Recent Posts

1426

Living Room / Re: Well, I got it: Nokia Lumia 920, Windows 8

« Last post by superboyac on November 18, 2012, 05:08 PM »

Now I'm having difficulty automatically syncing my phone files with skydrive, even though I've set everything up properly.  I've set it up to auto sync my photos/videos automatically with Skydrive, but only using wifi when it's available (so it doesn't waste my ATT bandwidth).  Well, it doesn't do anything, really.  I have to sync them manually.  Phone's been sitting here at home for hours now, I've been waiting for it to decide to upload, but nothing.

I took about 3 GB of videos and pictures last night, was hoping it would have been seamless.  Cmon microsoft.

1427

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: CyberMonday Deal : 40% off for Aml Pages and Aml Maple (until 21 Nov.)

« Last post by superboyac on November 18, 2012, 03:12 PM »

Seems like good, interesting software.  Unique features.

1428

Living Room / Re: Well, I got it: Nokia Lumia 920, Windows 8

« Last post by superboyac on November 17, 2012, 12:14 AM »

I lied, one more:

The Wikipedia app is beautiful, oh my.  This really raises my hopes about what can be done with this OS.  If you play with it you will see a few very nifty things they've done that are unexpected and unlike anything else on the phone currently.  I'm VERY impressed.

1429

Living Room / Re: Well, I got it: Nokia Lumia 920, Windows 8

« Last post by superboyac on November 16, 2012, 11:16 PM »

Last one for the night...
I really do prefer the Windows mobile interface over android and ios (both are basically the same).  The tiles are better.  I really dig the way to jump around alphabetically in your lists, I thought that was well done.  Some of the tight ecosystem integration as mentioned above I found to be better than the others.  Maybe I'm old school or something, but I find a lot of the harsh criticisms regarding these specific points to be unwarranted and a little misinformed.

1430

Living Room / Re: Well, I got it: Nokia Lumia 920, Windows 8

« Last post by superboyac on November 16, 2012, 11:09 PM »

Man, ok so now I know what I really am waiting for...
Let's get some cool info on the live tiles already!  Enough with the ridiculous super-minimalism.  Freaking A...let's use the space we have.  These phones are already short on real estate with the pixels, there's no need to get crazy with the minimalist stuff that has taken hold the last decade.

So i hope some people develop cool and useful live tile information.  I found one that shows the battery level which is nice because (again!) for some odd reason MS decided to hide all those notifications on the tops of phone screens (wifi signal level, lte signal level, battery level, you know those little icons).  So every time you want to check the battery level or something, you have to swipe down to make them appear.  To me, this is minimalism taken too far.  Just show those things, they are things we are always interested in seeing when we get look at the phone.

1431

Living Room / Re: Well, I got it: Nokia Lumia 920, Windows 8

« Last post by superboyac on November 16, 2012, 06:53 PM »

Carol, I'm with you in spirit, but obviously I have succumbed to the ecosystem for now.  It's not as bad as I expected.  I'm predominantly a Windows user, so having my phone be a part of the ecosystem wasn't much of a problem at all.  Now, with Apple, I had issues because none of my workflow was part of the Apple ecosystem, so it wasn't that convenient for me, just more work basically.
As far as bandwidth, the phone has options for certain things so you won't waste bandwidth.  Like you can set it to not download high res pictures, and it will warn you if you are about to stream a video.  So i think the bandwidth is fine.
Also, there aren't that many apps and features yet, so there isn't all that much happening with the cloud currently for me.  The main thing I've noticed as far as the MS ecosystem is that it ties all the contacts on the phone together automatically: facebook, google, hotmail/skydrive.  And I may be wrong, but the MS ecosystem seems to be better for a professional workflow than Apple's is.

Furthermore:
I let my coworker play with the phone today, and he has the Samsung Galaxy S3 (top of the line Android phone currently).  He felt that the Lumia 920 was better made than the Samsung, it's just about the same quality as the previous iphones I'd say.  he also liked and noticed how much better the touch response is (also, IMO, as good or better than iphone).  Android is the worst for touch response, I'm quite certain of that.  So in other words, he was very impressed with the phone.

It's just a question of apps right now.  If a decent app selection was available, I think the Windows Phone has iphone and android beat.  Now my little sister did NOT like the windows phone, but she is also not a computer person at all, and doesn't need many features at all (in other words, the ideal apple customer).

1432

Living Room / Re: Well, I got it: Nokia Lumia 920, Windows 8

« Last post by superboyac on November 16, 2012, 06:14 PM »

I just figured out how to link duplicate contacts on the phone.  Another "duh" moment.  I gotta say, it's very easy and elegant.  Nice.

1433

Living Room / Re: You thought those cheap no-name USB/Phone charger were safe?

« Last post by superboyac on November 15, 2012, 11:46 PM »

I've found it a good rule of thumb to err on the side of caution and not be too frugal when it comes to AC current or anything that has enough electrical potential to kill or maim.

If it plugs into a wall, I generally stick with what the manufacturer recommends using.

-40hz (November 01, 2012, 09:18 PM)

Very wise.

