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WattsvilleBlues posted:Question here - for the people here using Windows Phone 8.1 or Windows 10 Mobile, what keeps you using the platform over Android or iOS? Is it just down to aesthetics and "not needing" apps? Cost? I get the impression some of the iOS goons who want to try Windows 10 Mobile are just kinda bored by iOS and want something a bit different. For me it's cost (WP are still the best bang for the money at the cheap end) and the OS is a happy medium between the ease of use but non-customisable of iOS and the complete free for all of Android. I am not a power user so I just use my phone to communicate with people the old fashioned way (talking and texting), a bit of social media, a bit of web browsing and a few other things.
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May 10, 2016 22:28
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Pretty much what Tivac said, plus the keyboard (although that's less of an issue with Word Flow on other platforms now). I'm not married to WP though; if something really awesome in the iOS or Android space happens in a couple of years or there's no progress on W10 mobile I'll switch but for now I'm happy. My mom got a Lumia 640 for $30 from Best Buy. That's a steal and it's probably better for her than iOS because I pinned certain people to her start screen so it's an easy to figure out speed dial (I don't know if Android has something similar).
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May 10, 2016 22:29
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WP versus iOS: iOS is just boring. It hasn't really changed significantly since the iPhone launched almost ten years ago now, and that's just a re-hash of Windows 3.1. Sure, it does more now (control center, notifications, search, and it's easier to move data between apps), but the actual home-screen is just a bunch of icons in lines and folders. That said, if I didn't have a company-issued iPhone, it'd be harder to not re-examine choices come September. WP versus Android: I just don't like Google. Besides them spidering Chrome EVERYFUCKINGWHERE and how quick they are to kill things that aren't working as well as they want (Wave, Reader, $yourfavoritedeadgoogleproducthere), the problem is how they've fundamentally mis-managed Android. Phones only a year old are already dead: they'll never receive a security update to close gaping holes in the base Android OS. The filtering on their walled-garden app store is a joke. It's exactly the same situation we saw twenty years ago with Windows 95/98, but with an always-on internet connection, location tracking, and banking details all in one six-inch rectangle. That's not to say Microsoft is exactly winning any awards with how they've managed mobile; they're just the least-bad option. I can't wait til Apple develops Crosstinuum in a decade, too 
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May 10, 2016 23:00
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It took me two weeks to set up an Android tablet exactly the way I wanted it. Big part of that was downloading apps to do basic things like locking and unlocking screen rotation and poo poo like that and picking the one with the least obnoxious ads. Admittedly, this was a while ago (4.0 I'm guessing). Every time a family member asks me to set up something on their poo poo tier Android phone, I seem to notice manufacturers adding flavors that make things work differently. I don't know, that's what I'm assuming is happening. Brain rot must have set in, is how it makes me feel to need to take 10 minutes to figure out again where settings is or how I get an overview of all the installed apps or where the most recent calls are or how to select multiple files. In the first day I owned a Windows Phone (8.1), never having touched the platform before, everything clicked and made sense. All the gestures, where everything is, what you can and can't do. I like the mostly monochromatic look and the squares. It looks fairly clean and stylized versus the attack on the senses that Android can be. It helps that I really do not care for my phone to do things beyond the basic phone stuff. And compared to iPhone, price, god drat. I'm not spending 500€ on a phone.
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May 10, 2016 23:36
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WattsvilleBlues posted:Question here - for the people here using Windows Phone 8.1 or Windows 10 Mobile, what keeps you using the platform over Android or iOS? Is it just down to aesthetics and "not needing" apps? Cost? I get the impression some of the iOS goons who want to try Windows 10 Mobile are just kinda bored by iOS and want something a bit different. Wizard of the Deep posted:WP versus Android: I just don't like Google. Besides them spidering Chrome EVERYFUCKINGWHERE and how quick they are to kill things that aren't working as well as they want (Wave, Reader, $yourfavoritedeadgoogleproducthere), the problem is how they've fundamentally mis-managed Android. Phones only a year old are already dead: they'll never receive a security update to close gaping holes in the base Android OS. The filtering on their walled-garden app store is a joke. It's exactly the same situation we saw twenty years ago with Windows 95/98, but with an always-on internet connection, location tracking, and banking details all in one six-inch rectangle. Flipperwaldt posted:It took me two weeks to set up an Android tablet exactly the way I wanted it. Big part of that was downloading apps to do basic things like locking and unlocking screen rotation and poo poo like that and picking the one with the least obnoxious ads. Admittedly, this was a while ago (4.0 I'm guessing). And I agree with Tivac's camera button mention. If I go anywhere it's going to be Iphone despite the massive headache setting up my wifes phone gave me.I just really hate paying brand tax in general, but on the other hand her phone looks nice, feels nice and moves like greased lightning. It´s still a better option than having to muck about with phones that slow down to a crawl after a year of use and aren´t supported anymore within that same year. I´ve helped fix and maintain my mothers Samsung Galaxy something, her LG G3, my brothers MotoE and our and my moms android tablets. Somehow the experience is different everywhere with the only thing they have in common is being horrifically slow and needing complete reinstalls to get them halfway decent again.
