Introduction to smartphones?

[RossMAN]

Tied on my roller skates to go to the gym this afternoon and on the porch was my 1st smartphone, shipped yesterday! I didn't expect it for days. No time to remove it from package, etc. I skated to the gym and did my workout. Hyper aware this time, I figured the vast majority there had smartphones. I only asked one guy who his carrier is, he said Verizon. Keeping score, that's Verizon 2, the others 0. Got a feeling I'm going to like taking the 520 to the gym for music. Won't unpack it and get started until tomorrow morning. Will download and print the manual.

Congratulations, here's what I would recommend based on my experience:

1) Charge it.

2) Swipe left, scroll down to settings, click Wi-Fi, enter your Wi-Fi credentials and password.

3) Go back to settings scroll down to phone update, click check for updates which requires an internet connection (hence step #2 above). My download, installation and restart took about 15 minutes while I was browsing other features of the phone. If I had left it alone perhaps it would have taken less time.

4) Swipe left, scroll down to Drive Here then Drive Maps ... download maps of California which are around 250MB in size.

5) Swipe left, scroll down to music & videos, click radio, plug in any headphones it's a real FM tuner which is awesome. Why is this so awesome? Because it doesn't require an internet connection. Of course you should test it out for yourself. Login to settings, turn off WiFi, unplug your wireless router, walk away from your house or all of the above if you really want to be certain. While you're walking away from your house, plug in your headphones, the FM radio should work without an internet connection. Maybe you can confirm this on your Nokia 520 but it appears you can pause live radio? Not sure how it's doing this, possibly buffering to the phones internal memory? I don't know but it's pretty awesome. Lately I've been taking our Nokia 521 to work and listen to the radio on the train ride into work. I just love that it doesn't require an internet connection which doesn't use valuable and expensive cell phone data.

Swipe left, scroll down to Store, click Apps and have fun.

Remember to activate your SIM or buy one ($0.99 with free shipping shipped from Winchester, CA), find a screen protector/case and of course a microSD (which also works in Garmin GPS as well).

I'm still amazed how capable this smartphone is even though ours is not activated yet. Despite this limitation, offline GPS, FM radio, games, music & videos, and web browsing all work just fine. Of course web browsing and some apps require an internet connection which is only WiFi for now. Now I just need to find the right T-Mobile or AT&T MVNO which is no easy feat when you factor in the 20+ choices, roll over minutes, roaming, text, SMS, throttled data, etc. This has actually inspired me to create a prepaid cell phone MVNO web site resource, it should launch by 2020.

Most importantly test the GPS, what do you think of the maps, the options, the directions, the voice(s)? Remember I own and have used a Nokia 520, Nokia 521 and Garmin 2595 LMT with HD Traffic. The Garmin is overall the most comprehensive GPS, however for infrequent use the Nokia 520 is more than sufficient to get from point A to point B. I almost forgot a really cool option. Turn off WiFi, click Here Drive, set destination such as a local restaurant, search for the restaurant at the top, you'll get an error message stating "Sorry, wen't reach the network. Please check the connection and try again." click search offline. Assuming your WiFi is turned off and this works, it's awesome because it doesn't require an internet connection. Let's say you're driving around, far away from home, you can search for restaurants, hotels, and gas stations without an internet connection. My only complaint is I wish it included a phone number but that's a minor gripe.

I can't wait to read your review!

 

[Muse]

Awesome, RossMAN, I just saw your post, woke up in middle of night, here I am with the unopened 520 package beside me. Boy, getting this out of the omega shaped plastic packaging is a challenge. I mean, without slicing up my left hand or something. I'll put aside the dull knife I was using and get something more appropriate. I've had to open some tough packages, but this is up there with the worst of them.

I'm going to follow your suggestions carefully. I have read through them once, really cool stuff!

Gotta check my data for my network password, I think I'll leave that for daylight, opening the package too.
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Edit: Got it out of the package. Slipped in the battery, have done nothing else.

