[Official] Initial thoughts on Developer Preview of WP8.1

[Pivotgeeks]

wp 8.1 lag

ok after switching to 8.1 im noticing lag, or rather some touch problem ? like when i swipe to right from app list to the main menu, there a breff lag, and then opening game hub is slow and scrolling game list is lagis and there are other stuff, its not too laggy, lag happnes mostly open from lock screen, but after that the lag will reduce, anyone with 8x with the update has same issue?

 

[mister2d]

I disagree. Sounds like you have low quality bt in your vehicle.

Nope. I have a 2014 and a 2001.

When Cortana cuts in, it's low quality. When she's done the music resumes back in high quality. I've seen this before on other mobile platforms, not necessarily phones, and it was a simple software fix.

 

[baseballbert]

What would cause my l920 screen to get a little more dull in terms of the colors? They don't seem as rich now.

"Never half *** two things. Whole *** one thing." - Ron Swanson

 

[Pierre Blackwell]

what I find ironic is how most reviews of Windows Phone 8.1 talk about WP now being on par with iOS and Andriod, when it has been since WP8. Windows phone has been steadily making its stake in the smartphone marketshare war long before WP 8.1. What this does is give WP reason to believe that trend will continue into the future. What I hope MS does is give WP the marketing and advertising it needs to bolster sales, with viable users that are familiar with the ecosystem. Not columnists that are using a borrowed or allotted Windows Phone for a week. What's unique about the average WP user is they used to use an iPhone or Andriod. We need to tap into those stories to show just how easy converting is, and once you come over you won't want to go back. MS needs to put it's integration philosophy on full display, incorporating the Windows desktop, with a tablet with a phone and an Xbox. No one else can compare.

I for one am content with the upgrade and knowing it is just the developers version, fixes and alterations and expected. Cortana is amazing and even though the whole messaging hub experience is different, I definitely understand where MS is trying to go, and it still provides an experience unique to iOS and Andriod. The start screen which was WP's biggest selling point in my opinion get even better with the transperency capability and with the lock screen upgrade it will be put on a level the no one can rival. I know that every time I've broke out my 1520 somone is asking me what type of phone is that or they've heard about Windows phone but never saw one. We need to break them out on a larger scale, they will turn heads and change minds...they've been doing it for the past three years.

 

[Leo Schatz]

Love the update, can't wait to see what's in store for us next.

 

[undulose]

I regretted it when I held back installing WP 8.1... Now my phone works faster. I liked how Word Flow suggests even words that aren't in English but used frequently. It's very different but improved when compared to Android's gesture typing.

The added features are very helpful, except they removed the Messaging Hub's integration with FB Chat. It's a big loss for me, especially that I use it so people won't know if I had read their messages

Still, I want to see a replacement for this.

Sent from my Nokia Lumia 1520 (RM-937 Malaysia) using Tapatalk

 

[carlos12001]

Has anyone noticed that if a reminder is left on the screen while it's locked, there is a new animation?

 

[thron]

The end of my first day with 8.1...

The notification center is the only change I really like. Though I'm sorely disappointed there's no way to dock the notification center or save a notification tile to the start screen.

The amount of useless apps that now exist (Podcasts, Games, Video, Maps, OneDrive, FM Radio, OneNote) is excessive. There should be an option to remove these!!!!

I also do not like the new Music & Photo hubs at all.
Photo hub: Why launch 'all' my photos? I want an option to display the 8.0 layout; folders.
Music hub: The 8.0 version was better. I have nothing nice to say about the 8.1 version of xbox music.

The layout of the apps section, being alphabetized seems pretty pointless too. I mean, they're already alphabetized.. I don't need the letters displaying there too, it's redundant and takes up screen space.

Cortana - I had high hopes for this, but I'm deeply disappointed location services must be on. I don't want apps saving/transmitting or storing my location data, it's not useful to me. I don't care that Cortana needs it to work, it's just an excuse for me to never use Cortana now.
I also don't like that it's being forced to share data like contacts names with Microsoft. What's the point of that? How is my friends' NAME helpful to Microsoft with bettering Cortana!

Quiet Hours - Needs location services too??? Why! Yet again, another reason I won't be using this function.

Microsoft also didn't consider those of us who have weak data plans. I'm supposed to burn through who knows how much data, so they can improve services and nose around my location data? This should be opt-in, instead of essentially saying "too bad, don't use it if you don't agree".

