Key to Windows mobe app sales? Er, LOW MEMORY, of course Microsoft is imploring developers to keep an eye on memory budgets when coding for the Windows Phone. Downloads from the Windows and Windows Phone Store are dominated by version 8.1 (Windows), with 92 per cent of downloads using Metro the update of the new look operating system. Of the Windows phone downloads, 8.1 again …
Biggest problem is the quality of the Apps. I do not mind paying for a decent price (For example, Spirit FM price) for an app if:
It does what I want.
It works well.
It doesn't require my complete history, including all generations back to m0rt the terrible in the dark ages.
However, a new Winpho I do have (735 - it really is a nice bit of kit and a a phone camera that has some Bokeh AND manual focus is damned useful) and:
Netflix - Really? New app and it has been faulty on the majority of Window phones for 2 weeks since this latest release in the sense that you CAN'T PLAY ANYTHING. Look at your own feedback.
FLAC support. SO there is, now, native FLAC support buried in the Windows API but there is still no way of playing them in one single Music application. Though this will be addressed in the next OS release.
Still no all encompassing decent email app that rivals the likes of K-9. And Microsoft, since WHEN did compressing images automatically become allowable if I want to send via email? With NO WAY to turn it off? Are you crazy?
Windows Phone 8.1 seems sandboxed to hell, which is good in some ways from the securty aspect, but bad in the sense that certain apps that I realllllly want from Android, such as Fing and Wifi Analyser, you can't really get on the WIndows Phone platform because access to those aspects of the OS are just completely isolated.
So if Windows (Phone) 10 addresses these issues, then I can see it taking off. At the moment, it is just going to be more of the same cruft.
Apart from that, Cortana is hilarious and useful. Battery life is stonking, and I do think the Tile screen is still one of the best UIs for a phone.
I don't actually know where I was going with this accept that I like the phone, the eco system sucks and decent apps that the techs want will draw in more development. So that sandboxing needs addressing.
Sorry for the capitals.
Sandboxing doesn't need fixing - it needs to stay just as it is.
I will happily do without some app which can analyse Wifi in order to avoid malware and ever-increasing cross-app pollution - one of the many reasons I bought WinPho, although camera tech was higher up the list.
And, as for Netflix, I got the update recently and, although I don't watch it on my phone much, I gave it a spin and it seemed fine so problems are not universal.
I once worked with a guy using FLAC on his phone (for better quality). Any discussion about the fact that the audio stage of his phone probably cost less to make than the free headphones supplied with a phone fell on deaf ears (or, at least, lower fidelity ears).
Added to that the fact that he had to switch out the actual music often because of the space it used up and it all seemed slightly pointless.
Still, perhaps he had golden ears.
It was terrible when I ran it. I keep it installed in case some update arrives that makes it work.
The mobile web page works fine if I am sufficiently bored to read it.
It is a terrible indictment of an IT site that they can't make an app work when single programmers make reasonable apps.
I use the (unofficial) Cineworld app for instance; I was fairly sure it was written and maintained by one person.
The Windows RT app is no great shakes either - reasonable but the web page is still preferable.
Shame on you.
PS. What is an SP3? Is it a WInPhone?
I can't get it in Italy. The idiocy of localized stores (although my system is set to English language) is very big. In some markets you're offered crappier apps just because better others are not localized for your country, and of course marketing drones can't believe some people can speak different languages and may want to use apps not in their native one... especially in the US where learning a foreign language is not among learning priorities.
The register app used to be reasonable, just lacking a live tile with the latest headlines. Then the comments broke and it has never been fixed.
Sticking a link to it at the bottom of an article without even checking to see if it actually still works is a pretty poor effort
Windows Phone ISN'T and NEVER WILL BE a "REAL" success.
Since BillG left them to it, MicroCrap haven't got a clue. Witness the poor WinPhone sales, various PC upgrade, Hotmail and cloud failures recently. They don't care and don't test properly any more.
BTW - by "success", I mean something people want and can use like Android (if you want cheap, but not nasty) or IOS (if you have too much money to burn).
...to be able to comment from another device. Articles look great in the app on a Lumia 520 yet comments don't work.
Of course, my app needs are apparently so minor that I find what I need and use it. My phone doesn't replace my main computer let alone an RPi. I feel like an atypical smartphone user...
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