• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Windows Phone 8.1 |OT| Update 1

V

VanMardigan

has calmed down a bit.
I don't know if it's hilarious or sad that the Verge surface book review has an entire paragraph from the Nexus 6p in the middle of it.
 
J

JaggedSac

Member
I think it is even worse that there is an article bitching about the fact that the Steve Jobs movie only focuses on the part of his life where he was more of a dick than the other parts of his life.
 
S

Steelyuhas

Member
So, the phone won't hold charge (been at 2% for hours, despite a few soft resets). It's also occasionally shutting off.

The recovery tool is ready to flash, but it says I may damage my phone with the battery at this level...


halp?


Edit: fuck, how does an OS update fry a perfectly working battery?? :[

Edit 2: So, after several failed attempts at an 8.1 flash because they phone couldn't hold power, I managed to pull off a Win 10 Reset through the settings. After continuing to not hold power I found my 920 and plugging that in and it didn't boot after several minutes. Apparently I'd never used the cable that came with my 1520, so I plugged that into the 920 and it started booting instantly. So, I've plugged the new cable back into my 1520 and it hasn't shut down since and appears to have slowly started charging (still downloading the bazillion app updates, so I'm not expecting a decent charge rate until after they are done).

So, out of the woods...maybe...yay...
 
DonMigs85

DonMigs85

Member
My mom's Lumia 720 still has an issue where it randomly doesn't detect the SD card for long stretches of time, then it can suddenly reappear. Already been through resets and trying different SD cards, but all class 4.
Now my question is, are Lumias really choosy when it comes to SD cards? Would it be more reliable if I used a class 10 card or something?
 
O

Opus Angelorum

Member
The new build is massively better. Night and day performance and overall feel.

Photos still crashes the odd time, and the Camera won't launch sometimes but everything else feels rock solid.
 
H

hadareud

The Translator
As good and stable as this build is, unfortunately I have to retract my statement that the battery drain has been fixed.

My battery went from 100% to 10% in 8 hours overnight, with messaging, search and mail & calendar being the culprits.

Just did a soft reset, maybe that will fix the problem, but it's clear that there's still issues to be sorted out.

Other than that I think it's fair to say that this build is ready to be used as a daily driver unless the build deteriorates as badly as some of the previous ones which is obviously impossible to say after a couple of days.

edit: the good news is that Waze works again.
 
L

LukasTaves

Member
brotkasten said:
I skimped over the list and most of the stuff isn't really noteworthy, other than "Windows finally supports this".

That said, mobile operating systems have reached a point of maturity, where it's really hard to argue for the latest version. When I look at Android 6.0 and how little it brings, I don't even think that not getting OS updates super quick is a big deal anymore. If you're on 5.1, you're fine.

iOS isn't even worth mentioning. I can't tell you one standout feature of iOS 9 and what it does on my iPad. The PiP video thing is cool, but it's not supported on my super old iPad 4, for some shitty reason. What else does it do? No idea.
Click to expand...

I think if you put the features on a paper will make win10 mobile less impressive than it really is.

Minor things like being able to swipe a single notification, and still be able to leave a one you'd like to address later, or having all your toggles accessible from the action center, makes a huge difference in how to use your phone. A simple task like turning on the flashlight is really simple and fast on win10.

Universal apps also may sound like "Uh, it's okay, I guess", but the having a more evolved design language and a more powerful app platform do wonders in daily usage as well. Except for the photos app I think every single app destroys its W8.1 counterparts in design and function, even if right now some of them lack features available before.

Simple tasks like opening a email, downloading an attachment, editing it and them sending back are much better to do on the phone in win10, because the apps work much better together too. You can receive an email full of photos for instance, and the photos app just knows about all the pictures from the mail and you can see them all by just swiping between them, even when they are only saved locally in the mail app.

The app platform being extended also can make the daily experience better. Apps on win10 apps can simply do more, specially in how they interact with each other. So stuff like apps working as extensions can provide more functionality and it was an area where win phone was lagging behind android for instance.

