Windows Phone - More More and More - The Something Awful Forums

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Inspect Your Gadgets > Windows Phone - More More and More

Shrimpy: May 18, 2004; Sir, I'm going to need to see your ticket.

Has anyone noticed that the vibrations for e-mail have changed? It used to be a distinct vibration for texts and a distinct one for e-mail, but now it always seems to be the text vibration.

It makes me think I'm far more popular with real people than I actually am

# ¿ Apr 15, 2014 16:56

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 2, 2024 04:39

Shrimpy: May 18, 2004; Sir, I'm going to need to see your ticket.

Shrimpy posted:

Has anyone noticed that the vibrations for e-mail have changed? It used to be a distinct vibration for texts and a distinct one for e-mail, but now it always seems to be the text vibration.

It makes me think I'm far more popular with real people than I actually am

As an update, if I add a silent alert to it, it turns it into the vibration pattern that used to belong to third party apps like Facebook or Twitter. It's something though.

# ¿ Apr 15, 2014 19:38

Shrimpy: May 18, 2004; Sir, I'm going to need to see your ticket.

The Music app has been a huge downgrade even from the earlier Windows Phone 8 version. The most annoying thing for me is that if I have a SmartDJ mix playing over the lock screen, when I hit next, the "What's Playing" display disappears before it actually puts on the track it's skipping to.

Also, has anyone had any luck with Cortana picking up flight information out of e-mail? I just confirmed some Delta flights today and I have no idea if Cortana registered them or not (and what it would look like if it had).

e: At least WPCentral says a new app is coming http://www.wpcentral.com/xbox-music-awful-windows-phone-81-update-near

Shrimpy fucked around with this message at 22:51 on Apr 15, 2014

# ¿ Apr 15, 2014 22:44

Shrimpy: May 18, 2004; Sir, I'm going to need to see your ticket.

loquacius posted:

Yeah, in my experience there'll be text about the flight info at the bottom of the Cortana screen which you can scroll up and tell her to track the flights. Not sure yet how to get her to track flights I don't have emails of.

Yeah, it's set to track the flights, I just don't see any evidence of it actually being done. Of course, this might be because I don't know what it would look like if it were done.

loquacius posted:

I saw this on my commute home and was gonna post it as soon as I got back, but you beat me to it. Apparently the reason the experience has been split up into several apps is so each of them can update independently on their own schedule, not tied at all to the OS updates. Also apparently this is just the lovely beta from last year, not updated at all, and preview-for-developers people just have to wait for the official launch.

Yeah, all in all as excited as I was to get this on the phone and running, I have to pause every so often and remember this is still an unfinished preview in many ways.

That said, they still haven't fixed the Reply-To issue with the mail client which has been around since Windows Phone 7.

# ¿ Apr 16, 2014 07:00

Shrimpy: May 18, 2004; Sir, I'm going to need to see your ticket.

loquacius posted:

Feature request: make the Messaging app stop suggesting emoji when I'm just typing words

Predictive emoji is the future.

Also, typing "poo poo" and having the emoji pop-up is pro.

# ¿ Apr 17, 2014 03:20

Shrimpy: May 18, 2004; Sir, I'm going to need to see your ticket.

larchesdanrew posted:

Last night I was at my nephew's birthday party. I checked my phone before getting in the car to leave and noticed that Cortana's live tile was not only displaying how long it would take me to get home, but also alerted me to a wreck blocking my usual route and suggested a detour.

I thought that was neat

Out of curiosity, I've added both Home and Work to the places part of Cortana, but how did it manage to figure out your preferred route? Just driving it over and over again and allegedly it figured it out or did you have to activate something on the phone?

# ¿ Apr 23, 2014 21:46

Shrimpy: May 18, 2004; Sir, I'm going to need to see your ticket.

My 1020 was dropped and the top part of the screen has a crack now. Since this is my second cracked 1020 I think it's time to finally invest in a case (something I could never even fathom doing with my 900). Anyone have any recommendations, I'd like something as minimalist as possible that may prevent it from getting another busted screen if dropped from 3 feet in the air.

# ¿ Jun 3, 2014 17:15

Shrimpy: May 18, 2004; Sir, I'm going to need to see your ticket.

