Microsoft Killing Off Nokia's Windows Phone Apps 77
jfruh writes: As Nokia's smartphone division becomes more fully absorbed into Microsoft, the company is cleaning house and ending some apps and services that Nokia had developed specifically for Windows Phone. Lumia Storyteller, Lumia Beamer, Photobeamer, and Lumia Refocus are photo and video apps that integrate with online services, and those services will be shutting down on October 30. Microsoft says its to better commit resources to work on the mobile version of Windows 10, which is coming soon, but not all the features of the canceled services will appear in the new OS.
Well, duh! It's all about patents (Score:3, Insightful)
Microsoft bought Nokia for their patents. Any other money is just chump change.
Re:Well, duh! It's all about patents (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Well, duh! It's all about patents (Score:5, Informative)
Microsoft bought Nokia for their patents. Any other money is just chump change.
The patents were not included in the deal [forbes.com]. Microsoft didn't actually buy Nokia, they bought Nokia's handset business. The patents remained with Nokia.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Microsoft is killing off these apps because they don't contain enough spyware and ads to pass their rigorous QA standards.
NO! NO! NO! (Score:1)
they did not get the patents(though they have license to use them). they did not get the maps.
Microsoft bought Nokia FOR THEIR BRAND(available to ms for a limited time), FACTORIES and EMPLOYEES.
then they promptly proceeded to close the factories, fire the employees and bury their use of the brand. the reason why these apps are being canceled is two fold: first off nobody cares about them and secondly the folks who were developing and updating them got fired.
why did microsoft buy them then? I can only guess
Final Move (Score:1)
The last part of the exection in MS long history of Embrace, Extend, Extuinguish
Re:Final Move (Score:5, Insightful)
The last part of the exection in MS long history of Embrace, Extend, Extuinguish
Well, it is a good thing that their strategy was not Embrace, Extend and Spell-check.
But seriously, this has absolutely nothing to do with the E-E-E adage. Embrace does not mean buy; there was nothing here that they Extended; and shutting down non-profitable or under-used services of an acquisition is not Extinguishing them in the manner of that saying. Embrace, Extend, Extinguish is all about corrupting something that is a standard (or like one) so that it loses its usefulness as a cross-platform system. This case is just about pulling the plug on their own servers. It affects nobody other than their own customers.
Just because this is Microsoft that we are talking about doesn't mean that you have to trot out that old meme, "Developers, Developers, Developers" or even "Monkey-boy".
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
> It affects nobody other than their own customers.
Exactly. They dumped WinMobile 6.5 customers when WinPhone 7 was completely different. They dumped WP7 customers when WP8 was incompatible. Now they are dumping WP8 customers by dropping services and apps, we have yet to see whether Windows 10 is viable for WP8 customers.
Amazingly bad management (Score:4, Informative)
Another of the many, many times when Microsoft believes it can do anything, and customers don't matter.
This Slashdot comment explains Microsoft's control over Firefox and Mozilla Foundation [slashdot.org]. That control may explain why the user interfaces of Thunderbird and SeaMonkey have been damaged in recent versions.
Yahoo is badly managed. From that story "Marissa Mayer's second-in-command 'leaves with $109m' on being fired from Yahoo after just 15 months". An incompetent executive got $109,000,000 for leaving a short job.
Microsoft has a history of being amazingly badly managed [slashdot.org]. Quotes: Steve Ballmer is "Monkey Boy" and, from a May 12, 2012 story"Without a doubt, Mr. Ballmer is the worst CEO of a large publicly traded American company today."
Re:Amazingly bad management (Score:5, Insightful)
In general, this is what I hate about the mobile ecosystem. Everything is so tenuous and could be gone tomorrow. For some things it makes sense (e.g. a chat service), and for some things it would become useless over time (a mapping/navigation application would devolve as roads change and would be less compelling wthout traffic data) and then there are things that make zero sense to be bound by the ongoing presence of servers (a lot of single player games will keel over when one of a set of companies hangs it up). We have moved so far into not having control of our favorite software it's depressing.
Re:Amazingly bad management (Score:5, Interesting)
I've had the unfortunate experience of using Yahoo in firefox, and I changed it almost immediately because Yahoo search is stupidly slow. It's slowness mainly comes from when you click a link in their search results, the link just points to a yahoo.com redirect page, making it so that hitting your intended target page takes another 4 seconds.
