Database Develop

[Q] probably my last attempt... please help.

hi everyone,
with the G2 coming out next month, I think this is gonna be my last attempt at getting my G1 working acceptably.
for those of you that would like to skip my sob story/history, you can skip to the next paragraph. i've had a G1 since july 2009. even though i do love it and android, the thing has constantly run horribly for me. constant lag, a history of force closes (although lately none of that luckily), lots of freezing, restarts etc. i've gone thru tons of different roms, currently on e-Xtreme 2.1 version 1.3. had lots of experienced people from these boards help me with flashing, setting up, reflashing, flashing again, setting up again, formatting my sd card, trying different setups, unrooting and rerooting. we've tried all different kinds of things to get me running well. i'm also at this point using NO widgets except the google search bar and the power widget included in 2.1. when i go to running services all i have is android keyboard, quick search box, gtalkservice, twidroyd, cm updater (impossible to shut off it seems), and setcpu. still i get constant lag from everything from opening messages, to opening websites, to getting back to the home screen, to pretty much everything. forget about loading the camera, it can take like 15 seconds sometimes! i frequently use cachemate to clear my cache. honestly right now the phone is working pretty much the best it's ever worked, but its still awful. also sometimes when i get back to my homescreen my icons don't show up. it's actually bad enough that sometimes i will just not bother doing something i wanted to do cause i dont feel like dealing with it lagging and/or freezing up. and forget about widgets. haha.
ok so, you may or may not have skipped all of that, but at this point, i want my phone to run better in a last ditch effort to maybe be able to stick with the g1 until my full contract is up in july 2011. if not i'm doing the early upgrade and reupping my 2 year contract and getting the g2 next month... what i'm wondering is maybe theres an app i have installed that's eating up memory in some way and is a known issue. i've searched around but haven't found anything about these, and rather than sit here and delete each one, one by one, waiting to see if the phone runs better, i figured i'd just type out a list and see if anyone knows of any known issues with any of these... so here it goes:
astro
barcode scanner
cachemate
calwidget
color flashlight
craigsnotifica
dolphin browser
droidball
drop
facebook
frontiers demo
googles
google sky map
gscript lite
last.fm
latitude
lyric droid
magic gem II demo
movies
myspace
nesoid
news and weather
newsrob
orbs knockoff
painting findings
pandora
pingdroid
replica island
rom manager
setcpu
springpad
soduku free
tangram master full
throw a panda
that's it. i really don't think that's so excessive. i mean theres only like 5 or 6 games in there and some of those things like setcpu, facebook and cachemate are pratically required for proper phone usage. and i wouldn't even bother having a phone without twidroyd and newsrob.
so has anyone heard of any known issues with lag caused by having one of these installed and/or one of these doing something in the background that slows stuff down?
thanks so much to anyone that helps. i'm willing to give this one more try. maybe even wiping and reflashing one more time, but after the dozen times i have already, i think i might just be expecting too much haha.
thanks
Dave

[Q] Is it just me or is the pinch overview for the touch wiz app drawer REALLY laggy?

Hi guys!
I discovered last week that newer firmwares like JPK and JPM have a pinch-overview feature for the app drawer. I never noticed this until i read it mentioned in a thread somewhere about the new SGS froyo features. I decided to try it out on a freshly flashed phone and it looked great and seemed really useful to me.
If you're unsure of what I'm talking about, it's similar to how you can pinch the home screen to have an overview of all your current homescreens and from there you can add, delete, move their positions around, or quickly jump to one of them. The app drawer for touch wiz has this as well apparently but just for rearranging panes or quickly jumping to one of them.
However, as I started filling up my phone with apps and gathered about 5 or 6 panes worth of apps, whenever I'd try doing the pinch-overview thing it was extremely slow in scrolling up or down. Sometimes it starts out fine but for some reason chokes up in the middle and sometimes it's incredibly slow to the point it is literally crawling up or down instead of actually scrolling...it's extremely frustrating.
I am currently running the latest beta for Voodoo lagfix on JPM. I keep my ram usage in check using Watchdog and Autostarts so I don't have all too many background stuff going on that would cause the slow down. The phone is nice and snappy in every aspect aside from this.

I use Launcher Pro. TW is Samsung so it's crap.

I happen to like TouchWiz actually but I understand why a lot of people dislike it. :O Maybe I like the iPhone-esque layout. I never owned an iPhone though.

I have just 6 panes of applications but no lag in the pinch zoom or scrolling. Rooted JP6, no lagfix.

Pinch zooming the apps does result in laggy scrolling here too, not very annoying though, since i can still easily jump from first to last page that way.

Yes, trying to scroll the "pinch-viewed" app drawer is painful to watch, and I only have 5-6 pages of apps. This is on rooted JP6 with OCLF v2.

Yeap, confirmed that it's super laggy. Using (official) Froyo, rooted, no lag fix.

Yeah good thing it lags so much that a quick flick does take you all the way to your last few panes of apps without a hitch. The SGS just loses more of its "slickness" though because of the lag in this aspect. If it were smooth and fluid here then not only does it feel and look great, it has great show-off value as well
This is pretty much my only pet peeve at the moment with the SGS. GPS never locks for me but I don't use GPS all that much so I can live. Things still lag for a few seconds whenever apps are installing but it's nothing too excruciating.
I hope future builds optimize this aspect as well as fix the other issues of the SGS (GPS etc. etc.)

Problem went away!
Strange. I added a ton of apps resulting in about 9 pages worth of apps and for some reason the pinch-overview lag is pretty much gone!
I haven't done anything special. If you ask me, I thought my SGS would be lagging a lot more than usual with the addition of more apps. I've also been customizing my homescreens with all kinds of widgets I thought would be eating up more memory/cpu but surprisingly I hardly notice a change in performance! And I'm not complaining that the lag went away. It's great that it did! Now my SGS experience is almost perfect!
I'm still not using any real auto-task killers or dedicated memory boosters. Here's my setup:
SGS on JPM (2.2)
Voodoo lag fix 5 pre4
Autostarts (turns off certain receivers that make apps autostart) - paid, forgot the price
Watchdog (monitor and "kill" running apps) - paid, forgot the price
SmartBar (to turn off certain services) - free

Milestone ram management is horrible?

Im on got 2.2 but this happened to me with 2.1 too, is really annoying, multitasking is not executed well, my programs keep closing :/ 70-80% of the times i press the home button while im playing music+using the browser+using trillian or behive launcher pro loads the whole homescreen and widgets :/ , if switch to the browser, it reloads the websites or loads the homepage , am i doing something wrong?
i tought 256 mb wasnt that horrible for a smartphone

i blame android.
i was ok with my phone til the last week. i got an ipod touch 4g. 256mb only on that one and people complained it was a neutered iphone but damn it smokes my milestone in day to day tasks. granted it can't make a call, but im pretty pissed that android still lacks the optimization we need.

Chad_Petree said:
Im on got 2.2 but this happened to me with 2.1 too, is really annoying, multitasking is not executed well, my programs keep closing :/ 70-80% of the times i press the home button while im playing music+using the browser+using trillian or behive launcher pro loads the whole homescreen and widgets :/ , if switch to the browser, it reloads the websites or loads the homepage , am i doing something wrong?
i tought 256 mb wasnt that horrible for a smartphone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same thing happened to me on 2.2 but on 2.1 it runs very smooth... Try "Keep in memory" setting from Launcher Pro --> Preferences

is there any method to optimize the ram usage of android. i thought that a milestone is better then iphone, i still think it is,but if the android system dont get better, iphone will smoke all of us in the pipe.
the first thing i noticed when i holded my milestone in my hands was, damn is it fast and brilliant, better then the iphone, the same day i started modding and overclocking and things like that. i gave him a little too much vsel, .... and since then i think it has gotten slower :/ , maybe some of you had the same expirience

Guys, please consider the fact, that google has to optimize their OS for different smartphone setups from different manufacturers ... the iOS featured in the iPhone and iPod Touch has been completely optimized on their hardware, since iOS isnt featured outside the apple family of handhelds. Because of this, the optimisation and integration is WAY more comfortable, Google has a ****load of work to do to consider the many different phones besides their nexus one.
give it time guys. MIUI handles the memory management already pretty good, runs way more responsive that stock android.

