I think that hubs, or "panoramic experiences," are the number one selling point for Windows Phone. Under the covers, these hubs are "just" apps, but in use, there are three very important differences between hubs and most "regular" apps, I think:
1. They’re panoramic. Hubs typically extend across two or more screen widths, because they provide more information than can fit on a single screen.
2. The content contained in a hub is typically derived from multiple sources. These can be online sources (Windows Live, Facebook, etc.), on-device sources (local photo galleries and so on), or any combination of those.
3. They’re extensible. Though the Windows Phone prototypes reviewers and developers now have feature only built-in capabilities, developers can add on to the built-in hubs and add their own features. For example, Last.FM and Pandora could (and will) extend the Music + Videos hub. Third parties could write Flickr and Google Picasaweb add-ins for the Pictures hub. And so on.
Apps, meanwhile, are single screen experiences for the most part, though they can also feature a pivot control so that the user can swipe between different sections, or columns, of information. Compared to hubs, they are typically standalone experiences (Calculator, Alarms, etc.) and derived content from a single source. And they’re not (typically) extensible. Apps can be very rich (like a game) or utilize the stock Windows Phone "Metro" UI for a clean, simple look.
None of these are rules, per se. Rather they’re generalizations.
Hubs are cool, and usually very visual Here are some hub mockups I’ve created by patching together different screens. Each is based on what I actually see on my phone currently. (For the Games hub, I manually added some fake games to the Collection section, and that does roughly represent what they looked like when I tested this feature in May.) Note that the hubs are all different widths, and that sections/columns can be different widths as well.
Also, a few simple, single-screen apps you may not have seen yet:
Calculator
Alarms
Phone
Windows Phone Secrets 
Much thanks, Paul. I was hoping for an article like this.
Do you know if we will be able to create our own hubs? Or are these locked down?
Yes, you will be able to create your own hubs.
I *think* a Netflix app has been shown off in hub format, for example. That’s not a “true” hub in the sense that the data all comes from one place, but again, these are guidelines, not rules. What I saw, I think, was a panoramic experience.
I think it’s safe to think of “hubs” as far as the “Metro” UI goes as central places were info from different sorcess flows into, much like in the real world with a subway terminal (the Metro) and so on.
UI wise apps can use the same panaramic idea but at the heart of it I wouldn’t think of them as hubs.
I think someone like HTC could make a hub though, which would basically bring in info from a few different things (like they do with the different widgets in sense for example) all into one central “sense hub” that a user could go to as a 2nd home screen of sorts.
Yep. There aren’t really any rules. Microsoft has published some guidelines for now, and I think this may be formalized over time. But for now, I think they just want people to start thinking about the different ways content can be presented on Windows Phone and see what develops. Those three points I made are sort of how I see it right now.
So Paul you changed your default background color to white I take it? Speaking of hubs and how extensible they’ll be, has anyone told you in what way a 3rd party dev can tie into one of the main hubs?
You bring in pandora and lastFM as examples, and it does make sense that they tie into the music+video hub but in doing so does that also give them the ability to play in the background like the zune player can right now? So far it seems Pandora etc can’t play in the background, so I just have to wonder when and to what extent will MS open up the core hubs to 3rd parties.
I’ve been using white for screenshot purposes. The book is black and white (well, grayscale) and that just looks better.
Last.FM and Pandora are the examples Microsoft has provided, and I’ve seen mocked up shots of what those interfaces could look like. Yep, right now, they’d have to have some special deal with Microsoft to work from a multitasking perspective. But again, multitasking for all is on the way.
I don’t suppose those mockups you’ve seen are something you could share? I’d be interested to see what MS’s vision for this could be.
The only thing I remember is seeing Pandora listed as a app in the hub but nothing more than that.
They’re not something I have on hand, I don’t think. But I will look.
While 3rd party apps can’t do background processing (Pandora and Last.FM might be given special exceptions), there is an alternative way to do. They can download enough content and provide the music files to the built in player. Sucks, but could be a work around for smaller streaming services.
This is an area I think many have misunderstood or understated. Comments on other less informed reviewers where the availability of Apps or what the Hubs are have seemed to imply that they think MS is limiting Apps by only providing Hubs or the “Kin” type experience.
In this way, MS is still matching the iPhone by providing Apps and an “App store” through the marketplace. When commenters bemoan that Twitter is missing in the hubs, it just means that they will have the same experience on the iPhone as I’m sure their will be an app for Twitter very quickly. It sounds like it also may come in via the Messenger Social option as well.
I just wish other reviewers would clearly spell out that Windows Phone will have apps, but as you’ve pointed out, unlike the iPhone, the most relevant information other phones provide through apps will be brought front and center through the hubs.
Yeah, the way I’d describe it is, at the very least, it will work like it does on the iPhone. But if developers “correctly” target Windows Phone, we should see some pretty unique experiences.
I think the concept of extensible hubs is a superior solution to discrete apps that are totally isolated and walled-off from each other. However, I wonder if this change in paradigm will be off-putting to some developers.
All the other platforms have a very similar model. While the languages they employ differ, the same app can exist on iPhone, Android, WebOS. Until WP7 reaches critical-mass, I wonder if app developers will be interested in really exploring the possibilities of plugging into the hub, versus just creating a separate, discrete app.
