No Glance support?!!!

[ret18057]

Okay, it don't have Glance...or Double Tap...or any other damn notification (Nokia, this is the mother of all fails...did you test this unit before releasing it?) What do you think may happen? I'd be happy if the stupid Windows home button flashed or something. Any ideas? I don't see how or why Glace would come later, just curious if there are any educated guesses if this is something in development or if Nokia has moved on...

 

[mozman68]

Boy...I always wondered if I would miss Glance (I know I would...I love it), but now that they have the beta Glance background app, it is even better than before.

I took my company logo which is typically red logo on a white background and simply inverted it with a red background and black logo so the screenn wouldn't be too bright. It looks incredible (pic taken with crappy iPad 2 camera).



I should note that my camera is charged by my bed all night and for most of the day at my desk (as you can see)...even even in my car during my 90 minutes of commuting each day...so I can't really comment on battery drain that much with this added feature.

 

[anon(4054009)]

The user manual for the Icon claims there IS FM radio. There isn't?

There is on mine... Also after setting up the dock I have a clock on mine while on the dock, if I switch to weather I just get a dark screen.

 

[Joel S79]

Okay, it don't have Glance...or Double Tap...or any other damn notification (Nokia, this is the mother of all fails...did you test this unit before releasing it?) What do you think may happen? I'd be happy if the stupid Windows home button flashed or something. Any ideas? I don't see how or why Glace would come later, just curious if there are any educated guesses if this is something in development or if Nokia has moved on...

This your first experience with Windows Phone? Nokia WP phones don't have notification LEDs that I know of, and notifications on Glance just showed up with Black (which was nice, since Glance will turn on when you take the phone out of your pocket.) They do wake the screen and flash a toast (the notification in the top bar) for texts and certain apps (which you control.) They do NOT wake or show a toast for emails, I keep my email live tile high on the start screen to compensate for that. The 928 was my first experience with a phone with no notification LED (I did have a Galaxy Fascinate, but it had a mod where it would light up the softkeys for notifications), and I got used to it after a little.

I'm not really missing Glance, would be nice to have it, and I've had to remember to wake the screen when I take it out of my pocket (resulting in me standing there staring at a blank screen for a few seconds before I remembered), but I've adjusted.

 

[BfnC]

wow, learned there is FM radio in the Glance thread... very happy to have that back after WP7!

 

[Existence_Inc]

I'm not going to complain about no Glance, as this is my first foray into the WP8 world, but... coming from a BlackBerry 9930, I do miss the notification light terribly. I was able to set custom colours and patters for each email account, BBM, MMS, and user and they were persistent. If I had a BBM message and an SMS message, it would pulse with the colour for each notification instead of only showing the most recent. OTHERWISE, I am working through the adjustment period. (My 3rd smartphone and my 3rd ecosystem, so I am used to significant change...) That said, I wouldn't complain if they enabled some sort of notification system for the Icon. Maybe a version of glance that is closer to that found on the MotoX.

~Ex

 

[ret18057]

This your first experience with Windows Phone? Nokia WP phones don't have notification LEDs that I know of, and notifications on Glance just showed up with Black (which was nice, since Glance will turn on when you take the phone out of your pocket.) They do wake the screen and flash a toast (the notification in the top bar) for texts and certain apps (which you control.) They do NOT wake or show a toast for emails, I keep my email live tile high on the start screen to compensate for that. The 928 was my first experience with a phone with no notification LED (I did have a Galaxy Fascinate, but it had a mod where it would light up the softkeys for notifications), and I got used to it after a little.

I'm not really missing Glance, would be nice to have it, and I've had to remember to wake the screen when I take it out of my pocket (resulting in me standing there staring at a blank screen for a few seconds before I remembered), but I've adjusted.

Yes, it is. Maybe that's the difference. It seems some WP people don't seem to care too much that it isn't there. Whereas newly minted converts struggle with something we saw as such a basic feature. It didn't even dawn on me that there is no charging light either, so I am trying to square up my phone with the pad and hope it doesn't get bumped off (my S4 had wireless charging as well). My worry is that by omitting it, this is what it is; there will be no innovation or improvement. That's why I was hoping at least maybe someone could rig toast to the WP home button or something. Throw us a frickin bone. I read poster after poster that says "ain't no big deal", but a week in, it is my chief complaint about the device. The little things, right? Come on, Nokia...

 

[Joel S.]

Yes, it is. Maybe that's the difference. It seems some WP people don't seem to care too much that it isn't there. Whereas newly minted converts struggle with something we saw as such a basic feature. It didn't even dawn on me that there is no charging light either, so I am trying to square up my phone with the pad and hope it doesn't get bumped off (my S4 had wireless charging as well). My worry is that by omitting it, this is what it is; there will be no innovation or improvement. That's why I was hoping at least maybe someone could rig toast to the WP home button or something. Throw us a frickin bone. I read poster after poster that says "ain't no big deal", but a week in, it is my chief complaint about the device. The little things, right? Come on, Nokia...

