Windows Phone 7/8 Catch All

breander wrote:
ClockworkHouse wrote:
Kurrelgyre wrote:

Have you tried adding a microSD card yet?

I have not, but doing so on the HD7 voids the warranty. If I find that I'm consistently bumping my head against the 16 GB storage limit, or once the warranty expires, I'll consider upgrading the card.

Why would adding a microSD card into a slot made for a microSD card void the warranty?

See my post and the link above.

breander wrote:

Why would adding a microSD card into a slot made for a microSD card void the warranty?

There is no intentionally user-accessible microSD slot. HTC used a microSD card for storage because it's inexpensive, but the slot for it is behind the backplate which cannot be removed without voiding the warranty. None of the Win Phone 7 models are supposed to have user-upgradable microSD storage; it's one of Microsoft's stipulations for the platform.

Ah! I see! My Samsung Focus has a spot behind the battery, so no warranty voiding there.

It's very easy to get to in the Focus, the guard for the slot only saying to consult the Quick Start Guide, which then only says to use Certified cards only and to not take out a card once you put one in.

SommerMatt wrote:

Anyone experience the supposed massive 3G data consumption reported on by Engadget? Apparently the W7 phones are drawing large amounts of data when you're not actually DOING anything.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/08/w...

Here's my usage across a single day. Data transfer is the third column and is in MB:

01/13/11 11:34 PM 0.0048 01/13/11 09:34 PM 0.0195 01/13/11 07:34 PM 0.6708 01/13/11 05:34 PM 0.0957 01/13/11 03:34 PM 0.1416 01/13/11 01:34 PM 0.0205 01/13/11 11:34 AM 0.0673 01/13/11 10:31 AM 0.0888 01/13/11 08:31 AM 0.0634 01/13/11 06:31 AM 0.0898 01/13/11 04:31 AM 0.0048 01/13/11 02:31 AM 0.0048 01/13/11 12:31 AM 0.0058 Total: 1.2776

It seems fairly safe to say that I've not been having any problems with large data draw while the phone is inactive. I should note that I have a number of apps installed that check my location since those were suspected to be some of the primary culprits.

Thanks for the review, ClockworkHouse. Very good write-up.

Couple things I'm interested in:

Wi-fi hotspot - I can use my Nexus One as a wi-fi hot spot. Is that available on WP7?

I'm going to check in on the gaming thread.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

Here's my usage across a single day...:

Total: 1.2776 (MB)

Were you on wiifi during any of that time, or were these numbers with wifi off/disconnected? Are any of the email accounts set to retrieve messages as they arrive?

EvilHomer3k wrote:

Thanks for the review, ClockworkHouse. Very good write-up.

Couple things I'm interested in:

Wi-fi hotspot - I can use my Nexus One as a wi-fi hot spot. Is that available on WP7?

I'm going to check in on the gaming thread.

It's probably possible, as there's a way to switch the Samsung Focus into a USB tethering mode, but it's not right there in the UI the way it is in stock Android Froyo. I think it's discouraged.

It was a mix of wi-fi and cellular. Wasn't there some concern about data that ignored wi-fi connections? I've turned off wi-fi and set my email to download as received, so I'll post those numbers later.

Days later... I didn't notice any difference from what I posted before. I was going to post the raw numbers, but there's too much noise from me actually using the phone to do things like browse the internet. But during the times I wasn't using my phone, there weren't any spikes in data usage.

I'm having the data usage issue. In my case it looks like the phone is ignoring my wi-fi when connecting to the marketplace.

I have had the phone for about 3 weeks (Samsung Focus, AT&T) which mostly consisted of my Christmas break plus some vacation so all data access was done at my home with me ensuring I had a connected wi-fi session. I tracked the usage daily and have seen spikes on the days I downloaded something from the Market place. I'm currently at about 160mb of my 200mb plan and it should be in the 5-10mb frame based on what very little I've done over 3G.

I turned off the "feedback" option on day two or so I think, so that's not it.

I've not tested non-Marketplace connections, but I don't have much testing usage left for this billing cycle.

I hope they get it sorted soon.

I saw that, but the thing is, I don't use Yahoo Mail and I'm still seeing spikes in my 3G usage. Once again, I think it's the phone or an app ignoring my wireless connection in favor of 3G. I just started a new billing cycle, so I'll play around with it a bit more.

I hope they get the new update out soon. I'm guessing there will be several "general" bug fixes in there that may clear some of this up.

