waivering on making the change to WP8 from iOS

[R T]

I am a current iphone user. My smartphone experience started several years ago with a Blackberry provided by my job. I have to tell you that I loved the keyboard and the red message light. Like many others, I thought that the iphone was just a toy when it came out and was hopeful that RIM could come up with a killer, but we all know how that turned out. My wife got an iphone
3Gs a few years ago and it was a great device for her as she is not at all techy. I have always been a Windows/Office user (fan is going too far; I don't have an emotional connection to any company) and kind of anti apple for all the reasons that most of you know. PC v. Mac; I'm PC. I refuse to go android for reasons I won't go into regarding Google.

My company went to BYOD and it was no real choice a little over two years ago to choose an iphone 4. So, now I have been waiting for the windows phone and holding off on tablet purchases for the same reasons. I feel like I will either have to go all-in with Apple and get a Macbook, new iphone and ipad or get a WP8 phone, W 8 tablet and upgrade my laptop to W 8 (this is my preference). I've actually gone to the ATT store three times to just try and see a cyan 920, but haven't found one yet. I am a huge newsy and research the crap out of everything before I buy anything (incidently, this drives my wife insane). The reviews on Cnet, etc... of the 920 I find just rediculous, I think it sounds incredible. I don't remember people panning android devices over lack of apps at first and also don't remember people complaining that thier much smaller iphone 4s and 4Ss weighed too much; stupid.

I am not a technical person, but a high level user, if that makes sense. I upgraded my laptop to W 8 from 7 and unfortunately I have to agree that the change is really ham handed attempt by MS. It is a great OS, but it is not intuitive how to do many things that many of us have been able to do in Windows for years. I think they are screwed and need to publicly address the issues there and change it. This is something good about MS, they are not afraid to fix something that they screw up.

So, I read a lot of crap about WP8 and I signed up to this site today to read what people that are using WP8 are saying about it and I have to say, that I am not encouraged. Say what we will about Apple, thier **** works and is intuitive, I have a ton of money in apps and music that I am/was willing to walk away from for Nokia/MS, but every day there is a new story about one or both of them stepping on thier d***s; it's a comedy of errors.

Anyway, I'm interested in hearing any thoughtful remarks on the subject.

 

[jsk0703]

It's like any other system. Needs time to mature. The support and updates will come. Remember, we're not even a month into launch yet.

 

[mlm1950]

If you don't like the changes that came with Windows 8 and aren't willing to adapt to it, you might as well go all in with Apple, because Microsoft isn't going to change it, as well they shouldn't.

 

[cammsaul]

I have an iPhone 5 and L920, and every day I use a Retina MacBook and a custom watercooled PC. I like the L920 better. It feels faster and smoother and doesn't have the occasional lag iOS has (hit a button and nothing happens for 5 seconds). It seems to be less buggy than my iPhone 5 (the other day it just straight up froze and I had to hard-reset it). The Lumia 920 is a sexy beast and iOS seems very stale and dated by comparison. The one area where iPhone beats WP is apps. WP8 is missing some big ones like Spotify. Overall though I am willing give up a few apps in exchange for a much better overall experience. I'm confident it will change in the future because in my experience it is definitely easier to write WP apps than iOS, Microsoft really knows their way around developer support. I prefer my Win 8 PC over the Mac any day as well. The Mac is sexy, but it cost $3000, and its not $3000 sexy. When a similar PC laptop costs $1500 you have to be insane to buy one, especially since you cannot upgrade anything down the road (including RAM). I like W8. The Metro mash-up can be weird but its faster overall and there are lots of nice tweaks like the ribbon Explorer. I work on my PC unless I'm doing iPhone dev which has to be done on a Mac.

 

[iamtim]

It is a great OS, but it is not intuitive how to do many things that many of us have been able to do in Windows for years.

If you approach Windows 8 thinking you'll be able to do things the same way you did in Windows 7/Vista/XP, you're doing it wrong. Windows 8 is not Windows 7/Vista/XP and there are now different ways - *many* of them better ways - to do those things.

