What you LOST in WP8.1

[meddyrainzo]

@meddyrainzo At least its not in the emulator. The option is missing.

Hmm no idea then. We'll just have to wait and see

 

[Kram Sacul]

I think a lot more people preferred to have it on full time. I know I did. It looks cool and all initially but almost all the time I'm tapping on the top to see how much battery I have left, if my wifi disconnected or not during a slow internet moment, how many bars I have on my cellular connection if im using data. Its actually kind of annoying having to tap the top there constantly just to see the status icons.

As with most things it should be an option, like the toggles for the onscreen buttons. Always there or auto-hide. Not everyone is constantly obsessed with how many bars or how much battery is left. There's also the issue of possible screen burn in and the fact that it clutters the top of the screen up.

 

[Jan Tomsic]

I miss the quick button for ring/silent as it is in 8.0. Now it was a press on either volume (hardware) button and the silent/ringer button was nicely in the corner, in 8.1 I'll have to click the arrow and move across half the screen to reach the same button. It sucks.

 

[narv]

Am I right?
You are basing this tread upon of what you found/not found in the emulator???
I think you will have to wait till the preview is launched. By then I think the emulator is also updated.

They told us at the event that WP8.1 has 100 new features. I think that the emulator, as it is now, is just covering the main part and the funktionality of things.

:smile:

Yes, this is all based off the emulator so things COULD be different, just telling you what we see in there.

Not getting Facebook-messages just like SMS (and to the same place without launching yet another app) might just be a deal breaker for me in the future. If that feature doesn't return, it might be quite probable that my next phone won't be WP anymore.

It was probably the biggest single thing that sold me on WP back in the day. Not needing to open an app for every single thing was great and it's the reason why iPhone and Android still don't interest me.

That said, if the situation is the same crap on all platforms, might as well stick with WP in future too seeing that everything else I have is Windows-ecosystem, but regardless I'll be extremely bummed about it if it stays that way. Equally pissed off about MS removing the Messaging-hub from Windows 8. No, I don't want to use both Skype and FB-app to do what a single integrated app could do before. What the **** is the logic behind these things?

So we don't know for sure how this will work as leaks have stated we could plug apps into the messenger hub, just as they can plug into the people hub in the emulator. We can't install apps so we can't see how it will run.. With that being said, The original FB chat integration by MS was pretty bad. If you were talking to someone on FB the site, you come back to your phone to a one sided conversation.. Also, group chats were not supported. As well as you couldn't send / see images, or all the stickers that they have now. Since the integration was done directly in the OS, it required an OS update to actually improve these features, and the OS team didn't have time to update FB integration all the time while keeping the rest of the OS updated with new features and bug free. The messenger app however is managed by FB itself and can be updated directly with their new features allowing for a better FB chat experience on WP.. If the leaks are true, and being able to plug the app into the messenger hub will work, that will allow you to get all the new features of FB chat when everyone else does as FB would be updating the app. The original reason for WP OS to support FB chat was because FB itself, didn't. And since that is a highly requested (almost required) smartphone feature, they needed it. But now it is supported by FB and they can shift their focus to things like making Cortana better integrated and such.

Im not sure if we can only plug 1 messenger app into the hub.. would be nice if we could send multiple messenger apps there.. and this may be something that isn't in WP8.1 but in WP8.1 GDR1 (which is set for September, if I remember reading that correctly somewhere here on WPC but im not sure of the source at the moment). If we can plug all of them in to the messenger hub with FB chat, SMS, WhatsApp, Skype, whatever else you want, that would be amazing.. but also if that's the case, it would be up to the developer and not Microsoft to make the integration (assuming MS has made the tools for it to work properly).

@IE11, check 0:42 of this video and try if that works

The option isn't there in the emulator. May be there in the actual build on april 10th. *shrug*

I miss the quick button for ring/silent as it is in 8.0. Now it was a press on either volume (hardware) button and the silent/ringer button was nicely in the corner, in 8.1 I'll have to click the arrow and move across half the screen to reach the same button. It sucks.

In the emulator, there is no silence all button like I think was leaked in one of the videos. You don't have to necessarily click the arrow, clicking anywhere on the bar makes it pop down. Maybe that'll save you a safe screen trek across the device

Given that I just have to type in the address bar right now, don't you think that that is difficulting something that's easy?

You could also set Google.com as one of your favorites if you don't want to pin google.com to your homescreen, or download the google search app. And I can ALMOST GUARANTEE that Google, being Google, will update their search app for Cortana so you can say "google {text}" to Cortana and she will do the search in google.. I would be surprised if that isn't being done as we speak..

I just noticed this in Daniel's hands on video. Again, another minor thing which made WP8 look so good was how those disappeared. Having the network icon, wifi icon, battery, etc always displayed on the screen just looks so distracting and adds visual clutter. I do not like it at all.

