Windows Phone 8.1 Features

kleefarr

kleefarr wrote: »

Found a possible solution to the spam email problem..

mail.ru from the windows phone app store.
Just installed it and marked a few emails as spam. We'll see what happens.


This may be a solution to the flash problem.. Flash Sports

Must say that the mail.ru app is great. Does exactly want I wanted.

Bydlo

Bydlo wrote: »

I have 928 on meteor. I don't have cyan yet, why is this and how do I get it?

Lads yis can relax: Got it today. Can't see any difference

wilser

Got cyan today on my 925, have the dev preview installed. Got another update afterwards for the dev preview as well

Bydlo

wilser wrote: »

Got cyan today on my 925, have the dev preview installed. Got another update afterwards for the dev preview as well

Can you see any differences?

joujoujou

Also got cyan and following update, on lumia 520 dev.

No, no differences noticed yet.

wilser

Bydlo wrote: »

Can you see any differences?

Tbh no, I think most of the features came already with the dev preview.
Have a couple of new apps installed that came with them (health and fitness, food and drink)

theothernt

joujoujou wrote: »

Also got cyan and following update, on lumia 520 dev.

No, no differences noticed yet.

wilser wrote: »

Tbh no, I think most of the features came already with the dev preview.
Have a couple of new apps installed that came with them (health and fitness, food and drink)

Here are list of the additions in Cyan... http://www.wpcentral.com/lumia-cyan-and-what-it-brings-windows-phone-81

The Dev Preview updates the OS, Cyan is the firmware and a few add-ons.

The cheaper the device, the less Cyan will add btw.

beauf

On the 520 with Dev Preview most of the changes/addons in Cyan were in previous updates.

Bydlo

What does the arrow beside WiFi indicate?

cnocbui

Whether the data is outgoing or incoming.

Fingleberries

Old thread, I know, but it doesn't fit under all the talk of Denim updates or Windows 10 TP.

Has anyone noticed that recently if you ask Cortana for the weather that she is finally giving the forecast in Celsius instead of Fahrenheit.

This is with region set to the US, so you get the Jen Taylor Cortana and not the flat performance of the UK one. The UK one always responded in Celsius.

The Live Tile still shows in Fahrenheit though. As does the temperature information in the App - it's just the voice response to a question like 'What's the weather like tomorrow' that is now in Celsius without having to ask to convert it.

senordingdong

I think the roll out of Cortana is another disaster. Like most things Microsoft have been rolling out.

cnocbui

How is it a 'disaster'?

Sophisticated speech recognition is a very complicated function.

aphex™

It hasn't been rolled out here yet...

People on youtube giving demos saying it doesn't recognise any UK placenames... obviously it's not set up for that region yet.

bidiots

aphex™ wrote: »

It hasn't been rolled out here yet...

People on youtube giving demos saying it doesn't recognise any UK placenames... obviously it's not set up for that region yet.

Thought it had tbh

senordingdong

cnocbui wrote: »

How is it a 'disaster'?

Sophisticated speech recognition is a very complicated function.

Because this time last year they started their big advertising campaign, heralding the arrival of a virtual assistant that will change your life. Even though it was only going to be available in three countries.
A year later and four or five more countries have been brought into the fold in a mix of alpha and beta.

And ofcourse, this isn't the only thing they've oversold themselves on.

Fingleberries

senordingdong wrote: »

Because this time last year they started their big advertising campaign, heralding the arrival of a virtual assistant that will change your life. Even though it was only going to be available in three countries.
A year later and four or five more countries have been brought into the fold in a mix of alpha and beta.

And ofcourse, this isn't the only thing they've oversold themselves on.

At the weekend, my "less-than-techie" father out of the blue asked me if I have that "Cortina" on my phone and wanted to know how to get it on his - he had seen my mother talking to Siri her iPhone 6 and wondered if his (Lumia 820) could do it.

A few quick settings changes later and he's up and running with Cortana (one of his first questions "What will the weather be like in Scotland on Wednesday?" - came back with a perfect answer).

Cortana also gave detailed local information about restaurants, takeaways and places of interest near where he lives.

Not bad for something that isn't even officially available here in alpha or beta.