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May 11, 2016 07:57
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I love everything about WP except the app situation. If MS were smart they would pay developers to write (more) apps. The other issue is that the moment developers catch wind of a new version (8.1, 10) they abandon the current version and stop updating software. So there is a lot of half assed apps.
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May 11, 2016 14:50
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So I use Android for the apps, but my husband has used a Lumia Icon since it launched and I've been jealous of him the whole time. It just works better, I actually recently upgraded my phone and his is still faster. I'm not using lovely Androids, I have used (and continue to use) a well reviewed top flagship phone (over the years: Nexus, Samsung Galaxy, HTC). But his hasn't slowed down at all in all the years. The radios work better, I lose data way faster than he does. The interface is clean and MAKES SENSE out of the box. Every time I get a new Android, I basically spend a whole day getting the interface to a point of being easily usable (to me). He has no desire to upgrade his phone when before with the Androids he used, he'd be chomping at the bit 6 months before the 2 year contract was over. I can totally see why.
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May 11, 2016 14:59
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Any news on Tweetium being fixed? The official Twitter app puts me at the end of my feed instead of where I left off when I go in to it, which is completely useless.
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May 11, 2016 15:01
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WattsvilleBlues posted:Question here - for the people here using Windows Phone 8.1 or Windows 10 Mobile, what keeps you using the platform over Android or iOS? Is it just down to aesthetics and "not needing" apps? Cost? I get the impression some of the iOS goons who want to try Windows 10 Mobile are just kinda bored by iOS and want something a bit different. I've been using Windows phones since 7, and I had an iPhone 3gs before that. I liked the size of the Samsung Focus and the screen, the keyboard, and the Zune music hub. 8.1 brought a lot of good things to the platform that have been getting killed off recently, but I still like the OS better than the alternatives. I don't like Google, and I tried the iPhone for a few months but was annoyed at a lot of little issues in ios that weren't present in WP. I gave my wife my iPhone and bought a 640 XL and upgraded to Windows 10. It's not as good as 8.1 and I'm hoping it gets stable soon because it's the best mobile os I've used, even though the apps aren't on the platform and the ones that make it are worse than their ios version. It reminds me a lot of the PC vs Mac in the 90's. You could do anything on a PC and Mac could only handle a few programs that Apple made. You couldn't game on a Mac, office was a joke and the market share was abysmal. Mac OS still doesn't have a huge market share, but they have developer interest and even MS made office a good option on Mac. I'm hoping that sort of thing happens for Windows 10.
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May 11, 2016 18:13
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WattsvilleBlues posted:Question here - for the people here using Windows Phone 8.1 or Windows 10 Mobile, what keeps you using the platform over Android or iOS? Is it just down to aesthetics and "not needing" apps? Cost? I get the impression some of the iOS goons who want to try Windows 10 Mobile are just kinda bored by iOS and want something a bit different. iOS: hunt and peck icons is a dead paradigm - I have an iPad I only use for apps not on WP and I hate using its one button bullshit. All the apps tho. Crappy keyboard, marshmallow brony aesthetic, the metal handsets feel (are!) fragile as gently caress; Android: a mess of eye-loving busyness and ugly icons, splintering, bloat; (I just read one of yous guy's posts about looking for screen rotation apps - wtf?!), last I checked it felt like an enthusiast ROM, overcooked handset design (I'm looking at you Samsung) WPhone: great interface though seems to be getting worse with each iteration as a trade off for new features, dual sim, solid basic functions out of the box but app gap is crap, I like squares and rectangles. I also like big chunky text which I miss from the earlier versions. Generally utilitarian design though again getting worse, I still have my dead 920 on my desk to touch and fondle, such a sexy hardware. As was mentioned, WP is the best of a crap lot for me: I can live without apps but I don't have patience for frustrating interfaces. We'll see how long that lasts, either in terms of MS's support, and whether more features which made WPhone stand out get dropped along the way.
