Windows Phone 7: The AnandTech Guide
by Brian Klug on March 21, 2010 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Windows Phone 7
- Mobile
Three Kinds of Notifications
Fitting in directly after multitasking are notifications, which Microsoft hopes developers heavily leverage even after multitasking becomes viable. There are three primary methods of notifications baked into WP7S thus far.
The first is a nod to WebOS' less intrusive method of sliding notifications in at the bottom. Instead, notifications slide in from the top ala Android. These are called "toast" notifications, since they're animated like toast popping out of a toaster. Funny, right? The next is notification through tiles. Developers can push new images to the tile, as well as new text atop the tile, letting users know something has changed. A frequent demo was illustrating that the smiley atop the SMS application changes as new messages arrive, in addition to the counter. Lastly, in-application notifications where the dialog slides down revealing new information. We've seen this last kind of notification in virtually every implementation; it isn't so much a true notification as it is a page event.
Top left - Tile. Bottom Left - Toast. Right - In-App.
All three of these notification schemes fully leverage a backend push notification service, similar in architecture to iPhone OS' push notifications. This is what Microsoft wants developers to use to mitigate the lack of background processing, very similar to the message Apple has been communicating for some time now. It doesn't cover all the bases or every possible use scenario, but does save battery and allow a way for third party applications to alert users.
Interestingly, the incoming phone call situation is another notification still being finalized. We've seen briefly what the notification looks like, and at present it appears to look like a larger "toast."
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Hrel - Friday, March 26, 2010 - link
Yeah, pretty sure I'll never buy any portable ANYTHING that doesn't support expandable memory. I don't need more iphones out there, thanks anyway.jconan - Tuesday, March 23, 2010 - link
Will Microsoft support Unicode in its WP7S phones? They never got around to it on the Zune. I hope they do for WP7S and hopefully in Courier. It's easier to read text the way it's meant to be read than in gibberish ascii with diacritics.MonkeyPaw - Monday, March 22, 2010 - link
Wow, all this talk about Web-capable smartphones sure makes me wish for a mobile version of Anandtech.com. :|toyotabedzrock - Monday, March 22, 2010 - link
We have heard this promise of adding features before!RandomUsername3245 - Monday, March 22, 2010 - link
The article says, "There's also of course the stigmata attached to buying a phone preloaded with a bevy of carrier-branded applications."The author should have used "stigma" rather than "stigmata". Stigmata is a Roman Catholic reference: (from dictionary.com) marks resembling the wounds of the crucified body of Christ, said to be supernaturally impressed on the bodies of certain persons, esp. nuns, tertiaries, and monastics.
CSMR - Monday, March 22, 2010 - link
Stigmata is just the plural of stigma. "Stigmas" is normally better but stigmaga is correct. So the problem with the sentence is that "is" is singluar and "stigmata" is plural.jhh - Monday, March 22, 2010 - link
Applications can't currently run in the background, but they can process push notifications. Does this mean that any application that wants to provide background processing needs to wake the phone via push notifications? If so, do those mean that the push notifications need to come through a Microsoft back-end notification server? If so, that would be another case of application lockdown. I can't see Facebook or Twitter wanting to run their traffic through Microsoft just to be able to use the notification service.ncage - Sunday, March 21, 2010 - link
Is it perfect? Nope but i still think its pretty dang good. Can't wait. I will still probably get a nexus one when it comes out tuesday but will get a wp7 near xmas. Have a BB Tour now and i hate it with a passion. If your not an email addict then i don't think you would ever like a BB. I'd get a palm pre instead if it didn't sound like they were just about to die. RIM should buy them.hessenpepper - Sunday, March 21, 2010 - link
Will the tight hardware requirements allow Microsoft to release upgrades directly to the end users or will they release in to the manufacturers/carriers? Will we be at their mercy for timely upgrades?MGSsancho - Monday, March 22, 2010 - link
Part of the reason Microsoft wants tight control over hardware is so they can focus on other stuff and not write 9000 drivers. Windows CE works on ppc, x86, arm with varying amounts of ram and configurations. It is the same strategy Apple has, only have a few select hardware platforms and focus on the user experience.