What I mean to say is: Yeah, it sounds small changes, but using win10 daily and them going back to 8,1 is very jarring, the whole phones feels poorer to use.
 
H

hadareud

The Translator
LukasTaves said:
I think if you put the features on a paper will make win10 mobile less impressive than it really is.

Minor things like being able to swipe a single notification, and still be able to leave a one you'd like to address later, or having all your toggles accessible from the action center, makes a huge difference in how to use your phone. A simple task like turning on the flashlight is really simple and fast on win10.

Universal apps also may sound like "Uh, it's okay, I guess", but the having a more evolved design language and a more powerful app platform do wonders in daily usage as well. Except for the photos app I think every single app destroys its W8.1 counterparts in design and function, even if right now some of them lack features available before.

Simple tasks like opening a email, downloading an attachment, editing it and them sending back are much better to do on the phone in win10, because the apps work much better together too. You can receive an email full of photos for instance, and the photos app just knows about all the pictures from the mail and you can see them all by just swiping between them, even when they are only saved locally in the mail app.

The app platform being extended also can make the daily experience better. Apps on win10 apps can simply do more, specially in how they interact with each other. So stuff like apps working as extensions can provide more functionality and it was an area where win phone was lagging behind android for instance.

What I mean to say is: Yeah, it sounds small changes, but using win10 daily and them going back to 8,1 is very jarring, the whole phones feels poorer to use.
Click to expand...

Yep, completely agree with all of this.

That's why I didn't/couldn't go back to 8.1 even when some of the builds were extremely painful to use. 10 is a generation ahead of 8.1, there's no doubt about that for me. The same could not be said when moving from 8 to 8.1 imo. The universal apps that are there now are worth the switch by themselves, and that's despite some of them still requiring a significant amount of work. I really think Universal Apps are a major step forward for WP even before they've been taken up by developers outside of Microsoft (for the most part).

Of course, the lack of apps has not yet gone away with this. If the rumour that Google apps are coming is true, though, that would make a huge difference.

Opus Angelorum said:
Has the new build lost the ability to reply to text messages from the notification?
Click to expand...

No, still there for me.
 
B

brotkasten

Member
LukasTaves said:
I think if you put the features on a paper will make win10 mobile less impressive than it really is.

Minor things like being able to swipe a single notification, and still be able to leave a one you'd like to address later, or having all your toggles accessible from the action center, makes a huge difference in how to use your phone. A simple task like turning on the flashlight is really simple and fast on win10.

Universal apps also may sound like "Uh, it's okay, I guess", but the having a more evolved design language and a more powerful app platform do wonders in daily usage as well. Except for the photos app I think every single app destroys its W8.1 counterparts in design and function, even if right now some of them lack features available before.

Simple tasks like opening a email, downloading an attachment, editing it and them sending back are much better to do on the phone in win10, because the apps work much better together too. You can receive an email full of photos for instance, and the photos app just knows about all the pictures from the mail and you can see them all by just swiping between them, even when they are only saved locally in the mail app.

The app platform being extended also can make the daily experience better. Apps on win10 apps can simply do more, specially in how they interact with each other. So stuff like apps working as extensions can provide more functionality and it was an area where win phone was lagging behind android for instance.

What I mean to say is: Yeah, it sounds small changes, but using win10 daily and them going back to 8,1 is very jarring, the whole phones feels poorer to use.
Click to expand...

Thank you. As an outsider it's easy to look at the list and dismiss it, while ignoring the improvements that aren't visible until you use it. It almost makes me want to use Windows Phone again.
 
L

lastflowers

Banned
Steelyuhas said:
So, the phone won't hold charge (been at 2% for hours, despite a few soft resets). It's also occasionally shutting off.

The recovery tool is ready to flash, but it says I may damage my phone with the battery at this level...


halp?


Edit: fuck, how does an OS update fry a perfectly working battery?? :[

Edit 2: So, after several failed attempts at an 8.1 flash because they phone couldn't hold power, I managed to pull off a Win 10 Reset through the settings. After continuing to not hold power I found my 920 and plugging that in and it didn't boot after several minutes. Apparently I'd never used the cable that came with my 1520, so I plugged that into the 920 and it started booting instantly. So, I've plugged the new cable back into my 1520 and it hasn't shut down since and appears to have slowly started charging (still downloading the bazillion app updates, so I'm not expecting a decent charge rate until after they are done).