It's problem of the apps and widget you are using, download a app call system pannel, you will find out many apps and widget take up so many ram.
and 2.2 got leak have a problem which make the launcher redraw so often.
for launcher pro, there is an options to keep it in memory.

vladstercr said:
Same thing happened to me on 2.2 but on 2.1 it runs very smooth... Try "Keep in memory" setting from Launcher Pro --> Preferences
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i just checked that option, it says its experimental tough , theres a couple of exta ptins:
memory usage preset: high,mediu,moderate,low...
homescreen cache type: normal compressed,light
Should i mess with this setings too?

Try4Ce said:
Guys, please consider the fact, that google has to optimize their OS for different smartphone setups from different manufacturers ... the iOS featured in the iPhone and iPod Touch has been completely optimized on their hardware, since iOS isnt featured outside the apple family of handhelds. Because of this, the optimisation and integration is WAY more comfortable, Google has a ****load of work to do to consider the many different phones besides their nexus one.
give it time guys. MIUI handles the memory management already pretty good, runs way more responsive that stock android.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
piss poor excuse. there's not much rocket science going into optimizing a homescreen smoothness.
The A4 chip the iPhone 4 uses is more similar to a Samsung Hummingbird.
The OMAP chip the 3GS uses is similar to the one we have in the Droid/Milestone.
The old ARM11 chips in the 2G/3G/iPod Touch 1g/2G/3g 8gb is different too.
The fact is Apple has accounted for 3 types of CPUs and while they are all ARM architecture, it's similar to the fact we have Qualcomm, TI, and Samsung CPUs floating around. Even Google's own Nexus One is piss poor smooth on the homescreen.
Granted here at XDA we've already ROMed the hell out of our phones, but the fact that I'm still ashamed when I whip out my Milestone just to show my friends Facebook, and they ALWAYS comment on how choppy it is despite my 1100mhz overclock or whatever. I'll even reboot just before hanging out with them just in case I need to do some stuff. Android is just too freaking slow.

i am using cronos froyo 1.5 and i must say i am suprised, it is a good rom, fast and stabil,and trust me i testes many roms, maybe all?
so is there a way of modifing a rom (maybe cronos) to get rid of all the services that are not needed for a normal user? maybe it would be more ram available this way... aint it?

I think that 256 mb ram are enough. Try eclair mod v0.3b. It is very fast and i get about 110mb free ram. I use Advanced task killer and Estrong task manager. I have them both on my homescreen and when i tap them both I get 110mb ram free.

ram
the task killer is an option i dont want to use, because android should manage that him self, but maybe tere are some services that are not needed, so we can delete them, and make a slim rom. do someone know what services are not needed, and how we can wipe them?

Granted here at XDA we've already ROMed the hell out of our phones, but the fact that I'm still ashamed when I whip out my Milestone just to show my friends Facebook, and they ALWAYS comment on how choppy it is despite my 1100mhz overclock or whatever. I'll even reboot just before hanging out with them just in case I need to do some stuff. Android is just too freaking slow.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ha ha I have to do that exact same thing, so embarrassing as it always happens just after I've sung praises for Android!

Yriel40k said:
I think that 256 mb ram are enough. Try eclair mod v0.3b. It is very fast and i get about 110mb free ram. I use Advanced task killer and Estrong task manager. I have them both on my homescreen and when i tap them both I get 110mb ram free.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
On milestone? Don't believe it. Pleas post some screenshots so I can be amazed

As Milestone has really terrible hardware spec (cpu, ram, flash) I am still hoping someone would start to build ultra-lite version of the android without any non-essential services running, applications on flash, launchers, wallpapers, etc.
Regarding the multitasking - yes when I try to open second app I am holding my breath whether the first one will get killed or will survive

IMO it was depend on which rom u were used.

Try live home for launcher its pretty fast and handles multitasking
Sent from my Milestone using XDA App

Do you use any weather and clock widgets-if yes there is a option called refresh when home is pressed you disable it and your screen would come alive much faster.
Sent from my Milestone using XDA App

I have never be success on milestone, always restarting

I would say it probably more have to do with Motorola for not taking the effort to optimize Android's software for the Milestone, my friend X8 is smoother than mine despite having only 168MB(!) of RAM and he used live wallpapers too. 2.2 also for some reason seems to be very sluggish as compared to 2.1/2.3
Anyway I also believe that because of our higher resolution screen (854 x 480), more RAM is needed as more resource is needed for greater resolution and phones usually reserved more RAM (slightly) for connectivity purposes (cell tower) which lead to a "shortage" of free RAM on our milestone.
Though no doubt, I would say iOS have a slightly better memory management than Android but Android is not that bad given that the Nexus One prior to 2.2/2.3, the amount of RAM available for them is 40mb less than Milestone due to a bug but it still flies. Shows alot that effort to optimize by the OEMs matter more rather than Android itself.

Occasional Lag

Has anyone else had an occasional scrolling lag in situations? It's happened to be on the Program List where the Program icons don't load immediately. Also, most noticeably in apps such as Beezz the scrolling is laggy... Is it just me, or are others experiencing the same...?

Early bump as I'm trying to decide whether a Hard Reset is in order, maybe I installed something that didn't fare too well. Thanks guys.

80% (if not more) of the 3rd apps are NOT optimized (or rushed diplomatically saying) for Windows Phone 7 OS. HTC Hub for example wasn't as fast as the new update for it.
I can make a slight lag (more of a chopping than lag) ONLY IF I visit WPCentral page which chops on my browser than after 4-5 minutes it disappears. So I am pretty sure it's not optimised well rather than a lag because let's face it , the hardware is there and the OS is damn fast.

Have you also experienced start menu icons taking their sweet times to show up?

I've seen some choppiness on 3rd party apps. Agreed that it is a developer issue as they learn how to make apps for wp7. beezz is better than it was, but for best results, m.twitter.com is your best option.

FiyaFleye said:
Have you also experienced start menu icons taking their sweet times to show up?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In almost 1 month of use, never I have. To continue my initial post, that is one of the reason why I haven't installed many 3rd apps. Personally I hate having a sleek OS and then enter an app and feel like Android.. In fact besides YouTube and Adobe Reader I have only 4 other apps installed.

Same here. I can repeatedly reproduce the program list icon thing by scrolling to the bottom of the list, then hitting the home key, it'll fly to the top of the list and you'll see "white stars" before it switches to the home screen instead of the icons. Happens in random situations too, this is just a consistent occurrence..

I'd like to point out that as a developer, the choppy scrolling is a platform issue with the way Microsoft have design listbox scrolling - Silverlight defaults to virtualising the list box and recycling the listbox items - and this works fine of the PC where there is enough processing power to recycle and virtualise whilst you scroll. However, with Windows Phone 7's limited processing power, and Microsoft's very unoptimised seeming implementation, listboxes can't virtualise data fast enough. Ergo, voodoo is needed to get it working to scroll smoothly You could turn off virtualisation, but then that greatly increases RAM usage, which in Silverlight is already and lot, and then you get comparatively long load & draw & render times, and blargh. There's no one good way to do it yet for long lists - not until Microsoft go and optimise the Silverlight platform better.
I'm assuming the program list icon thing is to save RAM - you can also get it with the Home screen tiles if you have a lot of tiles on it - and saving RAM is something Windows Phone is going to like to do, seeing as the apps and the Silverlight platform use up so much RAM

i had my hd7 for almost a month now and experienced lag on it. there was also an instance that icons of the apps i installed via market place took a few seconds to load up. theres also this occasional slow response time of the unlock screen. i still have 9gb of space though

Lumia 520, Windows phone experience?

