I Have to Say That After 4 Years with WINDOWS Phone...

[Nerdy Woman]

I don't know. I do like the OS of windows phone a lot. Main thing are apps. While it has most if what I use, I'm concerned with app support as well. A lot of apps I use haven't been updated for months. Another thing is I'm still unsure what direction the OS is going to go in light of recent rumors.

As far as replacing my iPad, I'm not sure because it seems like the surface pro 3 seems to be the only thing is like and that would act as a laptop as we'll. there just doesn't seem to be a lot of windows apps.

In regards to your integration question, I was mainly talking about if all the Microsoft services would sync across apple hardware well? Like calendar , mail , onenote , one drive, and etc.

The Surface Pro 3 is a full-on, bring-on-your-biggest-beast, i5 or i7 c-o-m-p-u-t-e-r. Anything that will run on the Windows desktop will run on the Surface. Yeah, even Photoshop.

Microsoft Office apps will certainly work on both PC and Mac, although your mileage may vary. This thread from the Microsoft Community refers to 2010/2011 versions, but will give you some idea of the differences you'll encounter when moving Word files between the 2 systems.

Windows to Mac Compatibility - Microsoft Community

 

[RavenSword]

The Surface Pro 3 is a full-on, bring-on-your-biggest-beast, i5 or i7 c-o-m-p-u-t-e-r. Anything that will run on the Windows desktop will run on the Surface. Yeah, even Photoshop.

Microsoft Office apps will certainly work on both PC and Mac, although your mileage may vary. This thread from the Microsoft Community refers to 2010/2011 versions, but will give you some idea of the differences you'll encounter when moving Word files between the 2 systems.

Windows to Mac Compatibility - Microsoft Community

Thanks for the link. I'm real curious how the Mac version of office 365 turns out when they update it to the 2014 version.

 

[JamesPTao]

I don't know. I do like the OS of windows phone a lot. Main thing are apps. While it has most if what I use, I'm concerned with app support as well. A lot of apps I use haven't been updated for months. Another thing is I'm still unsure what direction the OS is going to go in light of recent rumors.

As far as replacing my iPad, I'm not sure because it seems like the surface pro 3 seems to be the only thing is like and that would act as a laptop as we'll. there just doesn't seem to be a lot of windows apps.

In regards to your integration question, I was mainly talking about if all the Microsoft services would sync across apple hardware well? Like calendar , mail , onenote , one drive, and etc.

The sp3 is a tablet PC, not a tablet. The surface 2 would be the replacement. If you got the sp3 you would be buying a full fledged computer and not am oversized phone and have access to all programs that run on a windows computer. Once threshold is released the apps being able to be written to work across all devices will cause a huge surge of new apps as it will lower cost of development and increase the pool of consumers ready to use them. And hopefully, if the rumors prove true, Microsoft will release threshold as a free upgrade to windows 7 and 8 users. The last part is obvious not set in stone but would be a very smart move for Microsoft in winning over their users, vastly speeding up adoption rate, and giving momentum to their app adoption rare for metro apps.

 

[BobLobIaw]

Well done, OP! This thread has been a long time coming and I'm a big fan of satire, irony and wit since the days I satisfied my freshman English requirement by taking a course of the same name. Better to read a good parody than to get uptight about all of the ridiculous "I'm leaving and let me tell you why in 1,000 words or more" missives. And from a science guy, nonetheless...brilliant! :grin:

 

[Scienceguy Labs]

Well done, OP! This thread has been a long time coming and I'm a big fan of satire, irony and wit since the days I satisfied my freshman English requirement by taking a course of the same name. Better to read a good parody than to get uptight about all of the ridiculous "I'm leaving and let me tell you why in 1,000 words or more" missives. And from a science guy, nonetheless...brilliant! :grin:

Parody??? I was serious. lol Joking...
Glad you got my humor and understood where I was coming from...even though I am a dull science guy. ha ha ha

 

[DavidinCT]

I wouldn't count the amount of phones as a win.....more a sign of a Tech Junkie ;-) or someone who likes to have a new phone each day lol

CE 3.0 ? Really ?

