Windows Phone 8.1 Thread

[Ian S.]

I think the worst part for me is the lag and Cortana which doesn't work with a lot of commands. :(  

 

However, synced tabs update really quickly with my Surface.

[jakem1]

Guess I'm lucky in that the only problems I've found is that clicking on IEs Advanced Settings button doesn't bring up anything and that my battery drain is more than before but not enough to worry me ATM.

 

All the other stuff work, alarms, notifications, live tiles and so on.

 

I'm not sure it's luck.  I haven't run into any problems other than reduced battery life (but still enough to get through a day without problems) and some weirdness with Glance.  I expect that both of these will be sorted by the firmware update which will be out soon enough.

 

All in all, I don't have any complaints but I do find it funny that people download a preview OS and then complain when they encounter the odd bug.

[Guest]

Anyone knows how to structure / develop an app so that it is able to modify the StatusBar (previously SystemTray)? I've been trying StackOverflow and MSDN, but no luck so far. :( What I am talking about can easily be seen by using the Bing apps. The name and the clock are there and the colour of it is blue, in the Weather app, for example. Any ideas if Microsoft are using hidden / protected / undocumented APIs?

 

Or should I just hide the StatusBar and create a rectangle there with X colour as the Background property and add TextBlock which would hold the clock (I'm kind of already doing this)? I am trying to create a simple voice-controlled alarm app that utilises the new voice APIs / Cortana / whatever.

 

Here is how it looks right now, but this is done using the rectangle / grid I mentioned in the previous sentence. One of the problem with the current design is that I have to update the clock manually, which I would guess the one shown in the Bing apps is handled by the system (this is all assuming there is a way to edit the contents of the StatusBar and that Microsoft are not doing the same thing I am).

 

[Jan Veteran]

Anyone knows how to structure / develop an app so that it is able to modify the StatusBar (previously SystemTray)? I've been trying StackOverflow and MSDN, but no luck so far. :( What I am talking about can easily be seen by using the Bing apps. The name and the clock are there and the colour of it is blue, in the Weather app, for example. Any ideas if Microsoft are using hidden / protected / undocumented APIs?

 

Or should I just hide the StatusBar and create a rectangle there with X colour as the Background property and add TextBlock which would hold the clock (I'm kind of already doing this)? I am trying to create a simple voice-controlled alarm app that utilises the new voice APIs / Cortana / whatever.

 

Here is how it looks right now, but this is done using the rectangle / grid I mentioned in the previous sentence. One of the problem with the current design is that I have to update the clock manually, which I would guess the one shown in the Bing apps is handled by the system (this is all assuming there is a way to edit the contents of the StatusBar and that Microsoft are not doing the same thing I am).

 

 

You can set the style like so:

 

    shell:SystemTray.ForegroundColor="#FFF"
    shell:SystemTray.BackgroundColor="#FFBB5A5A"
    shell:SystemTray.Opacity="0.95"

And then set the status like so:

 

        Dim prog As ProgressIndicator
        prog = New ProgressIndicator()
        prog.IsVisible = True
        prog.Text = "wunderflee"

        SystemTray.SetProgressIndicator(Me, prog)

[Guest]

 ...

 

Sadly, the Microsoft.Phone namespace is not available when doing a 8.1 universal app, thus one cannot use shell:. In any case, thank you for your input.

[Aletheia]

I have unlocked HTC 8X (Tmobile, US), after updated to 8.1, I hard reset the phone so that 8.1 will clean install on my phone. Everything works great on my phone, except that the battery drains little faster than before but not by much. I like 8.1 a lot. Very impressed.

[HawkMan]

http://forums.wpcentral.com/windows-phone-8-1-preview-developers/274574-developer-preview-8-1-bugs-defects-thread.html

[Kyang]

Someone else (I think it was George P, not sure) in this thread mentioned somewhere that new API's or something were being made available for developers to use on live tiles.

 

I can't find this post anywhere, so instead I was wondering if anyone else knew anything about this.

 

I'm curious because I know that xbox music is supposed to get live tile support again, but I haven't heard if it's going to be the typical flip animations we get on almost every app now, or will be the much richer, more unique, and overall cooler kind that the previous music+video hub live tile had.

[BajiRav]

My problems so far

- Music app is still slow, terrible and pretty much unusable

- Podcast app is slow, forgets playback history frequently

- Battery drain

- My phone (L920) has hung/frozen 3 times so far (won't wake up) and I had to soft reset every time.

