124 replies to this topic 1 votes

[+Vice]

Quote

The Microsoft Store employee I was up against then explained the selected challenge. Her exact words were the following: “bring up the weather of two different cities.” The one who could do that first would win. I felt like I struck gold since I knew I already had two weather widgets on my home screen: one for my current location (San Jose, CA) and another for Berkeley, CA. [...]

[...] My opponent finished a split-second later. She had two live tiles on her home screen displaying the weather of two different cities as well. Why does it take longer on Windows Phone? She had to perform two actions. First, she hit the power button to turn on the screen. Second, she had to swipe away the lock screen. That’s pretty much as fastest as it gets on that platform. Windows Phone takes two interactions. Android takes just one.

I excitedly thought I won out of pure luck. However, I was quickly told that I lost. I asked for a reason and was told Windows Phone won because “it displays the weather right there.” That was rather unclear. I showed her my device which also was showing off the same information with two side-by-side weather widgets on the center home screen. After pressing for a better reason, I was told that Windows Phone won “just because.”

Read the full story at the Source

[Muhammad Farrukh]

No winner here.
Both are winners. You can't argue

[MattWeihl]

The disabling of the lock screen is most likely the culprit for this, though official game rules do not say anything about whether disabling lock screen constitutes as "cheating".

Also, BenThePCGuy has responded on Twitter saying: "@BenThePCGuy: @sahaskatta @skattertech @mattlynley @joshuatopolsky Just saw this. Sorry about the hassle...come back for a rematch on a random challenge!, @BenThePCGuy: @sahaskatta @skattertech @mattlynley @joshuatopolsky And thanks for the heads up. I flagged this for the Store team, too."

[+Vice]

He was faster to show the information if you read the story. He did not have a lock screen on his phone and thus he won by getting to the information first.

The rules had no stipulations about lock screens it was a fair fight and Microsoft made the rules themselves. By their own rule set he won. And even if it wasn't the amount of stages needed, if he did it first (swiped to unlock faster) he still could have won.

[Muhammad Farrukh]

Oh and also, he might be using third party app for the lock-screen, which obviously disqualifies him. For every OS, there are always two steps to get to homescreen, power button and lock screen thing.

[+Vice]

Muhammad Farrukh, on 26 March 2012 - 05:02, said:

Oh and also, he might be using third party app for the lock-screen, which obviously disqualifies him. For every OS, there are always two steps to get to homescreen, power button and lock screen thing.

I think you're doing a lot of apologising for Microsoft here. He beat their test fair and square.

[Muhammad Farrukh]

Vice, on 26 March 2012 - 05:04, said:

I think you're doing a lot of apologising for Microsoft here. He beat their test fair and square.

Nope. There is no clear winner here. Like I said, For every OS, there are two steps to get to homescreen, power button and lock screen thing.

[+Vice]

Muhammad Farrukh, on 26 March 2012 - 05:06, said:

Nope. There is no clear winner here. Like I said, For every OS, there are two steps to get to homescreen, power button and lock screen thing.

He disabled the lock screen which is a feature of his Android operating system. Thus he won. And even if it had been two steps for both phones there was still the possibility for him to be faster at unlocking. Their other tests have not relied on the amount of steps required but by who completes the task first. Such as the post to facebook / post to twitter tests and the search for something on the web tests. It doesn't matter the steps only who is faster.

By their own test standards he was faster to get to the information thus he won and they should have given him the prize under the rules of their own contest.

[primexx]

they had a great marketing idea and now they go ruin it on something so trivial...

[andrewbares]

MattWeihl, on 26 March 2012 - 05:01, said:

The disabling of the lock screen is most likely the culprit for this, though official game rules do not say anything about whether disabling lock screen constitutes as "cheating".

Also, BenThePCGuy has responded on Twitter saying: "@BenThePCGuy: @sahaskatta @skattertech @mattlynley @joshuatopolsky Just saw this. Sorry about the hassle...come back for a rematch on a random challenge!, @BenThePCGuy: @sahaskatta @skattertech @mattlynley @joshuatopolsky And thanks for the heads up. I flagged this for the Store team, too."

Ben has done this twice so far, where he gets beat and then says "Well let's have a rematch", and then picks something he knows they won't win at the second time around.

I love Windows Phone but this whole contest ****es me off since it's extremely rigged. There are plenty of tasks that Android and/or iOS are faster at, and there's tasks that Windows Phone is faster at. It simply matters which tasks you choose.

[still1]

MS consider "Smoked" a good marketing but i would never ever buy a WP because they dont play fair..

[I am Reid]

Muhammad Farrukh, on 26 March 2012 - 05:06, said:

Nope. There is no clear winner here. Like I said, For every OS, there are two steps to get to homescreen, power button and lock screen thing.

On android you have the option of either no lock screen, or one of various types of a lock screens(pin, pattern, face, ect...) This isnt a 3rd party thing, its a stock feature.

[FloatingFatMan]

^ Also, being able to show weather forecasts also isn't a stock feature of either OS. Both require downloads and setup, so really, all this was a "test" of, was who could display their homescreen faster, and Android invariably wins at that.

If MS tried this shizzle in the UK, the Office of Fair Trading would be all over them like stink on a turd.

[Joshie]

I dislike the lack of skepticism when it comes to this story. Everywhere it's being reposted, everyone is immediately jumping in on this guy's side, despite that fact that losers almost always retell a story with a spin in their favor, and this guy's narration sounds especially bitter, so I think it's a pretty safe bet he is, at the VERY LEAST, not telling the whole story.

But these days, a lot of people online get a boner whenever there's a chance to feel like a corporation wronged a little guy, so there's probably no hope for the same healthy skepticism these same people herald in almost any other conversation.

[Gerowen]

What if the contest for these "phones" was who can make a 20 second phone call the fastest. That would test which phone makes it the easiest to perform the primary and most important function of being a "phone". One thing I've found with these phones is how hard it is sometimes to dial a number. I tried using a buddy's iPhone the other day and I gave up and grabbed an old cordless phone because I kept hitting the wrong numbers by accident. These "phones" are getting ridiculous.

Edit: For the record this didn't start as a "let me make fun of the iPhone" moment, it started as, "Hey can I borrow your phone I left mine in my car" and ended in "So it's really only good for Angry Birds I see..."