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[Q] Is lumia worth the price?

Hey, i'm going to buy a new phone soon and im thinking to get a lumia. Is it worth it? Is it better than android and ios in someway? How about the dataplan? Is it much cheaper than the others? Really need an existing windows phone user to reply how they feel about their phone. Thank you very much for your cooperation

"Is it worth it" is a personal question - it depends on what you value, how much you can afford to spend, what phone you're thinking of (there are at least six Lumias in active production and at least one older model still being sold), what deal you can get it for... however, you're asking a forum full of Windows Phone users, so the general answer would be "yes".
Is it better than Android or iOS somehow? Yeah, a few ways. The interface is much more dynamic, presenting at-a-glance info and requiring less popping into and out of apps, plus the lock screen is pretty configurable. The battery life requires much less shepherding on WP8 than on Android, and there's also none of the malware found on Android. The built-in Office apps (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote) are better than any that I have seen for either Android or iOS. Xbox Music Pass (formerly Zune Pass) is very sweet, although it's not available in all regions; check this. Similarly, Here Drive (formerly Nokia Drive) is better than other navigation apps (built-in or third-party) that I've tried, but may not be available, or at least not free, in all regions. Developing for WP8 is really easy and you can use a large number of languages. The software keyboard is excellent; I prefer it over the iOS one (massively) and over most Android ones. The integration of Skype calls is really nice. The ability to switch between Live messenger, Facebook chat, and SMS/MMS in the Messaging hub is very cool. The fact that you don't need to install iTunes is a plus on Windows (unless you already use it... eww). All Windows Phones are required to have a double-action camera button (half-press to focus, full press to shoot) although you can also use tap-to-shoot. There are lots of Xbox Live-enabled games, many of them quite good, which are not only fun but also earn you GamerScore on Xbox Live. The Xbox Live integration also lets you message and game with your Xbox Live buddies, although you can't generally play between phone and console directly. Xbox Smartglass lets you use the phone to control, view, and interact with the Xbox 360. Generally speaking, phones are updated faster than on Android. If you let us know what's important to you, we could possibly list other advantages...
The data plan is a carrier thing, not an OS thing, but will probably be the same price and features as other smartphones. That's something you will have to research yourself, though.
I like the Windows Phone devices I have (an HD7 running WP7, and an Ativ S running WP8). They do have some limitations - WP8 has not yet been hacked much at all, so there's a lot less homebrew for it than there was for WP7 - but overall they are nice. They get good battery life (the HD7 not anymore, but it's 2.5 years old), have good (if not all-encompassing) app selection, and have a number of nice features (WiFi tethering built in, for example). The main thing keeping me on Windows Phone is that I have a legacy Zune Pass (the kind that allows 10 DRM-free downloads a month) and therefore I really want a phone that will let me stream or download all the other songs so I can discover new stuff and decide what I want to use my credits on each month (before I use them).

Do you think WP8 should be WindowsRT feature wise ??

How many of you think in such a way. I mean the freedom we get in Windows RT is actually what an average user want with security. Heard WP Blue will share winRT APIs and other codes. So does that mean we will see freedom and app like file explorer limited to personal files, ability to have 3rd party audio and video players with full media api access ?? In short the sandbox model if Windows RT in WP...
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

Vishwal said:
How many of you think in such a way. I mean the freedom we get in Windows RT is actually what an average user want with security. Heard WP Blue will share winRT APIs and other codes. So does that mean we will see freedom and app like file explorer limited to personal files, ability to have 3rd party audio and video players with full media api access ?? In short the sandbox model if Windows RT in WP...
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 4 Beta
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It might be possible.
The plan is to get it there, I am not sure if Blue will bridge the platforms completely or just some APIs.

mcosmin222 said:
It might be possible.
The plan is to get it there, I am not sure if Blue will bridge the platforms completely or just some APIs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I hope it's former part of your last sentence. I want to operate my smart phone, not vise versa...
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

