yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Windows Phone 7 General] drupad2drupad:
Hi all!

I've been using Mango 7740 on my Titan for about a month. I totally love it. I have falled head over heels for WP! I switched from Android. This felt so much more professional and in many ways a complete approach to fresh smartphone UI. I know the UI is unmatched by anything in the market and so is social network integration. I was showing off my phone to few friends who loved it while they played with it. Obviously lack of few big apps was noticed very soon and they do understand the fact that it's a new OS and apps take time to come to new OS. But one of the friends asked me: "So what's unique about this OS apart from the new and sexy UI?"

To be honest I did want to tell him the list of things, but then in my head most other OSes can do things I know of. Can someone help me to figure out the uniqueness of this OS? I know this sounds very silly knowing I have a Titan in my hand to explore and know.

I've looked through two major comparison threads for WP vs iPhone vs Android and I think without rooting/jailbreaking all of these OSes have similar or same functionality limitations and app dependencies. Some platforms fulfil that via apps whereas WP will eventually fulfil it via apps.

Please try to not add the spice of trolling and fanboy teaming up here, I just want to get involvement from Windows Phone users in terms of what they found to be unique in this OS compared to their previous phone(s).
[Windows Phone 7 General] ScottSUmmers:
I don't think you'll find anything unique, as in something that sets things apart, until the next iteration. Frankly, with the exception of Apple in very specific respects, I don't think you'll see things that are unique to mobile platforms just because of the nature of competition among Google, Apple, and Microsoft.

Things have evolved to a point now where it's not so much about features, but more of the overall ecosystem and how in tune that is to your lifestyle.
[Windows Phone 7 General] Localhorst86:
the only really unique thing it has is the fact that you have to use the worst software in history of PC software to put music and movies on it... Zune is horrible :(

EDIT: I just realized that iPhone users are forced to itunes, so I take my statement back. Second worst software in the history of PC sotware ;)
[Windows Phone 7 General] vetvito:
Zune is actually cool. They should kill all the other media players on the PC, and make just one.

Unique: battery life. That's it.
[Windows Phone 7 General] Freypal:
For me, it's the integration of social networking, the intuitive metro UI and the stability.

The OS simply works. It's quick, clean and easy.

It does everything I want it to do so I have no need to look elsewhere.
[Windows Phone 7 General] vetvito:
^ uniqueness minus UI.
[Windows Phone 7 General] FiyaFleye:
All smart phones generally do the same thing, it isn't really about what they do for me, it's about HOW they do it. Windows Phone centralizes all information, in the most fluid, involving way I have ever experienced. You feel like you're in the phone, and as though everything is catered to you and the information you want. It lacks in a few areas, all phones do, but when you understand the gap covered in one year, you'll see this OS evolve quickly, and amazingly.

Android does voice search, yeah, but WinPhone and iPhone do it differently, better. The UI as an argument for WinPhone IS the main argument, because the UI is more than how the tiles are curved, or the widgets align, its how the information is displayed, carried through, and experienced.

That's just me. All phones play music, all phones have a camera, all phones have sms, email, a phone, apps, a market, but none of them deliver it in the same consistent way that Microsoft has here.
[Windows Phone 7 General] Freypal:
Hehe this basically sums it up for me. However you said it far more eloquently than I did :)
[Windows Phone 7 General] Knochen1981:
After getting my lumia, i can say its the fastest os out there.

The biggest unique features imo are the live tiles and the way information is presented.

The hubs are also unique and amazingly well thought out.

But underneath the ui all os perform the same task just in a slightly different way.

Btw all people i showed the os on the lumia loved the blazing speed of it and the feel. So ms is doin something right :)

Sent from my Lumia 800 using Board Express
[Windows Phone 7 General] Strike_Eagle:
now i can just sit on my bed and command my TV to play my favorite movies off my Desktop HDD with HTC Connected Media , or control my XBOX 360 without touching the controller and all that's kinds of stuffs. Almost all electronic in my house are the part of the ecosystem.

All TV has one HDMI hook up to one desktop (not all ATI Radeon or something like that :D, just Intel GMA HD) . All benifit from Windows 7 - Zune Cilent - XBOX 360 - Windows Phone 7.

