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Drastic Actions posted:So around 2 PM I submitted a 8.1 package for FoulPlay. Yeah they've been approving mine in minutes lately. Nokia X turn around has been about 1 day, Amazon App store has been about a day. Google is an hour to show in the store (self-published). I've heard reports that Apple is down to 2-3 days pretty often too. It's a really pleasant change.
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Apr 23, 2014 21:07
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. A pleasant change from even a year ago, when it took over a week. Although I question if it was actually tested or not... eh, whatever. It's in. 
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iLikeMidgets posted:I'm looking to get an inexpensive no- frills smartphone. What is the consensus on the Lumia 520? This is going to be a temporary phone for now so I am not looking for anything fancy. All that really matter is if it can play Candy Crush smoothly (not a joke) and social apps like Skype and Facebook. Moto G for $179 if you don't have any local music. I'd really suggest the extra $20 to get a 16gb version as there is no SD slot and 8gb would be hard to live within. It's the only moderate sized phone with Droid Maxx/LG G2/Note 3 battery life. Oh yeah and camera is not so great. Don't let any haters fool you it's a fine permanent phone for 1/3 the cost.
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Apr 28, 2014 22:46
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LentThem posted:I mean, is it "think of the children" (even though children want iPhones)? Probably MS wants to error on the side of caution for autocorrect until they find out you're a creep, doctor, or social worker. Seems like the right choice to me.
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Apr 30, 2014 09:30
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Drastic Actions posted:... I work in a largish city where the majority of developers work on Microsoft technologies. We have several companies that had large Silverlight projects and several WPF projects. Oh as a side note all of those companies have abandoned Silverlight for HTML/Javascript. I have met one other person that has ever even looked at the Windows Phone Developer or Windows 8 tools. And that was because he was taking over my position at a major carrier that was required to have an WP8 developer. I have met about a hundred each of iOS/Android developers. I'm guessing the NYC event was probably one of the very best //Publish events outside of Redmond. The number and quality of WP8/W8 developers is absolutely a joke. The only way to really turn about WP8/W8 development would be for Microsoft to outright buy Xamarian and include it in all Visual Studio MSDN accounts professional and up. That way MS would have a mobile development store (use Visual Studio publish to everything Native including our own). In total it would probably be easier for MS to just Abandon WP boost up Nokia X, get a total suite of comparable services and relaunch WP9 as a highly customized Android skin. If MS didn't have the free phones / $100 promotions their app store would have ten of thousands of entries at most. Stick100 fucked around with this message at 19:44 on May 18, 2014 |
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May 18, 2014 19:42
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Sorry bad news WP enthusiasts. Oh FYI Windows Phone/Windows 8 development has taken a huge hit this month. Pubcenter was the main ad platform used by windows phone developers (created and sponsored by Microsoft). At one point it paid really well (MS was buying almost all the ads), then for years it paid ok (MS was buying a lot of ads, and encouraging others to buy ads) and had fill rates in the 90-75% range (which is normal) then in the last 2 months pub center fill rates have fallen to 10% and the pay rates have dropped to 0. People who were making $1000s per day are now making less than $1. It's a true apocalypse for Windows 8/Windows Phone development. The hilarious part is NO ONE even cares even to report it. 
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Jun 2, 2014 16:14
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Maneki Neko posted:I saw people complaining about that around this time last year, (which corresponds with the start of the down line), sad that it hasn't gotten any better. Correct in most cases you'll see a blank spot. In some cases they capture the lack of fill and put in a different type of ad or they will put in some hard coded ad. MS made Pubcenter specifically to help make it easier to get ads into WP and W8. But MS isn't an advertising company so they no longer care. As it happens just a while ago we got Admob (google) ads working in WP, but the big problem with Admob is that the best paying ads are links to Google Play based and games and apps (which is not useful for the WP platform). In effect there never was any real revenue in W8/WP ads but MS was propping it up and encouraging others (Nokia/Acer) but it's all been pulled out so there's no ad supported WP/W8 apps anymore. Unfortunate that was the best source of WP revenue, so there is now no incentive to do a bit of WP dev unless you're using Mono dev or something where you get WP for free.
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Jun 2, 2014 18:19
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Windows Phone Devs. I discovered another reason not to develop for windows phone. If you install the Windows Phone development tools you install Hyper-V. Installing Hyper-V removes your computers ability to adjust the speed of the processor. If you've noticed at some point in recent history your computer getting really hot and a much shorter batter life you might want to uninstall Hyper-V and seeing if you can get your computer to drop the CPU frequency when not under load.
