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[ElNino]

Definitely happy with Win10 on Lumia Icon. Fast and zippy, runs great. Not going back to 8. Also glad I got Core player cause music app on WP continue to look terrible.

What problems do people have with Groove now on W10?

Xbox Music on 8/8.1 was terrible as it was always slow and unresponsive, particularly in comparison to WP7/Zune music players. Groove on my 950 XL however is quite good. It opens immediately, loads my music right away and scrolling through playlists/artists/etc is perfectly smooth. The only stuff I wish they added was more "discovery channels/playlists" like Spotify, but otherwise it works great for both my Groove library stuff and what I have on Onedrive.

 

[brotkasten]

They should have 3 phones (or 3 x 2 for size) available, if they still want to have phones at all:

- budget
- mid-range/business
- flagship

I agree that calling the budget phone Surface wouldn't make sense. Scrapping the Lumia brand doesn't make sense.

The Surface 3 isn't really right end either and still got the name. I'm sure they can make it work, without devaluing the brand. Just stop shitting out all plastic devices that look bland and same-y.

 

[hadareud]

The Zune HD is still one of the greatest devices I have ever owned.

The Zune software worked perfectly.

Bring it back!

The Surface 3 isn't really right end either and still got the name. I'm sure they can make it work, without devaluing the brand. Just stop shitting out all plastic devices that look bland and same-y.

Yes I'm sure they can make it work, but my main point was that 1 flagship phone a year wouldn't make sense. There has to be devices to cover the main user groups, unless they just want to give up.

I still don't see anything wrong with the Lumia brand, either.

 

[SCHUEY F1]

What problems do people have with Groove now on W10?

Xbox Music on 8/8.1 was terrible as it was always slow and unresponsive, particularly in comparison to WP7/Zune music players. Groove on my 950 XL however is quite good. It opens immediately, loads my music right away and scrolling through playlists/artists/etc is perfectly smooth. The only stuff I wish they added was more "discovery channels/playlists" like Spotify, but otherwise it works great for both my Groove library stuff and what I have on Onedrive.

Yup, I have no real issues with Groove on my XL. It would be nice if they had more discovery features. I like the UI now too. Soon you will be able to choose between album or artist art when playing a song.

 

[Sky Interloper]

They should have 3 phones (or 3 x 2 for size) available, if they still want to have phones at all:

- budget
- mid-range/business
- flagship

I agree that calling the budget phone Surface wouldn't make sense. Scrapping the Lumia brand doesn't make sense.

I hope this time they make an actual effort at differentiating their product lines. The 830 value proposition was ridiculous, considering it shared processor with the 630 and the 735.

 

[JaggedSac]

What problems do people have with Groove now on W10?

Xbox Music on 8/8.1 was terrible as it was always slow and unresponsive, particularly in comparison to WP7/Zune music players. Groove on my 950 XL however is quite good. It opens immediately, loads my music right away and scrolling through playlists/artists/etc is perfectly smooth. The only stuff I wish they added was more "discovery channels/playlists" like Spotify, but otherwise it works great for both my Groove library stuff and what I have on Onedrive.

My only problem with it is that when I am playing music, anytime I go back into the app, it plops me on the "home" screen and not the now playing screen. Takes several taps for me to get there.

 

[ElNino]

My only problem with it is that when I am playing music, anytime I go back into the app, it plops me on the "home" screen and not the now playing screen. Takes several taps for me to get there.

Hmm, if I'm currently playing music in Groove and I open the app it usually has the banner for the current song at the bottom if it isn't already on the screen. Tapping the banner brings me back to the now playing screen.

 

[Steelyuhas]

Hmm, if I'm currently playing music in Groove and I open the app it usually has the banner for the current song at the bottom if it isn't already on the screen. Tapping the banner brings me back to the now playing screen.

Yeah, I wish it just took me back to now playing screen though. Btw, one of the PM's on Groove tweeted recently that the next update will include an option to switch to album art on now playing instead of artist pictures.

 

[kharma45]

I hope this time they make an actual effort at differentiating their product lines. The 830 value proposition was ridiculous, considering it shared processor with the 630 and the 735.

Agreed. 830 should've been an SD 600 with 2GB of RAM really to slot inbetween the 735 and 930.

 

[n64coder]

What problems do people have with Groove now on W10?

