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Windows Phone 8.1 is good?

Apr 25, 2014#1

Covar

Windows Phone 8.1 got released to manufacturers and if you cared enough you could upgrade your device without having to wait on manufacturers or carriers.

I have a cheap Nokia Lumia 521 that I got to mess around with, and I put 8.1 on it last week. It's surprisingly good.

Some quick thoughts:

Adding an extra row of tiles really helps make the start screen more useful, comperable to iOS and Android for quickly accessing apps, superior in the live tiles
Action Center brings parity to iOS and Android, with a central location for notifications
Cortanna is a competitor to both Siri and Google Now. It's more comparable to both of those than they are to each other.
The Calendar app is hands down the best calendar app on a mobile device. That I've been able to find anyway. Heck it works better with Google Calendar than Google's own app on Android.
There's still not parity in apps both in features and availability. Getting better, doesn't have the problem the Play store has (front page filled with blatant knockoffs, and apps of questionable legality), so there's that at least.

Apr 27, 2014#2

PatrThom

I've seen many sites basically saying it's "...the first decent Windows Phone release."

--Patrick

Apr 28, 2014#3

Shakey

I don't know if it really matters much any more. It's going to be hard to pull people away from all the apps they've bought on either ios or android. Especially if they aren't even offered on windows phones. I'm also not a huge fan of tiles, but to each his own.

Apr 28, 2014#4

Eriol

Shakey said:
It's going to be hard to pull people away from all the apps they've bought on either ios or android. Especially if they aren't even offered on windows phones.

This was the argument against Android back in the day as well, and we know how that's turned out, so while a part of me wants to go with that argument, another part sees what has already happened. In the end, it's an "i dunno" on that.

Apr 28, 2014#5

Shakey

Eriol said:
This was the argument against Android back in the day as well, and we know how that's turned out, so while a part of me wants to go with that argument, another part sees what has already happened. In the end, it's an "i dunno" on that.

Smart phones weren't nearly as popular then as they are now. Part of that reason android really caught on is it filled the lower price segment that Apple didn't bother with, which is the majority of people. There aren't many people left who aren't attached to a brand right now.

Apr 28, 2014#6

Covar

With the amount of revenue in the various app stores skewed so heavily towards in-app purchases on games, I don't know how much that translates to lock-in. Mostly because of the huge skew of users and customers.

I think Microsoft is hitting an interesting balance between the Philosophies of Apple and Google that might fill a gap. Even now Android still feels awfully fragmented and wild west, while iOS can be questionably restrictive. Windows phone does a lot of the enforcement of iOS, while allowing things like inter-app communication and changing of defaults.

I'm certainly not saying people are fools to or not to switch, but that if Microsoft keeps making changes like this they're going to be a really nice 3rd option. Provided Google doesn't continue to break standards and only provide windows phone support on paper (if even that).

Apr 28, 2014#7

Eriol

Ya, reading/hearing about the crap Google has been pulling with regards to standards that way has NOT been helping my (currently Good) opinion of them.

A couple of questions about Windows Phone that maybe you can answer though, as they're important to me:

Can you load any software you want without jailbreaking? Do you NEED to go through an app store, or can you direct download? Even non-rooted Android phones can do so. Apple, HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!! MS?
Is Rooting or the like 100% allowed? Or does the concept not exist, in that you can always approve an app that can do "dangerous" things? Many (no idea of percentage) of Androids can be rooted, and again Apple, no f'n way. MS?

These are two of the reasons I went with Android, and a Nexus 4 in particular. So they matter if I'm ever going to change.

Apr 28, 2014#8

Shakey

Covar said:
With the amount of revenue in the various app stores skewed so heavily towards in-app purchases on games, I don't know how much that translates to lock-in. Mostly because of the huge skew of users and customers.

That's true, but MS still needs to build up a competing library of apps. I know they are trying, but until people know they can switch and not have to worry about not being able to play the latest flappy bird game, it's going to be tough.

Apr 28, 2014#9

Covar

Eriol said:
Ya, reading/hearing about the crap Google has been pulling with regards to standards that way has NOT been helping my (currently Good) opinion of them.

A couple of questions about Windows Phone that maybe you can answer though, as they're important to me:

Can you load any software you want without jailbreaking? Do you NEED to go through an app store, or can you direct download? Even non-rooted Android phones can do so. Apple, HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!! MS?

Is Rooting or the like 100% allowed? Or does the concept not exist, in that you can always approve an app that can do "dangerous" things? Many (no idea of percentage) of Androids can be rooted, and again Apple, no f'n way. MS?

These are two of the reasons I went with Android, and a Nexus 4 in particular. So they matter if I'm ever going to change.

I think you can? But I'm not sure, as I generally don't side load anything I didn't create the project for myself. So I'm the wrong person to ask, sorry. Doing some googling it looks like you can install from a MicroSD card, but you have to have gotten the app from the store (so I guess if you move to a new phone?)
Google says no. I've never understood the desire, but I will say that you can uninstall any carrier loaded apps, and register (for free) as a developer to get OS updated without waiting on Carriers or manufacturers.

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