Moving back to WP7.8, WP8 is rushed with no reasons to use it

[runam0k]

Ahh thanks for the clarification! I don't feel like that would be a deal breaker though!

Not a deal breaker, as such, but it's one more thing that used to work perfectly on WP7 and now doesn't work at all on WP8. The third party apps are okay, but not as good as native support and, as far as I can tell, none of them download new episodes automatically.

Why? Apple don't say anything, you just get a big flashy presentation, and you know everything. Google don't say much either.

Whilst communication is a nice idea, its also a pain for loads of reasons.

1. If your idea is "in progress", you'll grow increasingly impatient every day between Microsoft announcing its in progress, and the day it gets released.
2. If your idea is not "in progress", you just get annoyed every day, and every time a new idea is added as "in progress".
3. If Microsoft raise everyone's hopes, then have to delay an idea till the next update, it just infuriourates people who have been waiting weeks or months.
4. If we all know 90% of whats coming in the next update, what have Microsoft got to make a song and dance about? we've know everything for months.

I could go into loads more reasons, but constant communication isn't always a productive thing.

I don't care about Apple - that is not the model I am looking for.

I take your points re communication of features, and agree for the most part, but I still think feedback is necessary in some instances like, "hey guys, we know podcast support outside the US is non-existent at the moment, but we are working on it!". Most people think Xbox Music is simply broken. If something doesn't change fairly quickly - or as a minimum, MS gives us a hint that improvements are on the way - I honestly think people will look elsewhere (I think this because I am looking elsewhere - Rdio at the moment - and I am a bit of a MS ******).

EDIT: Forgot to say, MS has dedicated community feedback options - their support forum and user voice - but they just leave people frustrated with a total lack of response in most cases. Even the MS community mods seem deeply disillusioned by it all.

 

[socialcarpet]

 

[dbgman]

I am also disturbed by the amount of apps I had before that do not work now. I miss Tango. I just tried to install iheartradio on my Lumia 920. When I try to open it, it crashes. When I go to my purchase history some of the apps say "App is no longer published" or "Your version of the Windows Phone software is not supported by this app". It sucks, I paid money for some of those apps and use them frequently.

 

[Jazmac]

Hmm. Reading these pages makes me feel a little better not being able to upgrade yet. I guess I really can wait.

 

[fardream]

Not a deal breaker, as such, but it's one more thing that used to work perfectly on WP7 and now doesn't work at all on WP8. The third party apps are okay, but not as good as native support and, as far as I can tell, none of them download new episodes automatically.

I don't care about Apple - that is not the model I am looking for.

I take your points re communication of features, and agree for the most part, but I still think feedback is necessary in some instances like, "hey guys, we know podcast support outside the US is non-existent at the moment, but we are working on it!". Most people think Xbox Music is simply broken. If something doesn't change fairly quickly - or as a minimum, MS gives us a hint that improvements are on the way - I honestly think people will look elsewhere (I think this because I am looking elsewhere - Rdio at the moment - and I am a bit of a MS ******).

EDIT: Forgot to say, MS has dedicated community feedback options - their support forum and user voice - but they just leave people frustrated with a total lack of response in most cases. Even the MS community mods seem deeply disillusioned by it all.

well said, especially the Xbox music fiasco. I was thinking about Spotify - which isn't available for the shiny Lumia 920. Yes, I am seriously considering switch back to iPhone, which supports my company 's exchange server too.....

 

[darkoman4]

I wish I could afford to buy all those new Nokias from you guys.

 

[JimiDiGriz]

Feeling quite proud of my Lumia 800 right now reading this. Only got it in Feb this year and fighting the urge to buy a new WP8 even though I'm locked into a contract for another 18 months. Had a quick play with a 920 at the weekend in CPW. Was bolted down so could feel the much maligned 'heft' but didn't seem to big. Flicking around the screens was rapid and the refresh rate and screen impressed but it honestly didn't look noticeably different to 7.5 in the admittedly few minutes I had with it. Think 7.8 might be just the ticket until the next wave of phones come out, thought the app gap might change things if it swings the other way and my 800 gets left in the dust come spring.

 

[Slai]

Jimi: its not supposed to feel separate from 7.5. If it did, it would alienate people. The modern UI is supposed to be something crossplatform.
Personally I wouldnt touch my WP7.5 Lumia 800 anymore, but the 920 is a joy and great to use. Course, this isnt due soely to the homescreen (yay for more designoptions), but mostly its the hardware itself (like a lot of said design options on homescreen due to non-AMOLED screen).

