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RasputinVarez posted:OK, after posting on the Android thread apparently Android has never had any optimization problems and has never been a RAM hog... If possible, get a Nokia 925 instead of a 920 if you can. If you want to get a 920 on the cheap you can pick one up on Swappa for ~$120 or so. But if you want to go cheap, get a 520/521 or wait a month or two until the 635 comes out for $99.
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Jun 27, 2014 01:54
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I have a 920; it's a good phone but it's outdated by now. You can do better.
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Jun 27, 2014 01:57
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925 only has 16gb of storage though, and it sounds like storage is important to them. It is a much nicer phone, I agree. I don't think there's anything particularly wrong with the 920, but it does feel very dense, if that makes sense and matters to you at all.Martytoof posted:The more I use WinPhone, the more I find that developers use the back button inconsistently and I really wish it would stop. Is it going to take me back to the last sheet? Is it going to exit the app outright? It's anyone's guess!  ). This can be overridden but maybe that's what you're seeing. Is it any particular app?
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Jun 27, 2014 02:02
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Hmm, I was complaining about it and didn't cite specific examples so that's bad on me. I'll have to come up with some apps, sorry.
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Jun 27, 2014 02:10
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RVProfootballer posted:Haha, I sincerely asked what you'd heard about RAM problems and then offered you legit recommendations. Oh well. If you're saying that Android caches stuff to RAM and you're worried about 80%+ RAM being "in use" or whatever, you need to realize that RAM not being used is being wasted. Task killers or other poo poo that boots stuff out of RAM is literally doing harm to battery and performance, not good. Here's an article from 2011 explaining how Android uses RAM and why you shouldn't care about it at all, and keep in mind it's only gotten better since then. As far as I know, WP and iOS work the same way with respect to RAM, though they both restrict active background processes more. ah, I had heard that Android is horribly un-optimised. All my friend makes fun of me for using 100% of my computer's 8GB of RAM on google chrome tabs. loquacius posted:I have a 920; it's a good phone but it's outdated by now. You can do better. For example?
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Jun 27, 2014 02:25
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loquacius posted:It strikes me that if this thread is any indication, Preview for Developers actually turned out to be a really bad idea on MS's part, though. Again, I think the Music app has by now improved enough that if we went straight from 8.0's version to the current one the prevailing reaction would be "hmm artist browsing is wonky now, that kinda sucks but You can't just jump from first draft to (mostly) final draft without a bunch of trial-and-error and feedback in-between. The only reason a swiping gesture to change tracks was added to Xbox Music at all is because of the sheer volume of complaints on Uservoice and Reddit. Without the Dev Preview, the complaints + fixes wouldn't have happened until after the official release. RasputinVarez posted:So after some more research, I think I might be going with the Nokia Lumia 920. I can get one for $250 which is $50 over my original budget but still quite reasonable Other posters have already said, but for pretty much the same price as a 920, you can get a 925, which is superior in every way except for the smaller storage space. But, even the 925 is getting a bit dated.
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Jun 27, 2014 02:27
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LentThem posted:You can't just jump from first draft to (mostly) final draft without a bunch of trial-and-error and feedback in-between. The only reason a swiping gesture to change tracks was added to Xbox Music at all is because of the sheer volume of complaints on Uservoice and Reddit. Without the Dev Preview, the complaints + fixes wouldn't have happened until after the official release. a 920 can be had for $250 a 925 is more like $320 Australian prices m8.
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Jun 27, 2014 02:32
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RasputinVarez posted:ah, I had heard that Android is horribly un-optimised. All my friend makes fun of me for using 100% of my computer's 8GB of RAM on google chrome tabs. The 925, the 1020, and the 1520 are all AT&T phones that are newer/faster/etc than the 920. The 1020 and 1520 have 32GB of storage, as well as added features like an awesome camera in the 1020 and Being Really Friggin Huge in the 1520. Look into those. e: no idea about Australian prices though 
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Jun 27, 2014 02:35
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How much is the 1320 in Australia and are you comfortable with phablets? It has a microSD card slot. It's like a lesser version of the 1520 although a step up from the phones you were originally considering.
