Happy Anniversary: What’s new, what’s missing in Microsoft’s giant mobile update

Microsoft has begun to roll out the Anniversary Update of Windows 10 to phones. The business-friendly update gathers up hundreds of minor but useful changes, and it’s hard to single out some as more important than others. Some of the subtle design changes do make the whole thing look less amateurish, however. The 10.0.14393. …

[EvilGardenGnome]

Incremental improvement - very incremental

Tap to wake has been there for a while on supported devices. You can find it in Settings in the pre-anniversary OS under Extras, while now it is under Lock Screen.

Really, this is more polished than W10M was, but it's still missing a few things. WP8.x was, say what you will, very consistent. W10M-Anniversary moves more that way, but doesn't quite get there.

As a dedicated user for years, this won't build the brand (can anything, at this point?), but more troubling, likely won't stop people from leaving.

[Anonymous Coward]

Bowdlerised? No

Eviscerated? Yes - which ironically is a word Mr Bowdler would not have approved of...

/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Bowdler

// Early thread tangent? Check.

[Anonymous Coward]

I just wish that MS would come out and say.

We are NOT going to make hardware again, but several vendors are. We will be supporting the hardware and design development for at least the next 5 years.

Then we wouldn't have this crazy situation where no one know if there will be another phone out next year.

There are several nice and original Chinese phones out there, but there seems to be no decent advertising or commitment from MS.

[Steve Davies 3]

Re: I just wish that MS would come out and say.

No more Hardware?

Where does that leave the Surface?

I find it hard to believe that MS will can this flagship device in the near term.

It is not another Kin or Zune. They really have too much riding on it to can it now.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: I just wish that MS would come out and say.

Yet there are no much news about an upcoming Surface 4. Maybe the current iteration still sell enough well, despite some hardware issues, but usually we see yearly announcements.

I would not be surprised is Nadella cans the Surface line too, he looks very busy to destroy everything his predecessors did, not matter how good or bad the products were. He has a single and narrow idea in mind, and everything must bow to it.

And I wouldn't really count on HP to raise the hopes of Windows Phone... it's one of the big brands people stay away as soon as they can, and the actual state of the companies doesn't look so good.

[nkuk]

Re: I just wish that MS would come out and say.

The longer MS chase a market that is not interested in them, the more of a sunk cost fallacy it will be. Windows Phone is exactly another Kin / Zune, only vastly more costly.

[tiggertaebo]

Ahh makes sense now

Woke up this morning to my phone telling me updates had been installed and a few subtle things looked different. I haven't really had time to poke around it much yet but I did notice that somewhat randomly it had unpinned my "Settings" tile from my start screen and more worryingly my alarm didn't go off this morning.

[lufffunk]

Re: Ahh makes sense now

Yeah, I had the same problem. Just switched the alarm off and on again and it's worked ever since..

[tiggertaebo]

Re: Ahh makes sense now

I didn't change anything but my alarm did go off correctly this morning which is good.. still a pretty shit bug to have though!

[Dan 55]

Re: Ahh makes sense now

How to win over people to your mobile platform... Potentially screw up their morning. They'll thank you for it.

Say what you like about Balmer but the QA was never this bad.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Ahh makes sense now

Does Windows Phone just install updates without even asking?

[asdf]

Re: Ahh makes sense now

Wow I probably would have posted that AC as now journalists have finally found someone in the wild to ask about the update. A rare breed.

[Anonymous Custard]

Re: Ahh makes sense now

Had just the same, both settings and wireless hotspot tiles vanished. Both easily put back though, but seems an oddity.

Liking the new flexibility with the notification shade though. I used to have 5 or 6 that I wanted there and all the rest I can do without, so now being able to turn some off and fully rearrange the others it's working very nicely.

Have to say that Win10 does seem to eat battery faster than Win8.1 used to. That said my Lumia 640LTE will still go 2-3 days at least before needing more juice, so it's not a desperate issue.

[I ain't Spartacus]

Re: Ahh makes sense now

So, is it time to finally upgrade? Got a Lumia 735, still happily on 8.1. Is it worth taking the plunge to upgrade? Or should I just stick with what I've got? I quite like the OS, even though there's too many apps missing. It's got the benefit of being easy to use, and having big buttons (and big writing). Very useful for stabbing at it when walking, and not wearing reading glasses.

[ckm5]

Who cares

Seriously, is anyone still interested in Windows Phone? It just looks like MSFT abandonware....

I was hopeful it might be an alternative to the duopoly, but at this point it's just a dead end. I guess it's nice that they are doing an update, but one wonders why they even bother expending engineering resources on this...

[Steve Davies 3]

never mind the quality, feel the width

Quote

The quality of development on Windows 10 has gone up this year

Really? The recent borking of systems with the updates and the disk thrashing are hardly evidence of a quality operating system in 2016. In 1996? Possibly but not now.

There is indeed a very long way to go with quality.

[Roland6]

Just in time!

For all of you who are about to go on holiday and will be taking your phone with you:

Don't forget to turn off mobile data or denote it as 'metered', otherwise you might be in for a rather nasty surprise on your return: just because you were on the beach with your phone doesn't mean your phone wasn't busy downloading the latest Win10 build... :)

[nkuk]

At this point is there anyone left that cares about Windows on mobile? MS has burnt their bridges with the network providers, the developers who have been stitched up multiple times, customers that have had multiple roads to nowhere, and phone manufacturers that have wasted money on supporting WP, particularly Nokia that was destroyed in the process.