Maneki Neko posted:

Yesterday I had an appointment on my calendar with a location, Cortana picked it up, checked traffic, suggested a route and a departure time. The route made sense based on traffic flow at the time, and the leave time was accurate. I get in the car and tell the phone to start voice navigation and Here Drive comes up with a completely different route that will take me through the heaviest traffic flow area. Why the hell can't Cortana tell Here Drive to take a specific route, or even give me the directions natively?

This is, hands down, the thing that annoys me the most about 8.1. It honestly makes me wish I could just remove Drive and use the old WP7 Bing Maps "tap for next step" navigation.

It's not helped by the fact that Drive can't seem to properly deal with vertical height, so if a building is under a highway or adjacent to a highway, you're going to get directed to your destination: the highway shoulder.

e: Out of curiosity, does anyone know how the Xbox Music experience is on iOS? Is it better than on WP8 at this point?

Shrimpy fucked around with this message at 01:37 on Jul 19, 2014

# ¿ Jul 19, 2014 01:33

Shrimpy: May 18, 2004; Sir, I'm going to need to see your ticket.

So I haven't been able to find the option, but where did they bury the voicemail audio notification in WP8.1? I can't find it anywhere and it just replays my ringtone currently.

# ¿ Jul 21, 2014 00:14

Shrimpy: May 18, 2004; Sir, I'm going to need to see your ticket.

Zuhzuhzombie!! posted:

Been on it since the Focus.

I'd love it if it weren't for all the lovely parts that just keep snowballing.

Same. I love my 1020, but for every step forward (Notification Center) they take a huge step back (Music). I know they've fixed a lot of the performance issues with Music, but going from a Zune Pass with WP7 to Xbox Music Subscription on WP8.1 is just an absolute trainwreck.

# ¿ Aug 20, 2014 06:13

Shrimpy: May 18, 2004; Sir, I'm going to need to see your ticket.

If you don't want a 1520, I'd definitely go the buy something used route on AT&T. There's nothing else on AT&T right now that's even remotely worth another two-year contract.

# ¿ Sep 17, 2014 07:02

Shrimpy: May 18, 2004; Sir, I'm going to need to see your ticket.

LifeSizePotato posted:

I was concerned when he mentioned that 10 is the new Windows Phone OS, and also that 10 is due "late 2015." I thought we'd be getting flagship "Threshold" phones in the spring.

WP10 will probably continue the proud tradition of playing catchup to 1-2 year old iPhones and Androids.

This, combined with the fact that there still hasn't been a successor to the 1020, makes me tempted to just get an iPhone 6 in the meantime.

# ¿ Oct 1, 2014 08:46

Shrimpy: May 18, 2004; Sir, I'm going to need to see your ticket.

Cybernetic Vermin posted:

Pretty ridiculous level of speculation to assume nothing will happen to WP until Windows 10. Relax a little bit.

Yeah, but there's a time aspect to it. My 1020 is off-contract, so I can upgrade to a new phone today and then in a year upgrade again to whatever Windows 10 brings to the phone. Waiting another 4 months just to hear new devices get announced that won't be out for another 3 months will just suck.

And, honestly, after getting burned on the 900 (two year contract and then a month later they announce WP8 and no upgrade path), if Windows 10 exists and is coming to the phone, I'm going to be hesitant to buy any phone that doesn't come with it as the default OS.

# ¿ Oct 1, 2014 21:21

Shrimpy: May 18, 2004; Sir, I'm going to need to see your ticket.

The Lord Bude posted:

The lumia 930/Icon has been out for ages. As has the 1520. Complaints that there hasn't been a new flagship are completely specious.

Apparently you can now buy an unlocked lumia 930 in the US, but it doesn't support the 4g bands used by AT&T and T-mobile.

I've gotta say I thought our Telcos were scum but America is far worse. At least in Australia all 3 telcos got the 930, and there is advertising for it everywhere.

Even if AT&T got the 930, I highly doubt people would be clamoring to upgrade their 920s from late 2012 to the 930 from 8 months ago.

# ¿ Oct 10, 2014 03:34

Shrimpy: May 18, 2004; Sir, I'm going to need to see your ticket.

