Feature-rich work in progress: Windows Mobile 10 build 10136

Microsoft has released Build 10136 of Windows 10 Mobile, part of the “One Windows” wave set to be released later this year. Windows 10 for PCs is due on 29 July, but the phone version is likely to follow later. It's just as well, since this build still does not feel release-ready, though progress from the last build is …

[John P]

Glad to see they've made the menus easier to use, that is one of my biggest gripes with WP10 so far.

The app gap is one of those rather tricky chicken-and-egg problems. No one writes for WP because there are no users, there are no users because no one writes for WP.

The UWP apps, if they actually deliver on the promise of one app for all Windows platforms, may help in this regard if they make it essentially a no-brainer for anyone writing UWP apps for Windows Desktop to also make it work on WP. That still leaves the problem of getting developers to write UWP apps in the first place.

On this front, it looks like MS are using the carrot rather than the stick this time as you allegedly will be able to use certain UWP features in Win32 apps, making UWP something you slowly transform in to using rather than having to rewrite everything from scratch in one go. If they get it right, it may work, but it's not going to be an overnight solution.

The question is whether MS will stick with it or just try to re-imagine the experience again next year, thus putting everyone back at square one again.

[ZSn]

Appily

Really, people go on about apps, but 99% are honestly uselss, they usually duplicate what can be done (albeit slower) in a web page, but with extra security failures thrown in for good measure.

The stock version of windows phone does most of what I want, throw in here maps and few other bits and bobs and I'm fine. Do I really need to add a sepia tint to my photos?

[jason 7]

Re: Appily

Yeah looking at my 'apps' usage on my phone and it revolves around about 10 main apps.

The rest are fluff.

In fact I stripped out as many apps as I could about a year ago. If I hadn't used it for more than 6 weeks it went.

Down to two and a half screens of apps on my Nexus 4. If I could get rid of 70% of the Google Play ones it would be even better.

Battery life now goes two days plus too!

[Neil Barnes]

Re: Appily

Nine on my front page; everything else is Google's base install (as indeed are half of the front page).

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Appily

Agree, these are the phone apps that get most used (no particular order), and I'd miss if they were gone:

Onenote

Netflix

BBC iplayer

Here Drive+

Met Office Weather - I uninstalled MS own weather app

Podcaster

Twitter, FB,

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Appily

I used to have a Lumia 1520 and LOVED it - great phone, best I've ever had! Unfortunately, I couldn't use it with my Chromecast; although there was a Flixster app I couldn't use it to stream films (from memory they were Ultraviolet-licensed, but not sure); here in Cardiff my local bus company's ticket app doesn't exist on Windows Phone... each one on their own not a great problem, but put them all together and eventually I caved and went back to Android...

...which I HATE with a passion. Especially since upgrading to Lollipop - slow, buggy and kills my battery! However, it does at least have the apps I need...

[ZSn]

S/MIME

Yes, I go on about it, but the one thing that they haven't done is add S/MIME ability to the mail. The enterprise version works badly and the user version not at all.

I'm not downvoting them for this, because neither does stock android...

[mistergrantham]

US Engineering

Interesting... instead of moving the hamburger over to the right, they boiler-plated a new hardware button dependency... a very American approach to problem solving.

[John P]

Re: US Engineering

I don't get it, swiping up from the bottom for menus is so natural and easy, why must they break the good parts!

[Anonymous Coward]

The app gap

Microsoft has repeatedly pulled platforms on developers. Whatever happened to WinCE6.5, Windows Phone 7. Windows Phone 7.5, Windows Phone 8.0

Each successive version could not run previous software.

So don't blame the developers.

[dogged]

Re: The app gap

7 and 7.5 apps work on 8.

But hey, nice try! I'm sure you can dissuade some more devs from bothering and that'll make your penis bigger!

[Anonymous Coward]

7 and 7.5 apps work on 8

Not all. I had a few break when I went from 7 to 7.5 and never be updated.