Windows Phone 8 is the same. If you pick up a Windows Phone 8 and expect it to work like an Android or iOS phone, you're doing it wrong. Yes, there are fewer apps on WP8 than on iOS/Android but in many cases (Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn immediately come to mind) you probably won't even need an app because of built-in WP8 functionality. Yes, WP8 is having a few other issues as well (random reboots on some phones, major battery drain on others both come to mind) but this is a brand new operating system on brand new hardware and they'll be ironed out as time goes on.

I tell you this - from personal experience - if you drop your Windows 7/Vista/XP "baggage" at the door and approach Windows 8 as a new operating system you'll see what I'm talking about. And then you won't want an iPhone or an Android phone; you'll want a WP8 device.

 

[AZBrowncoat]

I have a ton of money in apps and music that I am/was willing to walk away from for Nokia/MS

Similar situation here, my family currently has upwards of a dozen iOS devices, and I'm the lone wolf striking out from iOS to try something new.

Hundreds of apps, books, movies, music, games and I thought I would try something new

Unfortunately the transition from iOS to WP8 is not going as smoothly as I would like. I've had the phone for six days and am still struggling to get contacts to work properly and my iTunes music (no DRM files) refuses to sync properly.

I love the Lumia 920 phone and the WPOS is slick but it is far from mature IMHO...you are not going to get the cohesive iOS/iTunes experience. I suppose it depends on how much time and effort you are willing to put in.

 

[Nataku4ca]

well, my experience with WP7 has been great to say the least, I was going to get WP8 until I was told that I have another year under my contract :crying:
contemplating on buying one out, but from the sound of it Rogers is making it as hard as possible

here is the thing, do you like what you see and have you played with one? If you haven't played with it, I highly encourage it (and tell the sales to go away if they start to annoy you)
I had WP7 before I got my Surface so when I bought mine everything just synced together, it was actually pretty awsome, one thing that might take alittle getting used to is the back button since it's implemented in a pretty interesting way that can be alittle odd at first, but once you understand how it works, it works much better than how Android does it (iphone doesn't have one and it was actually annoying to me when I went and used my wife's iphone)

I can list all the reasons I love the phone, but I think it would be better if you let us know what you are "waivering" on?

 

[Nataku4ca]

my iTunes music (no DRM files) refuses to sync properly.

are you using a Mac? I heard the connector for it still needs alot of work, it might be easier if you drag and drop the song (since WP8 can act as mass storage device now)

 

[iamtim]

still struggling to get contacts to work properly and my iTunes music (no DRM files) refuses to sync properly

For what it's worth... I've had problems syncing contacts on both iOS (iPhone 3G/3GS/4) and Android (TMO G3/Samsung Captivate/Nexus 7). That technology is kinda... touchy at times.

As far as music is concerned, I've bought DRMed songs from the iTunes store which I could NEVER sync to my iPhone. *shrug*

My point here is that the problems you're reporting are not WP8 specific, they happen on ALL platforms.

 

[AZBrowncoat]

are you using a Mac? I heard the connector for it still needs alot of work, it might be easier if you drag and drop the song (since WP8 can act as mass storage device now)

Using a PC with the Sync Utility...based on another tip on this forum I am also going to try Windows Media player and see how that goes. I've tried drag/dropping the files but then for some reason it wants to convert them to WMA files (shrug).

For what it's worth... I've had problems syncing contacts on both iOS (iPhone 3G/3GS/4) and Android (TMO G3/Samsung Captivate/Nexus 7). That technology is kinda... touchy at times.

Personally I don't recall ever having issues with my contacts with iOS...that being said I detest the way iOS/iCloud handles contacts from multiple sources (iCloud, Yahoo!, Facebook, CompanyGMail) where I end up with as many as four contacts for one person since it does not merge the contacts the way WP8 does.

I know every OS has issues...since I upgraded to iOS6 my iP4 screen does not always auto-off properly and 'shortcuts' no longer work properly but with WP8 there are widespread reports of basic functions not working properly. How can MS with it's decades of software engineering prowess and lessons learned from Zune not have a decent reliable music syncing utility...honestly?