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Jun 27, 2014 02:37
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Mecca-Benghazi posted:How much is the 1320 in Australia and are you comfortable with phablets? It has a microSD card slot. It's like a lesser version of the 1520 although a step up from the phones you were originally considering. My main use of a smartphone is actually as a GPS tracker, using endomondo right now but my phone is poo poo so it keeps crashing. i've had exactly one 10km run where the results were all one recording.So i'm not hugely into phablets for that reason. loquacius posted:The 925, the 1020, and the 1520 are all AT&T phones that are newer/faster/etc than the 920. The 1020 and 1520 have 32GB of storage, as well as added features like an awesome camera in the 1020 and Being Really Friggin Huge in the 1520. Look into those. a 1020 is $450 in the magical land of Aus, I don't really use my phone enough to justify a $57 a month plan starting. Australian mobile data providers have started taking cues from the Americans and have increased the prices for less data. http://www.telstra.com.au/mobile-phones/mobiles-on-a-plan/nokia-lumia-1020/index.htm If i got any of these it would be the medium plan, and i'm not really working much right now, it's really hard to get that first job out of uni in this country, so i'm stuck working a few hours a week at a super market because it's winter. RasputinVarez fucked around with this message at 02:51 on Jun 27, 2014 |
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Jun 27, 2014 02:48
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Also in late response to Happy_Misanthrope, I agree that by now the music and sync experience should be much more polished than it is, and it probably would be if they hadn't decided to completely refactor their music experience twice for whatever reason (I think the first one was to allow you to sync via file explorer because THAT sure did end up being a great experience  , and the second one was to remove the app from the system a little so they could update it more frequently because THAT's totally paid dividends so far ), but I maintain that what we ended up with at this point is roughly usable, and if we take them at their word it was necessary groundwork to improve it from where it was before Time, of course, will tell on whether they're actually able to deliver on that.As for Zune, I've been around the tech industry enough to recognize when something is obviously costing way more than it brings in, and the Zune desktop app fits that bill 100%. Continuing to support it through the Windows 8 transition would have been a pretty tough sell from a cost/benefit-analysis perspective. It's a shame we're missing out on something that was perfectly fine the way it was without an equivalent substitute, but losses are cut on better software for less short-term benefit than that all the time. RasputinVarez posted:My main use of a smartphone is actually as a GPS tracker, using endomondo right now but my phone is poo poo so it keeps crashing. i've had exactly one 10km run where the results were all one recording.So i'm not hugely into phablets for that reason. Honestly a 920 would probably be fine for your use cases and budget (I used mine as a GPS tracker on a run just today actually) but this is a tech discussion forum so I'm sure you understand it's kind of difficult for us to not recommend newer phones (on account of they're newer).
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Jun 27, 2014 03:00
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WattsvilleBlues posted:How much of a game-changer is Cortana on day-to-day use? I'm itching to get a new phone but if Cortana is balls-to-the-wall great, I might wait a while longer until it lands in the UK.
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Jun 27, 2014 03:02
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RasputinVarez posted:My main use of a smartphone is actually as a GPS tracker, using endomondo right now but my phone is poo poo so it keeps crashing. Try Run the Map ... I've used it on multiple WP devices and have never had a crash. Not as pretty as Endomondo, but it gets the job done.
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Jun 27, 2014 03:09
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I really think I'm Microsoft's ideal user. I haven't synced a phone to my computer since WP7.5 came out. All of my music is downloaded on the device and I back my pictures up on the cloud. So every complaint about the way WP 8.1 syncs doesn't affect me at all and when I hear about how lovely it is to do, I don't understand why you people don't just do what I do. And the music app really did suck two versions ago, but right now it does what I need it to do. Also, I have never had a problem with multiple versions if a song filling up my library. No duplicates whatsoever and I have been using windows phone since it came out. The point I'm making is: Either I am really lucky in my windows phone experience or a few people are doing weird stuff. I'm by no means defending the music app though. That thing sucked and it took three updates to get usable. Not good.