Hello,
I m researching about windows phone n I haven't used windows phone since 6.5
I m an avid android user n want to get a taste of windows phone.
I usually have following uses apart from call/texting :
*browsing with flash, download files, surf websites.
*EBook reading with PDF , mobi , epub , office
*Whatsapp , Viber and Tango
*Facebook
*Opera Mobile Browser /chrome/ Firefox/dolphin or similar
* Video player with all video support like vlc n MX player pro in android
*Games n few HD games too
Also can you control brightness?
How much is internal memory available to user when you buy the phone . I know you won't get exactly 8gb.
How does 512 ram limits your experience with apps and games?

dont compare WM6.5 with new WP series... is totally different....
flash not supported (and never be because dead... only is problem on pages which not give proper support to html5)
all this (ebooks, docs, pdf) open on phone
whatsapp, viber, skype working, tango not support wp8
facebook work, official or not officiall apps work, also you can use browser
no support for firefox, chrome or opera... only IE or Nokia Express...
only wmv and mp4 video files work, no mkv or subtitle support, no other media players support
games (HD or which you want play) in marketplace work but if you want gamer experience 512 RAM devices not for you.... you must buy device with more RAM....
2 gb ram is taken by OS and dont forget other things... 8 gb not enough for gamers... how i say it: if you want play games take device with 1GB+ RAM and minimum 16 GB of memory, 32 GB is recommended....
nobody can tell you did 512 mb device have problems with games and apps because if game need more than 512 mb ram you cant install it....

Mostly right. A few caveats:
* Flash is not "dead" though you might argue it's heading there. Windows RT still supports it, and an awful lot of the web still tries to use it. It is a problem on the phone. On the other hand, Flash for Android *is* dead, so you don't actually *lose* anything there by switching to WP8.
* You'll need apps for document formats other than Office formats (which are supported natively), but there exist free apps for ebook reading.
* Odd that Tango is missing (it's available for WP7), but it does seem to be that way. Skype integrates well, though. I haven't used the others.
* Lots of Facebook stuff (OS-level integration, some good apps, and yes it works fine in the browser too).
* IE10 is a pretty solid browser, fast and HTML5-capable. It's better than the old default Android browser before Chrome, for sure. Is there a specific reason you need an alternate browser? There are tons of "browser" apps, but (like on iOS), they are all just wrapped around the native browser control rather than actually having their own rendering engine.
* VLC has said that they are bringing the player to WP8! It's still being ported and not available yet, though (no real ETA either). I don't use MKV so I can't speak to the quality of apps for it, but I'd kind of expect them to exist.
* The Lumia 520 screen isn't "HD" (800x480) so there's arguably no point in "HD" games for it, but they do exist. Many are Xbox Live games as well. The point about the RAM issue is valid, though; you will need a 1GB phone for the really "big" games.
* Brightness control works fine, either manual control or automatically based on the light sensor. I don't know how good the actual screen brightness is, though.
* One-point-something gigs of storage (not RAM, despite what dxdy said) are used by the base OS, yeah. The remaining 6GB or so is enough for quite a lot of apps, but you'll want to get a microSD card for music/movies/etc. to avoid wasting the internal storage with those. You can't install apps to the microSD though.
A word of warning: WP8 is more locked down than Android, never mind WinMo. Things like browsing the filesystem or registry are officially impossible, and even with homebrew we can't really do it yet (much of the registry is readable, but not all). So far, there are no public bootloader unlocks (so, no custom ROMs yet) either.

On the 521 the o/s takes up 1.9 gigs. The 52x series phones are great phones to start with. There's a lot of good games that'll run on it too. So don't let that phase you!
Sent from my Nokia 521 using XDA Windows Phone 7 App

Overall I believe the phone is worth the price you pay for it. It is very fluid and I haven't had any problems with it.

ed00. said:
Overall I believe the phone is worth the price you pay for it. It is very fluid and I haven't had any problems with it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes, you are right... but people want cheap phone and play big games

