More GDR3 Features

[astondg]

I haven't used iOS since November last year (when I switch to WP8) but the last time I did use it I remember it working like this:
1. System volume that was separate for

​

a. Phone speaker

​

b. Headphones

​

c. Bluetooth (possibly per device?)
2. Call volume
3. An app could have a separate volume IF the developer opted in to that API but it was only for 'scaling' the volume set in 1. I.e. setting an app volume to max would only be as loud as the 'system' volume.

I could be wrong but that's how I remember it and I never touched an apps volume setting, all the apps I tried defaulted to max volume in app which seemed consistent with all the other system sounds. Basically I set the volume with the hardware volume switch (per audio device) and rarely touched it.

 

[crash1989]

I mean if they are able to implement the top 15 requested features
Feature Suggestions: Top (33417 ideas) I would be super happy.

 

[broar94]

Sounds like no body is interested in rotation lock

 

[crash1989]

Sounds like no body is interested in rotation lock

I need it very badly.

 

[he_shark]

My take on GDR3 is that MS has heard our voices and changed their roadmap for WP. I think 8.1 was an intermediate step between 8 and a merger with RT that was to have lots of added features as well as smoothing the way for that merger. They decided to scrap 8.1, put the majority of the most requested features into GDR3, not waste time coding 8.1 and jumped straight to 9 that will merge with Windows RT and bring in a common app store across tablet and mobile. Thus the delay of the "next big" release of WP to Q2 or later.

 

[Samst22]

It's going to be a long time before phone and RT merge. I don't expect that before late 2014 or 2015. Since it would require a big update to RT and they are just about to get one now with 8.1.

 

[Jazmac]

Sounds like no body is interested in rotation lock

Rotation Lock is not high on my list of items. Its one of those "nice to haves" but not a must have, like Notification center.

 

[Bob Shiska]

Er, wtf?

He's quoting Billy Madison. Point being, there's been several leaks or whatever that support this sequence of events:

WP8.1 originally intended for October 2013 release, three GDR releases (about every three months) to address bugs and support new hardware.

Bug squashing with GDRs consumed more time than MSFT was anticipating, pushing GDR2, GDR3, and WP8.1 back by a few months each.

Meanwhile, WP8.1 team had still been working. Some updates are done. To address the lack of new software that would otherwise exist for a few months, MSFT moved some of the scope for WP8.1 to GDR3.

tl;dr: Your take is completely unsupported by facts that have been publicly available for some time.

 

[Robert Carpenter]

Er, wtf?

It was just a funny/friendly movie quote lol. WindowsPhone 8.1 is already out in the wild being tested, so your claim about it being dropped seemed rather silly. That's all haha

 

[Robert Carpenter]

Valuable input there. Glad you can quote a movie.

You mad about something?

 

[Indistinguishable]

You mad about something?

I'm certainly not mad. I just try to point out when someone, including a poster like yourself who tends to post helpful things, posts something unhelpful. Not trying to get into anything with you.

 

[Mike Gibson]

I wouldn't dismiss he_shark's theory so quickly. WinPRT has some traction in the smartphone market and WinRT is failing badly. I would not be surprised to see WinRT/Metro deemphasized or made optional in Windows 9. If MSFT doesn't, they could potentially lose the laptop/desktop market and that would start the rest of the dominos falling. In addition, the company is in internal disarray following Ballmer's resignation. I can't imagine how many turf wars are going on.

Given all that, the smart play would be to focus on adding features that users need to the existing WP8 OS code and defer revving the core again. Revving the core would be nice but MSFT needs to focus on the WP8 users right now, not developers.

 

[MacDaMachine]

I wouldn't dismiss he_shark's theory so quickly. WinPRT has some traction in the smartphone market and WinRT is failing badly. I would not be surprised to see WinRT/Metro deemphasized or made optional in Windows 9. If MSFT doesn't, they could potentially lose the laptop/desktop market and that would start the rest of the dominos falling. In addition, the company is in internal disarray following Ballmer's resignation. I can't imagine how many turf wars are going.

You can't imagine them because they don't exist. RT is failing badly because it isn't on good hardware at decent price points.

 

[he_shark]

He's quoting Billy Madison. Point being, there's been several leaks or whatever that support this sequence of events:

WP8.1 originally intended for October 2013 release, three GDR releases (about every three months) to address bugs and support new hardware.

Bug squashing with GDRs consumed more time than MSFT was anticipating, pushing GDR2, GDR3, and WP8.1 back by a few months each.

Meanwhile, WP8.1 team had still been working. Some updates are done. To address the lack of new software that would otherwise exist for a few months, MSFT moved some of the scope for WP8.1 to GDR3.

tl;dr: Your take is completely unsupported by facts that have been publicly available for some time.

Ok, never heard of Billy Madison. Well at least it was a quote and not a completely personal attack, I thought calling me idiotic was a bit much, this is just a forum for sharing ideas after all, but since it's a quote, that's ok.