Xbox Music on 8/8.1 was terrible as it was always slow and unresponsive, particularly in comparison to WP7/Zune music players. Groove on my 950 XL however is quite good. It opens immediately, loads my music right away and scrolling through playlists/artists/etc is perfectly smooth. The only stuff I wish they added was more "discovery channels/playlists" like Spotify, but otherwise it works great for both my Groove library stuff and what I have on Onedrive.

It seems to work well but I still have issues with the app exiting immediately. I need to bring it up via the App store for it to stay up. I'm not in the developer preview program for my 950XL. So people with no issues, are you in the preview program?

 

[ElNino]

It seems to work good but I still have issues with the app exiting immediately. I need to bring it up via the App store for it to stay up. I'm not in the developer preview program for my 950XL. So people with no issues, are you in the preview program?

That's strange, I've never had that happen. I wasn't in DP until the latest build came out, but now I'm backed out of it so that I could get the firmware update.

 

[joshschw]

Agreed. 830 should've been an SD 600 with 2GB of RAM really to slot inbetween the 735 and 930.

Good news. By downgrading even the 650 phones to the lowest end possible with the SD 200 series, they can now safely use the SD400 series in the 850! It will slot itself in perfectly!

Only $449!!

 

[kharma45]

Good news. By downgrading even the 650 phones to the lowest end possible with the SD 200 series, they can now safely use the SD400 series in the 850! It will slot itself in perfectly!

Only $449!!

I have seen the light

 

[LukasTaves]

What problems do people have with Groove now on W10?

Xbox Music on 8/8.1 was terrible as it was always slow and unresponsive, particularly in comparison to WP7/Zune music players. Groove on my 950 XL however is quite good. It opens immediately, loads my music right away and scrolling through playlists/artists/etc is perfectly smooth. The only stuff I wish they added was more "discovery channels/playlists" like Spotify, but otherwise it works great for both my Groove library stuff and what I have on Onedrive.

I only have four main issues now: No mood/genre radio, no public playlists, and sometimes for no reason I get really slow download speeds like it's not a connection issue because every other site and service loads fast, but groove can't seem to use the bandwidth and the song keeps pausing.

That doesn't happen all the time though, but it's infuriating when it does.

The forth one is more serious, the UI is really bad for finding stuff. You can't sort playlists, or search in playlists only, or find duplicates. And link to link navigation has been made worse compared to the 8.1 app. In 8.1 each entry on a song in your list was a link, so you could jump straight to the album.

I would love more organizational features as well, finding and removing duplicates (on both playlists and library), metadata matching even for songs not currently stream able. The catalog being better wouldn't hurt either. Many of the songs in my library are no longer available to stream.

 

[ElNino]

I only have four main issues now: No mood/genre radio, no public playlists, and sometimes for no reason I get really slow download speeds like it's not a connection issue because every other site and service loads fast, but groove can't seem to use the bandwidth and the song keeps pausing.

That doesn't happen all the time though, but it's infuriating when it does.

The forth one is more serious, the UI is really bad for finding stuff. You can't sort playlists, or search in playlists only, or find duplicates. And link to link navigation has been made worse compared to the 8.1 app. In 8.1 each entry on a song in your list was a link, so you could jump straight to the album.

I would love more organizational features as well, finding and removing duplicates (on both playlists and library), metadata matching even for songs not currently stream able. The catalog being better wouldn't hurt either. Many of the songs in my library are no longer available to stream.

I agree on the discovery, I wish it did a better job giving you generated playlists for genres, themes, user created lists, etc. The artists radio playlists are generally pretty good for me, but a genre/mood playlist would hopefully bring in a wider variety than you get with artist radio.

I guess I also agree on the management of playlists on the phone, and I wish you could sort them by artist instead of just the order they were added. It would make it easier to know what is already there, but I usually do that on the PC.

As for the catalog, I've found it is better now for me at least. There were several artists that were not available before that I can add to my library now with my sub. I'm sure that will vary depending on musical preferences though. Being able to add music from Onedrive helps there though.

 

[VanMardigan]

Groove worked ok for a while, but lately it's giving me issues. For example, some songs just skip after a few seconds of playback, even if I download them to SD. Wish I could uninstall the app and reinstall it.


Very disappointing to have a core app behave poorly.

 

[clav]

Very disappointing to have a core app behave poorly.

Skype for Windows 10 is still broken.

What do you expect?

