[REF] Possible OS Improvements

[thor_molecules]

-Fix podcasts in Xbox Music. I am still experiencing the bug where hitting the 'subscribe' buttons on podcast does nothing.

I've tried searching these forums and Googling all over the place to no avail. I find it rather irritating that such a crucial feature is broken right out of the box, causing me to pay for a third party app to fulfill my needs (most of which are terrible as well).

-Allow emails to be sent from Outlook.com aliases. Quite the head scratcher that MS allows this to be done from the web, but not from WP.

-Make IE suck less. I get the idea that implementing Webkit may introduce more problems than it solves, or that MS is fundamentally against it, or whatever. However, as I user I honestly don't care. All I know is that IE Mobile (or whatever it's called) is insufficient for most of the sites I use (Paypal, a few sports websites, Reddit, and I could go on). On that note, I find it very ironic that MSN.com is far more better looking and intuitive on iOS devices than it is in WP8. FIX IT.

-Wireless printing would be welcome.

-A way of dialing numbers faster. It takes an absurd amount of steps to call someone (e.g. click phone app --> then address book --> then the magnifying glass --> search for the contact --> click the number you want to dial). This could be easily remedied by adding a sticking a search button in the phone app that searches ALL contacts and not just those you've recently dialed.

 

[snaqvi91]

Are you saying that if someone has an outlook account, they cannot send emails using a windows phone device?

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

 

[AngryNil]

Are you saying that if someone has an outlook account, they cannot send emails using a windows phone device?

Assuming you mean Outlook.com, you cannot send emails from an alias, only the primary email of the account.

Fix podcasts in Xbox Music. I am still experiencing the bug where hitting the 'subscribe' buttons on podcast does nothing.

Is this to do with your location (podcasts don't work in Australia, for example) or simply a bug?

Make IE suck less. I get the idea that implementing Webkit may introduce more problems than it solves, or that MS is fundamentally against it, or whatever. However, as I user I honestly don't care. All I know is that IE Mobile (or whatever it's called) is insufficient for most of the sites I use (Paypal, a few sports websites, Reddit, and I could go on).

Tell web developers to stop screwing over the web. The web will evolve past Webkit at some stage or another. It is stupid to target your site to only work well on one engine. People hate sites catering specifically for IE6, you should also hate sites catering specifically for Webkit. That blame may fall on Microsoft itself for MSN, point still stands.

A way of dialing numbers faster. It takes an absurd amount of steps to call someone (e.g. click phone app --> then address book --> then the magnifying glass --> search for the contact --> click the number you want to dial).

This can be reasonably addressed through speed dial and predictive dialing.

 

[snaqvi91]

Assuming you mean Outlook.com, you cannot send emails from an alias, only the primary email of the account.

Sorry what's alias?


Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

 

[poken1151]

I have my own lil detailed list after using my lovely Lumia 920 for a lil while. But I'm way too hungry to type it all up. And I'm sure most, if not all, have already been mentioned in this post. But in hopes that MS will peruse this thread, I'll add on to the voice.

1. Yep, I know it's "coming" but an always accessible notification center would be welcome. At first I thought I could live with the notifications to item on the start screen. But this I finally realize doesn't work well. What keeps happening is this; I have a few apps (games) with push notifications, if the notification comes in, the rings and I'm alerted and the app responsible flashes on the top of the screen. Issue is, if I'm not near, I'll hear the notification get to the phone and unless it's pinned, I have zero idea what the notification was for. Only that it's not a message, email or what I have pinned so here I go checking all apps, lol.

2. As the second post said, better formatting for all apps on full screen. I realized that using my phone while on a call is very easy! However MOST apps and games are hard/impossible to use when on a call. The top bar becomes ever present to remind you you're on a call, and so it pushes or squishes stuff in the app down. So games like Alphajax (where your letters on on the bottom) or minesweeper (need to see that bottom row?) become hard or impossible to use.

3. Minor but useful, full audio controls for all audio producing events. So, I can set notification tones to stop beeping loudly during a call, seek through a track in a song or whatever else.

4. And essentially everything else in this great thread.

I think the heartache for most of us users is that a lot of these features are kinda there r kinda available. So we know the platform/OS can do it, we have some aps that replicate it, or see it enabled on other phones. Or there's a place in the phone that does a basic feature, but it's not a device feature when it should be. So the nice clean smooth OS hint's at it, but we can't do it, so it's a lil bleh. So, hope MS peruses this thread for us,

Oh, and though the mail client is great, I wonder if it's possible to have a sent from option. I have everything forwarded to one account and I quickly realized sending it from my phone meant not using the incoming address's alias.