Although, when I was leaving the pair of them were trying to see whose phone told the better jokes. (Cortana by a long shot).

cnocbui

Would you rather they had waited 4-5 years till the enormous amount of work to do regionalisation was done?

I have a 720 which is a model with only 512Mb of RAM and Cortana works on it, which is nothing short of amazing. If it had been Apple, they would have just told you to stop being cheap and buy a new flagship model. Speaking of which, they introduced Apple Radio years ago and there are still only two countries in the world where it is available.

smashey

I have to say that I am very impressed by Cortana. It beats Siri in every way.

senordingdong

Fingleberries wrote: »

At the weekend, my "less-than-techie" father out of the blue asked me if I have that "Cortina" on my phone and wanted to know how to get it on his - he had seen my mother talking to Siri her iPhone 6 and wondered if his (Lumia 820) could do it.

A few quick settings changes later and he's up and running with Cortana (one of his first questions "What will the weather be like in Scotland on Wednesday?" - came back with a perfect answer).

Cortana also gave detailed local information about restaurants, takeaways and places of interest near where he lives.

Not bad for something that isn't even officially available here in alpha or beta.

Although, when I was leaving the pair of them were trying to see whose phone told the better jokes. (Cortana by a long shot).

All marvelous, but you head to change the phones settings to make it work.
We're harping on praising features that aren't officially available to us.

If they couldn't roll it out then they shouldn't have advertised it.

bidiots

If you look for problems you'll find them.

cnocbui

senordingdong wrote: »

All marvelous, but you head to change the phones settings to make it work.
We're harping on praising features that aren't officially available to us.

If they couldn't roll it out then they shouldn't have advertised it.

You're right, they should have said we have this wonderful new capability but it's only for people in the US and UK. Everyone outside the nominated markets would have been delighted by that.

beauf

bidiots wrote: »

If you look for problems you'll find them.

Unfortunately you don't even have to look sometime.

cnocbui wrote: »

You're right, they should have said we have this wonderful new capability but it's only for people in the US and UK. Everyone outside the nominated markets would have been delighted by that.

Which do think will cause more goodwill.

We're rolling it out as we can region by region or you buy a phone expecting the feature and its not there. I'm waiting a year for a wifi toggle and timer that works. I could go back to my old 3yr old Android and have those features immediately.

WP has a lot of great stuff. On the flip side there some glaring omissions that should have been in there from the start.

Feel a bit like an iPhone user waiting for an FM radio sometimes.

senordingdong

bidiots wrote: »

If you look for problems you'll find them.

All I'm looking for are the features, promises and updates that they parade and trump about every year at some conference or other.

Cortana...sure now they're talking about the roll out of Windows 10 while plenty of people are still waiting to get denim, and it's subsequent patches.
And there is no shortage of people still waiting for cyan.

But nevermind fulfilling last years promises, lets just look forward to what (might) be coming next year*

*in selected regions only

Fingleberries

cnocbui wrote: »

You're right, they should have said we have this wonderful new capability but it's only for people in the US and UK. Everyone outside the nominated markets would have been delighted by that.

I'm fairly sure that's what they did do.

Microsoft's page for Cortana on Windows Phone 8.1 clearly labels it as "Cortana launches first in the U.S. and select markets thereafter."

I've yet to see an Irish ad for Windows Phone featuring Cortana. I've seen plenty on web sites, but they could be from the US or UK where Cortana is already available.

The fact that it is not a released feature and works extremely well here is a bonus and should perhaps push Microsoft into releasing the feature as an 'Alpha' here as they did in Australia.

cnocbui

senordingdong wrote: »

All I'm looking for are the features, promises and updates that they parade and trump about every year at some conference or other.

Cortana...sure now they're talking about the roll out of Windows 10 while plenty of people are still waiting to get denim, and it's subsequent patches.
And there is no shortage of people still waiting for cyan.

But nevermind fulfilling last years promises, lets just look forward to what (might) be coming next year*

*in selected regions only

People who don't like waiting should buy SIM free phones, then they wouldn't have to wait while their carrier delays OS updates.

senordingdong

cnocbui wrote: »

People who don't like waiting should buy SIM free phones, then they wouldn't have to wait while their carrier delays OS updates.

My phone is sim free.
But if I had a problem waiting, I can sign up to the dev preview. Atleast that's what I was told to do the last time I expressed dismay at the situation.