Question: Should I put in the included SIM? It's packaging says "Use this SIM card only for new Gophone activations." Haven't started charging the battery yet.

Question2: The instructions say to insert and charge the battery, and when fully charged.... How do I know when the battery is fully charged? They don't say in the Quick Start Guide. Again, I haven't started charging yet.

I ordered and have received a microSDHC card, 8GB, that I bought for the Garmin Nuvi 2595. I'm going to put it in the 520, probably before even charging the battery. The Garmin remains in its unopened shipping package until I either decide to keep it or bring it to local Costco for refund.

End Edit.
- -

So, to find that restaurant using your suggested test of the offline maps capability, I guess the gist of it is that the downloaded data has info like where restaurants, gas stations etc. are in relation to the roads... including specific info so you can locate a specific item. Pretty neat!

The FM! Yeah! Pause radio? Really? This is working for you? Gonna check that out too. I've been saving reviews, the really good ones at Amazon. Here's a list of apps that are used/recommended by an Amazon buyer of the 520 who calls himself boltman (he notes that a couple of these cost him a couple bucks):
- -
My top Free apps for those who care:

4th and Mayor
Amazing Weather HD $1.99
App Folder
Battery performance
Bing Weather
Chronos Calendar $1.99
Evernote
Flixster
Gas Buddy
Here Drive Beta
Here Maps
Here transit
IMDb
INRIX traffic
MyAppFree
MyATT
Newspapers
Nokia Music
One Note
Pandora
PhotoBeamer
PODCASTS!
Quick Bandwidth Test
Shazam
Sochi 2014 Results
Stopwatch timer
Tune In Radio
Weave News Reader
WPCentral
YELP

*he continues*

All of these apps are awesome

I love the accuracy of the voice commands. I can call, text , look up movies, write notes without typing anything. It is MUCH more accurate than my wife's Android.

-snip-
- -
I've been fascinated with voice recognition for many years but have never had a chance to use it. Going to check it out on the 520 for sure!

Boltman's Amazon review of the 520 is dated Feb. 14, 2014 and is here: Nokia 520 Best "Bang for buck phone" hands down

 

[RossMAN]

Sorry for the short reply, I'm on my way to work.

I'm going to follow your suggestions carefully. I have read through them once, really cool stuff!

Make sure to follow my instructions, have you fully charged your phone yet??? I plugged mine in and played around with it while it was charging. After it was fully charged the WiFi, phone updates, offline GPS and radio were all ready to go.

Gotta check my data for my network password, I think I'll leave that for daylight, opening the package too.

Try going here http://192.168.1.1 your admin username and password might already be saved in your web browser, this is NOT your WiFi password BTW. If you need more assistance you may want to post a new thread here make sure to include the manufacturer and model # of your wireless router, for example Linksys WRT54G. If you have the original box or the model # may be printed on the bottom or back of the wireless router.

Question2: The instructions say to insert and charge the battery, and when fully charged.... How do I know when the battery is fully charged? They don't say in the Quick Start Guide. Again, I haven't started charging yet.

While it's plugged in, turn it on the power button is at the middle right. Swipe up, swipe left, click settings there is an option to check battery status. There may be an easier way to check battery status.

So, to find that restaurant using your suggested test of the offline maps capability, I guess the gist of it is that the downloaded data has info like where restaurants, gas stations etc. are in relation to the roads... including specific info so you can locate a specific item. Pretty neat!

The obvious benefit is you can search for POI's (points of interest) for FREE without using internet access. Of course you'll need the maps. For example if you're looking for a hotel in Boise, Idaho you will first need internet access to download maps of Idaho so you can use your offline GPS.

 

[Muse]

Question2: The instructions say to insert and charge the battery, and when fully charged.... How do I know when the battery is fully charged? They don't say in the Quick Start Guide. Again, I haven't started charging yet.

While it's plugged in, turn it on the power button is at the middle right. Swipe up, swipe left, click settings there is an option to check battery status. There may be an easier way to check battery status.

