Scared of the direction of WP.

[hopmedic]

I just hope it's enough to get people to quit whining about features they miss from their Androids.

 

[AngryNil]

A notification centre will lead developers to ignore live tiles (that aren't already implemented the best way!) and instead let the OS collect toasts in the notification centre aka Android or iOS.

You state a valid possibility, but it's also a very weak reason to exclude a notification centre. Why doesn't Microsoft just remove toast notification functionality? How about removing the ability to set a static tile, and the whole app list? That way developers have to include a Live Tile!

If Microsoft gives direction to developers as to what to use both for, and makes them easy enough to implement, there's nothing more it should have to do. If a developer doesn't want to include a live tile then, that's on the developer. Go write angry emails to them and get it changed. Don't deprive features from the consumer because of the laziness of developers.

If the very vocal few people here get their ways, glance and go will become pause and peruse.

Still all talk, no substance?

 

[link68759]

You state a valid possibility, but it's also a very weak reason to exclude a notification centre. Why doesn't Microsoft just remove toast notification functionality? How about removing the ability to set a static tile, and the whole app list? That way developers have to include a Live Tile!

If Microsoft gives direction to developers as to what to use both for, and makes them easy enough to implement, there's nothing more it should have to do. If a developer doesn't want to include a live tile then, that's on the developer. Go write angry emails to them and get it changed. Don't deprive features from the consumer because of the laziness of developers.


Still all talk, no substance?

but there are a lot of bad devs and half assed apps from big companies. See eBay app. No number of angry emails (do they even list one?) will fix the eBay app.

What's more is, devs likely won't have the ability to manage what goes in the notification center. The likely scenario is it will log toasts. Like IOS. Look at any given ios phone owned by an ordinary non power user, and you will see HUNDREDS of unread notifications. The center is useless and a collection site for spam. This is the direction most WP users are hoping MS implements. I hope MS sticks to the live tile concept and ignores most of these foolish requests.

 

[Ezhik]

Well **** me sideways, looks like a person on the internet likes using an unfinished OS, better not bother optimizing it for 6 inch devices.

 

[Ek-Balam]

but there are a lot of bad devs and half assed apps from big companies. See eBay app. No number of angry emails (do they even list one?) will fix the eBay app.

What's more is, devs likely won't have the ability to manage what goes in the notification center. The likely scenario is it will log toasts. Like IOS. Look at any given ios phone owned by an ordinary non power user, and you will see HUNDREDS of unread notifications. The center is useless and a collection site for spam. This is the direction most WP users are hoping MS implements. I hope MS sticks to the live tile concept and ignores most of these foolish requests.

It never ceases to amaze me the myopic views of some. Foolish? Where exactly do you get off? I would submit that there are as many usage models as there are users. People on a forum like this are are expressing what they perceive as short comings of the WP OS. I don't believe anyone weighing-in on these matters is or has advocated a wholesale architectural change to accommodate any of their "wish list" functionality. In fact, they embrace the current elegance and implementation of WP8, but would like to see additional functionality and user options to better fit not only their, and even more important, potential new adopters to the platform usage models.

For those whom believe that the addition of a lot of the often requested features (notification center, file manager, local SD storage, user definable alerts, universal landscape mode support, etal...) will take the "uniqueness" away from WP and make it a Android / IOS / BB clone, this fear is simply unfounded. As stated by many already in this forum, it will come down to implementation. MS has the technology and manpower to implement any of these oft requested features while keeping true to the WP UI. Further, MS has the ability to make any of these same features a user option (I know, a novel concept for MS as WP8 is currently a Nanny State). Simply, MS and current status-qua advocates should open mindedly embrace the concept of "best practices". Taking the best attributes of you peers and competitors and implementing those attributes to move your product, user base and business further toward success.

 

[ominaxe]

It never ceases to amaze me that some people automatically think progress is progressive. I'm all for progress, as long as it doesn't hinder usability or vision.
The reason most people here are worried is because WP8 has probably created more problems than it has solved and I think they are afraid what additional features will bring to the overall experience and the original intention of the WP overhaul.

And you're right, implementation has not been released, so it's impossible to know how it will look for sure. All I know for sure is that my WP8 device is less usable than it was before and the constant push forward has me worried.

 

[AngryNil]

It never ceases to amaze me that some people automatically think progress is progressive.

This got me to laugh at least, thanks.

 

[N_LaRUE]

This got me to laugh at least, thanks.