Given that the emulator is a large screen, I don't think it is too much of a visual clutter personally. In the action center you can swipe down for more information about the icons so it is still just small icons sitting there... But yes when you scroll down they do go over the live tiles but I honestly don't notice them.. And if you're all the way at the top, currently in WP8 there is a big gap, now it's not such a large void of nothing.

 

[illidanx]

@IE11, check 0:42 of this video and try if that works

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4Xt7eT0S_I

The option to change search engine is there in this video. However, it's not there in this video by Daniel We take a look at Internet Explorer 11 for Windows Phone 8.1 | Windows Phone Central . We have to wait and see I guess.

 

[illidanx]

I'm also going to miss the photo backgrounds in the photo hub. That new one looks boring.

I saw in one of the videos WPCentral posted that you can no longer post to twitter and facebook directly at the same time from the me tile.

Yeah, that's true. It's even confirmed by Microsoft in their developer documentation.

 

[Kram Sacul]

Given that the emulator is a large screen, I don't think it is too much of a visual clutter personally. In the action center you can swipe down for more information about the icons so it is still just small icons sitting there... But yes when you scroll down they do go over the live tiles but I honestly don't notice them.. And if you're all the way at the top, currently in WP8 there is a big gap, now it's not such a large void of nothing.

It should be an option. Auto-hide for those that want that classic clean WP look and always show for those that can't go 5 seconds without checking battery and signal strength.

 

[illidanx]

You could also set Google.com as one of your favorites if you don't want to pin google.com to your homescreen, or download the google search app. And I can ALMOST GUARANTEE that Google, being Google, will update their search app for Cortana so you can say "google {text}" to Cortana and she will do the search in google.. I would be surprised if that isn't being done as we speak..

Yeah, but all those options are still less convenient than just typing to the address bar. And god, searching through address bar is slow now since cortana has to see if there is anything else she could display before giving you the search result page.

P.S. They need to c the guy who designed the bing search page. Compare these two pictures to see which one you prefer.

 

[radmanvr]

In a lot of videos I see the "Action Center" is named "Action Centre" does anyone know if the European spelling variant is for that region only. I would hate to have a European spelling variant on my American region device.

 

[narv]

It should be an option. Auto-hide for those that want that classic clean WP look and always show for those that can't go 5 seconds without checking battery and signal strength.

I am of the opinion that the more options the better, if they can keep it from cluttering the settings page with a million "on/off" switches..

Yeah, but all those options are still less convenient than just typing to the address bar. And god, searching through address bar is slow now since cortana has to see if there is anything else she could display before giving you the search result page.

I agree, and im hoping that google will be there in the actual versions.. I am a bit confused overall how the emulator seems to be so different from all the leaks we got that were supposed to be legit.. I am wondering if they were as legit as we thought or if the emulator is actually and older build of WP8.1 for some reason.. will have to see. I was simply just stating all the options in the event that MS does remove google from the default search.

 

[narv]

In a lot of videos I see the "Action Center" is named "Action Centre" does anyone know if the European spelling variant is for that region only. I would hate to have a European spelling variant on my American region device.

on the emulator in US region it says "center"

 

[pdelvo]

Its only avialable in the emulator when you choose US. and its called action center in there

 

[jhoff80]

One more minor loss: no more list view in calendar.

Yeah, I love that the new views are there, but definitely sad about the loss of Agenda.

 

[Chris Sandiford]

In a lot of videos I see the "Action Center" is named "Action Centre" does anyone know if the European spelling variant is for that region only. I would hate to have a European spelling variant on my American region device.

You mean the proper spellings?
We have to put up with your bastardised spelling on everything we use.

"Color" my arse.

 

[radmanvr]

You mean the proper spellings?
We have to put up with your bastardised spelling on everything we use.

"Color" my arse.

I don't want to hijack this thread but you got me started.

Color sounds like Koh Lor
Colour is not Koh Lor its Koh Lau Er

Cemetery sounds like Sem Met Tary not Semi Tree, they way you guys say it.

and its Sin Ter not Sin Tray

 

[NatKingColeslaw]

I thought in one of the video's (Joe's maybe) that the calendar still does show agenda view. I'm almost positive it did.

EDIT: In Joe Belfiore's "Introducing Windows 8.1" video, he covers the calendar portion from 9:55 to . At you can see at 10:12, when you click to day, agenda view is not the default. I guess upon looking at it, I prefer agenda view, but it's not that big of a deal to me.

 

[Ankit Nawlakha]

Live Tiles Updating time limit..!! Is it still 30 mins or are there any changes..??

 

[psychotron]

I have to say this kind of cracks me up. Not long ago some people on this forum were really worried how the media was going to pick 8.1 apart after it was announced.

Now here we are...... :grin:

 

[jhoff80]

I thought in one of the video's (Joe's maybe) that the calendar still does show agenda view. I'm almost positive it did.

It doesn't.

 

[narv]

Live Tiles Updating time limit..!! Is it still 30 mins or are there any changes..??

don't have the documentation but the leaked one says it can be done at 1 min at the lowest. not sure if this is the case.