Not everyone realize that is what Microsoft are trying to head us: " Make our life easier with Ecosystem"
[Windows Phone 7 General] nicksti:
How is the battery life unique?

But what makes Android unique vs iOS? As crazy as this sounds, there will come a point in time when they all are so similar in capabilities that we will be bickering about minute differences (oh I get 30fps playing crysis 5 mobile edition and you get 28!). The answer right now is the how and not the what. the user experience is quite different in Android vs iOS vs Windows Phone. UI, stability, battery life, features, apps, everything. But that will change.

I think that is the reason for all the litigation. Which is sad, because the car companies seem to differentiate themselves quite fine without having to litigate like crazy.
[Windows Phone 7 General] florirs:
Great info about windows phone...thanks for sharing
[Windows Phone 7 General] drupad2drupad:
Guys, thank you so much for all the input.. There are few points I din't realise that put this OS as much unique concept. I am a little more educated now. If anyone else has more uniqueness about this OS please do share with me and the others as it does seem to bring out different point of views from real Windows Phone users.
[Windows Phone 7 General] drupad2drupad:
This might be more UI related anyway, but some points do make the OS look much unique against iOS.
[Windows Phone 7 General] clfosk:
Xbox achievements.
[Windows Phone 7 General] deesle:
I think the overall usage flow of Wp7 is the best. Also the obvious superior design of the UI I would say is a huge differentiator. Zune is great for one reason "send to phone" any file, no more maintaining playlists.
[Windows Phone 7 General] Madmanden:
"250 texts sent!" ;-)
[Windows Phone 7 General] drupad2drupad:
haha what does that mean?

Can you actually send your achievements via texts? I din't know that!

I should get bragging about my achievements using all the unlimited texts in that case ;)
[Windows Phone 7 General] suua:
Integration, the Metro UI and the stability !
[Windows Phone 7 General] beatseek@live.com:
Calendar + email: Outlook -> Windows Live -> Windows Phone (and vise versa)

Here's my take:

Since I have many appointments during the week, I need an easy way to manage them. The best software, IMHO, for doing this, is Outlook.

The best integration of Outlook with an online calendar is with the Windows Live calendar.

The best integration of Window live calendar with a smart phone is with the Windows phone.

So while talking on the phone at work, I add an appointment to my calendar from Outlook. On the road, I get a reminder from my Windows phone. When I go to the other guys office, I set up a new appointment using my phone. When I get home, I see it in Outlook and make a few changes.

It all just works.

(The same can be said about email, but for me, the calendar integration is a killer feature, and I did look at other calender options. However, I would like to see improvements to the calendar software on the phone, such as a built in week view).
[Windows Phone 7 General] drupad2drupad:
Dont other OSes do the same sort of thing with calendars?
[Windows Phone 7 General] shawchyn:
The unique features I love about it is : the tidy integration of MSN, FB massaging, SMS into a single interface. Shift to other medium with just a click!

The Facebook, twitter, LinkIN integration into the "what's new" section, make me totally forget about the FB apps!

Photo taken via camera immediate upload to skydrive and share to Facebook, tag friends and put comments.

I do understand that others platform can do the same thing (in fact all the smart phone should be able to do) but, only WP is doing it natively, out of the box!

Of course, some of the big name software are either not yet available or build their initially release badly, ie WhatsApp pretty badly done, and Skype and Vipper are not available yet.

To a new Brand new OS just turn 1yrs old, WP is full of potential !
[Windows Phone 7 General] drupad2drupad:
To upload pictures straight to skydrive from camera do I need to select anything in settings? Or is it just pre-set?
[Windows Phone 7 General] dkp1977:
Settings -> swipe to the right to "applications" -> pictures and camera -> scroll all the way down -> Automatic upload to skydrive
[Windows Phone 7 General] drupad2drupad:
Brilliant! Now I am much at ease knowing that my music selection is all backed up with zune, all my pics from camera will go straight away to skydrive and all my documents will be synced to skydrive too! Happy days... nothing to lose on WP7!

However, anyone knows what 'quick share account' feature does in these settings?

