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Some of the Windows 8 desktop apps are pretty great, but I do avoid a lot of them simply because of the full or split screen thing.
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Jan 16, 2015 16:16
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I have an 8" W8.1 tablet and I almost never go to the desktop, except when using Office - it just isn't useable at that screen size.
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Jan 23, 2015 13:22
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I had a Windows Phone 7, which was crappy enough to drive me to iOS, but I'm heading back to Windows at the end of the year because god drat do I love live tiles. The only essential app I can see missing is an equivalent to Sleep Cycle; there appear to be a couple, but they come with reviews saying they completely fake the results, so I may have to keep the iPhone with me for that at night.
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Feb 10, 2015 21:11
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Guillermus posted:Get a 535 if you can as it has 1gb ram. The 635 is a good mom phone but it falls short because of the 512 ram. Is there any rhyme or reason to the naming conventions of Lumia phones? The 635 appears to be worse overall than both the 535 and the 735 - is there any way of ballparking whether one phone is better than another by name alone?
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Feb 18, 2015 14:17
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Guillermus posted:From what I've read, 219€ for the 640XL is a fantastic price for a Quad Core Snapdragon 400, 1Gb RAM, 5.7" HD screen and a decent camera. I'd buy a 640XL right now if I had something worse than my 925. I'm looking forward to the 640 - I really need to replace my lovely iPhone 4S and it looks like just the thing I need.
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Mar 2, 2015 20:25
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For what it's worth, I haven't been put off replacing my iPhone 4S with a Lumia 640 next month by these last few pages; I don't have a lot of app needs, I really want a smartphone that integrates with OneDrive (since all my stuff is on there) and as long as the phone runs smoothly (which my iPhone increasingly doesn't) then I'm fine with using webapps, especially for things like Twitter or Tumblr which I only really use for browsing my feeds anyway. You can't beat the price for what you get either. Whether I feel the same way in a year or so is another matter, of course.
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Mar 17, 2015 16:41
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All of my music is already on OneDrive, so that's another reason to look forward to my 640 in a few weeks. 
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Mar 18, 2015 19:31
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I'm on Three in the UK - I have to pay for tethering separately if I want it and it's capped at 1GB, but my actual phone data is completely unlimited. I stream absolutely everything. 
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Mar 24, 2015 08:34
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The Lord Bude posted:I suppose you have to factor in the cost of buying a phone outright, but it might just be worth it. Wait, that doesn't even include a free phone? Right now I could get a 4G contract SIM with 600 mins, unlimited texts and unlimited data for £22pm, ~$35pm. £25 if you drop from 12 months to 1 month rolling. I'm not trying to rub it in, but good lord do you guys get shafted.  And this is the UK, the land of 20% VAT.
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Mar 29, 2015 10:07
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The Lord Bude posted:His $2/day plan is prepaid, so no free phone. My $70 plan is on a 2 year contract, it also has a $5/month handset repayment for my lumia 930, so I pay $75 per month for $700 worth of calls (calls cost $99c per minute + 40c connection fee), unlimited texts and 1.5gb of data. (and I don't pay anything up front for the phone) There is definitely no such thing as unlimited data here. Even home internet connections have strict data caps - 5 years ago the norm was maybe 5-10gb; these days it's more like 50gb per month, but any three digit allowance costs a fortune. I suppose it's somewhat different in the US due to the sheer size of the place. Most mobile tariffs in the UK do still have data caps and some home broadband tariffs have data caps, but the option is still there for unlimited, and a drat sight cheaper. You very much have my sympathies. On a happier note, a friend introduced me to SleepWin, which seems like a perfectly good sleep app, so that's the last essential app I was missing on Windows Phone before I make the switch from iOS. I was planning on keeping my iPhone by the bed so I could use Sleep Cycle, but no more!
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Mar 29, 2015 15:14
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Some other media players, like Media Monkey, do work with iPhones, although you may have to lag behind and update or two to make sure. Apple's complete indifference to making if work right with Windows is hilarious though; got iTunes pinned to the taskbar? Of course it adds a whole new icon there when you open it! Why wouldn't it? Running CCleaner? Hit that Clean Registry button? Goodbye iTunes, we hardly knew ye! Got an issue with iTunes, need to reinstall? That's a half dozen pieces of software and the surgical removal of several registry keys you'll need to do! Have fun with your not-a-Mac, rear end in a top hat!
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Apr 7, 2015 21:14
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I should have a shiny orange 640 in my hands on Friday, assuming no delays; my 4S has hit that magical stage that all clapped out computers do where everything seems to be falling apart more and more each day. 
