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Windows Phone 7 |OT|

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spiderman123 said:
Windows developer tools for Windows phones....does it work if I convert it?!
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I haven't updated to Mango yet..waiting for the official release. Others will be able to helo you with that though.
 
spiderman123 said:
Bought a windows phone...samsung focus....what are some good applications

Also is there a way to customize my own ringtones on the phone
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Just flash Mango on it dude. It's worth it
 
Not sure if it's worth to flash the dev build of Mango at this point. That build doesn't include the firmware update for your device and you want those new drivers. You might miss out in features like tap-to-focus in the camera app.
 
Meus Renaissance said:
I don't know, maybe it uses a different network on the carrier. You don't need an Internet connection to send and receive MMS. All I know is that some carriers charge you for it regardless.

Facebook Messaging will use Mobile Internet Data or Wifi connection. However, if the person you're talking to switches to another platform (like Live Messenger), I'm not sure whether it will keep the convo in the same thread or start another one if you disable MMS. I haven't tried that.

Basically, you can still send a message to several people at once. It's just that it wont display the conversation in one thread but separate threads, one for each person whose responded to you. I say respond because I've discovered that if you send a message to multiple people in a group, it will show the message you sent and their names at the top - you wont have separate copies of that message you sent. It's only when they respond does it break it up into different threads e.g. when it becomes a conversation

I don't see how it can't be done without MMS personally. Disappointed that I can't use it now.
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Do you have a link that explains all this? Confused as to why it would use MMS instead of data.
 
Hey guys I ran into another problem


I connected my phone to my laptop but every time I enter Zune it says my phone isn't connected. Even in My Computer, it doesn't show the external device.

The connection is there I think since the plug symbol on my phone ( where it shows the battery life) appears.
 
S1kkZ said:
are there big risks when i put mango beta on my omnia 7?
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like brotkasten said, I'd just wait now.

The RTM that's out has been good to me for nearly a month but the real release is so close I'd just wait.
 
Firestorm said:
Do you have a link that explains all this? Confused as to why it would use MMS instead of data.
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Group Text uses MMS, Threading does not use MMS. Group text helps with threading when sending a text to multiple people.
 
brotkasten said:
Not sure if it's worth to flash the dev build of Mango at this point. That build doesn't include the firmware update for your device and you want those new drivers. You might miss out in features like tap-to-focus in the camera app.
Click to expand...

Flashed the new omnia 7 ROM. It has tap to flash

Firestorm said:
Do you have a link that explains all this? Confused as to why it would use MMS instead of data.
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http://www.wpcentral.com/group-messaging-mango-mms-gambit

Cant remember but I sure hope for MS' sake that the MMS thread feature is set to off by default, otherwise people are going to have astronomical bills
 
Meus Renaissance said:
Flashed the new omnia 7 ROM. It has tap to flash
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But that's the RC1 build of that ROM and is not finalized. You have the Mango RTM with a release candidate firmware. Don't complain if you have problems with the next updates.
 
brotkasten said:
But that's the RC1 build of that ROM and is not finalized. You have the Mango RTM with a release candidate firmware.
Click to expand...

How will this differ to the one that will eventually be provided?
 
Meus Renaissance said:
Sadly this uses MMS. Unless you have unlimited MMS package on your bill, avoid this at all costs. You can send group text messages but responses/conversations will be individual exchanges like normal SMS
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I have unlimited SMS/Data, but no MMS (0,30€ extra each...). How do I go about disabling MMS exactly?
 
Can someone explain app management with Zune to me?

You can't see a list of the apps on your phone when it's plugged in. You can't see your download history without going into your download history. If you go into your download history, Zune tells you you can't redownload from the client, only from your phone itself. Is there really no way to actually download something, store a copy on your computer, and sync it to your phone later? Is there really no way to toggle applications on and off on your phone?

This is a very common use case in iOS; I'm going on a trip, so I sync all my stupid trip-related apps. Okay, now I'm home from the trip, so I toggle them all off. Oh, I'm going out to a restaurant, so I re-sync my stupid bill splitting app. You know, that kind of thing? Seems like in WP7 the answer is to look at your purchase history to remember the name of the app, and then actually redownload it on your phone. Waste of time and bandwidth.