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Jun 27, 2014 04:03
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Martytoof posted:The more I use WinPhone, the more I find that developers use the back button inconsistently and I really wish it would stop. Is it going to take me back to the last sheet? Is it going to exit the app outright? It's anyone's guess! Or at least that's how it seems from my viewpoint. Maybe they are using it consistently and I'm just doing it wrong? Either way it seems messy. I believe that Microsoft's official design guidelines used to say: "If you launch the app by tapping on its icon -- either on the start screen or app list -- then it should start in a 'fresh' state. And the Back button should always take you back to the previous page that the user was viewing. So, if you're in the start screen and tap an icon to launch it, then the back button should take you back to the start screen." (this led to weirdisms, like apps having their own miniature 'back' button to navigate within the app, which isn't always what the hardware Back button did). But gradually, it seems that app authors have been preferring a different model: "No matter how you launch the app, it should take you right back to where you where when you last used the app. For instance, if you'd been using Twitter and were half way through composing a message, then hit the Home button, then launch Twitter, it should take you right back to the middle of composing that message. Moreover, when you hit the Back button, it should navigate you within the app. After all, if the user wants to exit your app, they can do so very easily by tapping the Home button. We don't need to provide the Back button for that purpose as well." I don't know if that's really true! It's just my impression.
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Jun 27, 2014 05:57
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RasputinVarez posted:My main use of a smartphone is actually as a GPS tracker, using endomondo right now but my phone is poo poo so it keeps crashing. i've had exactly one 10km run where the results were all one recording.So i'm not hugely into phablets for that reason. Remember that $57 dollars a month also includes the cost of the phone (and telstra has stopped offering the 920 and 925 as far as I can tell, you are getting a 1020 for that price) so when you look at that $57 a month, you are saving $450 that you would have spent on buying a phone outright. 450 divided by 24 is $18.75, so if you factor in not paying for the phone itself you are really spending $52 on that plan. The same amount of data on a byo plan costs $55. Of course there is also prepaid but that is very expensive and I'm not sure if you get 4g. Are you dead set on using Telstra? I can't blame you if you are, because nobody else can compete on reception or internet speeds, but if you are in an Optus 4g coverage area, have you considered exetel? They use the optus network and give you 4g access. http://www.exetel.com.au/mobilephone/plans Massively cheaper than Telsra and it's month to month so you aren't locked into anything. Most expensive plan they have is $40 a month which includes 3 gigs of data. (cf: cheapest telstra byo plan is $45 a month and you get 500mb of data) For what it's worth I have a 920 and I like it alot, I actually prefer it to a 925 which is basically the same phone with a slightly different screen and a crappier body.
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Jun 27, 2014 06:20
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So whilst spending a stupid amount to stop my Golf from beeping at me and flashing a spanner sign every-time i turn him on, I had a look at some smartphones. With windows phones, it's down to the 520 for being a sexy, compact phone and CHEAP and the 1020 for having an amazing camera and good specs, as well as as fairly good ascetic, it'll certainly help me pull that girl with the bad skin at the VW service desk! seriously though, it's a great looking phone. And yeah, telstra. I am currently squatting at my parent's until I get a proper job and telstra gets good reception everywhere so no matter what i'll be set. 620/30 felt cheap, phablets are too big and are awkward to use JUST LIKE MY
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Jun 27, 2014 08:24
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ljw1004 posted:I believe that Microsoft's official design guidelines used to say: Because WP is 2% of the Market no one cares about MS's design guidelines who is not a MS employee. However to pass cert the back button must do something each press and it must eventually exit the app, or present an exit dialog if its a game. The standard is to be taken to the previous view. If you do that then the last view will boot you to desktop. Some multiplatform devs decided to bring over the design convention from iOS with an on screen button and just have the back button always boot you to desktop so as to pass cert. The Android devs will usually implement it more correctly as back is a normal platform feature while iOS devs will all solve it differently as back is not a platform feature.