I get why they're doing it, they just want to know what pages you're hitting so that they can improve their search results. But competing search engines have a much better way of doing this: They just use asynchronous javascript to read the click before you actually leave the page.
Re: (Score:2)
Oh so they do. Here's a fix for it as well:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-... [mozilla.org]
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
"Yahoo search" is Microsoft Bing. (Score:1)
"Yahoo search" is Microsoft Bing. Microsoft has hidden its apparent takeover of Mozilla Foundation by pretending that there is a "Yahoo search". Why else would Mozilla Foundation damage the UI of its own product?
Re: (Score:2)
Microsoft has hidden its apparent takeover of Mozilla Foundation by pretending that there is a "Yahoo search".
Yahoo search may not use Bing as a back-end, but Yahoo is its own entity. Microsoft is not pretending there is a Yahoo search to "take over". Yahoo is trying to make money by funneling Firefox through their re-branded version of Bing Search.
Microsoft doesn't have to hide or pretend. They could have just paid Mozilla to use Bing Search directly -- they get more money that way because Yahoo isn't a middleman. *Nobody* cares about the distinction except Yahoo and Microsoft.
Yahoo paid Mozilla Foundation to trick users into using Microsoft's Bing search engine.
Ridiculous. Yahoo paid the Mozil
Re: (Score:1)
Circling the drain (Score:4, Interesting)
It is my opinion that Microsoft, as a consumer company, is circling the drain -- at least for IT people.
- They missed the boat on mobile
- Windows 10 telemetry makes Google look like privacy champions (This OS is invasive)
- They are back porting Windows 10 telemetry to Windows 8 and Windows 7 to get even more info from those users
- They are killing the Nokia apps, which are arguably better than anything Microsoft could write. Why? Microsoft suffers from NIH.
I am taking steps to free my family of any Microsoft product. The invasiveness is just too much. Linux works just fine, as there are no IT people in my family save myself, so they need to browse and use Webmail.
Microsoft will survive OK enough in the corporate space, but it won't be too terribly long before they are supplanted by better tech -- and it will be about time. I sill cannot believe, after all these years, that people though Active Directory was better than Novell's NDS. That still boggles the mind.
I'm looking forward to a world where Microsoft is an also ran.
Re: (Score:1, Troll)
It is my opinion that Microsoft, as a consumer company, is circling the drain -- at least for IT people.
- They missed the boat on mobile - Windows 10 telemetry makes Google look like privacy champions (This OS is invasive) - They are back porting Windows 10 telemetry to Windows 8 and Windows 7 to get even more info from those users - They are killing the Nokia apps, which are arguably better than anything Microsoft could write. Why? Microsoft suffers from NIH.
I am taking steps to free my family of any Microsoft product. The invasiveness is just too much. Linux works just fine, as there are no IT people in my family save myself, so they need to browse and use Webmail.
Microsoft will survive OK enough in the corporate space, but it won't be too terribly long before they are supplanted by better tech -- and it will be about time. I sill cannot believe, after all these years, that people though Active Directory was better than Novell's NDS. That still boggles the mind.
I'm looking forward to a world where Microsoft is an also ran.
yeah they did miss the boat on mobile... and are still not on it... so it doesn't matter one fuck if they drop nokia apps.. there's no-one waiting in the forest to hear that tree fall anyway ..in fact.. where the fuck is lovely young chappie Bennett Haselton when you need him???.. you'd get more sense out of Bennett's anus than you
back porting telemetry?..lol.. erm./. ok chump.. you do realise that you can turn OFF all that cemetery in settings right???
as to the rest.. foam foam foam.. rant rant rant....
Re: (Score:1, Interesting)
you do realise that you can turn OFF all that Telemetry in settings right???
he shouldn't have to turn off shit, it shouldn't be there in the first fucking place, its an OS not some seedy online shopping mall, Microsoft (and the US tech industry in general) need some fucking dignity, prepared to make their flagship product nothing more than a cheap salesman in a flashy suit, picking pockets for kicks.
for shame
Re: (Score:1, Interesting)
Are you sure the telemetry actually gets disabled? Or is the "disable flag" just window dressing?
The problem with the EULA is that Microsoft reserves the right to add any functions to the OS it wants to - and with different "privacy policies" as it wants.
Re:Circling the drain (Score:5, Informative)
In Windows 7 and 8 you can actually prevent the functionality from being installed by blocking the "updates". In Windows 10 you cannot do that, and you can't turn it all the way off.