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Jun 4, 2014 10:31
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Combat Pretzel posted:I thought so a while ago, too, until I ran CPU-Z to check the presence of certain feature flags while Hyper-V was running and noticed the clock being at 1.6GHz despite task manager saying 3.4GHz. That makes more sense. So it just fucks up Task manager. Well what I was looking for is the power setting to set max/min cpu frequency when on battery and that is still only accessible if you uninstall hyper V. As soon as I could set that I could get my laptop to cool down and extend the battery life.
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Jun 4, 2014 13:06
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Maneki Neko posted:Ha, do you want the HTC one knock off, the Galaxy S2 knockoff, or the Lumia knockoff? That HTC one knock off looks really great maybe they can get the great speaker thing down. That might actually be a decent phone. It's good to see how quickly OEMs have produced phones now that MS isn't charging a licensing fee.
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Jun 4, 2014 20:13
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RasputinVarez posted:and the fact that they aren't trying to phase out SD cards interest me. (I've read that Android isn't going to support installing apps on SD cards) Removing support for installing apps to the SD card is a good thing. SD cards can be removed while the OS is running, SD cards are great but should only be used for music, movies, and other media. Allowing apps on SD cards causes so many user and developer issues its not even funny. The only time I could see it being a big issue is the Moto E only has 4gb on board, that's pretty small. But the G with 8 on board + a 16 or 32 SD card would probably work for almost anyone. Stick100 fucked around with this message at 15:07 on Jun 26, 2014 |
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Jun 26, 2014 15:04
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Happy_Misanthrope posted:
There's also the Moto E. It's not quite as nice as a G but it's a tank with killer battery life with a good screen and experience for $130 w/ one free screen replacement. I assume whatever they did to the G to make it survive 30 minutes underwater was also done to the E. (All Moto products bought directly from Moto come with a free screen replacement).
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Jun 26, 2014 15:06
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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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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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CubanMissile posted:But SOMETHING MAJOR is coming to WP! Nokia X (Android) will replace Windows Phone, or Candy Crush.
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Jun 30, 2014 19:46
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WattsvilleBlues posted:My HTC 8X's battery life is hammered any time the screen is on these days, so I'm having to be extremely conservative with using it until I get home. You'll love the G. It's got the best battery life in class and has everything going for it.
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Jul 2, 2014 18:17
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WattsvilleBlues posted:How's performance compared with the 8X? Performance is an odd word esp. when comparing platforms, but it should nearly never hitch which was the primary bullet point that iOS and WP held up against Android. Since you're new to the platform go ahead and enjoy it but one thing that will speed the phone up is you can disable or speed up system animations this will make the phone lighting fast. Here is how you enable developer options, but only do this if you want to speed up the animations. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tadzwOYAXcc Then go to developer options and set every animation to off. Also feel free to join the android phone thread although it gets a little* weird in there sometimes*. http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3583699 Make sure to skip to the end because there is about 300* more posting than WP and the thread moves really fast. *very *always Stick100 fucked around with this message at 19:46 on Jul 2, 2014 |
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Jul 2, 2014 19:44
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WattsvilleBlues posted:Cheers for this. I hope the Moto G gets Android L. The Moto G will get L probably will be one of the first phones to do so. The unlocked G and X have been getting updates nearly as fast as Nexus devices. I haven't found a device that doesn't clobber battery during GPS navigation with turn by turn.
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Jul 5, 2014 22:32
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WattsvilleBlues posted:5. This is my personal preference, but I prefer vertical scrolling for apps instead of horizontal scrolling. Horizontal arrangement seems a bit visually busy sometimes. If you want to customize the phone get the Nova launcher. https://play.google.com/store/apps/...ovalauncher.com Personally I have customized my Moto X to have only one homescreen with a 5x5 grid and the launcher with a 6x6 grid. This allows me the least amount of mode error (I always know exactly where everything is on the home screen) and the least amount of pages of apps. If I wasn't too cheap to buy Nova Prime I'd have folders in the program list to cut down my program list to 2 pages of apps.