It would be nice. I don't wholly agree with Microsoft's approach to RT, either, mind you. I think that restricting things like Testsigning mode and kernel debugging and third-party drivers is harmful to the platform from a developer standpoint without providing any benefit to either Microsoft or the users. I think the restriction around desktop apps is silly and should be optional, even if the option is well hidden and/or contains dire warnings. I'll put up with those restrictions in return for Microsoft's current laissez-faire attitude about the "jailbreak", but even then I find the "secure boot" lockdown insulting; we bought the hardware and the software it comes with, and should be able to run whatever other software we want to on it.
With all that said, the RT world is miles ahead of the WP world. I'm not suggesting they should bring the desktop to WP - it's actually possible, and while it would be hard to click things the specs and resolution on the higher-end phones are more than sufficient - but some kind of file manager (or even the ability to write our own), some kind of scripting environment (closer to powershell than TouchDevelop), and some of the core utilities and features of Windows (ability to back up any and all files automatically, or to set per-app and per-sound device volume controls, or to create symbolic links in the filesystem) would be really nice, and full access to the registry would be fantastic.
The issue of security does become relevant here - I don't want any arbitrary app to have such registry access, for example - but I wish they would put in some way to do such things, even if only through a built-in special-privileges settings app. Besides, eventually we will find a way into the OS, and there's a decent chance that the exploit used will be something that *any* app could use. At that point, we might very well find malware exploiting those holes. Historically, the biggest breaks in device lockdown have come neither from malicious attackers nor from those who wish to pirate apps/games/whatever, but from those who simply want to use their own devices without BS restrictions getting in the way. The most famous example in recent histroy is probably the PS3, which was broken wide open after Sony seriously (and foolishly) pissed off some people by retroactively removing device features such as the ability to boot Linux. However, the same act plays out regularly on iOS (where the goal is control, but once the hacks are demonstrated they get used for both malware and piracy) and has also already been seen on RT.
If you want to make something secure, don't give the most talented people (who only rarely work for the blackhats or the pirates) an excellent reason to break its security wide open. This means the security has to stay out of those users' way, instead of constantly impeding them.

I actually would like to have the desktop available on WP as well but not necessarily if you are using it as a phone. But imagine connecting it via HDMI and having RT Applications + Desktop available. The hardware power is there, given that current WP8 devices run the same Qualcomm SoC that Dell uses in the XPS10.
API-wise I expect them to bring a lot more of WinRT over to WinPRT (especially on the managed side). I'm not sure if they will extend it to system-level concepts like a shared file-system - my feeling is that they won't do that but we'll have to wait and see how the APIs to access the SD card are progressing.

While I agree, the downside of doing that is that it greatly increases the install footprint. Windows RT has a much larger install footprint than other "mobile" OSes, and it has hurt platform adoption somewhat as well as increasing the manufacturing price of the tablets it runs on (because they need more storage; 16GB wouldn't really cut it). WP8 is even more space-sensitive; there are already WP8 devices with very little internal storage, and many phone lack any kind of expansion port. Adding the desktop and all of the desktop utilities (management console and all its snap-ins, all the little utilities like paint and wordpad and so on, plus all the libraries needed to support them) would add up to probably at least another few hundred megs; trivial on a PC, acceptable on a tablet, problematic on a phone.

Should i buy a lumia 520 or w1?

Hello guys i have been using smartphones for almost half a decade now starting from symbian to android. But i haven't used ios and wp8 yet.
The devices i had used so far are:
Nokia 5233
Nokia c6
SE live with walkman.
Se mini pro
Samsung galaxy y.
Sony xperia j.
Now i am quite bored of the same android. I had used custom roms on everyone of my phone but now i dont care if i can use custom roms or not. I just want a decent phone that can provide me a decent daily usage. Starting from watching youtube videos to playing some games.
Now before i finalize my decision i need to know few things.
1) Does windows market place have at least some free games(that is fully free not trail)??
2) Does the fb app of wp really s**ks??
3) Does wp have a youtube app.??
4) Does wp have basic apps like facebook messenger, whatsapp, a nice photo editing app like picsart in android??
5) And the most important what is meant by developer unlock and interlop unlock???
6) Can i do the above two things on nokia lumia 520 or acend w1?
And the main question which one of these i should buy?
Thank you guys.
Regards,
Totally noob in WP.