I still own this, Yes, this is Windows CE 1.0 (they don't sell for anything these days never mind the screen is hard to read to today's standards, so I figured I would just keep it)


This is a HPC (Handheld PC) as MS would call it, then they had PDAs (PocketPC), I have had every version from 1.0 (a Sharp if I am correct) My favorite of the MS PDA's was the HP HX4705, 4" display, wi-fi, blue-tooth and both SD cards, in a SOLD frame. I even had a portable keyboard with it.

I'll never forget, this is going back years before Smartphones really hit, I had my 4700, while camping (they had wi-fi) and I was sitting at a public bench at a camp ground with my 4700 and a keyboard, replying to emails from an exchange server and I had crowds of people asking me what it was. Everyone thought I had the smallest laptop...ever, it was very cool and funny at the same time....

The HP HX4700 when it was new retailed for $699.99....it was the highest end PDA ever made during the Windows Mobile days, It came with WP 2003, but, it could be upgraded to 6.1 and 6.5 with custom roms..

How times have changed...

 

[Nerdy Woman]

Thanks for the link. I'm real curious how the Mac version of office 365 turns out when they update it to the 2014 version.

I'm not sure what's going on under the hood, but recently, I had a client who had 150 lesson plans and student worksheets that were built in Pages on a Mac. He needed them converted to Word, updated with a new template and layout, and output as PDF files. Pages exports to Word as RTF files. Everything was in text boxes, stacked like transparencies waiting for their turn on the overhead projector. I had to peel them apart just to see the text. I laboriously copy/pasted text into a new Word docx file.

The files contained lots and lots of graphic elements which, in Word, are anchored to a particular paragraph and layout parameters are specified in properties. When I returned all the files to him, Mac Word 2011 didn't interpret all the properties the same way. Graphics were everywhere and line endings varied. I think part of the issue was how the systems interpret fonts (probably TrueType fonts are more of an issue than OpenType fonts). Arial on the PC and Arial on the Mac are not identical. Spacing, and therefore, line endings and pagination are all affected.

The PDFs were even worse. Word can output to PDF, but I printed to Acrobat Pro to access security features. When he opened PDFs on the Mac, some graphic elements were missing altogether. When he viewed the same files on his wife's PC, they displayed correctly.

Both Microsoft and Apple can point fingers at each other all day long. Both can be extremely proprietary. But I'd have to say that Apple chose a divergent path a long time ago and they have never played well with others.

 

[Chregu]

The PDFs were even worse. Word can output to PDF, but I printed to Acrobat Pro to access security features. When he opened PDFs on the Mac, some graphic elements were missing altogether. When he viewed the same files on his wife's PC, they displayed correctly.

If you create them by printing to Acrobat Pro and look at them with Acrobat Pro/Reader and they don't display the same on Mac and Windows, isn't that an Adobe problem?

 

[Greywolf1967]

CE 3.0 ? Really ?

I still own this, Yes, this is Windows CE 1.0 (they don't sell for anything these days never mind the screen is hard to read to today's standards, so I figured I would just keep it)
View attachment 72144

This is a HPC (Handheld PC) as MS would call it, then they had PDAs (PocketPC), I have had every version from 1.0 (a Sharp if I am correct) My favorite of the MS PDA's was the HP HX4705, 4" display, wi-fi, blue-tooth and both SD cards, in a SOLD frame. I even had a portable keyboard with it.

I'll never forget, this is going back years before Smartphones really hit, I had my 4700, while camping (they had wi-fi) and I was sitting at a public bench at a camp ground with my 4700 and a keyboard, replying to emails from an exchange server and I had crowds of people asking me what it was. Everyone thought I had the smallest laptop...ever, it was very cool and funny at the same time....

The HP HX4700 when it was new retailed for $699.99....it was the highest end PDA ever made during the Windows Mobile days, It came with WP 2003, but, it could be upgraded to 6.1 and 6.5 with custom roms..

How times have changed...

It's nice to see someone else who has carried the Windows CE/Mobile banner for such a long time

I used to admire the old HPC's !!!! Back in the day I almost got myself one, and I kick myself that I didn't. I had my eye on one that was sold with a built in 56k modem, and a color screen !!!!