IMHO - a newly recruited WP8 user that gets frustrated and then defects back to Android/iOS because some things are just plain broken is one of the worst things that can happen to WP8 because that person is going to tell everyone they know just how awful their WP8 experience was.

Personally I can live without music on my Lumia as I have converted my iPhone to an iPod just for that purpose, but the contact situation is something I have to get figured out, as my phone is first and foremost a business tool and basic PIM functionality is critical to me. I've got my email working, I'm getting my calendar notifications (conference call notifications) - pretty much everything but contacts is at least working and stable.

 

[blehblehbleh]

Similar to what others have said in this thread, I think if you're gonna go in you should do so without any preconceived expectations on how WP8 should/should not be. I get that some features may be missing or in a state of flux at the moment but that shouldn't stop your own ability to adapt to the situation. I think you should focus on the main concerns / usability you need/truly necessary and decide which provides the better experience not just now but in the long term with the equipment you have or will get.

 

[hiken6]

I've been using WP8 for the past week (htc 8x). Love, but small problems are driving me crazy. Every once and a while I go to camera and its just a green screen, have to restart to fix. Yesterday I couldn't change the volume while listening to podcasts. Only podcasts, while listening to songs it was fine. Reset fixed it. Then, music overlay controls wouldn't come up, whether or not I was playing a song, reset to fix. Problems keep reoccurring.

I like the UI, but I think I'm going to return the phone so I don't waste my 2-year renewal. Also, I'm on Verizon so I will pretty much never get an update, lame.

 

[snaqvi91]

If you liked blackberry then you might want to wait for blackberry 10 that's coming out next month. It has been written from scratch and is based on the QNX microkernel, a lot of the things that makes blackberry so great have been made even better and I think its fair to say that its ahead of the rest in those areas that have traditionally been blackberry's strengths. Have a look:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfdgeLozaGQ&feature=youtube_gdata_player

 

[Nataku4ca]

I've been using WP8 for the past week (htc 8x). Love, but small problems are driving me crazy. Every once and a while I go to camera and its just a green screen, have to restart to fix. Yesterday I couldn't change the volume while listening to podcasts. Only podcasts, while listening to songs it was fine. Reset fixed it. Then, music overlay controls wouldn't come up, whether or not I was playing a song, reset to fix. Problems keep reoccurring.

I like the UI, but I think I'm going to return the phone so I don't waste my 2-year renewal. Also, I'm on Verizon so I will pretty much never get an update, lame.

I thought Verizon had been pretty good with updates and AT&T was the one screwing around?

btw, i think u should get it exchanged, i haven't heard of this green screen issue before so it might be isolated broken hardware

 

[thor_molecules]

I eventually returned my Lumia 822 for an iPhone 5. Don't get me wrong, I very much liked the WP8 interface, but it seemed to me that the platform isn't yet mature enough. I had problems from the start with freezing and unresponsive apps (Nokia Drive comes to mind). I can live with the occasional lockup but when it's happening 2-3 times a day it becomes much easier to just go back to what you know. Other issues I had:

-Making a phone call takes entirely too many steps. Assuming the person isn't in your recent calls log you have to: tap the phone icon-->tap the address book icon at the bottom-->tap the magnifying glass to bring up search-->enter the name you're looking for-->tap the contact record-->and then finally, tap the number.

Geez Louise. Half the time I'd forget halfway through the process who I even wanted to call and would go off to do something else.

-Bluetooth didn't work consistently with my car stereo. Sometimes when I answered a call, the phone would just freeze. Other times, it just wouldn't connect at all without multiple reboots.

Deal breaker.

-Music/podcasts management is a nightmare. The built-in app (Xbox Music) is buggy, and the third party options weren't much better. No subscription specific settings for podcasts-- it's either all or none. Also, trying to resume a track is a royal PITA. It frequently forgot where I left off and just started playing the whole thing over. No high speed scrubbing either.

Another deal breaker.

-Erratic 'back' button behavior. Not sure if this is a bug, or just poor design but I noticed if an app is in the background for awhile and then you resume it, hitting back will CLOSE the app instead of going back to the previous menu. Maddening, to say the least.