Lots of free games, and most of the "trial" games are just a "buy the game to remove ads" trial; the game is otherwise fully functional. Even a number of Xbox Live games are free.
The FB app is pretty good, in my limited experience. I actually almost always just use the built-in FB integration and have no need for the app; just about the only things I use FB for these days are a great big address book + ability to see event invitations + ability to see posted photos, and the built-in integration handles all of that quite well. The app is pretty fast and fluid, with lots of features, though, as of the last update or two. There's always the browser in any case; touch.facebook.com works fine last I checked (or the full site, but it's not mobile-friendly).
There are many Youtube apps (plus again, you can just use the browser for HTML5 videos). Google has gotten into a pissing match with Microsoft over the official Youtube app though, so sometimes it's just blocked from working. There are alternative apps that I've never seen blocked (even though they work just like the MS app...), though, and there are apps for other video sites too,
Facebook messaging is built in to the "Messaging hub" of the OS, or accessible through the FB app; there are also dedicated messenger apps that can use it. Whatsapp is available. I don't know picsart at all, but there's some basic photo editing built into the OS, plus a crapload of apps for it.
Developer unlock is the ability to install unsigned apps (usually meaning apps in development, but also homebrew apps which aren't allowed in the store. It's the equivalent of the "Allow installing apps from untrusted sources" (or whatever) checkbox on Android. Interop-unlock is a hack that allows the installation of higher-privilege apps this way; without it, you can only sideload apps that have pretty limited capabilities.
All WP devices can be dev-unlocked; it's an official feature. If you want to sideload more than 3 apps at a time, though, you'll need to buy a developer account (~$20 USD/year). Interop-unlock is currently only available for Samsung WP8 devices, although Huawei phones *supposedly* can support custom ROMs (but this news is months old, and I haven't actually seen these ROMs myself) which would give the requisite unlocks too.
Do bear in mind: the phones you've mentioned are the lowest-end WP8 models, with the slowest CPUs, least RAM, least network technology support (no LTE, for example), and least internal storage (although I believe both support microSD, which can be used for photos/videos/music but not apps). Between the two, I would recommend the Lumia just because it will have Nokia's collection of apps.

Thank you mate now i atleast have a basic knowing of WP.
Can you please explain what is sideload??
Well i can manage a few more bucks to get lumia 620 but i just want to have a feel of WP for now since i have been using android since 2011 so i need to see if i can adapt to WP.

Sideloading is installing apps from unofficial sources (in the case of WP, installing apps from anywhere except the store). There are two ways to do it in WP8:
1) "Company" apps that are available from your organization. These apps are signed, but by a company certificate rather than Microsoft's store certificate, and installing them mostly just requires that you have the relevant account set up on your phone. Then email yourself, or open in the browser, the relevant .XAP files (XAPs are application packages, much like APKs).
2) "Development" (or homebrew) apps are unsigned apps directly produced by Visual Studio or similar. They can (currently) only be installed using the Windows Phone SDK, which includes a program called XapDeploy.exe ("Application Deployment" in the Start screen) on your PC (connected to the phone using USB). This is the type of sideloading that requires dev-unlock (or interop-unlock, for highly-privileged apps) on the OS, and without interop-unlock, you will be limited in how many such apps you can deploy at once.

