Windows phone 8.1 is way better than iOS 8

[Vitor Salvatore Pierce]

Let me list: 1) release Skype video message on iOS first; 2) music app cannot edit playlists before Dec 2013, and the Dec 2013 xbox music app is buggy, sluggish, without live tile. Xbox music pass owners are still paying for a service that is broken on the phone. 3) no updates to office apps for nearly 1 and half years while iOS and Androids version get better both in performance and functionality. 4) No xbox video in 2012 when they advertised xbox video would be available (not available for another whole year). 5) sync was acceptable in the Zune years, broken in the 2012. 6) the Skype integration promised in 2012 never came true.

Specific to windows phone 8.1:
1) Removing social hub functionalities without making sure big service providers like Twitter, LinkedIn, Sina Weibo have their apps ready - look how Apple handles this. 2) Removing the fast and fluid music+video hub with two separate but horribly slow apps (not to mention the buggy xbox music). 3) Action center's notifications can only show one line. 4) xbox music app cannot background download. 5) selecting text is way more difficult than 8.0. 6) Removing messaging integration with FB without opening up the messaging hubs to 3rd party apps. 7) remove me tile notifications. 8) remove multi post from social hub.

Generally, 8.1 is slower, has more black screens and "resuming", consumes more battery, and freezes more often on my Lumia 925.

Notifications can be more than one line, but the app has to be done for 8.1

 

[steve peters]

A couple reasons I left iOS - 1) You have to hold the phone properly for a signal, 2) Maps, remember maps? Just my reasons for leaving. Am I unhappy with Music, sure. Is it as important as Maps to me? Not really. But that's just me.

 

[Bernard Lee2]

A couple reasons I left iOS - 1) You have to hold the phone properly for a signal, 2) Maps, remember maps? Just my reasons for leaving. Am I unhappy with Music, sure. Is it as important as Maps to me? Not really. But that's just me.

 

[Sir William Wiener]

Keep in mind this is an os update (beta) without the set of drivers to run it properly (ex. nokias cyan) none of us has any idea how stable it is or how well it will run until we get drivers made for it. With apple they have one set of devices so any new os update, beta or otherwise, would nit have this issue because they write their own drivers (instead of having Nokia, HTC, Samsung, etc devices running it). We will see once the drivers come.

I know that's why I'm not crucifying Microsoft, I have confidence in the world's largest software company to fix these software related issues.

 

[Sir William Wiener]

I love when people say Windows Phone is younger than iOS. Like it's an excuse. Just sweeping every previous iteration under the rug, and not caring about Microsoft just screwing us over throughout the years.

The Mantra "WPx will be way better than ios x when it's released" has been said since windows mobile 6.1.

Nothing is better. We can sum stuff up by saying all OSs have different approaches to getting things done.

In case you've forgotten the first iOS didn't have 1/4th the features that iOS 7 and iOS 8 have now. If anything MSFT has advanced more through just two generations that iOS did with iOS 1 through 6.

 

[Chregu]

In case you've forgotten the first iOS didn't have 1/4th the features that iOS 7 and iOS 8 have now. If anything MSFT has advanced more through just two generations that iOS did with iOS 1 through 6.

Hopefully, and they are still behind the competition in features. So there's still a lot of catching up to do.

After all, they are the worlds biggest software company, I guess they should be capable of doing this, don't you think?

Oh and don't forget, Windows Phone 7 had about 1/4 of the features of Windows Mobile.

 

[FinancialP]

In case you've forgotten the first iOS didn't have 1/4th the features that iOS 7 and iOS 8 have now. If anything MSFT has advanced more through just two generations that iOS did with iOS 1 through 6.

PPC 2000?

Smh. You don't get it. Just sweep the past iterations of windows mobile under the rug and bring up Apple for Microsoft ripping features out.

You missed my point and are looking to be argumentative.

 

[blehblehbleh]

PPC 2000?

Smh. You don't get it. Just sweep the past iterations of windows mobile under the rug and bring up Apple for Microsoft ripping features out.

You missed my point and are looking to be argumentative.

I don't think SWW is really being argumentative. Windows Phone is different now in underlying frameworks, design, and usage. Just like Windows 8 is different from Windows 3.1. Might be under the same umbrella in terms of category or however else you want to abstract it, but an advancement or shift to new technologies warrants a designation as a "new" OS.

Just like you wouldn't necessarily call OS 9 and OS X the same considering that was the turning point that Apple shifted from their own frameworks to a FreeBSD based one. It's important to honor those differences. There's also a reason why there are naming conventions in language.

 

[Ashish Gupta888]

IOS is not bad its way good,
But it lack of utility feature...
Sharing file via Bluetooth

Oh dear, does it still lack this feature??? I mean, people still can't send files using bluetooth!!

 

[FinancialP]

I don't think SWW is really being argumentative. Windows Phone is different now in underlying frameworks, design, and usage now. Just like Windows 8 is different from Windows 3.1. Might be under the same umbrella in terms of category or however else you want to abstract it, but an advancement or shift to new technologies warrants a designation as a "new" OS.

Just like you wouldn't necessarily call OS 9 and OS X the same considering that was the turning point that Apple shifted from their own frameworks to a FreeBSD based one. It's important to honor those differences. There's also a reason why there are naming conventions in language.

