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Windows Phone 8.1 |OT| Update 1

S

SCHUEY F1

Unconfirmed Member
Doffen said:
Android? Even when Microsoft just updated the iOS Halo games to support Xbox Live achievements?
Click to expand...

I can play those on my Surface, plus i have a irrational hate of Apple (or is it rational?). Also the 64GB 6s is $530 on contract in Canada, which is absolutely insane.

I'm hoping MS delivers on the 6th. There is also the possibility that the new Lumia's don't even come out in Canada.

I don't know a whole lot about Android, about which phones are stock. I can't afford one outright so that also limits the options.
 
B

brotkasten

Member
SCHUEY F1 said:
I can play those on my Surface, plus i have a irrational hate of Apple (or is it rational?). Also the 64GB 6s is $530 on contract in Canada, which is absolutely insane.

I'm hoping MS delivers on the 6th. There is also the possibility that the new Lumia's don't even come out in Canada.

I don't know a whole lot about Android, about which phones are stock. I can't afford one outright so that also limits the options.
Click to expand...

Nexus phones are always stock Android with Google apps/bloat.

They're usually relatively cheap (the 599 Nexus 6 was the first exception, I think), but always come with a big trade-off or two. Mainly battery life and picture quality.

Google is releasing a new Nexus 5 this year and while I think that the design is pretty disappointing, it should still end up pretty good. Even if the rumored price is a little higher than the previous model (349 vs the rumored 399).

Rumored specs:
Snapdragon 808
3 GB RAM
5.2" 1080p display or higher
a camera instead of a potato (probably)
wireless charging (Qi standard)
2,700 mAh battery
no MicroSD slot

It also has a fingerprint reader, if you like things like that.

I'd end this post with "Give yourself to the Dark Side", but I felt like it didn't really fit, considering how bright, light and colorful the design in Android has become (well animated, too! although they've taken few steps back).
 
H

hadareud

The Translator
So the same hardware (or slightly worse) with a camera that's very probably quite a bit worse than the 950 and a fingerprint reader instead of an iris scanner.

With a design that's as bland (or slightly more bland), but for a better price (if you can get one).

Not sure that that Nexus is something to write home about if the specs are true.
 
B

brotkasten

Member
hadareud said:
So the same hardware (or slightly worse) with a camera that's very probably quite a bit worse than the 950 and a fingerprint reader instead of an iris scanner.

With a design that's as bland (or slightly more bland), but for a better price (if you can get one).

Not sure that that Nexus is something to write home about if the specs are true.
Click to expand...

But you gain the advantages of the Android app ecosystem.
 
S

SCHUEY F1

Unconfirmed Member
Wonder when we will learn more about how Project Astoria will work....lastflowers?!? ;)

Edit: I know you guys said it isn't good, but the Moto X/Style appeals to me more than other Android phones..i like the look. Kinda reminds me of the 920.
 
J

JaggedSac

Member
hadareud said:
Yeah, important update. Without the store, it was pretty shit.

I really like the app btw. Yes there's still some annoying bugs as we've seen above and they also need to do something about the very annoying initial adding process, but it's definitely a lot better than Xbox Music on 8.1 once your music is there.

It also looks good imo:
Click to expand...

Great
 
S

SCHUEY F1

Unconfirmed Member
lastflowers said:
Do you mean the underlying architecture implementation, or how users will use Astoria?

I can't go into the former, but the latter is essentially the same as any other windows app.
Click to expand...

Will the developers have to port these apps? will these apps just be available in the store to download or will we have to sideload them?

Thanks!
 
frontieruk

frontieruk

Member
SCHUEY F1 said:
Will the developers have to port these apps? will these apps just be available in the store to download or will we have to sideload them?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

I thought it was so devs could port their apps more easily, so I bet MS was furious that it leaked, as it wasn't supposed to be for everyday users.
 
L

LukasTaves

Member
SCHUEY F1 said:
Will the developers have to port these apps? will these apps just be available in the store to download or will we have to sideload them?

Thanks!
Click to expand...
I may be wrong, but I think it will go like this:

- Dev submits the apk, providing credentials that they are the original developers, the system tries to convert api calls, and if your app uses any that isn't available on win phone it will provide a guide for adapting;
- Along with the apk developers will be able to fill an app manifest describing xaml files for live tiles and notifications, registering Cortana commands, and describing which of the app threads handle the background tasks, basically wrapping their app with wp specific functionality.
- The app plus its manifest is them treated as a WP app and can be downloaded from the store.
 