Rocket Riot still hasn't shown up. Can't find it by searching on the phone, can't find it by searching on Zune, when I access it with the direct link there are no trial/purchase options since yesterday when I picked the trial option. My purchase history has the App. It hasn't magically appeared on my phone yet. :(

Saw on WP central that a few other people have this problem and can't see it anymore.

NotTarts said:
Always runs at 30fps on my Omnia 7. It sounds like there could be something wrong with your model, because all current Windows Phones run on the same hardware.
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brotkasten said:
I've read that trial versions can have performance problems, for some reason.
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Thanks for the input. I'm a bit scared to buy a game where half the demo was completely unplayable due to performance, but if all the phones have the same processor and there's no multi-tasking, it clearly isn't a processor or RAM thing. Any source for the trial version performance problem issue?
 
I experienced the trial/full game performance issue with both Fruit Ninja and Pac Man CE:DX. Trial performance was so-so, but the full games ran fine then. And I had troubles with Rocket Riot for myself, I only remember it appeared suddenly after I had my phone plugged in for a couple of hours with Zune in the background. And yeah... app management is a mess in Zune, if you even can call it like that.
 
Probably going to get rid of my phone when I'm eligible for an upgrade in November. For those who haven't seen my rantings in the Xbox Account hacked thread on gaming-side, my Live account was hacked on tuesday. After several calls to support, its just now getting filed as an unauthorized access claim. Because of that, my account gets frozen. For all 25 days. Because of the integration of my Live ID on my phone, that means I cant access things properly on my phone, I cant even update apps. "Use a different Live ID" is their solution, which means I wouldn't be able to access the apps I have legitimately bought. Absolutely inexcusable that I cant even use my phone properly for a month.
 
Game demo impressions (I actually gave impressions on some of these a long time ago when a friend got WP7 and I played some of them):

Minesweeper - Solid presentation, nice mode variety, interface works well enough. Wish I could pay to remove the stupid ads for Dr. Oz or some shit. I don't really like that there's a powerup system and the way you use the powerups is wait for real-world time to pass, but I understand that they do it to keep you coming back. (Free)

Flowerz - I'm not very good at it, but it's very fun. The inner/outer flower aspect and the changing play grid make it a nice twist on an otherwise pretty classic puzzle game formula. (Free)

The Revenants - Two minute long trial, fuck this. Presentation is kinda iffy. Basic game mechanic according to the trial is just to circle enemies and they disappear, I think a better version of the same thing would be Qix or Jezzball or Cacoma Knight. Pass.

Rise of Glory - Tilt to fly. Too easy to crash. Weird on-screen UI for turning versus rise/fall. Pass.

Ion Ball Ex - Arkanoid with bosses. Pass.

OMG - Short demo, but excellent, vibrant visual presentation. I'm not a huge shmup fan but I know risk/reward is a really big aspect of the genre and the key scoring mechanic here involves choosing between easy to beat low points enemies and ridiculously hard high point enemies. Will buy on sale.

Revolution - Like Geared for iOS, but with an uglier blueprint presentation and it costs money instead of being free. Pass.

ilomilo - Gorgeous, runs well, but the camera isn't as convenient as the XBLA version. I recommend the XBLA version first, but will definitely buy this when it is on sale.

The Harvest - This was kind of neat. Seems to be a hack-and-slash loot RPG with a sort of Space Marine theme. Looked nice. Controlled well enough. Only one character unlocked in the demo and I didn't really get a feel for the character upgrade systems in time, but seemed kind of neat. Might buy on sale.

Glow Artisan - Very cool puzzle game that reminded me a little bit of Guru Guru Logic Champ in some ways. Glad that there was a free demo, because it was well received on DSiWare but I never got to try it there because of no demo. It's $5 on DSi and $3 here, so I'll probably buy it here, but probably also on sale.