So you're always as angry as your name implies?

 

[AngryNil]

So you're always as angry as your name implies?

I hate the world.

Actually though, I didn't choose my name for the angry part at all. I suppose it's because I'm so mad about Windows Phone all the time that it seems that way.

 

[Psycmeistr]

I'm thinking of a "Toast" tile to have a place to aggregate all the toast notifications that you may have missed.

 

[manicottiK]

I'm thinking of a "Toast" tile to have a place to aggregate all the toast notifications that you may have missed.

And I want the tile to show a semi-browned piece of bread next to a thick tree brand: toast log.

 

[Psycmeistr]

WP8 as a business phone is missing one KEY feature-- that of a Human Interface Device (HID) Bluetooth profile that would allow the use of external keyboards. To me, it's an unforgivable sin that an OS that integrates Microsoft Office is not compatible with a full-size external keyboard.

 

[DJ FatCat]

WP8 as a business phone is missing one KEY feature-- that of a Human Interface Device (HID) Bluetooth profile that would allow the use of external keyboards. To me, it's an unforgivable sin that an OS that integrates Microsoft Office is not compatible with a full-size external keyboard.

Don't forget that first of all phone must be phone, and writing MS Office documents is not the main purpose of such a device. Use your PC for that, or buy a tablet.

 

[Psycmeistr]

Don't forget that first of all phone must be phone, and writing MS Office documents is not the main purpose of such a device. Use your PC for that, or buy a tablet.

I have an IGo bluetooth keyboard that fits in my pocket. My Lumia 920 fits in my shirt pocket. I travel a lot and am on the go to different meetings in different places-- I don't always want to lug my laptop (or even my tablet) with me.

Just because it's a phone, doesn't mean it can't walk and chew gum at the same time. There's a reason they call it a "smart phone."

My 6 year old Symbian phone is compatible with a Bluetooth keyboard. It's not like it's rocket science and can't be included.

If they want it just to be a phone, and not have business applications, then don't include Office. Just sayin.

 

[Ezhik]

Don't forget that first of all phone must be phone, and writing MS Office documents is not the main purpose of such a device. Use your PC for that, or buy a tablet.

...and this is why I want phablets to run Windows RT.

 

[N_LaRUE]

I have an IGo bluetooth keyboard that fits in my pocket. My Lumia 920 fits in my shirt pocket. I travel a lot and am on the go to different meetings in different places-- I don't always want to lug my laptop (or even my tablet) with me.

Just because it's a phone, doesn't mean it can't walk and chew gum at the same time. There's a reason they call it a "smart phone."

My 6 year old Symbian phone is compatible with a Bluetooth keyboard. It's not like it's rocket science and can't be included.

If they want it just to be a phone, and not have business applications, then don't include Office. Just sayin.

The idea behind the mobile Office suite is to do reviews, edits and jotting down ideas not full document creation.

Everyone has an opinion of what a mobile phone should be but MS has marketed the phone as a consumer device first, business second. Maybe WP8.1 will add better bluetooth connectivity, maybe not. I personally see WP8 as the 'beta' version of WP. Yes I know WP7 was around but it was a completely different package.

We can only wait and see what happens. For WP to be a good business device it needs a few things. For it to be a better consumer device it needs a few things. These are truths, let's hope they do a good job as WP progresses.

 

[Ezhik]

The idea behind the mobile Office suite is to do reviews, edits and jotting down ideas not full document creation.

This excuse is not valid when the mobile Office suite has less features than on any other smartphone office suite, hell, it has less features than the forum post writing form on this site.

Everyone has an opinion of what a mobile phone should be but MS has marketed the phone as a consumer device first, business second. Maybe WP8.1 will add better bluetooth connectivity, maybe not. I personally see WP8 as the 'beta' version of WP. Yes I know WP7 was around but it was a completely different package.

Well that's just awful then. One year of WP8, and all we got in these lousy GDR1 and 2 updates were a OneNote "New note" button that was actually missing from WP7. GDR3 is not even out yet!

We can only wait and see what happens. For WP to be a good business device it needs a few things. For it to be a better consumer device it needs a few things. These are truths, let's hope they do a good job as WP progresses.

If in 8.1 Microsoft doesn't add features that people have been asking about since WP7.0 came out, there's no point staying on the platform.

 

[N_LaRUE]

This excuse is not valid when the mobile Office suite has less features than on any other smartphone office suite, hell, it has less features than the forum post writing form on this site.

