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 Windows Phone 8.1 Previous threads: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3514718 http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3439182 http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3355922 http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3267845 What is Windows Phone? Windows Phone is Microsoft's mobile OS. It was designed as a complete "start from scratch" replacement for the old Windows CE platform known as Windows Mobile. What's new in Windows Phone 8.1? Lots. WP8.1 is a major upgrade over WP8. Here's a demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAu0YgPnuXM If you've got more time, you can watch the whole keynote announcement from BUILD 2014 here: http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/Build/2014/KEY01 Here is an incomplete list of some of the major new items: For Developers:
For Users:
When will it be done? It's "done" now. It's currently in the commercialization phase. This means that a Microsoft team is working with OEMs/MOs putting in any last minute fixes/tweaks needed and are preparing to release new phones/update existing devices. What devices can upgrade to 8.1? All current WP8 devices can run WP8.1. Obviously, new devices will be coming with WP8.1. Nokia has announced all WP8 Lumia devices will be receiving the update. When will MY phone get the update? This depends on the carrier and the manufacturer. Carriers like to test any changes to the device to ensure that the new software will not cause network issues or result in their support centers getting flooded with support calls. Sometimes carriers need to ask manufacturer to provide updated firmware for phones so their phone variant can work without issues. How do I get the update? When it's release, there are two ways to get the update:
What does "platform convergence" mean? What's a Universal App This is for developers. In essence it means more shared code/APIs between a Windows, Windows Phone, and Xbox apps. The result is that it is possible for a single app to target all Windows platforms, be it XAML, HTML, or DirectX. This is called a Universal App. Grab the SDK here and try it out! What is "Shadowboxing"? The start screen now has the option for a background that will appear "inside" your tiles*. When scrolling the screen, the background has some parallax effect. It looks great, you should try it. (Not all tiles are transparent as this is a developer setting)  Whats the deal with backup/restore? What what's the deal with app data being backed up? Backups are stored in your Onedrive space and can be managed on the phone or via the OneDrive settings page. Most settings are now backed up also (start screen layout, accent color, etc). The few that are new are done for design reasons (for example, Data Sense settings). Applications can now be coded to hook into the OS to have a user's application data backed up (THANK GOD) What is Wifi Sense? Carriers are moving away from unlimited data plans (at least in the states anyways), while phones are becoming a more integral part of our lives and our data usage is increasing. This makes managing your data usage more critical than ever. Wifi Sense is a feature that will help you save on your cellular data usage by connecting to free Wifi access points automatically without interaction from the user. Additionally, as a sub feature, you can add your own personal (ie home access point) and share access to your friends without them needing know your access points shared key. What is Miracast? See the Wikipedia definition. Basically this allows you to project your phones screen on another device via Wifi Direct/USB/HDMI. THIS MAY NOT WORK WITH ALL CURRENT PHONES, and is somewhat up in the air at the moment until we get some more concrete info from the handset makers. What is the action center? Any toast/notification that happens on the system gets stored in the action center for review. Along with this are quick action buttons (think quick enable/disable for things like rotation lock, airplane mode, etc). You can toggle which apps are allowed to show in the action center, play a notification sound, show a toast, or vibrate the phone. What is this Cortana digital personal assistant thing? Cortana is a digital personal assistant designed to help you in your daily life. The vision is to have her learn about you at a personal level (your tastes, interests, habits, etc) and then, like a real personal assistant, help you in a variety of ways at a personal level. If you want the marketing video, watch this Cortana replaces the Bing (search) button -- a single press brings Cortana up ready for input while a long press brings up Cortana listening for speech. Cortana is being designed for natural speech and has built with a learning backend -- meaning the more you use/talk to it, the better it will become overtime. If you walk to Cortana, she’ll talk back. If you type to Cortana, she won’t talk back. Both work equally well. Okay that sounds like marketing speak, give me examples of what it will do. Examples:
Okay that email scanning and other stuff sounds super creepy and I'm sure Microsoft is just selling our info and illuminati free masons bitcoin ron paul... You configure Cortana not to watch your email when trying to help you. You can completely disable Cortana you want. Additionally you can modify Cortana's on device notebook if you want to change/remove items. You can also clear Cortana data at your Bing personalization page What's the Cortana in beta all about? Microsoft is launching Cortana as a beta feature in 8.1. The reason being that there is ongoing "training" of the voice system as well as adding new features and bits. The backend will continually be updated so what you have on the phone will be improved in a continuous fashion. (Thanks to Xylo!) Maneki Neko fucked around with this message at 18:36 on Apr 7, 2014 |
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Apr 6, 2014 01:00
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(reserved)
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Apr 6, 2014 01:01
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All family phones are developer preview initiated, commence to start 8.1.  On a side note I am fairly pleased with myself. I've successfully modded a wireless charging coil into my thin TPU case for my 1020. When I do my wife's 1020 I'll document it for the benefit of mankind. No reason it won't work for a 925 either. I hated that in order to have wireless charging I had to forego a protective case.