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Jul 5, 2014 22:35
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CubanMissile posted:So is Microsoft's "mobile first" strategy to put out high end phones as often as new Xbox consoles? No it means putting office out first on iOs and Android before Win8/WP8. I think it's the right thing. Honestly just be glad they didn't just shut down WP8 right now. I think WP8 has something like 18 months to do or for before they just shut or down and get on board behind iOS Android and Windows on tablets and up. With as good as apps have gotten I'm not sure what advantage MS or users get from having their own mobile OS as opposed to well integrated apps and services. MS will probably skin Android with Xamarian + Visual studio (please do) or just shut WP down in 18 months.
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Jul 18, 2014 17:46
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Dead Man Posting posted:Thinking about jumping ship and getting this https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lx.launcher8. Even though the tile padding is messed up, and I am not sure if there's live tiles for music and the photos app, it just seems like a better idea if I decided to switch. Keyboard would be Android but you can change keyboard at will. Also from what I can see there would be no live tiles at all.
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Jul 21, 2014 09:37
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ljw1004 posted:99% of people also balk at spending $20 on gems and coins. It's even crazier than that I don't have the source at hand but in well monetized F2P games it's actually .15% that's responsible for 50% of all revenue. EDIT: Oops your source was the very study that .15% of all users are 50% of all revenue.
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Jul 25, 2014 15:13
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RasputinVarez posted:On that, when i use the term "critical mass" i mean the snowballing effect. I'm sorry but it will only get worse not better. Android is 85% and climbing iOS users spend far more money per user than other platforms. Windows phone is about 2.7% and falling quickly with users that spend near no money on average. In the early days of wp7 there was a lot of excitement and MS was throwing out tons of money/directly sponsoring apps. This has stopped. I don't like it any more than anyone in this thread but there will be basically no more WP 8 apps. Some multiplatform stuff but there is no point in WP8 Dev. Most wp8 devices are pretty low end and there is pretty heavy fragmentation in the platform. Android/iOS each offer so much more to a developer that WP has basically become a joke among developers. http://thenextweb.com/google/2014/07/31/android-reached-record-85-smartphone-market-share-q2-2014-report/
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Aug 10, 2014 03:05
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JayKay posted:I have a weird request. Whats the best/cheapest Windows Phone I can get that is compatible with a T-Mobile Mini-SIM? I realize that this will probably get me stuck on WP7ish but getting a smaller sim card/cutting down my current one is out of the question. Ummmm almost everything is a Mini or Micro sim and has been for years. Basically every windows phone will work. Also almost every Tmo store will just give you whatever you want for any combination of Sims for free (stay away from the authorized resellers you should be able to find a real Tmo corporate location easily) if you just walk in the door and have a normal (non-prepaid) account. Look at a cheaper Lumia. Since it's GSM you can get anything unlocked and it will work. This is on 8. http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/pdp/No-Contract-Nokia-Lumia-521-for-T-Mobile/productID.279982200 http://support.t-mobile.com/docs/DOC-12342 From the picture it looks to use a micro Sim card too. Be careful swapping sim cards. Both the cards themselves and the slots are very easy to damage. I've destroyed several sim slots and sim cards because I was swapping back and forth every day. After 30-70 inserts it seems that one of the two will likely fail. That's been on all manner of sim cards and several different manufacturers phones. Stick100 fucked around with this message at 15:13 on Aug 14, 2014 |
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Aug 14, 2014 15:07
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LifeSizePotato posted:Exactly. I try to give them the benefit of the doubt, but there's a limit. Fanboys are usually quick to jump to their defense and say X and Y take time to implement, but come on - this is one of the largest companies in the world, not some ramshackle startup with 10 guys on staff. It's positively unfathomable how MS just can't seem to get it together and are perpetually at least a generation behind. MS could get it together but the team/effort behind Windows Phone has never been a full company effort. WP7 was made with a tiny team in a very short period of time (go look at the early videos and they discuss frankly how small the team was) and MS has never really gotten behind the platform. I fully expect a switch to Android with WP GUI within the next 3 years.
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Aug 15, 2014 16:26
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LifeSizePotato posted:Android UI will finally look good and consistent aesthetically with L Don't bet on that, but it's alright that Google can't even read it's own style guide as if there's something you don't like on Android you can swap it out (except the core OS which is why the main Goon suggestion is Nexus/Moto/Sony or nothing).