Not sure about other mobile office suites so you'll have to excuse me. As for valid reasoning, I'm sticking by what I said. If you want to do full docs on a small screen then by all means do so. Not my thing personally.

Well that's just awful then. One year of WP8, and all we got in these lousy GDR1 and 2 updates were a OneNote "New note" button that was actually missing from WP7. GDR3 is not even out yet!

Most other mobiles get updated on a 'yearly' basis. Some even longer, yet people complain about WP being 'slow'. WP8 only hit the first year recently. Yeah the updates were nothing special but did you really expect them to be? They were mostly bug and performance improvements. The full update was always WP8.1.

If in 8.1 Microsoft doesn't add features that people have been asking about since WP7.0 came out, there's no point staying on the platform.

That's an individual choice but yes I agree. They do need to fix some things. No one is saying WP is perfect. But I rather them get the OS right then do the add-ons. In my eyes, at this stage, I'd say the OS is far from being completely stable. Not sure if hardware is part of the problem (probably is) but there are a lot of faults with WP with every OEM. I also believe that a lot of the issues surrounding some software comes down to restrictions within the OS so something needs to be fixed there. I'm no developer so that's just my opinion.

 

[Ezhik]

Not sure about other mobile office suites so you'll have to excuse me. As for valid reasoning, I'm sticking by what I said. If you want to do full docs on a small screen then by all means do so. Not my thing personally.

Even if I want to use it as a quick editor to fix one small mistake in a document, Mobile Word is just pitifully barebones. And then there's the matter of phablets, they have screens that are big enough to get stuff done. But tough luck, because you still get the same glorified Notepad Microsoft calls Mobile Word.

Most other mobiles get updated on a 'yearly' basis. Some even longer, yet people complain about WP being 'slow'. WP8 only hit the first year recently. Yeah the updates were nothing special but did you really expect them to be? They were mostly bug and performance improvements. The full update was always WP8.1.

If you haven't noticed, WP8 came out over a year ago. Windows Phone is still behind, still not having features Android and iOS had for years. I'd be fine with a yearly release thing if WP8 wasn't so behind it was actually playing catch up with WP7.

That's an individual choice but yes I agree. They do need to fix some things. No one is saying WP is perfect. But I rather them get the OS right then do the add-ons. In my eyes, at this stage, I'd say the OS is far from being completely stable. Not sure if hardware is part of the problem (probably is) but there are a lot of faults with WP with every OEM. I also believe that a lot of the issues surrounding some software comes down to restrictions within the OS so something needs to be fixed there. I'm no developer so that's just my opinion.

Microsoft is not one person, and can focus on more than one thing at a time. But really, the lack of new features is getting crazy. People have been asking for things like VPN support and notification center since the OS was released back in 2010. I don't understand how Microsoft can just keep ignoring that for 3 years.


I like Windows Phone, I really do, but I miss a lot of features from Android. I used to think "oh, they'll add it in a future update!" since 2011, when I got my first WP device, but that update never came.

 

[DJ FatCat]

Not sure about other mobile office suites so you'll have to excuse me. As for valid reasoning, I'm sticking by what I said. If you want to do full docs on a small screen then by all means do so. Not my thing personally.

Agree. It's really uncomfortably to create some big and complex document on a phone screen, that's why I've never used my phone for it (but sometimes I edited some text in a document, previously created on my computer).

Most other mobiles get updated on a 'yearly' basis. Some even longer, yet people complain about WP being 'slow'. WP8 only hit the first year recently. Yeah the updates were nothing special but did you really expect them to be? They were mostly bug and performance improvements. The full update was always WP8.1.

100%

That's an individual choice but yes I agree. They do need to fix some things. No one is saying WP is perfect. But I rather them get the OS right then do the add-ons. In my eyes, at this stage, I'd say the OS is far from being completely stable. Not sure if hardware is part of the problem (probably is) but there are a lot of faults with WP with every OEM. I also believe that a lot of the issues surrounding some software comes down to restrictions within the OS so something needs to be fixed there. I'm no developer so that's just my opinion.

And here I'm not completely agree. Although WP8 is not perfect, I can't say it has lots of faults. WP7 had, but most of them were fixed in WP8.
And I've noticed, that Microsoft takes into account some of the users' suggestions with every update (e.g. they promised screed orientation lock in GDR3 Update, they are going to implement notification center in WP8.1...). So, it's not too bad