Newbie questions

[oberry]

Finally got my Windows Phone yesterday. Been playing with it extensively. Somethings I like, others not so much.

Facebook seems on WP7 is terrible in my opinion. The integration thing is nice, but having an app is a necessity for me. I found the app to be all over the place. Most annoying is how it displays the news feed. For whatever reason, the rules/filters I've spent hours setting up aren't applied when browsing with the app, so what I see is a cluttered mess of hundreds of posts I don't care about. On top of that, scrolling through the feed is extremely choppy. I've resorted to using the touch.facebook.com website (which isn't exactly WP optimized), as well as the integrator. Unfortunately, I'm not getting alerts for when I have a notification - another MUST for me. I figured this could be resolved by pinning the notifications tab in the official ("Microsoft") app as a tile - but lo and behold, that isn't an option. Any one agree with me? Thoughts?

I'm not a fan of the Zune music software (on the phone itself, not the computer). Is there a good alternative? Hate to say it, but I'm missing my iPod feature horribly.

I assumed that Skype would be available, but was shocked to see it isn't. Doesn't MS own that now? What the heck?

The lock screen notifications... Is there no way to personalize them to see a little more than "1 new email", "1 new text". I jumped through the hoops for creating a student developer account and registering my phone, but I'm wondering what the point was now. Aside from a theme app for recoloring tiles, and one for putting things into folders, what all can I do with a developer unlocked phone?

Something weird with Gmail... The push feature works just fine, but there's a massive replication lag (I check my webmail account 5 minutes later and the email is still sitting there as "new").

Thanks

 

[enahs555]

As for facebook, I do not use it, so I can not help you one bit.

I personally find the Zune A LOT better then iPod. It is possible you are just used to iPod interface and can not give it a "fair chance". It is hard for people to accept change. Not saying that is your case, just saying, think about it.

There is things like Spotify, etc, yes.

As for Skype, the recently bought it yes, hopefully it will be on the phones soon. It takes time to make things.

Do not know what to tell you about your gmail account, does not work that way for me. Marks as new right away.

 

[oberry]

Thanks for your pointers. I'm willing to give the music player more of a shot (what other choice do I have hehehe). I've got Slacker installed which is good so far.

 

[oberry]

One more thing. How do I set it to automatically download images on every email? Having to keep clicking show images is ANNOYING! Thanks.

 

[kenstone]

As for facebook, I do not use it, so I can not help you one bit.

I personally find the Zune A LOT better then iPod. It is possible you are just used to iPod interface and can not give it a "fair chance". It is hard for people to accept change. Not saying that is your case, just saying, think about it.

There is things like Spotify, etc, yes.

As for Skype, the recently bought it yes, hopefully it will be on the phones soon. It takes time to make things.

Do not know what to tell you about your gmail account, does not work that way for me. Marks as new right away.

I agree on the Zune vs. iPod thing. I have an iPad and I think the music player is just plain awful compared to Zune.

And yes, the facebook app on Windows Phone is not the best which is why I never use it. I much prefer the built in integration as it keeps me from having to look in lots of places to see what's going on.

I disagree on the notifications thing. Right now there is no centralized notifications area. But there is room for 8 tiles on the main screen without scrolling. The things that are a MUST for me are pinned right there at the main screen so I can quickly see what's new and what I want to deal with.

As for your student developer account you can, you know, develop apps for it. That would allow you to sideload apps as well.

My gmail is fine as well, so not sure what you're experiencing there.

Overall, it sounds like you've come expecting Windows to be exactly what you had before and it's not. And you wouldn't want it to be. Otherwise you'd just stay with what you had.

 

[oberry]

I'm not trying to bash WP or say that it's inferior to anything else. It's just different, and I'm getting used to it. For a mobile product in its infancy, I'm very impressed with it. My biggest issue (same thing with Android) is that the apps aren't hardware specific. Some work well with certain hardware, some work better with others, and most of the apps in the marketplace have lousy reviews. I love iOS and I might keep my iPhone as a backup, but I'm tired of it, it's boring. This is a welcome change.

 

[oberry]

I disagree on the notifications thing. Right now there is no centralized notifications area. But there is room for 8 tiles on the main screen without scrolling. The things that are a MUST for me are pinned right there at the main screen so I can quickly see what's new and what I want to deal with.

Right, but I'm talking about a simple "you have 1 new fb notification" type thing like iOS has. I don't want to clutter my home screen with icons to all the various sections of Facebook.

 

[straitda]

Have you setup groups in your people hub yet? That's how I filter through the posts I don't want to see on FB. I have the important people in my life in groups so I can see through the clutter.

Sent from my T7575 using Board Express

 

[oberry]

Have you setup groups in your people hub yet? That's how I filter through the posts I don't want to see on FB. I have the important people in my life in groups so I can see through the clutter.

Sent from my T7575 using Board Express

I hadn't thought of that, I'll give it a shot, thanks.

For anyone wanting to help out, I'm still looking for help (or comments on):
- How do I set it to automatically download images on every email?
- The lock screen notifications... Is there no way to personalize them to see a little more than "1 new email", "1 new text"?
- Is there a developer app that will allow my to adjust audio levels for music? The default quality is pitiful!