Thank you everyone for your time and your help. Appreciated!
MY NEEDS IN A PHONE
I usually use my phone when I am in bed. This too is usually for reading, browsing, watching movie (5 inch) etc or playing card games like spades etc. Further, I would need good messaging support, while I do not like to update my tiles every hour or so but only once in a day be good for me. I hope multitasking is enabled as if i am browsing, I can switch my apps to games/messaging if required. Lastly I am not looking to put a lot of money in Windows phone especially when the platform is new and when it gets a bit better, my high end device would be unable to fully utilise apps of that period as Windows only offer 1 gb of ram till date with mostly dual core support. I hope I can get few good free apps and I hope there are good games on windows 8.
I will get an SD card and i hope to move apps to sd card is supported or it is by default ? The option that there is no file manager/ file browser is also a bummer but I guess I will manage.
Can I setup multiple email accounts too ?
Now my choice goes from either getting Nexus 5 or just Lumia 520.
Basically, I have an android tablet and an android phone. The only reason I want to change my android phone is that, mostly I am using my tablet and use my phone only when I do not have access to my tablet due to any reason. Thus, my high end android phone is not fully utilised and even a basic phone will do.
MY EXPERIENCE :
The reason to change to windows phone is because it promises great battery life even on its budget models. Looking at phones from different manufactures, HTC sets that I have used, have always some problem with signals strength draining more battery while Sony has low battery life in general. LG and Motorola promise good battery but I havenot tried them yet. Samsung is most promising out of all with quick updates, better battery life and good support from developers. In a way, I guess every manufacturer has something great to offer but at the same time, it is limited to some issues except Nexus devices.
I have used all android and iphone and although I admire android, I just want to taste how windows 8 platform works out for me. I have used Nokia for a long time too, with trying everything from Symbian to its budget phones. Nokia promises very good battery life but lack of applications is big disadvantage. I said farewell to symbian when the apps were dwindling and I realised that Symbian (s60, Belle, Anna ) is going for an end soon.
Windows phone never really impressed me with lack of features, optimisation and how hard it is to find an application. Moreover, most of the apps are PAID which are not as good as even free android or IOS apps(Iphone has very few apps free though but still alot). However, the reason to try for a new platform is also intriguing.
What I do not like about Symbian s40 is no multitasking and generally limited support from developers and manufacturers with good battery life and small screens.
Windows phone on the other hand, the platform is still too young and it might be a good choice to try for Windows phone in a year or so, when it will have more support and I guess doing much better than now. Maybe more applications are officially supported.
Android at the same time is rocking and doing very well if you have a nexus device. I already have 4 updates since August till today, every time, bringing new features and updates. Plus, a nexus device gives you updates till a very long time. I am not sure this about windows phone.
I know 4 inch is small for watching a movie but the option to run a movie on lower end android device and how much support is given is just amazing. I usually use Opera Classic browser for my phone while Chrome, Dolphin and Opera Classic for my tablet. Every browser has its own advantage as Opera offers you to download files within browser whilst Chrome browser offers sync features to your all history, bookmarks and even access them on your PC just by logging in your gmail account. Dolphin has flash support and although, I can run everything including video websites on my Chrome, the mental peace that I have with Dolphin, that it will run any flash is just too good.
I do not think that I will have time to convert, large media files into mp4 or wmv so I can watch movies on my phone. So that's a real bummer!
Do you mean this VLC player ? Have anyone used it ? how does it perform ?
http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/s...-for-vlc/2b27eb95-c86f-4989-8c81-3d4efa994654
dxdy said:
dont compare WM6.5 with new WP series... is totally different....
flash not supported (and never be because dead... only is problem on pages which not give proper support to html5)
all this (ebooks, docs, pdf) open on phone
whatsapp, viber, skype working, tango not support wp8
facebook work, official or not officiall apps work, also you can use browser
no support for firefox, chrome or opera... only IE or Nokia Express...
only wmv and mp4 video files work, no mkv or subtitle support, no other media players support
games (HD or which you want play) in marketplace work but if you want gamer experience 512 RAM devices not for you.... you must buy device with more RAM....
2 gb ram is taken by OS and dont forget other things... 8 gb not enough for gamers... how i say it: if you want play games take device with 1GB+ RAM and minimum 16 GB of memory, 32 GB is recommended....
nobody can tell you did 512 mb device have problems with games and apps because if game need more than 512 mb ram you cant install it....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Does that mean, I can not open videos on my browser ? In Android , I run all videos on my browser without any problem. I installed flash myself which is supported by Dolphin browser, however, even without it, I can easily run yahoo videos and many other video websites like dailymotion, metacafe etc. Didnot try youtube as I have dedicated application for that.
GoodDayToDie said:
Mostly right. A few caveats:
* Flash is not "dead" though you might argue it's heading there. Windows RT still supports it, and an awful lot of the web still tries to use it. It is a problem on the phone. On the other hand, Flash for Android *is* dead, so you don't actually *lose* anything there by switching to WP8.
* You'll need apps for document formats other than Office formats (which are supported natively), but there exist free apps for ebook reading.
* Odd that Tango is missing (it's available for WP7), but it does seem to be that way. Skype integrates well, though. I haven't used the others.
* Lots of Facebook stuff (OS-level integration, some good apps, and yes it works fine in the browser too).
* IE10 is a pretty solid browser, fast and HTML5-capable. It's better than the old default Android browser before Chrome, for sure. Is there a specific reason you need an alternate browser? There are tons of "browser" apps, but (like on iOS), they are all just wrapped around the native browser control rather than actually having their own rendering engine.
* VLC has said that they are bringing the player to WP8! It's still being ported and not available yet, though (no real ETA either). I don't use MKV so I can't speak to the quality of apps for it, but I'd kind of expect them to exist.
* The Lumia 520 screen isn't "HD" (800x480) so there's arguably no point in "HD" games for it, but they do exist. Many are Xbox Live games as well. The point about the RAM issue is valid, though; you will need a 1GB phone for the really "big" games.
* Brightness control works fine, either manual control or automatically based on the light sensor. I don't know how good the actual screen brightness is, though.
* One-point-something gigs of storage (not RAM, despite what dxdy said) are used by the base OS, yeah. The remaining 6GB or so is enough for quite a lot of apps, but you'll want to get a microSD card for music/movies/etc. to avoid wasting the internal storage with those. You can't install apps to the microSD though.
A word of warning: WP8 is more locked down than Android, never mind WinMo. Things like browsing the filesystem or registry are officially impossible, and even with homebrew we can't really do it yet (much of the registry is readable, but not all). So far, there are no public bootloader unlocks (so, no custom ROMs yet) either.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
aclegg2011 said:
On the 521 the o/s takes up 1.9 gigs. The 52x series phones are great phones to start with. There's a lot of good games that'll run on it too. So don't let that phase you!
Sent from my Nokia 521 using XDA Windows Phone 7 App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ed00. said:
Overall I believe the phone is worth the price you pay for it. It is very fluid and I haven't had any problems with it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Hnk1 said:
Does that mean, I can not open videos on my browser ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
no.. most of videos work but on some sites not... all depend did this site have right support to show video in html5
P.S:
and also you cant move apps on WP to SD.... dont except all what you want from Android on WP... WP is great but many people simply disappointment because have too much expectations....
you can setup multiple email accounts...
about battery: all smart phones (no mater which one: android: iPhone or WP) have problems with battery... and dont expect more than day for battery life... with videos, games and heavy duty you be lucky if battery last one day
my thinking is: you want to have cheaper device and want it all on it.... seems (this my opinion) WP not for you.... this is problem for "Android spoiled" users hehehe

dxdy said:
no.. most of videos work but on some sites not... all depend did th. E site have right support to show video in html5
P.S:
and also you cant move apps on WP to SD.... dont except all what you want from Android on WP... WP is great but many people simply disappointment because have too much expectations....
you can setup multiple email accounts...
about battery: all smart phones (no mater which one: android: iPhone or WP) have problems with battery... and dont expect more than day for battery life... with videos, games and heavy duty you be lucky if battery last one day
my thinking is: you want to have cheaper device and want it all on it.... seems (this my opinion) WP not for you.... this is problem for "Android spoiled" users hehehe
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you so much for your reply.
One last question : how about signal strength? How will you rate on scale of ten.
I m not expecting too much out of a budget phone. I am not ready to spend big money on platform which I might like or might not.
My simple plan is to taste it n before buying one, I just want to see what WP can do for me.
If battery life is bad, then it's a deal breaker for me. On official website, its 9:40 3g time with over 14hrs on 2g.
Video playback is 7 hrs n browsing for 8.
I guess i will just buy one by the end of weekend just to see what it can do actually.

Hnk1 said:
Thank you so much for your reply.
One last question : how about signal strength? How will you rate on scale of ten.
I m not expecting too much out of a budget phone. I am not ready to spend big money on platform which I might like or might not.
My simple plan is to taste it n before buying one, I just want to see what WP can do for me.
If battery life is bad, then it's a deal breaker for me. On official website, its 9:40 3g time with over 14hrs on 2g.
Video playback is 7 hrs n browsing for 8.
I guess i will just buy one by the end of weekend just to see what it can do actually.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The signal strength is a 8-9/10 I haven't had any problems with this aspect of the phone. I honestly believe that you will have a pleasant experience with the WP. This is my first time using a windows phone ( before I was a android user) and I have really started to grow to like it alot.

ed00. said:
The signal strength is a 8-9/10 I haven't had any problems with this aspect of the phone. I honestly believe that you will have a pleasant experience with the WP. This is my first time using a windows phone ( before I was a android user) and I have really started to grow to like it alot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can't say anything about a 520, but I'd have to say it varies per lumia device. I have a 928 which is Verizon's (a CDMA carrier like sprint, but different from everyone else) flagship phone at the moment (that's soon to quickly change) and the signal on my HTC 7 Trophy had great reception, id give it a 9/10 while the 928, I'd give a 7/10. The calls all sound great, but I'm kinda on the edge of their coverage with LTE/4G, let alone 3G. Essentially the trophy I got 3-4 bars of 3G, while on the 928, I get 1-2 bars of LTE that usually bounces between 3G and 1X. The other GSM services are pretty poor across my whole home, while on the Trophy I almost never had any signal unless I stood absolutely still in a given spot (I haven't tested on the 928, I don't have a microSIM.) I had access to #DATA to get a decible reading on the signal strength on the Trophy, but that's not on a 928.
So, I can't vouch for the 520, but it could just be better depending on the band your carrier uses. Everything is bad in my region, because the trees are thick and the cell towers barely peak over them not to mention they are using the 2200MHz? band.