R

Roberto Larcos

Member
Friend needed a temporary smartphone. Choice was between a low-end Lumia and a low-end Android. Lumia had it beaten all ends up in specs, performance, the lot.

Which one was bought? The Android. Reason? No Snapchat on Windows Phone.
 
H

Heretic

Member
Roberto Larcos said:
Friend needed a temporary smartphone. Choice was between a low-end Lumia and a low-end Android. Lumia had it beaten all ends up in specs, performance, the lot.

Which one was bought? The Android. Reason? No Snapchat on Windows Phone.
Click to expand...

Killer app. My friend left WP because of it.
 
K

Klocker

Member
Roberto Larcos said:
Friend needed a temporary smartphone. Choice was between a low-end Lumia and a low-end Android. Lumia had it beaten all ends up in specs, performance, the lot.

Which one was bought? The Android. Reason? No Snapchat on Windows Phone.
Click to expand...
Sad

Understandable if that app is important to someone but sad nonetheless about snapchat's status on WP

although personally I couldn't give a flying fuck about snap chat app
 
L

LukasTaves

Member
Klocker said:
Sad

Understandable if that app is important to someone but sad nonetheless about snapchat's status on WP

although personally I couldn't give a flying fuck about snap chat app
Click to expand...

I can see the appeal. I mean the app is terrible (on android at least) but for what people use it for.

A friend of mine make like almost literally a comic using the app every other day, it's very strange XD
 
L

lastflowers

Banned
SCHUEY F1 said:
Will the developers have to port these apps? will these apps just be available in the store to download or will we have to sideload them?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Devs will probably have to do work to make sure their apps work. End-Users (you and me) should be able to get apps built using Astoria by just searching the store.

Basically all info gathered from: https://dev.windows.com/en-us/bridges/android

E.G:
  1. Android dev Bilbo Baggins has a sweet app called '1Ringr'.
  2. Bilbo toys around with the Astoria dev tools.
  3. He drops his android app into one of our web-tools for compatibility and finds some gotchas. (not all apps would necessarily have a gotcha)
  4. He uses the developer tools to make some modifications
  5. He submits his work to the Windows Store
  6. 1Ringr was accepted!
  7. User Schuey searches 1ringr in the windows store
  8. 1Ringr is now on Windows!
  9. User Schuey is so happy he never leaves Microsoft ever and buys every Microsoft product, service, app, whatever.
  10. User Schuey finds his life meaningless in 2100 as Micrsosoft changes name to MSFT.
  11. User Schuey passes away.
  12. Bilbo Baggins is rich and invisible
 
G

giga

Member
Roberto Larcos said:
It really is killing adoption.

Microsoft needs to just park a truck full of money in front of Snapchat HQ at this point, or flat out buy the company. Even an Android port would be fine for 99% of people.
Click to expand...

Sad state of affairs for a platform when users are okay with straight ports of apps designed for other operating systems. Reminds me of Linux users who use Wine.
 
S

Steelyuhas

Member
The Windows Store experience on Win 10 mobile is still insanely bad. The Store's performance on low end hardware is awful, apps won't automatically update, manually downloading and installing updates can somehow take like an hour to update a few apps.
 
J

JaggedSac

Member
Steelyuhas said:
The Windows Store experience on Win 10 mobile is still insanely bad. The Store's performance on low end hardware is awful, apps won't automatically update, manually downloading and installing updates can somehow take like an hour to update a few apps.
Click to expand...

I ended up having to uninstall Tubecast because the updates always failed and were always downloading. Other than that, downloads of updates have been fast. MS just dumped out updates for Mail, Calendar, Photos, Camera, Skyle, and Messenger. No idea what the changes are. Mail used my dark theme, but I changed that back.
 
S

SCHUEY F1

Unconfirmed Member
JaggedSac said:
I ended up having to uninstall Tubecast because the updates always failed and were always downloading. Other than that, downloads of updates have been fast. MS just dumped out updates for Mail, Calendar, Photos, Camera, Skyle, and Messenger. No idea what the changes are. Mail used my dark theme, but I changed that back.
Click to expand...

I also noticed in the mail app when you go to switch accounts it is laid out different and show if there is mail in those accounts. Also settings is under the three dot menu now.
 
H

hadareud

The Translator
I like the dark theme, but I'd like it to maintain the blue frame at the top.

Looks a bit naked up top now.

edit: good update though, they've also moved the settings to where they make sense.
 