 

[jfa1]

I hadn't thought of that, I'll give it a shot, thanks.

For anyone wanting to help out, I'm still looking for help (or comments on):
- How do I set it to automatically download images on every email?
- The lock screen notifications... Is there no way to personalize them to see a little more than "1 new email", "1 new text"?
- Is there a developer app that will allow my to adjust audio levels for music? The default quality is pitiful!

I will try to help which is not much at least I can answer but for the most part it probably not what you want to hear

a) at lkeast with ie9 on WP I dont think you can set it to automatically download pictures in emails in hotmail if you have gmail you may be able to set that up in gmail settings

b) right now its not really possible to customize or personalise to add notifications

c) right now there is a unitary volume control for all audio functions.

Maybe in tango out soon as in February or Apollo update set for June maybe those features you want may be added

 

[oberry]

Thanks jfa1. Not what I wanted to hear, especially the audio part (since that essentially means I have to carry an iPod around with me now). I had no idea there were two updates coming so soon though, that's definitely something to be positive about. Will I have access to their betas since I'm now a developer?

 

[aubreyq]

Welcome to Windows Phone, olly666. I have to agree with your take on the Facebook app. I use Facebook more than anything else on the phone, and it's starting to get embarrassing that Windows Phone is getting more users yet the Facebook app, which should be a premier app, it's not at the level of its competitors. I cannot "Like" a comment inside someone's post, and like you said, the filters you set up on the website don't work.

The Facebook integration with the People Hub gets brought up a lot and it's one of the selling points, but Microsoft doesn't make clear that you won't see all of your friends' updates on the People Hub because some of your friends might be blocking 3rd party apps and the People Hub is considered a 3rd party app.

I sure hope Microsoft gets off their butts and take Facebook, Twitter and the People Hub to the stratosphere.

BTW, Microsoft hasn't officially announced the release times of Tango and Apollo, so take everything you read with a grain of salt, eh?

Again, welcome, and I hope you enjoy Windows Phone. Despite the aforementioned, Windows Phone is a great, smooth OS with the best mobile user interface IMHO.

 

[enahs555]

I do believe that the HTC phones have a audio equalizer. Somebody with an HTC can correct me if I am wrong. So it is totally possible. Just I guess Samsung is lazy!

 

[oberry]

I do believe that the HTC phones have a audio equalizer. Somebody with an HTC can correct me if I am wrong. So it is totally possible. Just I guess Samsung is lazy!

Looks like you're right. Any idea if someone has ported it so that I can install it as a dev?

 

[dtreo]

I cannot understand the reasoning behind wasting so much space on the home screen for the right arrow. Why is that not eliminated and each tile widened for more info and a simple swipe to the right goes to the apps list just like pushing the arrow does now? Is there any good reason or patent issue to explain this design?

I just don't get that one.

 

[oberry]

I cannot understand the reasoning behind wasting so much space on the home screen for the right arrow. Why is that not eliminated and each tile widened for more info and a simple swipe to the right goes to the apps list just like pushing the arrow does now? Is there any good reason or patent issue to explain this design?

I just don't get that one.

I'm with you on that one. Confusing. Lucky for me the Focus S has a big screen (compared to my iPhone) so I'm not complaining about sizing issues for now.

 

[enahs555]

It is part of the style of metro. If it was just nothing but a grid of tiles, it would be no different then the iPhone, a grid of icons.

Just part of the style. You might not think you like it, but from a design perspective all those empty spaces and little things like that are what really give the sense and feel to the system.

 

[oberry]

bump

Also, an update on facebook notifications. I re-enabled email notifications, set up a rule in Gmail to skip the inbox on those messages and label them as 'Facebook'. Then I set up a tile for that folder. A bit of a hassle to set up and not the most elegant of solutions, but it'll do for now.

My biggest gripe is the lack of audio settings for music. It's just FLAT. I found there's an HTC app that allows you to tweak audio settings, but you can't even side load it without HTC hardware. I refuse to believe this isn't seen as a major problem by the masses. Some one must have developed an app for it by now? Is there a website somewhere to view developer apps that aren't in the marketplace? Grrr....

 

[Matthew Mazzenga]

It is part of the style of metro. If it was just nothing but a grid of tiles, it would be no different then the iPhone, a grid of icons.

You really believe that? Take the arrow away, and you have an iPhone? Not buyin' it.

Take the arrow away, and you still have a screen of live tiles, completely different from any other phone OS out there. The arrow is a waste of space.

I never even press on the arrow. I just swipe over to the app list. Considering MS's whole "most people hold their phones in their left hand so that's why the tiles aren't centered" concept....the arrow being at top right isn't even convenient. It just makes even less sense to me.

 

[manicottiK]

The arrow lets new users know that the they can scroll sideways, which isn't otherwise noticable. (Note that MS went out of their way to make the arrow bounce rightward when at the top or bottom of the list to draw more attention to the ability to move sideways to the full app list.)

The size of the live tiles isn't about to change without advance warning because thousands of developers have built apps (including push servers) all expecting a 173x173 canvas.