Still enjoying the phone though.

sithcundman wrote:

I saw that, but the thing is, I don't use Yahoo Mail and I'm still seeing spikes in my 3G usage. Once again, I think it's the phone or an app ignoring my wireless connection in favor of 3G. I just started a new billing cycle, so I'll play around with it a bit more.

I hope they get the new update out soon. I'm guessing there will be several "general" bug fixes in there that may clear some of this up.

Still enjoying the phone though.

There was also a mention in MS's official response of an Exchange bug I think.

Nokia announced today that they'll be using Windows Phone 7 exclusively as their OS from this point forward. I'm curious to see whether or not this helps WP7 gain a bit of traction in the market.

I think it has a good chance of growing WP7. I also think that Nokia moving away from Symbian can only be good for them.

It's good if Microsoft lets them build phones with something other than "me-too" hardware.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

Nokia announced today that they'll be using Windows Phone 7 exclusively as their OS from this point forward. I'm curious to see whether or not this helps WP7 gain a bit of traction in the market.

I thought they said they were continuing to develop MeeGo as well. Not as their primary OS, but I don't think they are quite WP7 exclusive.

I'm a bit concerned that MS is allowing Nokia to change "look and feel" type stuff, even if Nokia has said they don't plan to make major changes.

MannishBoy wrote:
ClockworkHouse wrote:

Nokia announced today that they'll be using Windows Phone 7 exclusively as their OS from this point forward. I'm curious to see whether or not this helps WP7 gain a bit of traction in the market.

I thought they said they were continuing to develop MeeGo as well. Not as their primary OS, but I don't think they are quite WP7 exclusive.

I'm a bit concerned that MS is allowing Nokia to change "look and feel" type stuff, even if Nokia has said they don't plan to make major changes.

Meego is a "learning project" now, apparently. From the press conference slides, WP7 is going to completely replace Symbian in smartphones, presumably leaving Series 40 as their low end offering.

Does anyone know of a way to display more than one appointment on the lockscreen or on a live tile? I recently bought an HD7 and I'm evaluating keeping it, my Nexus One (or possibly upgrading the N1), or an iPhone 4 (jailbroken as I'm on t-mobile). I'll wait another day or two and give some more impressions.

My initial impressions are that the games that are branded with Xbox Live are very good quality. They all seem to be well polished and good quality. There aren't a lot of Xbox Live games, though. I have not tried any games besides the XBL games. Of course I've been playing The Harvest quite a bit and have not had much interest in playing anything else. I believe The Harvest is one of the best (if not the best) phone game I've played so far. Easily better than anything I've played on Android and certainly on par with any iOS game out there. Do note that my current iOS phone is an original iPhone so no Rift or anything that won't run on a 2g.

The interface is very simple and easy to use. It lacks customization, though. I think it's more customizable than stock iOS but much less customizable than Android. Live tiles are pretty nice but widgets are much more versatile.

While you can have google calendars and hotmail calendars and exchange calendars the live tile and lock screen only show the next appointment. You still have to open the calendar to see anything other than your next appointment. The calendar app doesn't pull in shared google calendars. There is an app for that but I prefer to have a single unified calendar app. I'll try getting around not seeing my wifes calendar by adding her account and only syncing the calendar (did the same with iOS).

The email app is excellent. Being able to filter by unread, flagged, or priority messages with a single swipe is very nice. The email is easy to read and marking things unread is simple as is replying. I think it is the best email app between all three OS's. It works very well with hotmail, gmail, or exchange mail. Very nice.

Searching the marketplace is a bit of a pain. There isn't a simple way to filter out songs, artists, and albums. It's all mixed together. Even if I start a search from a specific category it will search everything. Bleh. You can, however, search for calendar application rather than just calendar. That seems to work pretty well but I'm not sure if it gets everything or not.

The OS is pretty stable. The font used is often too big for the screen. Quite often I can't read the full name of an app in the marketplace because it goes off the screen. Not sure how that made it past the testing phase.

The people hub is quite nice. I like the way it integrates facebook into the people hub. I'd like more options on syncing facebook stuff but it does have the option of only integrating facebook contacts with existing contacts. The ability to combine entries is nice as well. I do need to clean up my hotmail contact list, though.

Overall, I quite like it. If I can get the calendar issue resolved I think I'll be much happier. So far I'm not seeing anything, though.

The calendar is supposed to get revamped in the first system update so that you can see more appointments in the live tile and choose multiple Live/Google/Exchange calendars to sync to. Likewise, filtering on marketplace searches is supposedly part of that update. Just when the update will come is anyone's guess, although the rumor is that it'll be later this month.

