Mobile phones & tablets thread

[BleAivano]

I've been using win8 on a laptop for a couple of weeks and I don''t think it as bad as the claims are. You get used to it quite quickly.

[Mark in Oshawa]

So......Again...am I the only Blackberry guy on the board? Feeling lonely, except I do know people who own z10's and q10's...but not on this board. Is the world so hung up on toys, apps and games that they ignore the reality of WHY you own a phone? To just communicate? At its core, this phone does that really well, plus takes damn nice pictures as well. I read post after post about this and that, and I experience no glitches really, the phone is fast, and reliable and Blackberry is renowned for security. All you guys keep talking about the faults of Android devices and meanwhile they keep selling like crazy. Am I nuts? Am I missing something? Hell, I would consider an Apple if I thought it was a better buy...but I don't think it isn't....

[Dave B]

I've been using win8 on a laptop for a couple of weeks and I don''t think it as bad as the claims are. You get used to it quite quickly.

Personally I think it's worse than the claims are. This may sound like the ratings of a luddite who doesn't like change, but I've been using Windows since Bruce Forsythe was in short trousers, and the interface just gets in the way. 8.1 addresses the absolute worse of this but also introduces its own stupid annoyances.

For example programmes and apps are now catagorised (Games, Photo, Shopping etc) but there's no way of changing the defaults, so on my PC I've got Amazon and Cut the Rope under "other", with no way of moving them. The "Metro" interface is easier to avoid, but it's still an unholy mess with scant customisation, poor switching between that and desktop. If I'd wanted a Fisher Price toy I'd have bought a Mac!

I've had wizards hang on me with no way of closing them, and operations fail with no Retry option. The ribbon view is a barrier to productivity as I can't have my most used actions visible in one place, and it refuses point blank to play ball with my soon-to-be-renamed SkyDrive.

I've got used to it, that's for sure, but it's definately a backwards step from Windows 7.

[Dave B]

Is the world so hung up on toys, apps and games that they ignore the reality of WHY you own a phone? To just communicate? At its core, this phone does that really well, plus takes damn nice pictures as well..

"To just communicate"? That's SOOOOOO 2009

I'm only partially joking. I use my phone to do at least half of my shopping, as a price comparison tool when I'm in a bricks-and-mortar retailer, to capture edit and share HD video, to store and read hundreds of books and manuals, to play games on, to facilitate my banking, as a 2nd screen for stats such as F1 live timing, as a calendar, as a home CCTV system, as a multimedia remote control, as an MP3 player in the car, as a SatNav, to store all my loyalty card details (I'm not very loyal so I have loads!), as a notepad, and to manage my cloud storage. And yes: occasionally to communicate!

Personally (I emphasise that word) I chose Android because Blackberry didn't have the breadth of apps I want, and Apple don't make a device with a screen size I'd consider remotely useful. If that changes in the future I'm open to persuasion.

[BleAivano]

Personally I think it's worse than the claims are. This may sound like the ratings of a luddite who doesn't like change, but I've been using Windows since Bruce Forsythe was in short trousers, and the interface just gets in the way. 8.1 addresses the absolute worse of this but also introduces its own stupid annoyances.

For example programmes and apps are now catagorised (Games, Photo, Shopping etc) but there's no way of changing the defaults, so on my PC I've got Amazon and Cut the Rope under "other", with no way of moving them. The "Metro" interface is easier to avoid, but it's still an unholy mess with scant customisation, poor switching between that and desktop. If I'd wanted a Fisher Price toy I'd have bought a Mac!

I've had wizards hang on me with no way of closing them, and operations fail with no Retry option. The ribbon view is a barrier to productivity as I can't have my most used actions visible in one place, and it refuses point blank to play ball with my soon-to-be-renamed SkyDrive.

I've got used to it, that's for sure, but it's definately a backwards step from Windows 7.

Sure it is, I've set up Winamp as the default music player, Firefox as the default web browser.

I agree though that Win 7 is better but I think that win8 probably suits tocuh screen devices better.
And I also think that MS will implement a classic mode with desktop view as default with a proper start menu.

However I do like the idea with win8 that the same OS is used on phones, tablets and computers.

[Mark]

However I do like the idea with win8 that the same OS is used on phones, tablets and computers.

It's a fine idea in principle however desktop PC's and tablets require different interfaces as they are used in completely different ways.

[BleAivano]

It's a fine idea in principle however desktop PC's and tablets require different interfaces as they are used in completely different ways.

I agree that is why there should be an option or a feature to decide which view that should be the default,
the old classic windows desktop/start menu view or the new metro interface.

if you have a surface pro you probably would like to be able to Swich between the differnt views depending on how and
when you are using it.If you use it handheld, then perhaps you want use the metro interface which i guess works with a
tocuh screen butthen if you connect a laptop and mose then a classic view would be preferred.

It really shouldn't hard to implement such feature but it seems that MS are ot interested.

[Dave B]

Sure it is, I've set up Winamp as the default music player, Firefox as the default web browser.

You misunderstand. Obviously you can set default programmes - it's not iOS!

I meant that there's an option to group apps/programmes by type on whatever we're calling the tiled interface this week. There are catagories such as Games, Tools, Shopping. As an example, my "Shopping" catagory consists solely of Store at the moment, yet Amazon appears under "Other". Can I change this? Not without faffing around with the registry, which no ordinary end user should ever be exposed to. It's a trivial gripe, but it typifies how ill-thought out and unfinished 8.1 appears to be.

[donKey jote]

If I'd wanted a Fisher Price toy I'd have bought a Mac!

[BleAivano]

You misunderstand. Obviously you can set default programmes - it's not iOS!

I meant that there's an option to group apps/programmes by type on whatever we're calling the tiled interface this week. There are catagories such as Games, Tools, Shopping. As an example, my "Shopping" catagory consists solely of Store at the moment, yet Amazon appears under "Other". Can I change this? Not without faffing around with the registry, which no ordinary end user should ever be exposed to. It's a trivial gripe, but it typifies how ill-thought out and unfinished 8.1 appears to be.

Right yes I did misunderstood you.

You mean something like this?:
Windows 8 How To: 10. Customize Metro UI
How To Resize, Group & Manage App Tiles In Windows 8 Start Screen
windows 8 - How do you group Start Menu tiles into categories with headers? - Super User