Switching platforms? | Thinking of leaving?...comment here!

[groady-ho baluzy]

I have 2 Windows phones for sale right now myself.

i'll 3rd that. 2 735's on ebay. second listing, no takers,,,, yet.

 

[Jason Gilbert]

After trying out the ZTE Maven for about a month (surprisingly peppy, but I couldn't live with 8GB of storage), I traded in the 830 for a silver GS7 Edge. It's every bit as wonderful as people say it is, though you'll want a case for it since the back is slippery and flat. I've had the same "Android awakening" that other WP users have: Outlook is great, all the apps you could want, and the phone itself is light years beyond the 950. I also love that my DT-900s will work just fine on the GS7, though maybe not as fast as the Samsung offering.

And so ends 4 years of WP usage. (900, 520, and an 830). I understand that MS has a vision for the future, but I need a phone that works right now, and I can't handle the bugs in W10 anymore. Good night, and good luck.

 

[cmucodemonkey]

I guess Mary Jo Foley finally left Windows Phone. She was one of the last big WP people to give up. She now joins Tom Warren and Paul Thurrot as people who would like to stay with WP because they love the UI, but can't really justify it anymore. Especially when the MS experience is in some ways better elsewhere.

You can add me to that list now as well. I am planning on keeping my Lumia 735 since it is already paid off and I love the UI, but the app gap is becoming too much and there is no telling when Verizon will get around to releasing Windows 10 Mobile. I may go back at some point, but I think I need a break from Windows Mobile.

 

[dgr_874]

Im finally headed out the door as of today too. I haven't been receiving Cortana reminders for about two weeks now. No reminders to leave or alarms or anything. I have tried the Insider Previews and the release candidates with multiple soft and hard resets. Nothing works for my 1520 or surface pro. Ironically(or not), they work on my Galaxy S6. Now i have the issue where quiet hours won't end at the scheduled time and the alarms won't go off. I almost missed work today because of that. Thankfully I had another alarm set on a different device that worked properly.

It's been a fun learning experience though. I consider myself one of those "isheep" oh so long ago. I never even wanted to learn about operating systems, or UI or how cloud services work. Now, I am having a blast digging into everything from all 3 of the major operating systems.

I'll still miss those days when I fired up my Surface pro with 8.1, and connected to my 1520's wifi without even taking the phone out of my pocket. I logged in to a start menu which had the exact same layout and programs as my home PC. All my files were visible right in my file explorer thanks to OneDrive and the stub files. I'll miss browsing what was new with all my people from the people tile. Updating my status from the ME tile was so great. Such good times...

Hopefully I'll be back after Microsoft is done with its transformation sometime early next year.

 

[Joseph Avena]

Re: Windows 10 Mobile Insider Preview 14322 Issues (Redstone Branch)

This is a total disaster, had enough, moving on to another platform....I'm done

 

[Zulfigar]

This is a total disaster, had enough, moving on to another platform....I'm done

A beta OS that is now in the "adding features" part of the process and it will have issues, that's why the program is around, to give feedback so the mass majority who will get the update in a couple months won't have the issues we see.

Yeah, this part is a disaster, it's suppose to be. Give Microsoft feedback, as much feedback as you can, so they can fix it before it's out in July.

 

[NiteCourt]

I left about a year ago. I have a 640 and 8x I turn once in while to admire the live tiles and see them update. I'll check email and go into a few apps. Yesterday reminded me why I left and haven't regretted it. Yesterday I got a text message that a prescription was ready to pickup. On my PC I typed to Cortana to remind me to pick up the prescription when I left work. When I left work and drove down the block Cortana on my S7 Edge in my pocket said you have a reminder. I looked at my Pebble watch and saw the text portion of the reminder. At the drugstore I opened their app and the clerk scanned the bar code and got the prescription. I then signed for it on the phone with my finger. I then opened Samsung pay and took care of the bill. I want to be able to do that with my Windows Phone.

 

[Tonytoronto2015]

A beta OS that is now in the "adding features" part of the process and it will have issues, that's why the program is around, to give feedback so the mass majority who will get the update in a couple months won't have the issues we see.

Yeah, this part is a disaster, it's suppose to be. Give Microsoft feedback, as much feedback as you can, so they can fix it before it's out in July.

We did give them feedback, and they decided to do nothing with the feedback and instead cancel the w10 updates to most w8.1 phones alltogether. So much for no phone left behind.