I also wonder if users might prefer apps to hubs in certain circumstances. I wouldn’t want a Twitter integrated into my messaging hub, for example. I’d personally want that in a separate app that I can launch when I want to check Twitter. I also wouldn’t want every stupid picture posted to twitpic by the people I’m following showing up alongside MY pictures on the photo hub.
Because Twitter has such an established set of APIs, I suspect we’ll see both approaches in this case: Integrated experiences (through the What’s New feed) as well as standalone Twitter apps.
Paul, thanks for your blog, I’m reading every article.
You’ve mentioned, that Multitasking is just a matter of time, that MS will allow multitasking someday.
How reliable are these infos?
Thanks
Very. :)
They’ve told me this privately, but they’ve also said this publicly.
Thanks… Any timeframe?
Nope.
I think it’ll be a small rollout of background/multitasking APIs to devs over time instead of some big wide open “bam everything can multitask now!” type of upgrade.
I expect things like GPS/Nav and Audio multitasking APIs to be the first ones to be opened up to devs to use for example since those make more sense. A few networking related ones after that probably, like sockets.
That makes sense to me as well.
Pingback: The difference between Hubs and Apps
So I decided to show this to one of my lecturers at university (he is an Android developer, one of the few in Sri Lanka) and while I’m inclined to believe his response was biased it would help if I could decipher it.
This was the mail I sent
“Remember the other day I was asking if the applications in Android could be extended directly and the answer was no? That’s pretty much the case with the smartphone market nowadays if I’m not mistaken
Maybe winpho7 actually has come up with a concept that could change a lot.
The difference between Hubs and Apps http://bit.ly/c3rg9O
Seeing that they are giving a phone to every single employee at ms for free I’m thinking the app environment might be quite developed or at least up to speed when this thing hits the market. Which means functionality missing might be there as hubs which can expand on the existing stuff. “
The other day happened to be where I wasn’t satisfied with the base functionality of the calendar in the Android application so I wanted to extend upon it. Unfortunately I have to build a brand new app which communicates with the calendar. Not a lot more work but I like everything to be centralised.
So his response was…
“Hubs = Mobile Mashups
Fancy term for old concept
This will not allow portability AFAIK”
Not one of his most verbose moments.
Comments? Questions which I can throw back at him?
Thanks.
ps – the last paragraph of the mail I sent isn’t really relevant to the answer he sent. So ignore if needed. :)
A few things come to mind to me…
1) Portability? As far as I know, you can’t have a single code base and compile your app for more than one of the following: Windows Mobile, Windows Phone 7, Android, Blackberry, iPhone, etc…. So, how do you port an app from one platform to another? with a lot of work.. I’d like to see his Android apps compile to run on an iPhone.
2) Mobile Mashups, from what I can tell, are web-based. As in, you view it in a browser. Yes, you can put disparate items together in a web page and call it a mashup. But it is not part of the integrated experience of the phone, where Apps and Hubs are.
3) AFAIK shows that this person does not even want to spend 10 minutes researching a new technology for one reason or another.
Summary -It sounds like “Portability” is an excuse from your friend to dismiss Windows Phone 7.
But your friend’s email points out Microsoft’s biggest problem – Mindshare. Unless they can convince developers to build apps and CONTINUE to build apps (not to mention people actually buying a Windows Phone 7), Windows Phone 7 will be an Epic Fail, despite a technologically superior platform and vision. Judging by Microsoft’s Marketing history – I would not bet on Windows Phone 7, and, hence, I will likely not be buying one, lest it end up like a Kin. I hope I’m wrong, but I doubt I am.
Portability isn’t exactly a new problem with Windows Phone. And let’s be honest here, Apple has done more to actively prevent portability than any platform maker on earth.
@fearthedonut. i agree on the mindshare thing. MS has come up with some brilliant stuff in the recent years but no one knows jack about it (wpf… silverlight.. helloooo.. where are the developers??? no seriously.. where are they?)
anyways. back to topic. thanks.. i need to ask him about portability on android to apple.
so where is/are the distinguishing feature/s between mashups and hubs? i think with that info in hand i’d be able to go back to him with some questions.
Paul? care to help? :)
double post..
there was an interesting comment left on BGRs review of the preview…
“I’m kinda wondering how the whole hub thing works – sure great idea, why have 17 little apps to do some common bit of functionality when you can have an integrated experience. Great so far. But how does that play into no 3rd party multitasking – does only some parts of some hubs multitask?”
again.. any takers to answer that one??
I would think, yes, some of the apps in a hub would true multi-task, where the other ones are not… But, I’d also ask, unless you’re building a new Pandora, what do you need true multi-tasking for? Is there some needed functionality? Or multi-tasking being used as an excuse to dismiss a new technology.
I’d find out what the need for true multi-tasking is.
Right. If you’re extending a hub, you don’t have to worry about whether your app is running in isolation, because you’ve not written an app, you’ve written a plug-in of sorts that runs inside of something else.
ah well thank you to both paul and fearthedonut.. :) managed to (after a rather lengthy and sort of spiral discussion) convince him that it is indeed different and more importantly.. a cool concept.
even if he did let it go with this “well….. would be a cool thing to build for android.. and it’ll be just a small bit of work” . can’t have it all I guess. :D
thanks again for the help. here’s to winpho7! cheers ;)