You can either do a hard reset via the phone or you can use the Nokia Recovery Tool to completely wipe the device.

# ¿ Nov 1, 2014 00:38

Shrimpy: May 18, 2004; Sir, I'm going to need to see your ticket.

Jewmanji posted:

A good percentage of the people I know have recently bought the iPhone 6. Watching them use it, it's hard not to get a tad jealous with how smoothly everything operates. The one thing I always loved about WP from the beginning was how fluid and enjoyable the basic interface was. Ever since 8.1 though, I feel like things have gotten so choppy and unresponsive, it's like I'm using Android from years back. The Podcast App is sometimes unusably frustrating, and even Cortana has a noted delay from the time I click the mic button to hearing the "go ahead and speak" sound, meaning it often takes 3-4 clicks of the button and around 15 seconds of my time (If she gets the command right) to use properly. Similarly, if I'm listening to music, and I try to tap into the Music app from the homescreen by clicking the volume controls and then tapping the artist name to bring me to the Now Playing card, the phone basically shits itself for 3-5 seconds while it swipes it's way through various menus and finally gets me to my desired location.

Between Cortana being sluggish, the Podcast app being downright embarassing, Music still being a shitshow, it makes me really frustrated with the basic functionality of the platform for the first time since its inception. I hope that a new phone and some tweaks bring it back up to buttery-smoothness, because it's that basic usability that makes all of the larger, more-discussed shortcomings over the platform easier to stomach.

I feel pretty much the same. I've had a Windows Phone since launch, but I'm getting closer and closer to moving back to an iPhone. It just seems so much smoother at this point than WP8.1.

Music being a shitshow* still and the fact that there's still no word on a successor to the 1020 (which I have) or a new flagship are making me itchy for something new.

* I know their are other options that the baked-in Music app, but since I have an Xbox Music Pass it's pretty much the only game in town. I'd say about once a week it randomly decides it can't play any of my downloaded content unless I restart. Not to mention it randomly pausing tracks and then crashing when I go to resume playback. That said, even with the broken functionality, it's still better (allegedly) than trying to use it on an iPhone.

Shrimpy fucked around with this message at 02:52 on Nov 12, 2014

# ¿ Nov 12, 2014 02:23

Shrimpy: May 18, 2004; Sir, I'm going to need to see your ticket.

Mr Funkface posted:

Along with decentralising the excellently centralised I'm not feeling the original optimism. I'm in the 2000s to Windows Phone's preceding 1990s.

Excluding Zune Pass/Xbox Music Pass, the People hub, the Me activity feed, and Facebook messaging built into Messaging were things that originally got me really excited about the platform.

The People hub now constantly launches the Facebook app, instead of allowing me to view the post and reply right from the hub itself.
Me doesn't do the activity feed from Facebook, Twitter, etc. anymore.
And instead of baking more chat programs directly into Messaging like Skype, they've reduced it back to just texting.

# ¿ Nov 12, 2014 04:23

Shrimpy: May 18, 2004; Sir, I'm going to need to see your ticket.

loquacius posted:

I still really miss the Zune desktop player, guys

e: I know, I can still use it to play music on my PC, it just doesn't feel the same

I still use it on my PC because the desktop Xbox Music client is pretty lovely too.

# ¿ Nov 12, 2014 17:03

Shrimpy: May 18, 2004; Sir, I'm going to need to see your ticket.

Maneki Neko posted:

Well at least some good news:

http://winsupersite.com/windows-phone/all-windows-phone-8-handsets-will-get-windows-10-microsoft-says

As exciting as I find this, it's tempered by the fact that without any new phone announcements, most of us would still wind up just running it on whatever new Win10 phones came out anyway.

# ¿ Nov 14, 2014 21:28

Shrimpy: May 18, 2004; Sir, I'm going to need to see your ticket.

Factor Mystic posted:

Quick poll: for people who use a mobile device to listen to music a) how much do you use playlists and b) what format are your (mobile or otherwise) playlist files, if your playlists are files (and not 'whatever spotify is').

a) Never*
b) N/A

* I once made a playlist on the Zune desktop software, but that's about it.

# ¿ Nov 18, 2014 09:14

Shrimpy: May 18, 2004; Sir, I'm going to need to see your ticket.

