Chris Rue:

And I am in TOTAL agreement about the call for a Voice Command API. Unfortunately, given the relative dearth of WM devices that actually include VC (which I consider to be the BEST deal-closing/differentiating feature for WM) in their ROM builds, because most mobile operators/OEMs choose to include something other than Voice Command, API support is highly unlikely. And that's coming to me straight from the horse's mouth vis-a-vis Voice Command.

Why should the inclusion of Voice Command on a device's ROM have anything to do with the implementation of an API?  Anyone can purchase and install it, or include it through Mobile Device Manager (maybe?) and it does not conflict with ROM-included voice dialing programs such as "Voice Speed Dial".  I think the Motorola Q9 is the only one that includes Voice Signal which doesn't work with the Calender or Media Player, but I didn't try installing MS VC on that.  The .NET compact framework and SQL Server CE isn't always included on ROMs either.  If Voice Command is not installed, then any third party features that would use its API just would not work and you would have to install Voice Command in order to use those features.

Oh well, if they're not going to open it up to 3rd party developers, then they should open it up to themselves and make an integrated navigation system that uses it.  That seems to be the only killer feature missing from Voice Command's current integration.

Technically, there prolly isn't much limitation. But I'd assume it comes down to a numbers = resources issue. Creating and subsequently supporting an API costs someone (as in MS) money, somewhere. Without the uptake numbers for a feature in place, it's unlikely that funding for such support gets allocated.

Dear Santa, I am  ENUFF a good boy and my next Christmas wish list is (WM PRO and ST):

Better integration with any PC, I would like to have my phone memory content shown when I connect it to the USB cable, WITHOUT waiting the WMDC or ACTIVESYNC delays (and problems) and connecting to ANY PC , like any USB  memory, or Sony Ericcson DOES! I want to use it as mass storage too.This isn't a third party business

WM6 Windows Update WORKING, i want AKU, patches, security update out from the vendors "grace", to have a "commond system to develop for"

Faster display! Is the real bottleneck in the VGA capability!

Better office mobile, even if this means a commercial MS office mobile release. Only MS could support a reliable mobile office release

I DON'T care to have Cube, Weels, Blade, Destop, Vista interfaces. WM 6.1 Pro and St (CHOME.dll) IMHO have a lot from third party vendors,

I DON'T care about media players, Coreplayr is great if you need it, I DON'T care aboutpocket  IE, I use OPERA

 

 

 

Location! Location! Location! Developers! Developers! Developer!

Let me expand: location based services are going to be a very big part of the near future. As a developer of software I attach great importance to user experience. As a developer for mobile phones I consider user experience to be paramount. Microsoft is one of the best placed to persuade hardware manufacturers to put things like very sensitive GPS devices with very short hot start times, tilt sensors (2D and 3D accelerometers) and GPUs into their devices in as widespread a manner as possible. The more standard the hardware platform the richer the experience for everyone.

Additional requests: make the Remote API more reliable please! Make .Net Compact Framework on as equal a footing with the C++ api as possible. I use C++, but C#/.Net has its place. I want to be able to move from one to other knowing that I have equal access to the platform whichever I choose.

I think that's enough for today :) 

I think one of the best things MS can do is to separate the core from the UI. There are THOUSANDS of developers out there that would love to be able to scrap the whole WM6 UI and do something unique. Now, this is where I break the mould. As I see it, the UI can be customised by anyone and everyone who has been tinkering for these devices for a while. Microsoft can best spend their efforts making WM6 (or WM7 by then?) as a rock solid, platform independent base. Now I'm quite at home tinkering with XIP, boot.hv, rehashing rgu's, building NBs, creating NBH files, and putting it all together - yet with each build of WM I play with there is major dramas of porting. I guess most of this is already done - as long as the CPU type is the same between devices, swapping OEMDrivers etc around and using an XIP from the device in question can be ok - however there has to be an easier way to do these things. Now another thing that I'm wondering about is if the idea of Extended ROMs should become obsolete. The whole idea of a ROM is that, well, it should be built for a purpose. Fixes and applications that are supposed to be fixed should probably be built into the OS flash partition itself - this frees up ~10+Mb on the device for the user - which is the person we're doing all this for in the first place. Patches, fixes, updates etc should not live on an Extended ROM. I guess a lot of this will go over a lot of peoples heads, but from a community standpoint, anything that helps the thousands of developers that spend countless hours turning WM from good to awesome will be well received... I think I can sum this up even more... Users want control over their devices. They want complete control. They don't want whatever their Telco provides them which is loaded with crud, slow, and sometimes just unstable. Give the control to the users, not the vendors.

You say a lot of good things CRC, but how many people out there are power users like yourself, rather than the ordinary user who simply wants to just use the device as is? Isn't this part of the reason why the iPhone is so successful?

I think focusing more on having Office Mobile with extended features will be a great job.

1.We all are missing the macros with excel on Windows Mobile as an example.

2.supporting and being able to open password protected files will be a great thing to be added.

3. Minor editing on PowerPoint will be appreciated :)

Khaled Al-Shami:

being able to open password protected files will be a great thing to be added

 

Yes, I totally agree with this - I would love to see this feature.

Laura Rooke:

You say a lot of good things CRC, but how many people out there are power users like yourself, rather than the ordinary user who simply wants to just use the device as is? Isn't this part of the reason why the iPhone is so successful?

I agree, there are not that many people like myself out there, however it only takes one persons hard work and thousands can benefit. This does however change the traditional business dynamics, as we shift the focus for device development from vendors to people like myself who do it because they love technology. Another example, my mothers boss was looking for some devices to run their custom real estate application. They bought some devices running WM5 - as this is what was states as required by the software vendors. 6 months later, a vendor software update now requires WM6 or above or it becomes unsupported. The devices in question have enough horsepower to run WM6 without issue - although the manufacturer will never do this as it isn't a good business case. So, to have a supported configuration, they now are required to purchase 6 x WM6 devices (6 months after buying 6 x WM5 devices), or stay exactly where they are. Relying on manufacturers for updates is great for the manufacturers, very poor for their customers. You are correct about what makes the iPhone soo good. I recall a different thing within weeks of the first iPhone being released. 1) The network lock was broken, and 2) 3rd party applications were developed and the iPhone was hacked to make these run. People want to customise their devices. HUGE communities grow around customisation and development (One network I am a member of boasts over 750,000 members, of those 133,584 have been active in the last 7 days). If these communities get fostered, they will grow well beyond what they currently are...

Great suggestions, everyone! CRC: It really would be amazing to see future versions of WM change the game, so to speak, and become that kind of open platform that you're talking about. Perhaps in a few years...

Oh, and to re-iterate: These suggestions are definitely being picked up and passed on to MS - your contributions really are appreciated!

 

CRC:

I think one of the best things MS can do is to separate the core from the UI. There are THOUSANDS of developers out there that would love to be able to scrap the whole WM6 UI and do something unique.

I don't know much about the real architecture in Windows Mobile, but isn't the core Windows CE?  It seems to me the Neonode has already scrapped the WM6 UI and done something unique using the Windows CE core. Is that what you're talking about?