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[WINDOWS PHONE] Windows Phone 8. From Very Small to Sorta Small.

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Posts

  • SynthesisSynthesis Honda Today! Registered User regular
    edited May 2014
    Ziggymon wrote: »
    Synthesis wrote: »
    Ziggymon wrote: »
    Synthesis wrote: »
    Speaking of which, what do people use to sync music with their phones?

    I'm stuck with Windows Media Player (which I was actually using as a convenient, if not versatile, video player courtesy of CCCP). It's slow and tedious compared to Zune, but oh well. Xbox Music on Windows 8 seems quicker, but much more limited in its sorting options (unless I'm missing options).

    On a Mac, theres a separate official app to sync music on the phone. It's essentially a lite version of iTunes. At first there were a few bugs that made it difficult to work but now It's pretty quick and awesome.

    I see, could you elaborate? I don't own a Mac, but nowadays, pretty much everything is available in one form or another on PC. Do you mean the official Windows Phone software (the one they give to non-Windows 8 users), or is this something related to iTunes?

    The official Windows Phone software did not impress me in the least--it seemed to have practically no music tagging options, but it is possible I didn't get it its fair chance. I did notice that it works in such a manner that it can only sync with one PC, but that is how the Zune software worked, and that limitation made it great for music organization.

    Theres an official Windows Phone App on the Mac store. It pretty much the first app that acts as an itunes client that only syncs with music without loading the whole player and store, something mac users have been asking for ages.

    It works pretty well though basic considering it manages to sync itunes music easily with a windows phone is a great feature. Movies still seemed to be locked down to Apple devices though.

    I dunno if its the same as the official windows app but it might be worth a try for you?

    Upon further review, the official Windows Phone App does not offer any means to edit the music information, just to sync it. Well, that was useless.

    Time to try this on Windows 8, see if it's any different.

    EDIT: No, no editing either (only online match). Then again, from what I've seen, you can use iTunes to edit the information, not the actual syncing tool. And iTunes on Windows was a headache last time I dealt with it at my old job, so I might as well stick with WMP.

    Synthesis on
  • DehumanizedDehumanized Registered User regular
  • SynthesisSynthesis Honda Today! Registered User regular

    Does it let you edit music tag information? Oh well, it doesn't really matter--8.1 hasn't begun rolling out on Lumia 925s.

  • DehumanizedDehumanized Registered User regular
    it's a file manager, not a tag editor

  • SynthesisSynthesis Honda Today! Registered User regular
    edited May 2014
    it's a file manager, not a tag editor

    While useful, it's not the area I was having trouble with. I'm generally okay with WP's file structure as is.

    (I mistakenly thought you were offering a suggestion.)

    Synthesis on
  • FrazFraz Registered User regular
    I'm looking for a phone to use on AT&T. I'm out of contract and I'd like to stay that way for now. I just broke my Nexus 5 and was considering buying a relatively inexpensive unlocked 4G-capable Windows phone to mess with while I decide if I want to fix it and/or while I wait for it to get fixed.

    I've owned iPhones and Android but never a Windows Phone. Any recommendation on which I should get? Looks like a good deal can be had on the Lumia 820. I'm trying to spend around $200 or less and get something good enough to give the platform a fair shake. Any suggestions?

  • ZiggymonZiggymon Registered User regular
    If you can the Lumia 620 and the newer 630 are excellent budget priced handsets. The 630 is brand new and its 4G variant in the US is the 635 I think. Otherwise the 820 is excellent and well worth the money, its a rare handset of that its a launch windows phone 8 handset with micro SD slot and has mid-high tier specs at the time.

  • kaliyamakaliyama Left to find less-moderated fora Registered User regular
    Fraz wrote: »
    I'm looking for a phone to use on AT&T. I'm out of contract and I'd like to stay that way for now. I just broke my Nexus 5 and was considering buying a relatively inexpensive unlocked 4G-capable Windows phone to mess with while I decide if I want to fix it and/or while I wait for it to get fixed.

