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Windows Phone 8.1 |OT| Update 1
- Thread starter brotkasten
- Start date
Steelyuhas
Member
Just old and bitter now
VanMardigan
has calmed down a bit.
I don't know, but windowed apps, Cortana, and not having a separate OS pop up when I hit the Windows key is clutch. I can't wait until Cortana is able to hook into more services, including Office, social media etc. I sold my Surface so I don't know how it will play on tablets, but it's vastly superior on my laptop, and I'm going to slap it on my work machine as soon as IT lets me.
depression?
I put 10 on my SP3 the other day and I love it so far, for some of the reasons Van said. But Edge is fantastically fast. I'm actually going to switch from firefox. I like the notifications bar/button where you can get to settings etc. The new mail app is nice and much better than windows 8 mail app. Everything seems more polished and better thought out.
Windows 10 on my Surface Pro 3 >>> Windows 8.1
Tablet mode improved substantially, and I love that Desktop applications are now first-class citizens for tablets too.
Office 2016 even switches automatically between Mouse and Touch mode when you enter/exit tablet mode!
Notification center + quick actions from right swipe >>>>>> Charms bar
App switcher from from left swipe showing all apps in 10 >>>> app switcher in 8.1 that only shows modern apps
Tablet mode taskbar is also awesome, and I'm glad it's configurable to show or hide apps on it.
Only downer is that arranging tiles on the start menu is a pain in the ass with no multi-select anymore, hopefully that comes back soon.
Tablet mode improved substantially, and I love that Desktop applications are now first-class citizens for tablets too.
Office 2016 even switches automatically between Mouse and Touch mode when you enter/exit tablet mode!
Notification center + quick actions from right swipe >>>>>> Charms bar
App switcher from from left swipe showing all apps in 10 >>>> app switcher in 8.1 that only shows modern apps
Tablet mode taskbar is also awesome, and I'm glad it's configurable to show or hide apps on it.
Only downer is that arranging tiles on the start menu is a pain in the ass with no multi-select anymore, hopefully that comes back soon.
LukasTaves
Member
LukasTaves
Member
I think I found a bug. Some of my tiles have low res icons, and I have to resize them and then change back otherwise they are pixilated
Edit: And they still kept the terrible 3d block animation.
Edit: And they still kept the terrible 3d block animation.
frontieruk
Member
brotkasten
Member
I forgot to post the anal-ysis of the Nadella Q&A I wrote.
Enjoy!
It's going to take a while before games make use of it.
So, basically, everything you thought was good in Windows 8 before the launch is now better in Windows 10 before the launch.
Nah, it's probably what we had with the Mango launch(?), where everyone was less excited about it, because we all got to try it months before the roll-out. We were already bored of it and were ready for the next version. Gimme Windows 12!
Good point about Cortana! I probably forgot about it, because it's not on Android yet.
Maybe.
Enjoy!
DX12
It's going to take a while before games make use of it.
So, basically, everything you thought was good in Windows 8 before the launch is now better in Windows 10 before the launch.
Nah, it's probably what we had with the Mango launch(?), where everyone was less excited about it, because we all got to try it months before the roll-out. We were already bored of it and were ready for the next version. Gimme Windows 12!
Good point about Cortana! I probably forgot about it, because it's not on Android yet.
Maybe.
I read that a lot, but I don't know why people hate it so much.
It's a bit starved of features, but I think it works ok. It's certainly (a lot) faster in grabbing your Onedrive photos and displaying them than the photo hub was. There's a few apps that don't work with it (Whatsapp, for instance), so that's a pain because you have to do a workaround to post pictures, but I don't see what's so horribly wrong with it.
It's a bit starved of features, but I think it works ok. It's certainly (a lot) faster in grabbing your Onedrive photos and displaying them than the photo hub was. There's a few apps that don't work with it (Whatsapp, for instance), so that's a pain because you have to do a workaround to post pictures, but I don't see what's so horribly wrong with it.
Can only sort by date, for one.
brotkasten
Member
They demoed it at WinHEC in China.
Thurrbrot
nillapuddin
Member
I went on a dl spree the other weekend and grinded through like 12 music apps
OneMusic
PlayerNow
Though there are tons with awesome niche features, PlayerNow is my new main, it had been OneMusic for the past almost year.
Honestly there are so many with cool stuff, live tiles, instantaneous lyrics on screen for seemingly any song ever (
I love! this feature, but I never watch my phone while playing music
Those are my suggestions, OneMusic for a basic but great replacement, PlayerNow for a bit more pizzaz
Awesome thanks! I actually found OneMusic in my download history since it was featured on Windows Central but I'll also check out PlayerNow. OneMusic has been fine so far, just a little barebones and confusing with the UI.
zbox is pretty good too, I've never had a problem with it and the Zune style interface is pretty cool.
Hmm, just started it on my iPhone, looks pretty much the same as on my 1020 and 640, minus a few missing features (play to, device sync), that you don't get with the webplayer anyway, well it might be a bit more responsive I suppose, but not by much.
What's so bad about it?
NeOak
Member
Both suck lol
I just like being able to quickly type in what I want and not having to unlock the phone.
José Mourinho
cocknose
I've been testing 10 and whilst there are plenty of improvements there are areas where I think 8.1 is better.
I honestly much prefers the horizontal start screen. I think the vertical layout looks worse, plus this idea that it's so much easier to swipe vertically than horizontally doesn't really hold up to me.
