So, it seems that MS was finally able to upgrade the thing and currently the preview is available. There's also some sort of review.
http://www.wpcentral.com/windows-phone-81-review
Is the review biased? Yes, quite a bit actually. I don't mean that the new changes are bad, on the contrary. But the review makes it sound like MS just discovered a way to turn shit into gold which is far from the truth. Examples? You will notice how Cortana is described to be at the very least on par with Siri and Google Now, but later in the text it is compared to them in a different manner (on a level of Siri and almost as good as Google Now). Not to mention that the reviewer believes that the fact that Cortana's uses Bing is an advantage.
Then you have IE11's new "secretive browsing", a feature which is available in other browsers for years now. Same for that special service (forgot the name) that acts as intermediate station when browsing websites as it can compress images and reduce network load on the browser. That's a really great idea. Except that Opera Mobile did that even before smartphones were actually a thing (i.e. before the iPhone).
Did I mention how you could change the background? Wow. I am amazed, Microsoft. But seriously, it was about goddamn time.
I just couldn't keep on reading after about half of it without getting sick so I just stopped.
Given, MS has done obviously a lot and that's great. But this only means that they are now not completely useless and only a few years behind everyone else.
But I'm not done. Oh no. I tried installing the "Developer Preview" on a company phone which should allow me to download early updates, including Windows Phone 8.1. The first problem? When I tried activating it through the web browser on my PC, I kept getting the error message that the phone "could not be found". It also said to turn on the option "Find My Phone". I did. Still nothing. Then I used to phone to access the store and try to download it. This time it worked. Way to go, Microsoft, way to go. Google Play has no problems with me clicking on "Install" on a web browser on my PC and doesn't need any special "find my phone" bullshit. Learn from them.
So, the download went smoothly which is a rare thing on Windows Phone. Then I started checking for updates. Needless to say that it took 5 freaking minutes to do that. The download died on me only once with the very informative error message "There was an error (0x0b986322)". Such information, much fix. At least the second time it was successful. I probably would have given up if this happened more than 2 times.
Did I mention that one of the first comments on "Developer Preview" was how easy updating it? (It's in the Croatian store (http://www.windowsphone.com/hr-hr/store/app/preview-for-developers/178ac8a1-6519-4a0b-960c-038393741e96).)
QuoteVrhunska stvar, nešto za što na Android platformi moraš uhakirati telefon ovdje je vrlo jednostavno... Odlična stvar za one koji žele više...
Quote from: TranslationTop stuff, something that on the Android platform requires hacking your phone, here it's very simple... Great thing for those who want more...
I don't know if MS paid this person or if he is just retarded. But judging from the fact that he thinks updating Android from an official provider requires hacking you phone is enough for me to doubt his intelligence. He probably deserves a Windows Phone where you have so little options that it's very difficult to break something (my old Nokia 6600 had more built-on options and functionality than Windows Phone 8 has). Oh wait, I take that back. My the company phone likes to crash/restart/freeze without me touching anything.
Ok, I'm done now.
EDIT: Oh my, they finally added auto-rotate on the default menus. It was about time.
I've never used a Windows Phone, and especially after reading this, I'm not planning on it. I'll stick to Android.
When I switched from iOS (I used to own an iPod Touch, not an iPhone) to Android, my mind was blown how much more you can do with it. And my iPod Touch was jailbroken. I will never ever go back.
Exactly. You don't even have to root your phone to have access to hundreds of customization options for Android. But having an unlocked boot loader is definitely a nice touch.
After my beloved Android phone broke, I had the misfortune of receiving a Windows phone as a gift from my girlfriend, who does not know about these things at all, and a to her "a phone is a phone". I look forward to the day I "accidentally" break this thing and get back my an Android phone.
There isn't really a single redeeming quality of a Windows phone over an Android phone. Many apps and functions that I love are simply nonexistent in the Windows phone, and basic apps that you would expect to be staples, are either bugged, broken, or they want you to pay for them.
LMAO! Let's hope she never reads this message. xD
I recently rooted my android when I discoved that a thing called DriveDroid exists. it basically lest you download OS images and use your phone as a live USB by mounting the image as a bootable usb. I can boot a OS OFF MY PHONE!
Android's awesome. Sure, it has a few flaws, but it beats iOS and WinPhone 8 by far. The only thing that I think is better on iOS is the fact that their touch-sensor latency is very low. And that's probably the last piece of hardware left that's better on iOS.
I still have yet to discover a way to swap my nokia lumia 900 over to an android system :(
The best way I've heard newer versions of Windows (in general, not just phones or OS's) is they are geared toward Content Consumption over Content Creation. Thumbs down in my book from my experiences.
Even that the content consumption the didn't really get right.
I can't imagine using any other phone but the Android. Android is the boss of all phones. The only thing I'll keep using from MS is windows on a laptop until Android/Chrome somehow manages to develop a universal OS that beats Windows(of all kinds) and developers run away from MS. I used to like MS a while back..but nowadays, I can't stand them. Ha.
Quote from: Magus on May 25, 2014, 02:02:46 pm
I can't imagine using any other phone but the Android. Android is the boss of all phones. The only thing I'll keep using from MS is windows on a laptop until Android/Chrome somehow manages to develop a universal OS that beats Windows(of all kinds) and developers run away from MS. I used to like MS a while back..but nowadays, I can't stand them. Ha.
Everyone loved WinXP. And maybe they did because it was just like Win98 (even if it was built over Win2k, I think?), but with some useless visual features. That everyone loves! <3.
IDK, I remember hating Win2k because it had less compatibility with some games that ran fine on Win95/98. Then came WinMillenium, which I loved for about 2 weeks.Anyway. Use Linux <3.
<---- Has been using Cinnamon on Linux Mint for several months now, with very few issues, and just a few hiccups that I solved pretty quick =p
EDIT: If anyone can steer me in the right direction, I actually am interested in transforming my Nokia Lumia 900 into an android phone, but a few searches in both Google and Bing both turned up nothing helpful...
Then you probably can't.
The issue with doing that DS, is Android would have to be built under your processor (if I'm correct), a custom kernel would need to be developed in order to boot Android instead of Windows Phone, then the hard part is if you even have access to your boot loader to flash said kernel. After that, you'd have to flash android to your system. So unless someone has already done this, you're probably out of luck.
I'm pretty sure someone has.
Quote from: Magus on May 26, 2014, 03:51:51 pm
I'm pretty sure someone has.
Then he would have found it on the first page of Google search results.
Unless he's using Bing (ZIIIIIING!). But really, it obviously hasn't been done yet.
Just browse around this board then. http://forum.xda-developers.com/lumia-900
It looks like you can unlock (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2204994) your phone and install a custom ROM. Seems like people have already built ROMs for the phone if you're looking for a bit more customization or something, but I don't think anyone's done an Android port.