So, out of the woods...maybe...yay...
Click to expand...
The best thing to do if you hit this is to reboot to flashing mode (hold power up? While rebooting). And leave it plugged in for a couple of hours. On some of the old engineering phones we had problems like that due to faulty hardware and bad sensors.
 
L

lastflowers

Banned
hadareud said:
As good and stable as this build is, unfortunately I have to retract my statement that the battery drain has been fixed.

My battery went from 100% to 10% in 8 hours overnight, with messaging, search and mail & calendar being the culprits.

Just did a soft reset, maybe that will fix the problem, but it's clear that there's still issues to be sorted out.
Click to expand...
Wasn't there an article about cortana eating up battery? I could see her still having that bug and causing the major pain. That team is great, so hopefully they'll have it fixed soon, though the work would have to trickle into the next insider build....


DonMigs85 said:
My mom's Lumia 720 still has an issue where it randomly doesn't detect the SD card for long stretches of time, then it can suddenly reappear. Already been through resets and trying different SD cards, but all class 4.
Now my question is, are Lumias really choosy when it comes to SD cards? Would it be more reliable if I used a class 10 card or something?
Click to expand...
IIRC, the Lumias were not really rated to use cards higher than class6. They could use them, but sometimes were unreliable.


brotkasten said:
Thank you. As an outsider it's easy to look at the list and dismiss it, while ignoring the improvements that aren't visible until you use it. It almost makes me want to use Windows Phone again.
Click to expand...
Heh, and as an insider I've been using w10 pretty exclusively for a year on both VMs and my physical phones...so 8.1 seems like such a long time ago.
 
H

hadareud

The Translator
lastflowers said:
Wasn't there an article about cortana eating up battery? I could see her still having that bug and causing the major pain. That team is great, so hopefully they'll have it fixed soon, though the work would have to trickle into the next insider build....
Click to expand...

Cool, good to know thanks.

It seems that the soft reset has got rid of the issue for now, let's see.
 
B

brotkasten

Member
lastflowers said:
Heh, and as an insider I've been using w10 pretty exclusively for a year on both VMs and my physical phones...so 8.1 seems like such a long time ago.
Click to expand...

I made the OT over a year ago and 8.1 actually RTM'd a month or two before that, so it really has been such a long time.

hadareud said:
You're itching to jump back in Brot, itching for it.
Click to expand...

I admit that I looked into buying a 830, after I wrote that post. Just to being able to play with the OS. But it's still being sold for way more than I'm willing to spend. Most likely because it's EOL. I could buy something like a 640 for less than half the price, but I'm not a fan of the device.
 
O

Opus Angelorum

Member
Okay some issues with the latest W10 build on my 930:

- Store sometimes sits on resuming for a second or two
- WhatsApp missed message count doesn't show on tile
- Spotify is still slow going in/out of it
- Camera 'last picture' short-cut doesn't work
 
H

hadareud

The Translator
Can't take screenshots on it, either. Well I could take one, but none since that.

It's definitely not free of bugs, that's for sure. But nothing too bad so far.
 
V

Vyer

Member
brotkasten said:
Yeah, lets not exaggerate here. More and more companies are shifting away from (detailed) change logs.

I guess it depends on the apps, but none of the apps on my iPad (Spotify, Facebook, Twitter and more) have daily significant app updates with detailed change logs.

e: In fact, there's even an article about this shitty trend with the stupid change logs these companies are putting out.

TC: App Release Notes Are Getting Stupid

"Facebook may have kicked off this trend, but it’s hardly the only company fudging its release notes these days.

Pinterest, too, has followed suit. And that above quote about “super amazing things” comes from Tinder, which is probably one of the more egregious recent examples.
Plus, it’s more common than ever to see notes that simply state: “Bug fixes and performance improvements,” like Yahoo, Hulu, Google, Flipboard, LinkedIn, Microsoft, and several others have done over the course of the past month alone.