    I've owned iPhones and Android but never a Windows Phone. Any recommendation on which I should get? Looks like a good deal can be had on the Lumia 820. I'm trying to spend around $200 or less and get something good enough to give the platform a fair shake. Any suggestions?

    i'm a big fan of the windows environment, but the app environment just isn't there. super frustrating, as i think it's the best OS out there. i could deal with spotify, but the lack of uber support was ultimately a dealbreaker. MS really needs to commit to the program and drop $50k or $100k per app or whatever to get devs to support it.

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  • SynthesisSynthesis Honda Today! Registered User regular
    kaliyama wrote: »
    Fraz wrote: »
    I'm looking for a phone to use on AT&T. I'm out of contract and I'd like to stay that way for now. I just broke my Nexus 5 and was considering buying a relatively inexpensive unlocked 4G-capable Windows phone to mess with while I decide if I want to fix it and/or while I wait for it to get fixed.

    I've owned iPhones and Android but never a Windows Phone. Any recommendation on which I should get? Looks like a good deal can be had on the Lumia 820. I'm trying to spend around $200 or less and get something good enough to give the platform a fair shake. Any suggestions?

    i'm a big fan of the windows environment, but the app environment just isn't there. super frustrating, as i think it's the best OS out there. i could deal with spotify, but the lack of uber support was ultimately a dealbreaker. MS really needs to commit to the program and drop $50k or $100k per app or whatever to get devs to support it.

    Sadly true. I don't give a crap about Uber (and I suspect it's not as easy as "GIVE THEM ALL THE MONIES"), but there are a lot of missing apps. There's also a huge number of apps unique to the OS (including a bunch not from Microsoft but their close partners), but as with anything else, that's completely hit-or-miss.

    On a general note, in WP8, is there an easy way to back up all the content on a phone (app settings, media obviously) and transfer it to another phone of the same model? I'm not convinced copying and pasting through Windows would get everything. My mother dropped her HTC 8X a while ago, and if we're going to replace it, we'll need to copy everything really.

  • SynthesisSynthesis Honda Today! Registered User regular
    edited June 2014
    Thanks, @Dehumanize.

    Also, a belated fact that I think got overlooked? Back in January, WP outsold iPhone in 24 mostly smaller countries. I'm actually kind of surprised Taiwan isn't on that list, since Android is creaming Apple so bad but I did see a few WP handsets last time I visited.

    I suggest @jungleroomx‌ change the thread title: "[Windows Phone] Outselling iPhone in India (and a bunch of other much smaller countries)"

    Synthesis on
  • SynthesisSynthesis Honda Today! Registered User regular
    edited June 2014
    Hmm, I've been running into headaches ever since I did a reset of my Lumia 925--first, the phone refused to use data at all (T-Mobile managed to fix that), now it seems like it will, but all my apps give me a message to check my connection. In the past, they would just run more slowly, like they're supposed to.

    I'd do another reset, but I'm afraid that'll just make it worse. I've got really bad luck with phones.

    EDIT: Well, it turns out the T-Mobile technician who played around with it two days ago set it to the wrong network. Problem solved!

    Synthesis on
  • SynthesisSynthesis Honda Today! Registered User regular
    Double post in dead thread:

    So, if you haven't already gotten WP 8.1, check, because either T-Mobile or Nokia themselves dispatched it across their handsets on Wednesday or so. Very big update, and it's a two parter (on my Lumia 925, the first part is called Lumia Cyan).

    Cortana is like a less annoying Siri, hopefully she doesn't imitate Siri's pattern of getting stupider over time. Scheduling works brilliantly, but I haven't been able to really do much less yet since I don't know any of the commands. The photo album system is finally updated (SkyDrive is now called OneDrive, for starters), though I'm still determining if its an improvement or not (if you link it to OneDrive, it tries to back up all your photos in two additional spots).

  • Apothe0sisApothe0sis Have you ever questioned the nature of your reality? Registered User regular
    My phone rebooted in my pocket and now there's a gap in my homescreen, but I can't remember what the tile that was there was.

    I don't think I used the app, but I cannot shake the feeling that I just got amazoned.

  • McFlynnMcFlynn Registered User regular
    I just got an update but I can't find any info about it. Any one else get one pushed through?

  • SynthesisSynthesis Honda Today! Registered User regular
    It's available on T-Mobile. Though I have to admit, I'm so dependent on my Lumia 925 as a music player, I'm actually quite tempted to to use Nokia's Recovery Console to revert back to 8.0. The Xbox Music app is very disappointing.