 

[Noahma]

why aren't we a ray of sunshine ;p

1. What would be the point of a tile when we can easily swipe down from the top of the screen from anywhere? It would be pretty redundant and not very useful In my opinion.
2. I am with you in terms of the breakup of the music hub, but onedrive, onenote, maps, video have always been separate apps. not too much has changed here with the exception of the breakup of the music hub. I for one use EVERY one of those apps on a daily basis, so as for being useful they are not for a great majority of people. You can always unpin them from your start and never open them again.
3. I am with you on the music hub, there are a few apps out there that bring back the original functionality of the music hub. I do like how it does sync my playlists from xbox music on my desktop and tablet though. That feature is very useful for me.
4. photo hub is more direct. If you would like to access your albums open the app and swipe one to the right. Hardly a problem. I do miss the background image though .
5. The alphabetized app list has always been there. It would pop up when you hit I think 25+ apps, it is FAR from useless. Tap on a letter, it pulls up a quick jump list so you can pop around your app list quickly instead of having to scroll your way through all of it.
6. What we have on our phones in regards to Cortana is a portal to the system. There is no way Cortana could fit on our phones in its entirety. The data you feed it gets sent to a server farm, analyzed, an action is created and then sent back to your phone. So when you say "remind me to stop by the store on the way home" It then sends that sound clip out, which then gets translated, an action is decided based on the programing, and a reply is sent back to your phone. If it is location dependent it will ping your GPS to find your location to add to the returned data. Cortana is very highly dependent on locations and how the data is processed. Cortana is not storing your data off your device, it is all on board your phone, only sent when a query is formed. If you don't like it, you can turn it off.
7. Quiet hours is part of the Cortana service, I bet there will be added functionality in the future that allows you to automatically turn on quiet hours when you reach a predetermined location. The service is still in beta, and is not quite all there feature wise yet.
8. Get familiar with Data Sense, it does a really good job at keeping your data usage down. You will not find many smart phones that will NOT use data. Browsing Data Sense, Cortana and other services used very little data during my last months use. And so far this month even less. I have a 4gb data cap, and only use about 700mb-1.5gb of data per month, and that is with some pretty heavy use. IE Pandora on my hour long trips to work / home, constant news browsing etc. In a way some of these services like Cortana is an opt-in, you don't like it. Turn it off, you do not HAVE to use it.

The end of my first day with 8.1...

The notification center is the only change I really like. Though I'm sorely disappointed there's no way to dock the notification center or save a notification tile to the start screen.

The amount of useless apps that now exist (Podcasts, Games, Video, Maps, OneDrive, FM Radio, OneNote) is excessive. There should be an option to remove these!!!!

I also do not like the new Music & Photo hubs at all.
Photo hub: Why launch 'all' my photos? I want an option to display the 8.0 layout; folders.
Music hub: The 8.0 version was better. I have nothing nice to say about the 8.1 version of xbox music.

The layout of the apps section, being alphabetized seems pretty pointless too. I mean, they're already alphabetized.. I don't need the letters displaying there too, it's redundant and takes up screen space.

Cortana - I had high hopes for this, but I'm deeply disappointed location services must be on. I don't want apps saving/transmitting or storing my location data, it's not useful to me. I don't care that Cortana needs it to work, it's just an excuse for me to never use Cortana now.
I also don't like that it's being forced to share data like contacts names with Microsoft. What's the point of that? How is my friends' NAME helpful to Microsoft with bettering Cortana!

Quiet Hours - Needs location services too??? Why! Yet again, another reason I won't be using this function.

Microsoft also didn't consider those of us who have weak data plans. I'm supposed to burn through who knows how much data, so they can improve services and nose around my location data? This should be opt-in, instead of essentially saying "too bad, don't use it if you don't agree".

 

[thron]

1. The point is.. it would be useful for me, not unlike OneDrive may be useful for you (but not me). :wink:
2. The choice of never using the new apps is there, but I'd like to never be bothered with them again; having them show up in my app list, etc. I also had to update them last night, when I installed 8.1 - I don't feel it necessary to update apps I'll never use. But what if one of them has a security vulnerability in the future and I've trained myself to ignore their updates? I may not use flash on my PC often, but I still update it when patches are sent out, because of vulnerabilities.

4. It's not so much that it's "difficult" to swipe for photo albums, I don't want to necessarily be blasted with ALL of my photos at once. The folder view was far more useful to me. I didn't notice the background pic was gone until you mentioned it - that sucks! Why was that taken away...
5. I've never had that many apps, so the list was never alphabetized until 8.1 - I can see it's use for people who have a lot of apps though, but for those of us with smaller app lists, it's totally unneeded.
6. With this explanation, the data usage with Cortana makes more sense. The prompts given at activation weren't entirely clear, except for the bit saying Microsoft will receive contacts names (which still seems unnecessary). And what if we wouldn't want to use Cortana for location-based features, why can't it be disabled until it's needed (location services).

8. I do use data sense. I have a 200mb data limit, so when you say you use 700mb+ that's terrifying to me.

 

[Ltauhmise]

I think 8.1 is vastly superior to 8.0. It finally has the staple features which android and IOS users rely on-- namely a notification bar for toggling settings and seeing useful information. I use Cortana on a daily basis and believe she's better than Siri or Google-Now---> if solely for the fact that she adds a level of personalization and intimacy to scheduling appointments and reminders. She's also useful in web searches as well.