Okay so security from microsoft huh... Okay thanks a lot mate.
||""Playing Asphalt™ 8 Airborne on my sgy. LoLz.
Joke of the year. Gameloft devs will die if they hear this. ""||

[Q] Nexus 5 owner thinking of upgrading to the Lumia 1520

I have been thinking about buying the Lumia 1520 since it was launched. Unfortunately the AT&T carrier branding and the removal of qi wireless charging put me off. I have been using iOS for a long time. My last 3 phones is the iPhone 5, Nexus 4, and now the Nexus 5. Every platform have its pros and cons. Windows Phone have always had my attention because I'm a Windows user and I use a lot of Microsoft's services like Hotmail. Obviously Microsoft is going to do a much better job integrating their own services with their own operating systems (Windows or Windows Phone).
Now that I can buy a Lumia 1520 with no carrier branding, qi wireless charging, and US LTE bands, I've been thinking about Windows Phone again. I like how the Lumia 1520 have expandable storage. That's perfect for that long road trip or when I'm on the plane and want to watch movies or listen to music. In terms of multi-tasking, is Windows Phone more similar to iOS or Android? Most of the core apps that I need or want is available for Windows Phone, which is great.
If I do upgrade from the Nexus 5 to the Lumia 1520, just what else will I be getting that I can't get on Android besides what I have mentioned already? I do love that Here Maps can be downloaded so I can use it offline. That's a pretty big advantage over Google Maps considering how inflexible its offline mode is. As stated before, tight integration between Microsoft services and Windows Phone is a major plus. What about Internet Explorer for Windows Phone? Is it as powerful as Chrome (tab and history synchronization between desktop and mobile)?
In terms of travel apps, what are your must have applications for Windows Phone? I know the selection will not be as extensive as on either iOS or Android.
Thanks!

WP8 multitasking basically works like on iOS, where apps can schedule specific tasks to periodically run in the background but, except for a few specific special cases like media streaming and GPS navigation, cannot just continuously run in the background and eat the battery.
If you were coming from any non-Nexus Android phone, I'd say that the ability to get updates right from MS (option to bypass the OEMs and carriers) was a huge advantage, as is it's not such a big deal. Mobile malware is currently a non-issue on WP, and the store is curated like it is on iOS (this is both a good and a bad thing).
Xbox Music Pass (formerly Zune Pass) is a great deal if you like music and want to be able to download it for later use when streaming isn't available (road trips, etc.). Downloaded (but not purchased) songs are good for a month and their license renews automatically as long as you have your subscription.
Office is built in, and includes things like SharePoint integration. On 8.1 in particular, the WP mail client got some cool features like support for S/MIME (secure email). Also, Live Tiles are legitimately useful things.
WP8.1 has browser synch with the desktop. I don't know how well it compares to mobile Chrome specifically, though. WP8.0 doesn't have this synch, and has a silly 6-tab limit in the browser; if you do a lot of mobile browsing you'll want the upgrade for sure.

GoodDayToDie said:
WP8 multitasking basically works like on iOS, where apps can schedule specific tasks to periodically run in the background but, except for a few specific special cases like media streaming and GPS navigation, cannot just continuously run in the background and eat the battery.
If you were coming from any non-Nexus Android phone, I'd say that the ability to get updates right from MS (option to bypass the OEMs and carriers) was a huge advantage, as is it's not such a big deal. Mobile malware is currently a non-issue on WP, and the store is curated like it is on iOS (this is both a good and a bad thing).
Xbox Music Pass (formerly Zune Pass) is a great deal if you like music and want to be able to download it for later use when streaming isn't available (road trips, etc.). Downloaded (but not purchased) songs are good for a month and their license renews automatically as long as you have your subscription.
Office is built in, and includes things like SharePoint integration. On 8.1 in particular, the WP mail client got some cool features like support for S/MIME (secure email). Also, Live Tiles are legitimately useful things.
WP8.1 has browser synch with the desktop. I don't know how well it compares to mobile Chrome specifically, though. WP8.0 doesn't have this synch, and has a silly 6-tab limit in the browser; if you do a lot of mobile browsing you'll want the upgrade for sure.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Does WP 8.1 have the same 6 tab limitation?
In terms of apps, what are the unique apps for Windows Phone that could possibly entice new users to the platform?
I really do love the Metro interface and that in itself is a draw to Windows Phone.