Maybe with 7.8 I could use the Lumia 800, but since I can afford the 920 Id choose that any day of the week.

 

[Mike_J]

I am in Australia and I have to wonder what is wrong with the USA Lumia range - I have two Lumia 920's (yellow and grey) and a Lumia 820 for my wife, they have worked flawlessly. Absolutely zero issues, battery life in fantastic and zero resets. We had Lumia 800 and 900 previously again with no issues, I never had a case on mu old 900 and it survived numerous falls and not a single noticeable scratch on the screen. My Lumia 920 shot off my work desk yesterday and slid face down across tiles for about four feet before finally stopping (slippery that screen) but not a mark. Tested out the backup function last night on the 920's (swapping from yellow to grey) - awesome - swap sims, power phone, user name and password then asked do you wish to restore from backup - seamless - and with SMS text! My only disappointment is the Grey 920 - not a fan of the colour - I have many volunteers at work that will take it. Must admit that the Lumia 820 is the dark horse - I didn't think I would like the size but it is almost perfect, I like the idea of being able to swap the colour shells, I know my wife will love this - but the Lumia 920 is still the winner it is a beautiful piece of engineering and design.

 

[JimiDiGriz]

Jimi: its not supposed to feel separate from 7.5. If it did, it would alienate people. The modern UI is supposed to be something crossplatform.
Personally I wouldnt touch my WP7.5 Lumia 800 anymore, but the 920 is a joy and great to use. Course, this isnt due soely to the homescreen (yay for more designoptions), but mostly its the hardware itself (like a lot of said design options on homescreen due to non-AMOLED screen).

Maybe with 7.8 I could use the Lumia 800, but since I can afford the 920 Id choose that any day of the week.

No I understand, I didn't mean that I expected it to be different in that way, just meant that playing with it for a few minutes lessened my urge to give in to temptation and pony up ?500 for a new phone when I'm in a contract as it reaffirmed that my 800 will be more than adequate for now once it gets the new start screen.. unless of course I start to feel an app gap pinch.

 

[Slai]

Ah, yeah that makes sense.

Yeah no, personally my use lends itself heavily towards the highres screen of the 920, and the fact that its not AMOLED really helps the feel of it for me, but I can see your view of it as well. If the 800 works well for your use at the moment, it would be insane to switch .

 

[trazer]

I was so excited for WP8 and all of its promises, and now I see no reason to upgrade at all. In fact, I'm considering leaving the ecosystem altogether. I had an HD7s, and now have the Titan II but am passing it along to someone else I think. They had tons of time to work on WP8, tons of "its going to be awesome" secrecy and all for what? I am now using a work provided S3 and as much as I hate android I think I'm just moving to it and leaving WP. App gap is too big, I have several apps I use daily that do not exist on the platform, and with WP8 several of my WP7 apps will not work.

I could get work to get me a WP8 device for free, but I'm not. There are too many issues, too many sync issues for example, hardware issues etc. I'll wait for round 2 of the devices and whatever comes after WP8, WP8+? It kills me as I was a huge champion of the ecosystem but the lack of forward movement is dragging me down. So I guess I'm back to android, I've got my wife trying out my Titan II so it will still get use if she likes it. If not I'll just sell it and wait and watch for a while.

Feels rushed as OP stated, there are no WOW features that require WP8 to me anyway.

 

[stephen_az]

Hardware is amazing, software is a disappointment.

The truth is, Microsoft lied to everyone. We were told that all WP7 apps will work on WP8 phones but that was a false promise.

The reality is: only the crap apps and games from WP7 work and everything else (Skype, Facebook, PayPal, WhatsApp, Tentacles, etc.) require a re-development.

We already have a fraction of the apps but with WP8 you get a fraction of a fraction and for what? WP 7.8 includes a new lock screen, updated start screen, even features that don't exist on WP8 like SMS drafts...

Not only that but Microsoft itself does not give a damn about WP8 apps, otherwise we would have already seen their own games and apps ported to WP8 (Photosynth, Tentacles being some of them).

I am moving back to WP 7.8 and will wait for Apollo+.

There are too many drawbacks and zero reasons to use WP8 (minus the hardware), promised great DirectX games are not here, major apps don't work, random reboots, app crashes, etc. It's just a rushed product.