 

[VanMardigan]

Skype for Windows 10 is still broken.

What do you expect?

Yeah, the mobile version still has issues too. I tried using Skype on my business trip and there was a bug where it wouldn't flip to the rear camera. I think I had to reboot. I feel like this is one area where MS should have a huge advantage, they have the app with the name recognition, but they just can't get it right.

 

[VanMardigan]

Kharma, you know I love you buddy, but I can't deny there was a slight smile on my face as I browsed the android thread and saw your G4 battery problems. I spent most of last year going through the same crap and complaining about it. Here's the truth: There is nothing you can do about it, it's part of being on android. Because, even if you figure out what is wrong in this one instance (and it probably isn't just one thing), you are an app update away from another battery drain issue. And those who will come in here and say that the lag, the battery drain, etc. doesn't happen on their android device.....just give it time.


I loved a lot of things about my G4, but Google needs to rein in battery and performance degradation by apps.

 

[SCHUEY F1]

Kharma, you know I love you buddy, but I can't deny there was a slight smile on my face as I browsed the android thread and saw your G4 battery problems. I spent most of last year going through the same crap and complaining about it. Here's the truth: There is nothing you can do about it, it's part of being on android. Because, even if you figure out what is wrong in this one instance (and it probably isn't just one thing), you are an app update away from another battery drain issue. And those who will come in here and say that the lag, the battery drain, etc. doesn't happen on their android device.....just give it time.


I loved a lot of things about my G4, but Google needs to rein in battery and performance degradation by apps.

I hated going into the apps settings and seeing all these services and shit running in the background. Half of them I didn't know what they did.

My G4 was running fine except for some baffling WiFi issues.


edit: watch an XL get tortured http://www.winbeta.org/news/watch-this-poor-little-lumia-950-xl-undergo-a-bend-burn-and-scratch-test

 

[JaggedSac]

Did anyone ever test the XL to see if it handled the 810 better with the heat pipes?

 

[inana]

Ahhh Zune, brings back (painful) memories. haven't heard that name in a long time

 

[kharma45]

Kharma, you know I love you buddy, but I can't deny there was a slight smile on my face as I browsed the android thread and saw your G4 battery problems. I spent most of last year going through the same crap and complaining about it. Here's the truth: There is nothing you can do about it, it's part of being on android. Because, even if you figure out what is wrong in this one instance (and it probably isn't just one thing), you are an app update away from another battery drain issue. And those who will come in here and say that the lag, the battery drain, etc. doesn't happen on their android device.....just give it time.


I loved a lot of things about my G4, but Google needs to rein in battery and performance degradation by apps.

You're a bastard haha. I do agree. Now part of it could well be the poor cell signal where I am but it's still not the whole cause for this catastrophic screen on time. I still look at my Lumia and much prefer using it to the G4 but I can make it from 8am to 11pm with my G4 (just about), the camera is fantastic and having many of the apps I've had for ages does make it tricky to go back. Might unlock my 735 so I can move between the two when W10M launches officially.

 

[VanMardigan]

It's always a tradeoff, unfortunately. There is no perfect ecosystem/device combination. In the Android world, I really enjoyed using the HTC M8 more than any other device, and I thought it held up better over time, but I care about the camera too much to use that phone. The G4 is amazing in many ways, but I ran into the same issues you did.

On Windows Phone, I think the 950 has the specs and camera I want, but unfortunately the build quality is not 930/1020 level and the software and ecosystem are what they are. I can live with it for now. iPhone camera is not up to par with tip tier phones imo, and as shallow as it sounds, I can't stand the UI and hate the thought of using that day to day. Plus the limitations are frustrating in terms of what Apple allows third party software and hardware to do.

 

[maximum360]

Groove worked ok for a while, but lately it's giving me issues. For example, some songs just skip after a few seconds of playback, even if I download them to SD. Wish I could uninstall the app and reinstall it.


Very disappointing to have a core app behave poorly.

Try "Perfect Music" as a music player and "CCPlayer" as a video player. I've been using both recently and they're so much better than the standard media players.

 

[TheBryanJZX90]

Th 950 really is a lower build quality than previous Lumias, isn't it. I finally picked one up in person at the nearest Microsoft Store and the shell of the 950XL was cracked around the charging port.

