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Windows Phone 8.1 |OT| Update 1

J

JaggedSac

Member
VanMardigan said:
Don't know if it's device specific (or sd card related), but News is slow/laggy and Groove really isn't any better than the old zune app performance wise. Signing in alone takes too long. Outlook is fantastic tho, won't argue with that one.

So, I'd like to know what apps you guys are using that are appreciably better. I don't notice an improvement in load times and responsiveness compared to the better wp8.1 apps. And definitely nothing that compares to the "instant" and rock solid feeling of top tier android/iOS apps.
Click to expand...

Maps on W10 is a lot better than HERE on 8.1. Not performance related, but features(lane suggestions, left/right side of street of destination info, traffic cams, etc). Performance for Maps has been great foe me though. Just missing the transit HERE app, though I only ever used that in France. The public transit in Atlanta is about as simple as you can get, and almost as useless.


Performance on apps such as News and Weather depends on network performance as much as anything else since it has to go grab crap to display. I am in the app and waiting on content to be fetched within 2 seconds for both of those.
 
M

MCD

Junior Member
VanMardigan said:
Just opened the News app, 5 seconds to see content on the screen, installed on SD. Weather app took 4-5 seconds, installed internally. That's just not fast, that's not competitive.

Edit: I didn't compare Groove to Xbox music, I compared it to Zune music.
Click to expand...

Hmm...Back in the Zune days, I usually used it for simple one or two local files. Can't comment.
 
J

joshschw

Member
VanMardigan said:
Just opened the News app, 5 seconds to see content on the screen, installed on SD. Weather app took 4-5 seconds, installed internally. That's just not fast, that's not competitive.

Edit: I didn't compare Groove to Xbox music, I compared it to Zune music.
Click to expand...

Not even 3 seconds AND I get refreshed content in that time on my 1520 - internal memory. Hadn't loaded News since last night when I rebooted. Would be instant on future relaunches if I don't reboot I think. Same for weather but it loads quicker initially.

n64coder said:
No SD in my 950 XL. Took less than a second.

Your comment about SD card is worrisome though since I did order a 128GB one that should arrive soon. Will the Lexar High-Performance MicroSDXC 633x class 10 be good enough?
Click to expand...

Probably okay.... I have used the SanDisk Extreme gold colored ones in my 1520. Not for apps though.
 
J

JaggedSac

Member
MCD said:
Maps search engine is ATRICIOUS.

Search for X location...jumps to another CONTINENT. Fuck this.
Click to expand...

Can't say I've had that issue. I can imagine that being frustrating though.

n64coder said:
No SD in my 950 XL. Took less than a second.

Your comment about SD card is worrisome though since I did order a 128GB one that should arrive soon. Will the Lexar High-Performance MicroSDXC 633x class 10 be good enough?
Click to expand...

I would suggest putting just media on that and apps on internal.
 
V

VanMardigan

has calmed down a bit.
Not gonna lie, apps on sd is one reason I came back to WP. Most apps run fine regardless of location, just saying that for me I'm not seeing across the board performance improvements from UWP apps. I'm willing to give it time, I'm happy with the progress in the time I've had the phone.
 
E

ElNino

Member
VanMardigan said:
Don't know if it's device specific (or sd card related), but News is slow/laggy and Groove really isn't any better than the old zune app performance wise. Signing in alone takes too long. Outlook is fantastic tho, won't argue with that one.

So, I'd like to know what apps you guys are using that are appreciably better. I don't notice an improvement in load times and responsiveness compared to the better wp8.1 apps. And definitely nothing that compares to the "instant" and rock solid feeling of top tier android/iOS apps.
Click to expand...
I just tried some apps on my 950 XL and got the following (very approximate times... ie, counting in my head).

News: 1.5 seconds to content when loaded fresh, instant when reloading.
Sports: ~1 second to load initial content page from fresh launch, ~1 second to load scoreboard page. Instant when reloading.
Groove: Loaded instantly to my playlist page and was able to start music right away. Was already signed in by the time I opened the tab, but in the passed I've been able to play right away as well.
Weather app (Appy Weather): Loaded with current location in ~1 second.
Twitter: Opened instantly to my feed, but I had used it earlier today. Fresh launch is ~1 second.

Are there times that apps take longer to load? Sure I guess... but I think it feels just as quick to load most similar apps than I've noticed on my wife's iPhone.
 
S

SCHUEY F1

Unconfirmed Member
ElNino said:
I just tried some apps on my 950 XL and got the following (very approximate times... ie, counting in my head).

News: 1.5 seconds to content when loaded fresh, instant when reloading.
Sports: ~1 second to load initial content page from fresh launch, ~1 second to load scoreboard page. Instant when reloading.
Groove: Loaded instantly to my playlist page and was able to start music right away. Was already signed in by the time I opened the tab, but in the passed I've been able to play right away as well.
Weather app (Appy Weather): Loaded with current location in ~1 second.
Twitter: Opened instantly to my feed, but I had used it earlier today. Fresh launch is ~1 second.