I used to be in the "it must have a notification light" camp as well, wouldn't buy a phone without it, and it gave me pause with the 928, but you adapt. Took me a few days of adjusting my habits with the phone, so I don't even think about it any more. I guess it helps that the notification LED on my Galaxy Nexus became annoying (it would sometimes flash for seemingly no reason.)

Regarding charging, the phone will chime and/or vibrate when it's charging and when it's disconnected from the charger. The wireless pads should have an LED on them that lights up when there's a good connection, mine do. The screen will also turn on when it starts charging.

Nokia is quite good at keeping their devices supported and adding new features, even on Verizon who's TERRIBLE with updates (you came from Android, you know what's up). I was shocked at how quickly the 928 got Amber and then Black (and GDR2 and 3 respectively... do a quick search for Amber and Black to get an idea of what Nokia added to get a better idea of how they work), and both added a good deal of nifty new functionality. This phone is a form factor Nokia will likely explore in other markets, because one of the major gripes with it (aside from the lack of Glance) is it's exclusive to Verizon. Nokia will figure out how to get Glance working, and it WILL get WP 8.1 (there's no if, it's when), which adds a slew of fancy new features, and it'll continue to be well supported for some time. I wouldn't worry about the phone never getting any love, Nokia and MS treat all the devices fairly equally.

If your biggest gripe is regarding the lack of an LED, gotta say that ain't a bad start.

 

[TheJoester09]

As far as personal usage goes, the lack of Glance isn't that big of a deal for me—I miss it, but it's not a dealbreaker. What really bothers me is that with things Active Notifactions from Moto and KnockON from LG, these cool Nokia features are spreading to other phones (and are arguably being implemented better). I think it's really important for Nokia as a company to have these things if they're going to market this as a flagship phone (and this phone is absolutely deserving of flagship status). I love Nokia, but it seems like there's always something when it comes to their phones. I know that there really isn't such a thing as a "perfect" phone, but some compromises are more meaningful than others. This is pretty big omission that I hope they can sort out soon. I just don't want to see a situation where these features eventually come to the phone, and the uninformed say "OMG NOKIA IS RIPPING OFF MOTO AND LG."

 

[quantum tao]

I don't get the glance hype, pressing the power button is not hard and uses no battery power. I tried it on my 822 and it seemed to have an affect on battery life so I turned it off. what am I missing?

 

[ret18057]

I don't get the glance hype, pressing the power button is not hard and uses no battery power. I tried it on my 822 and it seemed to have an affect on battery life so I turned it off. what am I missing?

You're right. You don't get it. Either you miss passive notifications or you don't. You don't. I do. Cool for you, crappy for me. 'Nuff said.

 

[Robinsonmac]

Its really convenient, you don't have to press any button to see the time or see notifications. You can wave your hand passed the screen & it comes on. Then you can Double tap to unlock if needed.

 

[anon(7901790)]

You guys are all assuming it won't be supported by the time the phone launches. For all we know, it might be. They didn't say it isn't EVER going to be supported, they just said it isn't at this moment and the phone isn't out yet.

I just got the Icon and it doesn't have Glance.

 

[TheJoester09]

I don't get the glance hype, pressing the power button is not hard and uses no battery power. I tried it on my 822 and it seemed to have an affect on battery life so I turned it off. what am I missing?

You're right, it isn't hard to push the power button. It's hard to explain because on the surface the feature sounds unimpressive and kind of useless, but once you get used to using it, it's AWESOME. I really can't explain why I like it so much, but I will say that it isn't nearly as cool if it isn't used in conjunction with Double Tap.

 

[mozman68]

I don't get the glance hype, pressing the power button is not hard and uses no battery power. I tried it on my 822 and it seemed to have an affect on battery life so I turned it off. what am I missing?

If you don't like it or feel the need for it, you are missing nothing....just like I don't miss (and actually hated) the LED notification light when I had a BB years ago.

I "use" Glance constantly during the day at work while at my desk or during meetings and especially love it overnight on my nightstand.

To each their own...

