It’s too slow, messages don’t sync until you open a conversation and then you have to wait for potentially hundreds of messages to fill out before you can read the newest, or they sync out of sequence and it becomes impossible to find what someone just said to you.
It’s not conscious of when messages have been read and the tile counter can only go as high as 99, so if messages are delivered to your phone as you talk on the computer you’ll come back to it with 99 (potentially more) unread messages on your phone.
The layout is clunky and rearranges itself poorly when the keyboard pops up.
I don’t use Skype to make phone calls often, when I have it’s worked perfectly, but as a substitute for MSN Messenger it’s terrible. I just want the functionality baked into the Messaging and Phone apps, I don’t care if messaging takes on some of Skype’s design (white background etc…) just make it a fluid experience.
I’m not suggesting that the start screen is similar to an orchestral work, or piece of classical music, but the theory underpinning it is the same as that employed in atonal.
People like colour, and music, that has a central tone/accent and they look for it even when it isn’t there to be found. This is the problem, as I see it, not with Windows 8 but with certain people’s perception of it. Of course there is a debate to be had whether Microsoft should cater to this base instinct or drive forward with the more conceptual ideas.
I like it the way it is.
If we want background wallpapers and customisation then a certain cacophony is what will accompany that no matter what, or we can go for the uniformity in Windows Phone: they both work they just come with different caveats.
The Mish-Mash of colours is clearly intentional, and would be particularly important if people were allowed to choose their own backgrounds. It’s an eclectic palette that works in the same way that atonal music works.
Trying to ‘match’ everything all the time would only wind up making it look uglier for the majority of users.
People discover Microsoft have something to do with Skype now and suddenly everything that is and has been wrong with it since its inception has in their minds only just happened.
As far as I can tell Microsoft’s involvement in Skype since the purchase has been minimal. There’s no other reason to explain the gap in quality between Windows 8’s built in Messaging client and the Skype offering.