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Apr 8, 2015 00:08
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I was trying to find the thread you made on the app to give feedback, but it looks like you're on the right track with the UI, so good job! If I can gripe about stuff here, I'd say the following: - The top bar on posts is still absolutely, absurdly gigantic. I'd go with something similar to the iOS app, where the avatar is next to and comparable in size with the name and join date, as well as reducing the amount of space between the post/quote:  - Changing the bottom bar to a side bar seems like a waste of real estate. On a tablet it won't matter where you put it, but on a phone you presumably want to maximise space (particularly horizontal space), and right now I'm seeing a lot of empty patches on screen. Similarly, in the search results you've put 1, 2, 3, etc on a separate line, and the gap between results is much larger than the gap between forum sections on the main screen - there's also a big, big gap between the search box and the results. As long as boundaries are well defined, you could slash those gaps dramatically. - Is it possible to change the font size on quotes as well as posts? I don't think the current app changes that, only the font size on the posts themselves? You're doing good though, and it's a big step up over the current version, and indeed a lot of WP apps I've been trying. Do you have any screenshots of multiple posts - what the bottom of posts looks like, and the divider between posts?On a separate topic, is it possible to prevent individual tiles from showing transparency on the home screen? I'd be able to navigate the UI a lot more easily if I could control what apps show the background and which have their own colour, as large batches of tiles showing the background tend to blend into one another when you're looking at them.
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Apr 12, 2015 11:47
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No worries, I didn't want to sound like I'm griping about every little thing, but you're pushing ahead with the app really strongly and seem to have all the main features in hand, so I got kind of nitpicky about things you might want to mop up later. None of it is a deal beaker, I just get super anal about the design of things!
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Apr 12, 2015 13:27
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Shumagorath posted:That was kind of my reaction to owning an iPad for a week, but apart from having a platform Amazon didn't treat like poo poo I don't find myself longing for particular apps; just better support for the existing WP versions. Aside from e-mail I don't use any Google or Apple services so if they're going to refuse to legitimize the platform by writing first-party apps for things like iTunes and Maps it's their loss, not mine. One of the things that's impressed me with Windows Phone is the way they've sidestepped a lack of apps for certain websites by letting you create live tiles for them instead. I don't have a Steam app, but pinning the website gives me the correct logo and live updates on deals, which the iOS app doesn't do (it does notifications for wishlist deals, but not store front deals). Same with DeviantArt. Some sites only give you the logo and others give you nothing, but it's neat when it happens all the same.
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Apr 16, 2015 22:29
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Drastic Actions posted:If anyone is not in the beta, go into the project log thread and add yourself to the list. Forgot to do this, thanks for the reminder!
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Apr 22, 2015 12:53
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Neat, keep up the good work!
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May 8, 2015 23:16
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Drastic Actions posted:Does this make sense? Does anyone actually want those side buttons visible at all times? Should it be an option to hide them? Hamburger that sidebar. I've already said it should be moved (or at least be hidden) as it amounts to a significant amount of real estate on a phone screen. Being able to flip it out at will would be perfect - perhaps make it permanently visible when horizontal, since there's room for it? The 640 has virtual buttons; you can show or hide them at will and they are pretty much the best thing ever.
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May 12, 2015 00:11
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Shrimpy posted:I also still use the Zune software for playback in Windows 8.1. Having to switch back and forth between a metro app (Music in Windows 8.1) and the desktop (where I actually do things) is ridiculous. W10 apps run in a window, so you won't need to switch around.
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May 12, 2015 09:58
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The latest update to the Forums reader is throwing me back to the start screen every time I try to enter a thread. Before that it was just the occasional intermittent crashes.
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May 14, 2015 11:24
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Yep, that seems to have done it. Thanks!
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May 14, 2015 12:42
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I'll be one of the 640 users then. I suspect the reason people are going to the SAclopedia but not viewing pages is because the symbol is exactly what you'd expect Settings to look like. I've done it a few times myself.
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May 15, 2015 14:46
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MrKatharsis posted:Is there a decent Windows Phone option in the sub-$200 range? My Nexus 5 drowned and I've been using a Lumia 530 for the last week and not exactly hating it. I just wish it had a better screen and faster response. My 640 runs as smooth as butter, and I honestly can't imagine what I would gain from beefier specs, so it gets my firm recommendation. The screen is a little bit grainy, sometimes, if you're paying attention, but I rarely notice, so 
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May 17, 2015 12:50
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RVProfootballer posted:Got it. Yeah, fair enough if you have to have a new (as in not used) phone. Just wasn't sure if I was missing something beyond it being a shiny new thing. And it does sound like it has good battery life, which a 920 or 1020 probably don't have. It lasts me the whole day comfortably, usually with 25-40% battery to spare, compared to my iPhone 4S which was dead by mid afternoon. It's also been as smooth as butter performance-wise without any obvious deficiencies that a higher spec would fix. Mostly I'm quite taken with it because I'm used to being on a budget with smartphones and it's the first budget one I've had that hasn't been a bit of a letdown (including my 4S). If you aren't used to decent performance then it's a breath of fresh air.
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May 29, 2015 18:25
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My friend's 1020 died over the weekend with the most Windows error message ever: a black screen with plain white text reading ERROR: Cannot find bootable media. So now he has a 640.
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Jun 1, 2015 08:28
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Any particular sites? I've had a couple that are a bit finicky with scrolling and stuff (like Comic Rocket, with its top bar) and a couple where the mobile site just refuses to load (desktop is fine though, for some reason) but otherwise it's been pretty much unfailingly reliable.
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Jun 2, 2015 19:55
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I'm on the latest version and the app still crashes a bunch for me too. Mine's a 640, crashed just now. I'll try a reinstall now.