Still feel wp to be light years ahead of the competition, but it bugs me that they go on about all this stuff and just neglect that huge portions of their customer base can't have it.......aaaand then it's on to the next announcement.

cnocbui

senordingdong wrote: »

My phone is sim free.
But if I had a problem waiting, I can sign up to the dev preview. Atleast that's what I was told to do the last time I expressed dismay at the situation.

Still feel wp to be light years ahead of the competition, but it bugs me that they go on about all this stuff and just neglect that huge portions of their customer base can't have it.......aaaand then it's on to the next announcement.

So you are actually complaining on behalf of those contracted to carriers who have to wait as you actually don't have to wait at all to get updates, the same as me?

Windows has but a small fraction of the market. I think it's unreasonable to expect the level of update slickness and speed you get from a company as well resourced as Apple. I think Microsoft is actually doing an amazing job, all things considered.

hadoken13

cnocbui wrote: »

People who don't like waiting should buy SIM free phones, then they wouldn't have to wait while their carrier delays OS updates.

What if you're like me and you have a work phone? No real option to choose the phone - unless I want to lose out in all the benefits of not paying for calls and texts.

senordingdong

cnocbui wrote: »

So you are actually complaining on behalf of those contracted to carriers who have to wait as you actually don't have to wait at all to get updates, the same as me?

Windows has but a small fraction of the market. I think it's unreasonable to expect the level of update slickness and speed you get from a company as well resourced as Apple. I think Microsoft is actually doing an amazing job, all things considered.

Actually complaining on behalf of myself and no one else.

A company as well resourced as apple? Are MS not a MASSIVE conglomerate as well?

And I don't think it's unreasonable to want the features and updates that they advertise.

beauf

I'm guessing MS wouldn't have the influence and power that Apple do in the Phone market with operators. Apart from market share in the phone market, MS must make very little profit on their phones compared to Apple.

That's all guess work on my part.

Fingleberries

beauf wrote: »

I'm guessing MS wouldn't have the influence and power that Apple do in the Phone market with operators. Apart from market share in the phone market, MS must make very little profit on their phones compared to Apple.

That's all guess work on my part.

Heck, even Apple didn't have the influence in the Mobile Phone market when they forced the Network Providers hand. They just had the cajones to call AT&T's bluff - and once they had been successful with AT&T's, every other provider had to follow suit.

beauf

Fingleberries wrote: »

Heck, even Apple didn't have the influence in the Mobile Phone market when they forced the Network Providers hand. They just had the cajones to call AT&T's bluff - and once they had been successful with AT&T's, every other provider had to follow suit.

They had exclusive deals with some networks originally. That had to have some influence.

CatInABox

beauf wrote: »

They had exclusive deals with some networks originally. That had to have some influence.

You've got those exclusive deals backwards unfortunately. It wasn't Microsoft setting the terms for those deal, but the carriers. The major carriers essentially said that if you don't give us the exclusive, we won't support your products.

Microsoft had, and still has, absolutely zero leverage with mobile carriers in any way, shape or form.

Apple on the other hand, do. When the iPhone was first brought before the carriers, the executives recognised the potential to disrupt their business, giving them a choice of agreeing to what Apple wanted, or losing out on billions of dollars worth of sales. As it was, AT&T got the exclusive, but that was such a one sided deal in Apples favour that people are still laughing about it.

beauf

I was talking about Apple in the previous post...

CatInABox

beauf wrote: »

I was talking about Apple in the previous post...

Ahhhhh. Yes, I see that..... now.

senordingdong

Why can they get updates to our tablets, laptops and desktops so easily by comparison?
Not not Cortana is being held up by carriers anyway...
Furthermore, a company with their clout could easily pioneer a new method of delivery.

CatInABox

senordingdong wrote: »

Why can they get updates to our tablets, laptops and desktops so easily by comparison?
Not not Cortana is being held up by carriers anyway...
Furthermore, a company with their clout could easily pioneer a new method of delivery.

It's not really about getting the software onto your phone, it's getting that software through the carriers testing. In some cases, for a low priority system (i.e. one that doesn't sell well), that testing can take ages, or, in some cases, not be authorised at all.

Microsoft brought out their Preview for Developers to get around this testing, but if anything goes wrong on your phone while on the preview, you'll need to ask Microsoft for help, not your carrier.

It's a really really frustrating experience for everyone.

In other news, WP 8.1 update 2 news has started to come out of MWC, and two of the features so far is bluetooth keyboard support, and a rejiggered settings.

beauf

CatInABox wrote: »

...it's getting that software through the carriers testing....

In my experience this is usually to put some sort of lock on functionality of the phone. Not to enhance the users experience, reliability etc.

CatInABox

beauf wrote: »

In my experience this is usually to put some sort of lock on functionality of the phone. Not to enhance the users experience, reliability etc.

Yeah, "testing".

I'm surprised that the carriers haven't been done for collusion/racketeering at this stage, you only need to look at the Google Wallet fiasco to see how monopolistic they can act.

Killing a competitors software bundle, just so they have time to develop their own is surely anti-competitive? Only they botched it so badly (as everyone knew they would), Apple swooped in and captured more mind-share in one month than they have in years. The fact that they had to sell out to Google in the end is telling.

beauf

On mine one of the "value added" features by the operator seems to be to disable tethering depending on the sim. The phone is unlocked. But this still is locked with the operator prepay sim. A sim from another network, also prepay works perfectly with tethering. Hardly a good reason to make the customers wait months for updates.

CatInABox

Nice video of Update 2 in action here.

The settings look a lot nicer in comparison to what we've got at the moment, and the ability to pin settings directly is going to be invaluable. Being able to rename the phone is also nice.

Having said that, they'd want to start rolling that out pretty damn quick, Windows 10 isn't all that far away!

EDIT: Might as well include the video at that link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XydLr4YBiUQ

hadoken13

CatInABox wrote: »

Nice video of Update 2 in action here.

The settings look a lot nicer in comparison to what we've got at the moment, and the ability to pin settings directly is going to be invaluable. Being able to rename the phone is also nice.

Having said that, they'd want to start rolling that out pretty damn quick, Windows 10 isn't all that far away!

Looks good, but considering how long it took for most of us on on non-preview phones, to get update 1, I'd say 10 will more than likely be out by then.

theothernt

hadoken13 wrote: »

Looks good, but considering how long it took for most of us on on non-preview phones, to get update 1, I'd say 10 will more than likely be out by then.

We should start seeing GDR2 around April/May.

Windows 10 for phones isn't due until late 2015... so that's plenty of time for GDR2 to appear ;-)

senordingdong

theothernt wrote: »

We should start seeing GDR2 around April/May.

Windows 10 for phones isn't due until late 2015... so that's plenty of time for GDR2 to appear ;-)

And will win10 be rolled out simultaneously across the planet? Our will it be late 2016 by the time everyone has it?

hadoken13

theothernt wrote: »

We should start seeing GDR2 around April/May.

Windows 10 for phones isn't due until late 2015... so that's plenty of time for GDR2 to appear ;-)

Ye for preview phones, carriers won't release it for ages.

beauf

I was on the dev prev for 8.1 for almost a year. Very happy with the updates I got on that. I only switched back to try to the normal one to get denim. I'd be happy enough to go back to the dev preview. But I'll wait till its a bit more mature.

theothernt

senordingdong wrote: »

And will win10 be rolled out simultaneously across the planet? Our will it be late 2016 by the time everyone has it?

No idea yet, but I hope the rollout of Win10 for phones will be better than it is for WP 8.1!

hadoken13

Looks like update 2 won't be coming to existing phones:

Unconfirmed, but source tells me Windows Phone 8.1.2 will not roll out to previous phones, just ship on new devices.

— Paul Thurrott (@thurrott) March 6, 2015

CatInABox

hadoken13 wrote: »

Looks like update 2 won't be coming to existing phones:

Unconfirmed, but source tells me Windows Phone 8.1.2 will not roll out to previous phones, just ship on new devices.

— Paul Thurrott (@thurrott) March 6, 2015

Saw that, but as it's unconfirmed, I decided not to send the rumour on. Thurrott heard that rumour ages ago, so I don't know if he's still hearing it or he's just repeating info.

Besides, while 8.1.2 would be nice, I don't think that there is anything in it that's vital, just "really nice to have" stuff