Did AT&T forget about us?

[prjkthack]

I believe Data Sense is a Nokia offering, included with the Amber update, not a part of the GDR2 update. So if you're using an HTC phone, you wouldn't be getting that part of the update. You would have to see if HTC is going to offer something similar.

Data Sense is a feature of Windows Phone 8 and has been since the beginning. AT&T has opted out of offering Data Sense, and has continued to do so with GDR2. Carriers can either offer Data Sense or block it from their phones, its up to them. AT&T has decided not to offer this feature at this time.

The 1020 has the call blocking feature though, so I would expect that the other phones should also allow the call blocking feature to be included on their phones.

 

[iamtim]

Would you at least be willing to rage about Nokia announcing amber 3 months ago, and just now start rolling it out?

Maybe. It depends on when the announcement said it would be out. If the announcement said August/September, then no. It's still August. If it said something earlier, then yeah, let's rage.

Got a link to the original announcement?

 

[smoledman]

Data Sense requires carrier development on the backend which AT&T doesn't want to do despite being a very profitable company...

 

[AlexRodriguezNY]

Funny that you should mention critical thinking when you can't bring forth a shred of evidence to back up your claim. I asked you to back your claim; you can't. You just want to rage against AT&T.

I'm an AT&T subscriber; I can tell you that there are plenty of things to rage about. The timeliness of the GDR2 update is not one of them. It's been reported for either the end of August or September, neither of which have yet come and gone.

When that happens, when August and September come and go and we have no GDR2 on our AT&T WP8 devices, then I will join you raging at AT&T for it. Until then, take a chill pill and be patient, you've got no grounds to rage about GDR2 right now.

I don't have to chill. If you are following the thread you will see that with my other account I said that I already flashed my phone and now it has all the features including data sense.........Not only fail at critical thinking ,also fail at reading comprehension......... Now who got to wait and chill? It's clear that it is not me the one that need to sit patiently,take the pill and chill.

 

[AlexRodriguezNY]

I'm also a AT&T subscriber, this slow release of a major update, that everyone is looking forward to receive doesn't not surprise me one bit. They have poor customer support and poor attitude as a company, but they do have individuals that are great, BUT they can only help you within the policies the company has established. Get on their website and try to find out the cost of service, you have to put a phone, what plan you want, and all the add on's in the cart, then you have to go clear to check to get a estimate of your bill and that even varies from location to location. And if your trying to find any details on anything, you're out of luck it's like trying to nail jello to the wall. I really doubt if AT&T customers will get the FM Radio because that's a already a paid add on service on AT&T.

I wonder how these people that say we're impatient would think, if say Microsoft was releasing a major service pack update and it was up to their ISP when you could receive the SP update that was released for your country or location.

And my local AT&T Store did not have one positive thing to say about the Nokia 920, when I was thinking about buying. All the good and bad came from websites on the internet, if asked any questions it was I don't know or that that app is really buggy on Windows phone, if wasn't a iphone is wasn't any good.

Thank you Tom Snyder!!!! How easy you nailed it and like you most of the people here understand my point and only one or two guys still don't get it.

 

[mogelijk]

I expect the 920 to get the FM radio. My basis for that is that the radio is working on AT&T's L520.

 

[iamtim]

I don't have to chill. If you are following the thread you will see that with my other account I said that I already flashed my phone and now it has all the features including data sense.........Not only fail at critical thinking ,also fail at reading comprehension......... Now who got to wait and chill? It's clear that it is not me the one that need to sit patiently,take the pill and chill.

I swear, it's like I'm playin' cards with my brother's kids or somethin'.

This isn't about whether you flashed your phone or not. This is about raging at AT&T because they haven't yet released GDR2 and, according to you, stopped caring about the 920.

I'm saying there isn't one shred of actual evidence they've stopped caring about the 920; all you've got is your personal rage-gasm against them. I'm also saying that unless anyone can prove otherwise, AT&T has yet to drop the ball on the GDR2 rollout; it was promised in August or September (depending on which reports you read) and it's still August.

Your personal phone is irrelevant. You seem to have an axe to grind over AT&T, but you do need to chill because lack of caring about, or failure to provide updates for, WP8 devices is not something AT&T can be tagged with. Yet.

 

[russshoe]

I just spent a hour on the phone with AT&T this guy and his superviser never heard of the Amber update or any future updates not a good sign

 

[JonnieLasVegas]

Was told at an at&t store that this update was being skipped for the 920. But I'm holding out hope it isn't true. But that coupled with them saying on Twitter that they have no news or timeline for this update (for the 920), has me worried.

