Your turn - 8 things that Microsoft needs to fix in Windows Phone 8 right now.

[willybraatlund]

1. folders
2. get the big name apps to the platform, instagram etc. and bring some updates to facebook
3. search (make it able to search all over the phone, but also maybe change search enginge, even though thats not going to happen)
4. notification center
5. spotify or fix xbox music (or both, but I would much rather have a spotify app, but the xbox music could use a fix, it should be faster, better search results and the ability to edit playlists)
6. rotation lock (hate it when I lay in bed and the screen rotates)
7. new accent colors and/or even background colors (instead of black and white)

 

[DaveGx]

It would serve MS well if they actually informed current and potential users of what is coming. With so many things missing or screwy, many users are a bit unhappy and potential users are turned off. With much uncertainty of if we're getting this or that, it would make sense for all for MS to come out with some statement to give us confidence. Right now, I have little confidence because I have no clue what they're doing and how committed they are to WP. Are they or are they not going to be as committed as Apple is to the iPhone? Tell us if you are.

 

[Tiwo]

It would serve MS well if they actually informed current and potential users of what is coming. With so many things missing or screwy, many users are a bit unhappy and potential users are turned off. With much uncertainty of if we're getting this or that, it would make sense for all for MS to come out with some statement to give us confidence. Right now, I have little confidence because I have no clue what they're doing and how committed they are to WP. Are they or are they not going to be as committed as Apple is to the iPhone? Tell us if you are.

They've rewritten WP on an entire new kernel to make sure the OS could be further build for the future. Do you think they would just drop that?

Anyways, my main point is: Other company are not doing this either? There is not a single word out for Key Lime Pie (Android 5.0). I also haven't heard a single thing about iOS 7(okay 6 has just come out, but let's stick to the point being). You can only promise your customers something when you've almost build something. If you can't keep promises you've made, you'll be harder dropped by the audience than when you keep silent for a month extra.

I do hope they will announce something at the WMC. Just have faith

 

[jeodude]

3. Custom sms tones for specific contacts

yes.

 

[RuleOfSines]

I would really like to see the ability to create profiles within our Live accounts that work across devices, Such as Work and Home.

I like the fact that all my stuff syncs across all my Windows devices, however I would like to be able to toggle to a different profile to control what syncs and even alter the tile layout.

 

[Abdul Rahman Noor]

I'm surprised no one's pointed this out so far but the Number 1 thing MS absolutely *needs* to fix in WP8 right now is the horrid "others" folder which keeps eating into our (limited) storage.
My 820 hit the ceiling last night with 532MB free space, 3.8gigs of "Others" and no space to install Sonic CD.
(I finally had to remove some apps to make space)

I hope someone from WPCentral at WMC corners an MS person and press them till they confess when they're fixing this :evil:

 

[suharsh]

I would like to see a 'snooze' function on volume ringer / vibrate. I don't believe I have seen this in other phones (maybe it exists and I don't know about it). So essentially what it is that - you got to one hour meeting and turn off the volume (or put it on vibrate) - there are times when you forget to turn up the volume!

With this functionality, one should be able to turn off the volume for a specified time and then just like an alarm function the phone can remind to turn on the volume or snooze (in case of extended meetings).

 

[DontHate707]

-Notification center,
-apps/games,
-universal search,
-better Twitter and facebook integration so i dont have to use apps,
-better connection with xbox and w8,
-little features like select all within apps and forward button in ie10, more camera options like editing.
-being able to access apps from lockscreen,
-separate volume controls.

 

[DontHate707]

alot of good ideas here seems like everyone just wants little things but there consistent with every user wanting the same things, cmon MS dont let us down!!!

 

[Mooshywooshy]

Duct Tape and Bacon.

Everything will be fixed,
and subsequently,
everything will be better.

(also everything else listed above.)

 

[astraith]

1. Gapless playback. Surely that's not a hard thing to implement?! It's incredible that this isn't a standard feature nowadays. I transferred from iOS to W8P expecting gapless playback to be standard across all phones. Amazed that I was wrong about that.2. My phone often starts playing music through the speaker when I unplug the headphones. Why?! That bug needs sorting (although I think I read somewhere that they had fixed that in the latest update which I am yet to recieve). Speaking of which...3. Speed up their updates rollout. I'm on Vodafone UK and I'm STILL waiting for the Portico update. Why?!4. Although not a bug, I would LOVE it if they could implement support for Airplay. I listen to alot of music and I loved playing music to my hifi from my phone over WiFi via Airplay. My Windows laptop can support Airplay by either using iTunes or Airfoil. I'm not sure if there's some licensing reason why they couldn't do this, but I hope they can. Or maybe some clever app developer could develop a music player that supports it. AND gapless playback?!?

Speed up the updates they can't fix unless they go the iTunes route. Honestly I'd rather bypass the carrier completely. Even if they do that, the OEMs would be responsible for pushing out the updates. WP updates are better than Android though.

 

[Chemilinski]

8 for 8 - EIght improvements for Windows 8

So there was a feature on the main page for WP8 and I thought why not do a similar thing for Windows 8. I've been sitting on quite a few ideas since I upgraded on October 26[SUP]th[/SUP] last year so I'll start this off with some ideas.

1. 'Snapping' the Start screen. So you can pin different apps with each other, but what I've very often wanted to see was accessing the Start menu whilst I have an app snapped, or even have Start snapped whilst I have the desktop or whichever app open as my main window. I wanted to demonstrate this but my desktop can't snap apps, but if the Start screen was snapped, think of the rows of apps you normally see but it's a continuous column.