Fable: Coin Golf - Really excellent. It's a variant of minigolf. Funny, wonderful presentation, nice hole design. I will either buy this full price or on sale, it's a definite buy. Hope there's a decent amount of content.

CarneyVale Showtime - This game is wonderful on Xbox Indies and it's all here. Unfortunately the controls involved you tapping the screen and I found myself obscuring my own view. Also, it seems to be a direct port, so I've already played all the levels. Highly recommend the game, but get elsewhere instead of here. Might buy on sale if I get the urge to replay.

Butterfly - I played the whole demo and I still don't get the game. You just draw a line through a level and then you win. What is going on here? If I understood it, I could probably get a sense as to how substantial it is which would help me decide whether or not I'd pay anything for it.

Logic Games - Sudoku, Chess, and a shittier version of Minesweeper than the free one. Fuck that.

Tentacles - Absolutely awesome game design, really fun. If I could be sure whether or not it runs properly on my phone (the demo had extreme slowdown, but people tell me the game does not?) I would buy this full price no questions. Great art design too, and looks so crisp on my phone.

Beards and Beaks - Tug-of-war meets tower defence with a weird garden gnome theme. I had a lot of fun in the demo. Will buy on sale or maybe full price.

Zombies!!! - Seems to be a decent adaptation of the board game but the gameplay is a little slow and sometimes the city got in my way when I was trying to see how things were laid out. Trial too short since you don't get to finish a game. Will buy on sale because I like the board game.

Platformance: Castle Pain and Platformance: Temple Death - 1:1 ports of two great XBLIG games. Demo only lasts 1 minute. Virtual controls don't really work well and these games are challenging enough on a 360 controller. No achievements/Xbox Live branding. Highly recommend the games but not on this platform.

I've got a half dozen or so games to pick up as they cycle through DOTW. That's good. In the mean time I should get a good many hours out of Flowerz and Minesweeper.

Still to try: Fight Game: Rivals, Hydro Thunder Go, 4x Game Room games, Full House Poker, Game Chest: Solitaire, Hexic Rush, Rocket Riot if I can make it work. And I think that's everything.

I am open to suggestions, Xbox Live or not, for other games with the following guideline: I have every platform. All three consoles, gaming PC, Mac, all the handhelds (3DS, DSi, PSP), an iPhone, and an iPad. My iPhone is my primary phone, I only have the WP7 to play around with. If it's available elsewhere, I've heard about it elsewhere. I do not care about Xbox Live achievements--I do like achievements but I'm not attached to my gamerscore, so replaying something from iOS is not something I plan to do unless the WP7 version is superior in UI or content. So please only suggest exclusives or enhanced ports.

Edit: found my impressions from when I used my friend's phone. Looks like I felt pretty much the same way about the games (I'm a little more positive on Flowerz now and a little less positive on Butterfly) and complained about virtually the same device/OS issues although I'm a little happier with Metro now. Hahaha. I guess I don't change all that much!
 
SeanR1221 said:
The majority of games you're waiting for a sale on have already been on sale, and no game has gone on sale twice.
Click to expand...

Provided they don't discontinue the deal of the week, provided that they continue to release a game a week or less, and provided that they've gotta be running low on games to put on sale, I think I'll do okay taking my chances.

Hexic Rush - Not a huge fan of Hexic. Presentation here is crisp. Music is nice. I don't have big fingers but I'm still having some finger covering / control precision issues. Seems to be a correct port of Hexic. Didn't play a lot of it when I had it for free, but in case anyone was wondering, it seems to be a good port.
 
brotkasten said:
I'm not sure if there's an iOS version, but Vanessa Saint-Pierre Delacroix and her Nightmare is a pretty good puzzle game, comes with a trial and costs only $0.99.
Click to expand...

Looks like it's on Big Fish and a few other casual portals, but otherwise not available anywhere other than WP7. Will check out the demo, thanks for the recommendation, this looks right up my alley :)
 
spiderman123 said:
Bought a windows phone...samsung focus....what are some good applications

Also is there a way to customize my own ringtones on the phone
Click to expand...

