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Windows Phone |OT3 Update 3| Please be excited

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K

KageMaru

Member
Impressions so far:

-Seems quicker/snappier now on my Icon.

-Don't like how there's now a comma when hold on the period button now, especially when I already have it in the keyboard. Wish you could toggle that.

-Notification center works great. Only gripe is how the Wi-Fi button doesn't toggle. Would also like a flashlight button or maybe 3rd party app integration so I can assign a flashlight app. Edit: Also it doesn't seem like I can pull down the notification center consistently at times when in certain apps.

-Store provides more exposure to apps, but the layout is ugly.

-Don't like how games show up in my app list.

-Cortana has worked better than expected so far. I can already tell the feature will be really useful for work.

-Shape writing works very well, though I'm still not sure I'll be using it.

Even though it may not seem like it, I'm really loving the update so far. When the rest of the UI works and looks as good as it does, it's these little issues that stands out so badly.

Also where do I find the new lock screen options?
 
F

f0lken

Member
SCHUEY F1 said:
If my country is set to US and I buy an app, will I still be able to buy it later when Cortana comes to Canada and 'I change my region?
Click to expand...

If you bought it in US store you will download it for free in your region's account, they are tied to your account, not your region (although you may need to change your region in case is not available in yours)
 
S

SCHUEY F1

Unconfirmed Member
KageMaru said:
Impressions so far:

-Seems quicker/snappier now on my Icon.

-Don't like how there's now a comma when hold on the period button now, especially when I already have it in the keyboard. Wish you could toggle that.

-Notification center works great. Only gripe is how the Wi-Fi button doesn't toggle. Would also like a flashlight button or maybe 3rd party app integration so I can assign a flashlight app.

-Store provides more exposure to apps, but the layout is ugly.

-Don't like how games show up in my app list.

-Cortana has worked better than expected so far. I can already tell the feature will be really useful for work.

-Shape writing works very well, though I'm still not sure I'll be using it.

Even though it may not seem like it, I'm really loving the update so far. When the rest of the UI works and looks as good as it does, it's these little issues that stands out so badly.

Also where do I find the new lock screen options?
Click to expand...

I think that lockscreen stuff they showed is an app. Not sure if it is out yet.
 
S

SCHUEY F1

Unconfirmed Member
f0lken said:
If you bought it in US store you will download it for free in your region's account, they are tied to your account, not your region (although you may need to change your region in case is not available in yours)
Click to expand...

Cool, thanks.

Hopefully they get Cortana out to more markets quickly. The only other thing that is annoying is the music app.
 
K

KageMaru

Member
Also is there a way to properly close IE without opening a new tab when using the Neogaf shortcut on the home screen?

Not liking how you have to drag the cursor from the current position too. Seems to be a step back from the original way of doing this.
 
M

maeh2k

Member
Daniel Rubino has found a pretty nice three column layout: http://www.wpcentral.com/eight-tips-make-most-out-windows-phone-81

Lumia_1520_Windows_Phone_81_Screen.jpg
Click to expand...
The variation in sizes and colors works really well.
 
A

Anton Sugar

Member
How to enable Cortana if you're not in US: http://www.wpcentral.com/want-cortana-outside-us-heres-how

Update: One side effect of doing this is it appears to disable the Store from loading on some devices. So consider this a preview of Cortana, or just be aware there could be some negative consequences!
Click to expand...

8 tips to make most of 8.1: http://www.wpcentral.com/eight-tips-make-most-out-windows-phone-81

One

Pin Battery Saver + Storage Sense to the Start screen – In 8.1, the Battery Saver and Storage Sense programs are now listed in the App listing. That also means you can pin them to your Start screen! What’s more, Microsoft made them Live tiles and the battery icon actually reflects your current battery status, where Storage Sense will show you in numbers your current space usage, including on your SD card.

Two

Swipe down on the Action Center for detailed status – Do you like the battery icon but want to see it in an actual percentage? Swipe down on the Action Center (from the top) and you can get detailed data on your battery, the date, carrier connection status and more

Three

Tell Cortana what news you want to follow – After doing a search through Cortana, you can scroll down to see ‘Update me on this news topic’. Click that and Cortana will start tracking that topic for you, showing any new news in your Daily Glance. The data will be saved in Cortana’s Notebook, under Interests > News. Tap on the item to toggle shows news on that topic and to enable notifications when there are new stories. You can also pin the topic to your Start screen.