[Guest]

Someone else (I think it was George P, not sure) in this thread mentioned somewhere that new API's or something were being made available for developers to use on live tiles.

 

Yes. The WinRT (for WP and Win) apps now all share common Live Tile APIs.

 

http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/Build/2014/2-523

http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/Build/2014/2-521

[Guest]

I'm curious because I know that xbox music is supposed to get live tile support again, but I haven't heard if it's going to be the typical flip animations we get on almost every app now, or will be the much richer, more unique, and overall cooler kind that the previous music+video hub live tile had.

 

It really depends on what they want to do. If they want, they can make it a very rich experience.

[HawkMan]

My problems so far

- Music app is still slow, terrible and pretty much unusable

- Podcast app is slow, forgets playback history frequently

- Battery drain

- My phone (L920) has hung/frozen 3 times so far (won't wake up) and I had to soft reset every time.

 

turn off wifi at night. 

[BajiRav]

turn off wifi at night. 

 

whoa :laugh: that's obvious workaround. How is that related though? All freezing incidents were during daytime.

[+Nik Louch Subscriber²]

I am really growing to like Windows Phone, especially since upgrading my Lumia 520 to 8.1 - this is not my day-to-day phone or OS (Samsung on Android) but I bought it as a tester, see how it was.

 

My biggest gripes are:

 

1) The long scrolling list of apps is terrible

2) The market - it's just a shambles

[HawkMan]

whoa :laugh: that's obvious workaround. How is that related though? All freezing incidents were during daytime.

 

For met usually freezes at night, and for some reason the way to avoid the freezing is to turn off the WiFi. why it's relatedI have no idea, but probably a bug that will be fixed, could also be lumia phone related as it seems to mostly occur on them I think. in which case it'll be fixed when the proper lumia firmware is out. 

 

2) The market - it's just a shambles

 

that's my argument on all app markets... :/

[JonnyLH]

For met usually freezes at night, and for some reason the way to avoid the freezing is to turn off the WiFi. why it's relatedI have no idea, but probably a bug that will be fixed, could also be lumia phone related as it seems to mostly occur on them I think. in which case it'll be fixed when the proper lumia firmware is out. 

I notice mine just freezes up at doesn't respond to anything when I unlock it. I just smash the capacitive buttons and it responds after a while.

[HawkMan]

for me when it freezes you can't unlock or anything, it's either a black screen or the glance screen frozen. 

[johnnyq3]

I have noticed that for large playlists, say 250 or so songs, it only plays one half of the playlist's artists or the other. I have also noticed a half-second bzzt sound when transitioning to another song. I have also noticed how even when I sync music it says I don't have the rights to play it on my phone, some of the songs are wma and others are MP3.

 

Besides those bugs, it is a good update.  I hope they might bring stability updates before the final version.

[+Nik Louch Subscriber²]

that's my argument on all app markets...

 

To a level I agree, but wow the Microsoft store is the worst by a LONG shot.  I am not a hater by any means, a large part of me wants it to get there and compete, as I love the tiles interface and the whole modern ui.  But that store, and the lack of apps...

[HawkMan]

Dunno. I find all three of them equally horrible. 

 

Lack of apps I never found an issue, it's only like 1 maybe 2 apps I actually miss, and even those I can easily do without, they certainly don't make the drawbacks of iOS or android worth it. 

[+Nik Louch Subscriber²]

Dunno. I find all three of them equally horrible. 

 

As I said, this is based upon my use.  I found the apple app store to be great, the android store to be acceptable, but the Windows one to just be a horrendous mess.

 

Lack of apps I never found an issue, it's only like 1 maybe 2 apps I actually miss, and even those I can easily do without.

 

You... Not me.  I commented on my findings, there's no need to be defensive here.

 

they certainly don't make the drawbacks of iOS or android worth it.

 

Your perceived drawbacks.  Why are you attempting to be defensive against my comments on my findings?  I am not saying your experience and expectations should align with mine.

[Grinch]

I've found that since this update (even after a hard reset) that my phone tends to not function well over WiFi calling. I'm guessing that is something T-Mobile needs to address though so I can't really complain about it. Just aggravating that 50% of the time I get a call it drops off WiFi calling when I answer it and kills the call. :|

[HawkMan]

what kind of WiFi calling ?

[Grinch]

what kind of WiFi calling ?

 

The T-Mobile application kind I suppose? Not really sure what you meant by your question.

[HawkMan]

Because there's a lot of apps that allow wifi calling, but nothing built into the OS, so since it's a t-mobile app, yeah it would be a t-mobile app issue.