I bought the LUMIA and it is not up to my standards.
SORRY
I AM VERY MUCH DISAPPOINTED.
GOING BACK TO ANDROID

Hnk1 said:
I bought the LUMIA and it is not up to my standards.
SORRY
I AM VERY MUCH DISAPPOINTED.
GOING BACK TO ANDROID
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
why? I LOVE WP! :'(

thals1992 said:
why? I LOVE WP! :'(
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I will explain in order :
1. Firstly the amount of clicks you have to do in order to turn off wifi or data or go into airplane mode....or generally do anything...... you have to go into settings and there are no tiles apps to directly switch on or off anything. I got a tile app but then again, it just redirects me to settings.
In android, I only have to swipe down and use toggle buttons.
2. Battery life, I thought I was up for a treat as Windows Phone is known for battery but really ?
Overnight on power saver mode with airplane mode turned ON, my phone battery reduced to 27 from 52.
On hundred percent charge and used it less than an hour, 27 after just 24 hours while the phone was on airplane mode ?
Android gave me so much better life on 2.3.6 (GB) while it has gone better and better on JB.
3. The amount of data live tiles take is just stupid. I took around 1.26 Gb in one day alone ? I know I downloaded few apps (around 400 Mb) but that went till 1.26 without anything else, that's a lot of data. I used like half the data even while streaming videos.
4. The amount of taps I can open on my UC browser/IE after which, I get the message, trying to restore memory. . .. . is only 3 to 4 while I could manage even 10 easily on Opera Classic.
5. Applications are not optimised to run on WP as well as it is on Android.
6. Windows Store! Where are all the useful applications ? What about a good movie player, a good ebook reader that can support all formats at once. You even pay to get the worst apps ever. LIMITED! It is so much limited. WP claims it has reached a long number of apps but I can hand pick useful and really good application out of all they ever made. I have to install 5 apps to do half run stuff which one app in android did for me!
7. Where is a good file explorer? Why can't I just manage my files from my phone ?
Why do I have to connect it to computer every time, I need to manage my files or anything ?
8. Bluetooth a song from an android device, I can not find it anywhere at all. Not in Xbox Music or anywhere really. And I couldnot manage my files to know where it went and how will i ever manage to play it ? Restarted so it might just refresh but no, BAD!
9. Many applications are paid in WP which are free in android. Come on, MS should invest in free apps to attract customers.... no
10. Free Music forever from Nokia, well it turns out, the feature is still not available in MOST of the regions. While advertising, they were too EAGER to show they will give you free music for rest of life. TURNS out only few countries are supported.
11. What about a good MUSIC PLAYER???????
12. YOU CAN NOT TURN OFF AUTO ROTATE, REALLY ????
13. Minimum customisation
14. Still needs to catch up with Android and IOS on so many levels.
15. Getting Windows 8 if you need to develop apps.
16. JUST 3 brightness mode supported ??? Why can not I manage in percentage huh ? For me, the least bright is too bright for me at night!!
There is so many more things I do not like about WP
But only good things I noticed in WP are
1. Good sound hardware than most of budget and mid range Android phones.
2. Better Signals strength compared to HTC. While Sony and Samsung do just as equal.
3. Try option is good in WP store but android has usually free versions. What I like is that every apps has try option that's not true for every app in Google Play

The number of clicks needed to change settings is a well-known issue, though the need to change settings is probably a lot less than you think it is. Unlike Android, WP8 is smart enough to turn off stuff like the GPS, and put the Bluetooth and WiFi into extremely low-power modes, when they aren't being used. I see no battery difference whether I leave them on (but inactive) or not.
Assuming you weren't doing something dumb like expecting the battery to last all day while you played games, you have a defective phone. Mine will go over 3 *weeks* if left idle in Battery Saver mode. That's without using Airplane Mode too, just Battery Saver. Battery loss is less than 5% for an entire day in that mode.
No, Live Tiles do not take gigabytes. It's highly unlikely they even take megabytes per day, in most cases. Some will, but not many. A typical tile push is tens of kilobytes, no more.
I have 4 tabs open constantly and hit 6 pretty often; I have literally never seen a message about memory after having the phone for months. Admittedly, my phone has 2x the RAM of yours; assuming you have the 520 like this thread is about, you got one of the lowest-end WP8 devices that exists.
Your optimization claim is absurd; even if you were using the same hardware on both platforms (which I'm pretty sure you weren't), I really doubt you have any real idea how to test how well an app is optimized.
I have several Ebook reader apps, at least one of which supports all the formats I've tried so far (I don't use the others anymore). You aren't looking very hard if you can't find them. As for video, VLC is coming.
I'm not sure what sort of file management you're trying to do on the device, since even using a PC there isn't much you can do, but... yeah. There isn't much you can do. Well, without hacks (which we don't have for the Lumias yet).
It should be possible to save received songs to your library - I know it is with photos - but it doesn't happen automatically.
As for item #10, that's a case of know what you're buying. Not our fault you didn't read the ads more closely. I mean, I sympathize, but I'm also rolling my eyes. "Know what you're buying" is rule number one of being a smart customer. That goes for most of this list, actually.
I have no particular problem with the built-in music player, but there are plenty of alternatives, some of which are linked to right here on XDA...
Orientation lock is coming in the next update. Known complaint, though it's never bothered me.
Your number 14 is meaningless; WP8 has features that both Android and iOS lack, just as both of them have features that both of the other two major platforms lack. That's the way the world works.
The need for Win8 for app development is annoying, yes. I mean, I have Win8 at home, so that's no problem, but it's an annoying restriction. Technically I think you actually can run the compiler on Win7, it's just the other tools (emulator in particular) that need Win8.
Just use auto-brightness; at least on my phone the dimmest level (i.e. in a dark room) which the automatic mode goes to is much dimmer than the manual "dim" mode.

The customization stuff has been missing since WP7 and I don't think that it is going to change. It was nice when it was available on fully unlocked (essentially flashing a custom rom for WP) devices

every people have own thinking..... for me (locked) WP8 much better than (full unlocked) WP7 and 100x better than Android....
@Hnk1
i laugh when read your reason... in most of then you simply dont know how to use WP...