What you say may be true I know it's more likely than my theory, but it's just a theory and you never know I could be right. Nothing has been announced officially; just because there have been tests on WP8.1 and it's showing up in server logs doesn't mean they might not have decided to skip it and jump straight to 9. People will still have handsets with it on for testing, but it won't actually ever be finished or released. Now I know I've totally made that up and there's no "facts" behind it, it doesn't stop it being a workable theory however.

Say they need another 6 months now to complete 8.1, so it'd be ready Feb time. But they cannot start work on 9 until 8.1 is ready and that'll take another 10 months, so say ready around Dec 2014. OR, they can back port features from 8.1 into GDR3 while another team starts work on 9. It'd then be ready in June, 6 months earlier.

Again, just a wild theory, but why not? It gets them to 9 much sooner, which I think is something Microsoft need (and Nokia are demanding). It gives us the main requested features far sooner (this year and around the supposed initial release date for 8.1). Ok, it may not have all the bells and whistles and planned features for 8.1 but if it covers enough needs it'll see people over til 9 which would be this massive update.

So sure no facts, pure speculation - but then isn't there loads of that around tech these days - but there's some logic behind it if you think about it and don't just rush to say I'm talking BS and quoting some movie at me!

 

[he_shark]

You can't imagine them because they don't exist. RT is failing badly because it isn't on good hardware at decent price points.

RT is failing badly because there's no apps for it. If it had all the games and apps that the iPad has, plus Office and the other nice things in RT it'd do fine. As it is, people buy it thinking it's Windows, it's not, and then find that it can't even do iPad stuff. It is a good idea, but it's chicken and egg and they shouldn't have released the Surface RT until their were more modern metro apps.

Linking RT & WP would at least give them 150,000 phone apps - scaling wouldn't be ideal, but it'd go a way towards solving the apps issue on RT.

Get a feeling people will disagree with this as much as with my last post, but hey ho, always nice to have a healthy discussion...

 

[Robert Carpenter]

Ok, never heard of Billy Madison. Well at least it was a quote and not a completely personal attack, I thought calling me idiotic was a bit much, this is just a forum for sharing ideas after all, but since it's a quote, that's ok.

What you say may be true I know it's more likely than my theory, but it's just a theory and you never know I could be right. Nothing has been announced officially; just because there have been tests on WP8.1 and it's showing up in server logs doesn't mean they might not have decided to skip it and jump straight to 9. People will still have handsets with it on for testing, but it won't actually ever be finished or released. Now I know I've totally made that up and there's no "facts" behind it, it doesn't stop it being a workable theory however.

Say they need another 6 months now to complete 8.1, so it'd be ready Feb time. But they cannot start work on 9 until 8.1 is ready and that'll take another 10 months, so say ready around Dec 2014. OR, they can back port features from 8.1 into GDR3 while another team starts work on 9. It'd then be ready in June, 6 months earlier.

Again, just a wild theory, but why not? It gets them to 9 much sooner, which I think is something Microsoft need (and Nokia are demanding). It gives us the main requested features far sooner (this year and around the supposed initial release date for 8.1). Ok, it may not have all the bells and whistles and planned features for 8.1 but if it covers enough needs it'll see people over til 9 which would be this massive update.

So sure no facts, pure speculation - but then isn't there loads of that around tech these days - but there's some logic behind it if you think about it and don't just rush to say I'm talking BS and quoting some movie at me!

The reason for the quote was so it wasn't offensive lol. Sorry about that. I just thought it would be humorous, thought it was a very well known quote =/

 

[Robert Carpenter]

I'm certainly not mad. I just try to point out when someone, including a poster like yourself who tends to post helpful things, posts something unhelpful. Not trying to get into anything with you.

I posted a movie quote for laughs, that's all. Bob Shishka beat me to the helpful response so I wasn't going to repeat what he said =)

 

[tk-093]

ios has done it for years

Interesting. Was that an iOS 6 thing? All I remember from my 4S days was how much of a huge pain it was to get custom tones on there because it involved iTunes. It's like they intentionally made it difficult so you would just give up and buy the tones from the store.

 

[Cormango]

Interesting. Was that an iOS 6 thing? All I remember from my 4S days was how much of a huge pain it was to get custom tones on there because it involved iTunes. It's like they intentionally made it difficult so you would just give up and buy the tones from the store.

iOS had this option in iOS 4 I believe. Basically you had access to the ringtones library when setting a SMS tone. And you could set individual SMS tones to contacts. I really really miss this feature.

 

[a5cent]

Get a feeling people will disagree with this as much as with my last post, but hey ho, always nice to have a healthy discussion...

The reason being, that there is little value in inventing some alternate reality.

While your scenario is not impossible, the probability of it being accurate is almost zero. We have actual reporting (mostly Marry J. Foley), a few blog statements and a sequence of events to go on, all of which point to the scenario outlined by Bob.

Project roadmaps of this complexity, involving 100's of people working through a tightly coordinated process, can't be thrown overboard or reorganized on a whim. We would have heard something corroborating your theory already months ago.

When piecing together someone else's puzzle, it is best to use the pieces they give us.

I'm not disputing that WRT will run WP apps at some point. Just your depiction of the how the process that is getting us there unfolded.