    It's actually gotten better since the preview, but that doesn't really change the fact that divorcing the music player from the OS itself really took away a lot of good functions. So basically, I have to weigh between having the best music player of any phone (substantially better than iPhone or any Android device I've used), or having functions like Cortana and the new information hub (which is a big improvement) while having a mediocre music playing app.

    Wish I didn't have to make the decision!

  • amnesiasoftamnesiasoft Thick Creamy Furry Registered User regular
    I'd be happy if the Xbox music app would just start reading tags properly again, then it would at least be serviceable.

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  • SynthesisSynthesis Honda Today! Registered User regular
    edited July 2014
    I'd be happy if the Xbox music app would just start reading tags properly again, then it would at least be serviceable.

    It actually reads my tags pretty accurately, but that is because when I switched to WP8.0 I had to go over everything I owned in Windows Media Player (as oppose to something not a pain in the ass to use, like the Zune software). I don't use IDE3 tag editors themselves.

    What I've noticed it does frequently is it sometimes fails to import album art though.

    Synthesis on
  • TOGSolidTOGSolid Drunk sailor Seattle, WashingtonRegistered User regular
    kaliyama wrote: »
    Fraz wrote: »
    I'm looking for a phone to use on AT&T. I'm out of contract and I'd like to stay that way for now. I just broke my Nexus 5 and was considering buying a relatively inexpensive unlocked 4G-capable Windows phone to mess with while I decide if I want to fix it and/or while I wait for it to get fixed.

    I've owned iPhones and Android but never a Windows Phone. Any recommendation on which I should get? Looks like a good deal can be had on the Lumia 820. I'm trying to spend around $200 or less and get something good enough to give the platform a fair shake. Any suggestions?

    i'm a big fan of the windows environment, but the app environment just isn't there. super frustrating, as i think it's the best OS out there. i could deal with spotify, but the lack of uber support was ultimately a dealbreaker. MS really needs to commit to the program and drop $50k or $100k per app or whatever to get devs to support it.

    Yeah, this is kinda where I'm at. The OS is god damn fantastic but the app store. Egads. I've seen dead people more lively and feature rich than that.

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  • Apothe0sisApothe0sis Have you ever questioned the nature of your reality? Registered User regular
    kaliyama wrote: »
    Fraz wrote: »
    I'm looking for a phone to use on AT&T. I'm out of contract and I'd like to stay that way for now. I just broke my Nexus 5 and was considering buying a relatively inexpensive unlocked 4G-capable Windows phone to mess with while I decide if I want to fix it and/or while I wait for it to get fixed.

    I've owned iPhones and Android but never a Windows Phone. Any recommendation on which I should get? Looks like a good deal can be had on the Lumia 820. I'm trying to spend around $200 or less and get something good enough to give the platform a fair shake. Any suggestions?

    i'm a big fan of the windows environment, but the app environment just isn't there. super frustrating, as i think it's the best OS out there. i could deal with spotify, but the lack of uber support was ultimately a dealbreaker. MS really needs to commit to the program and drop $50k or $100k per app or whatever to get devs to support it.

    FYI Uber released the Uber app to Windows Phone a week ago (2014-07-23). Your dreams, they are answered.

  • SynthesisSynthesis Honda Today! Registered User regular
    So, has anyone who upgraded from 8.0 to 8.1 lost internet sharing? As in, you can't turn it on even if your plan supports it?

    I need it (it's pretty much a core reason I bought an WP8 to replace my working WP7), so barring a fix, I'll need to revert back to 8.0.

  • McFlynnMcFlynn Registered User regular
    edited August 2014
    It still works on my Lumia 928 Icon.

    McFlynn on
  • SynthesisSynthesis Honda Today! Registered User regular
    McFlynn wrote: »
    It still works on my Lumia 928 Icon.

    Yeah, I doubt it's affected everyone, contrary to what the T-Mobile rep speculated.

    I did a phone restore--no improvement. So maybe it's specific to the Lumia 925. Assuming I can't fix it, I'll have to use recovery to downgrade to 8.0. And if that doesn't work, well, then I'll get to go through the fun replacement process with Nokia I guess.