With no friends in the mobile space how will MS possibly complete?

[BobChip]

Complete?

Complete? I think you meant compete. They are not competing, and have not been competitive in mobile from the outset. I can't imagine why they should wish to turn Microsoft into a toxic brand, but it seems to be about the only thing they can really do well right now. Sad.

[Anonymous Coward]

Technology stack

You can tell that Microsoft is deeply serious about supporting Windows 10 for Phone (they were advised by trading standards to drop the plural in the UK), by looking at the fully supported Microsoft technology stack that makes up Windows 10.

So starting from the lowest levels and swimming upwards towards the light, avoiding the odd lumps and grime, as if we were recovering from a dive into a Olympic swimming pool at Rio, we have:

- DR Dos 3.2 with QEMM (no need for himem.sys, folks!).

- Novel Netware/386.

- Windows ME.

- WinFS.

- Microsoft Bob.

- .net.

- Silverlight with Adobe Flash compatibility.

- Telemetry layer.

- Windows Phone 10 skin (pretty much Twitter, Minesweeper and a calendar) - this is what's started by the last line in autoexec.bat.

So get installing folks, things are looking rosy!

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Technology stack

Not sure why you got downvoted... that was hilarious.

Don't forget Kin/Zune/Bing. That said, Bing has improved much especially. Still would not switch to it from Google search. Or if I'm feeling paranoid about privacy, DuckDuckGo.

[Packet]

As much as I see (and regard) Windows mobile/phone as dead, I do like that option to customize the quick settings (Be nice to see that in iOS)

However, incredibly ugly UI from the screenshots

[Daniel von Asmuth]

Windows Devices

El Reg scripsit: "synced to various Windows devices".

This list might include:

- keyboard

- display (MDA or CGA)

- line printer

- cassette tape unit

- floppy disc drive

- anything attached to the serial ports

[Anonymous Coward]

Skype on Winphone 8.1

Won't be supported. Way to go Microsoft.

I don't know, but maybe more Windows phone users run 8.1 than 10. If you think they'll be bounced to Windows 10 on a new handset , I wouldn't count on it. The whole adventure with Windows phone has been too depressing for me, and I bet I'm not the only one off to Android or iphone when my current handset croaks

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Skype on Winphone 8.1

Go for it hope you enjoy playing with toys

[hplasm]

Re: Skype on Winphone 8.1

"Go for it hope you enjoy playing with toys"

No, he's moving away from Windows.

[I ain't Spartacus]

Re: Skype on Winphone 8.1

That's actaully the problem with Android. Too many toys. Obviously great for geeks to play with, but I want a nice simple phone that doesn't need too much maintenance. Obviously, I'm happy to spend a bit of time getting it set-up just right.

My Mum is my guide to hardware complication. It took her about 3 months to get comfortable with her iPad (she was never a happy PC user even after 20 years). She's got my brother's old MacBook nowadays - and I still get the odd question on that.

But after half an hour to show her how to use her Windows phone, I've had only 2 calls for help in a year! She's happy about that - and I'm ecstatic...

To be fair, there's a lack of apps (so also less need for help), but she's got an iPad for those, and we discussed her needs when we chose it.

My next phone will probably be a 'droid, just because I dsilike the iPhone addressbook and phone controls, and my phone is a work telephone first - and everything else is secondary.

For me a phone is about simplicity and getting stuff done in a hurry. A tablet is for play and a PC for a bit of both.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Skype on Winphone 8.1

As I said hope he enjoys playing with toys

[veti]

Re: Skype on Winphone 8.1

My phone runs 8.1, and 10 hasn't even been released for it. I guess because it really doesn't have a lower hardware requirement than 8.1, despite MS's policy over the last few Windows releases.

When this handset croaks, I'll do what I always do: look around for a replacement and buy whatever looks good at that time. I don't do OS loyalty.

[Anonymous Coward]

Nobody really cares about Windows phones anymore

The writing was on the wall when Microsoft decided to port over its in-house apps to iOS and Android. There was no longer a compelling reason to stay exclusively within Microsoft's walled garden.

The sales figures speak for themselves.

[Donchik]

More new bugs!

Roaming in the South of France currently.

Update arrived over hotel WiFi ok, but results patchy.

My wife's 8.1 phone still working fine, but my 950xl can't find ANY network connection for voice or SMS.

Settings vanished as noted, but screen brightness outside so low, can't read anything...

Pressing button to wake up phone only works about a third of the time, and pressing the camera button no longer fires up the camera.

Impressive achievement Microsoft!

[Mikko Kaarela]

A Pocket CRM in Lumia...

One cool feature in W10 Mobile is the Timeline associated with contacts. You can see the history of interaction in a glance, calls, e-mails, meetings/calendar entries, SMS and WhatsApp messages etc. Hopefully Microsoft will integrate this data (if enabled for each particular contact) with the company CRM.

With that, we'd finally have a CRM that doesn't require extra updating effort.

P.S. One of these years, the business phone could display also the company name for incoming calls...

[Terry 6]

What changed

I had to check the version number. I have the update, I can't see any differences.

Puzzled.