No, that limitation is gone in 8.1.
Xbox Live games are pretty cool if you're into that. They are only rarely free, but they often go on sale. As for other exclusives... I don't actually have a good answer there, because I don't know what Android has either. Somebody else may have a better answer for that part, but to me, the apps are not why I would get WP.

GoodDayToDie said:
No, that limitation is gone in 8.1.
Xbox Live games are pretty cool if you're into that. They are only rarely free, but they often go on sale. As for other exclusives... I don't actually have a good answer there, because I don't know what Android has either. Somebody else may have a better answer for that part, but to me, the apps are not why I would get WP.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Then what was your reason for going with WP?

Personally? I wanted to hack on it. Everybody hacks on Android and iOS; WP was mostly untouched. It was a new challenge, and an interesting one.
More generally applicable reasons? The live tiles concept is really slick. The balance between the extreme lockdown of iOS and the Wild West of Android is appealing, although I wanted more control than I had by default (hence the hacking). The built-in Office support is great. The "hubs" concept is quite clever; it wasn't very extensible until 8.1 but it worked well for people who used the supported tools (Messenger and later Skype, Facebook and later some other social networks, etc.). I basically never actually sign into Facebook anymore, but I can see stuff that people post on it using the People hub if I want to. The battery life compares well to Android without even needing nearly as powerful of hardware for the same UI smoothness.

One thing to add on...
Nexus devices have a history of only being supported for 18 months.
Windows Phone 8 devices are supported for at least 36 months, if I've read right.

Well, there are also a lot of small (but important) things that make WP and Nokia Lumia 1520 a unique device, like super sensitive touch, rich recording(great recording sound in any environment), double tap screen to wake(it seems a non important
---------- Post added at 09:16 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:05 AM ----------
Feature, but once you get used to it, you'll be very unhappy without it), this is available if we're talking about Nokia specific features.
Oh, and I forgot to mention great camera and a ton of useful lenses(a WP only feature ).
Also if you're a parent you'll love kids corner, a truly great way of keeping your kids away from important stuff or restricted content.
---------- Post added at 09:18 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:16 AM ----------
Driving mode(I think is also a WP only feature) is also very handy if you're often on the road.

[Q] switching from android to windows phone

Looking at the Nokia 640 on metro PCs , what are you guys opinions on this phone?I had a Nokia 521 quiet awhile back but switched to android because of the lack of SD card use back then.

I can't speak to MetroPCS as a carrier, but the 640 is a great phone for its price. The biggest problem with it is the same problem every WP device will have - there aren't as many apps available for the platform as there are for Android and iOS (although there are a bunch nonetheless, and more every day) - but the phone itself is quite good unless you need high-end specs for some reason. The OS runs very smoothly on it. Also, it's upgradable to Windows 10 Mobile (yes, Microsoft changed the branding on their phone OS *again*...), so you've got a reasonably future-proof design and it'll even be able to run at least some Android apps in the future.

In my opinion windows phones are always better and safe than android phones. You can also read about technology public relations.

Play Apps?
GoodDayToDie said:
I can't speak to MetroPCS as a carrier, but the 640 is a great phone for its price. The biggest problem with it is the same problem every WP device will have - there aren't as many apps available for the platform as there are for Android and iOS (although there are a bunch nonetheless, and more every day) - but the phone itself is quite good unless you need high-end specs for some reason. The OS runs very smoothly on it. Also, it's upgradable to Windows 10 Mobile (yes, Microsoft changed the branding on their phone OS *again*...), so you've got a reasonably future-proof design and it'll even be able to run at least some Android apps in the future.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Where are these claims about Android apps to WP coming from? Isn't it still a rumour?
I can't seem to find any official substanciated news about this...
As I understand it MS currently have two problems regarding the app-gap;
1) if they open WP to Play-apps, then they risk losing interest from dev's to continue making apps specifically to WP, making WP more or less another version of Android.
2) making dev's keen on making apps for a third platform, which isn't futureproof yet (even tho it's been around for long enough). This "solution" will make WP it's own and keep MS in the mobilemarket as an real and actual alternative to the established platforms.
What is sure and what are rumours?
M

