Switching platforms? | Thinking of leaving?...comment here!

[libra89]

I can't get Waze to work on my 950 anymore. I reset the phone and now when I install it there is no map. Seems to be another case of if you have the app now and it works, don't ever reset your device or you won't be able to use it again.

I hate that this is the state of things here sometimes. An app works with a loophole but then you have to reset your phone, and it no longer works.

 

[camaroz1985]

So far has effected me with Waze and Onstar RemoteLink.

 

[fatclue_98]

I hate that this is the state of things here sometimes. An app works with a loophole but then you have to reset your phone, and it no longer works.

It's getting to be a tough read.

 

[PerfectReign]

So far has effected me with Waze and Onstar RemoteLink.

Oh that's awful. I was using Waze last night on my SGS 6 and realized how bad the Google version is now.

Sent from mTalk

 

[camaroz1985]

I think that is just the Waze version now. Same on iOS and Android. I do like the old UI that we had on Windows Phone better though.

 

[HeyCori]

Assuming nothing groundbreaking is announced within the next year, I'm pretty sure the KEYone will be my next phone. I'm so disillusioned with the ubiquitousness of boring, slate touchscreens that something has to be unique before I would even consider buying it. There are countless quality Android phones to choose from, and they all have good screens and take great pictures, but what I really want is a device that fundamentally changes how I use it. Plus, I'm sure the KEYone will get a price drop within a year.

 

[libra89]

Assuming nothing groundbreaking is announced within the next year, I'm pretty sure the KEYone will be my next phone. I'm so disillusioned with the ubiquitousness of boring, slate touchscreens that something has to be unique before I would even consider buying it. There are countless quality Android phones to choose from, and they all have good screens and take great pictures, but what I really want is a device that fundamentally changes how I use it. Plus, I'm sure the KEYone will get a price drop within a year.

If/when you get the KEYone, I;m so looking forward to your impressions. I agree, I love how refreshing it is and that battery life is amazing apparently.

 

[Travis Flenker]

I posted a while back about switching to the S8+ and my overall positive experience with the switch. It's been a couple weeks and I thought I'd give an update now that I've had more time with it.

-Bixby is awful and I miss the full functionality of Cortana. I have no idea what Bixby is supposed to do other than randomly pop up because it's launched by a physical button that's opposite the power button so it's nearly impossible to miss when waking the phone. There are a couple apps that let you launch something else (pretty janky in the way they work), but I'd rather that button not exist. Bixby's current state doesn't even do voice recognition (what's the point?!?!?).
-I know around here we tend to minimize the app gap (and for the most part I agree), but the availability of banking apps is a huge deal. I no longer have to borrow my girlfriend's phone to deposit checks.
-I miss the UI. W10 style launchers help but live tiles are awesome and I don't think there's any real replacement for them on Android.
-Camera is good. Haven't done any side by side comparisons but I'd be shocked if it's not at least as good as the 950.
-DeX requires the Samsung dock which is just stupid.
-The screen is gorgeous. Blows the 950 out of the water which has a great screen.
-Swipe style typing, while an improvement over W10M, has some issues primarily due to the size of the screen and my palm touching the edges. Annoying but addressable by altering the keyboard.
-There are several overlapping apps that are just plain confusing (e.g. Samsung Pay vs Android Pay, Bixby vs Google whatever it is, etc.)
-MS apps are generally better on Android than on W10M, but the Outlook App is driving me nuts. Doesn't updated the # of emails on the home screen and the way it manages multiple accounts makes my head hurt. I've given it a solid try and am going to look for an alternative.
-I hate Bixby. Did I mention that?

That all said, the S8+ is great. No regrets on switching. A few small changes and it would be perfect. Being able to replace Bixby w/ Cortana, getting live tiles, and more seamless integration with One Drive would pretty well make me not miss W10M at all.

 

[fatclue_98]

Assuming nothing groundbreaking is announced within the next year, I'm pretty sure the KEYone will be my next phone. I'm so disillusioned with the ubiquitousness of boring, slate touchscreens that something has to be unique before I would even consider buying it. There are countless quality Android phones to choose from, and they all have good screens and take great pictures, but what I really want is a device that fundamentally changes how I use it. Plus, I'm sure the KEYone will get a price drop within a year.

