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Lack of Windows Apps

  • 09-01-2014 3:25pm
    #1
    Moyglish
    Registered Users Posts: 759 ✭✭✭


    I recently bought a Nokia 925 and love the phone itself.

    I love the look and feel of the phone and find it very snappy, all good so far.

    However the lack of apps are killing me. One of the biggest downfalls for me is the lack of an official Gmail app - the one I have is terrible, it doesn't put mail into categories, html emails don't display, it's just crap basically.

    I also really miss not having TheJournal, Carzone, Donedeal, even the DailyFail apps on my phone.

    Also seriously missing the Stitcher podcast app - I love my podcasts!

    I'm starting to regret my purchase now - anyone else feel the same?

    I previously had a Samsung Galaxy S3 and loved that and would use it all day, every day. I rarely find myself reaching for the 925 now.

    I can't even seem to find a proper uTorrent or qBitTorrent app to download torrents straight onto the phone.

    Should I stick with the 925 a bit longer or just cut my losses, sell it and buy another Android again?


Comments

  • #2
    PaulieC
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,196 ✭✭✭PaulieC


    Moyglish wrote: »
    I recently bought a Nokia 925 and love the phone itself.

    I love the look and feel of the phone and find it very snappy, all good so far.

    However the lack of apps are killing me. One of the biggest downfalls for me is the lack of an official Gmail app - the one I have is terrible, it doesn't put mail into categories, html emails don't display, it's just crap basically.

    I also really miss not having TheJournal, Carzone, Donedeal, even the DailyFail apps on my phone.

    Also seriously missing the Stitcher podcast app - I love my podcasts!

    I'm starting to regret my purchase now - anyone else feel the same?

    I previously had a Samsung Galaxy S3 and loved that and would use it all day, every day. I rarely find myself reaching for the 925 now.

    I can't even seem to find a proper uTorrent or qBitTorrent app to download torrents straight onto the phone.

    Should I stick with the 925 a bit longer or just cut my losses, sell it and buy another Android again?

    If the Galaxy was so wonderful why did you get the Lumia ? Two friends of mine have S3s and every time I see them (usually in the pub on a Friday evening) at least one of them has to either reboot the phone or remove the battery to recover from hangs.
    I know there are some apps missing, but I would prefer all day long to have a phone that works.
    The Journal, DoneDeal have perfectly good mobile sites.


  • #3
    pleasant Co.
    Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 7,415 Mod ✭✭✭✭pleasant Co.


    Moyglish wrote: »
    just cut my losses, sell it and buy another Android again?

    Probably this, come back when apps are more plentiful, if that ever happens :P

    Being 100% honest android isn't for me and I'm not recommending it, just working with what you've said. When I leave windows phone it'll be to go back to the fruit and that'll be simply down to app choice and reliability (the latter of which I have no issue with on wp8). For now I'm happy enough with my WP choice, but I do have some killer features that neither apple or the android dudes can compete with (for my money). If MS get their act together I might even stay a WP user, but their activity to date inspires very little confidence.


  • #4
    bidiots
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,492 ✭✭✭bidiots


    Moyglish wrote: »
    I recently bought a Nokia 925 and love the phone itself.

    I love the look and feel of the phone and find it very snappy, all good so far.

    However the lack of apps are killing me. One of the biggest downfalls for me is the lack of an official Gmail app - the one I have is terrible, it doesn't put mail into categories, html emails don't display, it's just crap basically.

    I also really miss not having TheJournal, Carzone, Donedeal, even the DailyFail apps on my phone.

    Also seriously missing the Stitcher podcast app - I love my podcasts!

    I'm starting to regret my purchase now - anyone else feel the same?

    I previously had a Samsung Galaxy S3 and loved that and would use it all day, every day. I rarely find myself reaching for the 925 now.

    I can't even seem to find a proper uTorrent or qBitTorrent app to download torrents straight onto the phone.

    Should I stick with the 925 a bit longer or just cut my losses, sell it and buy another Android again?

    Do you need a gmail app? Can you not just link the email account?


  • #5
    Delirium
    Moderators Posts: 51,881 ✭✭✭✭Delirium


    bidiots wrote: »
    Do you need a gmail app? Can you not just link the email account?
    +1

    Have two gmail accounts working on my lumia. Just create a tile for each account on the homescreen and it's as good as an app.

    If you can read this, you're too close!



  • #6
    bidiots
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,492 ✭✭✭bidiots


    Same as that, I have GMail, Hotmail and work email accounts and it all works excellently for me....


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  • #7
    Brian CivilEng
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,033 ✭✭✭Brian CivilEng


    For gmail, I use the inbuilt outlook app, it works very well for gmail. Don't know why you'd need a separate app at all.

    With podcasts, I'd very highly recommend Podcast Lounge. Works very well, downloads all my subscriptions over night. The only caveat is that it will only download files bigger than 20mb using wifi. It will stream files larger than this on mobile data though.

    I think you should stick with Windows Phone for a while. Don't try replicating your Apple or Android experiences on it though, do you need a particular app or do you need an app that does what you want to do. There's still less than 10% market share so a lot of local apps don't have wp variants, but Internet Explorer is a powerful mobile browser so you can usually get away with using the website. Hopefully companies will see all the wp8 browsers using their sites and decide that they should do an app.


  • #8
    delos
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 404 ✭✭delos


    Personally I use Gmail when I need to provide an e-mail address and my live.ie/Outlook.com account to deal with real people and I like to keep them separate so I use metromail to manage my Gmail.

    It's not free but €1.49 is hardly going to break the bank. It seems to handle labels, categories and html well but as this is essentially my junk e-mail account if you are a heavy user you might not be as happy as me. It might be a touch more sluggish than the native e-mail on the phone.