Metalbuddhist said:
Where are these claims about Android apps to WP coming from? Isn't it still a rumour?
I can't seem to find any official substanciated news about this...
As I understand it MS currently have two problems regarding the app-gap;
1) if they open WP to Play-apps, then they risk losing interest from dev's to continue making apps specifically to WP, making WP more or less another version of Android.
2) making dev's keen on making apps for a third platform, which isn't futureproof yet (even tho it's been around for long enough). This "solution" will make WP it's own and keep MS in the mobilemarket as an real and actual alternative to the established platforms.
What is sure and what are rumours?
M
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They will not enable android apps to run directly on the phone like in an emulator, they developed a tool so android developers can recompile their existing app code so it can be used in windows, see the video below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qgajY4An1I

I'm really looking forward to making the switch from Android. I've always been a Windows PC enthusiast, and Windows 10 is shaping up nicely.
So, a phone to match will be nice. As for apps for phones, I hardly use any nowadays.

The biggest disadvantage of WP is the low market share of under 10% .
This means that most of the useful apps or games will not be available to WP.
But if as you say you dont use apps and you like the windows style you should go for it!

My experience switching over
I picked up a 640 on T-Mobile the other day as a new "daily driver" - my S4 went swimming once upon a time and reception was never quite the same after that, and I've been thinking about app development and the possible advantages of being a bigger fish in a smaller pond - particularly if MS manages to be successful going forward with Windows Phone. I'm sure I won't have anything available by the time Windows 10 Mobile comes out, so I'm not sure how that's going to work out in the end - perhaps Android development would be a better choice after all? But my experience with the phone overall hasn't been bad so far, particularly not for $100.
The one thing that I hate about the phone is that I can't put it on WiFi at home - something about the WiFi config puts it into a boot loop when it tries to kick in the voice over WiFi piece. Seems like it's similar to the "no iOS zone" problem that turned up for Apple back in April, except that since (relatively) nobody is using Windows Phone nobody really cares. The "fix" recommended is "reset your router to factory defaults" which might be an issue since I'm running OpenWRT..... I'm thinking about putting the Windows 10 preview on so this may go away - even if it's only due to lack of support for T-Mobile's WiFi calling. At least I have LTE coverage in most of my house and an "unlimited" data plan.
The main thing I'm really missing is browser choice - I REALLY miss having Firefox and Dolphin, because I do a lot of long-form reading in my browser and the readability view in FF is much more usable. LastPass in Dolphin is also nice to have, though it never worked for me in Firefox. I'm also missing the addon ecosystems of both browsers. Surfy is at least a nice addition, but browsers on WP seem to be at least 2-3 years behind what's on Android. Both IE and Surfy "feel" kind of like the built-in browser in Gingerbread (2.3) or maybe in the early days of Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0) before Google started pushing Chrome as the default browser. Having relatively weak browser(s) is a problem because with the lack of apps at least I can use mobile websites..... when they don't simply crash out the IE tab/window/whatever since it's not a tabbed or windowed interface.
I'm also hoping that Pocket Casts will work correctly for me after their next update (currently it hangs if I turn on sync to pull in my podcasts, then dies on app startup), but I'll survive for a while. I'm also feeling the lack of good ebook readers, I've been spoiled by Cool Reader and Moon+ Reader Pro on the Android side.
The only things besides browsers that I'm really missing:
Things tied in with Google's ecosystem - I use Google Voice for my voicemail, I've been using Location History for a long time to help me track when I arrive at and leave customer locations, and there's a group of us that uses Google Hangouts for group chat. I can get Voice notifications in email with the transcriptions then listen to the messages via URL. The Location History bit I may be able to replace with Phone Tracker, but I'm not sure what to do about Hangouts yet.
Replacement keyboards! I've been a big Swiftkey user for years and would love to have it back even without the voice recognition link (which launches Google's service). I hate having to do 4-6 extra keystrokes to enter passwords because of the switches to get to numbers/punctuation and extended punctuation (via the numbers page). There are places where Hacker's Keyboard (a much more full keyboard nice for terminal emulations) was also nice to have.
A GOOD text editor (e.g. DroidEdit which has syntax highlighting, etc.) or really even an adequate text editor. Maybe a mediocre one? Please? I've seen mention of Code Editor but was unimpressed by the "Free" version (first thing it does is throw you to the store page for the paid version, free version can't even see the "advanced" editor that's the only reason to actually consider it). The only other option that at least looks good in screenshots ("HTML+JS+CSS IDE") hasn't been updated since 2013 and has a total of 3 reviews - and the two with text are both 1-star.
CallTrack (which adds all of my phone calls to my Google Calendar, tagged appropriately and with start and end times) and SMS Backup (which uploads my sent/received SMS to GMail, tagged appropriately). CallTrack is great for going back and "Who did I talk to that day?" and SMS Backup is great for tracking down things received in old messages. I WILL be working on finding replacements for these.
And a few less-important things that I can either do without or still need to find replacements for:
My auto mileage/service tracking app - if there's something comparable to aCar then I haven't seen it yet.
OpenVPN, though the VPN service I use allows IPSEC as well so I'll need to set that up.
Lyft, though I've not actually needed to use it. I know Uber's on there, I just like what I know of Lyft better (and there's one area where my wife may need it that's on the edge of the areas for both but Lyft covers it and Uber doesn't).
KeePass - I believe I saw one implementation in the Store, but I'd want to check into the background of it given the number of scam apps I've come across.

