Windows Phone 7/8 Catch All

I know Verizon does rolling automatic updates but you can manually check and install updates when they're released.

ClockworkHouse wrote:
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.

I'm not sure they are quite the same. I have i-Wireless who is a T-Mobile affiliate. Not sure if that has any affect here. It also may be the old update as it says the available update is a February update. That could be the pre-update update. I started the update and it failed. Probably a bad idea to do the update using a Mac runing Windows 7 through VMware, though. I'm going to restart in boot camp and see if that works better.

Boo! The update was the pre-update update.

Considering you have to connect to the Zune software on a PC to apply the update, why the hell is it a rolling update?

I got the update to work today using a trick/hack on XDA-Developers. You have to have the February update (4008) to get it to work. It took me a while but I finally got it to work with the steps below and I'm updating right now.

I couldn't get any of the previous mentioned to work but I this is what finally did.

turn off phone cellular data in settings and leave 3g setting "on"
turn off computer wlan
leave phone wifi "on" and connect to computer, have phone wifi page open
go to update settings and hit update button. 4 seconds turn off phone wifi (I actually counted 1 when I hit the mouse button, then 2-3-4)
wait for notification of update and then turn on computer wlan.
once connected back to the internet, hit update button on screen

This is for HD7 on tmo in usa. Mine just finished.

Orignal thread is here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/show...

Tried the hack and it worked! I like the addition of Copy/Paste (wasn't really missing it, tho) and the improved load times are quite nice. Not sure what else they added/fixed.

Now I hope Dell can get their update done and that they'll address the camera issues.

ClockworkHouse wrote:
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.

And that's what it took. I did a factory reset after I installed the March update, and now everything works like a charm. One question: when you went under "all" in the pictures tile, did it always show all your albums from Facebook and Windows Live, or is that something new with the March update?

ClockworkHouse wrote:
ClockworkHouse wrote:
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.

And that's what it took. I did a factory reset after I installed the March update, and now everything works like a charm. One question: when you went under "all" in the pictures tile, did it always show all your albums from Facebook and Windows Live, or is that something new with the March update?

That is not new.

breander wrote:

That is not new.

That's what I thought. I've never had that on my phone, which makes me think I should have done a factory reset on it when I first took it out of the box.

There's a tool out now that capable of forcing an update to NoDo, although the author has pulled it from his own site since it has caused problems on some phones. I ran it on my never-updated-before Focus last night and it seems to have done the trick, despite Samsung hardware and AT&T models generally being the troublesome ones. YMMV, and all disclaimers apply.

I got a notification of a new update today for my HD7. Anyone else seeing that?

Also, it looks like the fall update will add a lot of nice features:

PC World[/url]]Windows Phone 7's big fall update is getting even bigger with two crucial features: turn-by-turn directions and speech-to-text messages.

The new features were revealed in the latest Windows Phone Dev Podcast. They'll go a long way toward helping Windows Phone 7 catch up with Android, which has offered extensive voice commands since last August and voice-guided GPS navigation since October 2009.

Bing Vision (click to enlarge)The podcast also described a Shazam-like song identification service called Bing Audio and another service called Bing Vision, which uses the phone's camera to identify text, bar codes and products -- kind like Google Goggles.

The so-called "Mango" update already has a long list of features that help make Windows Phone 7 whole. The new features includes fast app switching, multitasking for third-party apps, Internet Explorer 9 (with HTML 5 support), SkyDrive access, podcast downloads and Twitter integration. In April, Microsoft also detailed new Windows Phone 7 features for app developers. Search Extras, for instance, brings up app-specific data when the user runs a search on the phone, and live tile shortcuts will let users jump into deeper sections of an app directly from the home screen.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

I got a notification of a new update today for my HD7. Anyone else seeing that?

Also, it looks like the fall update will add a lot of nice features:

PC World[/url]]Windows Phone 7's big fall update is getting even bigger with two crucial features: turn-by-turn directions and speech-to-text messages.

The new features were revealed in the latest Windows Phone Dev Podcast. They'll go a long way toward helping Windows Phone 7 catch up with Android, which has offered extensive voice commands since last August and voice-guided GPS navigation since October 2009.

Bing Vision (click to enlarge)The podcast also described a Shazam-like song identification service called Bing Audio and another service called Bing Vision, which uses the phone's camera to identify text, bar codes and products -- kind like Google Goggles.

The so-called "Mango" update already has a long list of features that help make Windows Phone 7 whole. The new features includes fast app switching, multitasking for third-party apps, Internet Explorer 9 (with HTML 5 support), SkyDrive access, podcast downloads and Twitter integration. In April, Microsoft also detailed new Windows Phone 7 features for app developers. Search Extras, for instance, brings up app-specific data when the user runs a search on the phone, and live tile shortcuts will let users jump into deeper sections of an app directly from the home screen.

After the fall update the windows phone will be pretty much caught up with the rest.

I have had no update notification yet on my samsung focus yet.

I like the idea of the live tiles that let you jump deeper into an app. The first thing that comes to mind are tiles for loading specific game saves instead of having to jump through the opening titles and all that.