GoodDayToDie said:
The number of clicks needed to change settings is a well-known issue, though the need to change settings is probably a lot less than you think it is. Unlike Android, WP8 is smart enough to turn off stuff like the GPS, and put the Bluetooth and WiFi into extremely low-power modes, when they aren't being used. I see no battery difference whether I leave them on (but inactive) or not.
Assuming you weren't doing something dumb like expecting the battery to last all day while you played games, you have a defective phone. Mine will go over 3 *weeks* if left idle in Battery Saver mode. That's without using Airplane Mode too, just Battery Saver. Battery loss is less than 5% for an entire day in that mode.
No, Live Tiles do not take gigabytes. It's highly unlikely they even take megabytes per day, in most cases. Some will, but not many. A typical tile push is tens of kilobytes, no more.
I have 4 tabs open constantly and hit 6 pretty often; I have literally never seen a message about memory after having the phone for months. Admittedly, my phone has 2x the RAM of yours; assuming you have the 520 like this thread is about, you got one of the lowest-end WP8 devices that exists.
Your optimization claim is absurd; even if you were using the same hardware on both platforms (which I'm pretty sure you weren't), I really doubt you have any real idea how to test how well an app is optimized.
I have several Ebook reader apps, at least one of which supports all the formats I've tried so far (I don't use the others anymore). You aren't looking very hard if you can't find them. As for video, VLC is coming.
I'm not sure what sort of file management you're trying to do on the device, since even using a PC there isn't much you can do, but... yeah. There isn't much you can do. Well, without hacks (which we don't have for the Lumias yet).
It should be possible to save received songs to your library - I know it is with photos - but it doesn't happen automatically.
As for item #10, that's a case of know what you're buying. Not our fault you didn't read the ads more closely. I mean, I sympathize, but I'm also rolling my eyes. "Know what you're buying" is rule number one of being a smart customer. That goes for most of this list, actually.
I have no particular problem with the built-in music player, but there are plenty of alternatives, some of which are linked to right here on XDA...
Orientation lock is coming in the next update. Known complaint, though it's never bothered me.
Your number 14 is meaningless; WP8 has features that both Android and iOS lack, just as both of them have features that both of the other two major platforms lack. That's the way the world works.
The need for Win8 for app development is annoying, yes. I mean, I have Win8 at home, so that's no problem, but it's an annoying restriction. Technically I think you actually can run the compiler on Win7, it's just the other tools (emulator in particular) that need Win8.
Just use auto-brightness; at least on my phone the dimmest level (i.e. in a dark room) which the automatic mode goes to is much dimmer than the manual "dim" mode.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thals1992 said:
The customization stuff has been missing since WP7 and I don't think that it is going to change. It was nice when it was available on fully unlocked (essentially flashing a custom rom for WP) devices
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, being honest, it is just a personal choice of using a platform which suits you. I am not going personal with anyone and it’s just my personal opinion that could be different amongst individuals. My only reason to buy a Lumia 520 was to have a FEEL of WP8 before considering a high end device.
I think WP has potential if it makes the right decisions and increases its quality application in the market. I used windows 6.5 on Omnia and it had good browsers and good video support. However, I guess I bought a platform which has not yet given it’s full and it is still in its very early stages. Maybe I am just too much hooked to Android that I am not ready to accept WP8.
I do agree to your few claims that you made but not to everyone. I am comparing Xperia U with same specification as Lumia 520 which I both own. 512 ram and dual core 1 GHz processor with 16 million colours.
I tried loving WP8 with Amber. I just could not. I guess if MS just spent like a million dollars in developing specific applications, it can help in the long way. Another disappointment is that if you have to programme for WP, you need to buy a development account and you need WINDOWS 8 with 64 BIT SYSTEM to start programming. That's a real bummer for small app developers like me who could chip in just a bit to help WP grow a bit faster. THIS was another reason, I just put my phone on sale today. I cannot invest another 1000 dollars on developing application (new 64 bit system with windows 8 and developers account) which I might just make for a hobby or try to optimise WP8 to my taste by making some apps which may benefit thousands other. THUS, only SERIOUS DEVELOPERS WILL CONSIDER making applications and these applications would be mostly paid, regardless of their quality as I saw on WP8 market.
If MS takes incentive and is serious about its growth, a mere million pounds it can spend to make these few specific applications rather than just promoting MS Office and other of its products. MS support is very good in these phones.
Applications like a proper dedicated video player that can support all formats of video with audio codecs. Adding subtitle support would be very much appreciated too. When you develop a platform, you always have to take all devices and not just the high end devices. Like Lumia 1020 supports more codecs than Lumia 520. I do understand that there are limitations due to hardware but it must not be forgotten that there are many others using lower end devices too.
Secondly, a proper ebook reader which can support all sort of books. like epub, mobi, word, pdf, rtf, etc,fb2,xeb etc. And also, ebook reader should support sd card rather than downloading from sky drive. only Mohoo supports sd card and sadly, it doesnot support all types of epub. Thirdly, a bunch of good and interesting games. A wide range of them so everyone from different taste can enjoy them.
There are so many applications that are used by everyone. MS needs to focus on that. Maybe a policy that if you are developing specific applications, you do not need to pay any fee and MS will support your work.
And the list goes on really from File management, Storage management, Data management etc
There is really no good storage management. You can only put pictures, videos, music, documents in your sd card but not applications. Neither applications can use sd card for their cache and data. This also eats a lot of space if you are a regular at whatsapp , viber or skype etc.
At least, there should be option to save game data and application cache and data into your sd card.
For many people, the lesser things to worry about is good while for some, they just want to have more options. WP8 just makes you more comfortable if you just want to stick to basics. Maybe this is the case for many who love WP8.
Also, you need to open different applications in order to run a particular file that is compatible with it. I find it easier to arrange my internal memory/storage card and then just use a file explorer to open every file. In WP8, I have to just open apps and then open a file. Sometimes, I need to look two Ebook readers in a list to see which file is supported by which reader.
App drawer is more quick way to find application in my opinion, thus when I had a long list of applications, it took some time. It could have been easier if I could arrange my list according to my need rather than in a alphabetical order or need to search every time I need to open an app.
Why do I have to press so many backs to close an application huh? There could be close button or a cross ?
In Android, I just press home button and use a task killer widget to kill all background apps with one touch.
I was very much disappointed with NO REAL notification center. I am just used to it.
Also, WP8 has problems running applications in the background. So whatsapp and such applications are not 100 % flawless.
PLUS, NO FILE MANAGEMENT WITHIN THE PHONE. I have to connect it to PC every time I need to transfer data or anything. And then I have to manage every file accordingly. Why my system doesnot do that for me. I just have to put it and my system automatically refreshes itself to do that for me.
I cannot open files until after a few minutes or after few restarts till they are refreshed in the system.
Installing Apps via Sd card is such a pain really. Restart your phone and it won't show.
Then I learnt the trick to dismount memory card and then restart so you can install apps from your sd card. I know you can do that via market too but market won't show every app due to different regions. So that's cool ?
Also, not all apps are supported for all regions. Why?
RESTART YOUR PHONE BY CHANGING YOUR REGION and then you can install that particular application by matching region.
No control over your internal memory and you just cannot delete stuff until it’s full and you then get to use SHRINK STORAGE to get your memory back after a restart. ANOTHER RESTART ? PLUS, it should be a build in feature as it is so BASIC.
BATTERY LIFE increased when I turned off auto sync. Tiles updates once a day. Disabled background Applications. Reduced brightness and such. SO THIS IS GOOD POINT. AGREED WITH YOU COMPLETELY
Well, NO OPTION TO STOP AUTO ROTATING . I love to read in my bed before going to sleep. When I hold it in one side, it just auto rotates. I did install legimi and other apps and I stopped auto rotating but most of apps does not support that. So if I am doing anything else like texting, it will keep on rotating. That makes me giddy already!
NO real good games compared to Android. Just bunch of games on WP that are good.
BROWSER TABS INCREASED with using IE but I was not so happy. It was just kind of sluggish. WP8 only has few browsers to offer which are not good except from UC Browser. I am not a fan of IE. Night mode was interesting to see though.
OREINTATION & VIDEO PLAYER ARENOT HERE SO YOU CAN NOT TALK IN FUTURE. I CAN SAY, to prove my point, Android in future will have better or same battery life to WP8.
KNOWN ISSUE IS STILL an issue to the users. KNOWN OR UNKNOWN, ISSUE IS AN ISSUE.
ABOUT YOUR CLAIM, I RESEARCHED ALOT BEFORE BUYING A LUMIA and saw its all features. I really do not need a free music for life as I hardly listen to music but the way they put it up was a bit deceptive.
I am NOT talking about my region of music for free. but if you go to nokia website, it clearly states that in bold, free music for life. not many are lucky like me and you because they fell into this ad hoax by buying this phone, only to realise their region is not supported.
I can go on and on really, but my point simply is to be constructive and things that I feel WP8 lacks.
I guess if there were a good movie player, a browser either opera or chrome or dolphin, applications to be installed on SD or at least their data/cache etc , with a good ebook reader, a few good games i could enjoy (applications are still very less), a proper file and storage management with option to manage my data I WOULD HAVE BEEN SOLD TO WP8 and WON'T HAVE THOUGHT OF SELLING MY PHONE. I MIGHT HAVE ALSO THOUGH OF DEVELOPING APPS ON WP8.
If MS does that, I might give it another try.
dxdy said:
every people have own thinking..... for me (locked) WP8 much better than (full unlocked) WP7 and 100x better than Android....
@Hnk1
I laugh when read your reason... in most of then you simply don’t know how to use WP...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, I believe that after reading my detailed account on WP8 you might think again. I strongly feel that people need to learn to respect rather than laughing. What you really are laughing at is your negligence to foresee things clearly but rather simply living in an illusion.