I'm going to plug in the charger right now and connect it to the 520. My other Li-ion devices have an indicator of some kind to show the battery's achieved full charge. This evidently does not, except if you turn on and go into the menus? Well, OK, maybe (I assume) it's designed to stop charging at a certain point, obviously all li-ion charging systems have to have that, but it would be nice to let you know when it's fully charged so you can remove the charger. I'll poke around, download the manual, check out online resources for getting started, etc.

Um, the SIM? Should I install that? I hear you get messages saying a SIM is not installed if you don't. I'm not going to activate it, I just figure putting it in will prevent those messages, right?

Try going here http://192.168.1.1 your admin username and password might already be saved in your web browser, this is NOT your WiFi password BTW. If you need more assistance you may want to post a new thread here make sure to include the manufacturer and model # of your wireless router, for example Linksys WRT54G. If you have the original box or the model # may be printed on the bottom or back of the wireless router.

You're talking about my router admin name and password? I think I have that saved in my data on my server. I can look that up. I have a version of Tomato installed on my router.

 

[Muse]

Well, plugged in to charge battery, after inserting the supplied Gophone SIM (you didn't reply to my first question, should I do that?), it wanted me immediately to do the Getting started thing. First was choosing English USA, OK. Then some things (this was NOT your instructions, but I played along, seemed innocent enough), accept Windows Phone licensing agreement,... now it wants me to "SET UP YOUR PHONE." It recommends enable cellular data, automatically download updates, send phone usage feedback, wifi connection data... etc. Or, I can click Custom and choose which of these I want:

[checked] Allow cellular data usage on your phone

[checked] Send phone usage feedback to help improve Microsoft and partner products and services

[checked] Send keyboard touch information to improve text suggestions and more

[checked] Send Wi-Fi connection information to help discover nearby Wi-Fi

[checked] Automatically download Windows Phone updates

I'm thinking I better not choose any of this stuff and see if I can do as you said, but right now if I "swipe left" I don't get your menus to enable wifi, download maps, etc.

Right now, if I turn it off and then on it goes back to the screen where it wants me to choose the recommended settings, or custom settings (and choose which of those to enable/disable), or just emergency usage. I don't see how I can do those other things, e.g. set up wifi, etc.

The battery (according to the little icon at top right) was already about 1/2 charged. Not surprising, the UPC tag said 012914, so I gather it left the factory about January 29, 2014. They are evidently selling a lot of these. Mine was marked shipped 5 days after I ordered it from Amazon and reached me next day via Ontrac. According to the icon, it's almost fully charged. But I'll wait for more info before I try to do anything because I'm stuck on that choose options screen, I see no way to cancel the process or go back from the screen.

 

[Muse]

advanced

Notify me when new networks are found

Automatically connect to wifi hot spots

Send information about wifi connections to help discover nearby wifi

Keep wifi on when the screen times out
- - - -
Do I want those to be checked? By default they are checked.

Right now the screen times out and goes blank. I need a primer...
- - - -
WP is updating right now off my wifi...

There are two settings there that are checked. Do I want them checked? They are:


Tell me when updates are available for my phone

Automatically download updates if my data settings allow it
- -

It seems to be working like Windows Update... installing one update at a time with a separate % status for each one. It's over 20 minutes now.

 

[Muse]

4) Swipe left, scroll down to Drive Here then Drive Maps ... download maps of California which are around 250MB in size.

I don't see a "Drive Here"

There is:

HERE Drive Beta

HERE Maps


When I choose HERE Maps, I don't see a way to download any maps or find California Maps
- - - -
Edit: Clicking the car icon in the tiles I was brought to HERE Drive Beta, just went with that and am downloading CA maps. I think the download process might be faster when I get closer to my router, downstairs the connection is Good to Very Good, upstairs it's Excellent.
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When the screen blanks the only way I know to bring it back is to press the power button. Is this the only way?

 

[Muse]

Your pause on the FM for the Nokia Lumia is not pausing, it's only muting, at least for me. I haven't found the volume control yet... not very intuitive there...