 

[AngryNil]

Sorry what's alias?

This article should give a reasonable overview.

http://winsupersite.com/windows-live/outlookcom-tip-use-email-aliases

 

[halimaw96]

I've managed to look past the notification center, my live tiles seem to work well enough. What I'd love to see though is some kind of thin, rectangular divider tile that sort categorizes my tiles, kind of like tabs on a folder. Not looking for a multiple home screen thing, I just want my tiles to be a little less cluttered.

 

[snaqvi91]

This article should give a reasonable overview.

http://winsupersite.com/windows-live/outlookcom-tip-use-email-aliases

Never mind it's too confusing. Thanks anyway.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

 

[AngryNil]

I've managed to look past the notification center, my live tiles seem to work well enough. What I'd love to see though is some kind of thin, rectangular divider tile that sort categorizes my tiles, kind of like tabs on a folder. Not looking for a multiple home screen thing, I just want my tiles to be a little less cluttered.

Kinda possible using custom tile creators or apps such as Groupy, but I think it would help if this was a system feature. Kind of sucks to hit a Groupy tile and get taken into the app anyway.

2. As the second post said, better formatting for all apps on full screen. I realized that using my phone while on a call is very easy! However MOST apps and games are hard/impossible to use when on a call. The top bar becomes ever present to remind you you're on a call, and so it pushes or squishes stuff in the app down.

Great point.

 

[thor_molecules]

Assuming you mean Outlook.com, you cannot send emails from an alias, only the primary email of the account.


Is this to do with your location (podcasts don't work in Australia, for example) or simply a bug?


Tell web developers to stop screwing over the web. The web will evolve past Webkit at some stage or another. It is stupid to target your site to only work well on one engine. People hate sites catering specifically for IE6, you should also hate sites catering specifically for Webkit. That blame may fall on Microsoft itself for MSN, point still stands.


This can be reasonably addressed through speed dial and predictive dialing.

1) I'm in the US on Verizon. The built-in podcast function just does not work and the third party options aren't much better. Too much to rehash here, but I know it to be a bug/defect in the OS.

Search around the forums here. Plenty of people are having similar issues.

2) I get that sites catering to Webkit isn't Microsoft's fault, but it hurts WP adoption nonetheless. Joe or Jane Average simply doesn't know (or care) enough to go the route of emailing site devs to complain about it.

All they'll know is websites look like crap on WP, and will pass on it for another platform. Personally, I can live with a little ugly. What irks me is that certain sites just don't plain work.

3) Agreed that WP desperately needs some kind of speed dial functionality.

 

[djrakowski]

-A way of dialing numbers faster. It takes an absurd amount of steps to call someone (e.g. click phone app --> then address book --> then the magnifying glass --> search for the contact --> click the number you want to dial). This could be easily remedied by adding a sticking a search button in the phone app that searches ALL contacts and not just those you've recently dialed.

Yes! I returned my 8X for many reasons, but this was the biggest. The thing simply fails at being an easy-to-use phone. I was amazed to discover that Microsoft recommends using recently-dialed contacts as a speed-dial replacement.

Too, I thought it was ridiculous that answering the phone is a two-step process (slide to unlock, then tap the "answer" button).

I've never been as frustrated with something that's so easy to do in all competing smartphone platforms. Both Android and iOS provide a favorite contacts list that's just a swipe away from the dial pad, and Android also provides functionality to search contacts using the letters on the dial pad.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

 

[AngryNil]

1) I'm in the US on Verizon. The built-in podcast function just does not work and the third party options aren't much better. Too much to rehash here, but I know it to be a bug/defect in the OS.

I haven't really included many bugs, but I think I'll add them starting with this one. Thanks.

Too, I thought it was ridiculous that answering the phone is a two-step process (slide to unlock, then tap the "answer" button)

Added.

 

[supertramp02]

Great thread. Very useful for WP8 users to check against future updates. I really think MS needs to work on a big update (and very soon!) to keep WP8 at the forefront of smartphone OSes. Like someone else mentioned earlier, Portico reallyy needs to be the Jellybean of WP8 if MS wants to boost adoption rate.

Just 2 things to add:
1. System-wide tap to top
This has to be implemented. I don't want to be scrolling up all the way after reading a long ass list.

2. Easier way to access tabs in IE
Right now it takes 2 taps to go to tab view ('...' then 'tabs'). There really should be a tab button somewhere on the page or activated via a gesture (left swiping beyond page limits for example).