  • DehumanizedDehumanized Registered User regular
    The settings tab to enable it is still there on my Lumia 920, but I don't have a plan with my provider that allows using it so I can't test beyond that.

  • SynthesisSynthesis Honda Today! Registered User regular
    To make this whole issue even more convoluted: I was convinced that RM-892 (the international model of the Lumia 925, like what I have) doesn't work with internet sharing on US T-Mobile. Because XDA had plenty of evidence suggesting this was the case.

    Except after my next reset, I left it at 8.0.1 (Lumia Black), and viola, internet sharing works.

    So now I don't know if it's because my access point is different (epc.tmobile.com instead of fast.tmobile.com), and I'm afraid of updating to 8.1 out of fear of losing it (though if it is just the access point, logically, it should work). I guess it's just as well, going back to Windows Phone 8.0, I miss Cortana and the data hub, but I realize how much better the integrated music playing app, and the audio hub, is versus Xbox Music.

  • ArkyrisArkyris Registered User regular
    So, turns out that the new Xbox Music isn't a complete mess after WP8.1 Update 1. The Dev Preview just rolled out and it brings Live Folders, Bluetooth improvements which enable Internet Sharing via Bluetooth and other stuff that I didn't really 'read'.

    The Xbox Music app works now, still not quite as well as the integrated one did, but it's getting better. There was an interview at WPCentral with the Xbox Music guys which isn't terrible. Everything at that site reads like a fluff piece though so it's hard to tell what's genuine. I'll see over the next couple of days if the app craps out or not. It's working pretty well at the moment, only a took a moment before loading up the artist list, instead of the 5 seconds it's been taking lately.

    The alpha version of Cortana is now out in Australia, Canada and India but it has been gutted of all the goodies she just got in the US beta and some of the stuff she launched with. I'll see if I can stick it out with the alpha to help build the service but hopefully the UK voice isn't terrible, because I'm not allowed to change it apparently. Oh, and they released a full beta in the UK and China.

    I like it, 8.1 was good but buggy. This seems like needed polish.

  • McFlynnMcFlynn Registered User regular
    The latest update has put a considerable lag into turning my screen on after its sat idle for awhile. Anyone else?

  • amnesiasoftamnesiasoft Thick Creamy Furry Registered User regular
    Of note, 8.1 Update 1 is currently not compatible with the 8X. It's a firmware issue so you'll have to wait until Verizon rolls out the actual 8.1 update before you can actually upgrade to 8.1 Update 1. I'll just sit here with my still useless Xbox Music app.

    steam_sig.png
  • SynthesisSynthesis Honda Today! Registered User regular
    Of note, 8.1 Update 1 is currently not compatible with the 8X. It's a firmware issue so you'll have to wait until Verizon rolls out the actual 8.1 update before you can actually upgrade to 8.1 Update 1. I'll just sit here with my still useless Xbox Music app.

    Weird. My mother has an 8X (with T-Mobile). Though I'm holding off on updating her phone for all the aforementioned reasons.

    Xbox Music still needs a lot of work--though it has a singular advantage over the old Music + Video system (well, two, if you consider the separate Podcast app, I suppose)--it's more easy to force to recognize your own MP3s as songs belonging to someone in the Music store (you basically add the store's songs to your collection without buying, and that'll attach the information to your own MP3s if organized properly). That being said, going back to Music + Video, you realize how smooth and how much faster a app that's integrated into the OS is versus a separate one (that could use a lot of work).

    In the meantime, Xbox Music still needs live tile support (seriously, how is that not a thing? The Pandora app has it for God sakes!), could still use performance improvements, some GUI tweaks, and could really at least use the option for an audio app hub (though since it's now just an app itself, there won't be any inter-app integration). I may hold off until that, or maybe until Cortana leaves beta here in the US.

  • SynthesisSynthesis Honda Today! Registered User regular
    Arkyris wrote: »
    So, turns out that the new Xbox Music isn't a complete mess after WP8.1 Update 1. The Dev Preview just rolled out and it brings Live Folders, Bluetooth improvements which enable Internet Sharing via Bluetooth and other stuff that I didn't really 'read'.

    Would anyone with the latest Xbox Music update mind checking to see if MPATool works for albums and artist backgrounds? The Windows Phone Central forums seem to suggest so, but there hasn't been a lot of follow up.