Four

Enable weather in Calendar – The new native calendar app can you show the weather forecast right in the calendar! Simply head to Calendar > Settings > Preferences to enable and start seeing the day’s high temperature and weather icon. Great for planning ahead!

Five

Swipe down on the Lock screen to access the Action/Notification center – Even when PIN you can still pull down the Action Center in 8.1, without having to unlock the Lock screen. You can toggle the Quick action buttons and even dismiss alerts, but if you want to read anything, you’ll need to enter in that PIN

Six

See which Apps auto updated – On Windows Phone 8.1, you can have apps auto update for you. Head to Store > Downloads > History to see what changed!

Seven

Scan barcodes/QR codes again – If using Cortana, you lost the ability to scan barcodes through Bing Vision. However, you can still access this app/service via your Camera > Lenses > Bing Vision. It’s not as convenient, but it works.

Eight

Auto-download images in email – Many email clients block the downloading of images in email due to security and privacy concerns (images are often just links back to the website,which could be malicious). But in 8.1, you can head into Mail > Settings > Always download full message and internet images and get your images back, automatically
Click to expand...

EDIT: Lock screen app is NOT in dev preview: http://news.softpedia.com/news/Wind...-Include-Lock-Screen-Theming-App-437366.shtml
 
J

joshschw

Member
Okay, updated a couple of hours ago - it certainly takes a while - guess that's how you know it's a huge update.

Didn't play around with Cortana at all yet, so my impressions are Cortana-free.

---
Favorite things first:
I like the new animations - they are not as elegant but they are still good looking and they seem faster.

IE seems much smoother to navigate around now - and while I don't utilize the device syncing options- it's super cool that you can sync this between all your devices for browsing. I really think the swiping between pages is awesome - I love it on Windows 8 -except when it hangs for no reason - and I hope it works better on the Phone, but if not, it's still great.

Swipe to type is awesome - it works fantastic! I only used the android swipe keyboard for a bit in the past but this works much better.

New camera app - Looks great - didn't try it much just yet, but it seems super cool. Like a more basic version of the Nokia cam app.

Battery sense should be a useful add-on.
Data sense too - I like how despite the phone being AT&T, it's been keeping track prior to this update, even without Data Sense installed - or available to load up I suppose.

Auto-store updates. Something so simple, but also so good. Due to DRM/Walled Garden it's not like using an older version of an app is really an option of mobile devices, so why not auto-update?

Redesigned People Hub - looks much nicer, and I can see more stuff.

Photo Hub - How it separates my OneDrive and Facebook pics now. I utilize the OneDrive option all the time but it's less cluttered together now, and it's easier to see what I want.

Smaller font size on composed messages via texting.

No lock-screen apps just yet, but even the default looks more elegant and nice than the old one. I use Glance and it was an odd jump from the glance screen to the lockscreen in 8.0 for some reason. It's more coherent now.



---

Negative changes:

Bing Vision - with Cortana enabled, is not really accessible any longer, you can load it up through the camera app through the lenses.

I knew it! There's certain things that are so tiny you can barely click them. Big one... In the new People Hub there's an option on top of contacts (Showing contacts with phone numbers or something), and it's very tough to tap on.

Photo Hub - Yes, a positive and negative. I loved the way it used to look with the scrolling background comprised of my faved images. I suppose it wasn't terrible useful, but it was pretty and it looked neat.

----

Indifferent/Perplexing:

Notification Center - Sorry guys, I still don't really see the point of one. I don't hate it or anything - I may even get some usage out of it.

Games on App List - Do I like this... I am not sure - I like it right now cause I have like two games installed, and I'm not a big phone gamer, but if someone has 40 games and 70 apps I could see it being annoying for some, but I think I am leaning towards this being a positive thing.

Show More Tiles - LOL, whatever floats some peoples boats, I chuckled when I turned it on - Lumia 820. Felt like I was looking through binoculars the wrong way.

Background Tasks - I like the new Battery Sense app, and it shows what apps are able to run in the background, but I wish I could see it in a sorted list - like before. I don't have that many apps, but scrolling through a giant list to see which are allowed to execute in the background is a bit annoying. I liked the old-style listing more than this, but the app itself seems great.


---

Overall, you win some, you lose some. You cant please everyone - or anyone 100%, but overall this is a big positive update and for many, with the action button toggle switches and the notifications it is a huge step forward. And of course, this is all without trying Cortana out.
 