It seems that once you’re a certified “big company,” having to actually detail which bugs just got squashed is no longer your job.

More importantly, the lack of detail in release notes makes a statement about what a company thinks of its user base – that their users don’t care about minor changes, so why bother? It’s that same old elitist behavior – common in the I.T. industry, in particular – which elevates technical staff above the plebeian, unimportant users."

http://techcrunch.com/2015/09/04/app-release-notes-are-getting-stupid/
Click to expand...

He's not exaggerating. There are the occasional 'bug fixes' changelogs but more often than not they are fairly detailed (and frequent, in MS' case). Even the big boys like MS and Yahoo.

Facebook is the only exception, as they stopped being useful a long time ago.
 
L

lastflowers

Banned
kurisu1974 said:
I feel it makes Safari very slow and even makes it crash on my iPad Mini 2. Haven't noticed anything else either.
Click to expand...

I noticed some better workflow interactions between apps, but nothing that made me go 'wow'. The OS design and feel has a lot more fit and finish. But it was so bad coming off of the new color redesign its probably only getting back to where it was pre ios7
 
B

brotkasten

Member
Vyer said:
He's not exaggerating. There are the occasional 'bug fixes' changelogs but more often than not they are fairly detailed (and frequent, in MS' case). Even the big boys like MS and Yahoo.

Facebook is the only exception, as they stopped being useful a long time ago.
Click to expand...

Like I said, maybe I'm using the wrong apps, but I'm not seeing it on my iPad.

e: My iPad is at home. Here's what's going on on my Nexus 5, according to my recent updates (this past week).

Facebook: Same "detailed" changelog for the past few months (offline likes etc.)
HERE Maps:
"- A whole bunch of under the hood improvements
- Share your route and a directions list by text message, email and more
… and 'Surfer Dude' navigation is back - gnarly!"
(Facebook) Messenger: No changelog
Twitter: Same old changelog ("Introducing Highlights")
YouTube: Same old changelog ("The redesigned YouTube app..." <- Happened in July, btw)
OneNote:
"- OneNote badge &#8211; A quick and easy way to take notes from anywhere on your phone.
- Choose the notebook of your choice while sharing content from other applications to OneNote."

Now, Android is still a 2nd class citizen for app developers based in the US, but I really don't remember that it's different on my iPad.
hadareud said:
Yeah, but while you'd sometimes want to put him in a box, we loaf Brot.

edit: I'll get my coat.
Click to expand...

I love you guys. That's why I keep coming back to annoy you, even without owning a Windows Phone.
 
V

Vyer

Member
brotkasten said:
Like I said, maybe I'm using the wrong apps, but I'm not seeing it on my iPad.

e: My iPad is at home. Here's what's going on on my Nexus 5, according to my recent updates (this past week).

Facebook: Same "detailed" changelog for the last two months
HERE Maps:
"- A whole bunch of under the hood improvements
- Share your route and a directions list by text message, email and more
&#8230; and 'Surfer Dude' navigation is back - gnarly!"
(Facebook) Messenger: No changelog
Twitter: Same old changelog ("Introducing Highlights")
YouTube: Same old changelog ("The redesigned YouTube app..." <- Happened in July, btw)
OneNote:
"- OneNote badge &#8211; A quick and easy way to take notes from anywhere on your phone.
- Choose the notebook of your choice while sharing content from other applications to OneNote."

Now, Android is still a 2nd class citizen for app developers based in the US, but I really don't remember that it's different on my iPad.
.
Click to expand...