Sync a song with the genre set to Ringtone.


Done.
 
MagniHarvald said:
I have unlimited SMS/Data, but no MMS (0,30€ extra each...). How do I go about disabling MMS exactly?
Click to expand...

groupmessaging1.jpg


Make sure Group Text is Off.

Stumpokapow said:
Can someone explain app management with Zune to me?

You can't see a list of the apps on your phone when it's plugged in. You can't see your download history without going into your download history. If you go into your download history, Zune tells you you can't redownload from the client, only from your phone itself. Is there really no way to actually download something, store a copy on your computer, and sync it to your phone later? Is there really no way to toggle applications on and off on your phone?

This is a very common use case in iOS; I'm going on a trip, so I sync all my stupid trip-related apps. Okay, now I'm home from the trip, so I toggle them all off. Oh, I'm going out to a restaurant, so I re-sync my stupid bill splitting app. You know, that kind of thing? Seems like in WP7 the answer is to look at your purchase history to remember the name of the app, and then actually redownload it on your phone. Waste of time and bandwidth.
Click to expand...

App management via the Zune client is limited to only syncing apps you've purchased directly from the Zune PC marketplace onto your phone. In fact, each time you 'buy' an app on the Zune PC client you get a pop up stating that the app will not install on your PC, or at least you will not see it on your PC. When you select buy, you then click Sync and the app will be transferred to your phone.

You cannot interact with the apps on your phone via the PC client. That means you cant manually add or remove them. This may change in the future of course. In fact, I'd be surprised if it didn't as people's app list grows and space becomes an issue.

I'm curious though, why do you need this type of app management when you can pin the apps you want to use to the start screen and ignore the list screen? Unless of course you're running on space.

One thing I dislike about the Zune App Marketplace, however, is that you cant re-download apps you purchased from the Phone Marketplace but no longer have it installed on your device. You'll have to search for it again on your Phone. So when I reset my device, I had to literally type out the name of all my apps and find them individually. I hope they add another tab? on the Marketplace for the phone to show purchased apps so you can redownload them when necessary that way.

Stumpokapow said:
Provided they don't discontinue the deal of the week, provided that they continue to release a game a week or less, and provided that they've gotta be running low on games to put on sale, I think I'll do okay taking my chances.

Hexic Rush - Not a huge fan of Hexic. Presentation here is crisp. Music is nice. I don't have big fingers but I'm still having some finger covering / control precision issues. Seems to be a correct port of Hexic. Didn't play a lot of it when I had it for free, but in case anyone was wondering, it seems to be a good port.
Click to expand...

Have you tried geoDefense?
 
Thanks for confirming that I hadn't missed anything with the Zune application and that it really does not let you actually download or manage stuff.

Meus Renaissance said:
I'm curious though, why do you need this type of app management when you can pin the apps you want to use to the start screen and ignore the list screen? Unless of course you're running on space.

One thing I dislike about the Zune App Marketplace, however, is that you can re-download apps you purchased from the Phone Marketplace but no longer have it installed on your device. You'll have to search for it again on your Phone. So when I reset my device, I had to literally type out the name of all my apps and find them individually. I hope they add another tab? on the Marketplace for the phone to show purchased apps so you can redownload them when necessary that way.
Click to expand...

That's one of many reasons why. I like being able to manage stuff on my device. My typical routine with my iOS devices is to sync / desync things as necessary, although I have not run out of space and although I can clearly hide stuff. Modern smartphones make device management easy, and it does not appear to be easy on WP7 because on-device management is limited and computer management is stone age.

Meus Renaissance said:
Have you tried geoDefense?
Click to expand...

Yes, on the platform it released on 3 years ago ;)
 
Stumpokapow said:
Thanks for confirming that I hadn't missed anything with the Zune application and that it really does not let you actually download or manage stuff.



That's one of many reasons why. I like being able to manage stuff on my device. My typical routine with my iOS devices is to sync / desync things as necessary, although I have not run out of space and although I can clearly hide stuff. Modern smartphones make device management easy, and it does not appear to be easy on WP7 because on-device management is limited and computer management is stone age.
Click to expand...

