• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Windows Phone 8.1 |OT| Update 1

I find that Auto is great for when the environment I'm in is either very bright or very dark as it makes it easier to see in both. Low is generally not bright enough to use in the sun and too bright to use in the dark, but is fine for indoor usage I find.

I'm hoping to try using Auto again once the Cyan firmware is out to see if that helps, as I'd like to use it if I can still get at least a day with moderate usage.
Yeah,I will try testing for a day or too, but at first even at low it doesn't seem much improvement. I'm with a few tabs open, but browsing from two only right now, just mobile gaf, with tons is text (so I'm mostly scrolling), and it's draining at a rate of 1% every minute and a half or so.

On another topic, could you please test how your phone performs on some games for me? From simple non demanding like temple run and subway suffers, to more demanding like nova 3 (if you have it). I wasn't playing for a while, but recently I tried some games and they are ruining much worse than they used to.
 

Zzoram

Member
I don't get Microsoft's budget phone strategy.

The Lumia 635 with its quad core would be great if it had 1gb of RAM instead of 512mb. The Lumia 530, which will be cheaper, is rumoured to have the same old CPU as the 520 but have 1gb of RAM.

Are they releasing a budget or midrange phone that has both a quad core and at least 1gb RAM?
 

hadareud

The Translator
You would hope that the 730 will be that phone. Including a 720p screen.

They've made some very, very strange choices in the last 12 months, so I wouldn't hold my breath.
 

Nero3000

Member
Gonna go check out the Green 930 soon...the price is too good not to consider.

Current device adoption path: HD7 > 800 > 925 > ?(930)
 
I was all for abandoning WP as soon as possible -- I have 8 months remaining on my contract. I decided to have a look at the 930 the other day and I really like it. I'd have probably bought out of my contract next week if it wasn't for the £180 car tax I have due.

Perhaps it's for the best though, because I have a feeling I may live to regret staying with WP.
 

mrklaw

MrArseFace
José Mourinho;122123281 said:
I was all for abandoning WP as soon as possible -- I have 8 months remaining on my contract. I decided to have a look at the 930 the other day and I really like it. I'd have probably bought out of my contract next week if it wasn't for the £180 car tax I have due.

Perhaps it's for the best though, because I have a feeling I may live to regret staying with WP.

live to regret is a strong term to use, although I suppose plenty are guilty in these smartphone threads of over-egging the situation

at the end of the day, whether you buy android, ios or WP, if you buy smartly you will have a high quality smartphone that will let you browse the internet, keep up with all your social media, take photos and upload them, listen to your music and podcasts and do all your email. There are nuances between them - for me ios is the simplest option (app-app-app), then the more glanceable WP with simple customisation, then android which you can do tons with if you get your hands dirty. But all of them will be just fine for most people.
 

hadareud

The Translator
José Mourinho;122123281 said:
Perhaps it's for the best though, because I have a feeling I may live to regret staying with WP.

I don't get it. If you get a phone you like that has the features you like, what is there to regret?

The app situation is not going to get worse and they won't stop development on the OS either in the near future.

What I'm saying is that it's going to take more than a month to take the WP we're used to (if not a young swoon-hound, at least a reasonably good looking young man) and kill it (turn it into an ugly, middle aged balding man holding an ugly blue shirt into a camera).
 

Funky Papa

FUNK-Y-PPA-4
What are you doing Microsoft.


Io1Wxs4.png

Pls staph.
 

mrklaw

MrArseFace
I love the replies to this tweet. Why bother with a killed off platform?

because it is still cheap vs windows phones, and can run android apps. Although if you did buy one, your next device would probably also be android, which fucks over MS.
 
live to regret is a strong term to use, although I suppose plenty are guilty in these smartphone threads of over-egging the situation
Live to regret in context of the the topic at hand. As in, I may well regret spending £350+ on a phone when there are arguably better options.

I don't get it. If you get a phone you like that has the features you like, what is there to regret?