1434

Living Room / Re: Well, I got it: Nokia Lumia 920, Windows 8

« Last post by superboyac on November 15, 2012, 11:04 PM »

Ok, I just tried it, awesome!  Thanks allen, huge brain fart on my part.  (that rhymes)

Here's something that bothers me...my mp3 files are perfectly tagged and named, I'm quite obsessive about it.  The player on the phone is having lots of problems with titles (includes "the" in titles when I have it removed).  It sorts everything alphabetically and no option for any other kind of sorting.  I don't want my album tracks sorted alphabetically (who does??).  I don't understand these companies, and I know it's all about DRM somehow, someway.  Same files, when dropped into a rockbox player, are perfect.  no issues with any naming, sorting, nothing.  I had this same problem with itunes and the ipod.  They make sure to use the absolute hardest to deal with tags for things like Artist, Album Artist, etc.  

[edit]
sorry my bad...I need to drag the music into the "music" folder, not one of those artist or album subfolders.  That seems to fix the sorting issues.  I need to stop jumping to conclusions and stop being a critical negative nancy.

1435

Living Room / Re: Well, I got it: Nokia Lumia 920, Windows 8

« Last post by superboyac on November 15, 2012, 10:56 PM »

If you're talking about music, photos, documents, etc., just plug it in -- unlike WP7 you can mount it and copy files back and forth.  The filesystem doesn't give full access to the phone's internals, if that's what you're after, but it is an easy way to move things around.

-allen (November 15, 2012, 06:06 PM)

I didn't realize that, let me try it...thanks.

1436

Living Room / Re: Well, I got it: Nokia Lumia 920, Windows 8

« Last post by superboyac on November 15, 2012, 05:50 PM »

With WP7, the updates had to go through the carrier. Not unlike Android, they were slow, painful, few and far between. My understanding is that with WP8 they're coming straight from MS, so they can keep the updates rolling. I sure hope that's the case--considering WP8 needs some update love, sooner the better.

-allen (November 15, 2012, 04:39 PM)

Yes, I also hope they start fine tuning things.  I just really want one thing: some way to transfer files and folders of stuff between pc and phone, and also between apps.  That's it.  Is that too much to ask for?

1437

Living Room / Re: Well, I got it: Nokia Lumia 920, Windows 8

« Last post by superboyac on November 15, 2012, 04:19 PM »

SuperBoy, are WinPhone8 upgrades through your carrier, or directly from MS? (I'd suppose the former).

For android, you get upgrades from the carrier, which pretty much sucks - lots of them install bloated crap (like the should-be-lined-up-and-shot Windows OEMs), and don't deliver a lot of updates. Of course one can root the device and uninstall unofficial (and superior?) firmware, which is a nice option the closed ecosystems still have, but... bleh

-f0dder (November 15, 2012, 04:06 PM)

I don't know for sure, but I think it's coming straight from MS.  I say that because the option is in the Settings menu, which is default for any windows 8 phone.  If it was coming from Nokia, I think it would have been a special Nokia or ATT app like they have several of on the phone already.

Also, since Microsoft worked much more closely with the phone manufacturers compared to Android, I don't think that kind of weird delays with updates will happen.  Android is crazy...different phones get updates months apart, some never get certain updates at all, it's a little ridiculous.  That's another one of Windows' great trademarks and I hope they don't get rid of it.

1438

Living Room / Re: Well, I got it: Nokia Lumia 920, Windows 8

« Last post by superboyac on November 15, 2012, 03:48 PM »

To answer my own question:
To update the Windows Phone OS, go to Settings-->Phone Update
http://youtu.be/ydZVgez94rA

1439

Living Room / Re: Well, I got it: Nokia Lumia 920, Windows 8

« Last post by superboyac on November 15, 2012, 12:09 PM »

Some info about the new WP8 OS:

you can't use osbuilder because this rom isn't built like other winCE's roms (wm6.x, wp7). This rom has got his own filesystem (I think it should be ReFS), and his own structure. You have to wait because some developers are digging into it. Right now we only know that the system structure is similar to a Windows PC, even drivers are in sys format (this is a bad news for those who are waiting a porting to older devices).

The bolded is what I'm thinking about.  What does that mean for file/folder transferring opportunities?

1440

Living Room / Re: Well, I got it: Nokia Lumia 920, Windows 8

« Last post by superboyac on November 15, 2012, 11:28 AM »

I'll have to check out motorola+android.

If MS makes their own phones, i sure hope it will be very open and flexible for developers to do cool things with it.

1441

Living Room / Re: Well, I got it: Nokia Lumia 920, Windows 8

« Last post by superboyac on November 15, 2012, 09:36 AM »

Microsoft has mentioned on more than one occasion that they ran out of time with the release

-allen (November 15, 2012, 09:19 AM)

What does that mean? Seriously.

This is a commercial retail product. Not some F/OSS or volunteer project being run on a shoestring. 

With pockets as deep, and resources as vast, as Microsoft has -  how can they even "go there" with a comment like that?

You know how Apple always used to say "Think Different"?

Maybe the new consumer slogan needs to be: Demand Better.