I'm so looking forward to your take on the KEYone. The Priv 's battery life is such a downer on an otherwise great piece of kit. I don't know if I could trade the Priv's Schnauzer-Hasenpfeffer camera (or whatever it's called) for better battery life though.

 

[camaroz1985]

You should be able to set Cortana as your default voice assistant. Are you sure you have the focused inbox turned off in Outlook? If it is, and it still doesn't work for you, you might want to try Nine. It is kind of expensive, but does have a free trial, and the email, calendar, and contacts integration is great, as are the widgets.

The UI is what I missed most about W10M, and ultimately what brought me back. I definitely understand what you are saying about the banking app, which is pretty much the only app I miss on W10M compared to iOS and Android. It is also frustrating how much faster OneDrive works on both iOS and Android. When uploading large files I find my W10M and even W10 apps struggle, usually resulting in an error, but iOS and Android have no problem.

If Onedrive could integrate into pictures on either iOS or Android the way it does on W10M, I might be even more tempted to switch. I know I could migrate all my pictures over to Google Drive or iCloud, but I like OneDrive, and I have 1 TB of storage. I have all my music stored on there too, and using my sign-in info my wife can listen to it all on her iPhone too with Groove Music. It works great! Maybe I could do the same with the other storage options, I just haven't looked too far into it.

 

[Travis Flenker]

You should be able to set Cortana as your default voice assistant. Are you sure you have the focused inbox turned off in Outlook? If it is, and it still doesn't work for you, you might want to try Nine. It is kind of expensive, but does have a free trial, and the email, calendar, and contacts integration is great, as are the widgets.

The UI is what I missed most about W10M, and ultimately what brought me back. I definitely understand what you are saying about the banking app, which is pretty much the only app I miss on W10M compared to iOS and Android. It is also frustrating how much faster OneDrive works on both iOS and Android. When uploading large files I find my W10M and even W10 apps struggle, usually resulting in an error, but iOS and Android have no problem.

If Onedrive could integrate into pictures on either iOS or Android the way it does on W10M, I might be even more tempted to switch. I know I could migrate all my pictures over to Google Drive or iCloud, but I like OneDrive, and I have 1 TB of storage. I have all my music stored on there too, and using my sign-in info my wife can listen to it all on her iPhone too with Groove Music. It works great! Maybe I could do the same with the other storage options, I just haven't looked too far into it.

The Outlook app overall is just unpolished and lacks some key features (e.g. showing # mails on the home screen and having the option to have a specific inbox pinned to the home screen). Trying out BlueMail right now which addresses both of these via a widget, looks more polished/better navigation, and has a dark theme to boot.

No idea how to get rid of Bixby without rooting the phone. Samsung really wants you to use it. Cortana is on my home screen, but it's just not the same.

Photo syncing works okay - they at least upload to OneDrive automatically.

I did miss that in my review. The OneDrive integration in W10 is great. Miss that a lot but it's at least been manageable so far.

 

[fatclue_98]

The Outlook app overall is just unpolished and lacks some key features (e.g. showing # mails on the home screen and having the option to have a specific inbox pinned to the home screen). Trying out BlueMail right now which addresses both of these via a widget, looks more polished/better navigation, and has a dark theme to boot.

No idea how to get rid of Bixby without rooting the phone. Samsung really wants you to use it. Cortana is on my home screen, but it's just not the same.

Photo syncing works okay - they at least upload to OneDrive automatically.

I did miss that in my review. The OneDrive integration in W10 is great. Miss that a lot but it's at least been manageable so far.

The BlackBerry Hub suite is IMO, the closest thing to Outlook on W10M as it allows pinning individual accounts to your home screen, per account signatures and notifications including LED colors. Free for 30 days and $.99/month after. Unless you don't care about ads then it's always free. Oh, dark theme too.

 

[dov1978]

I posted a while back about switching to the S8+ and my overall positive experience with the switch. It's been a couple weeks and I thought I'd give an update now that I've had more time with it.

