Making the move to WP 8. Tips?

[kraken613]

I am finally making the move into the age of the smartphone after years with basic phones. I was able to find a HTC 8X in great condition for about $180 unlocked.

What are some good resources for learning WP8 and what Apps do I need to get right away?

Will the 8X get 8.1?

Thanks!

 

[Ed Boland]

Well you've already found it all right here

WPCentral and the official Windowsphone.com page where you can control all of your app purchases and such.

 

[Kellzea]

Welcome to the family.

Firstly, get SkyDrive. Its very important, as a wp user you get 7gig of "cloud" storage, that is to say you can store 7gig of data on the Microsoft servers.

Your picture hub and office apps will auto snyc with SkyDrive and allow you to have your pics and documents saved online instead of your phone. This saves space.

SkyDrive also interacts with audiobook apps, emulators, picture editors and such allowing you to listen to remotely stored books, edit online pics and play supermario on your phone. These are non exhaustive examples.

Group tiles is a great app that allows you to make dummy or header tiles for you to group apps under. For eg, i have media, games, news and tools headers and the relevant apps then pinned under them.

Pinning is when you add something to the home screen, this is usually apps, but you can also pin youtube channels, web pages and albums or playlists.

I'm sure lots of people will chime in with great advise, so that's a good starting point. Oh, get metro tube or mytube, they are the two best youtube apps.


The good news is yes, the htc 8x will indeed get 8.1

 

[AUCLABruin]

It would be best to post the things that interest you. It can help posters here make some app recommendations. One way to score great apps is by downloading myappfree, which has a daily promotion for paid apps for that day only. Also pay attention to the Red Stripe Deals weekly. If you use Facebook a lot, look for the Facebook Beta version. It has more features than the normal FB app, and in my experience was no less buggy, but is faster. I will add more recommendations once you post your interests, but I hope this helps get a few apps in that 8X! Welcome to the wonderful world of Windows!

 

[kraken613]

Big into baseball and sports, social Media, general news, and some light gaming.

I heard Snapchat wasn't on Windows Phone.

 

[WanderingTraveler]

Big into baseball and sports, social Media, general news, and some light gaming.

I heard Snapchat wasn't on Windows Phone.

For sports and news, download Bing Sports and Bing News, respectively.
Social Media? You can live off the integration in the OS, the official apps or the third-party clients.
For gaming, if all you're going to do is light gaming, relax. There's a dedicated games section in the WP store.

 

[amitnahar]

Baconit for Reddit is must have if you are on Reddit.
Snapchat is coming after GDR3.

 

[Kellzea]

There have been a couple of snap hat clients, but they were pulled, they will return soon though.

As above, bing sport is your go-to sport app.

Have a play with the people hub, you can make groups so that you can have sets of friends or interests in one place.

For eg, i have a friends and family tile, that auto updates with all texts, emails, Facebook and twitter updates from them.

I also have a "model" and a "science" one.

 

[Eanan]

Baconit for Reddit is must have if you are on Reddit.
Snapchat is coming after GDR3.

Where did you get this info about snapchat? Any proof about this statement as I personally dont think well ever see an official snapchat app on windows phone, at least until it gets more popular.

 

[amitnahar]

Where did you get this info about snapchat? Any proof about this statement as I personally dont think well ever see an official snapchat app on windows phone, at least until it gets more popular.

http://wmpoweruser.com/rumour-snapchat-waiting-for-gdr3-before-coming-to-windows-phone/





Sent from my Nokia Lumia 820 using Tapatalk

 

[Kellzea]

Where did you get this info about snapchat? Any proof about this statement as I personally dont think well ever see an official snapchat app on windows phone, at least until it gets more popular.

can we leave that kind of thing for the other hundred thousand flame war threads please? This is a tips and help thread.

 

[Eanan]

can we leave that kind of thing for the other hundred thousand flame war threads please? This is a tips and help thread.

How is this starting a flame thread? I've been using windows phone since 2011, and they are facts; Windows phone is nowhere near as popular as Android yet and it could very well be the reason behind there being no snapchat app on WP yet.


Damn, some people are so quick to jump on the defensive. Chill out.

 

[Kellzea]

Can we just keep this thread to tips and help items, please?