Well, the Star icon +/- controls that but I only seem to have two settings (high/low), surely it is more granular than that!

 

[notposting]

Now I just need to find the right T-Mobile or AT&T MVNO which is no easy feat when you factor in the 20+ choices, roll over minutes, roaming, text, SMS, throttled data, etc. This has actually inspired me to create a prepaid cell phone MVNO web site resource, it should launch by 2020.

GottaCell? :whiste:

Should be getting my 520 today. Will play with it, going to see if I can a have a friend who is a current ATT customer SIM-unlock it for me.

 

[notposting]

Got mine today. Sounds like you're moving through some of this stuff anyway, but:

No SIM inserted. When going through setup, when you get to the MS account part it pretty much requires connectivity. So skip at that point. At the Setup Your Phone part, uncheck the cellular data part (that might have been first).

It goes through, installs apps and finally you are at the Start screen. First thing to do is go to Settings and get the wifi working. Second thing I did was uninstall the ATT bloatware. Right now mine is updating, but I plowed through settings and put things roughly to what I like, started setting up my Start screen (even without an account). Thankfully I already use WP8 so this is mostly just getting things to match.

Will probably toss an old 16 GB memory card into it for music storage.

edit: going to try a few pic comparisons with my 928 and our P&S, maybe this next weekend. See what we have in the bargain basement camera category.

I'll try to put up some app recommendations as well. Need to see if there are any promos -- I think I have collectively gotten about $45 in credits to use for apps, etc.

 

[Muse]

What AT&T apps are bloatware?

I don't know if mine is setup OK now, probably not. I could uncheck some stuff. I figured cellular data might include wifi, but maybe not. Is it harmful to leave that checked if I'm not activated? Is it harmful to leave the Gophone SIM in there?

I'm trying to get some chops. Should probably watch some videos, but I'm right now printing out the manual. It's 115 pages and I'm duplexing it on my non-duplexing printer, manual feeding each sheet. I'm printing it in booklet form, 2 pages on each side, 4 total pages per 8.5 x 11" sheet. Doing it 4 pages/side is ridiculous the print is so small and it doesn't print sharp, something to do with the PDF file, I suppose. But even if it were sharp it would be hell of small. 2 pages/side is pretty decent. I've printed one copy, stapled it together and am 1/2 way through a second copy. Going to print one more so I have one for the car, one upstairs and one downstairs. :awe: Printing the first copy was kind of confusing, but I've got a system now...

 

[notposting]

Are you eligible for the senior coffee's at McDonald's? I keep thinking you sound like my father-in-law...he has just enough knowledge of electronics to be dangerous.

As for AT&T, in general if it is AT&T that is good enough for me to axe it. I don't really have any intention of running it as a cell, and if I do it won't be with the death star themselves. Cellular data is distinctly *NOT* wifi (I just realized AT&T removes Data Sense, so you can't track cell vs wifi usage arghhh).

I also did not taint happy fun Nokia with the SIM-from-hell. As you can tell, I love them.

quick app suggestions:

sysapp pusher - this helps when you need to update something that might be stuck in the settings menu, something "hidden" in the Store, etc.

you can update Here Drive out of beta, update Here Maps and download your regional flavor like RossMAN suggested.

Nokia Camera - this will toggle between regular camera mode (offering you the ability to control white balance, ISO, exposure, shutter speed, and manual focus if you desire), the smart sequence cam (does a burst and then allows options like best shot, choose faces, remove moving objects, etc), and video mode. After you confirm it works, you can safely delete Smart Shoot.

Couple tips with the photo apps (though with the camera on this thing, not sure how much it will matter): you can reframe (crop) without it destructively changing the original. If you are in photos browsing through camera roll, open the pic in Nokia Camera and then reframe it (middle icon, hit the ... to get labels on menu icons). You can rotate, "zoom", or change the format.