Are there times that apps take longer to load? Sure I guess... but I think it feels just as quick to load most similar apps than I've noticed on my wife's iPhone.
Click to expand...

That sounds pretty great.
 
J

JaggedSac

Member
Since .NET Native is available, I see no reasons why a UWP app wouldn't load faster than an 8.1 counterpart. Well, unless the app isn't written in C# or VB.
 
E

ElNino

Member
SCHUEY F1 said:
That sounds pretty great.
Click to expand...
Most apps seem to open pretty quick, but there is still the issue of app feature parity. There are certainly apps that have more features on iOS/Android than the same app on W10M. It isn't enough for me though to jump ship though (yet).

On a different note, I bumped the display scaling down to 300% from the default 350% on the XL and noticed that some apps change their formatting to account for it. Messaging for instance added a row on the left (in portrait mode) for contacts so you can switch between threads without backing out. It also scales the top bar and bottom nav bar buttons to be smaller as well.
 
H

hadareud

The Translator
I think the MS universal apps are pretty great. I have them installed on SD and they load pretty much instantly (+animation, of course).

Also, the app announcement I posted wasn't significant because of the apps that have been released already, but because of the much improved take up of apps. Obviously.

If anything can bring developers to the platform it is that. A much, much bigger user base with a significantly higher app adoption rate.
 
S

Speedy Blue Dude

Banned
Think I'm finally gonna cave and just go ahead and buy an AT&T branded 950 since my iPhone 6S has a terrible battery. (Like, randomly goes from 40% to 0% and dies, and refuses to turn on).

Does Windows Phone have a Steam App yet?
 
H

hadareud

The Translator
I installed the 950 fw update yesterday (had to use the recovery tool to get it because it was there but not OTA, for some weird reason) and the battery life seems ridiculously good since.

I took the phone off the charger around 8pm and I've used it quite a bit since (Edge and other things last night and Waze this morning) and the battery is on 87% after 13 hours.
 
M

maeh2k

Member
Any tips on having photos from a Lumia 930 printed?

I took a couple of photos with the JPEG (5MP) + DNG (19MP) option and my grandmother would like to have some prints.

They should probably come from the high-res DNG, right? Anything I should do to the DNG first? Also, what applications do you use to work with the DNGs?
What's a reasonable size for the prints before you see a deterioration in the quality of the prints?
 
B

brotkasten

Member
hadareud said:
Why the hell are they not using an open standard for their 2 factor authentication?
Click to expand...

I already posted their explanation in my previous post.

We needed to create our own two-factor authenticator because we need to show users the contents of the trade on a separate device and have them confirm it there. Requiring users to take a code from a generic authenticator and enter it into a hijacked PC to confirm a trade meant that hackers could trick them into trading away items they didn't intend to. This basically made it impossible to use a generic third party authenticator, such as Google Authenticator, to confirm trades.
 
H

hadareud

The Translator
brotkasten said:
I already posted their explanation in my previous post.

We needed to create our own two-factor authenticator because we need to show users the contents of the trade on a separate device and have them confirm it there. Requiring users to take a code from a generic authenticator and enter it into a hijacked PC to confirm a trade meant that hackers could trick them into trading away items they didn't intend to. This basically made it impossible to use a generic third party authenticator, such as Google Authenticator, to confirm trades.
Click to expand...

That sounds like bollocks to me, I'm not sure what difference it makes where you get your code from.

If your PC is "hijacked" does it make a difference whether you enter a code generated from Steam's in-house app or from Google authenticator?

Maybe I'm too stupid to understand.
 
J

José Mourinho

cocknose
hadareud said:
That sounds like bollocks to me, I'm not sure what difference it makes where you get your code from.

If your PC is "hijacked" does it make a difference whether you enter a code generated from Steam's in-house app or from Google authenticator?

Maybe I'm too stupid to understand.
Click to expand...
I know nothing about Steam trading but Google Authenticator doesn't help when trying to check the authenticity of traded items against that of a compromised computer system.

That's what I took from it. That is, the other way of doing it would involve users just using a code from the app without confirming the legitimacy of the trade.
 
H

hadareud

The Translator
José Mourinho;191282276 said:
I know nothing about Steam trading but Google Authenticator doesn't help when trying to check the authenticity of traded items against that of a compromised computer system.

That's what I took from it. That is, the other way of doing it would involve users just using a code from the app without confirming the legitimacy of the trade.
Click to expand...

Ah ok.

So at the moment you have to use the Steam mobile app to complete a trade? If that's the case that would make sense (although it's inconvenient for users).

They could quite easily use something like Transakt by the way - there you have to confirm a login (or a trade in this case) in-app.
 
B

brotkasten

Member
hadareud said:
Ah ok.

So at the moment you have to use the Steam mobile app to complete a trade? If that's the case that would make sense (although it's inconvenient for users).

They could quite easily use something like Transakt by the way - there you have to confirm a login (or a trade in this case) in-app.
Click to expand...

I posted an excerpt from their FAQ in my earlier post. If you don't use the mobile authenticator, the traded items are put on hold for at least 3 days.

Why are trade holds necessary?