 

[vormison]

They want as many people to look at and upgrade to the 1020 as possible. Just like they did with taking their time with the Windows 7.8 update to try to get customers to purchase Windows 8 phones.

 

[andrewkeith5]

I just spent a hour on the phone with AT&T this guy and his superviser never heard of the Amber update or any future updates not a good sign

Once again, customer services staff are almost always the last to be told about anything like this (except possibly for store staff). They aren't told anything until it actually happens becuase otherwise they'd go around telling people information that could turn out to be wrong.

The more reliable source is Nokia, who have said end of September.

I can't remember a software update in history where a customer service advisor or store salesperson has known about the update before it is released - and most still aren't interested enough to know about it after.

 

[Zolotoy]

They want as many people to look at and upgrade to the 1020 as possible. Just like they did with taking their time with the Windows 7.8 update to try to get customers to purchase Windows 8 phones.

That cannot be, no way.

 

[Keith Wallace]

Actually I'm snickering that Verizon once again beat AT&T by getting the GDR2 update to their windows phone first. But we'll wait like the rest of the world does...

What do you mean, "once again?" AT&T got GDR1 first. AT&T got the 92x line of devices first. AT&T got the 102x line of devices first. Verizon got Spartan Assault in a way that was easily worked around, and they got GDR2 first. It's not like Verizon's running up and down the race track beating AT&T here.

 

[leo74]

I am pretty sure they didn't forget about us. Don't get me wrong, I am eagerly waiting for the upgrade as well and I am drooling over it since I first read about it. What we need to keep in mind is that we are the WP nerds. I have a few friends using WP8 and they have never heard of an upcoming upgrade and I guess as long as their phone doesn't tell them that there is an upgrade available, they don't care because they are happy with their phone. Again, I am not saying I wouldn't want AT&T to move faster (in fact, I am thinking about switching providers and the fact that AT&T seems to be dragging a bit, is only one more reason for this consideration), but I also understand that they probably have reasons to follow their plan (whatever that might be) and just because us "hardcore nerds" can't wait to get our hand on amber, doesn't mean that AT&T doesn't care or forget about their users.
Patience is a virtue... (although I have to confess, I'd rather have "hurry the F##k up" be a virtue

 

[ricbon]

and you do know once we get GDR2 we will be asking where is GDR3 right?

 

[Alex Rodriguez]

I swear, it's like I'm playin' cards with my brother's kids or somethin'.

This isn't about whether you flashed your phone or not. This is about raging at AT&T because they haven't yet released GDR2 and, according to you, stopped caring about the 920.

I'm saying there isn't one shred of actual evidence they've stopped caring about the 920; all you've got is your personal rage-gasm against them. I'm also saying that unless anyone can prove otherwise, AT&T has yet to drop the ball on the GDR2 rollout; it was promised in August or September (depending on which reports you read) and it's still August.

Your personal phone is irrelevant. You seem to have an axe to grind over AT&T, but you do need to chill because lack of caring about, or failure to provide updates for, WP8 devices is not something AT&T can be tagged with. Yet.

I swear you have to work for AT&T. I understand they still within their time frame to deliver the update. What bothers me and most of the people commenting on the thread is that they are the Premier Carrier, they have Nokia's backup but they are failing to deliver a major update in comparison to other carriers. Is not about what phone anyone has. Is about delivering an update that AT& T in the past have been the first doing so once again because they are THE PREMIER CARRIER . Is not about the time frame they have is about being the official carrier and not delivering the update to your clients that month after month are paying their bill and expect the same features others in other carriers are already enyoying. Do you understand that or you want me to write in Spanish for you and maybe you can get it. Cause since the beginning of the thread I understand the September time frame.

 

[uselessrobot]

Would you at least be willing to rage about Nokia announcing amber 3 months ago, and just now start rolling it out?

If anything, I think that's my frustration and I think the source for many others. Nokia makes a big fanfare of it, starts rolling it out on new devices and the rest of us are stuck waiting. Nokia, and to be fair most other companies, engage in this sort of nonsense of premature announcements. In their eagerness to generate buzz they announce a a device or update far too early but the end result is that by the time the product hits the market people are frustrated or have moved on.

