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Windows Phone |OT3| Apollo has landed

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W

Windu

never heard about the cat, apparently
quaere said:
I recognize two of those apps from the icons, both of which I use daily...

White Noise for Windows Phone was last updated in April of 2011. It's missing two years of features from the Android and iOS versions, such as a timer.

Spotify for Windows Phone is completely missing the radio functionality.

I'm in this thread because I bought a Lumia 521 to play with (it's on its way now) but given the app situation...it could never be my primary and I have no idea how you guys live with it.
Click to expand...
I wasn't much of an app person when I had an iPhone so windows phone was perfect for me. Although I thought it would have mlb at bat 13 since it had the last two versions, but of course that isn't the case. That is the only app that I want. I can wait though.
 
E

ElNino

Member
quaere said:
I'm in this thread because I bought a Lumia 521 to play with (it's on its way now) but given the app situation...it could never be my primary and I have no idea how you guys live with it.
Click to expand...
As already stated, many apps have good (sometimes better) alternatives if the official apps aren't available on WP.

The ability to "live with it" is dependent on how you currently use your phone and what your routine is I guess. For example, my most used app (by a large margin) is the news reader app Weave and if I had to use an iOS/Android phone I would struggle to "live with" not being able to use it every day. I could find another app I'm sure, and maybe it would end up being just as good or better, but on the outset I'm sure I would be frustrated by it.
 
W

Windu

never heard about the cat, apparently
Here is what i have on my phone btw. (nokia 620)

Alarms - stock alarm clock
Amazing Weather HD - Weather application
Amazon Kindle
Astronomy Hub - really nice application
Audible
Authenticator - Microsoft one, works with google.
Battle.net Authenticator
Blink - camera app, takes a bunch of photos at once
Calculator - stock
Calendar - stock
Camera - stock
Cinemagraph - really cool camera app from nokia
DCMetro - washington dc metro
Flashlight xt - nice and simple
Games - stock
Help+Tips - stock, nokia
Here city lens - stock, nokia
Here Drive - stock nokia. Great app, although waze on ios was better
Here maps - stock, nokia
Here transit - stock nokia
Imgur uploader - works
IE10 - stock, fast browser. Some mobile websites ignore IE mobile though.
IRC7 - good, but does not run in the back ground. Hasn't been updated since wp8 which i believe allows for that. I hope IRC explorer on W8 comes to the phone.
Latestchatty - shacknews
Level - microsoft level
Mail - stock
Messaging - stock
Metrotube - excellent youtube app
Music+videos - stock
Nasa image of the day - nice live tile
Near speak - nfc, nokia
Netflix
Nextgen Reader - excellent rss reader. Rivals reeder on ios. Also has a w8 version.
Nokia music - stock, nokia. Free music.
Nokia nfc writer - nfc
Office - awesome
OneNote - better than iOS, can see handwritten stuff.
Pandora - no ads for a year
Pdf reqder - microsoft
People - stock, favorite part of this OS.
Phone - stock
Photos - stock
Photosynth - microsoft camera stuff
Podcasts! - support for rss feeds. Also a app on W8. Still could use some work though.
Settings - stock
Skype - nice integration with the people hub
Snes8x - emulator
Store - stock
Timer - timer app
Twit - twit.tv
Twitter - nice app, similar to w8 version
Usa today - nice news app, good live tile
Wallet - stock
Webapps - great app. easy to find all of the great mobile websites and can pin them with good looking tiles, has custom support too.
Wocentral - great app for wpcentral.com

And here are the only gqmes i have installed, all were free except for cut the rope.

Aphajax
Cut the rope
Fragger
Gravity guy
istunt 2
Monster island
Shuffle party
Wordament
 
S

SCHUEY F1

Unconfirmed Member
Curious to see how fast they push updates for the beta app. My people hub is way ahead of the feed in the app. Also I have to manually switch from recent to top stories back to recent for the feed to update. Then when I close the app and go back in, it is behind again. Need to submit feedback.
 
K

kharma45

Member
More feedback sent through, when you look at your own timeline where it displays about, friends and photos the photos bit is cut off on my screen (480x800 res).

Hopefully the feedback they're getting is actually going to be used, releasing the app in this way I believe has the potential to make the finished version pretty great.
 
S

SCHUEY F1

Unconfirmed Member
kharma45 said:
More feedback sent through, when you look at your own timeline where it displays about, friends and photos the photos bit is cut off on my screen (480x800 res).

Hopefully the feedback they're getting is actually going to be used, releasing the app in this way I believe has the potential to make the finished version pretty great.
Click to expand...

With Friends and Photo's bit on the timeline you can actually scroll to the right. Speaking of the though the Friends part only gets populated with images if you touch it.
 
K

kharma45

Member
I submitted some additional feedback saying maybe somehow have some sort of hint to let you know to scroll across or something, if you hadn't told me I'd probably never have known.
 
K

kharma45

Member
From WPCentral

Sneak peek: Itsdagram is a full-featured Instagram client for Windows Phone 8 with direct uploads

What’s that? You need some more Instagram news for Windows Phone to keep going? Well, we don’t have any more info on an official app, though May keeps popping up. In the meantime, it looks like a new contender is getting ready to enter the field: Itsdagram.