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Jun 27, 2014 15:36
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RasputinVarez posted:OK, after posting on the Android thread apparently Android has never had any optimization problems and has never been a RAM hog... As everyone else has said this thing is almost 2 full years old when it launched it had outdated hardware so you're looking at paying a minor premium for 3 year old tech. The battery in the shell is likely several years old too. The battery life will be poor and you won't have a good experience. That said if you like WP8 it's a WP8 also tank with wireless charging. The 925 or Moto G/Moto G LTE/Moto E might be better suited but if you can grab some wireless charging mats it might be alright.
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Jun 27, 2014 15:42
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Stick100 posted:As everyone else has said this thing is almost 2 full years old when it launched it had outdated hardware so you're looking at paying a minor premium for 3 year old tech. The battery in the shell is likely several years old too. The battery life will be poor and you won't have a good experience. it's also off the list. now it's down to the cheapness and compactness of a 520 and the camera and specs of the 1020 on a plan
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Jun 27, 2014 15:45
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Martytoof posted:The more I use WinPhone, the more I find that developers use the back button inconsistently and I really wish it would stop. Is it going to take me back to the last sheet? Is it going to exit the app outright? It's anyone's guess! I'm disappointed about how Microsoft implemented the back button. It's too unpredictable and punitive. Ideally tapping it should never take you out of an app, ever. If there are no pages on the navigation stack or you tap back from the first screen, it should transition to the task switcher as if you had pressed-and-held it. That'd: a) prevent you from accidentally backing out of an app when you didn't mean to, forcing you to find it again in the apps list ("what was it called? Music? Microsoft Music? Xbox Music? oh whatever forget it") b) still allow you to kill the app if you want to, from the app card close button or swipe to close c) increase discoverability of the app switcher. And of course tapping the windows key from anywhere will still take you to start and the system can still suspend apps in the background as it does today. Factor Mystic fucked around with this message at 17:05 on Jun 27, 2014 |
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Jun 27, 2014 16:59
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Factor Mystic posted:I'm disappointed about how Microsoft implemented the back button. It's too unpredictable and punitive. Ideally tapping it should never take you out of an app, ever. If there are no pages on the navigation stack or you tap back from the first screen, it should transition to the task switcher as if you had pressed-and-held it. Originally it was the only way you could properly kill an app, because there was no app card close button. We would always make sure to do it because you never knew when an app would decide to be a battery hog even when running in the background or supposedly suspended. Admittedly they should have thought of the current system sooner.
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Jun 27, 2014 17:29
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The Lord Bude posted:Originally it was the only way you could properly kill an app, because there was no app card close button. We would always make sure to do it because you never knew when an app would decide to be a battery hog even when running in the background or supposedly suspended. Admittedly they should have thought of the current system sooner. Originally they did not intend to have multi tasking or fast resume. They figured they could make apps start up from scratch so fast that there would never be any need. MS wanted to have a system like iOS3 where nothing could run in background at all. There were specific background APIs for location tracking and music and that was about it.
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Jun 27, 2014 17:57
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Nevermind. Refresh the thread before replying 
WattsvilleBlues fucked around with this message at 21:53 on Jun 27, 2014 |
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Jun 27, 2014 21:50
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The Lord Bude posted:Originally it was the only way you could properly kill an app, because there was no app card close button. We would always make sure to do it because you never knew when an app would decide to be a battery hog even when running in the background or supposedly suspended. Admittedly they should have thought of the current system sooner. They should have changed the back button behavior when they added the task switcher, is basically what I'm saying. This time I'm not dogpiling for past sins, I'm talking about a current failure which could be currently fixed.