The downside to that type of iTunes app management is the backing up/syncing can take a while. The fact that the start screen is vertical on WP, I think, makes the app management less important. Although I agree, Zune does need some work. There is a web client in the pipes so I wonder if we'll see a major update to the desktop client itself
 
My major issue with buying games for my WP7 is that I can't use my points. I have loads of them on my account, let me use it! maybe has something to do with the non-unified pricing model?
 
Stumpokapow said:
Thanks for confirming that I hadn't missed anything with the Zune application and that it really does not let you actually download or manage stuff.

That's one of many reasons why. I like being able to manage stuff on my device. My typical routine with my iOS devices is to sync / desync things as necessary, although I have not run out of space and although I can clearly hide stuff. Modern smartphones make device management easy, and it does not appear to be easy on WP7 because on-device management is limited and computer management is stone age.
Click to expand...
My guess is that Microsoft wants to abandon the Zune client for the PC. Zune 4.7/4.8 is still the same Zune 4.5 client, but with WP7 support tacked on. They're releasing a web marketplace for Windows Phone this Fall with Mango and you'll be able to buy and remote install apps from there. windowsphone.live.com is also getting an upgrade. If you look at how hard the push HTML5/JS apps, I don't think it's too far fetched that the next release is going to be based on that, instead of Iris. It would also make a Mac OS version possible.

Here's the description of the web marketplace:
The Web version of Marketplace will launch with the new OS later this year and give customers another vehicle for discovering your great apps and games. And as a Windows Phone developer, you get all of the added visibility with no extra work. Just as on the phone, customers will be able to browse the full catalog, view screenshots, read application details and reviews and choose from all of the supported languages for that app. This offers customers another way to more thoroughly and confidently browse your apps from the comfort of their PC’s web browser. With the Web version of Marketplace, we will also have more placement areas in which to provide featured apps with extra visibility and merchandising possibilities.

In addition to easy shopping, Web Marketplace will also enable customers (and you) to promote your apps among friends, family, partners and social networks. Customers will be able to share their favorite apps by embedding a link in emails or articles or make a recommendation through Facebook or Twitter.
Buying and installing apps from the Web Marketplace is fast and easy, just like the phone experience. Purchases are charged against the credit card already linked to the customer’s existing Windows Live ID. If they prefer, the customer can also opt to assign a new credit card. The apps will be automatically downloaded over-the-air to the customer’s Windows Phone, or can be optionally installed later. Web Marketplace will also be able to maintain a customer’s download history to make it easier to reinstall apps (when changing phones, for example). Finally with Parental Controls, parents can determine which apps their kids access based on ratings or keep them from downloading paid apps.
Click to expand...
http://windowsteamblog.com/windows_...s-phone-marketplace-on-the-web-for-mango.aspx

Regarding how apps are pushed to the phone OTA, we expect the vast majority of customers to install apps to the phone from Web Marketplace in a single step, using our notification service. SMS would only be used the first time if the notification service is not already turned on. This means that customers get the app on their phone with no additional steps - - no links or added engagement on the phone. There is an alternate scenario whereby customers can choose to send themselves an email with a link as we discussed, but practically speaking, we expect most people to simply let the app install in the background.
Click to expand...
 
Well definitely me being able to uninstall the Zune application and use a sensible web interface is a good thing but still suggests that reinstalling an app involves redownloading an app and there will never be any local caching.

Troublesome for big apps like GPS navigation and apps that have lots of local files cached (comic book readers, video players that handle other formats, magazine apps). Maybe these apps aren't a factor on WP7 yet?

Vanessa Saint-Pierre etc etc etc: Core mechanic seems really cool and I love the spooky audio. I ran into very frequent finger / input detection issues. It was very hard to pick things out of the menu. It was okay with my pinky finger. Also the performance on my device was not good, pretty laggy. So I think I will consider buying this on PC (it's $4.99 on Intel AppUp and $7.something on Big Fish, will look at a few other places and try to find it DRM free) if I can get it for a good deal. Thanks for the heads up, I never would have heard of this without you.
 