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Apr 6, 2014 03:26
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I am very excited for the release of the next generation of Windows Phone hardware! A lot of the stuff in 8.1 is much needed, here's to good operating systems on cheap hardware! 
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Apr 6, 2014 04:50
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Why am I not surprised... I think Microsoft and I have different ideas of what an "universal app" makes. It's essentially a three project build hack.
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Apr 6, 2014 14:07
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Reflowing the same app for phones, tablets and PCs would be godawful, the APIs being reasonably compatible is as far as is sane to go. Any useful application will want to separate some parts of the presentation.
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Apr 6, 2014 14:18
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Cybernetic Vermin posted:Reflowing the same app for phones, tablets and PCs would be godawful, the APIs being reasonably compatible is as far as is sane to go. Any useful application will want to separate some parts of the presentation. That said, I've just run the first 8.1 project, and it still mentions the CoreCLR, so it's still not running the full blown CLR. Also, the emulator in 720p mode shows five buttons in the action center, not four as in all the BUILD demos. Also, I'm glad to see that font sizes have been tuned down a little to more sane values. Combat Pretzel fucked around with this message at 14:24 on Apr 6, 2014 |
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Apr 6, 2014 14:22
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Combat Pretzel posted:I've just started and am not sure how it's supposed to work. You'd think you have to specify XAML files with styles in the platform specific projects. But since the shared project is referenced by these, it'd cause a circular reference. Maybe I've forgotten how XAML dictionaries are being handled (and the editor applies special handling). --edit: Then again, the App.xaml, where you link the dictionaries, is in the shared project. You can share as much or as little as you like, all the views can be in the shared project and just the client-specific implementations for things like file IO or sensors in each client project. It's really pretty nifty
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Apr 6, 2014 15:56
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Combat Pretzel posted:Also, the emulator in 720p mode shows five buttons in the action center, not four as in all the BUILD demos. Also, I'm glad to see that font sizes have been tuned down a little to more sane values. Is there a mobile data toggle in the Action Centre, per chance? I'll be annoyed if there isn't.
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Apr 6, 2014 16:01
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So in universal (Windows Phone) apps, the hardware back button does not go back through the navigation stack but hibernates the app. I can override this, but why is this the case?
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Apr 6, 2014 16:19
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WattsvilleBlues posted:Is there a mobile data toggle in the Action Centre, per chance? I'll be annoyed if there isn't.  thestoreroom posted:You can share as much or as little as you like, all the views can be in the shared project and just the client-specific implementations for things like file IO or sensors in each client project. It's really pretty nifty But that means I can define platform specific XAML dictionaries for styles and what per project, and they'll show and are used in the shared one, depending on the device I chose when editing XAML in the designer? --edit: Christ on a stick, this goddamn dialer still uses text strings instead of color coded iconography to discern between incoming, outgoing and missed calls. Microsoft, what the gently caress, you morons! Combat Pretzel fucked around with this message at 16:50 on Apr 6, 2014 |
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Apr 6, 2014 16:40
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Combat Pretzel posted:Nope. Those are all you can choose from: Jesus effing Christ. Am I not more likely to want to toggle my loving data connection than project my mothereffing screen? And I bet in the call log, if you have "Barry" in there, you don't know if it's his mobile or landline number until you hit the phone icon next to the entry? Is there smart dialling, or at least unified search between call logs and contacts list?
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Apr 6, 2014 16:52
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WattsvilleBlues posted:And I bet in the call log, if you have "Barry" in there, you don't know if it's his mobile or landline number until you hit the phone icon next to the entry?  WattsvilleBlues posted:Is there smart dialling, or at least unified search between call logs and contacts list?
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Apr 6, 2014 17:03
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I'm playing around with my views in FoulPlay, and I'm not sure what's the best way to handle the main view. In the original app, it would launch on a Pivot view, with the friends section showing first. You then swipe to see the other sections. But I was also thinking of instead creating a hub view with a menu of options to access those other views, instead of showing them all on one pivot view. Now that I'm remaking the views, I've made both to see what works better. This is the hub view  This is the pivot  Note that I did not add the messages listview, and I'm still playing around with the xaml for the other lists.