-Bixby is awful and I miss the full functionality of Cortana. I have no idea what Bixby is supposed to do other than randomly pop up because it's launched by a physical button that's opposite the power button so it's nearly impossible to miss when waking the phone. There are a couple apps that let you launch something else (pretty janky in the way they work), but I'd rather that button not exist. Bixby's current state doesn't even do voice recognition (what's the point?!?!?).
-I know around here we tend to minimize the app gap (and for the most part I agree), but the availability of banking apps is a huge deal. I no longer have to borrow my girlfriend's phone to deposit checks.
-I miss the UI. W10 style launchers help but live tiles are awesome and I don't think there's any real replacement for them on Android.
-Camera is good. Haven't done any side by side comparisons but I'd be shocked if it's not at least as good as the 950.
-DeX requires the Samsung dock which is just stupid.
-The screen is gorgeous. Blows the 950 out of the water which has a great screen.
-Swipe style typing, while an improvement over W10M, has some issues primarily due to the size of the screen and my palm touching the edges. Annoying but addressable by altering the keyboard.
-There are several overlapping apps that are just plain confusing (e.g. Samsung Pay vs Android Pay, Bixby vs Google whatever it is, etc.)
-MS apps are generally better on Android than on W10M, but the Outlook App is driving me nuts. Doesn't updated the # of emails on the home screen and the way it manages multiple accounts makes my head hurt. I've given it a solid try and am going to look for an alternative.
-I hate Bixby. Did I mention that?

That all said, the S8+ is great. No regrets on switching. A few small changes and it would be perfect. Being able to replace Bixby w/ Cortana, getting live tiles, and more seamless integration with One Drive would pretty well make me not miss W10M at all.

Bixby is still very much a work in progress and it was launched a pretty prematurely. It will be good when it matures. Google Assistant/Google app is still the primary voice assistant/AI on the s8 or any other android for that matter. I've got Cortana installed too but barely use it as it's not baked in so to speak and just use it on my 950xl instead

 

[mikepalma]

Done with Windows Central and Windows phones

After getting an iPhone and realize the absolute crapware that I have been toiling with w10m, I see no reason to check windows central. Dan and others may profess to disagree, but the tech world is really all about phones. This website will disappear over time. Wishful thinking won't change that...

 

[SeeVuPlay]

Re: Done with Windows Central and Windows phones

That's nice....

 

[Ejay Lozano]

Re: Done with Windows Central and Windows phones

That's one unhappy camper.

 

[Drael646464]

Re: Done with Windows Central and Windows phones

I'm not really sure what the appropriate response is here. I feel like you should discuss this with your therapist, whatever is getting you down right now!

PS. The world is absolutely not about phones. You will not take your last breath on your deathbed and think "god I wish I'd brought an iPhone 10" before shrugging off your mortal coil. Phones are literally one of the least important things their are.

Take it easy

 

[mikepalma]

Re: Done with Windows Central and Windows phones

I'm not really sure what the appropriate response is here. I feel like you should discuss this with your therapist, whatever is getting you down right now!

PS. The world is absolutely not about phones. You will not take your last breath on your deathbed and think "god I wish I'd brought an iPhone 10" before shrugging off your mortal coil. Phones are literally one of the least important things their are.

Take it easy

Typical response...

The tech world is about phones. Keep your head in the sand...thanks for coming

Sent from mTalk

 

[Drael646464]

Re: Done with Windows Central and Windows phones

Typical response...

The tech world is about phones. Keep your head in the sand...thanks for coming

Sent from mTalk

Your post has literally nothing to do with "the tech world", it's about your personal anger, but even if we were talking about tech:

Only a consumer would think that way. Phones are last years cash cow. We are at market saturation there with phones, it's only negative growth from here with device turnover slowing, and everyone's looking for the next big thing, not just MS.

Phone's are looking about as innovative as microwaves right about now.

If the tech world is about phones googles new mantra wouldn't be "AI first" )They created a special kind of server module for machine learning- AI is their big focus now), and apple wouldn't be quietly buying AI companies left right and center (or ms), and investing in a secret AR project, nor would facebook have siphoned some major percentage of their staff off for some secret VR project. Literally no one who makes serious money from tech, is putting all their serious investment cash behind phone technology. That speaks volumes of where that market is at, although any economist or tech market insider knew this was coming.

I'm sure you will take what I said very level headly however, given you started this thread from your calm objective place.

 

[libra89]

Oh I forgot to update here too. My Pixel has been fixed and it's been nice to have it back. The mic issue it had has been fixed but now the occasional hollow sim issue is annoying me so I'm just going to stay on the SE for a while. That's been a solid phone for me and if anything, phones should be at least that.

I'm just going to take an Android break for a bit. Maybe I'll try again when something small comes out and is solid. Since the trend seems to be taller and curved displays, it will probably be months...