Windows Phone 8.1 improved WP, but it may have also killed it.

[stephen_az]

There's no doubt all the extra features, including the Action Center for notifications, and Cortana, improved the Windows Phone OS, with 8.1.

IMO, though, since the update focused on getting the platform *away* from the hubs model that it was created around (see: all those 'Smoked by WP' commercials), and towards needing to launch an app for everything, the only thing that now separates Windows Phone from iOS or Android, is a preferance over one company's ecosystem and store of applications over another.

Personally, I'm not a fan-boy of anyone one company's, and my contention is, if you now need an app for everything, I see no reason to not move full time to iOS, for example.

Aside from Microsoft losing a customer, I don't see the point of WP any longer.

Not trolling, or raising a dust-up, just trying to start a discussion about the move away from the hubs model, and the potential upsides/downsides, and what will be the chief selling point for the platform.

I have no concern at all with your position - everyone is entitled to their opinion. I do wish, however, people would think before they frame arguments that are logically challenged. If they killed it then the changes did not improve it. That represents an inherent and irreconcilable contradiction.

 

[Ericcai]

WP is very good, but the app is so little

 

[Chregu]

I have no concern at all with your position - everyone is entitled to their opinion. I do wish, however, people would think before they frame arguments that are logically challenged. If they killed it then the changes did not improve it. That represents an inherent and irreconcilable contradiction.

I disagree. Something can be improved in some regards and still deteriorate in other areas leading to a worse product overall. Also you don't consider emotion, it's not predictable, it's irrational.

Personally I don't see the missing hubs as such a big deal and I think Windows Phone 8.1 is a huge improvement over previous versions. Windows Phone's problems run much deeper.

 

[X0LARIUM]

Why just hubs? I have a whole bunch of things missing form the core WP I once loved.

Action Centre - They could have honestly done better. Right now, it's EXACTLY what Android and iOS have. Why copy 'em? Android was anyways copying iOS, now they didn't have any reason to copy it further.

Missing Hubs: Pretty much what you said, but let me add:

a. The (broken) Me Tile: Was perfect to share anything. Now I HAVE to get a Facebook app to update something. I don't want that.

b. The Music Hub: Perhaps the worst affected of all the Hubs. Broken everything I loved about this one. Is as slow as my Android Music player, the background artist has gone back to doing its thing, no artist on the tile oR lockscreen. Superwarped in short.

c. The Game tile is nothing special any more either, as all the games are now available outside, in the app list.

The horrible horrible Background Tiles. It becomes even worse when people put selfies in the background.

They have not only moved away from the core design philosophy of Windows Phone, but voluntarily left it behind.

But, there is hardly anything we can do.

 

[Ebuka Allison]

Why just hubs? I have a whole bunch of things missing form the core WP I once loved.

Action Centre - They could have honestly done better. Right now, it's EXACTLY what Android and iOS have. Why copy 'em? Android was anyways copying iOS, now they didn't have any reason to copy it further.

Missing Hubs: Pretty much what you said, but let me add:

a. The (broken) Me Tile: Was perfect to share anything. Now I HAVE to get a Facebook app to update something. I don't want that.

b. The Music Hub: Perhaps the worst affected of all the Hubs. Broken everything I loved about this one. Is as slow as my Android Music player, the background artist has gone back to doing its thing, no artist on the tile oR lockscreen. Superwarped in short.

c. The Game tile is nothing special any more either, as all the games are now available outside, in the app list.

The horrible horrible Background Tiles. It becomes even worse when people put selfies in the background.

They have not only moved away from the core design philosophy of Windows Phone, but voluntarily left it behind.

But, there is hardly anything we can do.

Are you seriously pissed off that people who are not you have the ability to put backgrounds on their tiles? Is that even a complaint. Omg Microsoft put a feature I'm ot going to use and I cant stand how others are using it?! How is this even a thing? Are you 5 by any chance?

 

[Ebuka Allison]

Why just hubs? I have a whole bunch of things missing form the core WP I once loved.

Action Centre - They could have honestly done better. Right now, it's EXACTLY what Android and iOS have. Why copy 'em? Android was anyways copying iOS, now they didn't have any reason to copy it further.