 

[anon(6078578)]

One thing I like about the messaging on my Android phone is that unlike my Windows Phone, is whenever I send a message I know it's sent. If it has problems it will show "Sending..." until it's done whereas Windows Phone doesn't. This means I have no idea if a message I just sent has really been sent on Windows Phone. I can't count the number of times I've had a message bounce back as unsent several minutes later when I thought it was gone! If Windows 10 Mobile doesn't have this feature yet, they really need to do the same. If I send an urgent message I don't want to be wondering for the next few minutes if it actually went. Read receipts are not the solution and an unnecessary overkill.

 

[gadgetpig]

One thing I like about the messaging on my Android phone is that unlike my Windows Phone, is whenever I send a message I know it's sent. If it has problems it will show "Sending..." until it's done whereas Windows Phone doesn't. This means I have no idea if a message I just sent has really been sent on Windows Phone. I can't count the number of times I've had a message bounce back as unsent several minutes later when I thought it was gone! If Windows 10 Mobile doesn't have this feature yet, they really need to do the same. If I send an urgent message I don't want to be wondering for the next few minutes if it actually went. Read receipts are not the solution and an unnecessary overkill.

"If it has problems it will show "Sending..." until it's done whereas Windows Phone doesn't. This means I have no idea if a message I just sent has really been sent on Windows Phone. I"

Are you talking about SMS Delivery confirmation? In W10M 10586.218 go to system>messaging>sim>enable SMS delivery confirmation. I get notifications from my carrier when my SMS is sent.

 

[anon(6078578)]

"If it has problems it will show "Sending..." until it's done whereas Windows Phone doesn't. This means I have no idea if a message I just sent has really been sent on Windows Phone. I"

Are you talking about SMS Delivery confirmation? In W10M 10596.218 go to system>messaging>sim>enable SMS delivery confirmation. I get notifications from my carrier when my SMS is sent.

As I said, read receipts are an overkill for every message. They are for determining if the recipient actually received it. Obviously for extremely important messages that is useful but not for day to day texting. I just need to know that the phone actually sent it before I send the next text. This is especially important in a marginal signal area. I may be in a conversation only to have a message or two bounce back a minute or two later. All Windows phone needs is a sending indicator like on Android so I know to make sure it's sent before sending the next text so they don't get an out of sequence conversation. I don't know if iOS also has a sending indicator as I don't have an iPhone, only an iPad.

 

[sprtfan]

It's called Simple Calendar Widget

Thanks, I checked it out and it looks nice but I can't get it to work with Outlook calendar. Did you switch to Google calendar or did you sync your Outlook calendar to Google Calendar?

 

[Kevin Rush]

We did give them feedback, and they decided to do nothing with the feedback and instead cancel the w10 updates to most w8.1 phones alltogether. So much for no phone left behind.

It's unreasonable to expect that no phone will be left behind. An old, low cost, or low spec phone would never be able to be upgraded.

As I understand it, your feedback was used and it proved that upgrading those specific phones would not result in a "good" experience for their users. Thank you for your feedback. I wouldn't want a less than "good" experience for any phone's users. Enjoy your phone with the OS that it was designed for. I like the WindowsPhone 8.1 operating system. Or be a good Microsoft customer and buy a new Microsoft Lumia phone. Spending money makes the world work.

 

[chmun77]

- iOS has lots of little quirks and bugs just like any other OS. It's not the flawless OS that everyone makes it sound like. Apple Maps suddenly stopped showing traffic overlays on the map and I couldn't figure out how to fix it (a reboot didn't help).

Get Here maps. It is still supported on iOS / Android, unlike on Windows phone.

- The iOS keyboard sucks. SwiftKey is better but still no match for the WP keyboard. My typing speed tanked on the iPhone as I was making so many more mistakes.

User problem it seems to be here.

- Because iOS doesn't have a back button, there is no standard way to dismiss the keyboard. In some apps, you can just tap above the keyboard to dismiss it. In some others, you have to swipe down. In yet others, there is absolutely no way to hide the keyboard without cancelling the current operation.

Again, seems like you are just not used to iOS. User's problem here.

- The mail and calendar experience is poor. There's no way to have separate notification counts for different inboxes. Calendar invites show up as attachments in email and you have to go to the calendar app to respond.

Well, you can always get MS Outlook if it is a more familiar product for you. And it is so much better than on the windows phone version. iOS apps are much much more polished.

- It's 2016 and iOS still doesn't support photo sharing via Bluetooth.

Google, Microsoft and Apple will encourage you to use cloud to share stuffs since it is already 2016.

 

[chmun77]

Re: Finally had enough and left the 950xl

This is something I've never understood about WP fans' claims to like to be different. I do realize that in certain cases there is something to be said for standing out from the crowd, but to me a choice of smartphone is not the place. There are no advantages in real everyday life. The issues are exactly what you've seen: smaller app supply, harder to find accessories such as cases and screen protectors, and less resources for help and replacement.

