First impressions after day 1 on WP8

[N_LaRUE]

N_LaRUE, the 'integrates with Windows 8' statement is a bit vague (and I'm not tech expert). But yes, I do mean an ecosystem as you describe it. This has to be high on MS's agenda if they want to compete with Apple and Google. Surely.

Integration can mean many things but to me when people use this word it means things working as a 'whole' rather than the segmentation we currently have between WP, RT and W8. Seemless integration is where MS has to take the Windowss platform to succeed as far as I'm concerned.

As far as we know currently, Windows Blue will bring about cross platform apps, meaning, they work on WP, RT and W8. This intern will hopefully make developers find Windows a more attractive platform. There is also talk of deeper integration with Skydrive which I guess means greater functionality within all the Windows platforms. At this stage I'm hoping that WP will feel more like a part of Windows, a extension if you wish, than what it is now.

 

[Doohickie]

I took the plunge and finally got a smart phone. With a vague eye to compatibility with my computers I decided to go with a Windows 8 phone, an HTC 8X.

My first smart phone experience was frustrating and disorienting. My gut reaction was that I would return it and get an Android phone like my wife has. No one else I know has a Win8 phone.

I have 14 days to return it for full credit, though, so I decided to give it a chance. It didn't take long to get my head around the new OS. I'm just learning about apps. As mentioned above, the SkyDrive is key to what I want out of this phone. It's nice having a mobile platform and having everything at my fingertips, but if I want to edit something, I like being able to do it on my desktop computer. So I set up my calendar at home. If I want to enter something on the fly, I put in something minimal as a reminder, then flesh it out when I get home.

At first I was appalled that Facebook seems to take over everything. When using the phone, I just want to see my cell phone contacts and that's it. I don't want to see the profiles of all the people I know through FB. ACK! Then I realized you can filter the People in the list by app- phone contacts, social media contacts, etc. It also seems pretty smart about combining contacts when there's obvious name matches. Cool.

So here I am about 10 days in and I'm starting to really like my Windows Phone.

 

[Doohickie]

A few weeks in, I like my Windows Phone. It's my first smart phone, so comparisons to other platforms mean nothing to me. But it does everything I want. It looks cool. I like the touch screen and how it functions. And it gives me so many more capabilities that my old phone didn't have.

I would be 100% satisfied with the phone if I hadn't found this forum and heard about the Other Storage problem. Hopefully I'll get a push soon that will fix that. I still have a few GB to play with though.

 

[realwarder]

My bugbear is getting multiple POP emails accounts working as they used to on Android, where I could send / receive with their proper @whatever.com domains and be synced with Gmail. Ultimately, I do have faith in MS's vision of the 'experience' spanning multiple devices... so I am expecting WP8 to become more complete.

Windows Phone 8 supports multiple POP3 accounts. Just add each one with their own login and reply email address.

Each inbox appears separately in the Home page, but you can Link accounts into one mailbox if you like. When you then reply it will prompt for the address to use.

 

[Technoloay]

I also came from android 6 months ago, on a Lumia 620 too. I did so because you know what? I had enough of Samsung brainwashing and android stuttering..