    As far as I can remember, historically Gmail apps had issues every so often when Google decided to act the b00lix but they seem to be behaving (with Gmail at least) for now.


  • #9
    jimmynokia
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,467 ✭✭✭jimmynokia


    Put your app requests here http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057076663

    There is myself and several others working on bringing apps to wp....


  • #10
    beauf
    Closed Accounts Posts: 22,648 ✭✭✭✭beauf


    On my lumia notifications from boards appear tiny, unreadable unless you zoom then they don't reflow to fit. Annoying as heck. No one else have that.


  • #11
    gman2k
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,076 ✭✭✭gman2k


    beauf wrote: »
    On my lumia notifications from boards appear tiny, unreadable unless you zoom then they don't reflow to fit. Annoying as heck. No one else have that.

    are you using touch.boards.ie?


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  • #12
    beauf
    Closed Accounts Posts: 22,648 ✭✭✭✭beauf


    gman2k wrote: »
    are you using touch.boards.ie?

    Its the default gmail on windows phone. Maybe its the formatting of the email or something.

    Also when I click on the link in email, can I set that it goes to the mobile site, not the main site?


  • #13
    senordingdong
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10,673 ✭✭✭✭senordingdong


    Not sure what the peoples problems were in relation to WP apps.
    To me an app is just a shortcut, to a website that you can reach through your phones browser anyway.

    And even then, some of them change the format so much that it becomes a headache. (adverts.ie app mar shampla).

    Furthermore, all of my friends that swear by their iphones and galaxies...the majority of their apps are trash anyway.

    Really...what are you missing that you can not access through your browser?


  • #14
    jimmynokia
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,467 ✭✭✭jimmynokia


    senordingdong wrote: »
    Not sure what the peoples problems were in relation to WP apps.
    To me an app is just a shortcut, to a website that you can reach through your phones browser anyway.

    And even then, some of them change the format so much that it becomes a headache. (adverts.ie app mar shampla).


    Furthermore, all of my friends that swear by their iphones and galaxies...the majority of their apps are trash anyway.

    Really...what are you missing that you can not access through your browser?

    Depends on ones needs and then if the site etc is truly mobile optimised.


  • #15
    senordingdong
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10,673 ✭✭✭✭senordingdong


    jimmynokia wrote: »
    Depends on ones needs and then if the site etc is truly mobile optimised.

    Yes true there are often sites that are not optimised, but (personally) I've never been so in need of a site, and at the same time, been so far out of reach of a functioning computer.

    Everything else just seems trivial to me.
    WP8 functions just fine. My personal choice however, came down to nokia reliability, and durability. As always.


  • #16
    jimmynokia
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,467 ✭✭✭jimmynokia


    senordingdong wrote: »
    Yes true there are often sites that are not optimised, but (personally) I've never been so in need of a site, and at the same time, been so far out of reach of a functioning computer.

    Everything else just seems trivial to me.
    WP8 functions just fine. My personal choice however, came down to nokia reliability, and durability. As always.

    Yeah Nokia make good products and reliable. I like to have all avenues covered with choice.


  • #17
    beauf
    Closed Accounts Posts: 22,648 ✭✭✭✭beauf


    senordingdong wrote: »
    N...Really...what are you missing that you can not access through your browser?

    A decent browser.


  • #18
    pleasant Co.
    Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 7,415 Mod ✭✭✭✭pleasant Co.


    beauf wrote: »
    A decent browser.

    What makes a decent browser?

    For me, the UC browser is a great, and explorer - while basic - is very capable.


  • #19
    senordingdong
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10,673 ✭✭✭✭senordingdong


    beauf wrote: »
    A decent browser.

    Meh it does the job.


  • #20
    beauf
    Closed Accounts Posts: 22,648 ✭✭✭✭beauf


    pleasant Co. wrote: »
    What makes a decent browser?

    For me, the UC browser is a great, and explorer - while basic - is very capable.

    After the recent update its stopped working for. Crashes when I try to load anything. So I'm back to IE

    If I accidental hit the back key, I have no way of going forward.

    If you go to enter text on a site it doesn't keep the cursor in site when the keyboard pops up. Which often makes a site unusable.

    I dislike how the tabs are as accessible as in other browsers. Or that you lose refresh or stop if you add them to the menu.

    When it works it ok. So often though I find it can't reflow text if you zoom in.


  • #21
    pleasant Co.
    Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 7,415 Mod ✭✭✭✭pleasant Co.


    beauf wrote: »
    After the recent update its stopped working for. Crashes when I try to load anything. So I'm back to IE

    Fair enough, mine works fine - have you tried uninstalling and reinstalling?
    beauf wrote: »
    If I accidental hit the back key, I have no way of going forward.

    I agree, that's something I find quite annoying about IE
    beauf wrote: »
    If you go to enter text on a site it doesn't keep the cursor in site when the keyboard pops up. Which often makes a site unusable.

    Haven't run into this problem in over a year using WP and IE/UC, the occassional site doesn't work very well but heck that statement still applies to the most popular desktop browsers.
    beauf wrote: »
    I dislike how the tabs are as accessible as in other browsers.

    I'm not sure what you mean, but this sounds a bit nit-picky and more of a personal preference that isn't universally applicable
    beauf wrote: »
    When it works it ok. So often though I find it can't reflow text if you zoom in.

    Another issue I haven't run into.

    I don't know if you've used many mobile browsers but none of them are exactly excellent, on any platform. For me, i'm not exactly envious that I can't get mobile safari or chrome on my WP because give or take a few features IE/UC offer a much of a muchness experience.


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