I am impressed that you are switching back to an OS that has not yet been released. So what will you do when 7.8 breaks an app? Will you switch back to 7.5? Yes, there are some issues but, quite frankly, there are fewer than when upgrading from Android 4.0 to 4.1 to 4.2. Personally, I have yet to see any mobile OS release that does not feel rushed, including those from Apple. Things are always broken and some things do not work as expected. Claiming Microsoft lied about things is just an advanced level of whining. They are no more guilty of lying about this than Apple or Google. Personally, there are times I wish Microsoft product users were a bit more like IOS and Android users. People around here seem to want to focus on negative to exclusion of the improvements. Instead, if something is not perfect the sky is falling...

 

[rockstarzzz]

 

[Psionic085]

I hate to say it, but I too am seriously considering going back to a WP7 device, at least for a while. As a standalone experience WP8 is fine, my HTC 8x is beautiful, the OS is very responsive and has most of the apps I need, I'm still confident most app updates will come fairly quickly. What drives me insane however is the appalling Windows -> WP8 connectivity! I have used many of the M$ solutions over the years since my first WM6 Ipaq, I must admit it took me a while to get used to Zune, but it ended up replacing the various Media Playing apps on my machine and handled phone syncs effortlessly. .

WTF were they thinking with the Windows Phone Desktop App it's diabolical, it doesn't do anything that can't be done from windows Explorer it feels like such a huge leap backwards!

Oh and another thing..

HOW THE F*** DO I GET A PODCAST ONTO MY PHONE FROM THE DESKTOP!!!

Oops, didn't mean to get quite so emotional with my first post, but apparently I've needed to get that off my chest for a while now.

Psi

 

[Hiiiiiiiii]

I am impressed that you are switching back to an OS that has not yet been released. So what will you do when 7.8 breaks an app? Will you switch back to 7.5?

All WP 7.5 apps work fine on WP 7.8, it just offers extended start screen functionality and yes, it does exist and it's already finished, RTM has been available on xda forums for a while now.

Not only that but these roms have ~50 colors to chose from for tiles and this dark deep purple is incredible.

Proof

 

[Hiiiiiiiii]

I was so excited for WP8 and all of its promises, and now I see no reason to upgrade at all. In fact, I'm considering leaving the ecosystem altogether. I had an HD7s, and now have the Titan II but am passing it along to someone else I think. They had tons of time to work on WP8, tons of "its going to be awesome" secrecy and all for what? I am now using a work provided S3 and as much as I hate android I think I'm just moving to it and leaving WP. App gap is too big, I have several apps I use daily that do not exist on the platform, and with WP8 several of my WP7 apps will not work.

I could get work to get me a WP8 device for free, but I'm not. There are too many issues, too many sync issues for example, hardware issues etc. I'll wait for round 2 of the devices and whatever comes after WP8, WP8+? It kills me as I was a huge champion of the ecosystem but the lack of forward movement is dragging me down. So I guess I'm back to android, I've got my wife trying out my Titan II so it will still get use if she likes it. If not I'll just sell it and wait and watch for a while.

Feels rushed as OP stated, there are no WOW features that require WP8 to me anyway.

I too considered switching to Android or even the iPhone but I just don't like their design approach.

I hate to say it, but I too am seriously considering going back to a WP7 device, at least for a while. As a standalone experience WP8 is fine, my HTC 8x is beautiful, the OS is very responsive and has most of the apps I need, I'm still confident most app updates will come fairly quickly. What drives me insane however is the appalling Windows -> WP8 connectivity! I have used many of the M$ solutions over the years since my first WM6 Ipaq, I must admit it took me a while to get used to Zune, but it ended up replacing the various Media Playing apps on my machine and handled phone syncs effortlessly. .

WTF were they thinking with the Windows Phone Desktop App it's diabolical, it doesn't do anything that can't be done from windows Explorer it feels like such a huge leap backwards!

Oh and another thing..

HOW THE F*** DO I GET A PODCAST ONTO MY PHONE FROM THE DESKTOP!!!

Oops, didn't mean to get quite so emotional with my first post, but apparently I've needed to get that off my chest for a while now.

Psi

Sync is a mess, as for podcast Joe from WP does not seem to see any issues with it

https://twitter.com/christosays/status/269294560889409536

Really hope that 8.0+ delivers as kernel part is done and they should now be able to focus on gaps and missing functionality,

 

[Hiiiiiiiii]

More pics from xda rom running WP 7.8 Final

 

[Slai]

Im really glad I dont have app dependencies.

lordofthereef: youre not. The few podcasts Ive listened to I had as mp3 and slapped over to my phone, no biggie.

 

[lordofthereef]

I feel like the only windows phone user on earth who could give less of a crap about podcasts.