If it weren't for that, I would have upgraded to Win10 already
Re: (Score:2)
On WIn10 editions other than enterprise. You can still change it to basic which sends much less info though. Thinking about it, GWX probably will require a separate setting from the normal CEIP telemetry on Win7/Win8.1. GWX does compatibility checks in the background for the Win10 upgrade that require sending info to MS.
Re:Circling the drain (Score:4, Informative)
Even if you turn off all of the phone home settings in Windows 10, it still sends information to Microsoft. It's not fully known what kind of information this is, but it's suspected that it's three things (based on Microsoft's EULA)
- How you configure your UI elements (taskbar and start menu pinning) and when and how often you click on them.
- If you use IE or Edge to search with a non-Microsoft owned search engine, your search terms are sent to Bing; that includes private search engines such as duckduckgo. (This alone is huge; it's meant to improve bing, but it basically exposes your every intent online to Microsoft.)
- Information about what wifi access points you use (turning the setting for this off only disables password sharing.)
You can't filter this at the network level within the machine either, as the kernel sends this information and ignores proxy, hosts file, and firewall settings to get the information out if it fails while using the user settings. If you want to block this information from being sent, then you need to do something like configure a firewall setting in your router.
Re: (Score:2)
This part isn't true. Currently you can block all this traffic with Windows Firewall. You can't use hosts file blocking though because a lot of it
Re: (Score:2)
- Windows 10 telemetry makes Google look like privacy champions (This OS is invasive)
Nah, it is pretty bad by PC standards, but it is still less invasive than OS X, let alone Android. We are just better used in the PC world.
Microsoft still off track (Score:2, Interesting)
Might have been a change in CEO at Microsoft. But Microsoft lost mobile a long time ago, and its focus now seems to be keeping PC users on Windows. Giving away Windows 10 upgrades was a good ideal. But it also reduces the value of Windows to nothing. The only reason many probably upgrade to Windows 10 is because its free. Plus, it adds some time to older hardware to bring it up to modern software requirements. This get's the upgrade path moving again, but does little to spur PC sales. Will be interesting to
Re:Microsoft still off track (Score:5, Interesting)
Microsoft can't force people to install Windows on new machines like they used to. It used to be in their favour to force people onto Windows because they could hold up the ENTIRE PC market by refusing.
Now that power isn't anywhere near what it used to be, and people don't really care if they have 7, 8 or 10 on their machine, they can't dictate the market. It used to be that Microsoft determined when you upgraded your PC and when the market was flooded with new PC's. No longer. Surface showed that.
And that's a lot down to the death of the old-fashioned PC... Windows tablets are a flop, really, and Windows phones are even worse - at least the tablet is running "Windows as you know it" and not "Windows CE 2".
People have always thought that Windows was "free" with their PC. Because it was always bundled so tightly you couldn't buy Linux PC's. Now that Android, and Chromebooks and even Apple devices have snuck in via other avenues that Microsoft found themselves unable to control, they have little choice. And their "The PC comes with Windows" has come back to bite them because now the PC industry are just saying "Nobody is going to pay THAT for a PC with Windows... you have to make Windows cheaper".
To the point that MS has had to move Office to direct-payment-to-Microsoft rather than pre-loading on your PC. Office 365 is already installed, you just have to pay Microsoft a monthly fee direct that PC manufacturers don't see a penny of (I'm sure they get SOMETHING for bundling the pre-installers though).
Microsoft's value was always only in their two main pieces of software. One of those they have set a precedent of giving away now. The other is a monthly fee that - over a year - doesn't cover the cost of one of the old versions of Office. And you can install up to five copies of it for a single purchase, which you didn't used to be able to do, and they have to provide cloud services, integration and automatic upgrades for that cost too.
IE is dead. Even MS don't use it now.
Silverlight doesn't work in Chrome since the last version, they haven't bothered to update their plugins to Pepper API.
What else do they have? The death of Microsoft is long, protracted and pretty silent. They never made it in any other market - music players, tablets (there was Windows XP for Tablet PC many, many, many years ago - it's not like they haven't had time to fix it), phones, etc.
MS will become a software provider, and even just SaaS eventually. Which is where they should be. That's their prime strength. And if they don't start competing there with other offerings (e.g. Google Docs, etc.) then they will be shoved out of that market too.
A lot of this is nothing to do with their management now, but their mismanagement then. They have had to radically change how they do business to compete only on their strengths rather than muscling in illegally. Yet only two of their products are strengths, and one of those they are rapidly getting a bad reputation for (8, 8.1, 10).