I have drop down of - facebook, twitter and skydrive. And default chosen is FB. Anyone played with it? I changed to skydrive but when I try to share my pic, I still get the same list of choices i.e. messaging, emails, social networks etc.
[Windows Phone 7 General] RoboDad:
The "quick share account" feature changes the appearance of the "..." menu that pops up for a photo. Just below the "share..." item, you will also have a "share on [Service Name]" item that reflects the choice you make in settings.
[Windows Phone 7 General] beatseek@live.com:
Other OSes don't have the same kind of integration with Windows Live Calendar.,

And other Calendars (such as Google Calendar) don't have easy integration with outlook.
[Windows Phone 7 General] RoboDad:
According to what I've read, iOS 5 has very good Windows Live calendar integration. I don't own one so I can't verify the claim, but maybe someone who does could confirm or refute it.
[Windows Phone 7 General] beatseek@live.com:
I just did a google search ("Live Calendar iphone" - I tried other variations too) to see if I can find more info about this. According to forum rules, I can't post links yet, but the first result returned a question by a student.

The question is: How he can have appointments entered from the iPhone appear in the live calendar (because currently they don't).

I did not see any answer yet, although he did post the question today. But as it seems in the meantime, even iOS5 doesn't give proper Windows Live calendar integration.

I would also be happy to hear additional information about this issue.
[Windows Phone 7 General] RoboDad:
Here's a link to the windowsteamblog that states that calendar syncing is supported on iOS 5.
[Windows Phone 7 General] Radek Hulán:
Zune is smooth, fast and sleek. Yes, it's an additional software you must use, but it actually works well, unlike superslow iTunes.

Anyway, for me biggest WP7.5 selling points are:

- best UI

- everything is super fast

- best ever contact management (Outlook card, Live/Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIN integration, Exchange search, etc.)

- OS never crashes (unlike buggy Android)

- more built-in features than any other platform (full Office suite, Facebook client, Twitter client, Facebook and WLM chat, SkyDrive, Hotmail / Exchange, Sharepoint integration, etc.)

- Nokia Lumia 800 -> love its shell and display - http://myego.cz/img/nokia800/telefon/nokia-800-2.jpg

- design guidelines for apps, so they are not such a horrible mess as Android ones - e.g. http://myid.cz/u4U7mu

- compatible with many free Microsoft services (like 25GB Skydrive or domains.live.com

- Xbox Live
[Windows Phone 7 General] Dragon Queen:
I love the back button, iphone coworkers dont and I can see the frustration when they went to far and need to go back one step and have to restart all over. Voice features, mine its set to read out for new texts, and I don't have to go to my phone at work just stick my head in the door and talk, reaction from coworkers is priceless. I can turn roaming off, I can turn data ports off completely. I rarely have to think where to go to find something, and I am 3 weeks into my Titan. I still grin sometimes when I pick it up. I don't have to remember what screen I had an app or function on, if it is something I use on the home screen, if not in the menu. I loved my Fuze, but it would drive me batty now to go back to it, even though I had a lot of changes to make it easy to use for me.

Love my Titan!
[Windows Phone 7 General] shawchyn:
oh, i more thing to add to the list.

The Panorama/Pivot Design of the apps is damn GREAT!

User can scroll from page 1 to page 10 (last page) and back to page 1 again. Not like others, If you are now at page 8 (not the last page, last page will be 10), and you want to go back to page 1, for other OS you have to scroll all the way back....... but in WP, you can either scroll left or right to get there!

Amazing? That's truly call People Centric ! :D
[Windows Phone 7 General] SimzzDev:
Windows Phone is unique in a lot of ways. First of all, the interface is a mix between iPhone and Android. The 'home screen' is simple, yet effective. It's gives you useful information without draining the battery or over complicating things. The tiles look good and work well. The continuously updating people hub and Xbox Live hub tiles always impress my friends when they see my phone. The lack of big apps really isn't that bad. It's not missing too many games, and there are many big Xbox Live titles that take care of that problem. There are at least 5 good music streaming apps and Netflix, Evernote, Facebook, Twitter, Amazon and others all have their apps out there. There are also around 46,000 apps available right now and there are a lot of unofficial but great apps made by young or new developers. I myself am a developer and have almost 50 apps available. That is because the development environment is easy and Microsoft has many programs to promote app development.
[Windows Phone 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] EchoesOfOli:
By my understanding you can get Artist pictures only when you are in the country that supports Zune Pass.