H

hadareud

The Translator
Took me about five minutes to be annoyed and confused that I can't swipe on the keyboard on my surface.

Some of the new apps are laggy btw. Really bad too. Games hub, music etc. WP truly has caught up with Android!

José Mourinho;108129819 said:
Cheers.
Click to expand...

Down for me too.
 
B

bigmf

Member
In Canada, I can open the store, but can't use my microsoft account to buy stuff. I have to change the region back to use it. Since I have $2 expiring at the end of the month and $20 expiring in July, I think I'll be changing the region back and forth a lot.

Looks like Cortana doesn't forget anything through this process.
 
M

Magni

Member
Why won't my Gmail app password no longer work? :( I use Outlook.com for my personal email but I need Gmail for my work email.

Nevermind, I guess now I have to use my full password rather than use an application password?

Also, how do I get Cortana to track my flights automatically?
 
B

Bullza2o

Member
For the action center I only get notifications from email, sms, calendar, etc --basic phone built-in functions. Every app (for example: Messenger) needs to be updated to integrate with this right?
 
K

killer rin

Member
bigmf said:
In Canada, I can open the store, but can't use my microsoft account to buy stuff. I have to change the region back to use it. Since I have $2 expiring at the end of the month and $20 expiring in July, I think I'll be changing the region back and forth a lot.

Looks like Cortana doesn't forget anything through this process.
Click to expand...
That's good that she doesn't forget stuff. It'll make it easier when I go to experiment with my region and settings later
 
F

f0lken

Member
Bullza2o said:
For the action center I only get notifications from email, sms, calendar, etc --basic phone built-in functions. Every app (for example: Messenger) needs to be updated to integrate with this right?
Click to expand...

Nope, you will receive all notifications on it, I think that options are to manage the type? As in, only sounds, vibration, none, etc and apps must be updated to take advantage of it
 
H

hwalker84

Member
Magni said:
Why won't my Gmail app password no longer work? :( I use Outlook.com for my personal email but I need Gmail for my work email.

Nevermind, I guess now I have to use my full password rather than use an application password?

Also, how do I get Cortana to track my flights automatically?
Click to expand...

I opened up Cortana and it asked me (Non Verbally) to track a flight from my email.
 
A

Ape

Banned
If you guys are having problems with your Cortana it might be your Wi-Fi. Just turn it off and it will work apparently.

btw, ask cortana how old the universe is. smh.
 
S

StudioTan

Hold on, friend! I'd love to share with you some swell news about the Windows 8 Metro UI! Wait, where are you going?
bigmf said:
In Canada, I can open the store, but can't use my microsoft account to buy stuff. I have to change the region back to use it. Since I have $2 expiring at the end of the month and $20 expiring in July, I think I'll be changing the region back and forth a lot.

Looks like Cortana doesn't forget anything through this process.
Click to expand...

Can you buy an app from a PC web browser and have it install on the phone without changing regions?
 
B

brotkasten

Member
When you try to replace an app, at least see that you have feature parity at launch. Xbox Music does not provide artist lockscreen images anymore. Goddamnit, lazy Xbox people!
 
M

Magni

Member
hwalker84 said:
I opened up Cortana and it asked me (Non Verbally) to track a flight from my email.
Click to expand...

I bought my tickets two months ago so the email isn't locally on my phone. It's for a flight this weekend, was really looking forward to trying it out. Is there no way no manually add a trip?
 
B

bigmf

Member
StudioTan said:
Can you buy an app from a PC web browser and have it install on the phone without changing regions?
Click to expand...

No, the web app wanted me to go to the US store until I change my phone back (and waited for a few minutes).

I have a strange icon on the top bar. I don't know what it means. The third one here:

WP_20140414.png.jpg
 
H

hwalker84

Member
brotkasten said:
When you try to replace an app, at least see that you have feature parity at launch. Xbox Music does not provide artist lockscreen images anymore. Goddamnit, lazy Xbox people!
Click to expand...

They're never going to get this music thing right are they? Xbox Music app is poop. Hopefully we get some third party apps that murder that piece of shit. Don't get me started on the sync app.
 
H

hadareud

The Translator
brotkasten said:
When you try to replace an app, at least see that you have feature parity at launch. Xbox Music does not provide artist lockscreen images anymore. Goddamnit, lazy Xbox people!
Click to expand...

It does, turn it off and on again in the lock screen settings and it works again.
 
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