You make valid points. However a mobile OS should be well thought out. A mobile OS is entirely different from a desktop.

No one would use Apple if they dumped Iphone OS in favor of iOS and broke compatibility with everything.

Same with Android. No one would use Android if Gingerbread broke everything from Donut.

I hope you understand what I'm saying.

For goodness sake before the iphone there was no such thing as scrolling. On PPCs we had to tap tap tap.

 

[Sir William Wiener]

Hopefully, and they are still behind the competition in features. So there's still a lot of catching up to do.

After all, they are the worlds biggest software company, I guess they should be capable of doing this, don't you think?

Oh and don't forget, Windows Phone 7 had about 1/4 of the features of Windows Mobile.

In many ways WP8.1 has surpassed iOS with file management, SD expansion etc. Windows Phone hits the usability perks of Android while maintaining the security of iOS (WP arguably has the best smartphone OS security, especially after all these recent iPhone hacks that have hit the national spotlight).

 

[Sobralobo]

In many ways WP8.1 has surpassed iOS with file management, SD expansion etc. Windows Phone hits the usability perks of Android while maintaining the security of iOS (WP arguably has the best smartphone OS security, especially after all these recent iPhone hacks that have hit the national spotlight).

I guess that's normal, for now the Windows Phone platform has less users so that's not interesting enough for hackers to put time on it while Android and iOS are better targets.

 

[JamesPTao]

I guess that's normal, for now the Windows Phone platform has less users so that's not interesting enough for hackers to put time on it while Android and iOS are better targets.

Interesting theory. Reminds me of the reason people stated for the supposed lack of viruses on apples desktop os, not enough users for hackers to bother. I could see that partially. But also remember many hackers are lazy so if you have easy access to everything (like I android) go for the easy exploits.

 

[spaulagain]

In many ways WP8.1 has surpassed iOS with file management, SD expansion etc. Windows Phone hits the usability perks of Android while maintaining the security of iOS (WP arguably has the best smartphone OS security, especially after all these recent iPhone hacks that have hit the national spotlight).

Usability perks of Android? Now that's funny. Android has the worst user experience of all three platforms.

 

[Michael Alan Goff]

In case you've forgotten the first iOS didn't have 1/4th the features that iOS 7 and iOS 8 have now. If anything MSFT has advanced more through just two generations that iOS did with iOS 1 through 6.

Not to be a downer, but that is a horrible argument.

Of course Microsoft is advancing faster, the features that people want have already been made by others. They just have to implement what others did. It would be like saying that a new car company has advanced faster than Ford did for the first thirty years of their company being around. Might be true, but it doesn't matter.

 

[Michael Alan Goff]

Usability perks of Android? Now that's funny. Android has the worst user experience of all three platforms.

User Experience is a purely opinion. So they have usability perks that you don't.

 

[spaulagain]

User Experience is a purely opinion. So they have usability perks that you don't.

User experience is far from "purely opinion." There are subjective elements, but as a whole UX is not just whimsical opinions.

What you're referring to is features. Usability is a measure of the user experience (and UI) that includes features but is not limited to them. You can have 100,000 features, but if the user can't figure out how to use them, then they're no good. Hence poor usability.

Android is the king of feature creep. It's loaded with features and various concepts. But as whole, it's a cluster**** of different UIs fragmented by OEM customizations and/or horrible upgrade lifespans. Why do you think Google has been intentionally slowing it down and refactoring the OS. Because they know it's a BAD experience and they need to clean house. I've used multiple Android devices and all of the above made me want to throw the device across the room they were so unbearably bad.

 

[msirapian]

The OP made a (too) strong statement. I have an iphone for work, and a Lumia1020 as my own phone. I do prefer the 1020, I love it in fact, and I won't quit WP8 as it's my prefered (alive) smartphone OS.

But. A colleague has a 1520 as his personal phone and he prefers the iphone for productivity! Why? At work, we use office365 and he can't sync outlook notes (not OneNote) on his Lumia, he can't attach a file when responding to an email, etc.

Sorry, but on these points, he's right and it's difficult to say that WP8.1 is way better than iOS when basic features are missing; specially coming from Microsoft, who has a real legitimity in terms of Office/Productivity.

I had him recognise the keyboard was way better on WP8 than iOS though h?h?

 

[Michael Alan Goff]

User experience is far from "purely opinion." There are subjective elements, but as a whole UX is not just whimsical opinions.

What you're referring to is features. Usability is a measure of the user experience (and UI) that includes features but is not limited to them. You can have 100,000 features, but if the user can't figure out how to use them, then they're no good. Hence poor usability.

Except that two people will have wildly difference user experiences based on how they use devices. Some people found the shut down on Windows 8 easily and others didn't. Some found Spotlight without having to be told where it was on iOS. So, np, there isn't a tried and true set of things that comprise a "good UX" and a "bad UX". There are some general things that a lot of people like.

And I don't see a single thing in Android 4.4 that constitutes a bad User Experience from MY experience.

Why? Because of the way I use my device. UX is a personal, ergo subjective, thing.

 

[tgp]

Usability perks of Android? Now that's funny. Android has the worst user experience of all three platforms.

And yet Android outsells WP 20 to 1. Amazing, with such a poor user experience!