But i live in Czceh Republic and we are not that lucky. I know i can make US Live account - but i have my xbox acc, mail and everything on my czech live acc and i want to use that.And i hate that my Zune player si so black when it cant be such a beautiful player with lot pictures.

Is there any possibility to get pictures for artist in unsupported countries ? Even manual way ?
[Windows Phone 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Localhorst86:
thanks to ne0cr0n, there is now. Check out his app (you have to be interop unlocked, though):

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1377210
[Windows Phone 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] EchoesOfOli:
Amazing, thanks :)

And what about Last.Fm scrobbling- that is the only thing im missing on Windows Phone now :)
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-I777] Firepac:
I have like 6 duplicate events on my calendar that I can't delete. These are events that were sync'ed from google calendar and i can't seem to delete them off of google either. I tried removing my google account from my phone but that didn't work. This is driving me craaaaaaazzzy! PLEASE HELP!!!!!
[Kindle Fire Android Development] eldarerathis:
I've put together a rooted version of the stock 6.2.1 update if anyone wants to have at it. I flashed this on my own Fire with TWRP and it boots and runs fine, but I haven't done any other testing. Shouldn't need to wipe /data if you're coming from a 6.2 system, not sure about other ROMs like CM. Of course, I highly recommend you make a backup before flashing (good habit, and all that). To install just put it onto your Fire's /sdcard partition, boot into TWRP and install the zip. Note that TWRP will complain that it can't find the /misc or /sd-ext partitions. This is normal, those partitions don't exist on the Fire, but it won't affect the installation.

I downloaded the stock zip from the link in this post: http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=20509203&postcount=91 and then I changed the following from the stock zip file:

Removed the bootloader and recovery.img updates

Removed the backup_data.zip because it doesn't make sense, really (it looks like it just extracts to /backup/, but if you flash it it will wipe your /data partition?)

Added busybox, Superuser and the su binary. Should be properly symlinked and permissions set correctly.

Modified the updater-script for the above things.

Additionally, if you have the Market installed you may need to re-install it after updating since Amazon didn't do this as a patch - it just formats /system and replaces it. If you updated the Market manually then the newer version should survive in /data/app. Also, if you installed any custom frameworks or libraries (e.g. the maps framework to use Google Currents and whatnot) then you'll need to reinstall those. Basically, anything you added or modified on /system will be gone.

Edit: Thanks sadlius for pointing me to dsixda's kitchen! I've added a version with an unsecure boot image (so you get root by default on a shell). I'll leave the old one in case anyone would prefer the secure boot image. I've also uploaded the boot image itself for anyone who might have already flashed the secure 6.2.1 zip. I tried it with fastboot and it booted up fine, so you can test it first with:

fastboot boot 6_2_1rootboot.img

If it works, you can flash it (permanently overwrites your current boot partition) with:

fastboot flash boot 6_2_1rootboot.img

Downloads

MOD EDIT: Links no longer valid so removed.

Multiupload, courtesy sadlius:

update-6.2.1-rooted-secureboot.zip

Stock rooted update 6.2.1, secure boot image

update-6.2.1-rooted-unsecureboot.zip

Stock rooted update 6.2.1, unsecure boot image

Multiupload, courtesy intel352 (md5's should be the same):

update-6.2.1-rooted-secureboot.zip

Multiupload:

6_2_1rootboot.img Unsecure 6.2.1 boot image

Original Downloads:

Removed these so Dropbox won't yell at me anymore :)
​
[Kindle Fire Android Development] sadalius:
First attempt at installing I get:

E:Cannot load volume /misc!

E:Cannot load volume /misc!

E:Unable to stat '/sd-ext/.'

E:Cannot load volume /misc!

E:Unable to open zip file.

But I think I know what the problem is. Will attempt again in a few minutes. Or as soon as TWRP relinquished control of my KF back to me.
[Kindle Fire Android Development] MayfairDROID:
You sir are a good Man.... :)
[Kindle Fire Android Development] eldarerathis:
I got the "Cannot load volume /misc!" error, too, but it seems to be okay anyway. The KF simply doesn't have a /misc partition.

Curious that it can't open the zip, though, but I'll wait until after your second attempt to try troubleshooting.
[Kindle Fire Android Development] krelvinaz:
I have seen the same errors when I installed TWRP. It didn't seem to make a difference to it loading.