G-III posted:

As someone who recently jumped ship from WP back to iOS after supporting WP since 2010 starting with a Samsung Focus: here's the list of my reasons why and most likely reasons why people stay away from Windows Phone. I'm sorry to say, that superior marketing would not get people to stay on this platform.

1. The Xbox Music app is one of the worst apps music apps to ever exist on a smartphone, least of all an app made by a multi-billion dollar corporation. It took months for that team to improve the performance but there are still a metric ton of problems for things that were solved by music playing software as far back as the 90s. It's 2014 and there's still no gapless playback. Users haven't been able to reliably sync content on their phones since the days of WP7 + Zune software. The fact that a key part of the smartphone experience to this day remains terribly broken is enough proof for consumers that even Microsoft doesn't give a poo poo about its own mobile platforms.

2. In terms of not giving a poo poo about it's own mobile platform and the consumers who bought into it, Microsoft is now making its own products and services better on iOS and Android than Windows Phone. So even if you are someone who likes Microsoft's services such as xbox music, skype, etc... the best way to experience those services on a mobile device is not on a Windows Phone. This should be reason enough to jump ship. If Microsoft doesn't seem to give a poo poo about its own customers, why should you give a poo poo about them?

3. Microsoft does not seem to care about making flagship devices available on all carriers. They've been great so far at providing great value to the lower end of the market, but if you're someone looking for an upgrade and want the latest and greatest phone, why would you choose a Windows Phone over an iPhone 6 or a Galaxy Note 4? There's absolutely no compelling reason for a consumer to do this and there hasn't been a single piece of messaging from Microsoft as to why someone should choose to invest in a windows phone over the competition. If you were someone who bought a Lumia 920 back in November of 2012, the only reasonable phone you can upgrade to at this point is an iPhone 6. There is no _new_ windows phone for you to purchase.

4. The app situation is just abysmal. As pointed out, even if you do get an official app for a popular web service, that app is almost never updated or maintained as they are on iOS or Android. The amount of examples in which an app on Windows phone is actually superior to the same app on iOS or Android could be counted on a hand with missing fingers.

I genuinely liked WP7 on the focus and felt Windows Phone had a lot of promise. I like the fast and fluid kinetic experience of the OS and the very useful media and social hubs. Slowly over time though with each subsequent release despite adding more features to the OS the experience of Windows Phone got worse and Microsoft failed to live up to any expectation to make a thriving mobile ecosystem that is worth buying into. Maybe Windows 10 will change this, but again like all things related to Windows Phone it just means more waiting. However, given the relative performance of Windows Phone in the market as well Microsoft's own anemic attempts to improve their mobile products, I wouldn't be surprised as others have pointed out if Microsoft eventually shuts down Windows Phone and sweeps it all under the rug as another failed product.

I'm in the same boat. I switched from my 1020 to an iPhone 6 this past Saturday after switching to Windows Phone in 2010, also becoming a Zune/Xbox Music subscriber.

I also agree with pretty much everything you said wholeheartedly. I'd like to switch back to Windows Phone, but it seems like over the past 4 years things have been taking as many steps backward as they have forward. As I get used to having an iPhone again, I'm noticing that most everything I miss about Windows Phone were Windows Phone 7 functionality and not Windows Phone 8.1 functionality.

# ¿ Dec 3, 2014 09:51

Shrimpy: May 18, 2004; Sir, I'm going to need to see your ticket.

LifeSizePotato posted:

All of this is why I'm 98% sure I'll be getting an Android next fall if/when Windows Phone 10 fails to make any significant improvement. I've been on WP since 7.0 with a Samsung Focus but enough's enough.

This is partly why I made the switch now. I'm off contract and with no flagships on the horizon and Win10 phones not coming until mid-to-late next year, it seemed like a prime time to make a switch.

# ¿ Dec 3, 2014 20:20

Shrimpy: May 18, 2004; Sir, I'm going to need to see your ticket.

Mecca-Benghazi posted:

Maybe it's because I've never owned a Zune, Xbox, or a WP7, but what exactly went missing in the integrated hub from WP7 to now? Could you add services other than Facebook, Twitter, and Weibo to it?