Hnk1 said:
Well, being honest, it is just a personal choice of using a platform which suits you. I am not going personal with anyone and it’s just my personal opinion that could be different amongst individuals. My only reason to buy a Lumia 520 was to have a FEEL of WP8 before considering a high end device.
Another disappointment is that if you have to programme for WP, you need to buy a development account and you need WINDOWS 8 with 64 BIT SYSTEM to start programming. I cannot invest another 1000 dollars on developing application (new 64 bit system with windows 8 and developers account) which I might just make for a hobby or try to optimise WP8 to my taste by making some apps which may benefit thousands other. THUS, only SERIOUS DEVELOPERS WILL CONSIDER making applications and these applications would be mostly paid, regardless of their quality as I saw on WP8 market.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They have a few hiccups and that requirement for Win8 is kinda bs on MS's part. There are ways around it. To upgrade to Windows 8 x64 its only ~$100. And that's the same price as it was for XP and Windows 7.
Applications like a proper dedicated video player that can support all formats of video with audio codecs. Adding subtitle support would be very much appreciated too. When you develop a platform, you always have to take all devices and not just the high end devices. Like Lumia 1020 supports more codecs than Lumia 520. I do understand that there are limitations due to hardware but it must not be forgotten that there are many others using lower end devices too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Codecs are the same across all WP8 devices. I'm not sure where you got that one. MS just covers the basics and several other developer's take care of including other codecs, but are unable to hardware accelerate the decoding to relieve the CPU from doing all the decoding work and making your phone hot and when its not plugged in, your phone dead.
Secondly, a proper ebook reader which can support all sort of books. like epub, mobi, word, pdf, rtf, etc,fb2,xeb etc. And also, ebook reader should support sd card rather than downloading from sky drive. only Mohoo supports sd card and sadly, it does not support all types of epub. Thirdly, a bunch of good and interesting games. A wide range of them so everyone from different taste can enjoy them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This implies that including all the different ebook file types makes the app proper. Sounds like a nightmare for developers anyways. I understand them only intending on only including the standard file types.
There are so many applications that are used by everyone. MS needs to focus on that. Maybe a policy that if you are developing specific applications, you do not need to pay any fee and MS will support your work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Some companies are being just stubborn and that's only going to change if the WP market share changes. Companies are not going to make WP apps, just because they can. They are completely basing it on the ~9% total marketshare worldwide and they won't do it, because they won't have a huge profit return.
And the list goes on really from File management, Storage management, Data management etc
There is really no good storage management. You can only put pictures, videos, music, documents in your sd card but not applications. Neither applications can use sd card for their cache and data. This also eats a lot of space if you are a regular at whatsapp , viber or skype etc.
At least, there should be option to save game data and application cache and data into your sd card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Everyone is banking off using your skydrive. MS is banking on that too, but there are a few things that can be moved around into Music+Videos. Besides that MS intended for these thing to be cloud only anyways. Going from WP7 to WP8, that's completely evident. WP7 used Zune and that was the pre-evolution of Xbox Video. WP8 just uses any app that supports MTP or MS's wrapper that enables iTunes support. The worst part is that the application data can't be backed up unless the developer has added in skydrive support to export the settings.
For many people, the lesser things to worry about is good while for some, they just want to have more options. WP8 just makes you more comfortable if you just want to stick to basics. Maybe this is the case for many who love WP8.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, this is true, but in the hands of developers, its a mess. Power users' just realize they didn't want prople to be plugging the phone in and out of USB.
Also, you need to open different applications in order to run a particular file that is compatible with it. I find it easier to arrange my internal memory/storage card and then just use a file explorer to open every file. In WP8, I have to just open apps and then open a file. Sometimes, I need to look two Ebook readers in a list to see which file is supported by which reader.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's the developer's fault for not supporting more than one format. Anyways, don't they have websites dedicated to converting ebooks anyways? MS didn't intend on having people use the USB.
App drawer is more quick way to find application in my opinion, thus when I had a long list of applications, it took some time. It could have been easier if I could arrange my list according to my need rather than in a alphabetical order or need to search every time I need to open an app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
These apps are supposed to be pinned. That's also why a search function was provided. [note: Samsung did make a app folders for the startmenu, but its only good for samsung.]
Why do I have to press so many backs to close an application huh? There could be close button or a cross? In Android, I just press home button and use a task killer widget to kill all background apps with one touch. I was very much disappointed with NO REAL notification center. I am just used to it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
All of these are in GDR3. The notification center is being added into WP8 to ease users into the new platform. If you use WP as intended, all your notifications are inside the respectively pinned live tiles. I usually have to mash the back button to close all the apps running, but most people hit the start button.
Also, WP8 has problems running applications in the background. So whatsapp and such applications are not 100 % flawless.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm starting to experience that more and more. Some live tiles won't update unless I relaunch the app even though it was running hours ago (almost everything I have is set to update a the lowest interval - 30 minutes.)
PLUS, NO FILE MANAGEMENT WITHIN THE PHONE. I have to connect it to PC every time I need to transfer data or anything. And then I have to manage every file accordingly. Why does my system not do that for me. I just have to put it and my system automatically refreshes itself to do that for me. I cannot open files until after a few minutes or after few restarts till they are refreshed in the system.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Again why do you need to be transferring files back and forth? Skydrive is supposed to be taking care of that for you.
Installing Apps via Sd card is such a pain really. Restart your phone and it won't show.
Then I learnt the trick to dismount memory card and then restart so you can install apps from your sd card. I know you can do that via market too but market won't show every app due to different regions. So that's cool?
Also, not all apps are supported for all regions. Why?
RESTART YOUR PHONE BY CHANGING YOUR REGION and then you can install that particular application by matching region.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Apps were meant to be installed from your region to your region. Exceptions are minimal. Installing apps to the SD fells like an afterthought. AFAIK, installing from SD still requires the phone to be online. So, I can't really tell you as the 928 (a flagship phone for verizon) doesn't have a microSD slot.
No control over your internal memory and you just cannot delete stuff until it’s full and you then get to use SHRINK STORAGE to get your memory back after a restart. ANOTHER RESTART ? PLUS, it should be a build in feature as it is so BASIC.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its been an issue in the past, but its slowly getting better. Nokia's storage checker lets you remove some temporary files. The other files are pertaining to photos and album covers that are cached that gets removed when you use SHRINK STORAGE that essentially fills the phone up completely and empties it.
Well, NO OPTION TO STOP AUTO ROTATING . I love to read in my bed before going to sleep. When I hold it in one side, it just auto rotates. I did install legimi and other apps and I stopped auto rotating but most of apps does not support that. So if I am doing anything else like texting, it will keep on rotating. That makes me giddy already!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is also another GDR3 fix. I can't say I ever thought to install another app to prevent autorotation. WP7 never received that feature unless you were using a custom rom on a unlocked device.
NO real good games compared to Android. Just bunch of games on WP that are good.
Click to expand...
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Not exactly in my book. This will be different depending to who you talk to. I have Halo:SA, Bejeweled Live and +Live, UNO, Civilization Revolution, COLLAPSE, Earthworm Jim, The Sims FreePlay, and Wordament.
BROWSER TABS INCREASED with using IE but I was not so happy. It was just kind of sluggish. WP8 only has few browsers to offer which are not good except from UC Browser. I am not a fan of IE. Night mode was interesting to see though.
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Nokia also has a browser too if you are interested.
OREINTATION & VIDEO PLAYER ARENOT HERE SO YOU CAN NOT TALK IN FUTURE. I CAN SAY, to prove my point, Android in future will have better or same battery life to WP8. KNOWN ISSUE IS STILL an issue to the users. KNOWN OR UNKNOWN, ISSUE IS AN ISSUE.
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Other Music and video players are here, but its up to the developers to make them useful. After all they are only working to pay off they time they put in and the ~$20 it took to buy a developer account.
ABOUT YOUR CLAIM, I RESEARCHED ALOT BEFORE BUYING A LUMIA and saw its all features. I really do not need a free music for life as I hardly listen to music but the way they put it up was a bit deceptive. I am NOT talking about my region of music for free. but if you go to nokia website, it clearly states that in bold, free music for life. not many are lucky like me and you because they fell into this ad hoax by buying this phone, only to realise their region is not supported.
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I'm not sure they ever ran something about free music forever.
I can go on and on really, but my point simply is to be constructive and things that I feel WP8 lacks.
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It seems that you are screaming across the forum table, but thats just me. We are here to help you. If you want to help WP8, go rate some of their suggestions over at uservoice.
I guess if there were a good movie player, a browser either opera or chrome or dolphin, applications to be installed on SD or at least their data/cache etc , with a good ebook reader, a few good games i could enjoy (applications are still very less), a proper file and storage management with option to manage my data I WOULD HAVE BEEN SOLD TO WP8 and WON'T HAVE THOUGHT OF SELLING MY PHONE. I MIGHT HAVE ALSO THOUGH OF DEVELOPING APPS ON WP8. If MS does that, I might give it another try.
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This just is because you have only lived on WP for a very short time.
Well, I believe that after reading my detailed account on WP8 you might think again. I strongly feel that people need to learn to respect rather than laughing. What you really are laughing at is your negligence to foresee things clearly but rather simply living in an illusion.
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I'm not laughing, I just think this is the view of many people who try to use WP after using Android. I'd also like to note that many of Apple users won't have this issue.
Its just an issue of people not understanding how MS (or MS misunderstanding people for that matter) intended on people using WP and users are looking for other ways to do when the features are just not quite up to par.
Sorry for the wall of text, but I felt obligated to help.