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Jun 27, 2014 22:13
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Can someone with the 1520 tell me whether it is worth paying the extra money for Qi charging? Is that really the only benefit to the international model?
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Jun 27, 2014 22:31
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Is there any remotely interesting high end phones that aren't phablets announced? It seems to me they only care about low end phones on emerging markets these days. I'm growing fed up with this platform. I'm tired of stuff like this happening: The Chive updates their site. Of course there's no official windows phone app because there never is. So the update breaks all the lovely third party apps. And of course I have to use three separate 3rd party apps because not a single one can handle pictures, gifs, and video properly in one app. Rudy makes some great stuff, but his hands are tied with things like Snapchat video. Is this stuff a big deal? No. But I'm tired off just have to "accept things" because I have a Windows phone.
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Jun 27, 2014 22:32
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CubanMissile posted:Is there any remotely interesting high end phones that aren't phablets announced? It seems to me they only care about low end phones on emerging markets these days. If your definition of a phablet is a phone with a screen size greater than 5", there's the Lumia 930 which is basically the international version of the Lumia Icon. I believe the Icon is also GSM unlocked but you'll be left with a phone plastered with Verizon logos. There's also something in the pipeline with the codename McLaren (formerly Goldfinger). Specifications aren't known but it is apparently a flagship device for three US carriers (most likely not Sprint) that will be released this November. What is known of the hardware is that it'll feature 3D touch; that is you can interact with the phone by hovering your finger in front of the screen. Unlike Samsung's attempt with the Galaxy S4, McLaren will utilize dedicated hardware based on Kinect. http://www.wpcentral.com/microsofts-next-flagship-windows-phone-november-3d-touch I'm looking forward to it. Especially if T-Mobile is getting their own version.
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Jun 27, 2014 23:11
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ElGroucho posted:Can someone with the 1520 tell me whether it is worth paying the extra money for Qi charging? Is that really the only benefit to the international model? Having had a 920 and a 1520, Qi charging is nice to have. But I don't know if I would call it necessary. I think the international model supports more bands, but the AT&T one supports T-Mobile LTE which is all I cared about. Speaking of which, I'm selling my 1520. I kinda wanna save that money and get a better (read: smaller) model if and when the new high end devices come out.
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Jun 27, 2014 23:18
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Agreed on the back button behaviour, starting to annoy me especially with Music (what else), as when I accidentally close it by backing out one step too far, it's slow as gently caress to load again and there's no recent history. One aspect of the keyboard btw that I'm surprised I don't see more bitching about is the location of the close (x) icon, which is just underneath the space bar. This is a two-fold problem when crafting an email, as when your thumb invariably hits it instead of space, you're given two options - save the message, or delete. There's a third obvious option missing - CANCEL. So this is what happens: 1. Type type type [spacebar] - gently caress no, don't want to delete it 2. Choose the only sane option - save. 3. Tap the left side of the screen to get the folders view. 4. Navigate to the drafts folder, find the email you were just creating. 5. Open it and resume typing, and hope to hell you don't hit the X again. The new swype-style keyboard helps me avoid this a little bit more, but sweet jeebus have I been close to chucking it on the street when it happens twice in a row on the same email.
