RUMOURS: Turn by Turn Voice Navigation for Windows Phone 7.5/Mango and more!
The Windows Phone blogs (ah yes there are some) are bubbling with the news of MORE Windows Phone 7.5/Mango features coming other than what was already made official.
As Mango ripens, more capabilities might be added.
These were revealled in an hour-long podcast from WPDevpodcast, featuring Director of Developer Experience, Microsoft’s Brandon Watson.
http://wpdevpodcast.com/2011/05/08/episode-015-winning-with-watson/
Let’s take a look.
1) Turn by Turn Voice Navigation
This one’s a big one if it works – Voice guided turn by turn navigation, including the ability of the map to rotate with direction you’re moving in (not sure if this is via compass or just via triangulation, e.g. N900).
Maps navigation on WP7 is AWFUL. Let’s set aside the crap that is my Samsung’s GPS and let’s just look at what is currently a glorified POI finder. Want to travel anywhere? *nu uh* you’ll have to read a set of directions like this was a paper map.
This would be a WELCOME addition, but just thinking about what Nokia and Ovi Maps offers (you can’t underestimate pre-loaded maps), man Microsoft you have a lot of work to do.
2) Bing Audio and Bing Vision
Bing vision: With the camera, you can detect barcodes, QR codes, CDs/DVDs/ Books, Microsoft Tags and text via OCR
Bing Audio: Like Shazam, it’s a music identifier. I’m thinking, I have shazam, what do I need this for? Perhaps those times when you just hear a piece of music whilst you’re strolling along, you haven’t got time to scroll and open shazam. I’m not sure how well this would work, I think I’d rather just put shazam a little bit higher on my homepage.
3) Speech to text
Using the “speak” button, you can now dictate your message. I’ve got something like this with Vlingo for Symbian but it’s nice to have it all integrated into the core experience
4) Podcasts
I think I remember podcasts being mentioned somewhere before.
Anyways, it seems like in future you will be able to subscribe to podcasts.
These aren’t officially confirmed features. But if they were, does it make a difference to you?
I welcome them, but I’m still after a few more features. WiFi tethering? Will that ever happen? (Isn’t free wifi tethering banned on Android by google and carriers? Recently Vlado tipped a story about JoikuSpot being blocked by FCC in US – haven’t got around to publishing that yet) Drag and drop file transfer? Flash? Skype (that’s coming).
wpdevpodcast via wpcentral /wmpoweruser
Cheers Alan for the tip.
Lol listening to the podcast about users waiting for a January update, that became February, March, ha, sounds familiar? Well NoDo’s out for some users. I haven’t got it. T-Mobile!! :@ I guess Mango is my Anna.
Category: Nokia, Windows Phone
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Flash is about as likely on WP7 as it is on iOS. Neither is likely in the slightest.
Yeah I know, but I still want it :p. If we can get skyfire perhaps to do some flash vid work arounds?
Or at least make embed videos play in embed locations, not opening up m.youtube.com to play NON full screen in their player.
They’ve likely already fixed (embedded issues) that in IE9. Not much concerned about it to be honest. For some strange reason they seem to listen to their customers
What is Wifi tethering ?
Sorry For this nooby Question
Basically using your phone’s data connection and sharing it over WiFi. Useful if you have laptop/netbook without 3G card and there’s no other WiFi. My friend has a N8 and he uses it to bring data to his…er…iPad.
i tether as well from my N8 and it’s very solid,plus i’m using ubuntu…>.>i’m still waiting for nokia support on linux other then Qt,i want Ovi Suite just to manage my phone
I feel like we’re being reintroduced to features we already have… that’s not very exciting, and should not be praised either.
This is still below the minimum feature set they need to implement before being “competitive” with other mobile OS in the market. And it should have already been released.
Pertneering with Nokia does not mean Microsoft can delay their products too. Two wrongs do not make a right.
*shrug* iOS still doesn’t have native navigation, cloud streaming and/or syncing, isn’t cloud based, doesn’t have a lot of the features everyone here seems to be clamouring for but yet still sells 18.6 million devices in Q1 at an ASP of $400. Compare that to Nokia with an ASP ~160 and 24.2 million. It’s fair to say that “features” don’t determine success either at a market level or a financial one. As a PLC, that’s ALL that matters to Nokia.
In the old smartphone world (pre2005), innovative features, build quality and potential sells a smartphone!
In today’s smartphone world, fluid eyecandy, simplicity, and novelty apps (e.g fart apps) sells a smartphone!
If you think that’s “silly” then obviously being in business is NOT for you lol
You do realize that along with those useless crappy apps there are TONS of useful apps that Symbian will NEVER see b/c developers find no interest in porting them over. Also, today’s smartphone market very much focuses on ease of use. I don’t understand why simplicity is looked at as a bad thing by Symbian fans. If a person wants to do something, they should just be able to pull out their phone and BLAM….in a few seconds it’s done and they can get on w/ their lives. Apps can and do make this happen. With symbian, you always have to go through some hoops or a work around since there are few apps.
A smartphone is only as smart as how well or how easy it is to perform certain tasks. The whole point of a smartphone is to make life easier.
Well I like to copy files directly from my PC to my phone. With Symbian I can just drag and drop in the file browser. Can I do it that simply with iOS or WP7? Seems to me that those two OSes are only simple to a point. After that it’s no can do.
I can do that with mine, but only because I unlocked it
.
I miss USB drive mounting so much
But it’s made by Apple, one of the most valued brands in the world. People who buy their products like to think they’re getting something exclusive.