Missing Hubs: Pretty much what you said, but let me add:

a. The (broken) Me Tile: Was perfect to share anything. Now I HAVE to get a Facebook app to update something. I don't want that.

b. The Music Hub: Perhaps the worst affected of all the Hubs. Broken everything I loved about this one. Is as slow as my Android Music player, the background artist has gone back to doing its thing, no artist on the tile oR lockscreen. Superwarped in short.

c. The Game tile is nothing special any more either, as all the games are now available outside, in the app list.

The horrible horrible Background Tiles. It becomes even worse when people put selfies in the background.

They have not only moved away from the core design philosophy of Windows Phone, but voluntarily left it behind.

But, there is hardly anything we can do.

Wrong. Deleting the facebook app restores the Me tile and people hub sharing features. The me tile still doesn't give notifications though.
And saying the Action centre is the same as Android and iOS is a blatant lie when even android has about a billion implementations of the notification centre and IOS has widgets in its notification centre but lacks controls

 

[manicottiK]

c. The Game tile is nothing special any more either, as all the games are now available outside, in the app list.

Oh, be fair, Games got worse than that. While MS restored the Recently Used section, they implemented it differently (and worse) than it had been.

Try this: start a game from the Games app, back out of the game to return to the Games app, try to launch the game again -- where is it? It moved from the games list where it was to the Recently Used games list.

By moving things from one section to another ,they've made the app harder to use because users can't take advantage of memory to know where to scroll to find a game. Worse yet, the current implementation might have been harder to program than the simpler and more correct way of doing things. The Recently Used section is a good idea. But a recently used Xbox game is still an Xbox game, so it should still appear in the Xbox games section.

 

[jonahtrav]

Yes 8.1 added much but I thought the hubs were cool, I thought it was different then other phones. So what is the me tile for now? should I just delete it ? I don't see its purpose anymore. Still like my 920... I think windows phones are still a work in progress and will wait for the official firmware before making a decisions ...but the new music app does make me crazy.

 

[X0LARIUM]

Are you seriously pissed off that people who are not you have the ability to put backgrounds on their tiles? Is that even a complaint. Omg Microsoft put a feature I'm ot going to use and I cant stand how others are using it?! How is this even a thing? Are you 5 by any chance?

It surprises me you skipped all the points above it, and reacted to something which clearly comes last on my list last on purpose. Look whos 5 now. Go eat your candy kid. and stay indoors.

 

[X0LARIUM]

Oh, be fair, Games got worse than that. While MS restored the Recently Used section, they implemented it differently (and worse) than it had been.

Try this: start a game from the Games app, back out of the game to return to the Games app, try to launch the game again -- where is it? It moved from the games list where it was to the Recently Used games list.

By moving things from one section to another ,they've made the app harder to use because users can't take advantage of memory to know where to scroll to find a game. Worse yet, the current implementation might have been harder to program than the simpler and more correct way of doing things. The Recently Used section is a good idea. But a recently used Xbox game is still an Xbox game, so it should still appear in the Xbox games section.

Oh yes..i forgot this point. thanks for pointing it out. This happend with Jet Pack Joyride...I actually went back all the way down to look for it and couldnt find it..I was like, "I JUST played it..whered it go?" Then, when I entered the Games Hub again, it was on top.
Pretty pointless feature actually.

 

[angusdegraosta]

Many of these points are valid - hubs have been gutted. Notification Center is a big plus though, and tile backgrounds are awesome... the right images look beautiful. Cortana has been more than helpful... great job with that. The Facebook app is still mighty awful though, and the lack of People Hub integration makes its awfulness even more awful.

 

[mjrtoo]

Many of these points are valid - hubs have been gutted. Notification Center is a big plus though, and tile backgrounds are awesome... the right images look beautiful. Cortana has been more than helpful... great job with that. The Facebook app is still mighty awful though, and the lack of People Hub integration makes its awfulness even more awful.

Agreed , seems that they're cowing down to the bloggers with the removal of the hubs, rather than embracing them like the core users did. It's still a unique design, but day by day this is becoming just another take on the same 'ole rather than innovation. Still a fan, have been from day one, but we'll see what tomorrow brings, maybe if Apple ups their game enough it will be time to change.

 

[franknyarkoh]

Internet explorer keeps on crushing after WP8.1 update 2.

 

[thatuxguy]

I prefer the apps being separated from the OS it means the WP dev team can update the core apps easier, and more regularly. WP is still better in many respects to iOS and Android, but then all OS's have their strong and weak points.

