Thinking of jumping from android to windows phone.

[fogel35]

I got a quick question regarding the calendar on windows phone since the units in the store are pretty empty.

How many calendar notifications/reminders can you set up per day? For example I am ready to throw my wife's phone out the window with the amount of reminders she has set. She currently loves my old first generation Zune and she is also interested in Windows Phone because of it.

 

[reelon]

Right now, there is no Windows Phone 7 app for either Google Music or Amazon Music Cloud. I suspect because they're Google and Android based, we won't see them. We might see a 3rd party app at some point. Right now, you can stream music for $10 from either Zune, Spotify, and other type of those subcription services. Nokia is working on getting their Nokia Music service here in the US. If you go to their Nokia Music site, you will get that message. I'm assuming the Lumia 900 could see that feature in the future. I wouldn't doubt that Microsoft has a cloud service for music in the works right now, much like Google and Amazon.

There is a 3rd party WP7 app, EasyRing & Music that downloads and streams music from SkyDrive, where you could have up to 25GB of music stored for free.

I had an old zune player and used the zune pass can you still keep the 10 songs? If I understood you can then stream all the songs from the market? How about downloading podcasts directly from the phone?

 

[Chris Coyle]

I had an old zune player and used the zune pass can you still keep the 10 songs? If I understood you can then stream all the songs from the market? How about downloading podcasts directly from the phone?

You can only keep the 10 songs if you never cancelled your subscription. I forget the cut off date. It was late summer of the fall of last year. Right now, it's $9.99 for the Zune pass otherwise.

Some songs you can't stream from Zune pass. It depends what license the artist and label have for that particular song or album.

Yes you can download podcasts over wifi to your phone. Just subscribe and the podcast will update over wifi.

 

[Giddora]

I currently have an Android with a WP on it's way.

My history is as follows.
As soon as I saw MY company (SE was "Swedish" kinda back then) announce the wonderful Sony Ericsson X10i, I knew I would change from my X1 (Windows Mobile) to that.

I was growing tired of the problems with WM such as crashes, unexplained reboots, battery draining, slow system, having to tread lightly because there was no real way to know if the program/game you installed contained malware or something, very advanced and non-logical setup of GUI... And so on.

I got my Android Phone in October 2010 and loved every second of it. You could do so much!

October 2011 I sat down to find out what I was really thinking about my X10... And here's the list of cons:

Crashes, unexplained reboots, battery draining, slow system, having to tread lightly because there was no real way to know if the program/game you installed contained malware or something, very advanced and non-logical setup of GUI... And so on.

I do like that Android is a very good system when it comes to individual functions... I just hate that every function acts on it's own part, has it's own problems and has nothing common with the rest of the system.

I fell for WP the second I touched it... It's just so smooth... And the reception it has gotten among critics is absolutely flawless. Even my friends Galaxy Nexus has stuttering graphics in some situations... And that's the coming Android-version... So running with Android is not going to be a 100% pleasant task even in the mentionable future.

But you have to ask yourself this.

Why do you use your smartphone?
a) You want to edit/change/set the entire phone to be your personal phone... Spend a few hours a month to do maintenance work. - Android
b) You want to just have a glance and go phone which will never bother you unless you want it to. - Windows Phone

 

[aubreyq]

Yes you can download podcasts over wifi to your phone. Just subscribe and the podcast will update over wifi.

Quick note: The phone has to be plugged in for the podcasts to update over WiFi. It's still a great feature and I love waking up in the morning and finding a fresh Adam Carolla podcast episode ready on my phone, as well as the WPCentral podcasts

 

[aubreyq]

Why do you use your smartphone?
a) You want to edit/change/set the entire phone to be your personal phone... Spend a few hours a month to do maintenance work.
b) You want to just have a glance and go phone which will never bother you unless you want it to.

Not sure if that was a rhetorical question, but the good thing about WP7 is that there is no "maintenance" to be done. You cannot "customize" it all the way, but you can personalize it in the sense of which tiles you want in the Start screen. Item "b" is definitely an accurate description of WP7

 

[zoomy942]

Coming from a current android user, the Trophy seems like a breath of fresh air. Ill get one this week.