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May 11, 2016 20:17
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I was going to make a long post about how groove music has been driving me crazy with random crashes, cryptic DRM and sign in errors, and blocking the whole sound system making all audio apps useless until you restart the phone. But an update to the fast ring came out and those issues seen fixed? So that's good. Don't get why out picked two different artist pics for No Use For A Name, one without the band.   And while I'm here, look at how the edit button now lines up in my Awful App.  
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May 12, 2016 04:20
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Man, arstechnica commenters are pretty much universally cheering the removal of the share-wifi-with-friends feature from Windows 10. I found it really neat, though I will admit I didn't actually get much use out of it.
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May 12, 2016 10:08
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Was that the thing that shared wifi access details and was basically a security nightmare waiting to happen?
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May 12, 2016 15:55
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DarkMalfunction posted:Was that the thing that shared wifi access details and was basically a security nightmare waiting to happen? Not really a "security nightmare", but, as far as I know, a misunderstanding of what it did. If I recall correctly, it sent hashes of your wifi password to contacts you allowed. Hashes, as in, not the actual password. My bigger issue with it was the "Auto connect to Open Wifi hotspots", because that could potentially connect you to less than stellar hotspots that might do bad things. But the wifi passwords thing was, IMO, overblown. Keeping the sharing between your actual computers so you don't have to reenter passwords is a good compromise though.
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May 12, 2016 16:02
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It's been interesting reading the responses. There are too many to go through individually but this one caught my eye.Mr Funkface posted:Android: a mess of eye-loving busyness and ugly icons, splintering, bloat; (I just read one of yous guy's posts about looking for screen rotation apps - wtf?!), last I checked it felt like an enthusiast ROM, overcooked handset design (I'm looking at you Samsung) The icons on Android can be easily replaced. It's obviously very subjective but I like the UI. I don't know what version of Android that screen rotation guy was using, but everything I've used since 2010 has had that functionality. I note that it was only 2 years ago that Windows Phone 8.1 provided a quick toggle. The Android OS fragmentation is a real and significant issue though. Can you imagine if your ISP decided when or if you got Windows updates? Neither can I. Either the industry needs regulation on this, or OEMs just need to stop dicking around with their own skins and just update the OS as quickly as possible and keep it to stock, or almost-stock Android + additional apps you can remove. The UK mobile networks don't seem too bad in terms of allowing OS updates through once the OEMs have pushed them, but the American market sounds like a loving joke. And their carrier branding on the software and the hardware? Get the gently caress. Verizon sounds like Satan bought a mobile phone company and put his senior oval office in charge. Edit: I forgot to ask, what Samsung devices have you used? I would never touch a Samsung phone before the S6, which I never had. My current phone is an S7 and it performs like a champ. WattsvilleBlues fucked around with this message at 02:40 on May 13, 2016 |
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May 13, 2016 02:26
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Trip report on the $30 craigslist 1520. Works great - replaced the battery today with a "genuine Nokia" BV-4BW cell from...you guessed it. eBay. You also probably guessed the battery is counterfeit. Well no poo poo, turns out eBay sellers are dishonest. It charges but stops at 83%. Interneting says this is a surefire sign it's fake. I ran the Lumia Phone Test Application (some testing software) and the battery fails the authentication. Oh well. I mean $30 + $23 = still a very cheap, practically new 1520 to fool around with. If anyone has questions about the battery replacement procedure I can help, but youtube was easy to follow. Just need the right tools, which somehow I had on hand. The double-sided tape on the original battery is a serious pain in the rear end. You need a heat gun and a lot of patience.  
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May 13, 2016 04:09
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WattsvilleBlues posted:Question here - for the people here using Windows Phone 8.1 or Windows 10 Mobile, what keeps you using the platform over Android or iOS? Is it just down to aesthetics and "not needing" apps? Cost? Yes. I'm pretty new to smartphones altogether, but when I did mobile testing on Android and iOS, my first thought was "Anything but an iPhone." It turned out that the cheapest upgrade on my plan was a Windows Phone and after enduring one of those almost-smart phones for a couple of years and watching a CNET review of the Samsung Ativ S Neo, I decided anything would be an upgrade, so I bought it in 2014. I fell in love with the interface and never became overly reliant on/interested in apps due to my experience. My current phone is a Lumia 950, and I like it fine, though I do miss Instagram a little (6tag is alright though). I might be willing to switch to Android if someone gave me a free Android phone or something, but eh.