I don't know how you guys managed with the monochrome screens, but still you all had mobile versions of Office and excel !!!

At least I will have company in the retirement home with cool gadgets

 

[RavenSword]

I'm not sure what's going on under the hood, but recently, I had a client who had 150 lesson plans and student worksheets that were built in Pages on a Mac. He needed them converted to Word, updated with a new template and layout, and output as PDF files. Pages exports to Word as RTF files. Everything was in text boxes, stacked like transparencies waiting for their turn on the overhead projector. I had to peel them apart just to see the text. I laboriously copy/pasted text into a new Word docx file.

The files contained lots and lots of graphic elements which, in Word, are anchored to a particular paragraph and layout parameters are specified in properties. When I returned all the files to him, Mac Word 2011 didn't interpret all the properties the same way. Graphics were everywhere and line endings varied. I think part of the issue was how the systems interpret fonts (probably TrueType fonts are more of an issue than OpenType fonts). Arial on the PC and Arial on the Mac are not identical. Spacing, and therefore, line endings and pagination are all affected.

The PDFs were even worse. Word can output to PDF, but I printed to Acrobat Pro to access security features. When he opened PDFs on the Mac, some graphic elements were missing altogether. When he viewed the same files on his wife's PC, they displayed correctly.

Both Microsoft and Apple can point fingers at each other all day long. Both can be extremely proprietary. But I'd have to say that Apple chose a divergent path a long time ago and they have never played well with others.

Wow, that sounds like a nightmare. So what's the solution? Use word and not pages ? Or just not use Mac, lol .

 

[Laura Knotek]

Wow, that sounds like a nightmare. So what's the solution? Use word and not pages ? Or just not use Mac, lol .

It would probably work if one used Word not Pages.

 

[RavenSword]

It would probably work if one used Word not Pages.

Yeah, that's what I was thinking just so I could avoid any formatting issues to begin with.

 

[Nerdy Woman]

It would probably work if one used Word not Pages.

Yeah, that's what I was thinking just so I could avoid any formatting issues to begin with.

Remember, I copy/pasted all the text to a brand new Word docx file, eliminating all traces of RTF and the Pages origin. Formatting still messed up when my PC-originated Word docs were opened on a Mac. And I have no idea why the PC-originated PDFs didn't play nice except for the fact that PDF is not the set-in-stone format it once was. It has become almost as dynamic as any word processor format.

Of course, all of this only applies to desktop apps - the full-featured, deep dive programs that are not the same for all OSs. If your work doesn't involve heavy lifting in the Office apps, you could use the browser-based Office Online and avoid the frustration.

 

[DavidinCT]

It's nice to see someone else who has carried the Windows CE/Mobile banner for such a long time

I used to admire the old HPC's !!!! Back in the day I almost got myself one, and I kick myself that I didn't. I had my eye on one that was sold with a built in 56k modem, and a color screen !!!!

I don't know how you guys managed with the monochrome screens, but still you all had mobile versions of Office and excel !!!

At least I will have company in the retirement home with cool gadgets

WOW, a fellow classic geek... You should PM me some time we should chat

Yep been through them all, I was a HUGE MS PDA fan....and like on cell phones every 8-12 months I would need a new device and would find a way to get one... HP 3600, 5450.... Yea, I have had them all..

I'm trying to see if I could hunt down the model first WM/ppc device I had. They really sucked back then Pre 2005, It had a battery, then a internal battery, if you did not charge it, when both batteries died, you lost ALL YOUR DATA.... it happened to me 2 times till I found a 3rd party internal backup to flashcard, every moring I would schedule a task to back it up, so if I got stuck someplace, I could recover..
Edit:
This is the first one I had....pretty sure..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philips_Nino

it was the Mono version of it (not the color) and it was branded under a different name, and I was in some program with Microsoft, I got it for like $20 at the time (they sold for about $150-200 at the time)...