Hardly anyone considers Microsoft anything else than a software company. And Nokia is increasingly considered a brand for people who use prepaid phones.
But neither Nokia nor Microsoft is Apple!
Just cause they where able to sell a smartphone that lacks such important features, it doesn’t mean that others could do that too.
MS brings nothing new / innovative to the market that could give them a similar success.
Sorry, but you can’t compare iOS to Windows Phone 7. iOS has so many more things and apps, not only for these purposes but also for many more, that lacking built-in integration is far from being a deal breaker. Windows Phone 7 basically doesn’t have anything, so if it misses out on any feature, it will be a deal breaker for many. And it could be sold as feature phone for people who don’t use smartphone’s features.
Apple is getting away with using their own proprietary port for everything because it has gotten “so widespread” in the view of the people who used to care about that, that they don’t care anymore. This is usually not even considered in reviews as a negative point. It is relegated. Imagine if Microsoft created a new, proprietary cable for connecting their devices. Nobody would support them, people would complain, it would be shown as disadvantage on reviews, it could be a deal breaker for many, and it would definitely make the devices useless in many usage scenarios. You’d have problems finding accessories that would work with it.
Besides, Apple doesn’t have in their disposition some Navteq assets worth 8.1 billion dollars. And there are third-party apps with navigation.
Microsoft does “have” these Navteq assets (partnering with Nokia), so it is a vital, must-have feature that needs to be integrated!
iOS has cloud streaming apps and syncing apps (the latter require jailbreak). Windows Phone 7 doesn’t have apps.
If they are able to keep going with that pace and meet the release dates, WP7 will be very competitive for the average user in Q4 2011.
Power Users won’t ever be happy with WP7, they’ll have to wait for Maemo/MeeGo in my opinion.
mobile technology is going backward because of american trend
nokia is forced to remake CDMA phone after how many years ……like WTF cause of elop
A great speedy OS is about to get A LOT better. Can’t wait!
I still don´t see the features I hope to be implemented in a Nokia Windows Phone: SD Card (swapable would be nice), HDMI, USB OtG, MASS STORAGE MODE (I really want that!), Bluetooth data transfer and Wifi tethering, custimizable wallpapers and ringtones (which I don´t have to buy at marketplace), a file system to get everything in order.
LOL at WinPho slowly getting poor copies of features Symbian has had really well for years.
Microsoft is raping Nokia of all it’s great technology, getting Maps and all the rest, Nokia crown jewels (apart from Symbian which is the main crown jewel).
What do Nokia and it’s users get? A totally crap, bloated, weak, useless mobile OS that’s bottom of the charts and least popular, with truly crap sales figures, is a closed OS and so on.
Great deal Nokia….
Rather well implemented and usable copies than being the first and stop innovating the usability.
Every feature another OS ‘copied’ from Symbian was better implemented.
WP being bloated and weak? Could be, but it runs very smooth on every device I’ve seen. Yet the awesome and most advanced OS ever is lagging it’s butt of when doing everyday tasks.
“A totally crap, bloated, weak, useless mobile OS that’s bottom of the charts and least popular, with truly crap sales figures, is a closed OS and so on.”
Just to be clear, it’s Symbian you’re talking about right?
Just to be clear, this is my usual attempt.
No, wifi tethering isn’t banned by google. It’s present in the native functionality of android since froyo. In the U.S., at least, carriers have it disabled on branded phones so they can make you pay out the ass for it. But, obviously, the U.S. and it’s carriers aren’t the world in it’s entirety. And you can still get unbranded phones in the U.S.
And, also, while it’s nice that they are adding functionality to WP, after having used windows phone 7 and really trying to like it, it’s just maddeningly difficult to appreciate. For instance, samsung’s android handsets – the galaxy s at least – can play flac and avi files while the samsung focus can do no such thing. Their android handsets can act as harddrives when you connect them to the computer. Of course this is not present on the focus. Their android phones let you use pictures or live wallpaper as your background on the homescreen (simple I know, but I like my photos) while the focus is at a loss. Their android handsets have scrollable widgets while the focus just has an endlessly scrolling homescreen that’s incredibly annoying.
Of course, I could go on and on and on. But there’s no point. Android is constantly improving and windows phone has no possibility of catching up anytime soon at this pace. I mean, jesus, android even has cached maps so your nagivation won’t cut off when the signal dies. And really one of the best features of WP, the camera key, is replicated on sony’s newest android handsets. So, there’s a WP benefit equalized. What’s the point of going with windows phone again?
Rant over
Exactly! There is no point. Nokia made a horrible decision to go with WP7. But that’s what you get with a Microsoft guy at the helm.
Exciting times ahead!!!!
stell wait frist phone with WP7.5
remember maybe after 2 weeks we will see frist phone from nokia with Meego OS
im realy like meego
Hi, how can you like Meego when its not even out yet on any device?
These are some pretty weak rumors considering what we already know. 1) Nokia explicitly stated that it’s granting Microsoft technology pertaining to maps and navigation and 2) Nokia users have come to expect maps and navigation on even the cheapest smartphones available.
If Nokia hopes to sell any WP7 devices at all, especially high end ones, then those devices must meet some very basic requirements that Nokia consumers have come to expect. Microsoft has a long way to go yet to match Nokia’s smartphones in terms of capabilities.
These “rumored” features aren’t big deals. They’re basic, minimum requirements.
One of the main advantages of Nokia phones, exclusive to them, is now part of all Windows phones, nokia would not be able to survive giving away it’s advantages.