It's kind of amazing that we don't have timer, stopwatch or compass....

[T Moore]

System file would grow and grow if you started tacking every little thing. Bloat, exactly what some complain about with Windows.

 

[KelvBlue]

I kinda agree with the OP (except for the firing part). Why do we need to search the store for such basic apps? And maybe even have to pay for something that should have come with the OS.
Sent from my RM-892_eu_euro2_254 using Tapatalk

To you might be a basic app but to other it is just a waste of space. Not bundling it in as the system core app have far greater benefits. 3rd party competitions will provide features rich app and faster updates. People that do not need it will not be forced to have it in their phone. People are also not tied up to it and have much more variety of choices.

Perfect example is the stock camera app and Nokia Camera. If you have Developer Preview, there is also a stock map and Here Map.

 

[clvrbas]

There are a lot of great third party apps, and some have One Drive support. I found some 3rd party ones that I really like, I can understand, I came from BlackBerry and most of these were built in, even in BBOS 5.

 

[QwarkDreams]

To you might be a basic app but to other it is just a waste of space. Not bundling it in as the system core app have far greater benefits. 3rd party competitions will provide features rich app and faster updates. People that do not need it will not be forced to have it in their phone. People are also not tied up to it and have much more variety of choices.

Perfect example is the stock camera app and Nokia Camera. If you have Developer Preview, there is also a stock map and Here Map.

But that's exactly the point! What apps ARE necessary? Which apps should only be available through the store? I am pro diversity and everyone should have the option to customize their phone according to their needs. But there has to be a line. Missing stock apps take up time to develop by 3rd party developers and clutter the store. And because of certain (API) restrictions by MS some apps might turn out to only be a bookmark you can put on your start screen. Android was like this in early times (1.5) and it sucked.
Or look at missing features in stock apps, like the week view in the calendar. It's kinda sad when people have to turn to 3rd party apps because the stock app just isn't that good. On the other hand, very awesome that developers can offer such great alternatives.

My concern is: which stock apps will we have in 5 years? Is it coming down to settings and the store? I don't want to have to download everything from the store, especially when there already is a stock app (or having even multiple same apps because the OS includes one, the phone's manufacturer puts one on it too and one I downloaded because the other two are crap).

 

[typhon62_1]

Try Flashlight-X. On my 928 it pretty much comes on in 2 seconds.

That's what I'm using now. I even purchased it for $2 hoping it was the adds that slowed it down, but no luck. My 4 year old Moto Atrix launces its flashlight app in less than a second...

 

[loofmodnar]

That's exactly what Cortana is for. "Remind me to check my pizza in 12 minutes."

BAM, timer...

That's a little counter intuitive for things like Charades that require starting and stopping a timer repeatedly.

Yes I can get an app but I personally consider these basic functions I'd like to have on part of my OS.

 

[QwarkDreams]

That's a little counter intuitive for things like Charades that require starting and stopping a timer repeatedly.

Yes I can get an app but I personally consider these basic functions I'd like to have on part of my OS.

That's another point: what about Cortana + 3rd party apps? Will she recognise those apps and associated them with commands? MS would kinda downgrade Cortana if she only supported apps from MS and the phone manufacturers and to keep Cortana worth using (and more favorable than Google Now *yuck* and Siri, especially with MS's plans to bring Cortana to those OSs too) they would have to constantly add commands for various 3rd party apps. Better to have lots of "basic" functions factory-loaded on the phone already.

This wasn't the way I wanted to steer this discussion; just a thought that came to my mind.

 

[David P2]

3rd party apps can tap into Cortana's APIs I believe, if the app has been written to use them.

 

[QwarkDreams]

3rd party apps can tap into Cortana's APIs I believe, if the app has been written to use them.

Ah, that's cool. I thought with MS being so restrictive about APIs that Cortana would sure be not accessable by 3rd party developers in terms of integrating their software into Cortana's recognition.

 

[Trevor Wolfe]

Please everyone vote for this feature so we can have timer and stopwatch integrated in the alarms app like on windows 8. Add a timer app, stopwatch and a built in audio recorder – Feature Suggestions for Windows Phone

 

[badMojo69]

We have these..for me its hard to believe that after all these years we don't have a 3g /4g only mode... it suckz when you're in an area with low 3g network coverage and the network keeps on switching back to Edge which drains the battery really fast..i know there are mod's for that but i have to flash my phone again since i already updated to 8.1 preview.. I got sick of it so i'm finally gonna use my dad's new galaxy s5

Meanwhile...one moth later
On my 1520 I can go to Cellular+SIM click on SIM and change my highest connection speed to 2G, 3G or 4G. Is that what you're talking about?

 

[fazil6]

We have these..for me its hard to believe that after all these years we don't have a 3g /4g only mode... it suckz when you're in an area with low 3g network coverage and the network keeps on switching back to Edge which drains the battery really fast..i know there are mod's for that but i have to flash my phone again since i already updated to 8.1 preview.. I got sick of it so i'm finally gonna use my dad's new galaxy s5

If you are using dev preview of 8.1 go to cellular + sim
Then tap sim settings. You will find option to change the data connection speed to 2g / 3g / 4g. Even in wp 8 i had this feature. U can lock in to whatever speed u like.

 

[rpac78]

I agree with the OP that it's crazy there's no stopwatch, timer, etc. For those saying that we can download an app from the store, it's not the same. I have #1 toolbox but I can't just quickly ask Cortana to set a timer for 5 minutes with it. This little stuff where it usually takes a bunch of clicks to do is where Cortana would really come in useful. Right now it's unlock phone =>open #1 toolbox=>scroll left=>click on timer=>set timer versus "Cortana, set time for 5 minutes."

 

[TonyDedrick]

I get the feeling Apple and Google would be taken to task if WP had these stock apps and they didn't.