2. More features for right-click in Internet Explorer in Metro. I pretty much exclusively use IE after upgrading now, and most of the time in the Metro environment, but I often find it really frustrating that there are only a maximum of three options for right-click: Copy link, Open link, Open in new tab. Additional options which I constantly miss are: (for highlighted text) Search on..., Copy image URL, Open image.

3. Also about IE, I find it really annoying that when I open a new tab, the tab list pops-down and back, but I can't click on the tab I just opened without right-clicking again to get that menu again and then click it. It's only one click more but there's no reason why I shouldn't be able to click it. Perhaps an option should be available to set new tabs to open in the foreground rather than the background.

4. More background updating apps. Why a maximum of seven? Why must I choose which seven apps can update in the background and give me notifications on the Live Tile and lockscreen? Even if perhaps a limit on the lockscreen is acceptable, every app should be able to run in the background. There is a Notifications settings menu but that does not mean that those apps update notifications without opening them first. Maybe there's a technical reason so if anyone knows better please say, but I can't see it.

5. Full Control Panel in Metro. This is one of those things that have confused me about Metro said to be a completely independent environment from the Desktop because up to a point, it depends on the Desktop for the Control Panel. Yes the Settings app has a few PC settings but things like Resolution, all settings to do with Sound like a mixer and default devices have to be accessed from the Desktop. I feel it would be so much nicer to use the control panel in Metro.

6. Sign out of Skype in Metro. Once I've opened the app I can't actually sign-out from it without shutting-down/restarting. I still get all the notifications after I've used the ONLY other status option in the app 'Invisible'. I often consciously avoid opening it as I can't stop it from running once it's opened, instead using the desktop version which means that when I do get a notification I have to switch to that from whatever app I'm using and then flip switch back, back and forth.

7. Collating toast notifications. Many notifications suddenly coming all at once (most often from Skype) popping up constantly is so annoying. They should simply add to the one toast notification every time an update comes for the same app, with a number denoting how many total items it's notifying you of for that app.

8. Custom colour schemes. There is a selection of colours to choose from in the settings app in Metro but I have a frequently repeating problem of simply not being happy with any of the colour schemes I choose from the selection given. This is most likely a problem for only a few aesthetically-concerned users which think this too, but then again, there's no reason we can't choose our own two colours. Also something to make it easier and more personalised to the user would be for there to be an algorithm to take the average colour of the apps (or average colour of the most common colour group) on your Start screen and create a complementary colour-scheme.

Those are my main eight gripes with the operating system (which I otherwise love).
What are yours?

 

[Jazmac]

Notification center. Having a Rooms hub is nice and Kids Spot is a nice feature if I would let a kid get near my phone to play games but it supposed to have notification built in. The other things can come as the OS develops but there is no reason I can fathom that the 920 could have been dropped without it or that Portico didn't bring it. Me, I don't even care if they use the source model available on Android and IOS. It works and makes the point. No real need to reinvent the wheel. Tweak it Gangnam style and lets move onto apps.

 

[androidtoWM]

1. Notification center
2. Rotation lock
3. Ability to attach pdf files to email
4. Separate volume levels for media/call
5. Another customizable button on IE
6. *.wav playback
7. Bing wallpaper with local weather
8. improved battery life

 

[a5cent]

Honestly I'd rather bypass the carrier completely. Even if they do that, the OEMs would be responsible for pushing out the updates.

Not true. As far as our hardware, the OS and the backend update process are concerned, everything is in place to bypass carriers and OEMs. I think it is too early to tell how the WP8 update process will pan out in practice, but right now it looks like carriers may turn out to be the gods of updates on WP8, thanks to the stupid decision to deliver them exclusively OTA, meaning carriers can take full control over update delivery if they so choose.

 

[Chemilinski]

Why was my post moved? I was talking about 'Windows 8', not 'Windows Phone 8'....?

 

[gumpert7]

disagree on almost all counts. i want an X to close apps on the multitasking screen... much like the one on BB10.

 

[socialcarpet]

In no particular order...

1.) Notification center (I don't care, but many people do)
2.) Get those last few missing super popular apps like instagram and focus on getting any future super popular apps as quickly as possible.
3.) Independent volume controls. I'm tired of turning down sound for a game or movie only not to hear my ringer or alarm. Come on guys.
4.) Do something about webkit optimized websites that don't work properly on mobile IE. I don't care what you do, just do something.
5.) Fix Xbox Music. (I don't even use it, but apparently it must be broken from how much people complain about it)
6.) Do amazing things to integrate WP8 with Win 8. This will help both. Make me want to put my Macbook Air on the shelf and dust off my Thinkpad.
7.) Beef the calendar functions up. Give me a usable week view, zoom in on month view. My Palm OS 3.1 calendar was better than this.
8.) Never stop innovating. Do not let Blackberry win. Do amazing things that get people talking about WP instead of being so damn cautious and slow with everything.

 

[tmservo]

1. Fix the Bluetooth stack. Phone call comes in while in my car or on Bluetooth handset and music gets stuck on pause, does nor resume after caller pics up. I have to either kill the Bluetooth connection or give up on it

2. Random mixes of music get lost. Pick up a call or whatever and you often have to entirely restart your mix by launching Nokia music again. Annoying

3. I've had issues where bounce out of webbtowser, go back and then the 'back' button just throws you back to Wp8 home screen, not the previous webpage you were on

4. A forward button/option in browser.

 

[MSFTisMIA]

Every point here is a good point. My 2 cents: reorganize settings: the list is so long

^ This. I'd go one step further and create a settings hub with two panes. One with toggle switches for what may be the more common things in settings people use, such as WiFi, NFC, airplane mode, Bluetooth and a visible battery percentage. Make the second pane the running list of all the other settings. You can still tap on WiFi for example and open the setting itself though, along with using the toggle to merely activate it. I wish I had PhotoShop skills to make this idea look visual though...