Little gripe, but in the video and in other places I've heard people say how the app switching is better because you don't need to endlessly cycle through the apps. But you don't have to do that in 8.1 either, there's an option to show them all. Whether the full screen implementation of 10 is better than the bar in 8.1 is a matter of opinion I guess. Where 10 is better is that it shows all, apps, and not just the modern ones.
Also, that video
José Mourinho;172181042 said:
You are spot on. Win10 has some tablet improvements, but overall it's a regression. Edge is not a touchscreen browser at all.
Vertical start menu just doesn't work on the landscape device.
Just adjusting my brightness is a huge affair on Win10!
That task bar is a huge annoyance. All for that silly back button. The back button that for some reason Microsoft soft coded into most universal apps for some reason. Go figure that one out!
Changing the brightness is easy. Swipe in from the right, and tap the brightness button from Action Center.
The back button on apps in the upper-left corner disappears when you're in tablet mode, and you activate Back with the button on the taskbar instead.
The taskbar in tablet mode is analogous to the soft system buttons on Windows Phone.
The back button on apps in the upper-left corner disappears when you're in tablet mode, and you activate Back with the button on the taskbar instead.
The taskbar in tablet mode is analogous to the soft system buttons on Windows Phone.
perfect imo
Tapping the brightness button in action center only adjusts in increments of 25%. Completely useless in dim conditions.
I am not talking about the upper left back button (or taskbar Tablet Mode back button). I am talking about in an-app back button that Microsoft seems to think is necessary despite the always onscreen ones.
The taskbar in Tablet Mode serves absolutely no purpose at the moment.
killer rin
Member
Poodlestrike
Banned
I cannot for the life of me understand why people use these. The huge, huge security vulnerability can't really be worth the 15 seconds it takes to grab your card from your wallet, can it?
Uhm, you think your card is safe? They weren't safe when all you had was the magnetic strip, they weren't safe when they added the chip, and most new cards have NFC chips in them anyway.
Poodlestrike
Banned
The chips aren't safe?
As someone who works in the industry, Apple Pay and Google Wallet are orders of magnitude safer than swiping your card.
Poodlestrike
Banned
I'll freely admit I'm far from an expert on the subject, but last I heard smartphone security in general was absolutely abysmal. Swiping a credit (not debit) card has all the safeguards in terms of after-theft protection and recovery, and less remote vulnerability.
LukasTaves
Member
José Mourinho;172181042 said:
You are right, videos should take into account that you can change the swipe left behavior to show the switcher at once. But even so this still doesn't beat having all open apps already there with a tap away, which is great way to multi task when you get to use daily.
Actually win10 tablet mode is better than W8 imo precisely because everything takes way less steps, plus, there's no need of hidden gestures.
To change brightness for instance, on w8.1 you need to swipe from the right, click the gear button and them a third tap, or slide.
In W10 it's two taps either from the taskbar, or a swipe and a tap.
I do agree on apps, specially edge not being touch friendly enough. But that's an app issue, the OS provides the tools for the app handle better. (Even desktop apps, as Office 2016 preview shows).
I disagree with the vertical slide... Imo, it works better with a thumb, using a touchpad, or the scrollwheel of the mouse... And even when using the index finger... I have my start screen set up in 2 pages (1.5 currently actually) swiping all the way up or down to see all the tiles require less effort in all cases compared to a horizontal one.
The back button was already a design language on w8.1, but instead of putting on top they decided to use the taskbar. To be honest, I'm not completely sold on that, and still find myself reaching for the top, but thus far none of the w10 apps have that many pages to begin with, so it might be easily ignored...
One thing that W8 is definitely better is changing the snapped apps, w10 is still very clumsy in that regard.
José Mourinho
cocknose
That's the case if you have the brightness set as one of your quick actions. If not, you still have to click to expand the action center at which point it's just as many steps as in 8.1, only in 8.1 you have full control over brightness and not 25% increments. So okay, set it as a quick action or leave the action center constantly expanded. Personally, the latter is the worst option for me as I think that cluster of options is horrible -- I hate the expanded view on phone too. I think there should be options for your 4 quick actions and then for which options you want included in the expanded actions.
I honestly feel 10 is a definite improvement on the desktop side but lacking in general on the tablet side. Many of the changes I see heralded as improvements are either rather insignificant or are, in fact, steps back.
That's my opinion, subject to change, and probably not worth much. I use desktop and tablet daily and love 10 on the former but just sort of like it on the latter.
LukasTaves
Member
You don't need to go to the action center for brightness. The battery button also brings the brightness toggle, and the battery saver one too... And with two extra taps after that can also take you to a slider... Sure, it's not practical if you must adjust it all the time, but it's easily accessible if you need it only eventually.José Mourinho;172217282 said:
José Mourinho
cocknose
But that's kind of my point, I see a lot of these changes between the two as being six of one and half a dozen of the other.
I've seen people complain about wanting tighter brightness controls and in the end, that's easier in 8.1, or it hasn't really been improved upon. Anyway, it's just an example, I can live with the 25% increments myself. I was more trying to make the point that it's an area where I don't see a huge deal of improvement but I've seen many people discuss the changes as if they are a clear and better way of doing things, when in tablet mode, I don't it always is.
I don't like the taskbar but can it and swipe up so I'm fine with that. My main gripe is the vertical start screen. Fine in desktop with the smaller traditional start menu and tablet in portrait. But I'm not a fan of it in landscape. Oh well, what can you do?
Edit: I hope that I'm actually in the minority and everybody else loves 10 on tablet because it would be nice to see it take off.
brotkasten
Member
What about chip and pin?