To edit the photos but keep them in the camera roll, versus Saved pics, when you open a picture, bring up the menu. Do not select "Edit" however, scroll to the bottom of the menu, and hit "Apps". You can then use something like Creative Studio to remove red eye, tweak brightness, crop if you want, and it will save that copy right back in the camera roll. I personally much prefer this, then again I take a ton of pics with my 928.

call & sms filter - as it says, works beautifully and simply, will integrate into the settings menu.

Looks like most of the settings apps need to be updated, open them in sysapp pusher to check (so, audio, display, extras & info, storage check, Nokia account, feedback to Nokia, etc). Heck pretty much everything installed need to be updated it looks like.

I installed the Authenticator app. You can use this sort of thing for 2-factor authentication instead of depending on a text message. I use the app for my MS account, Google, Facebook, and Dropbox. If you have multiple devices that can be set up with this app, set them all up at the same time. You may want to look into the 2-factor stuff before jumping into it.

I installed PDF Reader, I think I have the Adobe one on my 928 so I will see how this one performs (this is the MS version).

Enough apps for now, one thing, this is a good opportunity to put important contacts into an online service or two (ie MS and Google). On my 928 I have my MS (primary account), Google (backup), Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo accounts all active. However, in the contact list, I filter it so only the primary MS contacts are showing (this way it isn't littered with Detroit Tigers parody Twitter accounts, for example). However, if you search your contacts, it will in fact sort through all of them. You can also link contacts, ie your buddy Bob who you have listed as a contact in your MS account, he's on Facebook and Twitter and LinkedIn you can link all of them into one contact.

A lot of this is actually kind of Smartphone 101 varying only in the platform specific apps and interface of course. If you try an Android or iPhone a year or two from now, it won't be that drastic of a leap as going from a flip phone is.

And I'm spent. For now. :biggrin:

 

[Belegost]

I don't see a "Drive Here"

There is:

HERE Drive Beta

HERE Maps


When I choose HERE Maps, I don't see a way to download any maps or find California Maps
- - - -
Edit: Clicking the car icon in the tiles I was brought to HERE Drive Beta, just went with that and am downloading CA maps. I think the download process might be faster when I get closer to my router, downstairs the connection is Good to Very Good, upstairs it's Excellent.
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When the screen blanks the only way I know to bring it back is to press the power button. Is this the only way?

I don't have a 520 available to see if the feature is enabled on that handset, so this may not work for you.

If you go into Settings under Touch you may have an option "Double tap to wake up phone". If you do, and you turn that on, then simply tapping the screen twice quickly will wake it up.

A few other apps to look into:

Connectivity Shortcuts - allows you to pin tiles that go straight to WiFi, Bluetooth, Cellular and GPS settings. Useful for quickly turning them on and off, especially when using a data-limited cell plan.

Fotor - really nice free photo editing app, all the basic cropping, rotating, hue/sat/bright adjustments, noise reduction, a pile of instagram-type filters, borders, blur effects, collage templates, auto-enhance "HDR". etc...

Battery Widget - the best battery monitor I've used so far, and the added bonus that the app creator is a member on these forums.

Weave - just doubling up on that recommendation, great newsreader app.

Awesome Lock ($1.49) - Allows you to customize the lock screen, can put the weather on, an RSS news feed, calendar events, stocks, and twitter updates. Can set the lock screen image to different options, I use a set of pictures that it cycles through.

 

[notposting]

It does have double tap to wake. It doesn't have Glance but oh well.

Quick comparison of a dirt cheap off contract Nokia to my 928:

Main camera is night and day, as expected. Superior lens, superior sensor, optical stabilization, xenon flash vs no flash. No front facing camera on 520 of course.

Bigger battery on 928, though more demanding internals and screen. User replaceable on 520 though.

Smaller internal memory on 520, but memory card slot available. WP8.1 is expected to allow full usage of memory cards for app installs.

Capacitive buttons aren't backlit on 520, ambient light sensor seems to keep things a bit dimmer. No Glance screen, don't know if that will ever come via software update.

Screen is a bit dimmer and less vibrant in the 520 compared to the full HD and AMOLED of the 928.