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Aug 15, 2014 18:42
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loquacius posted:This is where I am with it. I will readily, happily, and zealously defend my choices of phone and tablet but I really wish I didn't have to do it as frequently as I do. Hilariously this is exactly the spot that Mac users were in when their market share was around 3%. That's all but gone away once they hit 10%. Unfortunately WP market share is falling currently (from 2.9%) and not likely to change for the short future.
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Aug 15, 2014 18:53
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Venusy posted:Given that both the Xbox One and Windows itself are now on one month update cycles, yeah, it's pretty telling that Windows Phone is still on the six month cycle. To be fair phones are completely different from Desktops/Game consoles. You have to deal with OEMs, Carriers, and massive QA. You have marketing windows (got to show the new features), you have development out reach (have to explain to developers how to use the new API), you have to train you're sales staff, and the carriers how the changes are beneficial. People want phones to mostly "just work" and don't actually want changes that are radical or fast. There were tons of stories of people furious about an Android Upgrade from Gingerbread to ICS that dramatically changed the way the phones worked. Apple runs on a 1 year cycle and Google runs on around a 1 year cycle.
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Aug 17, 2014 22:20
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EdEddnEddy posted:Thinking back to when Windows Mobile had a lot of the market share before iOS even became a big player, if they would have just ReSkinned Windows Mobile 7, and ran it on the hardware that had just started to roll out with the like of the HD2 and such, it could have maintained a presence and had nearly all the features Android has now. No no no, Win Mobile had to die. Everything ran all the time and required massive management of processes. It also was still pen focused which would have been completely inappropriate for a touch based OS. I was an early WP adopter/developer and the second generation Win Phone 7 handsets was probably when MS was in the best position (I had a Lumia 710 and it was a pretty decent experience). The phones ran well did most everything and were pretty snappy. Apps were starting to get there and you could make money. Then they did a total reboot again, devs didn't feel like waiting for the third reboot so everyone jumped ship. Now Threshold/Win 9 will likely be a third reboot even though now we have universal apps there still is significant differences between the platforms Desktop/Metro/WP under the hood.
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Aug 17, 2014 22:27
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benitocereno posted:I think the biggest issue is that people need to try them; it's kind of a chicken and the egg with app developers and user-base. With that said, I don't have any "must have" apps I'm missing - so I've never understood that argument personally. To be fair it's not just "must have" apps also mobile IE won't render certain sites correctly (or at all). I have used the tested.com website as a benchmark for years on every new piece of equipment I look at (Macs, Win RT, iOS, Android, FireFox OS, Ubuntu, Windows PCs/Tablets, Chromebooks) and Win 8/7 were the only devices that could not load the sites acceptable at all. I even used the 1520 with the snapdragon 800. As a web dev I know this issue is 100% the fault of the tested.com website but as a user I also knew: 1. I like reading that site on a phone and would not be able to 2. I would likely run into other serious issues that rendered sites/web apps useless as the very first one failed to load. Having 2.5% marketshare and falling is an issue as mobile sites are still often a secondary concern anyway. I work in enterprise and the question of mobile optimizing is just now starting* to come up and often they only optimize to iPhone. As an android user that not really a problem as the render is webkit + you can install any other browser you want. On WP if it doesn't work in IE you're screwed. All that said the HTC W8 looks pretty fantastic but I'm too deep into the Google Ecosystem to really jump. * Yes really. Some enterprises have jumped on mobile formatted websites, but still many have not.
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Aug 20, 2014 01:25
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Factor Mystic posted:Here's a nice thing to say about the WP dev experience: the store publishing process is much faster than it used to be. Last night my app was certified in about a half hour, not including the lag for the store page to actually show up. That's pretty good, that's one part of this which I'm not mad at all about! Yes WP and Win Store review time has been under an hour (if lucky) for about a year now. It's really nice and appreciated.
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Aug 20, 2014 18:35
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Drastic Actions posted:Because it's all automated. It just makes sure it compiles and has all the correct assets included. Nope unless something has drastically changed they actually do reviews. They just have people ready 24/7 who start the review immediately and work through it very quickly. They have rejected my apps (in under an hour) that were very obviously reviewed by a human. Google Play is 100% automated Win Phone/Store is just fast because they staffed up and then aren't getting enough submissions. They specifically called it out as increasing the speed of approval by 70 times due to staffing, training and procedures.