@fencepost: Good list of stuff, there. I don't really have a good solution to much of it - I mean, Microsoft has alternatives to a lot of Google's stuff, but they are mutually incompatible so everybody you hang out with would need to switch too - but those are some good problems to list. The problem with WiFi calling is probably a T-Mobile bug, sadly; I don't have it myself but WiFi Calling on WP8.x isn't really as good as it could be. My biggest personal complaint with WiFi is that the OS is too damn desperate to stay on (unusably weak) WiFi signals even when it has cellular data; if I'm actively using my phone when I leave the apartment (for example, checking a bus schedule) it's faster to manually disable WiFi than to rely on the phone to notice that the WiFi signal is much too weak to use and fail over to cellular. Ideally I'd be able to tell the phone to use cellular by *default* and only use WiFi for stuff that it can't get ont he WAN (LAN servers, etc.), but the OS wasn't really designed to provide an optimal experience for people with unlimited data plans.
The custom keyboard thing may be fixable soon - at least, I really hope so - but for now it is indeed a problem. WP8.1 has the best *built-in* keyboard of the three leading mobile OSes, IMO, but it's not better than all the Android options.
As for a text editor, I generally avoid writing anything longer than notes or minor document edits (or emails, but usually only plain text) on the phone, so I haven't really looked. You might be able to use SSH or Remote Desktop, though; there's a number of decent apps for each (including a MS-authored one for RDP) and with unlimited data they should work. You may even find them more useful than a local editor. It might be worth setting up a Remote App server (so you'd *just* get an editor, rather than a whole desktop) for this.
OpenVPN *should* be possible to port, but it needs a driver (TUN/TAP) and MS would need to approve or provide that even more than they would need to approve a new VPN app (which I think requires a capability not normally available to third-party devs). I'm tempted to say that they really *should* allow it, but I'm also painfully aware that OpenVPN on Windows (and, possibly, other platforms) is sort of crap. I can usually beat it into submission on a machine where I have admin, but on a phone it could simply just sit there being unusable until the phone gets rebooted or something.
WP8 in general seems to have a lower risk of scam apps than Android, but it's definitely a good idea to look into any password keeper utility's trustworthiness.
EDIT: As for browsers, as far as I know there's not actually any rule against third-party browsers. Opera Mini does exist for WP8, which is cool, but so far as I know nobody has ported a Gecko or WebKit/Blink-based browser. Ideally, somebody should fix this, although getting them to work within WP8's application model might mean rebuilding a lot of the browser as well as just porting the rendering engine.

