User beats Windows Phone in speed test, denied prize "just because"

By Vice
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Grand Master

Vice

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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.?

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MattWeihl

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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."

Grand Master

Vice

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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.

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Grand Master

Vice

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  On 26/03/2012 at 05:02, Muhammad Farrukh 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.

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Grand Master

Muhammad Farrukh

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  On 26/03/2012 at 05:04, Vice 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.

Grand Master

Vice

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  On 26/03/2012 at 05:06, Muhammad Farrukh 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.

Experienced

andrewbares

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  On 26/03/2012 at 05:01, MattWeihl 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.

Grand Master

I am Reid

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  On 26/03/2012 at 05:06, Muhammad Farrukh 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.

Grand Master

+FloatingFatMan Subscriber¹

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^ 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.

Grand Master

Joshie

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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.

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Gerowen

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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..."

Grand Master

HawkMan

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  On 26/03/2012 at 05:04, Vice said:

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

His phone was jail broken and modded to hell and back only to be fast at this ONE task. It proves nothing except you can mod your phone to make it a weather station able to show weather a fraction faster than a multi purpose phone.

Call me when he can do it faster on a OOB phone.

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Am_I_Evil

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this is the second story of this i've heard...

the first:

was asked what store he went to: (the following is the report)

Houston if you're trying to win using an android phone don't bother. I used a samsung skyrocket and beat the guy fair and square on the 4 star restaurant challenge. Pulled up google maps and found one right away. When it came up he said oh well it doesn't show directions where he showed me his phone which had no directions and said he won. I was like wtf? Yours has no directions as well. Then he goes oh there's no hours displayed. I'm like there's a store hours button right here on google maps. Afterwards he says that oh well mine displays store hours on the screen and because I had to push a button to show the store hours he wins.

He calls the manager and she says oh the windows phone gets to that screen in 1 button where your phone gets to all the information in 2 button presses so I lose. Biggest pile of crap ever. Then they have the nerve to say you're just trying to get the laptop and tell me I have to leave.

Grand Master

techbeck

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  On 26/03/2012 at 05:02, Muhammad Farrukh 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 they if he had some kind of different lock screen or another advantage, they would of mentioned that as the reason he was disqualified instead of saying the stupid BS they did.

These "challenges" are just gimmicks. Anyone picking the challenge clearly has the advantage. If someone doesnt check the weather much or even used the weather app/widget...then the person who picks the weather challenge knowing they have 2 widgets already setup will clearly win. So it's not much of a challenge. Just using this as an example. Should have a 3rd party pick the challenge.

Grand Master

Vice

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  On 26/03/2012 at 06:37, HawkMan said:

His phone was jail broken and modded to hell and back only to be fast at this ONE task. It proves nothing except you can mod your phone to make it a weather station able to show weather a fraction faster than a multi purpose phone.

Call me when he can do it faster on a OOB phone.

To be honest it doesn't surprise me that you would reply like this because you defend Windows Phone a lot and own one. I own an iPhone but if Apple did this I'd call them on that **** in an instant. What they did was wrong. The guy won fair and square and this isn't the first time this has happened see post above this one from Am_I_Evil

And in my opinion Microsoft cheated anyway by not only setting up the competition with rules they knew ahead of time but by having their screen widgets already setup to show the time in two cities so they knew they would be the fastest. How many people really look at the time in two cities? I bet quite a small proportion. They are just sore losers because this city test was obviously one they believed they would win no question as probably a safety one against people they thought showed intelligence and might actually win.

Also FYI he says his phone is completely stock not rooted at all and the lock screen deactivation is a built in feature he didn't need to root for it (nor is his phone rooted or modified)

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HawkMan

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  On 26/03/2012 at 06:49, Vice said:

To be honest it doesn't surprise me that you would reply like this because you defend Windows Phone a lot and own one. I own an iPhone but if Apple did this I'd call them on that **** in an instant. What they did was wrong. The guy won fair and square and this isn't the first time this has happened see post above this one from Am_I_Evil

According to HIM

And I'd say a lo of people look at the time in two cities, travelers, businessmen, students studying away from home, gamers gaming with friends in other states or countries....

Grand Master

techbeck

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  On 26/03/2012 at 06:37, HawkMan said:

His phone was jail broken and modded to hell and back only to be fast at this ONE task. It proves nothing except you can mod your phone to make it a weather station able to show weather a fraction faster than a multi purpose phone.

Jailbroken? I think you mean rooted. He has an Android phone.

With that said, how do you know he rooted and modded it to be better? There is no proof of that. And there are weather programs that install widgets to display different cities. No need to mod your phone to do that.

Grand Master

Vice

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  On 26/03/2012 at 06:55, HawkMan said:

According to HIM

And I'd say a lo of people look at the time in two cities, travelers, businessmen, students studying away from home, gamers gaming with friends in other states or countries....

Of course according to him. Because it is Anti-Windows Phone this guy is obviously a liar. :rolleyes:

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