 

[n64coder]

Th 950 really is a lower build quality than previous Lumias, isn't it. I finally picked one up in person at the nearest Microsoft Store and the shell of the 950XL was cracked around the charging port.

I'm very happy with mine. It's definitely superior to the 1020 I had before in a lot of ways. I do have the slight creak noise in the case in the lower right portion but I love the screen, the loudness of the speakers, display, camera, etc.

 

[ElNino]

I'm very happy with mine. It's definitely superior to the 1020 I had before in a lot of ways. I do have the slight creak noise in the case in the lower right portion but I love the screen, the loudness of the speakers, display, camera, etc.

I agree. If judged purely on how solid the case/shell feels, then my old 1020 has my 950 XL beat. But the 1020 always had a case on it anyways so that point is mostly moot, particularly after using the Mozo shell for the last week, although I'm still a bit hesitant using my phone "naked".

However, the hardware of the phone in use (speaker and voice quality, screen, speed of camera, storage, etc) is much better on the XL. I've even gotten used the odd button configuration of the XL so that is a non factor now. Tiding up the OS and adding back the camera features I'm missing (action and panoramic modes) would make this everything I wanted in the upgrade.

 

[SCHUEY F1]

I'm happy with my XL as well. Debating on if I should get a Mozo case. Might wait a bit since they are quite pricey.

 

[ElNino]

I'm happy with my XL as well. Debating on if I should get a Mozo case. Might wait a bit since they are quite pricey.

That's hard to say. It certainly feels nicer than the stock shell, similar to the iPhone 4 but obviously much larger and the leather back instead of glass. The brown leather doesn't give that much extra grip, but the black or white might.

I'm sticking with it for now, since it wasn't cheap, but I may go back to my Incipio case with the stock shell at some point if I'm worried about dropping it.

 

[TheBryanJZX90]

I'm very happy with mine. It's definitely superior to the 1020 I had before in a lot of ways. I do have the slight creak noise in the case in the lower right portion but I love the screen, the loudness of the speakers, display, camera, etc.

Yeah I was really just referring to the shell/case itself and not any of the components in it, since I was just going off of how the phone felt when picking it up. It's too bad most of the comments and reviews attributed the lower quality of the shell to it being made out of plastic instead of glass/metal, when that isn't correct at all. The 920 and Nokia-made Lumias show that plastic can be a quality phone material. The real issue is just thinness. Thinner plastic feels cheaper.

 

[SCHUEY F1]

That's hard to say. It certainly feels nicer than the stock shell, similar to the iPhone 4 but obviously much larger and the leather back instead of glass. The brown leather doesn't give that much extra grip, but the black or white might.

I'm sticking with it for now, since it wasn't cheap, but I may go back to my Incipio case with the stock shell at some point if I'm worried about dropping it.

Thanks for the info. I'm kinda weird, I like seeing the MS logo on the standard cover, lol. Would love to see an OEM cyan shell. You can get knockoff versions but they dont have NFC and Qi charging.

 

[NeOak]

I think I'll roll back my 1520 to WP8.1. Every day I'm fighting with Edge to browse and post. And then it decides to do something that gets the CPU working.

Plus the camera app is horrible. It is taking low resolution pictures when I select HDR.

 

[Steelyuhas]

I think I'll roll back my 1520 to WP8.1. Every day I'm fighting with Edge to browse and post. And then it decides to do something that gets the CPU working.

Plus the camera app is horrible. It is taking low resolution pictures when I select HDR.

Edge on GAF mobile is all jacked up sadly.

 

[SCHUEY F1]

Edge on GAF mobile is all jacked up sadly.

?

What's the problem? Seems just fine on the XL (granted it should be on that hardware)

 

[Steelyuhas]

?

What's the problem? Seems just fine on the XL (granted it should be on that hardware)

Lots of issues with the keyboard software while trying to make a post. Swipe straight up doesn't work.

 

[ElNino]

Lots of issues with the keyboard software while trying to make a post. Swipe straight up doesn't work.

Hmmm, I don't post on the mobile site much so I've never noticed that, but just scrolling while browsing has seemed fine to me.

 

[Steelyuhas]

Hmmm, I don't post on the mobile site much so I've never noticed that, but just scrolling while browsing has seemed fine to me.

Yeah that works fine.

 

[n64coder]

Lots of issues with the keyboard software while trying to make a post. Swipe straight up doesn't work.