All but the last line.

I think that is the real error.
[Kindle Fire Android Development] sadalius:
I got it figured out. Somehow, the file was corrupted when I transferred it to the KF. Deleted it and re-transferred, it took it that time. Will report any positives or negatives once I get back to the actual OS and play around with it.

Thanks a bunch!!

---------- Post added at 02:28 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:20 PM ----------

Yes. Everything I've tried so far works great!!

I do have one question though. I used to cook my own roms from OEM releases back when I had an HTC hero. May I ask what you used to root this with?
[Kindle Fire Android Development] a1exus:
isn't 6.2 is latest ? where did 6.2.1 came from?
[Kindle Fire Android Development] tes5884:
HI,

is there someway for me to flash this using fastboot? Because im stuck in fastboot and can't get out of it!
[Kindle Fire Android Development] eldarerathis:
I do it manually. The update had a .bin extension but it was really a .zip, so I renamed it, extracted it, and made the modifications I wanted (like adding su/Superuser). Then I just re-zipped it.

Don't know if it's the most "efficient" way to do it, but it's straightforward enough and it's how I've always done it...
[Kindle Fire Android Development] sadalius:
Wonder if dsixda's android kitchen would work on it. If it would, it would automatically make the boot.img unsecured through the root process. Not sure if it will handle it though.
[Kindle Fire Android Development] eldarerathis:
Edit: Pointed out in another post - the system image might be too big to flash via fastboot (like I said, I've never actually tried to use these). If you can get into fastboot you can try flashing a recovery, though, and then use that to try dd'ing the system image over or something.

Edit 2: Took down links since I exceeded my Dropbox bandwidth.
[Kindle Fire Android Development] dueltothedeath:
Can anyone verify this works? I mean the 6.2.1 pre rooted update zip
[Kindle Fire Android Development] sadalius:
Yes, I can. Works pretty well too. You'll get some error messages, but those shouldn't be an issue. When I installed it those error messages kind scared me, but once someone explained them, I felt a little better.
[Kindle Fire Android Development] fbm111:
Anychance you could explain them to me? Working for me as well just curious what they mean.
[Kindle Fire Android Development] eldarerathis:
Maybe I'll look into that tonight or tomorrow when I've got some time. I actually didn't know that the kitchen created an unsecured boot image for you. Thanks!
[Kindle Fire Android Development] sadalius:
When I first tried to install I got these error messages:

E:Cannot load volume /misc!

E:Cannot load volume /misc!

E:Unable to stat '/sd-ext/.'

E:Cannot load volume /misc!

E:Unable to open zip file.

since the kindle fire does not have a /misc volume or /sd-ext/ partition, it would give those errors. Those are nothing to worry about. The last error, Unable to open zip file was a real error, but it was cause when I transferred the file to flash to the KF, it got corrupted somehow. I just deleted it from the kindle using file expert and re-transferred it then tried flashing again. All was well at that point. I still got the cannot load volume /misc! and unable to stat '/sd-ext' but like I said, those do not exist on the kindle, thus the messages. But it still installs correctly.

---------- Post added at 05:05 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:49 PM ----------

I took a quick look at it with your rom. It recognizes everything you've done to the ROM thus far. Have a look:

Android OS version : 2.3.4

Device : blaze

Model : Full Android on Blaze or SDP

ROM Name : L27.12.1-P1_QUANTA_20110422_quantaonly-1027-gefdcdf8

Rooted (Superuser.apk + su) : YES

Rooted (unsecured boot.img) : NO

BusyBox installed : YES

BusyBox run-parts support : NO

Apps2SD (Apps to EXT) enabled : NO

/data/app enabled : NO

Custom boot animation allowed : NO

Nano text editor installed : NO

Bash shell support : NO

/system/framework is deodexed : YES

/system/app is deodexed : YES

radio.img found : NO

ROM will wipe all data : NO

I don't have time to try it out with the stock rom, if I get time tomorrow I'll give it a go to see if it will work with it or not to make the boot.img unsecured. This maybe just what the doctor ordered to keep a stock rooted rom.
[Kindle Fire Android Development] neilrl79:
I flashed it and I don't really notice much of a difference, although my android market still works even tho this update obviously removed it as a system app but the update in /data/app still works.