Haven't tried out the audio capabilities yet. Snappy performance overall, slightly slower dual core (1.2 vs 1.5 GHz) and half the ram (512 MB vs 1 GB) but so far no problems. Synced up to my account with no problem, was nice to see all of my text messages show up automagically.

 

[Muse]

I have a lot to digest. Thanks for all the info, I'll be coming back to it alot. A quick question.

I went into the Settings to see if I can set up the double tap to waken, didn't see that yet (it may be there), but Find My Phone caught my eye, I tapped it and it said I needed a Microsoft Account for the phone to do that, so I just set that up, including putting in my birthdate ( ). I turned on Find My Phone, seems like a reasonable thing to have enabled, but there's a nother option on that screen and I have zero idea whether to enable it or not. It defaults, like Find My Phone, to disabled:

Send apps to my phone using push nofifications (not SMS)

I'm not as technically weak as I may appear, I'm just utterly inexperienced in smartphone usage. So, yes, pretty stupid about a lot of stuff, but I'm persistent, have built all my PC's, except the first one, which I bought 20+ years ago used from an EE who built it.

 

[Muse]

It does have double tap to wake. It doesn't have Glance but oh well.

-snip-

Poking around in settings I'm not finding the double tap to awake option.
- - -
Edit: Googling I see there's an update of some kind that added Touch in the Settings. I don't have Touch, so I suppose I need to do some kind of update to get that. They talk about "Lumia Black." I'm not seeing anything in the menu or tile screen about updates. I see phone update, but I did the updates yesterday. I also have automatic downloads enabled. The phone reports that all updates have been done.

- - - - - -
Edit: In printing out the 115 page PDF manual, the very first thing they do is display this:
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Psst...

This guide isn't all there is..

There's a user guide in your phone - it's always with you, available when needed. On the start screen, swipe left, and tap i Nokia Care.

- -
It's not there!

 

[notposting]

I did see Nokia Care before I deleted it. I had updated yesterday but running sysapp pusher revealed nearly every system app needed to be updated. Also, there was one straggler of an update today when I doublechecked phone update after enabling the dev preview program.

Anyway, here is the link for touch: http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/store/app/touch/bbc57c87-46af-4c2c-824e-ac8104cceb38

Sysapp pusher (updated today, includes links to touch and Bing apps): http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/store/app/sysapp-pusher/19d44d9e-f18e-4df1-9bce-36335242ed2e

 

[Muse]

I did see Nokia Care before I deleted it. I had updated yesterday but running sysapp pusher revealed nearly every system app needed to be updated. Also, there was one straggler of an update today when I doublechecked phone update after enabling the dev preview program.

Anyway, here is the link for touch: http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/store/app/touch/bbc57c87-46af-4c2c-824e-ac8104cceb38

Sysapp pusher (updated today, includes links to touch and Bing apps): http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/store/app/sysapp-pusher/19d44d9e-f18e-4df1-9bce-36335242ed2e

What's Sysapp pusher?

When I check out Touch in your link and sign in I get this:

This app is not available for your phone.

I think you have the 928, that explains why you have Touch. It's not available for my phone... yet. I think it's going to be, it's awaiting approval, but I may be wrong. I'm completely new to this game. I hope I can get it because I'm getting tired of having to hit the power button every minute or so to wake the thing up.

I brought my 520 to the gym today... it's just what I needed in there. My Sansa M250 has only 2GB, uses AAA batteries (I always bring a couple of extras in case I need to swap out). If a battery dies the player loses its place in my MP3, and I typically bring MP3s that are 2.5-3 hours long. The FF/REW functionality would be a joke if it didn't make me want to kill whoever developed it.

The Sansa M250 MP3 player has a nasty habit. If I so much as tapped it (it sat in my shorts pocket), there would often be a momentary discontinuity in current flow from the battery and the player would shut off. It wouldn't remember where it was and when turning it back on would start from the position in the MP3 when it was last properly shut down. IOW, it was a PITA. The 520 should have none of these shortcomings. It sounds great! I haven't tried to figure out FF/REW capabilities or other convenience features but figure they are there or can be found in an app.