Might be more about the OS and the apps. For example, currently on my Air 2:

OneNote:
* Bug Fixes

Support for Pencil by Fifty Three - Inherently familiar, decidedly unique. Our support for Pencil by FiftyThree on iPad brings the power and precision of its eponymous analogue counterpart to OneNote's unapologetically digital canvas.
Keyboard Shortcuts on iPad - Familiar. Comfortable, and accurate. From the very beginning, OneNote was designed to be remarkably simple to use. We've taken that obsession and simplified essential components to create the most efficient design possible. To experience these yourself, just connect a keyboard and type '&#8984;'
Insert files from OneDrive for Business (Work/School) into your OneNote pages with the OneDrive app.
Page List scroll-able past last page - You might have noticed that you can keep scrolling to infinity below your list of pages. While it might be fun, it's not functional.
Zoom on camera - We reworked the document/whiteboard camera view and forgot to put the zoom back in.
Share Extension issue with Split View on iPad - We made some improvements to our share extension so that it gets updated as soon as you add a section so that you see it when you share from other apps.
Click to expand...

Excel:
&#8226;Add and edit comments: You've got something to say. Now that's easier to do, because you can create and edit comments in Excel on iPad.
&#8226;All comments in one place: Seeing is believing. View everyone's comments in the new Comments task pane on iPad.
&#8226;Rename a file: Everyone likes a do-over! Now you can name an Excel spreadsheet directly from the Open or Recent tab.

Other recent improvements are:
&#8226;Bi-directional and complex script languages: now supports bi-directional text editing and complex script for Arabic, Hebrew and Thai.
&#8226;View protected documents: open and view documents that have access permissions applied to them.
&#8226;Easier sharing: invite people to edit a document and grant them permissions, all from within the app.
&#8226;Integration with Outlook: edit a spreadsheet attached to an Outlook email message. When you've finished, the updated spreadsheet will be attached to a new email message, ready to send.
&#8226; New storage options: open, edit and save your work to iCloud and other online storage services. (requires iOS 8)
&#8226;Excel Add-ins: add functionality to Excel that enhance your spreadsheets and helps increase your productivity. (only on iPad, requires iOS 8.2 or newer
Click to expand...

Similar detail for some of my other apps, like 1Password, ESPN, Tweetbot, Yahoo Fantasy Football, etc.

Not saying there aren't 'bug fixes now fuck off' either of course (anything Facebook having been mentioned, Google likes to do it too. Netflix also I've noticed), but having used multiple devices pretty regularly I would say I have noticed a difference.
 
S

Steelyuhas

Member
lastflowers said:
The best thing to do if you hit this is to reboot to flashing mode (hold power up? While rebooting). And leave it plugged in for a couple of hours. On some of the old engineering phones we had problems like that due to faulty hardware and bad sensors.
Click to expand...

Thanks, although once I switched out the charging cable and got the W10 reset to work, it appears to be doing okay. It charged overnight and the device has cooled down, and it's doing alright this morning. Battery drain still seems quicker than normal, but not an alarm bell clearly something is wrong drain.

Couple of random app issues, Messaging appears to be downloading messages at random, some conversations are up to date, some are years old. Pocketcasts is also having a hell of a time downloading a couple podcasts.
 
C

captive

Joe Six-Pack: posting for the common man
dammit, i'm on 10536 and on the fast ring and still haven't gotten this new build you guys seem to be enjoying.
 
J

JaggedSac

Member
brotkasten said:
I admit that I looked into buying a 830, after I wrote that post. Just to being able to play with the OS. But it's still being sold for way more than I'm willing to spend. Most likely because it's EOL. I could buy something like a 640 for less than half the price, but I'm not a fan of the device.
Click to expand...

I will sell you my M8 for $125 after the new phones come out.
 
K

Kinky John

Member
Looks like Joe's thinking of bailing as well...

dtY4SI2.png
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

The Verge: Microsoft wants to make the Xbox app the home of PC gaming
Platform 2 3 4 5 6
294
12K
Gamezone replied
Windows 11’s new gamepad keyboard lets you type with an Xbox controller
4
831
Magic Carpet replied
The "Bing Wallpaper" app is malware
Business
1
478
Trogdor1123 replied
Microsoft rolls out Windows 24H2 update
2 3 4
179
16K
YCoCg replied
[Verge] Microsoft is combining ‘the best of Xbox and Windows together’ for handhelds
2 3 4
152
7K
Kazekage1981 replied
Top Bottom