 

[RavenSword]

Remember, I copy/pasted all the text to a brand new Word docx file, eliminating all traces of RTF and the Pages origin. Formatting still messed up when my PC-originated Word docs were opened on a Mac. And I have no idea why the PC-originated PDFs didn't play nice except for the fact that PDF is not the set-in-stone format it once was. It has become almost as dynamic as any word processor format.

Of course, all of this only applies to desktop apps - the full-featured, deep dive programs that are not the same for all OSs. If your work doesn't involve heavy lifting in the Office apps, you could use the browser-based Office Online and avoid the frustration.

It surprises me that there would be formatting issues between office versions on Mac and PC. I'd assume they would format the same way?

But yeah , I could always just use the online suite. But I kinda wanted to use 365.

Jeez , I might just get a windows laptop at this point, ha ha.

 

[nube_android]

So all I got from that OP is you are bragging about how many WP you had. I want to chime in too..
Samsung Focus
HTC Titan
Lumia 800
Lumia 900
Lumia 710
Lumia 920
Lumia 925
Lumia 720
Lumia 1020
Lumia 1320
Lumia 630

​I win.

Which one's your favorite for day to day use?

 

[Nerdy Woman]

It surprises me that there would be formatting issues between office versions on Mac and PC. I'd assume they would format the same way?

Yeah, that's what I and my client had assumed until I delivered 150 documents that went wonky on his Mac... Thankfully, he had a PC on which to review the docs to verify they looked the way he wanted them, and since his audience is mostly PC users, he decided the problem was the Mac, not my work.

 

[EC Translating Services]

As long as Microsoft will support WP, I'll stick too, Scienceguy.

It certainly doesn't help when WP users are trying to kill it in little ways. Yesterday, an article titled "Windows Phone store is a ghost town" was picked up by Techmeme. It was written by a WP user who, in his article, claims he wants to see WP succeed. People who do have a voice should be more careful. People browsing Techmeme or their RSS feed will see that title, have confirmation of the "fact," and keep right on going. When it comes time to choose a new phone, they won't even look at WP because the WP store is a ghost town. They read it on the internet so it must be true.

I am a live tile junky and, I believe, more productive because of my addiction. Every time I see a screen shot of an Android or iPhone start screen, I shudder at the thought of all that wasted space surrounding the icons they use to drill down to what the user wants.

If the mothership can make the universal OS a reality, with apps working on every device that runs Windows, devs would be crazy to not climb on board.

Keep the faith.

Depends on where you are and what you need. For some the market is a ghost town at best, a trash can at worst. Copies of original apps, dozens of apps with different names but same icons, or vice versa. Tiles look better than Android icons. However for obvious reasons saying there is a waste of space on Android doesn't sound too right. Not only there are more icons per row on Android, not only with some home apps you can fit more, buy you can also make folders with apps just with a drag and drop. And when you click the icon shows an exploded view of the apps inside the folder. This also allows for better categorization. In terms of functionality Android is much better for me. The way tiles are organized and not enough resizable in WP steals tons of real estate. Good side is tiles are easier to click. My two cents.

 

[Great deal]

Yeah, that's what I and my client had assumed until I delivered 150 documents that went wonky on his Mac... Thankfully, he had a PC on which to review the docs to verify they looked the way he wanted them, and since his audience is mostly PC users, he decided the problem was the Mac, not my work.

When i had Mac (years ago) the official office for Mac was created by students and was an utter shambles.

 

[Nerdy Woman]

Depends on where you are and what you need. For some the market is a ghost town at best, a trash can at worst. Copies of original apps, dozens of apps with different names but same icons, or vice versa. Tiles look better than Android icons. However for obvious reasons saying there is a waste of space on Android doesn't sound too right. Not only there are more icons per row on Android, not only with some home apps you can fit more, buy you can also make folders with apps just with a drag and drop. And when you click the icon shows an exploded view of the apps inside the folder. This also allows for better categorization. In terms of functionality Android is much better for me. The way tiles are organized and not enough resizable in WP steals tons of real estate. Good side is tiles are easier to click. My two cents.

Here's your app for that, EC. Published by Microsoft Mobile...

App Folder | Windows Phone Apps+Games Store (United States)

You can stash your apps in folders and create live tiles for each folder or for the folder app itself.