Windows Phone 8.1 Features

Fingleberries

senordingdong wrote: »

In latest news, MS is announcing the rollout of Cortana for Android and iOS.
While millions of MS users still don't have it.

Their priorities are all over the place.

It doesn't take much to enable Cortana for Windows Phone and it works very well in Ireland. The only sacrifice you make is buying stuff in the store (you need to change region back to Ireland / Euro, requires a reboot and it works fine).

Cortana on Android and iOS will only have app-level access (similar to Google Now on iOS), sure it can do a lot but it can't be as tightly integrated as it is on Windows Phone and Windows 10.

All the extra queries, reminders, voice interactions that are entered on iPhones and Android devices will make the service better really quickly. It will make Cortana better in more areas and more local queries, etc. Even if only 10% of all iOS and Android users start using Cortana, it will be a hell of a lot more users than currently do.

Windows Central had a good article about this yesterday (link).

Cortana on Windows 10 and Windows Phone will be able to do much more because it is built right into the OS.

It's really a Win-Win for Microsoft. If more people use it, it will get better. If people get used to using it, they will probably like to use it with the better features available on Windows on their next device.

It only crashes and burns if no one uses it on Android and iOS.

beauf

senordingdong wrote: »

From the information out there, it is the carriers that hold these things up and that there is no way around this.

How is it going to change for win10

Most of my updates have been from the Developer Preview not the operator.

Its one of the main things that drew me to Windows Phone that I could bypass the Operator updates. O2 left most of the others phones I got from them (mainly android) on the firmware they shipped with.

senordingdong

beauf wrote: »

Most of my updates have been from the Developer Preview not the operator.

Its one of the main things that drew me to Windows Phone that I could bypass the Operator updates. O2 left most of the others phones I got from them (mainly android) on the firmware they shipped with.

Makes sense but this isn't something that the mass market of lay people will do.
Mar shampla, a friend of mine has a 925 still running 8.0. He liked it at first but it's waning. I tried to explain to him why he didn't get 8.1 and what he can do to get it.

beauf

Well its a smart phone its going to require some technical aptitude to get the best out it.

Its a lot less technical on a Windows Phone than an Apple or Android device stuck on an older version. The hardware is still relevant, but the manufacturer or Operator just abandons older and or cheaper devices. Give Apple its due it does keep older devices updated a lot longer than a lot of Android devices. Keeps more people buying those profitable App store Apps.

senordingdong

beauf wrote: »

Well its a smart phone its going to require some technical aptitude to get the best out it.

Its a lot less technical on a Windows Phone than an Apple or Android device stuck on an older version. The hardware is still relevant, but the manufacturer or Operator just abandons older and or cheaper devices. Give Apple its due it does keep older devices updated a lot longer than a lot of Android devices. Keeps more people buying those profitable App store Apps.

Indeed.

I know it too ofcourse. But like I said, mass market lay people.

It's just easier for them to go with apple or android next time.

Bayberry

senordingdong wrote: »

From the information out there, it is the carriers that hold these things up and that there is no way around this.

How is it going to change for win10

From Windows 10 on, probably in much the same way that Google is doing it with Android, moving most of the important bits into the store, so that they just get updated the way any other apps get dated.

The key question is how MS will go about supporting updates from current Win8 devices to Win10, if the carrier doesn't want to get involved. The Insider program demonstrates that it is technically possible to do that, so the question is will MS just publish a "WP10 Upgrade" app to the store, and rely on word getting around for end users. That also raises a question of whether that will cause friction with carriers (I really don't see why it would, but that's probably why I'm not in the telecoms business).

beauf

senordingdong wrote: »

Indeed.

I know it too ofcourse. But like I said, mass market lay people.

It's just easier for them to go with apple or android next time.

That makes no sense. Android is the worse for not getting updates from the Operator. Its why Android is so fragmented.

http://bgr.com/2015/05/18/android-vs-windows-phone-updates/

http://www.dailytech.com/Android+Lollipop+Nears+10+Percent+Market+Penetration+After+Half+a+Year+in+the+Wild/article37333.htm

senordingdong

beauf wrote: »

That makes no sense. Android is the worse for not getting updates from the Operator. Its why Android is so fragmented.

http://bgr.com/2015/05/18/android-vs-windows-phone-updates/

http://www.dailytech.com/Android+Lollipop+Nears+10+Percent+Market+Penetration+After+Half+a+Year+in+the+Wild/article37333.htm

Makes sense to the lay people buying the consumer electronics.
All they see is that they have this crappy windows thing that is 'not as good as everyone elses' and now it's lagging even further behind.

beauf

I mean its worse on Android so it makes no sense to switch to that, to avoid the problem.