The app situation is not going to get worse and they won't stop development on the OS either in the near future.

What I'm saying is that it's going to take more than a month to take the WP we're used to (if not a young swoon-hound, at least a reasonably good looking young man) and kill it (turn it into an ugly, middle aged balding man holding an ugly blue shirt into a camera).
The 930 hardware is nice, really nice. The problem is I'm using an 820, it's pretty rubbish at this point but not just because of the hardware. I'm not sure that if I pull the trigger on a 930 that I'll be happy a few months down the line.

You're right about the app situation not getting worse, but if it continues at the current rate it's unlikely to get a great deal better. You'd think when the only way is up that would be the direction the platform might actually go, but I don't know, WP just seems stagnant to me at the moment.
 

ElNino

Member
Yeah,I will try testing for a day or too, but at first even at low it doesn't seem much improvement. I'm with a few tabs open, but browsing from two only right now, just mobile gaf, with tons is text (so I'm mostly scrolling), and it's draining at a rate of 1% every minute and a half or so.

On another topic, could you please test how your phone performs on some games for me? From simple non demanding like temple run and subway suffers, to more demanding like nova 3 (if you have it). I wasn't playing for a while, but recently I tried some games and they are ruining much worse than they used to.
Temple Run 2 runs fine for me, but I don't have Nova 3. I haven't noticed anything different with games (other than the slow Games Hub) since the 8.1 DP. I don't play games too much on the phone though.
 
Temple Run 2 runs fine for me, but I don't have Nova 3. I haven't noticed anything different with games (other than the slow Games Hub) since the 8.1 DP. I don't play games too much on the phone though.

Temple Run and Subway surfers used to be perfect 60fps games for me, now Subway looks like it has trouble running and 30fps, and both have some random annoying hiccups, where they won't even register my finger swiping... Oh, and both seem to take a lot longer then they used to load.

I think I'll refresh my phone to 8 again, and if it doesn't solve it try to look into warranty. It used to be so snappy, and now quite often is bordering the unusable.
 

Raistlin

Post Count: 9999
Wow, the Podcast app is fucking TERRIBLE.

So bad, I'm questioning whether I'm gonna stay with WP8 :\


Crashes, horribly slow, bad UI choices ... and no longer displays controls with Ford Sync.





Copyrighted content also includes text and pictures. It's not unusual for media corporations to remove apps that display their content, even if they are clearly labeled as unofficial.

Blame lawyers.
But then why are other RSS readers not affected?
 

MCD

Junior Member
Wow, the Podcast app is fucking TERRIBLE.

So bad, I'm questioning whether I'm gonna stay with WP8 :\


Crashes, horribly slow, bad UI choices ... and no longer displays controls with Ford Sync.






But then why are other RSS readers not affected?

what's with MS and media players
 
Interesting. I never had a problem with the podcast app. Unlike the Xbox Music app, it was quite reliable. I've subscribed to 7 or 8 podcasts and it worked without a hitch. It even had a fucking scrubber before the Music app. My only complaint would be that it's a bit slow and that it doesn't remember where you left off, when you switch between episodes. But compared to the music app it's been fantastic for me.
 

mrklaw

MrArseFace
Interesting. I never had a problem with the podcast app. Unlike the Xbox Music app, it was quite reliable. I've subscribed to 7 or 8 podcasts and it worked without a hitch. It even had a fucking scrubber before the Music app. My only complaint would be that it's a bit slow and that it doesn't remember where you left off, when you switch between episodes. But compared to the music app it's been fantastic for me.

It's generally fine (and at least updates your podcasts in the background, which it took ios ages to do, and some apps still don't do it properly). But it is missing a lot of features. Playlist management is terrible - you can't remove items from the now playing queue, so rearranging often means starting from scratch. And if yu accidentally start playing a single episode it'll wipe your queue. I'd also like better options per podcast for when to download vs stream, and how many episodes to keep, the current options are too basic.
 

dLMN8R

Member
I just found out a couple days ago that Maps (and geolocating) works without data/Wi-Fi. Definitely helped me on my trip.