M

Montresor

Member
Montresor said:
I got fucked recently.

My Nokia Lumia 1520 got into bad shape 2 weeks ago. The handset microphone stopped working, so people couldn't hear me during phone calls unless I put the phone on speaker. And sometimes (not all the time) the speakerphone on the back didn't work well when watching Youtube or Netflix. So I took my phone to a shop for a repair. The agreement was that they would perform a diagnostic for $25 to determine what would be the cost of a full repair. If any repairs are decided, then the $25 diagnostic becomes incorporated into the full repair cost. That's fair.

They performed a "diagnostic" and determined that to fix the phone I would have to pay $500 to replace the motherboard. No big deal though - I'm not going to pay that money to replace the motherboard. My thought process was I'll pay the $25 for their diagnostic, and then take my phone back in the same condition that they received it.

But they claim that when they received the phone, the buttons (Back button, Windows button, Search button) were not working. So when they gave me back the phone, it did not have working buttons... the phone has essentially become useless. The previous problems (microphone and speakerphone problems) were annoying yet manageable and tolerable problems. But non-working buttons is too much.

Right now the phone is still in their possession and they won't give it back to me unless I pay the $25 diagnostic fee to get it back. But they want me to pay $25 for the diagnostic and aren't going to do anything about the broken buttons. I think I'm justified in saying I'll pay the $25 diagnostic fee only if they fix the buttons... I've decided that I'm not going to pay the $25 and just leave the phone with them indefinitely, but I'm making a trip to their shop next week to go perform a factory default on the phone (buttons don't work but I should still be able to navigate to Settings and do a factory default since the touch screen works). Would that be a smart thing, to factory reset the phone and then give up on it? I've argued with the repair shop verbally and sent a lengthy email letting them know the wrong that they committed, but they are not budging - "when we received the phone it had broken buttons already - pay us $25 to get your phone back".

Anyway, what has really got me pissed off is that I went to get a new phone from my carrier Fido and the newest and only Windows phone available is the friggin Lumia 830 which was released LAST YEAR and which is worse in almost every way imaginable than my Lumia 1520. The only good thing about the 830 from what I can tell is that it is smaller and has a removable battery. But man, I'm really disappointed I was forced to use my zero-dollar phone chit on the Lumia 830. I already have a Galaxy S5 phone thanks to work so I wasn't going to get another Android. And iPhones... *shudder*, you still need iTunes to grab files from an iPhone, so no thanks. You'd think by now they would have a nice upgrade over the 1520 but they don't. =/
Click to expand...

Thank the god above. The repair shop called me back (this is their web site by the way: http://techknowspace.com/) and said they went ahead and fixed my buttons for free - I just have to pay their $25 diagnostic fee (like we previously agreed) and I can get the phone back - that is very very fair.

I'm actually loving my Lumia 830 though. It's so snug and comfortable - I like how small it is compared to the 1520. But... with my 1520 back, I might be able to salvage something out of it.
 
L

LukasTaves

Member
Steelyuhas said:
The Windows Store experience on Win 10 mobile is still insanely bad. The Store's performance on low end hardware is awful, apps won't automatically update, manually downloading and installing updates can somehow take like an hour to update a few apps.
Click to expand...
The store is so slow it hurts. Updating a 8mb app can take about twenty minutes with the store open, because if you close it won't update, and it's infuriating when the app page loads but you have to wait an eternity for the spinning dots until you are able to download it.

Background tasks has just been a general disappointment with windows 10 thus far. On build they described what seemed a very powerful and easy way to get apps doing all sort of background tasks without taking a huge hit on battery life, but all my apps have some issues doing stuff on background.
 
L

LukasTaves

Member
hadareud said:
The store is slow as hell, but it does work fine in the background for me.

Update history is a glaring omission.
Click to expand...

Mine only works in background when I hard reset, and even them in bursts, I have to constantly open it to install the next batch. It took almost two whole days to get all my apps installed because of that.



On another note, the new mail app is indeed a lot better!
 
J

José Mourinho

cocknose
I... I eh... I bought an iPhone 6s.

Was tempted by the new BlackBerry but didn't want to wait any longer. So there it is.

Goodbye WP, you've mostly been terrible.
 
P

Paganmoon

Member
José Mourinho;179232524 said:
I... I eh... I bought an iPhone 6s.

Was tempted by the new BlackBerry but didn't want to wait any longer. So there it is.

Goodbye WP, you've mostly been terrible.
Click to expand...

One by one...
 
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