Curious what "must have" features are missing from 8.0 that a move to 8.1 would keep them on the platform. I found I had a lot of the updates from 8.1 in 8.0. They seem to realise features as small updates without updating the version number, or build.

I find even with 8.1 WP is missing features that would make me leave the platform.

Mint Sauce

Got a new update this evening. Not a chance to look at all thats new yet, but the settings menu looks alot tidier.

theothernt

Mint Sauce wrote: »

Got a new update this evening. Not a chance to look at all thats new yet, but the settings menu looks alot tidier.

That sounds like Update 2 for WP8.1 (aka GDR2), only a small number of handsets have it (or will get it).

senordingdong

IE crashing alot lately.
Happening to anyone else?

pleasant Co.

All the ****ing time, I thought I'd been using UC browser for a while!

stevenmu

Same here, but I did get an update notification that's supposedly about fixing phone crashes. Haven't had a chance to install it yet.

beauf

senordingdong wrote: »

IE crashing alot lately.
Happening to anyone else?

If you mean in 8.1 then yes its always crashed a lot. Never found browsing great on WP.

Ardennes1944

I havent had any issues with IE, still updated this morning though.

Bayberry

Any particular sites causing problems - I can't say that I've had any problems but I don't do a huge amount of browsing on my phone.

Stiletto72

Bayberry wrote: »

Any particular sites causing problems - I can't say that I've had any problems but I don't do a huge amount of browsing on my phone.

The only site that gives me problems on IE is the Boards site. Everything else runs fine and it's never crashed.

beauf

The crashes are at random. I've never noticed it linked to a specific site. Whats annoying is that where you were is never in the history. Its like it forgets the last place you were.

Bayberry

Do you have IE set to Mobile or Desktop mode?

beauf

Mobile because I preferred the formatting.

senordingdong

beauf wrote: »

The crashes are at random. I've never noticed it linked to a specific site. Whats annoying is that where you were is never in the history. Its like it forgets the last place you were.

Yes, it is entirely random.

If I have a list of the sites it happens on the most, it would just be a list of sites I visit the most.

nokiatom

windows phone 8.1 has got a little update regarding crashing and reboothing

beauf

I installed that last night. We'll see how it goes. I here the browser in 10 is better. Fingers crossed.

theothernt

beauf wrote: »

I installed that last night. We'll see how it goes. I here the browser in 10 is better. Fingers crossed.

It is, for various reasons. IE has a few stability problems that have never been fixed plus the version on phones and Xbox are a bit different from each oth. But Edge (on Win10) will be updated constantly as it's a store app and not built-in like IE is.

senordingdong

nokiatom wrote: »

windows phone 8.1 has got a little update regarding crashing and reboothing

Bit that's about the phone crashing and rebooting, not IE.

Bayberry

Under System/Storage Sense/Phone/ select Temporary files. You'll get the option to delete the temporary files. Try that, and see if it makes a difference.

There's also a link to the IE settings (which you can also get to in IE itself) which suggests that the IE cache is held in Temporary files.

Barring that, you could do a backup and then a reset of you phone, and see how that goes. When you log back into the phone it should restore your current settings. If the problem persists, I'd try resetting again, and creating a new account - purely for debug purposes - and see if the new account had the problem (which woud indicate a problem with the phone) or if the problem was gone (which would indicate a problem with your account/profile).

beauf

I've done all that in the past. Never made much of a difference.

Bayberry

beauf wrote: »

I've done all that in the past. Never made much of a difference.

So you had the problem even using a different Microsoft Account on the phone?

beauf

Yes. I've a few different MS Accounts (and other providers) for development/testing. I was trying to see if I could fix the formatting of email notifications of emails from boards which are too small to read on WP. every other forum comes in Ok. So I tried different accounts, and passing email via different providers to see if parsed differently. I never noticed any difference in how the rest of the OS, or apps worked regards of what I used. Though I don't see why one profile would change the behaviour of the browser that much.