Made by developer Daniel Gary (who also makes the popular Pinsation app), Itsdagram steps up its game against Instagraph in that it allows unfettered, direct access to Instagram’s service. That means you can create an account, upload directly for posting, deleting, commenting, liking, searching, tagging, etc.--just about everything else an official client can offer.
Click to expand...
 
K

kharma45

Member
Giving Weave a go instead of Next Gen Reader for pulling in news. Seems to do a better job with articles, sometimes with Next Gen it would only pull in the synopsis rather than the full article.
 
I

Iced_Eagle

Member
Funky Papa said:
I have to wonder what's going to happen to all those apps when the real deal comes knocking.
Click to expand...

Exactly what you think would happen. Almost everyone would just start using the official app. Some people may stick to these third-party ones, maybe because they'll like the UI better or something, but the majority of people would just use the official one.

MCD said:
Microsoft doing beta apps?

Is this real life?
Click to expand...

They also announced that they're going to have an enthusiast program where people can sign up to get beta OS updates before they're released for the general public. They haven't given any details on that, but I think we'll hear some details and probably be able to sign up to this in the summer.
 
T

Talon

Member
Iced_Eagle said:
They also announced that they're going to have an enthusiast program where people can sign up to get beta OS updates before they're released for the general public. They haven't given any details on that, but I think we'll hear some details and probably be able to sign up to this in the summer.
Click to expand...
Desperation leads to consumer-friendly practices. I'm all for it.
 
W

Windu

never heard about the cat, apparently
kharma45 said:
Giving Weave a go instead of Next Gen Reader for pulling in news. Seems to do a better job with articles, sometimes with Next Gen it would only pull in the synopsis rather than the full article.
Click to expand...
if you click the couch button (readability) then it will get the whole article.
 
B

brotkasten

Member
Damn, I'm really tempted to get the Lumia 520 as a second phone. It's not much cheaper than the 620, but it looks much better, imo.
 
J

JaggedSac

Member
Windu said:
Here is what i have on my phone btw. (nokia 620)

Authenticator - Microsoft one, works with google.
Click to expand...

Did you have issues with signing into XBox Live on your phone when you activated the two-step authentication? I had issues with mine (tried using the app password too) and ended up having to turn it off. I'm on WP7.
 
B

brotkasten

Member
Milchjon said:
Yeah, it's kinda pretty.

Random screen review of the 620, which does surprisingly well compared to high end phones when it comes to brightness and contrast.
Click to expand...

The 520 has a standard and supposedly really cheap IPS screen, though.

7GxxqHo.jpg


The Lumia 620 taught us that a high-quality display needn't cost the earth. Alas, the Lumia 520 teaches us that a top-shelf display must cost something, because Nokia hasn't been able to carry it over into this bottom-end handset.

This LCD is washed-out, unevenly lit (especially in the lower corners) and suffers from relatively poor (though not horrific) viewing angles. It isn't a patch on any of the higher models, and that's something the Lumia's spec sheet on its own doesn't warn us about, aside from the absence of the word "ClearBlack," signifying that the manufacturer acknowledges this is a lesser panel.
Click to expand...

but the thing that could really bother me is the battery life.

Then again, it would be kinda pathetic if a cheap low-end phone like the Lumia 520 would outlast my Galaxy Nexus, with its horrific battery life.

e:

Somehow, despite the fact that the 520's removable battery has a higher capacity than the 620's (1,430 vs. 1,350mAh), the 520 is left worse off. This is probably due to less-efficient components -- with the most likely culprit probably being the cheap display. In any case, the 520 only lasted two-thirds as long as the 620 in the WPBench rundown test, and it struggled to survive 12 hours of moderate to heavy use. Keeping brightness set to high makes things worse, even though the reflective screen will often make you want to do that. If we used the phone primarily for calls during the morning, then did something more taxing in the afternoon -- such as 30 minutes of playing around with Cinemagraph -- the phone would die by 10 PM.
Click to expand...

Doesn't sound worse than my Galaxy Nexus!
 
W

Windu

never heard about the cat, apparently
Supposedly the new firmware improves battery life on the 620. (still waiting on it). Otherwise you can change it to low.
JaggedSac said:
Did you have issues with signing into XBox Live on your phone when you activated the two-step authentication? I had issues with mine (tried using the app password too) and ended up having to turn it off. I'm on WP7.
Click to expand...
My xbox live account is the same one i use to sign into my phone, pc etc.. works fine.
 
M

Milchjon

Member
Sounds like the 620 would really be your best bet? Especially with HERE Drive+

And with the right cover (white, maybe) it's not that ugly... Well, maybe a bit, but still.
 
W

Windu

never heard about the cat, apparently
campfireweekend said:
Are we sure that the low end is getting 8.1? I'd be tempted to get a 521 solely for media and jogs but I'm hesitant because of that.
Click to expand...
I expect 512 MB and 1GHz or whatever to be the minimum for awhile. And they are not switching from CE to NT this time.
 
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