3. (yes this was already mentioned but I need to say it again) Easier way to answer calls.
I shouldnt have to look for the button to answer even after swiping up. This makes answering calls on the go (eg, while walking) difficult because you have to locate the button on the screen. Reduce it down to one general gesture please.

 

[z33dev33l]

Status bar at the top of the screen would kill all aesthetics.

 

[Keith Lim]

Better skype integration. Add it as an Account in Email/Account. Then allow skype calls (using credits) to mobile/fixed line from WITHIN People Hub. Right now this can't be done. If Android can do this, Meego can do this, then I expect MS to be able to do this.

Display Album art in the lock screen when playing music instead of a blank screen.
Display Artist information regardless of location. Mine shows a blank background besides the album art.
Display lyrics.
Display ratings instead of just a heart.

Week view, month view for calendar.

USB Drive mode in Mac instead of relying on Windows Phone app.

Support for more video format (heck if Android can do it, so can you).

Display the wifi, mobile network indicators permanently. Why hide it??

Bug with kids corner. IF you turned on the phone lock code and then the kids corner, it will force your kids corner to have a lock as well. If you turn on the Kid's corner first, and then the lock, the kids corner won't have a lock. To me, this is a bug. There should be an option to enable lock on kids corner or not. MOST people will not want the lock on kid's corner which defeats the purpose of having a kid's corner.

Add a integrated account with Dropbox. I know this competes against Skydrive, but cmon, everyone uses multiple offline storage. If MS wants to be successful, this should be built in.

 

[a5cent]

Assuming you mean Outlook.com, you cannot send emails from an alias, only the primary email of the account.

Although it isn't a perfect solution, you actually can now.

 

[fifthGear]

Problem: Inconsistent behavior of the capacitive back button

This is a seriously annoying design and potentially confusing for new users that is pervasive throughout the WP UX. The capacitive back button behaves in two different ways depending upon how you enter an app.

• If I freshly launch an app (either from the start screen or from the app list) and navigate down into a few screens (or a few web pages in the case of IE), each successive tap on the back button will take me back one screen (or web page). If I am at (or return to) an app's main screen, one additional tap of the back button closes the app.
• If I resume an app (there are several ways to do this: app switcher, tapping the title from the volume control, perhaps others I can't think of); a single tap of the back button returns to the prior app no matter how many screens I navigated through to get to the "current" screen. It's as if an app's history associated with the back button was lost when the app was resumed.

The times that I have found this most annoying are the following two:

• When resuming IE from the app manager (in which case the back button doesn't step back through past web pages). Yes, I know I can use "recent" but it doesn't conform to conventional use of a 'back' button, and it isn't even consistent with the behavior of the 'back' button had I not resumed.
• When the music app is resumed either from the app mamger or the volume control (by tapping the current track info). In this case IE opens the music app, but there is no way to navigate to higer level music screens without relaunching the music app from either the start screen or app list.

This inconsistent behavior forces me to remember how I got to the current screen so that I know where the 'back' button will take me. Moreover, because some apps (such as Music) don't provide links from deep screens to higher level screens, it may not be possible to get to some screens without relaunching the app.

Now imagine that I'm someone considering purchasing a WP device and launch an app, play with it, use the back button a few times... I think I know what to expect. Then at some later point I try to resume the app and tap the back button. My response would likely be WTF!

 

[StevesBalls]

This is a great thread, thanks AngryNil.

If only Microsoft would show the same dedication to Windows Phone as its users do...

 

[Guzzler3]

These are my suggestions

IE
​

• No folders in IE favorites
  ​
• No dedicated forward/back buttons OR Swipe left/right for forward/back
  ​

Messaging
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• No copy text from received messages.
  ​
• No search text/SMS
  ​

Xbox Music+Video
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• Crappy playlist creation, editing, sync
  ​
• Can't clear "current playing" list (currently only able to by power cycling the phone)
  ​
• Lots of duplicates in music after awhile.
  ​
• Be able to add Podcasts from other sources.
  ​
• No search local files.
  ​
• A desktop application for Windows 7 (access/pay/buy/steam Music, and Videos from the store) that will synchronize existing music/videos to phone.
  ​

• No DLNA - Client or server
  ​

SD card
​

• Need to add "store documents", "email attachments", and "PodcastSeries" to store on SD card.
  ​

Speech
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• More speech recognition in more areas of the phone (all text boxes).
  ​

Phone
​

• No Call length in Phone history
  ​

No quick switching of WiFi and Airplane mode on or off.

Search
​

• Need to include local files and calendar.
  ​

Lock Screen
​

• No "Screen times out after" = never

 

[a5cent]

Lock Screen
​

• No "Screen times out after" = never

When would you want that?