No flashing. No force closing. No updates for certain devices and not others and certainly a device that simply gives me my information.

Curious about something though.

I see tthere is fb integration and a Facebook app? Can I not use the built in one and use the app and still get notifies in the wm7 way for updates? I ask because I'm not keen on fb people being in my contact list... I just use my Google/gmail contacts for that.

Sent from my Incredible using Tapatalk

 

[Giddora]

Not sure if that was a rhetorical question, but the good thing about WP7 is that there is no "maintenance" to be done. You cannot "customize" it all the way, but you can personalize it in the sense of which tiles you want in the Start screen. Item "b" is definitely an accurate description of WP7

Ah, crap! Offcourse I forgot to add what answers my two questions.

 

[IamVortigaunt]

Quick note: The phone has to be plugged in for the podcasts to update over WiFi. It's still a great feature and I love waking up in the morning and finding a fresh Adam Carolla podcast episode ready on my phone, as well as the WPCentral podcasts

Hmmm I don't think this is true. I'm pretty sure you can download podcasts over WiFi without being plugged in. I think you run into trouble if the podcast tries to update when you're not on WiFi, giving you the "attention required. Tap here." message. But if it tries to update while you're on WiFi, I'm thinking it will do so. You might be thinking of the setting in the Zune software that allows the phone to sync to Zune over WiFi once its been plugged into the wall for a certain time.

Sent from my mwp6985 using Board Express

 

[aubreyq]

Hmmm I don't think this is true. I'm pretty sure you can download podcasts over WiFi without being plugged in. I think you run into trouble if the podcast tries to update when you're not on WiFi, giving you the "attention required. Tap here." message. But if it tries to update while you're on WiFi, I'm thinking it will do so. You might be thinking of the setting in the Zune software that allows the phone to sync to Zune over WiFi once its been plugged into the wall for a certain time.

Sent from my mwp6985 using Board Express

I know I've subscribed to podcasts and downloaded episodes on WiFi when not plugged in, but I only seem to get the episode updates overnight while its charging. Maybe it's a coincidence and my phone is always charging when the update is posted. Not sure.

 

[aubreyq]

Coming from a current android user, the Trophy seems like a breath of fresh air. Ill get one this week.

No flashing. No force closing. No updates for certain devices and not others and certainly a device that simply gives me my information.

Curious about something though.

I see tthere is fb integration and a Facebook app? Can I not use the built in one and use the app and still get notifies in the wm7 way for updates? I ask because I'm not keen on fb people being in my contact list... I just use my Google/gmail contacts for that.

Sent from my Incredible using Tapatalk

Congratulations on choosing Windows Phone. I hope you enjoy your Trophy, and I hope Verizon expands their WP choices soon because it's a shame there's only one model available on Big Red.

Regarding Facebook, you can just use the app. You don't need to integrate FB into the People Hub. However, you can actually have the best of both worlds and use the app and the integration without adding your FB contacts to your contact list. There's a setting, "filter my contact list", where you select what's going to be visible. Just select Windows Live and leave FB and Twitter unchecked.

 

[jleebiker]

Welcome to the fold!

There will be some differences for sure. One of them is how WP handles things like FB, Twitter and Contacts. I used to think the same way as you, keep everything separate and apart. After just TRYING how WP combines things, AND gives you the flexibility to contact people how YOU want to, you'll never want to go back.

Now I just pull up the person and just type what I want and BOOM, the system uses my configd choices on how to communicate with them. The system is flexible AND efficient. Lot's of times, flexibility = inefficient. WP has done it right.

Yes there are gaps, but so far, nothing has been show stoppers.

Be sure to ask questions. No sense in doing the brain damage yourself when there are tons of people who have gone through the same things you have.

 

[zoomy942]

WOW! Thanks for the responses!!

Since everyone is so helpful, can i add a few more questions?