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Aug 21, 2014 06:40
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FYI: https://twitter.com/TMobile/status/505006242583310336 HTC M8 for Windows Phone is coming to TMo. Not surprising but good to hear it's coming to everything except Sprint with full carrier support.
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Aug 28, 2014 16:55
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Naffer posted:I wonder if it will come with Wifi calling. Wifi calling is such an awesome feature but it means having to wait several extra months to get update because T-mobile invariably has to fix it with every OS update. Doubt it, that requires pretty low level OS hooks which is why they've only been able to do it on non-Nexus Android devices.
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Aug 28, 2014 19:28
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CalvinandHobbes posted:I think Microsoft has tried to move the entire range downmarket. Partially because 4 is seen as a cursed number in china (it sounds like the word death) so they didn't want to make a Lumia 430. The 530 is essentially what a 430 would be and the 630 has moved down to the 520 range. Such a bad idea. I think everyone understood the 620/520 and now the 630 is missing features from the 620 wtf MS?
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Aug 29, 2014 15:12
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Naffer posted:I haven't seen anyone mention this in this thread yet, but apparently Blu is releasing two windows phones. Both devices are dual-sim and unlocked. Oh wow, Snapdragon 200 4 Gb internal and 512 ram, I'd really caution against this device. At least until some reviews show it's not as weak as it looks on paper. A $129 Moto E may well blow this away (I know ewww Android).
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Sep 8, 2014 23:01
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RVProfootballer posted:Yep, those are really the only two you should consider. There is nothing in the $50-60 range like Lumia 520/521 go for these days. In general, a Moto G is considered worth the extra money compared to the E, but you have to go up to the Moto G LTE if you want an SD card. A Moto E only has 4GB internal storage, so big apps simply aren't feasible, though media can be stores on the SD card. Either one should give the best performance and chance of future updates you'll find in a budget Android. Good battery life, too. Also the Moto G just saw an updated model with a bigger display, so be sure to go for one of the earlier versions. If you want something cheap small that won't break best choice is probably either the g LTE or the e and grab a thin tpu case.
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Sep 14, 2014 05:05
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Guillermus posted:I'll throw another vote in favor of the Moto G. I gifted it to my sister last may and made me wonder why I bought a galaxy s4 last year. There is no match in performance and battery life with the rest unless you pay 400-500$. Motorola really nailed it. Not to disagree but the Moto X was on sale direct from Motorola at $325 several times last year. I picked up a 32 gig Dev edition for $350 and have been very happy with everything except the battery life. Also apparently the new G doesn't have any cases yet but its tank and new case will probably be out in weeks. I really hope they keep something at the old g/x/e size because it's perfect for me and I don't want a larger phone. Right now the only options for current one handed phones is the Sony z3 compact and the iPhone 6. Also looks like the galaxy alpha is Moto X 2013 sized.
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Sep 14, 2014 21:38
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Drastic Actions posted:Nah, I have a feeling it's not. Anyone who actually detects operating systems in that way deserves to have their code break. Umm, OK but to users of a given system deserve to have their code break? Many of these programs would be so old it would likely be possible that they could never get the code updated. That that happened then then you'd hear that Windows 9 broke everything just like Vista and people would stick with XP/Win 7. MS is going to have a real tough time getting people off 7 and XP after Vista and 8 so doing any risk mitigation is good. I'm just glad it wasn't called just "New Windows", as the tech people would all come up with a dozen different names.
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Oct 3, 2014 00:26
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BonoMan posted:If they did yet another "no upgrade path" OS reboot, I'll drop Windows Phone. They did it once and I give them the benefit of the doubt, but doing it again would just be the deathblow. Also they have already done it twice. WinCE 6.5 was a no upgrade reboot to 7, then a no upgrade 7->8. I believe each of those times they had a larger market share then they do now. WinCE needed to go but there was no particular reason that hardware couldn't support 7, same with the 7 phones they could have supported 8. MS is committed to having good developer and user experience which means ditching low spec devices. The launch 8 devices are really long in the tooth and incredibly low spec compared to current iOS or Android devices. I don't know why a no upgrade reboot would be surprising. They said they would support phones for 18 months right? Most every single phone nearly 1 years old already the only phone really recent is the HTC phone that's based on an android nearly a year old, by the time 10 would be ready everything current and announced would be over 18 months old. Stick100 fucked around with this message at 02:15 on Oct 9, 2014 |
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Oct 9, 2014 02:11
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