I can't say they don't deserve it.
Kinda reminds me of RM in the UK education sector.
Re: (Score:3)
Same ole' bullshit from you, ledow. Microsoft Windows is still the leader in desktop operating systems for PCs.
And Microsmack, Inc, is still the leader in buggy whips.
Last story I remember reading here said the free, nagware upgrade to Windows 10 had only managed to snag as many users as Vista. They can't even manage to give away their new operating system!
Re:Microsoft still off track (Score:5, Insightful)
The percentages on the Register for 10 last week were 5%. 8.0 has that. 8.1 has twice that. XP had about the same as 8.1. The rest was basically 7.
And given that it's a free upgrade from 7 or 8, that's pretty telling even at this early stage.
To be honest, why would you upgrade from 7? It's still in support and still runs EXACTLY the same set of programs on EXACTLY the same hardware. There is no real selling point to 8 or 10.
P.S. Hate me all you like, I've deployed Microsoft networks as a living for the last 15 years. Some things they do are good. Others are absolutely shite. Disagree with my opinion, that's what the friends/foes functionality is for. But you can also discuss it, that's what the forum is for.
Re: (Score:2)
I hope Microsoft sticks around for the product where they really lead, i.e. the basic desktop mouse.
Re: (Score:2)
Microsoft can't force people to install Windows on new machines like they used to. It used to be in their favour to force people onto Windows because they could hold up the ENTIRE PC market by refusing.
Now that power isn't anywhere near what it used to be, and people don't really care if they have 7, 8 or 10 on their machine, they can't dictate the market. It used to be that Microsoft determined when you upgraded your PC and when the market was flooded with new PC's. No longer. Surface showed that.
Hate to break this to you, but in the past, people were at liberty to not upgrade to Windows 95, 98, 2000, XP, Vista, 7 or 8 - just like they do now. Only thing different this time - if one installs 10, subsequent upgrades are automatic. At a level, it's irritating, since it forces one's box to automatically restart (although the professional version allows one to set the 'when' of it). But there is no way Microsoft can force anybody to upgrade, say, from 7 to 10.
And that's a lot down to the death of the old-fashioned PC... Windows tablets are a flop, really, and Windows phones are even worse - at least the tablet is running "Windows as you know it" and not "Windows CE 2".
People have always thought that Windows was "free" with their PC. Because it was always bundled so tightly you couldn't buy Linux PC's. Now that Android, and Chromebooks and even Apple devices have snuck in via other avenues that Microsoft found themselves unable to control, they have little choice. And their "The PC comes with Windows" has come back to bite them because now the PC industry are just saying "Nobody is going to pay THAT for a PC with Windows... you have to make Windows cheaper".
To the point that MS has had to move Office to direct-payment-to-Microsoft rather than pre-loading on your PC. Office 365 is already installed, you just have to pay Microsoft a monthly fee direct that PC manufacturers don't see a penny of (I'm sure they get SOMETHING for bundling the pre-installers though).
Microsoft's value was always only in their two main pieces of software. One of those they have set a precedent of giving away now. The other is a monthly fee that - over a year - doesn't cover the cost of one of the old versions of Office. And you can install up to five copies of it for a single purchase, which you didn't used to be able to do, and they have to provide cloud services, integration and automatic upgrades for that cost too.
IE is dead. Even MS don't use it now. Silverlight doesn't work in Chrome since the last version, they haven't bothered to update their plugins to Pepper API.
For Office, there are still multiple
Re: (Score:2)
True, but if they stop providing security updates you'd be a fool to stay put.
I was happy with XP, but thought an unpatched OS was an accident waiting to happen. I see nothing better about 7, a fair bit that's worse, and it took a lot of fiddling with drivers. In fact on some of my machines I have no sound and wifi with it.
Re: (Score:1)
Modern hardware? Aside from graphics and SSDs, what is innovative about modern hardware? Newer processors are slower than older ones. 4th gen intel i7 blows out 5th gen ultrabook garbage chips. The only thing Intel has improved in newer chips is their graphics support. Why can't a 4 year old PC run modern windows fine? There are sandybridge mobile chips that are 4 times faster than many of the 5th gen shipping now. Consider than an AMD Phenom II quad core desktop chip is faster than every fith generation
Re: (Score:2)
In other news, a 35W chip is faster than a 4.5W chip and a 125W chip is faster than a 15W one. Who knew!