Yep! Combine with downloading maps for offline use before going on your trip and it's gold. I used it when I did a day trip to Vancouver and it was nice - didn't have to use any data, still had full POI information, navigation, etc.
 

Ape

Banned
I'm going to load up Xbox Music on my 920 for the first time in a long ass time today.

Hope I don't die.
 

ElNino

Member
Yep! Combine with downloading maps for offline use before going on your trip and it's gold. I used it when I did a day trip to Vancouver and it was nice - didn't have to use any data, still had full POI information, navigation, etc.
I was on vacation in Pennsylvania last week (from Canada, so no datal) but I had already downloaded the New York and Pennsylvania maps so I had full navigation, POI, etc on our trip. It was very useful and my (iPhone owning) family members were impressed and suprised that they couldn't do the same on their phones (as far as I know they can't at least).
 
Interesting. I never had a problem with the podcast app. Unlike the Xbox Music app, it was quite reliable. I've subscribed to 7 or 8 podcasts and it worked without a hitch. It even had a fucking scrubber before the Music app. My only complaint would be that it's a bit slow and that it doesn't remember where you left off, when you switch between episodes. But compared to the music app it's been fantastic for me.

Same. Podcast app is solid. I don't think it's ever crashed on me.
 

PG2G

Member
Looking into working on a universal podcast app with a couple of friends. If there is missing or poorly implemented functionality in current apps drop me a PM and I can make sure we address those issues.
 
something just blew my mind.

If you have multiple calendar reminders (the half-screen popup) that show at the same time, you can swipe to see the other reminder without 'acting' on it.
 

Ape

Banned
Xbox music wasn't that bad. It isn't anywhere close to as good as what I have on IOS but it's better than I remember.
 

hadareud

The Translator
The 5.8 is only for 2 out of 3 months to be fair.

So they are very unlikely to be down. Q2 2013 was 7.4.

If they sold the same all 3 months they're up around 17 % on last year which is much better than I expected.
 

hadareud

The Translator
Looks like the actual figure is probably somewhere around 7.9 million or a bit less or more.

So somewhere between 5 & 10 % growth.

Not great. Not good, either. But not horrible.

Considering all the fucking up they've done, it's surprisingly positive. It means that they have a big enough base to recover, if they turn things around quickly with new devices.
 

mulac

Member
Coming from an iphone 4s to a nexus 5 to now owning a (white) Lumia 930 I picked up this week...gotta say all three OS's have their merits.

By far though the Lumia is the most impressive piece of hardware I've ever owned and the formsize is perfect for me (iphone 4s screen too small for my liking and N5 always felt like i was going to break it in two).

Saying that though, I can see me switching between the Lumia and N5 in the next 6 months on and off until the iphone 6 settles down. I'm lucky enough to be able to experience all 3 OS's and phone types. Sofar my favourite was absolutely Android Kitkat purely down to ease of use and its a beautiful OS.

However after spending 3 days with WP8.1 its rapidly becoming my favourite in terms of pure efficiency. Havent really tried out Nokia Maps yet but I downloaded the maps of Sydney so will give that a whirl this weekend.

On the apps side I've sofar only found i had to buy a decent weather app (WeatherFlow) and the NextReader one given the lack of Feedly. Other than those two everything else i found on the appstore. Only one i'm really missing right now is a Garmin Connect for my watch to enable easy bluetooth uploads of my runs = easily solved by bringing in my usb charger.

Hence my mini one-word reviewes would say:

iOS = app-tastic
Android = beautiful
WP 8.1 = efficient
 

KageMaru

Member
In the last two days, I've seen two people with a WP in the public, both 520s. This may sound silly, but it's weird seeing WP out in the wild.
 
Top Bottom