Well said! The same reason why I left this pathetic platform. I don't want to be the unique one standing out. I want to enjoy what most of the people are enjoying with the device I purchased. Otherwise, it is a waste of money.

 

[chmun77]

Now I have only a few dozen apps and am quite content. I have my life back. People seem to want all the apps they can get, like a buffet. Its like "57 channels but nothing's on." I have a coworker with probably 500 apps on her iPhone. She has to use her search bar to find one.

Why not you try installing 500 apps on your windows phone and see if will you face the same experience like your coworker does? 500 apps!! C'mon man.... It will be a nightmare even on a computer with 500 applications installed!! However, iOS has no performance issues even with 500 apps installed. Try that on windows 10 mobile, I can tell you the phone will crash in no time.

 

[Attic Muse]

Re: Finally had enough and left the 950xl

This is something I've never understood about WP fans' claims to like to be different. I do realize that in certain cases there is something to be said for standing out from the crowd, but to me a choice of smartphone is not the place. There are no advantages in real everyday life. The issues are exactly what you've seen: smaller app supply, harder to find accessories such as cases and screen protectors, and less resources for help and replacement.

All totally valid points. To be fair being different wasn't necessarily a big factor when originally buying my Lumia, I honestly thought it would be a good phone for a Microsoft fan like myself. And at first it was, but over time the experience has worn on me. I was aware of the app gap, but I figured it would improve over time, and it hasn't yet, at least not in the areas I need it to.

 

[deezus]

Longtime WM fan finally says goodbye...

After 2 950s screen failures and constant BT issues, as well as countless missteps by MS in mobile I'm done. I think things really went south for me when MS completely scrapped Zune software, the main reason I was attracted to their phones. It was sleek, fast and had so many features, most of which has been copied by others, that I just never got over it. Not only that, MS has had 5 years to bring their music software inline and still has failed . That and the lackluster hardware and the app gap which is not only real but ridiculously real. I mean even the basic social apps like FB don't work. Its sad really and I'm not sure who is to blame but I'm done hanging on to something that has definitely lost its way.....it was like being in a relationship and I was the only one trying to make it work. So now, I have an iPhone and an S6. I will miss groove but it has so many issues any way but am I really giving up? Ill just have to use a streaming service and buy all my music from amazon.....what really bothers me about this and ive still yet to hear an answer as to why they scrapped Zune software instead of just rebranding it to groove or whatever? I just cant wrap my mind around it.....anyway, it was a nice run, ill check on the surface phone if its ever released and if it is, it better run android apps or it is dead in the water.

 

[Kevin Rush]

Re: Longtime WM fan finally says goodbye...

After 2 950s screen failures and constant BT issues, as well as countless missteps by MS in mobile I'm done. I think things really went south for me when MS completely scrapped Zune software, the main reason I was attracted to their phones. It was sleek, fast and had so many features, most of which has been copied by others, that I just never got over it. Not only that, MS has had 5 years to bring their music software inline and still has failed . That and the lackluster hardware and the app gap which is not only real but ridiculously real. I mean even the basic social apps like FB don't work. Its sad really and I'm not sure who is to blame but I'm done hanging on to something that has definitely lost its way.....it was like being in a relationship and I was the only one trying to make it work. So now, I have an iPhone and an S6. I will miss groove but it has so many issues any way but am I really giving up? Ill just have to use a streaming service and buy all my music from amazon.....what really bothers me about this and ive still yet to hear an answer as to why they scrapped Zune software instead of just rebranding it to groove or whatever? I just cant wrap my mind around it.....anyway, it was a nice run, ill check on the surface phone if its ever released and if it is, it better run android apps or it is dead in the water.

The Zune desktop pc software is still available and a free download. It works with windows 7, 8, and 8.1 OS. ( I don't have Windows 10 so I can't speak to that OS.) It works with the Xbox music video services and MY music stored in the cloud on OneDrive. I recently purchased a movie on my Xbox 360 and it showed up on ZUNE and I watched it. Even though MS has removed some features, it is still light years ahead of other software! The curated playlists and I think celebrity playlists and podcast management are still there. The animated graphic visuals of the bands are still beautiful It's amazing. It seems that the software programmers, back then, were so good, that when you take out a few features (like social) what is left is still great!

 

[The Lone Centurion]

My 735 doesn't show a timestamp on a message until it's been sent. So when I send a text (or a skype message), the appearance of a timestamp means it's been sent. I thought that's how it worked?