thals1992 said:
They have a few hiccups and that requirement for Win8 is kinda bs on MS's part. There are ways around it. To upgrade to Windows 8 x64 its only ~$100. And that's the same price as it was for XP and Windows 7.
Codecs are the same across all WP8 devices. I'm not sure where you got that one. MS just covers the basics and several other developer's take care of including other codecs, but are unable to hardware accelerate the decoding to relieve the CPU from doing all the decoding work and making your phone hot and when its not plugged in, your phone dead.
This implies that including all the different ebook file types makes the app proper. Sounds like a nightmare for developers anyways. I understand them only intending on only including the standard file types.
Some companies are being just stubborn and that's only going to change if the WP market share changes. Companies are not going to make WP apps, just because they can. They are completely basing it on the ~9% total marketshare worldwide and they won't do it, because they won't have a huge profit return.
Everyone is banking off using your skydrive. MS is banking on that too, but there are a few things that can be moved around into Music+Videos. Besides that MS intended for these thing to be cloud only anyways. Going from WP7 to WP8, that's completely evident. WP7 used Zune and that was the pre-evolution of Xbox Video. WP8 just uses any app that supports MTP or MS's wrapper that enables iTunes support. The worst part is that the application data can't be backed up unless the developer has added in skydrive support to export the settings.
Yes, this is true, but in the hands of developers, its a mess. Power users' just realize they didn't want prople to be plugging the phone in and out of USB.
That's the developer's fault for not supporting more than one format. Anyways, don't they have websites dedicated to converting ebooks anyways? MS didn't intend on having people use the USB.
These apps are supposed to be pinned. That's also why a search function was provided. [note: Samsung did make a app folders for the startmenu, but its only good for samsung.]
All of these are in GDR3. The notification center is being added into WP8 to ease users into the new platform. If you use WP as intended, all your notifications are inside the respectively pinned live tiles. I usually have to mash the back button to close all the apps running, but most people hit the start button.
I'm starting to experience that more and more. Some live tiles won't update unless I relaunch the app even though it was running hours ago (almost everything I have is set to update a the lowest interval - 30 minutes.)
Again why do you need to be transferring files back and forth? Skydrive is supposed to be taking care of that for you.
Apps were meant to be installed from your region to your region. Exceptions are minimal. Installing apps to the SD fells like an afterthought. AFAIK, installing from SD still requires the phone to be online. So, I can't really tell you as the 928 (a flagship phone for verizon) doesn't have a microSD slot.
Its been an issue in the past, but its slowly getting better. Nokia's storage checker lets you remove some temporary files. The other files are pertaining to photos and album covers that are cached that gets removed when you use SHRINK STORAGE that essentially fills the phone up completely and empties it.
This is also another GDR3 fix. I can't say I ever thought to install another app to prevent autorotation. WP7 never received that feature unless you were using a custom rom on a unlocked device.
Not exactly in my book. This will be different depending to who you talk to. I have Halo:SA, Bejeweled Live and +Live, UNO, Civilization Revolution, COLLAPSE, Earthworm Jim, The Sims FreePlay, and Wordament.
Nokia also has a browser too if you are interested.
Other Music and video players are here, but its up to the developers to make them useful. After all they are only working to pay off they time they put in and the ~$20 it took to buy a developer account.
I'm not sure they ever ran something about free music forever.
It seems that you are screaming across the forum table, but thats just me. We are here to help you. If you want to help WP8, go rate some of their suggestions over at uservoice.
This just is because you have only lived on WP for a very short time.
I'm not laughing, I just think this is the view of many people who try to use WP after using Android. I'd also like to note that many of Apple users won't have this issue.
Its just an issue of people not understanding how MS (or MS misunderstanding people for that matter) intended on people using WP and users are looking for other ways to do when the features are just not quite up to par.
Sorry for the wall of text, but I felt obligated to help.
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Thank you so much for your time and comments. I really appreciate them. The laughing part was not for you at all. My dear apologies!
I do understand your points and everything I wrote was according to my experience. I was hooked to my PC for a long time just trying to do stuff. Yes, MS has decreased developers account to 20dollar for 60 days. In the Uk, it is 35 quids and 60 quids.
Also, if you look at supported formats by 1020 to 520, you will see that 1020 supports MP4/DivX/XviD/H.264/H.263/WMV player ( MP3/WMA/WAV/eAAC+ player) while 520 only supports (MP3/WAV/eAAC+/WMA player) MP4/H.264/H.263/WMV player. So there is a difference in codecs out of the box
Yes you can upgrade with only 100 dollars but I have a 32 bit machine with windows 7 ultimate. My PC can not support a 64 bit system due to limitations of my motherboard. So I will need to update my PC while easier would be to get a new Laptop running wp8 64 bit.
I am not saying developers to support every format in wp8 but even epub is not fully supported. I have to check through different apps to see if the images are also supported so that's a bummer for me.
You are right about the market share and I guess that's another major reason apart from MS greed to get money out of developers rather funding them. Developers will always work where they find profit and Wp8 isnot a very versatile and widely used platform that MS could have thought of implementing such measures.
Games are there, but they are not my type mostly. Some of heavy games do not support 512 ram. Plus, out of those games I played in wp8, I think android and IOS have more detailed games and graphics are much nicer. It's just like game developers made an application quickly as they know they won't find much people using it but at the same time, take an extra mile to make the same game better in IOS and Android.
Yes, there are websites and ways to convert books. But what is easier for you? Just download it and it will be there in your phone where you can immediately use or where you have to download it, then convert it and then put into sd card and restart to get your ebooks. Also, moon + reader pro supports all formats of epub, mobi and pdf. It also supports SD and many other formats. This is not the case with any windows phone appliaction.
I am not a person who will first download files to pc, then sync to your sky drive and then again download into your phone. For me, just download on your phone is easier. Plus, even if i download on my PC, it just takes a minute to copy all the files to my phone rather than syncing them for about 5 to 7 minutes. (I am using 2mb connection )
Yes pinning is a nice way but I do not like to pin 20 apps on my tiles. It be much easier for me to make one tile for games, one for ebook reader and thus arrange every app with a category.
Yes, I know you have to be online to install apps as WP8 checks if it is compatible or not. But for me it's more convinient as I need to install different apps from different regions. Like few apps are only available in US and not the UK. So i downloaded all and installed one batch of UK and then changed the region and installed the other batch using US region.
I hope storage and management gets better soon.
You are right about Nokia browser but I will like to see from major companies like Mozilla, Google Chrome, Opera at least.
About Music, there is a way to make it work. I researched a bit. Again change your region will help after a restart.
I agree that I have not used much of WP8, but it didnot attract me much that I could think about using a WP8 as a primary device. Battery life is better and that is only advantage I can think of WP8.
Cheers once again