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May 13, 2016 15:28
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WattsvilleBlues posted:Question here - for the people here using Windows Phone 8.1 or Windows 10 Mobile, what keeps you using the platform over Android or iOS? Is it just down to aesthetics and "not needing" apps? Cost? I get the impression some of the iOS goons who want to try Windows 10 Mobile are just kinda bored by iOS and want something a bit different. Cost was one of the reasons for me, the other directly related to it was performance. I've been doing the whole synching phones, installing apps and barebones browsing thing since my Siemens S55 over a decade ago. My first actual smartphone was an HTC Wizard running Windows Mobile 5, which was decent enough for my requirements at the time, even if useability was a bit poo poo(on the other hand, I could RDP into work servers with it) and it did a decent job at being a GPS. I replaced it with an iPhone 3G when those came out here, never really had any issues with it, but when the time came to replace that I wasn't interested in paying a lot of cash for a new iPhone and went for a Samsung Galaxy S, which was my first exposure to Android. I eventually replaced that with an S3 Mini, getting thoroughly Samsunged on that course. The S stopped receiving updates not too long after I got it and ended on 2.3, the last update I got had a reproducable hardlock when scrolling through the app list that popped up randomly and required a battery pull to solve, even after a reset. I eventually shoved Cyanogenmod on there but performance went down a lot when I did that. The S3 Mini had a lot of battery issues that required two replacements in two years due to swelling(both under warranty after some complaining at Samsung), no updates shortly after I got it, and just seemed to perform worse over time, with random crashes. I could have rooted it but for work reasons I have to be able to use certain apps that don't work on a rooted phone. Last year I decided I had enough of lovely Samsung phones, and started looking for a replacement. Due to cost iPhones were still out of the question(I also migrated away from the Apple ecosystem a while before outside of an iPod Classic for my car), and the lower-end Android market was mostly filled with cheap shitphones. I got pointed towards the Lumia 640 that had just come out, which seemed to fit the bill in terms of cost/performance ratio and since then it's been my daily driver. The "something different" also applies. Despite being the new hotness when it launched iOS is feeling a bit outdated due to the way everything is structured, and Android has just always been a mess for me in terms of useability(not limited to Samsung, I've been able to try different brands, firmwares and launchers too) Windows Phone and Windows Mobile just feel a lot cleaner, more effective and overall just better designed. I've never had to search for options, they were always where I was expecting them to be. Performance, and especially battery life, is great too, and I don't really have a need for a lot of apps. The only thing I could say I might miss would be a mobile banking app, but even if I had one I'd barely use it because of the limitations those tend to have. I picked up another 640 for my girlfriend as a christmas present last year, and I'm pretty sure it suits her better than an iPhone or Android phone would, especially considering it's her first smartphone.
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May 13, 2016 15:54
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YeahTubaMike posted:My current phone is a Lumia 950, and I like it fine, though I do miss Instagram a little (6tag is alright though). There is an offcial Instagram app. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/apps/instagram/9nblggh5l9xt
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May 13, 2016 15:57
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Yep, and it is in fact one of the apps which works fairly well for me. My main annoyance at this point is Lync, which is wonky on all platforms, but runs at a positively glacial speed on W10M.
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May 13, 2016 16:50
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Has anyone elses flashlight function disappeared? I ran an update earlier this week and now in the settings and in the dropdown menu the flashlight has disappeared. This looks really stupid in the dropdown menu.
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May 13, 2016 17:24
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Darth TNT posted:Has anyone elses flashlight function disappeared? I ran an update earlier this week and now in the settings and in the dropdown menu the flashlight has disappeared. This looks really stupid in the dropdown menu. I still see it in the quick settings. 
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May 13, 2016 17:30
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Cybernetic Vermin posted:My main annoyance at this point is Lync, which is wonky on all platforms What's Skype for Business like? I've never used Lync or Skype for business, but if it's anywhere near as bad as normal Skype...
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May 13, 2016 17:34
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Darth TNT posted:Has anyone elses flashlight function disappeared? I ran an update earlier this week and now in the settings and in the dropdown menu the flashlight has disappeared. This looks really stupid in the dropdown menu. Still have mine, updated earlier this week as well. Lumia 950.
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May 13, 2016 17:34
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DarkMalfunction posted:What's Skype for Business like? I've never used Lync or Skype for business, but if it's anywhere near as bad as normal Skype... Skype for Business is just a rebrand of Lync, just went with the old name since the new predictably confuses people. Normal skype, including the W10M app, is worlds better than Lync/SfB. It is reasonably featured and the core parts all work, but it is glacially slow and very glitchy. Unfortunate, as W10M is otherwise a fine platform for the Office 365 ecosystem at this point.
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May 13, 2016 18:26
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S4B is okay if your org has set it up right. Otherwise without saved chats it blows on mobile. Regarding the battery thing, on my last samesong android I bought a battery from eBay. It weighed like 25% of the weight it should have. Dropped from 80% to 40% in like 3 minutes. Phone turned off, and it never charged or worked again. It probably was two watch batteries taped together.