In this regard, Apple is a lot smarter. You can't control speculation and leaks, but you'll notice that every time they've announced a new phone it's gone on sale within weeks. So right when consumers are excited and most likely to make impulsive decisions, they can walk into a store and buy the device.

iOS 7 bucked the trend somewhat, but then that was a large scale update that went into beta. I don't recall if it requires a developer license, but the beta version has been available for download for months, and doesn't require wiping your phone to get it. But in this particular case there's a good reason for taking this path. It's a beta release and they want it out in the wild being thoroughly tested. It's also a form of pre-release buzz for the iPhone 5S and 5C. Rest assured, however, that the day those phones go on the market everyone else will be able to upgrade their iPhone 3, 4 and 5.

Apple's marketing department is the best in the business, without question, and it's really a big source of their success. Everyone else seems to merely flounder around making the same old mistakes. Certainly, Apple's success gives them flexibility, but they would never tolerate the kind of crap Nokia faces with working with AT&T. Apple is also smart enough to keep their product line simple and not offer numerous distinct variants for each carrier. Even Samsung has a more sensible product lineup than Nokia.

We can argue about how irrelevant this all is and how impatient we are. However, we're the evangelists. The fact that we're here means you're more informed than your average consumer. So we're the ones who consciously or not end up shaping public perception. Both Nokia and Microsoft have instill certain expectations in us and it doesn't take much effort to look over at Apple and see how they're doing things. So from that perspective it's inevitable there would be frustration.

 

[Luis Carlos Ruiz Paternina]

Well, If I pay for a phone to Nokia.. and the phone price includes the FM radio that I have not used and now At&t does not want to activate the FM radio that I already paid for just because they want to charge me extra for their At&t radio service then Nokia MUST either fix the issue by forcing At&t to push this in the amber update or refund the money for the Radio that they are not guaranteeing as functional. There must be some kind of legal action that we can take to force At&t to give us what we paid for. At GDR1 we understood that the OS did not support the FM Radio but now it does so there is no reason why they would retain it from us. Let's hope they won't deny that right of ours to use what we have in our phone. I was enough their blocking our Internet sharing, Damn I am paid for this data plan and I should be able to share it with anybody.

Should I pay more for a Soda just because I am giving some to a thirsty homeless person? Am I not entitled to choose who I give my stuff If I am paying for it? What's happening in America? What's going on in the land of freedom?

So At&t, take the time that you need to test the update but give us what we have been waiting for and what we are rightfully entitled for.

 

[Alex Rodriguez]

If anything, I think that's my frustration and I think the source for many others. Nokia makes a big fanfare of it, starts rolling it out on new devices and the rest of us are stuck waiting. Nokia, and to be fair most other companies, engage in this sort of nonsense of premature announcements. In their eagerness to generate buzz they announce a a device or update far too early but the end result is that by the time the product hits the market people are frustrated or have moved on.

In this regard, Apple is a lot smarter. You can't control speculation and leaks, but you'll notice that every time they've announced a new phone it's gone on sale within weeks. So right when consumers are excited and most likely to make impulsive decisions, they can walk into a store and buy the device.

iOS 7 bucked the trend somewhat, but then that was a large scale update that went into beta. I don't recall if it requires a developer license, but the beta version has been available for download for months, and doesn't require wiping your phone to get it. But in this particular case there's a good reason for taking this path. It's a beta release and they want it out in the wild being thoroughly tested. It's also a form of pre-release buzz for the iPhone 5S and 5C. Rest assured, however, that the day those phones go on the market everyone else will be able to upgrade their iPhone 3, 4 and 5.

Apple's marketing department is the best in the business, without question, and it's really a big source of their success. Everyone else seems to merely flounder around making the same old mistakes. Certainly, Apple's success gives them flexibility, but they would never tolerate the kind of crap Nokia faces with working with AT&T. Apple is also smart enough to keep their product line simple and not offer numerous distinct variants for each carrier. Even Samsung has a more sensible product lineup than Nokia.

We can argue about how irrelevant this all is and how impatient we are. However, we're the evangelists. The fact that we're here means you're more informed than your average consumer. So we're the ones who consciously or not end up shaping public perception. Both Nokia and Microsoft have instill certain expectations in us and it doesn't take much effort to look over at Apple and see how they're doing things. So from that perspective it's inevitable there would be frustration.

Nothing but the truth. Microsoft always have been like that.Now Nokia is doing the same. They like to announce stuff wayyyy ahead of time and then fails to deliver and when they do deliver is incomplete or there is a problem

 

[Bob Shiska]

The ATT 8X has GDR2, which goes to show that they're not holding it back intentionally or just dilly dallying. Either they're testing one device at a time and Nokia got them the update after HTC, or there are some quirks with the 920 on ATT that need to be worked out, or something else, but it's not like they're months late. The VZW/T-Mo updates only got released last week.

Everyone on here just needs to chill a bit.