Ah, here's the summary for the latest update:

Microsoft wrote:

Update 7.0.7392.0

Fix for fraudulent third-party digital certificates. This update includes a critical fix to an industry-wide issue with nine untrusted digital certificates that were issued by one root certificate authority. These third-party digital certificates are used to access popular websites and email portals. Although this is not a Microsoft security vulnerability, these untrusted certificates may be used to spoof content, perform phishing attacks, or perform man-in-the-middle attacks against all web browser users. This update moves the affected certificates to the "Untrusted Publishers" certificate store on Windows Phone, which helps ensure that these fraudulent certificates are not inadvertently used. For more info, see Microsoft Security Advisory (2524375).

I'd really like to see easier live tile development for developers. From what I've read creating live tiles for your app are both a pain and kind of expensive (requiring a web server to update the tiles).

Anyone know how you can make a playlist on your phone? I tried tap and hold and adding to now playing but couldn't find a way to actually get that to play nor any way to see what was on that list.

EvilHomer3k wrote:

Anyone know how you can make a playlist on your phone? I tried tap and hold and adding to now playing but couldn't find a way to actually get that to play nor any way to see what was on that list.

I just looked on my phone and I could not figure it out. When looking at the playlist screen it says to sync to my computer. So maybe the only way to make one is in the zune software.

I couldn't figure it out, either, and couldn't find any help online, either. I've made all of my playlists in the Zune software.

Hopefully mango fixes it. Making play lists on the phone is something that should be on any phone that plays music.

I sure hope Verizon gets a good Win7 phone soon. I'm enjoying Android well enough, but I've really liked the UI/UX on these.

trueheart78 wrote:

I sure hope Verizon gets a good Win7 phone soon. I'm enjoying Android well enough, but I've really liked the UI/UX on these.

Have you looked at the HTC Trophy yet?

I did - it's nothing that makes me want to re-commit long-term yet. I've got an HTC Incredible that is doing great, and hope to see something solid from Microsoft's partnership with Nokia before too long.

So I'm considering a LG Quantum. I'm not sure I am sold on getting a smart phone at all, but this seems like a cool phone. Has anyone heard anytig good or bad about it vs. any other windows phone.

Jayhawker wrote:

So I'm considering a LG Quantum. I'm not sure I am sold on getting a smart phone at all, but this seems like a cool phone. Has anyone heard anytig good or bad about it vs. any other windows phone.

Comparison by the numbers of the hardware, as I wouldn't place much importance in the device-specific or carrier-specific applications. Samsung's the only one who built their models with an empty memory slot.

breander wrote:
EvilHomer3k wrote:

Anyone know how you can make a playlist on your phone? I tried tap and hold and adding to now playing but couldn't find a way to actually get that to play nor any way to see what was on that list.

I just looked on my phone and I could not figure it out. When looking at the playlist screen it says to sync to my computer. So maybe the only way to make one is in the zune software.

I believe I've figured it out. If you play a song or album you can then add other songs to play after those songs are done. Tap and hold a song or album and choose add to now playing. Then if you use the next/previous song buttons it will move to that song after everything you're currently playing is done. Usually the now playing list includes much more than I think it does. I also didn't seem to be able to see a list of what is now playing. But it does seem to work it's just a little quirky.

Well, I sprung for my first smartphone and picked up the LG Quantum. So far, I like it a lot. I am really curious if I am going to feel hamstrung by being a Mac user with a Windows phone. I never had any desire to use it a music player. If worst comes to worse, I can re-install Windows on my iMac. I can see where moving photos might be something I want to do. But I also might find an easier way to do that.

The clincher for choosing a Windows phone over the Android was Netflix. But also, I really like the Quantum. It may prove to be heavier than I want. the Android option I considered was the Pantech Crossover. What I really wanted was a keyboard. I guess I'll figure out over the next two years if that was something I needed.

Any other cool apps I should look for?

If you have an unlimited data plan, you might consider setting your phone to automatically upload to Skydrive. It's 20 GB of free cloud storage that'll be tied to your Live account. It's an automatic backup for your photos, and it'll help with managing them on your Mac since you won't have access to the Zune software without Windows.

I'm having a heck of a time logging onto my local wifi. The same WEP password I use for everything else doesn't seem to work on the phone.

Are there compatibility issues I need to take into account?

Okay, I got everything working hunky dory.

Best news of the night is the Windows Phone 7 Connector available in the Mac App store. This will sync any music and podcasts I want from my Mac to any Windows phone or Zune. It does the same with photos. Any photos and video I take with the phone will import into iPhoto, too. It's free and works perfectly.

It's going to force me to unDRM some of my music, though.

But my biggest worry about going with a Windows phone was the loss of some of the syncing with my computer. I may still re-install Windows on my iMac. But right now, I have all the syncing I need.

Good new article on Gizmodo about the new Mango update. The video also shows off some of the new features, and they look great.

And if you want a blow-by-blow account of every new feature, Pocket Now has your back.