-IE Mobile isn't 'there" yet. It doesn't work properly with many of the websites I frequent and yes, I did try desktop mode to no avail. I understand this isn't totally Microsoft's fault (WebKit compatibility) but when I spend upwards of $200 for a smartphone I expect it to just work for the things I need it to. Also, IE doesn't remember passwords (yes, the option in the settings was checked).

Deal breaker #3.

-Facebook app is terrible. Doesn't adhere to the view settings (e.g. hidden people, apps) like iOS and Android does, and is just all around slow. This is probably the one thing I could deal with because Facebook isn't a huge deal to me...but I thought I'd still mention it.

-WP8 doesn't yet support VPN. May not be an issue for you, but I need it for when I'm out and about.

All these things together made me feel like I was trying to workaround them just to get the Lumia to be as functional as my iPhone. It did not feel like a leap forward. I understand that 'Portico' should fix some of these issues but I decided to return it anyway because I didn't want be stuck with it if the update doesn't deliver.

However, I'm still keeping an eye on the platform though and will probably return to it at some point.

...Anyway, this was just my experience. Kind of long I know, but hopefully it will help you make an informed decision.

 

[socialcarpet]

This is why I refuse to commit to any single ecosystem.

I use a Windows Phone, an Mac OS X laptop, A Windows 7 PC and an Android Tablet.

If I wanted to, tomorrow I could switch to an iPhone, Windows 8 laptop, Ubuntu Linux PC and a Blackberry Playbook and it would make no difference.

I buy what I like best in any particular category. I'm ok with giving up certain things not to get locked into an ecosystem. Screw having 80,000 iTunes playlists or some Windows-dependent app or some Android only feature that my life depends on.

 

[MIKEVCAMPBELL]

I think that I was in the EXACT boat that you are. My wife is an Apple fan because it is trendy and easy. I had an iPhone 4 because I don't like Droid and there wasn't another viable option. I was waiting for WP 8 since this spring and I got the Lumia 920 the day it was released by AT&T. I am very satisfied with the switch.

What I miss from iOS:
There are a few apps that I am still waiting to come over to our side. Watchespn is the biggest, but also a few that I used for work (8x8 and metrofax)
Facetime and iChat: that may sound stupid but my father is close to 70 and loves his iPad. He refuses to try to learn how to text so I was able to 'chat' with him easily. Skype would be a perfect replacement in a normal situation but since he isn't tech savvy he forgets to check the notifications in skype.

What I love about the change:
WP8 is a breath of fresh air. Apple is so restrictive, so vanilla, and so boring that I was getting sick of phone technology. The OS is FAST, it never lags and you will really notice the 4g speeds. (I know most phones have that but as a fellow iPhone 4 user you'll experience what I did.)
The office suite is AWESOME. I work with spreadsheets a lot and it is awesome to be able to do functions on a spreadsheet and kick it back to skydrive.

Syncing contacts and music hasn't been a problem for me. Nokia has an app that will help you transfer all the basic stuff from your phone via bluetube and the apps Microsoft created make getting the music and other media a breeze. (just a heads up, if you want to transfer playlists and all of that from itunes you will have to get the app for Windows 7 on your desktop. I would also suggest getting the one for windows 8 for the added bonuses it has.)

If you are thinking about it then you know Apple isn't for you. I made the change over a month ago and I have no regrets. I even convinced my wife to switch but she wanted the Cyan 920 so we are playing the waiting game on that one.

 

[thor_molecules]

"Apple is......so vanilla, and so boring."

Even though I switched back, I have to admit that iOS is pretty stale when compared to the current offerings from Microsoft and Google. I suspect that Apple is aware of this, and will add a little more pizazz come iOS 7.

....now back to your regularly scheduled program.

 

[stmav]

There are easier ways to make a call than that method. I don't know why you would do it that way. But if the phone's not for you, nobody knows better than you. At least you gave it a shot.

 

[jdhooghe]

Comparing ios6 to WP8 is the program right now...