More details on GDR3 emerge.

[George P Global Moderator]

WPDang is reporting today that MS is testing the notification center in the internal beta of GDR3 and that the plans for the update are not yet finalized.  It may come in GDR3 or it may not if it isn't working/finished in time it seems.

 

Individual volume control between apps is also coming, WPDang also reported a new "Quick Settings" feature will be in the update.

 

http://www.wpdang.com/archives/105069.html

[Pulagatha]

If they could just make that home screen look nicer. Maybe some translucence and a background wallpaper? It's awesome to see Windows Phone getting all those features though.

[Studio384]

For both notification center and volume controls, I've got a "mhe"-feeling, I don't feel it's realy needed.

[ShadowMajestic]

If they could just make that home screen look nicer. Maybe some translucence and a background wallpaper? It's awesome to see Windows Phone getting all those features though.

But it conserves battery power.

[Coolicer]

For both notification center and volume controls, I've got a "mhe"-feeling, I don't feel it's realy needed.

 

It would make Windows Phone too convoluted only to appeal to the gazillion widgets/buttons everywhere Android crowd.

 

What they should do: Separate the Alarms volume and stick it in settings. Remember volume settings for headphones plugged-in and without (a la Windows). That's it.

 

Notification center for people that can't just pin live tiles to their start screen but insist on pinning those faux-tiles (wallpaper tiles): a well implemented Live Tile for the notification

center and stick it in the multitasking view as well.

 

 

Furthermore, I'd love them remap the voice command binding to holding the search key, multi-tasking view to holding Windows key and closing an app by holding the back key, so

I don't have to spam "Back" until something closes.

 

Simple stuff.

[George P Global Moderator]

It's better to have these things even if the platform doesn't really need them, like the notification center.  Also, if you go to the link they have some screenshots, don't know if they're real, they basically show that the volume control changes per app.  So if you're on the start screen, the general/main system volume will show up (in the screenshot it's set to 13/30 iirc).  If you then open a app, in this case the music hub and bring up the volume control again, it shows the music players setting, in the screenshot it shows that it's set to 10/30.

 

So if it's how it is in the screenshots you won't see a list of volume settings when you hit the volume buttons etc, it'll have a list of them in the system settings area of the OS where you can go and set it that way, per app like on Windows.

[jakem1]

For both notification center and volume controls, I've got a "mhe"-feeling, I don't feel it's realy needed.

 

Although I don't need it I can understand why people want separate volume controls.  The notification centre, on the other hand, is completely unnecessary and I've never seen a good reason given for one.  It seems to get so much publicity and I think that most of the noise is coming from the Android crowd who wouldn't use WP anyway. 

 

There are other improvements (such as the ability to close applications from the multitasking screen) that are more urgently needed.  Heck, even VPN seems more urgent than a notification screen and I'm sure TPreston is the only person who really needs that :laugh:

[George P Global Moderator]

Although I don't need it I can understand why people want separate volume controls.  The notification centre, on the other hand, is completely unnecessary and I've never seen a good reason given for one.  It seems to get so much publicity and I think that most of the noise is coming from the Android crowd who wouldn't use WP anyway. 

 

There are other improvements (such as the ability to close applications from the multitasking screen) that are more urgently needed.  Heck, even VPN seems more urgent than a notification screen and I'm sure TPreston is the only person who really needs that :laugh:

 

It's true to an extent but why not add it and take away another thing the competition has that they can't use against you?  That's all it really comes down to at this point.

[BajiRav]

Although I don't need it I can understand why people want separate volume controls.  The notification centre, on the other hand, is completely unnecessary and I've never seen a good reason given for one.  It seems to get so much publicity and I think that most of the noise is coming from the Android crowd who wouldn't use WP anyway. 

 

There are other improvements (such as the ability to close applications from the multitasking screen) that are more urgently needed.  Heck, even VPN seems more urgent than a notification screen and I'm sure TPreston is the only person who really needs that :laugh:

Notification center is needed to manage notifications. I understand the live tile part but there is also the alert part of notifications.

I get notifications from,

- WhatsApp

- Lync

- Messenger

- Skype

- 2 Personal email

- 1 Work email

- Calendar reminders.

My problems

- Out of this, I don't want to be notified for work email but there is no way to do it currently.

- I want to customize alert sounds for WhatsApp and Lync. Today we only have one single alert for all apps.

- I want "quiet hours" feature for notifications especially on WhatsApp and Calendar.

Compound that with no separate volume control and it is a real pain.

[primexx]

All I want volume-control-wise would be a general one and a ringtone one. it'd be nice to have a quick-access panel for wifi, etc. settings too.

[Dashel]

Notification center is needed to manage notifications. I understand the live tile part but there is also the alert part of notifications.

My problems

- Out of this, I don't want to be notified for work email but there is no way to do it currently.

- I want to customize alert sounds for WhatsApp and Lync. Today we only have one single alert for all apps.

- I want "quiet hours" feature for notifications especially on WhatsApp and Calendar.

 

That is a whole lot more than 'just a notification center'.

[jakem1]

It's true to an extent but why not add it and take away another thing the competition has that they can't use against you?  That's all it really comes down to at this point.

