Amber update now available for O2 UK Lumia 820

[jasminder baring1]

Amber update now available for O2 UK Lumia 820

 

[GraemeT]

Yep. Just updating mine. Fingers crossed, as usual. Nokia update availability webpage still says coming soon, I note.

 

[GraemeT]

Well, I survived it, and as ever I'm immediately underwhelmed. Accepted, it may just be that I'm an old git, and can't find new stuff into the bargain, but here are my initial observations.

1) Got Data Sense. Okay, that's nice.
2) Got Lumia colour profile. Doubt I'll ever use it.
3) Mobile network now says 3G and 4G instead of 2G and 3G. Fair enough.
4) Battery saver has undergone a software downgrade. Used to tell me time since last charge and time remaining. I found that useful, even if time remaining was usually a laugh.
5) Got double tap to wake. Tells me turning this on uses more power. The last thing my phone needs is something that uses more power.
6) Got glance screen. Don't know what this is so I'll have to have a play.
7) Got call+SMS filter. Might be vaguely useful if I could figure out how to block a number. Anyone enlighten me?
8) FM radio? Where might I find the new feature that I was really looking forward to? Either it's well hidden, I'm dim, or both. Anyone enlighten me?
9) Still can't give custom labels to contacts' details. I know this wasn't expected, but we still can't do this simple thing? Come on.
10) Standard ring tones and alert tones look the same old rubbish. Again, nothing was expected here, but a bit of innovation?

I know I sound like a moaning old git, but like Portico I'm pretty much left cold. Okay, Amber is better than Portico, and any improvement should be welcomed and I do welcome it, although improvement is always subjective. Just waiting to be shot down in flames now.

 

[jasminder baring1]

To Block call or SMS. tap phone - under history long press incoming/outgoing number then it will give you 2 options block or delete, previously there was only delete option, so far could not find FM radio

 

[GraemeT]

Ah, thank you for the blocking tip. Yes it's there. Appreciated. Amber clearly ships with a new game as well. Find the frigging FM radio, which after a lot of poking around can be found in the music+videos app under radio. Why the hell is it there? Surely it should have been a standalone app or standalone item in settings. Why music? There are loads of FM stations that don't play music. I like listening to BBC Radio Four, and current affairs. They don't play music. Doesn't seem a way to get an FM radio tile either so you can get it at one touch. Into music+videos you have to go, to get the news? Please!

It's not all gloom, though. Amber ships with another new game. How to use the frigging FM radio if you ever find it. If M$'s intention was to produce a minimalistic FM radio UI devoid of pretty much anything, inlcuding instructions on how to use it then I can only award them 10 out of 10. Oh, and it only works with headphones, as the leads form the antenna. Okay, so the FM radio is the lowest frequency radio in the phone, so it will need the longest antenna. But when I scan the radio (and I found out how to do that only by chance) it finds stations. Can I listen to them? Nope. No headphones. Phone found them without headphones, but I can only listen to them with headphones. Give me the choice M$, please. I'll accept poor reception. It'd be great just to hear anything. I'm sure you guys can code great but there are huge holes in your user requirement capture process. Do you actually ask the user what they want? What a load of crap. M$, you should have spared your efforts on the FM radio and just ditched the damn thing if this is the best you can do.

 

[andrewkeith5]

Well, I survived it, and as ever I'm immediately underwhelmed. Accepted, it may just be that I'm an old git, and can't find new stuff into the bargain, but here are my initial observations.

4) Battery saver has undergone a software downgrade. Used to tell me time since last charge and time remaining. I found that useful, even if time remaining was usually a laugh.

On point 4, this is a fairly common thing after a soft reset - for some reason the battery controller doesn't restart properly. If you turn the phone off and on again you should see it return to normal...

 

[GraemeT]

You're kidding! Okay, I'll try it. Thanks for your input. Well I've just tried it twice. No difference. Although the phone seems to start much more quickly than it used to. Reassuring to know that my phone can tell me more quickly what it can't do that it used to be able to do.

 

[he_shark]

It's pretty standard that FM radio needs headphones across all phones, that's just how things are so it's not fair to shout at MS for that. Hiding it within Music&Video is dumb though I agree; but still at least it's there and hopefully they may update it to provide it's own tile, it really needs that.

You get new camera app, video trimmer, Xbox & SkyDrive improvements that should make using the phone a bit more enjoyable.

But yes overall not a substantial update, looks like GDR3 should be a bit more exciting - so let's hope it doesn't take as long to arrive.

 

[GraemeT]

Okay. Fair comment. I concede that headphones acting as the FM radio aerial is standard on all phones. I'll take that one back. I still think you should be able to use the radio if you were receiving a strong enough signal without the headphones plugged in, and you accept whatever audio quality results. You could probably make an aerial, actually. A small length of insulated wire soldered to one of the contacts (which one you'd discover by trial and error) of a headphone plug would do, I'd bet.

Fortunately I discovered the article below which sheds a lot more light on the FM radio.

http://winsupersite.com/windows-phone/windows-phone-8-gdr2-fm-radio

Are you sure I've got a new camera app on an 820? I thought it was only for models above. Anyway, your point are taken. Thanks.

 

[ianalderson]

I'm O2 UK with a Lumia 820 still nothing :-( whats your product Id out of interest?

 

[Chris Sandiford]

Likewise here - no update alert. Got Audio and Settings updates via the marketplace today though for whatever reason.

 

[GraemeT]

Manufacturer Name
RM-825-eu-euro1_234
Mobile Operator
O2O-GB
Config ID
245335
Label ID
3047.0000.1328.10157
App Version
1.12.0.1

Hope this helps. I also hope I haven't given you enough information to hack my phone to death :shocked:

 

[Chris Sandiford]

I'm RM-825_eu_euro1_217 - not sure what differences there are..

 

[GraemeT]

Have you tried checking for updates manually?

 

[Chris Sandiford]

You mean via phone update in settings? I have worn out that screen checking!

 

[GraemeT]

Yep, that's what I mean. Well I don't get what's going on. If it makes any difference I'm not on a phone contract with O2. I bought the phone outright. I'm on a SIM only contract. The phone is still O2 branded though. I've noticed in the past I seem to get updates before a lot of other O2 people. Don't know why. Like all this stuff it's a complete mystery.

 

[Chris Sandiford]

I'm on a business tariff SIM yet my phone is from CPW so a right mix there!
These updates are usually based on the product code though aren't they?

 

[GraemeT]

I don't know, to be honest.

 

[Ian Beeson]

I have a 820 on O2 but it not recognizing the update being available, what would cause this? I only have about 200mb free and my other has about 3gb in would this cause a problem.

 

[Chris Sandiford]

I don't think space at the upgrade notification stage would inhibit a notification. It would only be when you came to install it you be told there was insufficient space.