And some of my 7.5 apps aren't available for 8 either.

e2a: Oh, and I forgot about the car crash that was WP7.8 - another platform needing apps rewritten.

[Fuzz]

Re: 7 and 7.5 apps work on 8

well obviously some apps are going to break, just the same as some apps break when you go from ios 5-6-7 or android 2.3-4.0-4.1 but most windows phone apps that ran on 7 were also fine on 7.5, 7.8, 8.0 and 8.1 and will probably still run OK on 10.

[The Original Steve]

Impressed

Previous builds have been pretty poor on most fronts - which I suppose is fair enough as it's alpha / beta - but this build is much, much better. Running on a Lumia 930 and think I'll be giving it a run as my "daily driver". Even works better with the car Bluetooth than 8.1 and the previous 10 builds!

Long as those "Universal Apps" come along seems like WP10 or whatever the hell its called now is a reasonable contender for 3rd choice on mobile OS. Good thing.

[Dave 126]

Truncated text in a developer beta?

Just by coincidence, another OS in developer beta is showing a similar-looking issue in its UI:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/9380/os-x-el-capitan-first-look/6

One it assumes its the sort of thing that will get sorted out in time.

[Mikel]

Say what you want about Sinofsky. At least he could ship product.

[dogged]

And your point is...?

[launcap]

> Say what you want about Sinofsky. At least he could ship product.

In a fashion and with 'features' that no-one wanted, while throwing all the previous users under a bus..

[Jean-Paul]

Needs optimisation

when my 6+ screen broke I required a phone asap. Got a Lumia 930 delivered next day. I liked it so much that I didn't get my iPhone fixed for 3 months. However I did this week as I just got sick and tired of the just barely one day battery life.

The apps are absolutely fine, windows phone got everything it requires. The os I like. However hardware wise and battery optimisation just isn't good enough. It is just like my android (including nexus) experiences, looks pretty but basics just aren't stable enough.

iOS is very boring looking, the life tile concept is great. But all is pointless when there is no juice left to check email, send a text or make a phone call.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Needs optimisation

Weird, I've got a 735 (or is it 725, can never remember), and I get 2-3 days out of it.

But: I have battery saver on permanently, which doesn't bother me at all, as I don't have auto-sync on for emails anyway. And I have Bluetooth turned off always.

And you can check out which apps are bleeding battery and nobble them, if necessary.

[ReggieReader]

For me Windows Phone 8 is far better than Android. Slick and easy to use. Just needs more apps and more features within apps. For example you can't even select all text in a word document and copy it to another app. I've had a Lumia 625 for over a year and normally get 3 to 4 days use out of a full battery. I even had 6 days once after light use. The key is to keep bluetooth and GPS off until you need them. Wi-fi also eats battery when you are a long distance from an access point or not connected so keep it off until needed.

[kokoro]

Arguably WP is better than Android, but I watched my L920 become more and more of a slug and perform worse with less battery life with each upgrade. Last year's big upgrade broke the phone and I had to do a hard reset. What finally has made me switch to Android is the lack of interest by M$ in their user base. I loathe the no settings approach to software which makes any chance of customisation or improving performance impossible. But, the XBox music app may well be insanely badly thought out on Android (you can only download albums offline if u put them in a playlist, wtf?), but at least it doesn't take the phone down with it. Hell, every time M$ 'upgrades' this pile of rubbish, the UI gets worse and the product more cumbersome to use. Winamp in 1999 could handle things better, even Zune could and this is 2015. Final straw for me was new versions of Office and other apps going to iOS and Android before they get to a loyal user base and being stuck with IE which just won't load a secure page rendering ebanking, Stripe, WHM/cPanel and more useless with no extra app available.

I'm happy on Android, it is boring, Droid Sans is a horrible font and so on but I can do Firefox with Adblock and access almost anything in browser or app needed to run my business. I can also upgrade without tethering getting broken for no clear reason. Hoping the cumbersome Outlook app handles contacts and calendar better real soon, but like everything from M$, it could take a while.