Trade holds protect your items. Because Steam accounts are valuable, especially if they have items worth stealing. If you haven't protected your account with a physical device (using the Steam Guard Mobile Authenticator), a trade hold will give you time to discover your account has been compromised and to prevent items from leaving your account.

...

This means that anyone using the Steam Guard Mobile Authenticator to confirm trades is able to continue trading as always. Users who haven't enabled it, or can't, can still trade, but they'll have to wait up to 3 days for the trade to go through. This gives both Steam and users the time to discover their accounts have been hacked and recover it before the hackers can steal their items.
 
H

hadareud

The Translator
Yes, I understand that. What I'm questioning is their assertion this couldn't be achieved through a different authentication method.
 
B

brotkasten

Member
hadareud said:
Yes, I understand that. What I'm questioning is their assertion this couldn't be achieved through a different authentication method.
Click to expand...

You asked if you have to use the authenticator to complete a trade, which was answered earlier in that blurb. You don't, but your items will be put on hold.

And apparently they weren't satisfied with other solutions. I'm sure they tried and tested them, because that would be way easier than coming up with your own implementation.

Fact is that it's a shitty situation and I don't see Valve caring enough about this platform to support it at all, which is awful. It's not like their mobile apps on iOS and Android are particularly great in the first place. In fact, few months ago they were absolute trash and until then, Valve hadn't even updated the Android version in years (it still looked like Gingerbread garbage, had the old icon and appearance way after the brand relaunch and was updated once, to add the authenticator). They crated the apps to make it easier to spend money and that's still the primary goal of these apps. No proper community features, no group chat support, no wishlist management. Until recently, you couldn't even use the discovery queue with these apps.

Valve is not a great company at all, but based Gaben and his sales. Or something.
 
V

VanMardigan

has calmed down a bit.
So for the second time in two weeks, a 3rd party twitter app won't open. First tweetium, now fenice. They work fine for a bit, now any time I try to open them, they immediately force close before even pulling any content. Any ideas?
 
L

Laranja

Member
While I haven't been an active participant in this thread, I've been lurking for the past one and a half years and have sported a Windows Phone device for about that long.

I've waited and waited for the apps to come, for the updates to arrive, and for the features to become available outside of the US. Now the time has come to get a new phone, and I've decided to get an Android device.

I hope the OS matures enough that it becomes a viable option by the time I need a new phone, hopefully in a couple of years.
 
V

VanMardigan

has calmed down a bit.
What phone are you getting?

I think everyone should switch platforms regularly to get the "grass is greener" thing worked out.
 
S

Sky Interloper

Member
brotkasten said:
Fact is that it's a shitty situation and I don't see Valve caring enough about this platform to support it at all, which is awful.
Click to expand...

Seriously, I think they simply don't care enough; it is pretty much a web app in iOS. Considering their snafu on Christmas and the time they took in giving an appropiate answer soured my image of them.

VanMardigan said:
What phone are you getting?

I think everyone should switch platforms regularly to get the "grass is greener" thing worked out.
Click to expand...

I believe that's becoming harder and harder if you use Google services. At least from a Microsoft user perspective.
 
E

ElNino

Member
Sky Interloper said:
I believe that's becoming harder and harder if you use Google services. At least from a Microsoft user perspective.
Click to expand...
Thankfully, I'm not tied to Google services very much so it makes it easy to worry about what they do. To be honest, the only service of their's (not counting YouTube) that I've every really used extensively was Reader... and they killed that rather abruptly.

I guess I also use Google Maps when I'm on the computer, but on the phone I find MS Maps or Here to be fine, and in some cases superior (ie. offline maps).
 
L

Laranja

Member
VanMardigan said:
What phone are you getting?

I think everyone should switch platforms regularly to get the "grass is greener" thing worked out.
Click to expand...

I'm getting a Oneplus X. I played a bit with a friend's and it seemed pretty good for the price. Not looking for a high-end device just yet, so that will do.

I've been using iOS (on an iPod touch, got it for app development and testing purposes) and Windows Phone for the past few years, so I know just how big that gap is. I'm not too familiar with Android, and don't expect it to match the App Store in terms of app quality and quantity, but I'm sure it'll be closer than the Windows Store.
 
V

VanMardigan

has calmed down a bit.
Steelyuhas said:
Is there a definitive go to Twitter app for W10m until Twitter decides to push a mobile version of their app?
Click to expand...

Fenice and Tweetium are both UWP apps far as I can tell, and they're both very good, but they both stopped working for me a few days in. Maybe it was because I was using the trial versions, but I'm def not paying any money if I can't figure out the issue.
 
S

Steelyuhas

Member
VanMardigan said:
Fenice and Tweetium are both UWP apps far as I can tell, and they're both very good, but they both stopped working for me a few days in. Maybe it was because I was using the trial versions, but I'm def not paying any money if I can't figure out the issue.
Click to expand...

Oh yeah I'd forgotten I used Tweetium for a few days, but then an update for it failed and I can't get it to successfully install (including uninstalling the app and reinstalling). Maybe I'll try Fenice...ugh Twitter pls update your app.
 
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