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Jun 28, 2015 20:32
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Yep, reinstalled the app and no crashes so far. Excellent!
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Jun 29, 2015 00:19
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A crash! Since the reinstall! CHECK THE APP INSIGHT, QUICK!  Edit: WattsvilleBlues posted:Why do people think live tiles are better than Android widgets? I've always found Android widgets to be a complete mishmash of styles and sizes, none of which go together and just make the home screen look like a mess. Live tiles don't have the same functionality, but they go together well and provide a great halfway house between icons and widgets that I prefer. They aren't necessarily better, but they provide a sensible alternative to the other two main OSes. Doctor_Fruitbat fucked around with this message at 12:08 on Jun 30, 2015 |
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Jun 30, 2015 12:02
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Ynglaur posted:There are some legitimate criticisms in the article, such as losing the ability to have "wide tiles", as found in 8.1, Wait, really? gently caress that for a laugh.
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Jul 23, 2015 17:06
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How is the current build of Windows 10 for mobile? Now that I have it on desktop I'm curious to see how everything scales on a smaller screen. As long as nothing is egregiously broken I'll probably not mind the bugs.
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Aug 5, 2015 15:38
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I guess I'll wait until another build comes out before upgrading then; a guy at work was running the preview build, and having now got Windows 10 on desktop, I am seriously impressed at how they've managed to scale down a full desktop OS to mobile. There's plenty of bug fixes to be done and a few features to add, but when you see the two side by side, they've actually managed to pull off something pretty ambitious.
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Aug 9, 2015 10:20
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IANADev, so forgive me for my ignorance, but does this mean you can just grab an Android .apk, fresh off the Play Store, and run it on your Windows Phone (albeit not perfectly)?
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Aug 9, 2015 17:23
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Blackberry suffered because the apps ran like garbage, not because they were Android ports. They also marketed it as "we've got Android apps!", rather than owning it and saying "these apps belong to our system too!". Language is important and the Android link for Windows is being mentioned to developers and no-one else. I do get the argument that it might kill development of apps specifically for Windows Phone, but from an end user standpoint it makes no difference whatsoever; all they see is Windows getting the same apps as everyone else, and that can only be good for the platform's popularity. Hell, it barely makes a difference to Microsoft; what do they care if someone codes natively or ports? They get the app on their ecosystem either way. Windows is hurting for apps right now and getting them is much more important than the how. Will the average person know, let alone care? If the number of users grow and devs start seeing the benefits of coding a proper universal app, then that's ideal. But I don't think it's the essential component to making Windows a dominant mobile platform. Doctor_Fruitbat fucked around with this message at 20:20 on Aug 9, 2015 |
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Aug 9, 2015 20:13
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As I understand it, Windows Bridge (which Astoria is part of) is there to directly port to Windows, but just happens to let you use the same basic code base as Android when you do, which Google can't just go ahead and screw over; Bridge tells you straight up which bits of code you need to change, including links to Google Play, which according to this video appears to be a pretty simple process to hook the app into Microsoft's services rather than Google's. Apps ported using Bridge aren't going to be Android apps running on Windows, they're going to be Windows apps which just happened to start life as Android apps and which Microsoft has made blindingly simple to port over. Anyhoo, I went ahead and installed the insider preview of W10 Mobile, and it's good! A lot of the stock apps like Weather and Outlook look a lot nicer and are much smoother to navigate through (I will shed no tears for the death of the lumbering, awful tabs of 8.1), the interface is mostly the same with a lot of fat trimmed and major changes in UI are generally for the better. The home screen defaulted to the 8.1 look of a background image seen through completely transparent tiles, so I didn't even need to worry about the fact that I wasn't totally enamoured with the new 10 look of semi-transparent tiles. My only major gripe right now is that Edge doesn't do as good a job of whipping up tiles (static or live) for webpages as IE did, but maybe that'll be fixed in a later build. Battery seems fine, so I've personally got no reason to go back to 8.1, although watch me do a complete about face tomorrow when something unexpected hits.
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Aug 10, 2015 21:09
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Will apps converted using Astoria just straight up not work if they include Google Play services, or will they just not be eligible to go in the Store but still basically run otherwise (and possibly wig out if the Play services are accessed)? If I can get the HD Sonic 1/2 apps running then I would be the happiest man on earth.
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Aug 11, 2015 17:18
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I quite like TubeCast myself. WP is not short on decent Youtube apps.
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Aug 11, 2015 23:39
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How are you meant to get another browser without one being built-in in the first place?
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Aug 12, 2015 13:10
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I'm in the UK and I've installed every release of Windows since XP and I have not once been asked which browser I wanted to use; IE came as standard. Is it different for the UK?
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Aug 12, 2015 15:05
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Upgraded, uninstalled the Awful app, reinstalled and got the error below. On the previous build it insisted that it couldn't install the app but was fine running it by selecting it through the Store; now it downloads, installs then decides it can't find the app. A possible fix on desktop for that error code appears to be clearing the Store cache, but I have no idea how you'd go about doing that on phone.
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Aug 13, 2015 08:16
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