EvilHomer3k wrote:

I recently bought an HD7 and I'm evaluating keeping it, my Nexus One (or possibly upgrading the N1), or an iPhone 4 (jailbroken as I'm on t-mobile). I'll wait another day or two and give some more impressions.

...

Overall, I quite like it. If I can get the calendar issue resolved I think I'll be much happier. So far I'm not seeing anything, though.

My thoughts are: you're using a first gen winphone7 . You've got a 4th gen iPhone and a 3rd gen Android (?). I'd send the winphone7 phone back upstream and look at getting it again after a year of updates.

As much as I'm am totally digging the winphone7 style, I want to wait until the OS is fully baked and if Nokia can come through on some hardware now that there using it as their focal mobile OS, then it will be worth waiting out the headache on a different device.

trueheart78 wrote:
EvilHomer3k wrote:

I recently bought an HD7 and I'm evaluating keeping it, my Nexus One (or possibly upgrading the N1), or an iPhone 4 (jailbroken as I'm on t-mobile). I'll wait another day or two and give some more impressions.

...

Overall, I quite like it. If I can get the calendar issue resolved I think I'll be much happier. So far I'm not seeing anything, though.

My thoughts are: you're using a first gen winphone7 . You've got a 4th gen iPhone and a 3rd gen Android (?). I'd send the winphone7 phone back upstream and look at getting it again after a year of updates.

As much as I'm am totally digging the winphone7 style, I want to wait until the OS is fully baked and if Nokia can come through on some hardware now that there using it as their focal mobile OS, then it will be worth waiting out the headache on a different device.

I don't have an iPhone 4 now. I have a 2g. I figure if I settle on iOS I might as well get the 4 over the 3gs. It's not that much more though I would have to cut up my sim card. I could also just stick with my 2g.

Overall, though, the experience with WP7 has been very positive. I really like the OS and the HD7 is a very nice phone. The keyboard is quite nice (much better than any of the keyboards I've used on the N1 - though that could be due to the N1's poor touch screen).

Gaming on the device has been quite nice. There are quite a few well polished games on the device and the Xbox Live games all seem to be a step above what you get on the android market (including EA's stuff on Android).

I think Android handles notifications best. iOS's notifications are too intrusive. WP7s are not intrusive enough. I think Android has them about right. I do wish WP7s would hang around in the bar at the top. For email notifications I think they're fine since you can see them on tiles.

Has anyone been able to upload photos to SkyDrive or Facebook from the Pictures tile? Every time I try, I get an error message. I can upload from within the Facebook app itself, but not from the Pictures tile.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

Has anyone been able to upload photos to SkyDrive or Facebook from the Pictures tile? Every time I try, I get an error message. I can upload from within the Facebook app itself, but not from the Pictures tile.

I have uploaded a picture to facebook right after I took it with no issue before.

Do most apps provide a trial mode? How are they priced? I'm wrapping up development on my first app in the next few days, and finishing up the little details. I'll post it when it's released.

Bonus_Eruptus wrote:

Do most apps provide a trial mode? How are they priced? I'm wrapping up development on my first app in the next few days, and finishing up the little details. I'll post it when it's released.

All xbox live games have to have a demo. The rest are up to you. Games seem more likely to have a demo than apps. I'd say less than half of non-games apps have a demo and over half of the games I have looked at had them. I don't do much with non-xbox live games, though.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

Has anyone been able to upload photos to SkyDrive or Facebook from the Pictures tile? Every time I try, I get an error message. I can upload from within the Facebook app itself, but not from the Pictures tile.

Works fine when I try it. Have you connected Facebook to your Windows Live ID on live.com?

breander wrote:

Ah! I see! My Samsung Focus has a spot behind the battery, so no warranty voiding there.

Aside from rare random slowdowns in the UI and a lockup once every few weeks, the Samsung branded 16GB card I bought off of eBay and are using in my Focus seems to be stable. I'm not ruling out the O.S. just being occasionally flaky and causing these problems itself.

Of course now I wish they made / I had a 32GB card.

Kurrelgyre wrote:

Works fine when I try it. Have you connected Facebook to your Windows Live ID on live.com?

Yes, and I tried disconnecting them and that didn't help. Microsoft recommends that I backup my phone and reset it to its factory default to see if that fixes the problem.

Got a message last night that there is an update for my phone. Upgrading today.

EvilHomer3k wrote:

Got a message last night that there is an update for my phone. Upgrading today.

Weird. We have the same phone and carrier, and I haven't seen a thing about this.