Me personally as i said at the start i prefer the separated apps.

 

[Torcher Death]

In my opinion just as the title suggests - WP 8.1 while promising to improve WP, might have just killed what differentiated it from the rest.

Hubs -
Cons : People hub, Games Hub, Music+Video & the Me tile... these for me were reasons why i chose to get myself a WP rather than going droid.
Whats worse is that the apps which were supposed to substitute them are terribly buggy.
Pros : Can be updated often.

Action Center -
Cons : Defeats the purpose of live tiles. Sure notifications came late & the tiles updated every 30 mins or so...but now they only serve as dead icons now.
Pros : Easy to toggle wifi, airplane mode, etc.

Transparent Tiles & Cortana - Well no complaints there...
Also,the smoothness in navigating through the OS has been lost, but i suppose thats due to the lack of proper firmware to support the OS.

It looks to me like MS, just like Apple, is looking at a unification of OS' in the near future, since a lot of features for WP 8.1 have been 'borrowed' from android, other than a few essentials such as wifi direct, app quality & quantity & app integration.

 

[Ebuka Allison]

In my opinion just as the title suggests - WP 8.1 while promising to improve WP, might have just killed what differentiated it from the rest.

Hubs -
Cons : People hub, Games Hub, Music+Video & the Me tile... these for me were reasons why i chose to get myself a WP rather than going droid.
Whats worse is that the apps which were supposed to substitute them are terribly buggy.
Pros : Can be updated often.

Action Center -
Cons : Defeats the purpose of live tiles. Sure notifications came late & the tiles updated every 30 mins or so...but now they only serve as dead icons now.
Pros : Easy to toggle wifi, airplane mode, etc.

Transparent Tiles & Cortana - Well no complaints there...
Also,the smoothness in navigating through the OS has been lost, but i suppose thats due to the lack of proper firmware to support the OS.

It looks to me like MS, just like Apple, is looking at a unification of OS' in the near future, since a lot of features for WP 8.1 have been 'borrowed' from android, other than a few essentials such as wifi direct, app quality & quantity & app integration.

I disagree. Not all tiles are for notifications only. Some are like the WPcentral tile and update with new stuff. Think IOS and app badges + nc. Besides people were asking for this everywhere...

 

[Existence_Inc]

Or, you know, you could revert back to 8.0 and wait to see how 8.1 is when it actually launches to the public (along with the necessary firmware) instead everyone starting thread after thread of complaining about the Developer PREVIEW (essentially a beta) of 8.1. People seem to forget that all things evolve and that change, while hard, is necessary. Move to iOS/Android/BB10 and you'll find happiness, until the next OS update, then you'll find a flood of complaints because of one thing: Change.

I like WP8.1. It is different, but there are reasons for the changes. Less screen/button presses to do things like play games, for example. Allowing features to be updated more frequently instead of relying on major OS releases to fix bugs and add features. Notification Centre which I never use, as the live tiles *gasp* still work. There are things I am not fond of, such as the time/connectivity bar always being shown (I preferred it hidden and thought it made the home screen cleaner), but I don't notice it much now.

Not every change is what each user may want, but I imagine a multi-billion dollar company like Microsoft don't make these changes without extensive data, research, and testing. In 6 months, everyone will be over this hump and will find something new to complain about on the next OS update. C'est La Vie.

~Ex

 

[quantum tao]

I'm beginning to think they made it too easy to get in the developer preview this time. Too much bitchin compared to constructive criticism and bug reports.

 

[Karthik Naik]

they should fix the skype integration,xbox music,video,phone freeze issue since update 2 and 3,call drop issue,3G bug otherwise wp8.1 is a beautiful OS despite the issues i mentioned

 

[Ebuka Allison]

i have no clue why you picking on me man, but i think you need glasses or something. Or stop smoking whatever you are smoking. Cause you are clearly not in your sense while writing this.

SO I am going to say it one more time for slow people like you,

deleting the Facebook app DOES NOT restore ..one more time, D O E S N O T restore the Me tile. I suggest you at least try out things you blatantly claim...
and action centre is NOT android..haha..good luck man..that's all I have to say.. Good luck.

Here are the screenshots. You can tell it's 8.1 from the people hub design and the Icon placement at the top. Disabling the sharing extensibility framework removes the new style fb integration, which I think is better as the hubs were superfluous at best