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May 13, 2016 23:01
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Flashlight is back. Turning it on and off foxed. 
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May 14, 2016 07:47
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Are we getting the official Facebook app any time soon? I have it on desktop but my phone app is still Microsoft's, and since it won't display any images in group feeds for some reason, I am keen to be shot of it. I couldn't get in the beta last time I tried.
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May 15, 2016 00:25
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Doctor_Fruitbat posted:Are we getting the official Facebook app any time soon? I have it on desktop but my phone app is still Microsoft's, and since it won't display any images in group feeds for some reason, I am keen to be shot of it. I couldn't get in the beta last time I tried. Coming Soon™
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May 15, 2016 01:31
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Anyone messed around with Cisco Spark? Seems to be similar to the rooms function that MS ditched. Buddy that works at Cisco was showing it to me earlier and it looks pretty interesting.
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May 15, 2016 07:36
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Really, I think I would be a pretty happy W10M user now if Microsoft could just manage two things: Fix performance/glitches in Skype for Business (suggested above that it is a configuration issue on our side, but this is some hosted Office365 stuff that should not be terrible out of the box). If they can't get Cortana localized at a reasonable pace: at least allow users to use Cortana in a language other than the one used for the rest of the OS. There are some neat features rather locked behind Cortana, and I can live with having to interact with her in English, but I am not about to set my region and language to US to achieve it. There are a bunch of apps I would like to see improved as well, but those are the only two really necessary pieces that Microsoft has some control over.
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May 16, 2016 11:36
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wormil posted:Anyone messed around with Cisco Spark? Seems to be similar to the rooms function that MS ditched. Buddy that works at Cisco was showing it to me earlier and it looks pretty interesting. Spark is their version of Slack. It sits somewhere between Jabber and Webex and does .... Something. Microsoft doesn't really have anything at the moment with that sort of layout, but, then again, I'm not sure where Cisco is going with that either. I just use group me for non business chats with friends, sharing pictures, appointments, etc.
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May 16, 2016 12:29
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Spark worked fine on my wife's Android but not at all on my 925. The app runs but the features don't work. Not familiar with any of the other apps you mention but Spark is supposed to do voice, video, pics, and text to groups and it's free as in beer. No ads, no cost for personal use.
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May 16, 2016 15:55
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Did Google just recreate Windows Phone rooms? https://googleblog.blogspot.com/2016/05/introducing-spaces-tool-for-small-group.html
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May 16, 2016 16:19
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wormil posted:Spark worked fine on my wife's Android but not at all on my 925. The app runs but the features don't work. Not familiar with any of the other apps you mention but Spark is supposed to do voice, video, pics, and text to groups and it's free as in beer. No ads, no cost for personal use. It is only chat on windows mobile. It is free for small use and groups, but, it is also a pointless player in the market if you are not already into Cisco uc.
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May 17, 2016 01:27
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Partycat posted:It is only chat on windows mobile. It is free for small use and groups, but, it is also a pointless player in the market if you are not already into Cisco uc. Chat doesn't work either. I'm not into any of them and neither is anyone I know so they are all equally pointless players where I sit. I'm done with Windows Phone. I like the OS but no one gives a poo poo about it and it feels like MS doesn't give a poo poo either. There is practically no support. It's missing a lot of apps and many of the ones it has are beta or problematic. The second a new version of the OS is mentioned all the current apps become abandonware for 2 years until everyone is caught up then another version is announced and all the apps are abandoned again. Even this thread where you would think people would maybe champion the phone, is 99% bitching. And I get the feeling that most people who post here are dabblers, not actual Windows Phone users. Honestly, the more often I read this thread the more I dislike my phone. It's a shame because I really like the OS, it's the best in my opinion but no one cares and MS doesn't care.
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May 17, 2016 07:08
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https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/2016/05/16/announcing-windows-10-mobile-insider-preview-build-14342/quote:- We fixed an issue where some apps, including Tweetium, would crash on launch. 
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May 17, 2016 07:31
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Tivac posted:https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/2016/05/16/announcing-windows-10-mobile-insider-preview-build-14342/
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May 17, 2016 07:36
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Not to mention the return of the ability to type the letter "a" in the Edge address bar, I had rather missed that 
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May 17, 2016 08:01
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wormil posted:Chat doesn't work either. I'm not into any of them and neither is anyone I know so they are all equally pointless players where I sit. Well, chat works for me in Spark anyways. I still recommend you try groupme, which, paired with skype, does what you want save for sending files.
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May 17, 2016 10:03
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