AT&T 7.8 Update

[spitothec]

Well, what's your guess? With the history of WP updates and AT&T, just curious when you guys think this update will come.

FWIW, I doubt we'll see it before Valentines Day.

 

[iloveamystery]

I'm hoping around January.

With any luck they'll at least give us a date on Monday. But it really wouldn't surprise me if they didn't, considering how secretive MS has been about practically everything lately.

 

[HeyCori]

I think there's a good chance 7.8 won't come until next year. Two reasons. 1) AT&T sure as heck won't be ready. Even if Microsoft already sent AT&T the update AT&T still has to test it and we all know AT&T only turns on the lights in the testing room between 2:00 and 2:35 and only on the 17th of every month. That's not enough time for AT&T to finish testing 7.8, especially when they still have to deny ICS to so many Android handsets. And 2) Microsoft just rubber stamped WP8 and now the team is probably working to finish 7.8 Maybe they'll get done by the end of the year but I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't.

 

[inteller]

I doubt ATT pushes the update at all.

 

[wamsille]

I thought the Lumia was a respectable seller for AT&T, so in regards to the 900 I would believe the 7.8 update would be a nice stop gap for addressing disatisified Lumia owners now stuck in two year agreements with hardware/software that is obsolete about a fourth of the way into their contracts. I continue to believe that Nokia and AT&T could do wonders in the PR department for both companies if they were able to offer a trade-in/trade-up program for the Lumia 920.

 

[mvierling]

Well, what's your guess? With the history of WP updates and AT&T, just curious when you guys think this update will come.

FWIW, I doubt we'll see it before Valentines Day.

Well considering my AT&T HTC Titan has YET to receive the keyboard fix or any other updates, I don't expect to see 7.8 at all.

 

[inteller]

I have zero faith in ATT for anything other than keeping the towers up and running. They are a failure of a company from a cusomer service standpoint.

 

[independentvolume]

Small chance the 900 gets it, zero chance the others do. Enjoy your "premium" carrier. Lol

 

[wamsille]

I have zero faith in ATT for anything other than keeping the towers up and running. They are a failure of a company from a cusomer service standpoint.

Depends on what tier of customer service you fall into. I always get Enterprise Customer Support and other than the fact they won't give my wife a brand new Galaxy S III replacement because of a hardware issue I've had no problem with them. ****, if I argued the point enough I could get a service credit for just making the call or starting the chat session online. I just choose not to engage in heated debates anymore. I gave that up with Verizon and Sprint; life is too short to complain about a phone / phone carrier. If it doesn't work for me or in my area expect to be fired.

This is why people need to buy devices for what they are and not what they will be. Device updates aren't guaranteed. Furthermore, why would AT&T invest resources on an OS that seemingly hasn't had the userbase worth investing time for testing to ensure an update won't fail on their network? Would be the same now if HP for some god awful reason released an update for the Veer and AT&T had to test it. (Would they?)

 

[inteller]

that's pretty much correct, ATT won't invest the resources if is left up to them. And Microsoft could really give a crap. Most of this falls on Nokia, which could release it through Navifirm.

 

[wamsille]

that's pretty much correct, ATT won't invest the resources if is left up to them. And Microsoft could really give a crap. Most of this falls on Nokia, which could release it through Navifirm.

I don't think Microsoft is in the position where they don't care, actually more the opposite. Much like they continued to support 95, 98, NT, 2000 and XP they will do something similar for WP 7.x. Similar, not the exact same.

 

[inteller]

yeah right....you mean how well they supported WM6.5 after 7 came out?

 

[DavidinCT]

I wouldn't worry about it, if it's a update the cab installer will do it..

 

[wamsille]

yeah right....you mean how well they supported WM6.5 after 7 came out?

You have to understand something, the leap from Windows 6.5 to Windows 7 was significant enough to warrant a change in the business model for Microsoft and supporting the ailing Windows Mobile line outside of enterprise contracts wasn't beneficial to MS. Microsoft wanted, and received, hardware support and buy in from the likes of Samsung, HTC and Nokia. You couldn't ask them to continue supporting their WM 6.x devices if what you were pushing going forward was drastically different.