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Jun 28, 2014 00:15
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Happy_Misanthrope posted:Agreed on the back button behaviour, starting to annoy me especially with Music (what else), as when I accidentally close it by backing out one step too far, it's slow as gently caress to load again and there's no recent history. Hm, I just tested this, and hitting back arrow when that dialog appears acts as a cancel button, taking me back to the email. The more common problem for me is swiping around the keyboard and hitting the Home button by accident, which is the most jarring thing. LentThem fucked around with this message at 01:21 on Jun 28, 2014 |
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Jun 28, 2014 01:17
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Back on the 14th I ordered a 521 for $59 from Newegg. By the 23rd it hadn't arrived, UPS said they never received the package, and Newegg basically shrugged and said they would cancel the order and refund my money in a week or so. So on the 25th I ordered a 521 from Microsoft. Today, both phones arrived. Luckily MS does free returns. So this Windows phone is really different. I mean I expected it to be different but the interface is really different from Android or PCs or Macs or Linux. I don't dislike it but if anyone remembers what their fingers felt like after the first day of typing class (if you actually had a typing class), that's what my brain feels like. I must be getting old, might need someone younger to program the I like the tiles more than android but as someone mentioned a few posts back, usage of the back button seems inconsistent. Fonts are inconsistent, really small in some apps and just right in others; none of the apps so far can change the font size. There are at least 3.5 godzillion youtube apps but wormil fucked around with this message at 19:19 on Jun 28, 2014 |
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Jun 28, 2014 07:40
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wormil posted:Back on the 14th I ordered a 521 for $59 from Newegg. By the 23rd it hadn't arrived, UPS said they never received the package, and Newegg basically shrugged and said they would cancel the order and refund my money in a week or so. So on the 25th I ordered a 521 from Microsoft. Today, both phones arrived. Luckily MS does free returns. I don't use Google calendar for much, is there stuff the native calendar app doesn't support in regards to Google calendars?
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Jun 28, 2014 07:44
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Maneki Neko posted:I don't use Google calendar for much, is there stuff the native calendar app doesn't support in regards to Google calendars? I haven't messed with it much yet. My wife and I have been using Google Calendars for years, not only do we share calendars but I subscribe to a couple other calendars and not having them would be a considerable inconvenience. Actually looks like there is an 'all in one' google app and hopefully it will put the calendar in a tile.
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Jun 28, 2014 07:49
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wormil posted:I haven't messed with it much yet. My wife and I have been using Google Calendars for years, not only do we share calendars but I subscribe to a couple other calendars and not having them would be a considerable inconvenience. Actually looks like there is an 'all in one' google app and hopefully it will put the calendar in a tile. For what it's worth, I just tried adding something to my Google calendar, hit sync on my 521 (which is connected to my Google account), and the appointment showed up. It's a universal calendar app, I see things from work and my Google/Outlook.com calendars. If you want the built-in calendar app to display just things from your Google calendar, it looks like you can just go into Settings and enable only Google stuff.
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Jun 28, 2014 08:48
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LentThem posted:Hm, I just tested this, and hitting back arrow when that dialog appears acts as a cancel button, taking me back to the email. See folks even more back button inconsistency  edit: goddamit it does work that way, in my defense it's hard to use a phone when you have a bucket on your head to prevent you from licking an open wound Happy_Misanthrope fucked around with this message at 16:22 on Jun 28, 2014 |
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Jun 28, 2014 14:19
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monster on a stick posted:For what it's worth, I just tried adding something to my Google calendar, hit sync on my 521 (which is connected to my Google account), and the appointment showed up. It's a universal calendar app, I see things from work and my Google/Outlook.com calendars. That fixes that issue, thanks. I should have spent more time with it.
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Jun 28, 2014 16:48
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Back button seems to act as a cancel dialog button pretty much everywhere, although I only discovered it accidentally one day, so it could definitely use some discoverability or at least some documenta-Happy_Misanthrope posted:edit: goddamit it does work that way, in my defense it's hard to use a phone when you have a bucket on your head to prevent you from licking an open wound 
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Jun 28, 2014 17:18
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Got my Lumia Icon late yesterday and have been playing with it since. So far I really like it, great screen, smooth, etc. etc. I also like the MixRadio. Are the standard HERE Maps and assorted apps good for navigation? I think I'm going to wait until Verizon releases 8.1 to update the phone. But in WP8, is there no way to automatically update all the apps?
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Jun 28, 2014 19:47
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Mecca-Benghazi posted:Back button seems to act as a cancel dialog button pretty much everywhere, although I only discovered it accidentally one day, so it could definitely use some discoverability or at least some documenta- I think you meant to use 
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Jun 28, 2014 20:12
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