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Apr 6, 2014 18:00
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WattsvilleBlues posted:Jesus effing Christ. Am I not more likely to want to toggle my loving data connection than project my mothereffing screen? Curious, why do you turn off mobile data? Battery life concerns or very limited data?
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Apr 6, 2014 18:22
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Yeah I get wanting choice, but that seems like one of the least likely things people would want to toggle regularly on a smartphone.
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Apr 6, 2014 19:02
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Rent posted:Curious, why do you turn off mobile data? Battery life concerns or very limited data? If it's for what I used to do, it would probably be when you are travelling abroad and you don't have an international data plan. Fortunately I don't have to worry about that anymore. 
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Apr 6, 2014 19:03
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There's a link to the settings in the action center, right? So while it's not as convenient as a toggle at least you don't have to go hunting down the settings tile. My data plan is really limited so I only toggle it when I'm away from WiFi and need to check something. Seems like the sort of thing that's easy to add (xylo~~). DA, I'd go with the pivot view. Panorama view seems to fit more with things that are less related than what you're using it for, if that makes sense. Also, didn't subtitle it "I wish Cortana was the actual woman from the game," 4/5.  edit: Drastic Actions posted:So in universal (Windows Phone) apps, the hardware back button does not go back through the navigation stack but hibernates the app. I can override this, but why is this the case? Mecca-Benghazi fucked around with this message at 20:08 on Apr 6, 2014 |
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Apr 6, 2014 19:59
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MyFaceBeHi posted:If it's for what I used to do, it would probably be when you are travelling abroad and you don't have an international data plan. Fortunately I don't have to worry about that anymore. Don't know about you, but my 620 has a "don't roam" option for mobile data right in the Settings > Mobile Network screen. It's the default. My phone has never used data when abroad, without me toggling anything when crossing the border.
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Apr 6, 2014 20:04
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Rent posted:Curious, why do you turn off mobile data? Battery life concerns or very limited data? Both.
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Apr 6, 2014 20:23
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Drastic Actions posted:This is the hub view
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Apr 6, 2014 21:19
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Combat Pretzel posted:This looks broken to me, because the second page of the hub doesn't snap into the same place as the first one. That's because the gridview used in the second hub section is not working  . Again, I was playing around with it, it was more about seeing what kind of design worked. I think I'll just stick with the pivot though, it seems to work fine.
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Apr 6, 2014 21:54
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Does the Xbox Music app on WP allow offline caching of playlists similar to Play All Access on Android?
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Apr 6, 2014 22:58
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I just got notified from AT&T that I've used nearly my entire monthly data limit (2 gb) in the first three days of the billing cycle. I have nothing running in the background, do no steaming of audio/video, and basically just spend the day browsing IE and using the People Hub. Are there any sites that collect information on windows phone apps that abuse your data? Of course it would be lovely if I could use Data Sense, but AT&T....
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Apr 7, 2014 00:11
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WattsvilleBlues posted:Jesus effing Christ. Am I not more likely to want to toggle my loving data connection than project my mothereffing screen? In general, assuming no buggy apps etc, you shouldn't be needing to manually turn off wifi to save battery. Same for location. In most instances, turning wifi off actually makes battery usage worse as it normally uses less power then Cell/LTE. Location + Wifi is actually battery efficient because you're not using GPS until later (which does take up more battery power). There are a couple of edge cases here but they are not near the major to be of much concern. With wifi sense, hopefully you'll be spending more and more time on wifi networks then cell networks and should see better and better battery performance for data usage as time goes on. As far as managing it for roaming, there is an option to prevent cell usage while roaming, but it sounds like you have an very edge case if this is something that's vexing you. I'm hoping that it maybe a case of "you don't really need it but you did in the past, therefore inertia".
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Apr 7, 2014 00:41
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He wants to turn off mobile data in non-roaming scenarios.
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Apr 7, 2014 01:27
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xylo, are there any plans to increase the number of background tasks in 8.1?
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Apr 7, 2014 03:42
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The future is almost upon us. Note that I can't actually test it yet, since Cortana does not seem to be fully running in the emulator. But hey, It's registered and the code is there to handle it .
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Apr 7, 2014 03:46
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Mecca-Benghazi posted:xylo, are there any plans to increase the number of background tasks in 8.1?
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Apr 7, 2014 04:29
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Combat Pretzel posted:He wants to turn off mobile data in non-roaming scenarios. That's a pretty rare case, so I can see why they wouldn't make a link to that. Can't please everyone.
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Apr 7, 2014 05:11
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drat. Thanks anyway xylo. Rent posted:That's a pretty rare case, so I can see why they wouldn't make a link to that. Can't please everyone.