Stumpokapow said:
Well definitely me being able to uninstall the Zune application and use a sensible web interface is a good thing but still suggests that reinstalling an app involves redownloading an app and there will never be any local caching.

Troublesome for big apps like GPS navigation and apps that have lots of local files cached (comic book readers, video players that handle other formats, magazine apps). Maybe these apps aren't a factor on WP7 yet?
Click to expand...

Cloud storage confirmed! This is a good point though
 
MMS is confusing as fuck for me. I have unlimited family messaging which supposedly gives me unlimited SMS and unlimited MMS as well as unlimted ims if it's built in.

I've heard though AT&T might charge you for data on your MMS if you the pics you send are over their MMS cap (which I don't know what that is), and I'm not sure what built in IMs count as free. Does FB count as free since it's built into Mango on WP7? IDK...

Browsing the AT&T website doesn't help much either in finding that sort of thing out.
 
Complex Shadow said:
i love the zune application. i just wish they would update it more often. and for some reason MS seems to hate the idea of a equalizer.
Click to expand...

They did a bunch of updating from 3 to like 4.6 (?), but they seemed to have basically hit a stopping point. They sort of did the same thing with the Zune 1-2, and then they stopped until 3 hit which was like a full redesign.

It sucks for WP7 users as I think they could have done more up until this point. I figure now though it's pretty obvious they are probably working on some form of a Metro app.
 
Stumpokapow said:
Well definitely me being able to uninstall the Zune application and use a sensible web interface is a good thing but still suggests that reinstalling an app involves redownloading an app and there will never be any local caching.

Troublesome for big apps like GPS navigation and apps that have lots of local files cached (comic book readers, video players that handle other formats, magazine apps). Maybe these apps aren't a factor on WP7 yet?
Click to expand...

You know, I always wondered why some apps that I deleted on my phone, showed up later on, after syncing it with Zune. Turns out, that if you download apps via Zune, they should be stored on your PC and then synced with your phone.
Here's the path: C:\Users\yourusername\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Zune\Applications

But to be honest, my folder is such a clusterfuck, I have no idea what is going on there. It's full of Zune HD apps and old Windows Phone apps that I deleted on my phone, but are still on my HDD, apps that I downloaded with my phone won't get synced back and ... I don't know. iTunes is a horrible, horrible POS software and I think Zune beats it by miles, but when it comes to app management and backups (did you know that you can not make a backup of your phone?), iTunes is the clear winner here. Two years after Zune 4.5 and some excellent releases before that, we've seen virtually no improvement when it comes to the client. I don't care what the reasons are (Zune division is getting disbanded, client team is working on Windows 8), this is not acceptable.
 
Complex Shadow said:
i love the zune application. i just wish they would update it more often. and for some reason MS seems to hate the idea of a equalizer.
Click to expand...
i have a feeling that W8 will just sync the stuff natively or something. Zune will probably only be used for the previous OSes or something.
 
Meus Renaissance said:
http://s3.amazonaws.com/wpcms_production/resources/images/000/046/795/original/groupmessaging1.jpg[IMG]

Make sure Group Text is Off.[/QUOTE]

Thanks. Wait, if that's for replies, then is that only receiving MMS's? I have free receiving MMS's, but I have to pay extra to send. Thanks again :)
Click to expand...
 
Chickens Can Dream: Tilt control blows, crowded UI, has in-game achievements called "facts", which it doesn't explain very well. Is free, but I can't recommend it.

Wordament: Awesome multiplayer word search game. The game itself is one of those games we've played thousands of times, but the interface is great and I like the fact that there's an always on tournament against every other player. There were about 250 players when I was playing. I didn't do very well. Free, highly recommended.

Looking for other non-XBL WP7 exclusives :)
 
Windu said:
i have a feeling that W8 will just sync the stuff natively or something. Zune will probably only be used for the previous OSes or something.
Click to expand...
But but but what will I use as a music player. God not iTunes, even though it's useful, it's just to bulky for me.
 
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