Speaking of apps, I'm seeing dozens and dozens in the Store, mostly free. I downloaded a few of the ones recommended by Boltman (in my previous post here, his favorite free apps). I've just started fiddling with this thing, I'm a Stranger in a Strange Land.

 

[Muse]

I found Touch! Sysapp pusher (I installed that) had access to it, this in spite of it saying at Windowsphone.com that it wasn't available for my 520. After enabling double tap to awaken it said that it reduces battery life. That's no surprise. I wonder how much.

What is cool is you can just hit the power button to get to the former state, which I guess is a kind of suspend. In that state, the double tap does nothing. So, if you know you're not going to use it for a while that's what you can do. Also, it would prevent accidental things from happening. You know, like enough monkeys writing the King James Bible.

My screen protectors should arrive any day. That will be nice, to have an oleophobic layer, 'cause the glass screen really shows fingerprints.

In case anyone didn't know, I have heard that the screen on the 520 will break pretty easily... i.e. if you drop it or accidentally strike it against a hard surface.

BTW, I asked another guy in the gym today what carrier he's on and he said Verizon. The current score is Verizon 3, other carriers 0. This seems to be a Verizon kind of town. T-Mobile, AT&T and Sprint coverage is notoriously bad, but Verizon's is pretty darn good, has been my experience. Of course, that's not an option with my 520.

 

[RossMAN]

I found Touch!

How/where is Touch? It may be different on my phone since I'm using a Nokia 521, the 520 is still in the box.

So have you tried using this as a GPS on an actual car route? How was the navigation and the voice? Loud enough?

What's the status on the SIM? Has it been activated with Airvoice yet?

More details!

 

[Muse]

How/where is Touch? It may be different on my phone since I'm using a Nokia 521, the 520 is still in the box.

So have you tried using this as a GPS on an actual car route? How was the navigation and the voice? Loud enough?

What's the status on the SIM? Has it been activated with Airvoice yet?

More details!

I got Touch by running sysapp pusher.

Haven't tried the GPS yet, hopefully within a few days. Got HERE Drive Beta and HERE Maps (CA). Plenty to sort through, I haven't even looked at them. But my first concern is just to see if I can understand instructions while driving.

I installed the SIM before firing it up the first time. No activation. I don't know if I will activate. Maybe with Airvoice on cheap cancellable plan just to see what kind of coverage I get, but may not bother. I hear that AT&T sucks around here. Is there a downside to leaving that AT&T Gophone SIM in there?

I downloaded/installed most of those free apps recommended by Boltman in previous post in this thread. I'm thinking now, though, that a lot of them won't do much for me without a data connection. Not sure...

I love the screen. That Touch app is very nice! Having to hit the power button every minute was bugging me. If they don't have it for the 521 yet, they probably will very soon I figure.

As reported in my last post, I love it for headphone music in the gym. It's infinitely better than the player I was using. Hopefully, I'll be able to FF/REW in a somewhat customizable way.

 

[RossMAN]

Haven't tried the GPS yet, hopefully within a few days. Got HERE Drive Beta and HERE Maps (CA). Plenty to sort through, I haven't even looked at them. But my first concern is just to see if I can understand instructions while driving.

When you do test the GPS in the car, remember to select set destination, then enter a name or physical address. I love being able to enter a name and search for POI's OFFLINE which saves $$$$ on cell phone data.

Have you downloaded any other Windows apps from the Store, any that you can recommend?

 

[Muse]

When you do test the GPS in the car, remember to select set destination, then enter a name or physical address. I love being able to enter a name and search for POI's OFFLINE which saves $$$$ on cell phone data.

Have you downloaded any other Windows apps from the Store, any that you can recommend?

