Windows 10 Mobile bug fixes come thick and fast as official upgrade nears Microsoft has released Build 10586.122 of Windows 10 Mobile, following four preview builds last month, as it prepares to upgrade phones running Windows 8.1 to Windows 10. Microsoft's Gabe Aul, veep of engineering systems, said in January that "we're still on track to release Windows 10 Mobile as an upgrade to existing devices …
"although Windows 10 Mobile is a step back from Windows 8.1 in usability, it is more capable."
My Lumia 930 running Windows Phone 8.1 is more than capable of meeting my needs. In fact I suspect that somewhere between 80% and 90% of Windows Phone users never use the full capabilities of their phone. Yet Microsoft think it is a good move to sacrifice usability on the alter of capability?! What's the point in adding "sexy" new features if it becomes harder to use the existing functionality. In a mobile device usability should be key. Still, who am I to argue? After all, I only own and use the device...
Yet Microsoft think it is a good move to sacrifice usability on the alter of capability?!
Silly boy. This is Micros~1 we're talking about. Do you not remember the evolution (such as it was) of Microsoft Word?
"MS Word ... hmmmm ... is that the one that everyone uses and that makes Libre Office look like an early 90s shareware application?"
No, it's the shit one you have to pay to lose access to your historical files.
Slurp, as all software vendors, have a problem with featuritis because that is the only way they can "justify" 'new and improve' to us peasants. However, most do not need or use all the features in the current release.
Windows 10 mobile? Well, speaking of platforms we all thought had been put out of their misery, with a straight face I hereby announce the return of Windows RT.
Well, you can put the maps on SD card with W10, although I thought you might be able to on 8.1 anyway.
I don't have an SD card model so I don't recall it well enough.
This release does seem smoother with better battery life in my limited time of use.
TBH, if they tweak it to the same smoothness, I can live with the reduction in beauty, albeit missed, for things like speaking text into any text box, it works and you can speak at full speed and it gets most words.
The clever bit is that the word replacement offer words that sound the same rather than swipe the same, obvious but nice too.
Integration of maps and driving directions into one app, that app having multi route options and manual re-routing as well as roadworks info and traffic of course as well as 3D buildings, all using built-in maps with many POIs etc.
Email via Cortana, can be useful for a quick message while driving.
Putting skype messaging into the messaging app brings fond memories of when facebook messaging was integrated too and saves firing up the slow Skype app. Maybe they will integrate them all again, not bothered myself since I don't have fb anymore but still, WhatsApp.
All-in-all, W10 looks promising and I keep thinking 950 and then thinking, this one works well, perfect phone calls and fab pictures - cognitive dissonance for even thinking of replacing my 1020 (it might be listening, literally some seem to think).
But then, I would be a possible for continuum sometimes, probably wirelessly only but useful all the same.
And, because it knows everything, Amazon are offering a 950 for £376 - so tempting.
I would like to see a review of the latest state of W10 on the 950 since that is where all the effort is for stability and usability.
Same here, I bought one 2nd hand from eBay from a guy who claims he couldn't access the internet on it (It was only a week old or so).
I did an update check straight away which included firmware and wp10 (1.86GB worth!) - luckily this was 2 days before the ill-fated initial release of 14627 which borked some 550's
Touch wood, I've had zero issues and I'm really liking it. My biggest gripe is the weak battery life as even with everything turned off, background apps reduced to email and messaging and glance off it'll lose 10% charge on standby a day without any actual use.
The article mentions battery-life tweaks - here's hoping.
Just recently bought a Microsoft Lumia 550, my first foray into the world of smartphones. After the initial signing in, I was taken in to the all too familiar world of the Windows ecosystem. The device spent the next hour updating umpteen pre-installed apps and then proceeded to do a major system update, which added a further hour to the waiting time. I must say the updated Windows 10 phone OS seems to work very well, with no apparent stability issues that I have come across. The same can't be said of some of the apps that I downloaded from the Windows store, which either won't install or freeze up as soon as they run. If there's one thing that is going to make or break the fledgling Windows phone market, it's the quality and availability of apps that people want to use. If Microsoft don't get this aspect of the Windows phone ecosystem absolutely right, I can't see the business and professional sector ever embracing it in the numbers required.
I hope nobody is using AVRCP 1.4 to browse music on their phones over bluetooth because Microsoft have decided that 1.3 is advanced enough for windows 10.
I like Windows phone 10 but Microsoft should not have released it until it had all of the functionality of 8.1. They certainly shouldn't be releasing it as an upgrade for 8.1 when Windows phone is used by a lot of not particularly techy people who have Windows phones because they can be bought much cheaper than Apple devices aren't a total brain fuck to use like Android. These people are going to wake up one day (if the alarm goes off) and find they can't use their phone because it looks similar but everything has been moved.
I've had many different Windows Phones, and now have a Lumia 950XL. Initially I thought W10 was a backwards step, but now I've got used to it, it's absolutely fine. There are many great improvements (e.g. Mail client, multiple OneDrive accounts).
Yes, it crashes/reboots far more than it should. Yes, Windows Hello on the phone seems hopeless (magic on the SP4). Yes, I wish more apps worked with Continuum (which is awesome BTW).
But, all in all, I think W10 is a step forwards, not backwards.
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