1520 Newby Questions

[azteca911]

Looking at ordering a 1520 tomorrow. This will be my first smartphone other than the company Blackberry that I am losing this month. I didn't really use the Blackberry for anything other than checking company emails, texting, and calls. I have been looking at the Icon, 1040, and the 1520. One of the things that drew me to these phones was the cameras on them. We have two small kids and never remember to bring a camera with us on most trips. I've played around with the Windows phones at the AT&T and Verizon stores and really like the operating system. I have a couple questions when it comes to smartphones.

1. On the 1520 the expandable memory card is only usable for files like music, movies, pictures, right? You can't run programs from the memory card?
2. Does using the Nokia gps program on the phones use up any of your data plan or is it all on the phone and uses gps signals to navigate?
3. How does switching between wifi and cell work when it comes to downloading something? Does the phone look for wifi first and if it can't find it then it uses cell? Or do you have to physically switch the phone to use wifi and then back to cell? We have wifi at work and home where I'd do most of my downloading.
4. If I want to copy some cds or dvds to the phone I'd guess I'd have to convert them first (I have Wondershare to do this) and then download them to the memory card? Do all the conversion on my laptop and then hook the phone up to it and download to phone, right?

Thanks for the info. I know I'll have a lot more question in the next few weeks and will scan the forums here for answers before starting another thread.

 

[samy_a]

Looking at ordering a 1520 tomorrow. This will be my first smartphone other than the company Blackberry that I am losing this month. I didn't really use the Blackberry for anything other than checking company emails, texting, and calls. I have been looking at the Icon, 1040, and the 1520. One of the things that drew me to these phones was the cameras on them. We have two small kids and never remember to bring a camera with us on most trips. I've played around with the Windows phones at the AT&T and Verizon stores and really like the operating system. I have a couple questions when it comes to smartphones.

1. On the 1520 the expandable memory card is only usable for files like music, movies, pictures, right? You can't run programs from the memory card?
2. Does using the Nokia gps program on the phones use up any of your data plan or is it all on the phone and uses gps signals to navigate?
3. How does switching between wifi and cell work when it comes to downloading something? Does the phone look for wifi first and if it can't find it then it uses cell? Or do you have to physically switch the phone to use wifi and then back to cell? We have wifi at work and home where I'd do most of my downloading.
4. If I want to copy some cds or dvds to the phone I'd guess I'd have to convert them first (I have Wondershare to do this) and then download them to the memory card? Do all the conversion on my laptop and then hook the phone up to it and download to phone, right?

Thanks for the info. I know I'll have a lot more question in the next few weeks and will scan the forums here for answers before starting another thread.

1. You can't run apps from the card now. In WP 8.1, coming next month, it will be possible to store apps on the memory card (if the app developer enables this option).
2. The Here+ gps doesn't use data, but you have to download the map(s) of the countries or states you travel to of course.
3. If wifi is available, it is automatically used.
4. Don't know.

Enjoy your 1520, I'm told its awesome.

 

[Citizen X]

1. On the 1520 the expandable memory card is only usable for files like music, movies, pictures, right? You can't run programs from the memory card?

You are correct. Allegedly functionality for installing programs is coming in Windows Phone 8.1

2. Does using the Nokia gps program on the phones use up any of your data plan or is it all on the phone and uses gps signals to navigate?

Yes and no. If you download maps before you hit the road it minimizes data usage. I thought once you download the maps it doesn't use any data. Apparently though it does use some small amount of data even if the map is downloaded. If you don't have your data on and you put in a destination it will inform you data is not connected and ask you if it is okay to do a local search on your device. So apparently at least initially it goes to the internet for searches.

3. How does switching between wifi and cell work when it comes to downloading something? Does the phone look for wifi first and if it can't find it then it uses cell? Or do you have to physically switch the phone to use wifi and then back to cell? We have wifi at work and home where I'd do most of my downloading.

It uses wifi first.

4. If I want to copy some cds or dvds to the phone I'd guess I'd have to convert them first (I have Wondershare to do this) and then download them to the memory card? Do all the conversion on my laptop and then hook the phone up to it and download to phone, right?

I don't know if you need to convert CDs but why wouldn't you? Copying WAV files or whatever onto your phone will gobble up the space. Convert music to MP3s and then use the Windows Phone utility to copy everything over.

 

[Pete]

I believe that location services uses cell data as it uses cell tower triangulation. For my trip to Africa last year, I was unable to use "Track my Life" app to trace my safari travels as I had turned off data roaming.

I don't know whether navigation apps use only GPS or not. You'd need to research the apps involved.

 

[azteca911]

Well I ordered my phone and it will be here Wed. Looking forward to learning all about it and I'm guessing posting more questions on this thread.

 

[azteca911]

Another newby question. I have several micro usb chargers (Blackberry, Motorola). Are these ok to use with the 1520 I'm getting or do I need to be cautious about what changers to use?

 

[maverickrohan]

The Nokia Lumia 1520 being a huge phone with a huge battery @ 3400 mAh does need a charger with more amps, the OEM charger is rated at 1.3 Amps ... so no if you have older charger which are 0.5 to 1 Amp ... will not be efficient ... will take too long to charge the 1520.

Also, about media ... you can convert to various formats, recommended:
Audio = AAC
Video = MP4 (H.264 + AAC)

You can download Moliplayer Pro to play video files on the phone/SD Card and even from a NAS drive on your home network. You can even save web videos to SD card directly using UC Browser.

 

[maverickrohan]

About Maps, it is a bit more complex:

1. Nokia phones come with HERE Maps ... you can download offline maps for places where you will be travelling or live in ... in advance ... then HERE Drive will not use data.

2. The phone also comes with Microsoft Bing Maps (hidden) ... which are sometimes used by other apps ... if these other apps rely on Bing maps for anything, they will use data.

 

[azteca911]

Thanks for the replys, they will help me greatly starting today when the phone shows up at work.

 

[azteca911]

Two more questions.

1. How do I check on what apps are running in the background?
2. How can I check what amount of cell data I've used this month on the phone?

 

[Pontifex]

1. Press and hold the back button and the apps will appear.
2. There is an app called Data Sense (preinstalled) where you can check it.

 

[crav4speed]

Two more questions.

1. How do I check on what apps are running in the background?
2. How can I check what amount of cell data I've used this month on the phone?

1. Press and hold the back button and the apps will appear.
2. There is an app called Data Sense (preinstalled) where you can check it.

1. Apps don't really run in the background. They are tombstoned. What this means is that they are essentially frozen if you are not currently using the particular app. Windows Phone uses what are called background tasks and these are things that run in the background that a developer may have enabled in their app such as navigation, music streaming, notifications, live tiles, etc. You can check and disable background tasks by going to settings>swipe to applications>background. Some you can disable and some you cant.

2. Data Sense is currently removed from AT&T phones unfortunately. This really sucks because it's useful in knowing how much data you've approximately used. I say approximately because I had a Lumia 920 that had Data Sense but it would always give me a different value than what AT&T provided. Always check your data balance with AT&T directly especially if you're on a small data plan. Just dial *3282# and you'll receive a free text from AT&T telling you how much data you've used or download their app.

Welcome to the family! :smile:

 

[boasist]

Handbrake is a free and very useful application for optimizing movies/videos for your phone.

handbrake.fr

 

[azteca911]

Next newby question.

I've started using the calender/appointments feature. I've started to put in the birthdays in my family, got the kids in (March and June) and have tried to put my wife's in Oct. Each time I put it in it appears on the list for a couple of seconds and then disappears. Any ideas? Is Windows trying to get me to forget my wife's birthday?