Metalbuddhist said:
Where are these claims about Android apps to WP coming from? Isn't it still a rumour?
I can't seem to find any official substanciated news about this...
As I understand it MS currently have two problems regarding the app-gap;
1) if they open WP to Play-apps, then they risk losing interest from dev's to continue making apps specifically to WP, making WP more or less another version of Android.
2) making dev's keen on making apps for a third platform, which isn't futureproof yet (even tho it's been around for long enough). This "solution" will make WP it's own and keep MS in the mobilemarket as an real and actual alternative to the established platforms.
What is sure and what are rumours?
M
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I read an article on Flipboard some while ago that MS had ditched it because of Lack of security in Open-source and it wouldnt work directly from the file system.. only if they sideloaded Android apps. Why do we want android apps anyway.. It removes the love of WP. MS need to invest more money in their WP store to entice new devs.

Let ms make a toolkit for the android devs
A toolkit to one click port it to MS ecosystem
Then the threshold to port it would be lower and a real mony maker for the devs
Sent from my C6603 using XDA Free mobile app

NightOrchid said:
I read an article on Flipboard some while ago that MS had ditched it because of Lack of security in Open-source and it wouldnt work directly from the file system.. only if they sideloaded Android apps. Why do we want android apps anyway.. It removes the love of WP. MS need to invest more money in their WP store to entice new devs.
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I don't want Android apps as such, but Android and IOS devs in the wp game.
I've had a lot of Apple and Andy devices the last eight years and have grown to like the variety of developers and want they put out for us.
WP is a good ecosystem, but the app gap is way bigger than I expected. There are just to many everyday apps I had on my other phones, which I cannot get in WP (yet).
I feel like I've walked into a grossery store and most of the shelfes are empty... I have to buy my oj and milk in another store, simply because MS can't get those dev's on board.
...And that's just a crying shame.

The 640 has a baked in WiFi calling feature rather than a separate app like almost every other Lumia device. I think it may be the only Lumia to have Wi-Fi calling baked into the SIM settings rather than running as a separate app.
Be careful if you are using any Google apps with it - Google is scared of Windows phone and they are doing everything they can to prevent app development. Any app they have taken over will never see another Windows phone release, and they are kind of crazy about it. For example Microsoft made their own YouTube app because Google wouldn't ,Google forced them to take it down. Now the YouTube app on the WP is just a link to YouTube - not because no one wants to make one for WP, but because Google won't let anyone make one.
---------- Post added at 08:34 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:32 PM ----------
I should add though - I have the 640 and it's awesome, extremely fast, well built, solid screen, expandable SD card slot, decent cameras for a phone and an ok flash. It's also neat the way the apps tie together with your windows 10 computer

NightOrchid said:
I read an article on Flipboard some while ago that MS had ditched it because of Lack of security in Open-source and it wouldnt work directly from the file system.. only if they sideloaded Android apps. Why do we want android apps anyway.. It removes the love of WP. MS need to invest more money in their WP store to entice new devs.
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Click to collapse
I have tried both Windows as well as Android Phone but everyone will agree that Android is anytime the best coz of features or benefits it has to offer. I used to be a Windows Mobile fan but now I love Android.
I would not switch to Windows again for now atleast