I downloaded most of the ones recommended by Boltman in my previous post here (I installed the ones with a <---):

- - -
4th and Mayor <---
Amazing Weather HD $1.99 <---
App Folder <---
Battery performance
Bing Weather <---
Chronos Calendar $1.99
Evernote <---
Flixster <---
Gas Buddy <---
Here Drive Beta <---
Here Maps <---
Here transit <---
IMDb <---
INRIX traffic <---
MyAppFree <---
MyATT
Newspapers <--- (there's two, don't know which to get)
Nokia Music
One Note <---
Pandora <---
PhotoBeamer <---
PODCASTS! <---
Quick Bandwidth Test
Shazam
Sochi 2014 Results
Stopwatch timer <--- (I installed 2 different ones, this and Stopwatch)
Tune In Radio
Weave News Reader <---
WPCentral
YELP
- - -

I haven't checked them out at all except for Amazing Weather HD, which is pretty neat I must say. I think I'll pony up the $1.99 for it (I'm on 72 hour trial). It scrolls out to ~10 days, Weather by The Weather Channel just shows 2-3 days. I don't suppose it will do me any good if I'm not data connected or on wifi, but even around the house it would be neat.

I was up til midnight last night, way past my usual turn in time, installing apps.

I don't seem to have Nokia Music, can't find it at the Store. What am I missing? I have seen a lot of posts from people who love this.

 

[crashtestdummy]

I downloaded most of the ones recommended by Boltman in my previous post here (I installed the ones with a <---):

- - -
4th and Mayor <---
Amazing Weather HD $1.99 <---
App Folder <---
Battery performance
Bing Weather <---
Chronos Calendar $1.99
Evernote <---
Flixster <---
Gas Buddy <---
Here Drive Beta <---
Here Maps <---
Here transit <---
IMDb <---
INRIX traffic <---
MyAppFree <---
MyATT
Newspapers <--- (there's two, don't know which to get)
Nokia Music <---
One Note <---
Pandora <---
PhotoBeamer <---
PODCASTS! <---
Quick Bandwidth Test
Shazam
Sochi 2014 Results
Stopwatch timer <--- (I installed 2 different ones, this and Stopwatch)
Tune In Radio
Weave News Reader <---
WPCentral
YELP
- - -

I haven't checked them out at all except for Amazing Weather HD, which is pretty neat I must say. I think I'll pony up the $1.99 for it (I'm on 72 hour trial). It scrolls out to ~10 days, Weather by The Weather Channel just shows 2-3 days. I don't suppose it will do me any good if I'm not data connected or on wifi, but even around the house it would be neat.

I was up til midnight last night, way past my usual turn in time, installing apps.

A couple others I like:

Office Remote: Name is self evident, but comes with some extra perks, like a presentation timer, a "laser pointer" (red dot you can move around on the slide) and a slide viewer that allows you to change slides by viewing thumbnails of them on your phone. Connects by bluetooth.

PC Remote: Remote touchpad/keyboard/media control software. Works either by network IP or (for the paid version) through a web server. Really nice little program. Great if you use your computer as your primary media device.

Baconit/Readit: Two excellent Reddit apps. I prefer Readit, but try both and see which is for you.

MetroTube: Excellent YouTube app. Runs much better than any native implementation on WP8. MyTube is also popular.

Tapatalk: Buggy as hell, but really the only decent way to view the AT Forums from your phone.

 

[notposting]

RossMAN, go to Store, look up sysapp pusher. Once it is installed, you can filter out Samsung and HTC apps in settings, then go to the Nokia portion and find it under system (hit the first header, beta, and it will bring up a heading jump list).

Couple more tips Muse: the search button, the voice recognition is pretty good. Hit the music icon at the bottom and it will listen and identify music (pretty good too, I picked something out at a sports bar last week ). Hit the eye and vision search comes up, will id barcodes and what they are from, hit the scan text when pointing at text, and it will highlight words it recognizes.

If you hold the Windows button, it will bring up voice recognition. Long press the back button to bring up the multitasking view.

Handyscan is a nice little scanning app, apparently WP8.1 will bring direct scanning into the Office apps. When you get enough apps you will see the alphabetical letters appear, tap them and you get a grid, tap whatever letter you want and it will go right there.