Post all of your App complaints here (AKA, the Darwin Award thread) - several merged

[Nightstar]

Actualy use the logic from one of the Professor Layton #2 Puzzles. Helps on Labyrinth! ^_^

[CrowdAds]

[TheBlatt]

You'll have to excuse me if I'm not jumping up and down for joy after waiting months for a stopwatch app, a game that I can play on my old cellphone and an accelerometer tech demo.

It's not my place to tell anyone how to do their job, but how about some unique, useful, powerful apps that make the ZuneHD stand out from the crowd. And while it's been 'promised', how about a continuous stream of these apps being released and not 3 apps every 4 months. I'm not asking for 20 apps a week as I don't want the quality to be watered down, but one would expect to get at least a couple quality apps a month.

It's a great device as it is, but I keep getting the feeling that it's a 7'1" guy who can dunk, pass, and shoot, but can't make a free throw to save his life. Lost potential...exhibit A.

[pwrntspd]

The solitare is a must and its really well done. The timer and stopwatch are pretty cool too.

[Zuniq]

Originally Posted by TheBlatt

You'll have to excuse me if I'm not jumping up and down for joy after waiting months for a stopwatch app, a game that I can play on my old cellphone and an accelerometer tech demo.

It's not my place to tell anyone how to do their job, but how about some unique, useful, powerful apps that make the ZuneHD stand out from the crowd. And while it's been 'promised', how about a continuous stream of these apps being released and not 3 apps every 4 months. I'm not asking for 20 apps a week as I don't want the quality to be watered down, but one would expect to get at least a couple quality apps a month.

It's a great device as it is, but I keep getting the feeling that it's a 7'1" guy who can dunk, pass, and shoot, but can't make a free throw to save his life. Lost potential...exhibit A.

Time will tell us if this is true...unfortunately, Microsoft officially doesn't care about the potential you talk about. I don't know what they exactly had in their mind when they decided to put a Tegra chip inside.. Anyway, its still a great mp3/video player with a pathetic wifi reception and some apps as a bonus. Its just disappointing that we know that it can do much more.

Labyrinth is not mind blowing like a third party game, but its nicely made...a good choice for Zune. Solitaire and Stopwatch are just programming examples (like parts of a tutorial) IMO. They could have made tens of apps like Solitaire and Stopwatch by now...they are not something special and need almost no time to make them, so, i think that the guys at Zune Team just made us a favor and gave us some of the apps they have in their devices for months.

I believe that we won't see any good official app for this version of Zune HD. Its really boring to wait for a "stopwatch" and two more or less casual games every 4 months. There will be much more interesting apps from hackers...just compare...a Doom port VS Solitaire...

I would really like to know how the Zune Team spend their working hours...Do they really work only for Zune HD as a full time job? What are they doing for so many months? I'm saying this because they present us a job of 2 months (firmware update, and 4 common apps) after a period of 5 months...


P.S. Some people point that these are free apps...Well, they really look like free apps! In fact, i have even seen better free apps! I wouldn't mind at all if i had to pay for better and more frequently released apps. We didn't force Microsoft to only make free apps, so there is no point to underline this fact.

[ItsLasher]

Originally Posted by Zuniq

Time will tell us if this is true...unfortunately, Microsoft officially doesn't care about the potential you talk about. I don't know what they exactly had in their mind when they decided to put a Tegra chip inside.. Anyway, its still a great mp3/video player with a pathetic wifi reception and some apps as a bonus. Its just disappointing that we know that it can do much more.

Labyrinth is not mind blowing like a third party game, but its nicely made...a good choice for Zune. Solitaire and Stopwatch are just programming examples (like parts of a tutorial) IMO. They could have made tens of apps like Solitaire and Stopwatch by now...they are not something special and need almost no time to make them, so, i think that the guys at Zune Team just made us a favor and gave us some of the apps they have in their devices for months.

I believe that we won't see any good official app for this version of Zune HD. Its really boring to wait for a "stopwatch" and two more or less casual games every 4 months. There will be much more interesting apps from hackers...just compare...a Doom port VS Solitaire...

I would really like to know how the Zune Team spend their working hours...Do they really work only for Zune HD as a full time job? What are they doing for so many months? I'm saying this because they present us a job of 2 months (firmware update, and 4 common apps) after a period of 5 months...

