Windows Phone 8.1 Thread

[SouthGate]

Just got done installing it on the 1520. Loving it so far, it actually pains me having non-transparent icons on the start screen with the new background feature. Still need to organise and decide what's going on the start screen, this is just a quick layout to fill the space. :)

 

[George P Global Moderator]

We still don't have the new Skype app to, I remember that one is being worked on just for WP8.1 but nothing yet.  The Facebook app has been updated for 8.1, the version number jumped from 5.x to 8.1.4.4 though what little of it I used it looks the same, probably using all the new background tasks and notification systems. 

[AsherGZ]

Where are the Bing apps? Weren't they supposed to be bundled with this update? And speaking of that, where is Bing rewards?

[protocol7]

The only change that's thrown me so far is in the Music app. I used to be able to go into Songs and there was a play button at the bottom to start playing through them.

 

Now there isn't one and I have to pick a song to get started (I usually just shuffle through all the songs on the phone rather than play full albums).

 

Actually it's easier now. When I launch the Music app there's a great big shuffle button at the bottom of the first page (along with the search button). Hitting that does the same thing.

[devHead]

I'm loving it. I love the background image for the tiles, and that I can shrink them down to display more in the same space. Plus it seems peppier, but that may be a placebo effect.

[Guest]

They really need to hire a designer. While all simple, most of the interface reminds me of those useless / terrible MVVM implementation. I was hoping that the issues would get fixed with 8.1, but nope. Just take a look at the Music app or Office, so much screen estate is being wasted for absolutely nothing.

[spenser.d]

So, the screenshot capture combo needed changed... For reasons?

 

Also, anyone else here just not getting the hang of the new swipe feature on the keyboard? I've never understood this concept before, and I still don't now.

 

I'm starting to.  I'm actually finding it quite good at figuring out the words even if i'm not accurate in my swipe.  I'm not sure i'm faster with it yet than with typing but I feel like it could get there.

 

I didn't notice this until you said it.   It's the little things really that add up.

 

Heh, I noticed it right away. So much black space before this update lol.

[Dot Matrix]

They really need to hire a designer. While all simple, most of the interface reminds me of those useless / terrible MVVM implementation. I was hoping that the issues would get fixed with 8.1, but nope. Just take a look at the Music app or Office, so much screen estate is being wasted for absolutely nothing.

Whitespace is essential to the design of Metro. Personally, I've found that Microsoft is able to strike a balance between the design and the amount of whitespace in the OS. I can't say that I would want a more cluttered UI.

Where are the Bing apps? Weren't they supposed to be bundled with this update? And speaking of that, where is Bing rewards?

Bing apps are there if you've downloaded them. They don't have the "Bing" moniker anymore, though.

[Obi-Wan Kenobi]

downloading now! Can't wait!!!  :woot:  :woot:  :woot:  :punk:  :punk:  :punk:

[Guest]

Whitespace is essential to the design of Metro. Personally, I've found that Microsoft is able to strike a balance between the design and the amount of whitespace in the OS. I can't say that I would want a more cluttered UI.

 

I love Metro. However, bad design is bad.

 

Take a look at the Music app. Navigate to songs. Half of the screen is taken by useless crap, and the other half is only able to show 4 and a half tracks, regardless of screen size or resolution. The "MUSIC" label can easily go into the top bar where the clock is shown, similar to the Bing apps. The "songs", "genre", "playlists"... can go where the "MUSIC" is right now. What is the point of 5+ inch screens when half of that is taken by useless stuff.

 

Content before chrome. In this case, content before useless labels and text fields.

[hagjohn]

They really need to hire a designer. While all simple, most of the interface reminds me of those useless / terrible MVVM implementation. I was hoping that the issues would get fixed with 8.1, but nope. Just take a look at the Music app or Office, so much screen estate is being wasted for absolutely nothing.

 

Good. I hate clutter. 

[cleverclogs]

######. OneDrive won't open AT ALL. Any ideas?

[gohpep]

come on she absorbed the entire internet. it might eat up some battery.

The funny thing was that I posted that on my phone, and as soon as I pressed post, it said goodbye.

[Ian S.]

OK, first thing that is annoying me with WP 8.1, when you press and hold on a text field, it no longer brings up the i-bar cursor, instead it acts like W8.1, I was hoping they would bring this to W8.1 not remove it from WP!

[Dot Matrix]

OK, first thing that is annoying me with WP 8.1, when you press and hold on a text field, it no longer brings up the i-bar cursor, instead it acts like W8.1, I was hoping they would bring this to W8.1 not remove it from WP!

I think the I-bar cursor was a bug.

[_neutrino Veteran]

Posted this elsewhere but whenever I try to use Cortana it either brings up a search menu or starts whatever I said as a text message. So far it is rather useless to me.

[pack34]

OK, first thing that is annoying me with WP 8.1, when you press and hold on a text field, it no longer brings up the i-bar cursor, instead it acts like W8.1, I was hoping they would bring this to W8.1 not remove it from WP!

 

It's still there, just looks different. Instead of the I-bar it's a circle and a pipe.

[Ian S.]

It's still there, just looks different. Instead of the I-bar it's a circle and a pipe.

Yeah, but the i-bar allowed you to move your finger out of the way but floating it above the text field first.

Posted this elsewhere but whenever I try to use Cortana it either brings up a search menu or starts whatever I said as a text message. So far it is rather useless to me.

 

Yeah, I noticed it will "Bing Search" a lot of things, and saying skype (name) it will text them instead. She doesn't understand a lot of things that Siri gets from Wolfram Alpha and Google gets from the Knowledge Graph.