    If so, all I'm really waiting for is the Live Tile.

  • DyasAlureDyasAlure SeattleRegistered User regular
    So I have Lumia 925, did developer preview thing. I'm enjoying 8.1, but when should I be getting nokia's offical release for t-mobile? The site still says it is in testing. Anyone know?

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  • DehumanizedDehumanized Registered User regular
    DyasAlure wrote: »
    So I have Lumia 925, did developer preview thing. I'm enjoying 8.1, but when should I be getting nokia's offical release for t-mobile? The site still says it is in testing. Anyone know?

    you know exactly as much as anyone who isn't a t-mobile or nokia employee

  • SynthesisSynthesis Honda Today! Registered User regular
    I'll be ditching my Lumia 925. I can't even reset it with the Nokia Recovery Tool to any version where internet sharing works, and as crazy as it sounds, I think that I'll probably need to update from 8.0 anyway.

    I'm thinking of passing on Nokia handsets, for that matter. Whatever happened with my HTC 8X, I never lost a actual function because of an update.

    Guess I'll see how that HTC M8 is.

  • amnesiasoftamnesiasoft Thick Creamy Furry Registered User regular
    I hate my 8X. Dead pixel, screen discoloration, dust in the front facing camera, volume rocker is jammed, headphone port is acting... weird, constantly loses track of my SIM card and requires a reboot...

    I hope the Lumia 830 turns out to be everything the rumors say it will.

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  • SynthesisSynthesis Honda Today! Registered User regular
    I hate my 8X. Dead pixel, screen discoloration, dust in the front facing camera, volume rocker is jammed, headphone port is acting... weird, constantly loses track of my SIM card and requires a reboot...

    Bummer. My mother's dropped hers to the point that the screen is almost completely shattered, but it doesn't seem to have any bad pixels, and the rockers work fine.

  • Ghostly ClockworkGhostly Clockwork Registered User regular
    edited September 2014
    OK, question for everyone. My Lumina 512 is starting to get a bit old, and I'll be honest, I love the Windows phone OS and interface, but I hate not being able to play 90% of the games and apps on mobile. Does anyone know anything about Android phones, or apps for Android phone that let it LOOK like windows Mobile? Cause that would be ideal, able to use android apps, but use the interface of Windows.

    Ghostly Clockwork on
    FTC: honk.
    FTC: HONK.

    HLRpxno.png
    PAX Prime 2014 Resistance Tournament Winner
  • McFlynnMcFlynn Registered User regular
    The few Windows 8 "skins" I messed with are really horrible, if they even worked. I used Android, switched to WP8, and then switched back to Android for two months to wait for the better WP8 phone and those two months were hell.


  • Ghostly ClockworkGhostly Clockwork Registered User regular
    Damn it....I really want to play Spaceteam and all the other great games...but I just don't want to give up the Win8 user interface, it's just so damn clean and useful. I look at my friend's phone, and with all of their static tiles, It's like, "How can you know things without opening the app?"

    FTC: honk.
    FTC: HONK.

    HLRpxno.png
    PAX Prime 2014 Resistance Tournament Winner
  • DehumanizedDehumanized Registered User regular
    Yeah, every attempt I've seen to replicate live tiles just isn't anywhere near good enough.

  • McFlynnMcFlynn Registered User regular
    My personal opinion is that most apps are like food on a buffet. If you haven't had any for a long time, it looks and tastes delicious, but once you're no longer starved you realize that the gravy was bland, the meat undercooked, and that game was a waste of 45 minutes of your life.

    If you're not 100% certain you want to leave WP8, I would look into buying a cheaper older Android to use as a mini-tablet. I keep my S3 around to run a few apps I need for a side gig that makes me a few bucks a month. It means carrying around a second device sometimes, but you're not killing your phone battery and my S3's battery lasts forever because its in airplane+wifi mode all the time.

    Of course this works perfectly for my day-to-day habits, not necessarily anyone else's. Once I switched over to WP8 I pretty much stopped playing mobile games. They're still all installed on my S3, I just never want to anymore. So, take my opinion with a huge grain of salt because I'm clearly not wanting the same thing as you from my phone.

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