Correct. The issue I have is that every other word that you swipe is erased if I recall correctly. I also find the font size a bit small to read. I'll have to fire up my 1020 to compare this with my 950XL.

 

[derFeef]

So when is a new/universal Facebook app coming? The current one is so, so bad...

 

[brotkasten]

So when is a new/universal Facebook app coming? The current one is so, so bad...

Is Microsoft still developing it in-house or is it finally done by Facebook?

 

[Steelyuhas]

Is Microsoft still developing it in-house or is it finally done by Facebook?

Facebook is making universal Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram apps.

 

[juliushandle]

Panasonic's follow up to the CM1 smartphone with a 1" sensor was announced. it has the same sensor, same Snapdragon 801, same 2gb ram, but the removed the phone feature. too bad, I was seriously considering it if it had some improvements.

 

[Paganmoon]

And now my fitbit keeps losing sync with my 950. Connected via BT (visibly connected with the phone), but the app just refuses to sync the fitbit. Had to reset the fitbit last time to get it ti work, but after 2 days, it's back to not syncing. god damnit...

 

[VanMardigan]

Could it be the Fitbit? My MS band syncs just fine and it's very likely using the same method to sync.

Also, for the Edge gaf post issue, the workaround is to manually hit the space bar button after swiping each word. Not great, but faster than touch typing.

 

[joshschw]

Could it be the Fitbit? My MS band syncs just fine and it's very likely using the same method to sync.

Also, for the Edge gaf post issue, the workaround is to manually hit the space bar button after swiping each word. Not great, but faster than touch typing.

And now my fitbit keeps losing sync with my 950. Connected via BT (visibly connected with the phone), but the app just refuses to sync the fitbit. Had to reset the fitbit last time to get it ti work, but after 2 days, it's back to not syncing. god damnit...

Oh, it is DEFINITELY the Fitbit!

Just take a peek at their Fitbit help forums for Windows.
This all started back in November(!) when the updated some Fitbit firmware. They've been making excuse after excuse and are blaming Microsoft - no joke. They worked fine until November time and that firmware update.

It's simply unreal to see the company post what it does.
They are no help at all, but are happy to keep sending you new Fitbit's for free that work for a week and then stop working again.

Does this on all versions of the app now, W10mobile, Win10, WP8.1....
Worked fine on all prior.

 

[Paganmoon]

Could it be the Fitbit? My MS band syncs just fine and it's very likely using the same method to sync.

Also, for the Edge gaf post issue, the workaround is to manually hit the space bar button after swiping each word. Not great, but faster than touch typing.

I suppose, was working without any issues on my 640 with 8.1 installed though, just started using it again now after vacation, together with the 950 and it's acting up. I think it's more to do with the fitbit app, since it connects to the fitbit with Bluetooth without an issue.

Also, Edge and Gaf isn't just the swipe, it's the whole text input box, when trying to edit your text, if you go up a few lines and press enter, (for me anyway), it adds a line at the bottom of the text, and not at the position I tried to add an extra line-break for instance. It's just very buggy, no single workaround to make it fully functional.

Edit: Strange about the November update for the fitbit, since I got mine at the end of November, and first thing that happened was it updating the firmware (this was while I was still using my 640), and had no issues with it at all, and about 2 weeks into December, I connected it to my 950, where it worked, for a week, before, I went on vacation for 3 weeks, and after the vacation, it keeps loosing sync, figured it was an app-update that happened during these 3 weeks.

 

[Anton Sugar]

So when is a new/universal Facebook app coming? The current one is so, so bad...

Yeah, I thought the latest update might fix my contact sync issue.

Nope. Just lost a bunch of profile pics yesterday from a ton of contacts. Getting tired of this shit and the general W10 jank.

 

[VanMardigan]

FB app needs a massive update. I feel so disconnected from that platform lol. I barely post anymore because of the jank and my feed is a mess. Oh well, at least my contact sync is working.

 

[dLMN8R]

When people complain about the Facebook app on Windows Phone "screwing up" their feed, I wonder if you've / they've ever used Facebook on iOS, Android, or the web.

Showing posts out of order, never showing certain posts, showing confusing updates when you update your feed, etc. - those are inherently in Facebook's control and manifest in the same (or very similar) ways on all platforms.


The Windows Phone facebook app is certainly missing some features, but don't think that the feed itself is screwed up for any reason that doesn't also exist on other platforms.