What 3rd party game do you speak of?

Porting a game and coding one from scratch are to completely different things and can't be compared like you suggest.

If these new items are not to your quality them I invite you to code up a 3rd party apps of your own. If you can do it better then do it but don't knock others hard work if you can not do the same.
They were free and yet people still complain.

[Zuniq]

Originally Posted by ItsLasher

What 3rd party game do you speak of?

Porting a game and coding one from scratch are to completely different things and can't be compared like you suggest.

I compared them just to mention that projects of hacking (like game ports) are even more interesting than current official games. I know that its a different thing.

Originally Posted by ItsLasher

If these new items are not to your quality them I invite you to code up a 3rd party apps of your own. If you can do it better then do it but don't knock others hard work if you can not do the same.
They were free and yet people still complain.

I'm not a professional programmer but i have worked with many professionals in that area and i know very well that the last 3 apps were not the result of such a hard work as you might be thinking. I remind you that they are a specialized team of professional programmers, so think again what you have wrote here.

[kitron]

Originally Posted by Zuniq

I would really like to know how the Zune Team spend their working hours...Do they really work only for Zune HD as a full time job? What are they doing for so many months? I'm saying this because they present us a job of 2 months (firmware update, and 4 common apps) after a period of 5 months...

I would bet Microsoft's Zune team is mostly now working on the Zune backend and windows Zune software in preparation for the Windows Phone 7 and KIN.
These little apps for the zune hd are not a priority.

You are aware that WP7 will have a marketplace with free and paid apps so no need to invest money and resources in zune hd. Hopefully once WP7 is out Microsoft will make a zunehd2 to reach parity with WP7. Once that happens we'll get our games.

[ItsLasher]

Originally Posted by Zuniq

I compared them just to mention that projects of hacking (like game ports) are even more interesting than current official games. I know that its a different thing.



I'm not a professional programmer but i have worked with many professionals in that area and i know very well that the last 3 apps were not the result of such a hard work as you might be thinking. I remind you that they are a specialized team of professional programmers, so think again what you have wrote here.

How is a 110 level app not good?
The Solitaire app is also decent and comparable to the desktop versions so what are you basing your quality standards on? Dinogames has made the best 3rd party game out there with Beanstalk Tale and it is quality and on par with this and other official apps\games but I don't get where you are coming from.
This is a PMP not a desktop so again I ask where is your quality standard coming from.

[p0ke37]

Originally Posted by kitron

I would bet Microsoft's Zune team is mostly now working on the Zune backend and windows Zune software in preparation for the Windows Phone 7 and KIN.
These little apps for the zune hd are not a priority.

You are aware that WP7 will have a marketplace with free and paid apps so no need to invest money and resources in zune hd. Hopefully once WP7 is out Microsoft will make a zunehd2 to reach parity with WP7. Once that happens we'll get our games.

Why would we need a new Zune? They could port the OS to Zune, I'm sure.

[epithetless]

Originally Posted by p0ke37

Why would we need a new Zune? They could port the OS to Zune, I'm sure.

They could produce a port (in an "anything's possible" sense), but the fact that the Zune HD falls short of the Windows Phone 7's minimum hardware requirements likely means a lot of retooling/stripping/compromising/optimizing would be necessary to make it work. How sure are you that Microsoft has incentive to make that happen?

Originally Posted by TheBlatt

It's not my place to tell anyone how to do their job, but how about some unique, useful, powerful apps that make the ZuneHD stand out from the crowd.

I'd love to see those sorts of things materialize, too. What I personally find funny is that little items like a stopwatch and solitaire used to be built into PMPs as included features...and now that the "apps" concept has taken hold of public consciousness, their appearance months after the fact is seen as novel and exciting.

[Zuniq]

Originally Posted by ItsLasher

This is a PMP not a desktop so again I ask where is your quality standard coming from.

First of all i really believe that Solitaire and Labyrinth are entertaining at some level but this doesn't make them equal with Lucky Lanes, Audiosurf, or PGR that Zune HD already has. So, my quality standard comes from these games. The quality of a game has nothing to do with the number of the levels, but more with the whole concept, the gameplay, the rules and the graphics.

This device really has the potential for great games but the lack of interest by Microsoft, bury that potential with casual (and boring) games which are rarely released. I know people who don't consider Solitaire as boring but they are not usually playing games either...

