't have NoDo. Not a platform issue, an OEM issue. Most expensive Beta program? don't make me laugh. Same could be said for iPhone 1 when it was release & it was missing all those features... Oh & PS, Mango makes WP7 even faster, ;).
[Windows Phone 7 General] Peew971:
Wow what a fanboy post, and that's coming from someone who loves WP7.

More capability on the gaming front, can you elaborate please? Also what do you mean by "generic Angry Birds"? And "best mp3 player of all time", seriously (again from someone who went through two Zunes and a Zune HD)?
[Windows Phone 7 General] vetvito:
Ok I see a petty OS war. We know who wins in this particular part of the forum.

Yeah WP7 is superior. It selling like hot cakes. This woman's personal opinion is so wrong. She must be bashed. She is inferior for not liking a OS that has 98% of the market share.

What a shame.
[Windows Phone 7 General] drkfngthdragnlrd:
The main point against her in her interview, as I said before, is not her opinion. I could care less if she likes it or not. It's the fact that she never took the time to learn the OS & made outright false statements as has been said multiple times. What do people not get about this? There's Skydrive integration, no app is needed. She was wrong about only being able to access it in IE9. How many times must I & other repeat this or the other problems. As for the war, yeah, I'm tired of it too. Also, I tried to redirect it to a proper thread, now this thread had been thoroughly derailed.

"WP7 Smoother than Dual Core Tegra2 Android Device...Proof"
[Windows Phone 7 General] timmymarsh:
LOL, hey guys,

Can we try and keep this thread on topic please (see link in posts above) ;)

For once im not going to clean this thread, i enjoyed the banter, but please remember to keep comments concise and respectful and by all means continue this where it is ON TOPIC.

Thanks.
[Windows Phone 7 General] vetvito:
Ok reality check. We know its a smartphone, we know if its a new OS, we must learn it.

However in the real world, our mindset is the minority.

In the real world, majority of people don't try and learn a phone. They don't. If it doesn't do what they want, they simply take it back. OR they live with it, and never know they have certain features.

You can't get mad at her for not going out of her way, to learn something for a phone. You can't expect people to do a simple search or read a manual. The real world doesn't work that way. Sorry.
[Windows Phone 7 General] drkfngthdragnlrd:
That's the problem, she's no average user. She made a review on a tech website & supposedly is a techy/power user like us. So, "she" should have taken the time. I agree that maybe the average user would be too "lazy" to take this time, but she shouldn't be. It's her responsibility to her readers. This wasn't posted on her private blog, so it requires a level of professionalism she didn't give.
[Windows Phone 7 General] RoboDad:
Well, to be honest, her article wasn't a review, and it was never promoted as one. It was more of a "courtesy test-drive" at Brandon Watson's request. And, although it has been a while since I read the article or watched the videos (and I really have no desire to go back and do so again), it was evident to me from the very beginning that she was consciously approaching the test-drive not as a tech/power user, but as an "Average Jane".

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Like it or not, her experience is going to be a common one among Android-WP7 transplants. People can bury their heads in the sand about that fact, but it isn't going to go away.

What we (and hopefully Microsoft) can learn from this is that people will likely need some help making the transition to WP7, especially from Android. If you had a friend who switched from Android to WP7, and a few days later came to you, complaining that they were frustrated and couldn't find the features they needed on the phone, would you call them an idiot, or would you help them overcome the issues they were having?
[Windows Phone 7 General] Peew971:
Well said sir.
[Windows Phone 7 General] drkfngthdragnlrd:
Ok, even than, how can even a average user miss the Skydrive integration. All you need to do is open the Office or Photos Hubs & see your Skydrive folder show up as a Tile? It even says Skydrive right on it. This is still ignoring the fact it was posted on CNET, a techy website. It doesn't matter how she did the interview, it matters where it is posted. If that's the case, she should of posted it on her personal Blog, not CNET.
[Windows Phone 7 General] doministry:
Well mate, this is wrong. A proper Skydrive integration means easy access to all Skydrive files at once, not only from some apps/places. Just like you manage DropBox. Now you can't just manage all of your SkyDrive content from one app.

(At least officially since somebody here reported unofficial SkyDrive app).
[Windows Phone 7 General] drkfngthdragnlrd:
Well, that'd be a matter of opinion as WP7 is about HUB's to merge all functions of a specific data type into one place, examples; all photo access in the Pictures Hub, all office documents in Office Hub, all multimedia access in Zune Hub, etc. For MS to just make a separate app to handle all of Skydrive's functionality would go against the HUB's idea & be redundant. For those who rather have it that way, there's the unofficial app. My only suggestions for Skydrive is to allow Music Streaming & a decent app to handle Skydrive on the PC/Mac. Should probably be built into Zune for that matter, but Zune would need Office document support of some kind.

EDIT: Still doesn't change the fact she said the "only way to access Skydrive is through IE." This is not true, no matter what you opinion of the implementation is, there is access to Skydrive outside of IE.
[Windows Phone 7 General] sayonical:
And even more so, If Molly even tried to understand the OS you can pin SkyDrive directly to the homescreen from the Office Hub. That way it acts like a stand alone app and lauches directly to your documents folder. More so, Store all your files in the docs folder rather than root if you want to access them on the phone. Works exactly like a standalone app.