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Apr 7, 2014 05:23
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Mecca-Benghazi posted:drat. Thanks anyway xylo. Without being too much of a smug prick, I doubt it's a minor thing in terms of software development costs.
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Apr 7, 2014 06:24
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Chasiubao posted:Without being too much of a smug prick, I doubt it's a minor thing in terms of software development costs. Many people view the mobile space through the same prism as any other desktop coding stream. Hell even I did before I joined the group. I now know it's unfortunately hellishly more complex than that. It's difficult to convey that to people that haven't worked in the space before -- it breaks peoples minds why something seemingly so simple needs to be so complex on the outside.
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Apr 7, 2014 08:47
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Here's my usage scenario - I work long days, and no where near WiFi. I like to conserve my battery as much as possible, especially since I have to use Here Drive, and that thing demolishes battery (even after it's been closed - I think it's a long-standing bug). So I turn mobile data off unless I need to explicitly use it. On my days off, I'm usually in a WiFi zone, so I have WiFi turned on and mobile data turned off. Occasionally, someone will send me an MMS picture message, which can only be downloaded over mobile data, so I need to hop in and out of settings to toggle it. So that's it. I want to conserve battery and data usage.
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Apr 7, 2014 11:44
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Other people on the go may want to disable mobile data entirely because their data allowance is pretty poo poo. I know plenty of people that have 250MB or 500MB a month and therefore turn mobile data off when not necessary, to prevent any background activity to diminish their allowance. Unlimited data and/or expensive rear end contracts with plenty of data aren't that much of a thing in Europe.
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Apr 7, 2014 11:50
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Managing Wi-Fi or mobile data are incredibly useful. 1) In the USA do you not have shops/restaurants which have open Wi-Fi but then require you to click though an acceptance screen or enter your email address or something? They're everywhere in the UK and are really annoying because if you've connected in the past your phone will always re-connect but not actually be able to use it. It's easier just to flip wifi on or off. CF The Cloud everywhere and Virgin Media on the underground 2) Lots of 520's and 620's were sold on £7.50 a month contracts with 250MB of data, being able to turn that off so game's aren't pulling adverts or RSS readers aren't downloading images is great. And with some apps you're never sure if they're using data or not CF Nokia Music or HERE maps. And while I'm here can you test how Cortana reacts to commands given through a headset microphone on the Emulator? Especially if you take a voice note or make a reminder does the screen turn on even if its in your pocket? That was so annoying I had to stop using that feature. Sri.Theo fucked around with this message at 12:13 on Apr 7, 2014 |
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Apr 7, 2014 12:09
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For something else, when I'm going to upgrade a pretty old WP7 app with a WP8.1 one, I can assume that the isolated storage isn't being scrubbed for some weirdo reason?
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Apr 7, 2014 12:19
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xylo posted:This is a touchy subject that I really don't want to get involved in but I'm going to give this a shot and hope I don't get skewered. The main problem in my case is that if I have both mobile data and WiFi enabled, I'll sometimes see the phone transfer data over the mobile connection instead of over WiFi (or I'll see both transferring data at the same time). My data plan is 100MB/month, and if I'm connected to WiFi I'm more likely to do data-intensive things, so I absolutely can't have the phone decide that it wants to use the mobile connection. I was really hoping that I wouldn't have to use the Status Tiles app anymore after getting 8.1. Combat Pretzel posted:Unlimited data and/or expensive rear end contracts with plenty of data aren't that much of a thing in Europe. This, but Asia. Most of my friends/coworkers are using plans where they have something like 300MB/month.
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Apr 7, 2014 15:10
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The MSDN forums are using the most terrible forums software known to man. xylo, why aren't common resources like PhoneAccentColor and such available in App.xaml or any custom resource dictionaries, but any of the regular pages? Actually, only a fraction of the Phone* resources are available at all. There's plenty of TextBlock styles that don't show up. :| --edit: This SDK is broken. The documentation lists tons of styles with the Phone* prefix that are simply not available. Copying and trying to use the theme resource files from the SDK into the project, it breaks the project because it can't resolve System:Double. --edit2: I suppose they're all gone and only relate to Silverlight. Taking apart the project templates, they don't use these either. Combat Pretzel fucked around with this message at 17:49 on Apr 7, 2014 |
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Apr 7, 2014 16:38
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As a member of the Verizon Unlimited Illuminati I like to leave wifi on for location services but never connect to any spots because my 4G is faster by a mile. On my various Android phones this leads to incessant nagging to connect to a wifi network. Would an Icon nag me similarly?
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Apr 7, 2014 17:46
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