It's a couple of things (and a few of which I'm sure I'll miss) but when WP7 originally launched:

1) You had the "Me" tile which worked as basically a notification center for all your social media activity. It was persistent too, so more like the Facebook Notifications globe than the current notification system. You could also post/check-in to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc directly from the tile. The functionality of this got neutered pretty heavily in WP8-8.1. If I recall correctly you could do Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, MSN, and a handful of others.

2) You used to be able to do everything social media related directly from the People hub. So if you wanted to click on someone's Facebook status, view a picture, comment or like something, you were always doing so within the People hub. It wasn't this whole "let me jump out into the dedicated app to reply" type deal. The original FB and Twitter apps being lovely didn't matter because the integration with the core platform was so solid.

3) And this is only somewhat related, but the original Messaging app let you switch between Text, Facebook Messenger, and MSN seamlessly. Keep in mind that it did this a year before iMessage came out, so being able to use Facebook Chat in the same place you sent texts was pretty novel. It seemed especially awesome when MS bought Skype like 5 months later since everyone though we were getting integrated Skype messaging -- but that never happened. In fact, it took another year for a Skype beta to even be available for Windows Phone.

4) Since I'm not sure if you're asking about the Music hub or not -- the Zune software, while not the greatest piece of software ever, was absolutely stellar at what it was designed to do: access the Zune Marketplace, let you buy/download music, play any music on your hard drive, and get the music from either source onto your phone. Keep in mind it did this whether your phone was plugged into the computer or wirelessly. Now, with Windows 8/Phone 8 if you want to get music onto your phone you have to either a) use the Windows Phone app for Windows 8 (which is poo poo) or b) add music to your Xbox Music collection, then go to your phone and actually tell it to download to the device. Oh and when you search for music on your phone, it now searches only your collection and then, if you hit the smallest hitbox known to man, will allow you to search the store as well. This compared to WP7 which search both simultaneously and, again, made getting music actually onto the phone from a computer stupidly easy.

# ¿ Dec 4, 2014 01:26

Shrimpy: May 18, 2004; Sir, I'm going to need to see your ticket.

Cybernetic Vermin posted:

Ironically if OneNote and Onedrive wasn't available on the competitors platforms I really could not imagine switching, but Microsoft is ever so kind about those matters

OneNote is actually really nice on the iPhone. OneDrive isn't half bad, but it doesn't look like "download this to my iPhone" is actually a possibility like (I think) it was in WP.

# ¿ Dec 18, 2014 10:03

Shrimpy: May 18, 2004; Sir, I'm going to need to see your ticket.

Why are the contact images in "Messaging" circles instead of squares like everything else on the platform

# ¿ Jan 22, 2015 07:55

Shrimpy: May 18, 2004; Sir, I'm going to need to see your ticket.

They're really going all in on included services with the 640, meanwhile Outlook on Windows Phone now seems a lot more like Outlook on the iPhone which I guess is just like Accompli used to be.

Excel looks a ton better than it used to.

Also they're releasing a foldable Bluetooth keyboard.

e: Surface Hub looks dope.

Shrimpy fucked around with this message at 09:04 on Mar 2, 2015

# ¿ Mar 2, 2015 08:59

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 2, 2024 04:39

Shrimpy: May 18, 2004; Sir, I'm going to need to see your ticket.

Shumagorath posted:

I actually use XBox Music on both my 920 and my PC since Winamp stopped releasing and the streaming service has been my gateway to legal digital music. Collection matching isn't great but I don't have so much that the mismatches make things unmanageable. XBox Music would actually play 100% of my music if I hadn't decided to keep my 5th gen iPod for the gym just because it still works and I have the armband.

I don't know how well other apps handle music on this platform since I've never needed one.

Windows Phone isn't great at music but fuckface just wants to complain about his purchase rather than try any of the options offered to him to solve it, such as exchanging what might well be a defective phone or just using his supposedly capable OTHER phone.

I use my Xbox Music Pass on my iPhone. It is better than Music in WP8.1, but worse than Music in WP8, and a lot worse than Music in WP7/7.5.

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.

e: All this to say that I hope everything improves with Windows 10.

# ¿ May 12, 2015 09:08

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Inspect Your Gadgets > Windows Phone - More More and More