 

I see what you're getting at but I think it's an unnecessary distraction that forces MS to compete on Google's ground, adding functionality that the platform doesn't need.  Do it if you've got nothing better to do but don't direct resources away from other areas.

 

Notification center is needed to manage notifications. I understand the live tile part but there is also the alert part of notifications.

I get notifications from,

- WhatsApp

- Lync

- Messenger

- Skype

- 2 Personal email

- 1 Work email

- Calendar reminders.

My problems

- Out of this, I don't want to be notified for work email but there is no way to do it currently.

- I want to customize alert sounds for WhatsApp and Lync. Today we only have one single alert for all apps.

- I want "quiet hours" feature for notifications especially on WhatsApp and Calendar.

Compound that with no separate volume control and it is a real pain.

 

To be honest I think your post demonstrates why a notification centre is unnecessary.  Live tiles and lock screen icons are more than capable of highlighting the notifications for those apps.  If you're not interested in your work email you can just move it further down the start screen so you have to scroll to see its notifications.  Nothing could be simpler.

 

The audio alerts you want to associate with the apps have nothing to do with a notification centre and are a perfect example of useful, novel functionality that MS could work on if they weren't wasting time on a notification centre that duplicates the functionality that's already present in the live tiles.  I agree that it would be really useful to set alert sounds on a per-app, per-contact, per-account basis.

[BajiRav]

I see what you're getting at but I think it's an unnecessary distraction that forces MS to compete on Google's ground, adding functionality that the platform doesn't need.  Do it if you've got nothing better to do but don't direct resources away from other areas.

 

 

To be honest I think your post demonstrates why a notification centre is unnecessary.  Live tiles and lock screen icons are more than capable of highlighting the notifications for those apps.  If you're not interested in your work email you can just move it further down the start screen so you have to scroll to see its notifications.  Nothing could be simpler.

 

The audio alerts you want to associate with the apps have nothing to do with a notification centre and are a perfect example of useful, novel functionality that MS could work on if they weren't wasting time on a notification centre that duplicates the functionality that's already present in the live tiles.  I agree that it would be really useful to set alert sounds on a per-app, per-contact, per-account basis.

As I said, I get the live tile part and my start screen is arranged exactly as you described. In case of my work email, I have it visible but I don't want the alert sound (because then my phone will be beeping all the time :)

[wrack]

I would love individually controlled volume especially for Alarms. It is so needed.

 

Notification center I am not too fussed about however a way to quickly turn on/off wi-fi/mobile/location, control brightness & rotation lock IS NEEDED.

 

VPN, VPN, VPN...

 

For both notification center and volume controls, I've got a "mhe"-feeling, I don't feel it's realy needed.

[George P Global Moderator]

I don't think they've spent much time on the notification center, they haven't exactly rushed to release it and it's something people have been calling for since 7.5 iirc.   Anyways, I'm much more interested in this new "quick settings" feature that's talked about.  I wonder where in the UI they can add that?  Maybe if you swipe down from the very top twice you can get some controls to turn things on and off like wifi/data and so on?  Swipe once to see them and twice to get the controls.

 

VPN is coming, we know that for sure but we don't know if it's part of GDR3 or in 8.1, either way though it is coming.  No way MS can push this harder in enterprise without it.   It's also time they started to update the core apps on this without needing to wait for a OS update.  No reason GDR3 can't bring updates to mail/messaging and so on.   I suppose you can hold off on IE till 8.1 though.

[jakem1]

I'm pretty sure I read that the enterprise pack that includes VPN won't be out until 8.1 next year.

 

The main thing I'm looking forward to is the merging with Windows RT, especially with regards to app development and the stores.  This is critical to the success of both platforms and should really be a top priority for MS.

[ajua]

Quick settings woulb be handy if implemented right. A notification center can be useful for those apps that we don't want pinned to the start screen and to keep a history of the ones we do have. Individual volume control is also long overdue.

 

After this features, it could be great if they implemented "intents" like Android to allow sharing/opening things with different apps. This is one of Android's most underrated or overlooked features.

 

Besides that, I'm interested on the new devices that supposedly should be out before year's end.

[George P Global Moderator]

I'm pretty sure I read that the enterprise pack that includes VPN won't be out until 8.1 next year.

 

The main thing I'm looking forward to is the merging with Windows RT, especially with regards to app development and the stores.  This is critical to the success of both platforms and should really be a top priority for MS.

 

I agree with you fully, I see WP and RT becoming one in everything but branding, the phones will still say "Windows Phone" but at the OS and API level they should be the same.  At that point I think RT can finally drop the desktop on tablets, though I think they can do it with 8.1.  Maybe not totally get rid of it quite yet but hide it away so only the power users can access it if they want it.

 

Once we can have phone and tablet apps that are the same and on the same code 100% with one unified store then I see no reason why both device types don't see a bigger boost in sales.  The phone is already picking up and if it can kick start tablets with RT as well then we could find ourselves in a cycle where they both go hand in hand.  People who have a phone and like the apps/games on it that could get the same on a tablet are likely to buy one when the time comes, and vice versa as well.