[Zuniq]

Originally Posted by epithetless

What I personally find funny is that little items like a stopwatch and solitaire used to be built into PMPs as included features...and now that the "apps" concept has taken hold of public consciousness, their appearance months after the fact is seen as novel and exciting.

This is what i'm trying to describe here...a Solitaire and a Stopwatch could have been done by any amateur programmer with little skills. Apps like these are everywhere, they are ultra basic and boring. They might be good for some people but they are not considered as quality apps. These apps usually come in big quantities because they are very easy to be made and have very simple concepts, but we only got 3 of them! I would prefer 3 apps like PGR and Lucky Lanes instead of these. If they don't want to let others make apps for Zune HD and they don't have the skills or the time to make serious apps, then they could have made loads of "stopwatch" and "Solitaire" like apps...I don't know how they think..I hope that they have more really exciting stuff to give.

[Fallstar]

Quick question on Solitaire...how do you start a new game without quitting the app?

nevermind...figured it out...press pause.

[mrfail]

Kudos to Microsoft for Labyrinth-- the artwork is absolutely stunning, and hands down beats all those other labyrinth apps for the iPhone out there

[Joshnor713]

Originally Posted by mrfail

Kudos to Microsoft for Labyrinth-- the artwork is absolutely stunning, and hands down beats all those other labyrinth apps for the iPhone out there

I agree.

I both love it and hate it though, I love it because it's a fun game but hate it because it frustrates the heck out of me when I can't beat the level within the goal time and have to keep restarting

It's a pretty difficult game, and it really tests your patience.

On another note, I really like how the Zune team is releasing a wide variety of types of games. They're doing it well, except for the amount of time it takes to get the games out. If that was fixed, I'd be a happy camper.

[beh]

labyrinth is amazing.

[Icky6]

Hiya, I'm back from my ban.. yay!

Anyway, just wanted to say thanks for the apps, they seem pretty nice. Still a little disappointing though... Labyrinth is great, and actually something I saw on my roommate's iPod Touch and loved. While it's great that such a visually interesting version came to the ZHD, I find it a let down that that's the best we got. Solitaire, ok I guess. But it's Solitaire. And the Stopwatch - I LOVE the interface, it's really nice to have something that fits right in with the Zune aesthetic, but unfortunately it's marred by the fact that there's no speaker for the timer to alarm you.

I hate to harp on this kind of thing, I know people have said it a million times. And yes, I know it's not primarily an app machine - and that's ok with me. But reallyyy... it took months to come out with these simple apps? Labyrinth is the only one I could see taking a while due to the number of levels it has.

I'll say it again, an e-reader would be a GREAT addition to this device and it's aim. A game is nice but has limited content. A utility app like weather and stopwatch is nice, but useful in a few limited circumstances (ie, you have earbuds in and need an alarm, or you're near wifi and need to check the weather). But with an e-reader, there are a ton of free books available, and then paid books as well - there's a ton of content brought to the Zune HD with one simple app.

I don't know though, maybe I'm in a minority who would read a bit on the Zune. I know a couple of you guys had agreed with me on this point before, but I'd like to get a sense of how big of a desire an e-reader would be.

[NSILMike]

I think it would be fine for those who really want it...but the screen is so small that I think I'd get tired of turning pages once per paragraph...
There is an e-reader XNA app...although it's limited. http://games.zhdapps.com/2010/xna/apps/book-reader/

[pressstart]

Thank God that Labyrinth resets the time to the last checkpoint every time you fall into a hole. Otherwise, we would have to restart the entire level over through the menu just to get a decent time.

[Icky6]

Lol wow it didn't take long for another one of my threads to get moved... oh well it's all good

Anyway I imagine an e-reader being similar to the biography section already on the Zune HD. Of course, it wouldn't be good to have one continuous stream of text without pages, but I don't think you'd have to turn every paragraph. And the screen, while smaller than an iPod Touch, would be fine imo.

Maybe it's not in huge demand, but was a stopwatch that only works with your headphones on in high demand? Was Solitaire in high demand? Considering that e-readers are quickly becoming a legitimate market, and that its a source of practically unlimited media content, I think they're missing a great opportunity by not including one. I'm no programmer but I don't think this would be as complicated as making a game, even.