Compare to a VIA C7 instead and you'll see it's not entirely terrible.
So what? (Score:1)
To the victors go the spoils. I know it must hurt for you eurotards to see the pride of your mobile companies bought out and cut to pieces by an all-American firm but that's life, and after your leaders will have signed the TTIP, we will turn your little subcontinent into one big shopping mall. Sucks to be you.
Windows 10 incomplete w/o Mobile (Score:2)
It's actually a good phone, provided one uses it for the basic office related stuff, and not looking for the latest games or apps. It does miss some key apps, but as an office phone - things like calendar, maps, contacts, messaging, it's good and does the job for things that iPhones or Galaxies are major overkill.
Only thing that needs to be there - universal apps. Right now, one can't run Windows apps on Windows Phone, nor Windows Phone apps on Windows. For instance, I'd like to run Yelp! or Fandango
I will miss the Storyteller app (Score:4, Interesting)
Considering the camera is about the only reason I am sticking with a Windows Phone... bad move, Microsoft.
What a waste (Score:5, Informative)
Re:What a waste (Score:5, Informative)
Nokia had the best hardware in the world but a terrible outdated OS. Then Microsoft came and killed the best hardware and replaced the OS with an even worse one.
Depends on what OS you mean - if Symbian then you are right, but Maemo/MeeGo/Harmattan were far ahead of their time.
Re: (Score:3)
Nokia had the best hardware in the world but a terrible outdated OS. Then Microsoft came and killed the best hardware and replaced the OS with an even worse one.
Depends on what OS you mean - if Symbian then you are right, but Maemo/MeeGo/Harmattan were far ahead of their time.
Yes. I had a N900 and it was brilliant. Then when that OS was killed I got a Jolla.
Re:What a waste (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
Microsoft's only hope is that people get so fed up with Android's constant security problems that they decide they're willing to live with the constant spyware problems, and switch to Windows instead.
Re: (Score:2)
constant spyware problems
Not why Windows Phone failed.
Re: (Score:2)
Not why Windows Phone failed.
Well, no. But it's why no-one in their right mind would buy one now.
Re: (Score:3)
Well, how does Android actually compare?
Good for SOME things (Score:2)
The only way it suffers is from a lack of apps. For instance, if you want things like Vonage or E*TRADE or a whole slew of apps that are available on either iPhone or Android, that's where Windows Phone falls short, and one is better getting either an iPhone or any of the numerous Android phones.
But if one just uses it for work and not looking for fancy apps, it's quite adequate. Like my work requires me to sync a calendar w/ the maps and also have my files on the drive. Right now, I use Android, since
Re: (Score:2)
The OS was outdated, but when it comes to sending text emails and receiving phone calls for a week with a single battery charge my Nokia E63 still outperforms my Galazy Note II....
Which is why I can't commit to services.... (Score:4, Insightful)
I have a problem even with steam. Ebook stores.. you kidding me. What happens when they go bankrupt or get their division bought out. Services end. Otherwise I'd be spending 80 percent of my money on such content. I buy something... I want access to it forever. I want to be able to resell it although it all likelihood I never would being the digital hoarder that I am. I still have the boxes and some of the better manuals from games I bought back in the 90's.
Not invented here (Score:1)
The address to their main campus has for decades been "one Microsoft way". That describes how they do things. Its not "another Nokia way", it's "One Microsoft Way", and their way is to kill off competing products (even if in-house products offer less functionality). I remember several decades ago, they bought a small database application called FoxPro. Foxsoft had it working to address literally a billion rows of information. Microsoft had a competing product that was not as good. They bought Foxsoft
Nokia's S40-Based Services Also Dying/Dead (Score:2)
Microsoft is also ending/has ended the few important cloud-based services that support Nokia's S40-based devices. As of mid-2015, S40 still had almost double Windows Phone's global mobile user marketshare (according to StatCounter), so Microsoft's sunsetting of S40 services has a bigger global impact.
Both S40 and Windows Phone are in decline, though S40's bigger share is declining somewhat faster. Regardless, it's probably not good business strategy to upset over 4% of the world's mobile device users (S40)
Feature (Score:2)
Those of us who bought into Wince 4.0 and wince 5.0 have long known that as soon as MS gets bored with a version of something, they leave users in the lurch, and move on. Apple not doing this was one of the reasons the iPhone was a major success, and CM for Android users is a guarantee it wont happen (provided your phone is CM capable).
It is fair to say MS relies on the user being gullible and ill informed