 

Asking "who was abe lincoln" will pull up bing, and when did he die (continuing conversations) doesn't work. Plus I say make a new tweet or post to my wall and it does a search. They need to try and stop making it go to search. And asking "what movies are playing near me" will fire up Bing.  I wish I could say what flights are overhead right now and it would pull from wolfram alpha (http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=flights+overhead), in a nice UI. Plus no voice readings for "cups in a pint" etc.

 

So far not impressed. 

[Grinch]

Yeah, but the i-bar allowed you to move your finger out of the way but floating it above the text field first.

 

Yeah, I noticed it will "Bing Search" a lot of things, and saying skype (name) it will text them instead. She doesn't understand a lot of things that Siri gets from Wolfram Alpha and Google gets from the Knowledge Graph.

 

Asking "who was abe lincoln" will pull up bing, and when did he die (continuing conversations) doesn't work. Plus I say make a new tweet or post to my wall and it does a search. They need to try and stop making it go to search. And asking "what movies are playing near me" will fire up Bing.  I wish I could say what flights are overhead right now and it would pull from wolfram alpha (http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=flights+overhead), in a nice UI. Plus no voice readings for "cups in a pint" etc.

 

So far not impressed. 

 

Well it is a beta essentially. I'm sure they'll improve upon it as they go.

[spenser.d]

Yeah, but the i-bar allowed you to move your finger out of the way but floating it above the text field first.

 

Yeah, I noticed it will "Bing Search" a lot of things, and saying skype (name) it will text them instead. She doesn't understand a lot of things that Siri gets from Wolfram Alpha and Google gets from the Knowledge Graph.

 

Asking "who was abe lincoln" will pull up bing, and when did he die (continuing conversations) doesn't work. Plus I say make a new tweet or post to my wall and it does a search. They need to try and stop making it go to search. And asking "what movies are playing near me" will fire up Bing.  I wish I could say what flights are overhead right now and it would pull from wolfram alpha (http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=flights+overhead), in a nice UI. Plus no voice readings for "cups in a pint" etc.

 

So far not impressed. 

 

it's designed to be a personal assistant, not write your Abe Lincoln research paper.  When I say "How long will it take to get to work" and she brings up a map with directions and tells me the time and traffic, that's the experience they're going for.

 

That said, your movies example should work like my case above does, and I'm sure it will as they improve on it. But as above, it is a beta and is still learning.

[Forjo]

A quick warning. I installed on 5 phones today and one of them (my wife's 1020) has a failed wallet. She cannot make any purchases and can't open the wallet.

 

On my phone twice the audio subsystem has crashed resulting in no sounds other than phone calls. When this happens I can't play any media nor can I use Cortana even with just typing.

 

I can't reproduce it but I suspect it has something to do with requests initiated from my Bluetooth headset (a Voyager Legend).

 

-Forjo

[Ian S.]

it's designed to be a personal assistant, not write your Abe Lincoln research paper.  When I say "How long will it take to get to work" and she brings up a map with directions and tells me the time and traffic, that's the experience they're going for.

 

That said, your movies example should work like my case above does, and I'm sure it will as they improve on it. But as above, it is a beta and is still learning.

 

 

Which I understand, and therefore I think it needs to be able to spew out facts, it is after all connected to Bing. Google's Google Now is able to do Geometry Calculations, unit conversions, GRAPHING, definitions, data and statistical stuff, and compare things like basil to bay leaves. I think this is important for Cortana to have in the future, as you stated, though, Cortana is a Beta.

[UseLess]

I personally find that the update brings a lot of nice things to the table. Better layout of the store, faster email access, the notification center is sufficient if not groundbreaking, and the phone does overall feel more responsive.

 

The disintegraiton of facebook however I find to be a BIG step backwards. It was annoying when they killed MSN and moved it to the skype app, however i didn't care too much as skype is useless as a messenging platform. Removal of FB from the messenging hub is a big annoyance for me. I liked being able to quickly swap from messaging a contact in the built in app, to sending an email by clicking on their name. I find WP is now just more a generic phone, competing with iOS and Android which are LEAPS AND BOUNDS ahead. They have swapped from the light and agile messenging app, to the slow to load and clunky (and theme agnostic >.<) Messenger app.

 

Overall passable, but they did kill the heart of the platform for me...

[BajiRav]

Overall I like the update but some pros and cons

Pros

- Speed dial!! finally!! :D

- New UI transitions are nice

- Per app notification control is long overdue

- Separate volume control

- Quiet hours!

- Cortana is OK so far.

Cons

- Music app is now thoroughly ####ed. It is slow to start and then again I have to wait for it to load songs - I don't like staring at "Loading..." every time I start it. (Lumia 920, no card)

- battery life has taken a hit but only marginal

- Why are there separate apps for Battery/Wifi/Data sense? shouldn't all that be under settings?

- Messaging app is now just SMS app :/ I am a big user of it ever since I got one at launch.

 

Are you on the preview program? It should update your phone to whatever is needed. All 8.* versions are supported.

I think you need to be 8.0 GDR2 or higher for the preview program.

 

@joebelfiore said that FB integration is still present.

Not really, tried to share a photo and was thrown into store to install the new facebook app. I think "integration" now is limited to People info.

 

Where are the Bing apps? Weren't they supposed to be bundled with this update? And speaking of that, where is Bing rewards?

Cortana > Settings > Search settings > view my bing rewards but that's about it.

[George P Global Moderator]

The music app is slower but I think part of that is because it's always checking for any streaming music in your collection.  Since I'm in a market that doesn't support Xbox Music and don't have a pass I turned that option off in the settings, now it starts up a bit faster.   Anyway, now that they've taken them out of the OS they can update them more, so expect performance updates in time, I wouldn't worry much about it.