-40hz (November 15, 2012, 09:29 AM)

I had the same questions.  Why is MS rushing to make any release?  Who is making the schedule?  Just make it right!  If you need to meet a date, just spend another few thousand and get a few more people.

1442

Living Room / Re: Well, I got it: Nokia Lumia 920, Windows 8

« Last post by superboyac on November 15, 2012, 09:28 AM »

It does feel like a transitional period.  I'll be very interested in developments with file transferring between the phone and pc.  That WP7 wifi sync described above sounds great, I hope they bring it back.  Or I hope someone else will make a 3rd party app for stuff like that.  Am I crazy in believing that Windows is interested in giving developers a flexible platform to program in?  Or are they limiting what you can and can't program?  For example, apple won't let you do any programs that mess with the alarm clock features.  Is Nokia/MS going to be like that also, where developers won't be allowed to touch certain low level OS features, like stuff in the control panel, wifi settings, file/folder exploring, etc.?

1443

Living Room / Re: Well, I got it: Nokia Lumia 920, Windows 8

« Last post by superboyac on November 15, 2012, 09:08 AM »

Out of curiosity, does the Win8 phone have a desktop app similar to iTunes that allows you to do minor admin type things to it, or does everything need to be done on the device itself?

-40hz (November 15, 2012, 09:02 AM)

I was reading the forums last night, and I thought people mentioned something like that.  But I never found out what it was.  Zune desktop?  Windows Phone desktop?

[edit]
found something in beta:
http://www.windowsph...hone-app-for-desktop
works with Windows 7.  Not sure what it does, doubt it does anything actually good.

1444

Living Room / Re: Well, I got it: Nokia Lumia 920, Windows 8

« Last post by superboyac on November 14, 2012, 09:03 PM »

So how am I supposed to update the actual Windows Phone 8 OS?  I heard some things about bugs being fixed today and I have no idea how to update the phone.

1445

General Software Discussion / Re: Two classes of membership here?

« Last post by superboyac on November 14, 2012, 12:27 PM »

Very nice, contro.

1446

Living Room / Re: Well, I got it: Nokia Lumia 920, Windows 8

« Last post by superboyac on November 14, 2012, 12:20 PM »

I really like the camera. [url=https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=35C5F0E6DE156CB!11213&authkey=!AHzx-DDgDkILfD0]darn wasps

-allen (November 14, 2012, 11:58 AM)

Is that a yellow jacket?  They are not friendly wasps.  I always found their bright yellow abdomens menacing.

1447

General Software Discussion / Re: Two classes of membership here?

« Last post by superboyac on November 14, 2012, 11:12 AM »

Now that it's been pointed out, I'm glad that I'm in the upper class in at least one area of my life!  So what are we, one-percenters?  Do i get to tax the donationcredits of non-exclusive members?

1448

Living Room / Re: Recommend some music videos to me!

« Last post by superboyac on November 14, 2012, 12:42 AM »

I don't know if this has been mentioned yet--Train is a guilty pleasure, but this video is just too much fun.

how the hell does the embed work? It tells me invalid, click this I guess: http://youtu.be/pf4aSxDvlPw

-allen (November 14, 2012, 12:33 AM)

You have to use the long link...youtube.com/blah

1449

Living Room / Re: Well, I got it: Nokia Lumia 920, Windows 8

« Last post by superboyac on November 14, 2012, 12:25 AM »

It can actually be a pretty great music player too, especially if you buy into their subscription model. Unfortunately while Zune and WP7 + Zune (for PC) had industry-best podcast support, podcasts kind of suck with WP8. I sincerely hope that's not a shift of priority indicative of the future but more "we ran out of time, it's coming" thing. . . we'll see. I guess podcasts aren't as important to me as they once were. . . maybe they're ahead of the curve on that.

Entirely unimportant, but what color phone did you get?

-allen (November 14, 2012, 12:20 AM)

Black.  i couldn't stomach the other colors.  If anything, I might have gotten the matte cyan, but geez, other than black and gray, there aren't any low-profile colors.  if there was a matte brown color, I'd have gotten that.  I think brown is classy.  Because my skin is brown.

1450

Living Room / Re: Well, I got it: Nokia Lumia 920, Windows 8

« Last post by superboyac on November 14, 2012, 12:22 AM »

Allen, you got me thinking, you basterd!!

The people that are going to be very happy with the Androids and iphones are those who will do most of their computing on their phone.  This means they are far from being computer geeks.  Then there are the geeks, and they fall into two camps for the most part: Windows geeks, Linux geeks.  I'm a Windows geek, but if not for the popularity factor, I'm a linux geek at heart.  Linux geeks are not going to be satisfied with any phone offering out there, including this windows phone.  Too commercial, too much money, too much polish, not enough substance, too many ways to get people paying for monthly subscriptions, apps, what not.  I actually think that Android is currently better suited for the Linux geek AND the windows geek.  Now, if you're a windows FAN than you'll be fine with the windows phone.  i even think that currently the iphone is also better suited for the linux and windows geeks.  But this all remains to be seen what people are able to do with this new phone the next 6 months.

and also, i have to add, i don't even really care anymore.  i'm not mad, i get it...whatever.