I like the additional row of tiles-- though I can see it being more of a gimmick (I use a Lumia 928), but can see where it may not be as useful on a Lumia 822 or smaller (like the 521 or 520).

I feel that these small changes have made the OS gain equal footing with the other major operating systems. I do, however, strongly believe that Windows Phone Operating System is tailored to business users or professionals-- not the everyday user. That's just my personal opinion.

 

[P a u l]

Today I 'upgraded' to wp 8.1. I can no longer connect to my local wifi router. wp 8.1 has essentially bricked my phone.

Note: I do not have a sim card but have been using my nokia 820 developer phone for months using wifi only.

 

[shmsnh]

Today I 'upgraded' to wp 8.1. I can no longer connect to my local wifi router. wp 8.1 has essentially bricked my phone.

Note: I do not have a sim card but have been using my nokia 820 developer phone for months using wifi only.

There's a big difference between "can no longer connect to wifi" and "bricked". Could you clarify?

 

[El Bori]

just want you to know updated to 8.1 so far so really good will post as issue arise... :smile:

 

[jenza77]

8.1 is really nice. But still i cant play flash videos like .swf?. I cant follow my favourite fotball team for example in my phone!. Is this something that will be fixed?

Best Regards.

 

[shmsnh]

8.1 is really nice. But still i cant play flash videos like .swf?. I cant follow my favourite fotball team for example in my phone!. Is this something that will be fixed?

Best Regards.

AFAIK, Adobe has stopped developing Flash for mobile, and as a result, none of the mobile operating systems support flash.

 

[jenza77]

AFAIK, Adobe has stopped developing Flash for mobile, and as a result, none of the mobile operating systems support flash.

Well, it works fine with Android phones. In my phone it says: "Do you want to search app in store?" pushing yes and no apps found.

Hammarbyfotboll.se - Officiell webbplats f?r Hammarby Fotboll (in there you should be able to play video clips). I have been waiting for a long time .

 

[uw]

8.1 is the best thing to happen to windows phone.. i went from a galaxy s3 to 920 to s4 and now back to 920 because of 8.1.. i've always like windows os, but felt like something was missing.. maybe i was too used to android features, but now with 8.1, i can say it's the best os you can get.. having the notification center, wordflow and the wallpaper option has made a huge difference.. and for me, having the 3rd column is huge.. now i don't have to scroll down too much to get to my apps.. and the calendar now is usable.. and the phone feels smoother/faster.. i was comparing my phone with the nokia icon (8.0) and they both seem to have the same speed.. so i'm guessing icon with 8.1 is blazing fast.. but overall, it's these features that makes windows phone feel complete..

anyways, with 8.1 i don't think i'll go back to android.. now all i want is att to get a nokia 930 or something that's a high end 5 - 5.5 inch phone..

 

[trev81uk]

The amount of useless apps that now exist (Podcasts, Games, Video, Maps, OneDrive, FM Radio, OneNote) is excessive. There should be an option to remove these!!!!

I also do not like the new Music & Photo hubs at all.
Photo hub: Why launch 'all' my photos? I want an option to display the 8.0 layout; folders.
Music hub: The 8.0 version was better. I have nothing nice to say about the 8.1 version of xbox music.

Definitely agree with your points here. I appreciate the effort that has gone in to those apps such as OneDrive, Podcasts, etc. but why not give us the option to remove them. I will never use Podcasts, FM Radio so why maker them take up space that I could use for something else (albeit probably only a little bit of memory used by these!).

Photo hub too, I would like the option to have my Photos display as per 8.0, maybe it'll come with the next update?

 

[trev81uk]

Re: Initial thoughts on Developer Preview of WP8.1

After reading these forums on Friday night, only then did I realise that I could download the developer preview of 8.1. I downloaded during the small hours of Saturday morning whilst trying to get baby to sleep. :unhappysweat:

My thoughts so far is, after the anticipation I've seen, is underwhelmed. For me, it just doesn't seem to offer much more to what we already had, and takes some of the good elements away.

Yes, I like notification centre, it's added a much needed element to the OS and will become even more important once more apps are on-board and using it. Along with that, the ability to quickly toggle WiFi and Bluetooth on that menu has allowed me to delete a quicksettings app that I used for that very purpose.
The ability to download apps on to your SD card is invaluable for those of us with small phone memory.

And that's about it, I haven't really seen anything else that adds to my experience... I've said in the post above that I don't like the addition of those generic apps such as FM radio and Podcast, and placing games in that same menu - they should have stayed in Games!
And the photos hub has changed for the worse in my opinion, layout wise.
The background on the Start screen at the minute doesn't work well due to the lack of transparent tiles, but I can see this being effective once more are on board.
And, like someone has said above, they should never have removed the ringer/silent button.

Apologies if I'm sounding negative, overall I think the changes are much needed for the OS, but they just don't impact me that much, or am I not looking hard enough? :straight: