Windows Phone 7/8 Catch All

Very interesting little story. My girlfriend's best friend had been using a feature phone for a while and wanted to upgrade. Her Dad has an iPhone, her Mom has an iPhone, most of her friends have iPhones and like many people who aren't too technically minded, her default response was to go iPhone. When my girlfriend saw her after getting her 920, she was showing it off to her and she played around with it for a while and went "Yeah, that's pretty nice." but made the same reasoning about how iPhone has more apps and everyone she knows has one and blah blah blah. Fast forward to yesterday and she got herself a 920! When my girlfriend asked her why, her answer was that she went home after playing with Windows Phone, used her Dad's iPhone again and realised just how much easier and "more fun" Windows Phone was to use than iOS. Like my girlfriend, she's not a heavy app consumer and just wants a few core things, all of which exist on Windows Phone.

I've found this to be a recurring theme. Many people who like or default to iOS play with Windows Phone and instantly fall in love with it. The problem is, it requires them actually getting their hands on a device to have this realisation, the ads and just observing it don't do the trick. Microsoft has traditionally been terrible at marketing but they should be going to every agency they can find and get someone to come up with how to distil this concept into a 30 second ad. "Just try it, we're convinced you'll love it.", that kind of thing. I'm amazed how 30 seconds with one of these things can sell someone on it.

Parallax Abstraction wrote:

Very interesting little story. My girlfriend's best friend had been using a feature phone for a while and wanted to upgrade. Her Dad has an iPhone, her Mom has an iPhone, most of her friends have iPhones and like many people who aren't too technically minded, her default response was to go iPhone. When my girlfriend saw her after getting her 920, she was showing it off to her and she played around with it for a while and went "Yeah, that's pretty nice." but made the same reasoning about how iPhone has more apps and everyone she knows has one and blah blah blah. Fast forward to yesterday and she got herself a 920! When my girlfriend asked her why, her answer was that she went home after playing with Windows Phone, used her Dad's iPhone again and realised just how much easier and "more fun" Windows Phone was to use than iOS. Like my girlfriend, she's not a heavy app consumer and just wants a few core things, all of which exist on Windows Phone.

I've found this to be a recurring theme. Many people who like or default to iOS play with Windows Phone and instantly fall in love with it. The problem is, it requires them actually getting their hands on a device to have this realisation, the ads and just observing it don't do the trick. Microsoft has traditionally been terrible at marketing but they should be going to every agency they can find and get someone to come up with how to distil this concept into a 30 second ad. "Just try it, we're convinced you'll love it.", that kind of thing. I'm amazed how 30 seconds with one of these things can sell someone on it.

I'm heavily invested in iTunes content across multiple family members and devices and I went with the 900 and will be getting a 920 in a few days. I decided I really only need a couple of apps and music/podcasts on my phone. The other stuff can go on my iPad. I think the one stopping point might be apps/movies (I believe music is DRM free now from iTunes) and if you have a lot of them and no other device to use them on.

My contract issues are sorted out so I stopped at a (much nicer) Verizon store. The clerk there was very quick to point out that so far he had sold one Windows 8 phone and that it had been returned almost immediately. He also casually mentioned that his 'buddy' at Nebraska Furniture Mart told him that over 75 percent of their Windows 8 desktop sales were getting returned.
While I was there at least 3 other customers were steered towards the iPhone 5, with various levels of rebuttals when the punter inquired about the 4S or Android models.

Rezzy wrote:

My contract issues are sorted out so I stopped at a (much nicer) Verizon store. The clerk there was very quick to point out that so far he had sold one Windows 8 phone and that it had been returned almost immediately. He also casually mentioned that his 'buddy' at Nebraska Furniture Mart told him that over 75 percent of their Windows 8 desktop sales were getting returned.
While I was there at least 3 other customers were steered towards the iPhone 5, with various levels of rebuttals when the punter inquired about the 4S or Android models.

I had the Verizon Windows phone at one point and my problem wasn't with the phone, but Verizon's call quality. In San Antonio at least, it's terrible. I couldn't understand my daughter on calls on that phone. Switch back to AT&T, no problems whatsoever.

AT&T is having a buy one get $100 off your second windows phone deal. I'm trying very hard to convince my wife to save herself $200 and switch from her iPhone to the 920. We have been going to go and switch carriers since November. Hopefully she finally does it this weekend. Anyway, it sounds like some people are getting 2 920s and 2 wireless chargers for $100. That seems like a really great deal on what is arguably the best phone out right now.

EvilHomer3k wrote:

AT&T is having a buy one get $100 off your second windows phone deal. I'm trying very hard to convince my wife to save herself $200 and switch from her iPhone to the 920. We have been going to go and switch carriers since November. Hopefully she finally does it this weekend. Anyway, it sounds like some people are getting 2 920s and 2 wireless chargers for $100. That seems like a really great deal on what is arguably the best phone out right now.

Makes me sad, my girlfriend and I bought our 920s just three weeks too early. She went from a jailbroken/unlocked iPhone 3G on T-Mobile to the 920 (so outdated and broken it might as well be called a feature phone) and absolutely loves it.

My wife is going from a 3gs on iWireless without a data plan. It has a crack on the screen where she dropped it. Her last iphone (an old 2g) broke as well when she dropped it. I'm hoping the 920 will be as sturdy as it is in the videos where they show it being run over by a car, cut with a knife, dropped, etcetera. I also hope it isn't too big for her as she feels the GS3 is giant.

Unfortunately, the cyan model is out of stock locally and online. That's the one I want. Colorful but matte. Not colorful and super shiny. I did a test on ATT today to see what the final cost was and it came to $197 with the rest of the month's fees, activation, the phones, and two wireless chargers. Not bad for less than the cost of one iPhone!

Playing around with my Nokia 822... is IM+ still the way to go for a solid GTalk Client or has something new popped up?

They were still showing as .99 cents for me on my phone, but when I pulled them up on WindowsPhone.com it let me purchase them for free. Kind of odd.

"Your version of the Windows Phone software is not supported by this application."

Whaaat?

Kurrelgyre wrote:

"Your version of the Windows Phone software is not supported by this application."

Whaaat?

Restart your device - I've had this come up a few times and it resolves itself somehow...

I had 3 registered, and a Windows Phone 7 device selected in the drop down in the upper right corner. A selecting my Lumia 920 fixed things.

Wife: "We'll go get phones Friday."
Wife on Friday: "I just got off work and don't feel like going to get phones."

This has been going on for what seems like forever. I feel like Jim in American Pie. I need to make some sort of pact that by prom I'm going to get a new windows phone.

We went today and got two Lumia 920s. They had white, black, and red. They've been out of the cyan for weeks if not months so we both got red. My wife is enjoying hers quite a bit so far (as am I). She likes it a lot better than her iPhone 3gs. She had been hesitant to switch but the buy she couldn't justify the extra $200 for an iphone. So we got two 920s and two wireless chargers for $99.

EvilHomer3k wrote:

We went today and got two Lumia 920s. They had white, black, and red. They've been out of the cyan for weeks if not months so we both got red. My wife is enjoying hers quite a bit so far (as am I). She likes it a lot better than her iPhone 3gs. She had been hesitant to switch but the buy she couldn't justify the extra $200 for an iphone. So we got two 920s and two wireless chargers for $99.

My roommate has a red one. It's a nice looking piece of hardware.

I really like the photobeamer app. Great way to show images on a computer. City lens is pretty neat, too.

Kids Corner is driving me nuts. I have a passcode setup for purchases. I have a passcode set up for the phone. I installed Beards & Beaks and put it in kids corner. I tried purchasing a mushroom in the game and it allowed it. I tried it after setting up the pin for my wallet and it allowed it. What good is KC if it doesn't do what it says it will do? The ONLY time it doesn't allow the purchase is if I don't have MS points. Of course in app purchases in GB and B&B only work with points so the whole thing is either misleading or it just doesn't work.

I followed this guide. Has anyone tried Kid's Corner and had it actually restrict IAPs?

Any must have app recommendations? Free or paid is fine, just looking to broaden my horizons.

Thanks!

Apps or games?

If you have a Nokia phone photobeamer is awesome.
Appointile takes care of one of my biggest annoyances of WP. The single calendar appointment on the lock screen and tile. Appointile shows up to 4. I've had one issue with it and that is that sometimes the tile is the wrong color.

I also really like Xbox music. $10 per month and I can download just about any kind of music I want free. You don't get to keep the music but it lets me try stuff I would not normally try.

For games I'd recommend:
Plants vs Zombies
Rise of Glory
Rocket Riot
Chickens Can't Fly
Portals 2d (2d portal "clone")

I picked up photobeamer and Xbox music already. Accuweather is cool with the lock screen wallpaper support. I also have battery sense, track my life, slick deals reader, flashlight XT, Inrix traffic. Game-wise I'm wordament and Angry Birds Star Wars. I've got an iPad, so a lot of the iOS/mobile apps get covered over there.

I've posted this before but another way to find apps for WP8 is with this app switch web site. For example, I like the game Fieldrunners so I type that in and it comes up with a bunch of tower defense games.

I took this photo with my 920 this morning. I noticed a pretty amazing sunrise as I was leaving the parking garage after dropping the wife off at work. After getting to the bottom, I drove back up to the sixth floor to take a pic. In that time I lost what was more beautiful l than this. With a hair less sun the clouds had a pretty awesome ripple to them that is just gone. But it's still a pretty awesome pic for a camera phone and no editing.

IMAGE(http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/602758_552878871390023_1444950340_n.jpg)

This guy was attempting steal my mail! (Lumia 920 :D)

IMAGE(http://d3j5vwomefv46c.cloudfront.net/photos/large/721277567.jpg?key=360640&Expires=1358896199&Key-Pair-Id=APKAIYVGSUJFNRFZBBTA&Signature=DTCBcBij6Bq~SnSjdpBxsf3fdHkHtUfo8gkvEdwEqvrIBejfoGQe4xR6bwV6YD3wUpjK8Tdw1iSVhhTy18DDgQ8F-G996zD~jitUNLDMEDkqccPfEKMDspa1~tJVT0PZU9~p-Ejlc3Dc8T0bremuisZ7BjAumwWxvIMFl9kh6qU_)

I also mentioned in the Joys Of Programming thread that I've written my own podcatcher app for WP8. I wrote is mainly because the podcast support for non-US people is non-existent.

I'm not saying it's the greatest app in the world, but if people would like to give it a go and give some feedback I'd really appreciate it There is a trial (1 podcast only), and I'm actively working on it.

http://www.windowsphone.com/s?appid=...

Hemidal wrote:

Any must have app recommendations? Free or paid is fine, just looking to broaden my horizons.

Weather Flow is my go-to for the live tile and wallpaper updating. My girlfriend has fallen for BigOven, a really nice recipe discovery app. The classic boardgame Risk is in the Xbox store and worth a couple of bucks and has a trial (be sure to turn off the vibration feature, it killed my battery in one subway ride). Wordament is also a downright addictive time-killer.

Also, I haven't had a chance to really dive into it, but Snes8x looks promising, with SkyDrive integration for your SNES ROMs.

Overall, I haven't installed that many apps compared to my previous iPhone, partly because so much is integrated with the OS and works good enough for me (People hub, Bing, etc).

EvilHomer3k wrote:

I've posted this before but another way to find apps for WP8 is with this app switch web site. For example, I like the game Fieldrunners so I type that in and it comes up with a bunch of tower defense games.

That's really cool!

So interesting little story. My girlfriend's friend who bought a 920 over an iPhone to everyone's surprise came over last night. My girlfriend was asking her why she decided to get a 920 when all her parents and friends have iPhones and she was intent on getting an iPhone up to now. She gave several reasons which are subjective (like how she actually prefers the chunkier and heavier design of the 920 because it makes it feel more solid) but the most shocking reason: She thought iOS looked dated and was way harder to use than Windows Phone 8. I've thought iOS has looked dated for a while but it's the first time I've ever heard a non-techie (and this person isn't a techie at all) say that and especially that it wasn't that easy to use. Given that Apple's sort of the default response everyone has for where to go when you don't want things to be hard to use, this really surprised me. Obviously one friend does not the whole mainstream represent but I wonder how many people would feel similarly if given both devices side by side.

I'm looking for fiends to play Alphajax with. So far Shag and Ubrakto are playing. Its a great free scrabble game.

My wife doesn't want to mess with stuff. She doesn't really use a lot of apps and just wants things to work. She is not willing to fiddle with things and is easily frustrated. She seems to love her new phone. She wouldn't say iOS is dated or anything (doesn't really think of things like that) but she seems to really like the WP8 os. She bought a 920 because of the deal AT&T had on the phone and because I was getting one. She loves the groups, facebook integration, ease of seeing email, text, and call alerts. She says it's much easier to use than her old iphone (3gs with 6.1) and much better.

She still doesn't think the keyboard is very good (too small) but it is better than the iphone. One thing she likes is the ability to choose multiple words when typing vs the iphone just replacing stuff or showing one word.

Also, last night I dropped the 920 from about 5 feet. Not a scratch on it. I was talking with my wife and trying to get the kids ready for taekwondo so I had the phone pinned between my shoulder and face and it slipped out and dropped on our hardwood floor. Nothing. That durability will come in handy with my wife who has broken half a dozen phones (and every single iphone she has had).

Jayhawker wrote:

I'm looking for fiends to play Alphajax with. So far Shag and Ubrakto are playing. Its a great free scrabble game.

Add me @TheBardWest

T-Prime wrote:
Hemidal wrote:

Any must have app recommendations? Free or paid is fine, just looking to broaden my horizons.

Weather Flow is my go-to for the live tile and wallpaper updating. My girlfriend has fallen for BigOven, a really nice recipe discovery app. The classic boardgame Risk is in the Xbox store and worth a couple of bucks and has a trial (be sure to turn off the vibration feature, it killed my battery in one subway ride). Wordament is also a downright addictive time-killer.

Also, I haven't had a chance to really dive into it, but Snes8x looks promising, with SkyDrive integration for your SNES ROMs.

Overall, I haven't installed that many apps compared to my previous iPhone, partly because so much is integrated with the OS and works good enough for me (People hub, Bing, etc).

I've had Weather Flow installed for like 2 minutes and I already like it better than the default Weather Channel app.