First off, the positives:
I appreciate most of the changes in GDR2 and Amber. Some of the change log doesn't really apply to me but it's nice to have FM Radio again as this was something sorely missed after the transition Symbian. I'm keen to try the Xbox Music but I would really prefer if I could keep my artist and album images as they are. Data Sense looks good. I'm on an unlimited plan but it's still nice to see what apps are using a lot of data. I haven't as yet had a chance to test with ProCam app and the changes in the image algorithms but that should be a positive experience. The ProCam app looks extremely good (do I even need ProShot anymore??) and along with the new image/video apps available (SmartCam and Video Trimmer) after the update, the camera experience should be improved even more. The Glance screen is a great addition. Double tap to wake is ok as long as the impact on the battery isn't too bad. Flip to silence is a superb idea and I cannot wait to try it out when the missus calls me later
Call and SMS filtering is another great feature to have on hand.
Now the things that still need to be looked at or improved:
I was really hoping (not expecting) that it would be possible to sync bookmarks with IE10 after this update. I can't work out why such a basic, but important feature in missing. There's still no way to create sub-folders in favourites either. I'm stuck using a workaround of exporting my bookmarks from FF, then uploading the html file to my website then bookmarking the page in IE10 on my phone. At least I can access my favourites, but I'd much rather have them locally stored on the phone in their folders. Madness.
The other storage bug is infuriating and needs an acceptable resolution asap. Some people have lost up to, and in some cases, more than 50% of their entire available storage and this isn't good enough. Resetting the phone periodically is not a practical solution for most people.
Live Tiles are another area that need to be looked at imo. The updates fail far too often. In fact, all mine failed again after applying gdr2/amber. Whilst I appreciate that the cause may sometimes be a third party app, surely MS can do more to make it possible for users to get things working again with relative ease? Again, why should people have to reset their phones for something that should be possible to resolve without inconvenience?
I'm sure I read somewhere that the Snapdragon S4 supports USB-OTG. Well, I'm sure I'm not alone in thinking that this would be an awesome feature to implement on WP8. Space is a premium for most people, especially with the 'other' storage bug. The 1020 is likely to be limited to most users to 32GBs and it won't take long for a casual photographer to fill up the phone...add a few apps and games and within a very short space of time, the phone will be full. USB-OTG could ease some issues. This would require MS to open things up a bit and imho, that would be another good thing too.
I'm still waiting for a practical solution to using a heart rate monitor for apps like Runtastic and Sports Tracker. Both developers are blaming MS and WP8 for their inability to provide a feature. Hopefully this will be fixed asap.
It would also be nice to have a fully functioning Windows app for transferring files, creating and editing playlists, sync bookmarks...perhaps even viewing/editing contacts etc.
On the whole, I'm still very happy with WP8. There is progress being made but some areas are light years behind other platforms. Symbian is well ahead in most things except performance due to their dated CPUs and limited RAM and Symbian is dead. If MS are serious about competing, then they need to pull their finger out and make WP more convenient as well as providing the features that the hardware can support.
I appreciate most of the changes in GDR2 and Amber. Some of the change log doesn't really apply to me but it's nice to have FM Radio again as this was something sorely missed after the transition Symbian. I'm keen to try the Xbox Music but I would really prefer if I could keep my artist and album images as they are. Data Sense looks good. I'm on an unlimited plan but it's still nice to see what apps are using a lot of data. I haven't as yet had a chance to test with ProCam app and the changes in the image algorithms but that should be a positive experience. The ProCam app looks extremely good (do I even need ProShot anymore??) and along with the new image/video apps available (SmartCam and Video Trimmer) after the update, the camera experience should be improved even more. The Glance screen is a great addition. Double tap to wake is ok as long as the impact on the battery isn't too bad. Flip to silence is a superb idea and I cannot wait to try it out when the missus calls me later
Call and SMS filtering is another great feature to have on hand.Now the things that still need to be looked at or improved:
I was really hoping (not expecting) that it would be possible to sync bookmarks with IE10 after this update. I can't work out why such a basic, but important feature in missing. There's still no way to create sub-folders in favourites either. I'm stuck using a workaround of exporting my bookmarks from FF, then uploading the html file to my website then bookmarking the page in IE10 on my phone. At least I can access my favourites, but I'd much rather have them locally stored on the phone in their folders. Madness.
The other storage bug is infuriating and needs an acceptable resolution asap. Some people have lost up to, and in some cases, more than 50% of their entire available storage and this isn't good enough. Resetting the phone periodically is not a practical solution for most people.
Live Tiles are another area that need to be looked at imo. The updates fail far too often. In fact, all mine failed again after applying gdr2/amber. Whilst I appreciate that the cause may sometimes be a third party app, surely MS can do more to make it possible for users to get things working again with relative ease? Again, why should people have to reset their phones for something that should be possible to resolve without inconvenience?
I'm sure I read somewhere that the Snapdragon S4 supports USB-OTG. Well, I'm sure I'm not alone in thinking that this would be an awesome feature to implement on WP8. Space is a premium for most people, especially with the 'other' storage bug. The 1020 is likely to be limited to most users to 32GBs and it won't take long for a casual photographer to fill up the phone...add a few apps and games and within a very short space of time, the phone will be full. USB-OTG could ease some issues. This would require MS to open things up a bit and imho, that would be another good thing too.
I'm still waiting for a practical solution to using a heart rate monitor for apps like Runtastic and Sports Tracker. Both developers are blaming MS and WP8 for their inability to provide a feature. Hopefully this will be fixed asap.
It would also be nice to have a fully functioning Windows app for transferring files, creating and editing playlists, sync bookmarks...perhaps even viewing/editing contacts etc.
On the whole, I'm still very happy with WP8. There is progress being made but some areas are light years behind other platforms. Symbian is well ahead in most things except performance due to their dated CPUs and limited RAM and Symbian is dead. If MS are serious about competing, then they need to pull their finger out and make WP more convenient as well as providing the features that the hardware can support.
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