 

[Steve Walden]

I contacted Nokia about the lack of glance support and this is what they said:

I bought the Icon on the first day it was available. It was my first phone on Verizon. I was moving from the 1020 on att which I loved. I can honestly say that I just about hate the Lumia Icon. Why you ask? Well, the phone itself is GREAT. The call quality is great, the batter life is decent, the screen is beautiful BUT, being on Verizon the call experience IS HORRIBLE!!! What do I mean? Well, in the past, on att and on the last 4 Lumia devices I have owned, if I am on a call and a second call comes in, I had several options which were "Answer, Ignore, Text reply, End+asnwer (which ended my current call and answered the incoming call). The End+answer button does not exist on the Verizon network. Wait, let me rephrase that, it does not exist on Windows Phone on Verizon because it DOES exist on the iPhone on Verizon and the Galaxy phones on Verizon but NOT on the Windows phone. Okay so, having said that, it get's worse. Let's say I tell call A to hold on a second while I answer call B. I hit answer, it puts call A on hold and takes me to call B. When I am done with call B, I hit end call and it ENDS BOTH CALLS. Then I just wait about 7 seconds and call A automatically calls me back. Of course it is very confusing for the person I just hung up on because their phone just starts ringing, as if they had just called me. FRUSTRATING!! Now, let's say I am on call A and Call B comes in and I want to take call B and let call A go. I tell call A, "hey I gotta take this call, I will talk to you later" and then hit ANSWER CALL to take call B. Even though call A has hung up, my phone still appears to show call A as being on hold! If I "Tap to swap" back to call A, the screen changes to show the name and number of call A but I am still talking to call B! It is mind numbing!! After extensive research, I have found that this issue seems to be specific to Verizon and seems to exist in ALL THEIR WINDOWS PHONES!!! My friend has the same issue on his 928 and 822 all ON VERIZON!

As if the above was not enough to make you want to pull your hair out, the Lumia Icon DOES NOT SUPPORT GLANCE!!!! Are you freaking kidding me? The new FLAGSHIP phone with top of the line specs CAN"T DO GLANCE!!! Even the 920 can do glance! When I contacted Nokia about why the Icon can't do glance, here is their response:

"We understand your disappointment with the support for Nokia Glance in Nokia Lumia Icon. In response to this, after checking the technical specifications of the said device model, we would like to inform you that Nokia Glance and double tap to wake are both unsupported due to display memory limitations."

 

[k0de]

I contacted Nokia about the lack of glance support and this is what they said:
As if the above was not enough to make you want to pull your hair out, the Lumia Icon DOES NOT SUPPORT GLANCE!!!! Are you freaking kidding me? The new FLAGSHIP phone with top of the line specs CAN"T DO GLANCE!!! Even the 920 can do glance! When I contacted Nokia about why the Icon can't do glance, here is their response:

"We understand your disappointment with the support for Nokia Glance in Nokia Lumia Icon. In response to this, after checking the technical specifications of the said device model, we would like to inform you that Nokia Glance and double tap to wake are both unsupported due to display memory limitations."

That's it.

Wow so why not just increase the size of the Graphic Memory Card. I am not convinced something else is behind that issue.

 

[slowburnaz]

That's it.

Wow so why not just increase the size of the Graphic Memory Card. I am not convinced something else is behind that issue.

Yeah, I'm not sure I buy that either. You mean this phone can handle displaying full 1080p, videos, whatever else, but can't handle the monochrome Glance, which only lights up the individual pixels it needs? What could Glance possibly be doing that's so memory intensive?

 

[savagelizards]

I am now on Day 10 with my Icon, which is my first WP device after multiple androids.

At this point, I have solved most of my issues with third-party apps or other work-arounds. I have to say that the lack of notifications is a big deal to me. My phone is always chiming something or other, and I have no idea why unless I happen to have the phone on and be on the start screen as the chime occurs, which is pretty seldom.

Because the battery is smaller than I am used to, I have been using a QI charging stand on my desk when I am in the office. This has been a good solution for me, and because of Icon's four microphones I am able to use the speakerphone to have hands free conversations while the phone is charging with no drop off in quality for the folks I am talking to.

However, when the phone is in the stand and I am working on something else, the chimes have me dropping what I am doing, then having to hit the power button and then swipe upward to get to the start screen, while being careful not to knock the phone off the stand. It would be nice if when the phone was charging and not in active use I could set the phone to display the start screen for 5-10 seconds, so I could scan the start screen and see if I wanted to ignore or pick up my phone. I understand this feature could be aggravating at night, so perhaps I could select when to turn this feature on and off (although quite frankly, my phone is always chiming at night to tell me it started charging and then completed charging and then started again).

Anyway, the live tiles are great for customized information, but only when you are on the start screen. If you are composing an email or making a phone call or using the calculator they are not visible, and you have to interrupt what you were doing to return to the start screen. Even then, I definitely miss being able to see the sender and the subject line of an email in a crawl at the top of my screen. I don't know if there's another way to do it or if 8.1 will solve all these problems, but I am about ready to search the app store for a WP 8.1 countdown app so that I know exactly when to start looking for the update.

 

[ret18057]

So, is this it on a Glance/notification alternative? There's no hack, no 3rd party app, no nothing to remedy this, for those of us who care? I can't believe Nokia or MS are going to invest much time or effort into fixing this for one single handset, and the buzz here is that an international version won't be hobbled this way. This feels like a "take it or leave it" situation, no?