The big change with 7.x to 8.x is the kernel. This enables a lot of hardware centric applications to now be applied whereas in the past this couldn't be done. NFC, 1080p recording, dual core processors, etc., will bring Windows Phone into the modern superphone era. The OS is going to be leveraged as a more elegant solution to mobile computing than iOS and Android. What can't be done on a 7.x device once it gets 7.8 will be evident. Will it kill the brand? No, but you will have some vocal consumers on forums complaining that they have a terrible phone. No, you liked your phone in April when you thought it would get Apollo but now that 7.8 is the stop gap you are mad. The Lumia still operates the same way, just not how you wanted it to with Windows 8.

I'll admit I want a Lumia 920 after seeing what it can do. My Lumia 900 is still a fine phone and arguably one of the best - if not the best - phone I've owned. If the 920 took what I don't like about the 900 and corrected those problems then that takes things to eleven. If the 7.8 update takes some of the issues with the Lumia 900 that are software specific and improves upon them or puts a fresh spin on a phone I will have to stick with for a while that's fine. When the phone gets its update it won't be a situation of putting lipstick on a pig - far from it. This phone was never bad to begin with.

I won't go as far as saying the Lumia 900 is fine as it is and shouldn't get the 7.8 update. That's very opinionated and suggests nothing is wrong with it which isn't true at all. I expect a new start screen - from there I have no idea what they could actually address, correct or even improve upon with 7.8 so I won't go into it thinking that a bump up in version will mean it can do my taxes come April 2013.

 

[inteller]

nothing prevents MS from putting 8 on a 900....because the 900 was used as a test mule. The BS about dual core being the deal breaker is just that...BS.

Fact is 7.x doesnt make MS money anymore....so they are gonna dump it as fast as they can.

 

[wamsille]

nothing prevents MS from putting 8 on a 900....because the 900 was used as a test mule. The BS about dual core being the deal breaker is just that...BS.

Fact is 7.x doesnt make MS money anymore....so they are gonna dump it as fast as they can.

They are moving from the CE kernel to the NT one. BS about being dual-core? Listen, you are entitled to your opinion and I for one welcome the idea of intelligent debate over what Microsoft's next move is. However, that being said, I sincerely think that the move from WP7.x to WP8 is more than a money grab but rather an evolution of the OS, the devices that will run it and how this will ultimately flow in their entire ecosystem - dektop/mobile/home entertainment (Xbox)

 

[wamsille]

Oh, and if we are splitting hairs here lets go to the G1. Someone managed to get most of the modern variants of Android running on it. Not all of the results were pretty. Goes to show that while yes, you can techinally put a circle peg in a square hole, the end result isn't going to always be positive.

 

[inteller]

let the customer decide if going to the next major OS version is worth it to them or not. that's how other companies do it. If it runs slower it is up to the customer to decide. Fortunately XDA makes that possible for consumers to choose and decide.

 

[wamsille]

let the customer decide if going to the next major OS version is worth it to them or not. that's how other companies do it. If it runs slower it is up to the customer to decide. Fortunately XDA makes that possible for consumers to choose and decide.

That's Android, not Windows Phone.

Why bother with custom ROMs not meant for our devices and risk losing features and functionality at the expense of emulating an iShiny? What's an iShiny? An iShiny is that mythical device we all publicly/privately covet when our phone seems to grow long in the tooth only minutes after buying it. It's technologically perfect in every way and will never be out done until the next iShiny is released.

 

[jhoff80]

nothing prevents MS from putting 8 on a 900....because the 900 was used as a test mule. The BS about dual core being the deal breaker is just that...BS.

No UEFI / SecureBoot bootloader and lack of a Trusted Platform Module chip are the real reason, as far as I'm concerned.

Anyway, as to the OP's question, I'm wondering if maybe at this point Microsoft can just push it out to everyone. I mean, most of the 7.5 phones are EOL'ed by the carriers anyway, so are they really going to put up a stink? I doubt the update touches any of the phone / radio stuff anyway.