1. Will my google contacts sync into the device? That's where they all are, and my gmail itself.

2. I use google voice and google talk sometimes. I see there are third party apps, which is fine, but i have also seen things about the multitasking being different on WP7. Does this mean those 2 apps won't push notifications?

3. My Droid Inc has an 8MP camera and the Trophy has a 5MP... should that be a concern? I'm no photo artist at all, but I have a 4.5 year old and an infant so I take lots of pics.

4. Are some of the apps removable? I see Slacker for example is installed by default. Can it and others be removed?

I have a few other questions, but we'll stick to these for now.

 

[mprice86]

WOW! Thanks for the responses!!

Since everyone is so helpful, can i add a few more questions?

1. Will my google contacts sync into the device? That's where they all are, and my gmail itself.

2. I use google voice and google talk sometimes. I see there are third party apps, which is fine, but i have also seen things about the multitasking being different on WP7. Does this mean those 2 apps won't push notifications?

3. My Droid Inc has an 8MP camera and the Trophy has a 5MP... should that be a concern? I'm no photo artist at all, but I have a 4.5 year old and an infant so I take lots of pics.

4. Are some of the apps removable? I see Slacker for example is installed by default. Can it and others be removed?

I have a few other questions, but we'll stick to these for now.

1/ Your google account can sync contacts, calendar and email. All chosen when you add the account and can be changed at any point.

2/ I've no experience with this, sorry!

3/ Not a Trophy user, but given the over all standard of smartphone cameras it is likely that you wont see a huge difference other than the photos being a slightly lower resolution.

4/ Again not sure with HTC, but from what I've read and experienced myself, WP handsets seem to be much better at letting you remove bundled applications. Just hold the tile on the app list and select uninstall

 

[madisonjar]

Im an idiot and I have searched for this I just must NOT be searching the right terms to get a hit...can you get your sounds to be silenced at night EXCEPT phone calls? I have my phone by me at night because of my businesses alarm company calls me if there is a problem, I dont want to be woken up by every email or text or facebook thing that comes in...is this possible with windows phone 7 or a program for it.

 

[Giddora]

WOW! Thanks for the responses!!

4. Are some of the apps removable? I see Slacker for example is installed by default. Can it and others be removed?

First a disclaimer: I do not own a WP _yet_... But I have read everywhere that WP will let you uninstall all programs that are installed by carriers and such.

 

[11B1P]

Im an idiot and I have searched for this I just must NOT be searching the right terms to get a hit...can you get your sounds to be silenced at night EXCEPT phone calls? I have my phone by me at night because of my businesses alarm company calls me if there is a problem, I dont want to be woken up by every email or text or facebook thing that comes in...is this possible with windows phone 7 or a program for it.

if you're thinking along the lines of how BB has various levels of ringer management, no.

the easiest thing to do, is not set a tone for your e-mails. I don't need my phone ringing every time I get an e-mail. I know I'm going to get some e-mails throughout the day, so I just check my phone every so often.

As far as texts, I leave my tone set for txts, regardless of the time of day, and I work swing-shift. If you get a text in the middle of the night, I would guess it is work-related, so no big deal.

I don't have tone notifications set for FB. Once again, I don't care if someone posts to my wall or accepts a friend request. I'll see it when I see it.

 

[mhans311]

All preinstalled apps can be uninstalled.

As far as the camera, I think it is about on par with the dinc. I have used both cameras. I am getting better at taking good shots with the trophy.

Sent from my Trophy using Board Express

 

[reelon]

Thanks for all the help. So if I understood I can't download the podcasts from the at&t network? (that is what I currently do with my sgs2). My next question was regarding contacts from Gmail, but someone already answered it. This has been a great help for me. Went to the att store and I'm going to be ready for the update on March.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I777 using Tapatalk

 

[Giddora]

Thanks for all the help. So if I understood I can't download the podcasts from the at&t network? (that is what I currently do with my sgs2). My next question was regarding contacts from Gmail, but someone already answered it. This has been a great help for me. Went to the att store and I'm going to be ready for the update on March.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I777 using Tapatalk

Welcome aboard then.