Why I absolutely hate Windows Phone. (updated: im a n00b.)

[amdhunter]

It's trying too hard to be a social media device. I am not a heavy Facebook'er or Twitter'er or whatever'er, and simply installing these apps totally take over your phone.

I'm doing a hard reset now because I went to my Photos app and noticed that it's plagued with pictures that people have uploaded to Facebook. I don't care about your stupid children or your pathetic pictures of you trying to look cool because you are drunk.

All I want is a simple phone with the apps and information I need. Needless to say, I will not be installing any social media apps again. At least give me the choice if I want to see this stuff on my phone. Simply logging into an app shouldn't give you the right to push all this garbage onto me.

And yes...I did filter everything. It's still there.

Update: my n00biness made me hate more than I had to.
I linked everything to my phone, which I am not doing again.

 

[pantsaregood]

It has nothing to do with installing the apps. You linked your Facebook account to your phone. If you don't want them to show up, just don't link your Facebook. You can install the app and it won't ever affect your pictures.

 

[amdhunter]

It has nothing to do with installing the apps. You linked your Facebook account to your phone. If you don't want them to show up, just don't link your Facebook. You can install the app and it won't ever affect your pictures.

Yep, after the hard reset, I noticed that.

I still don't like how bad this phone makes you feel if you aren't big into social media. I'm setting it now as a strictly work phone. I have my Nexus 4 which seems to manage everything the way I want it for now.

 

[bearxor]

It's why I've kind of walked around WP for now. It seems like it's really geared towards social media integration. I just couldn't care less about it. Once you strip those out, it just doesn't have a lot of appealing features over Android and iOS, IMO.

 

[Crono]

I've been on Windows Phone before Windows Phone was Windows Phone (aka the Kin era). I never linked any of the social network accounts mainly because I don't use social networking except Google Plus.

The tight integration is actually a feature, one of the selling points of the OS. But you really don't get bothered by it if you never link your accounts.

 

[notposting]

I like the way it handles contacts, you can filter out the different kinds, but they are still "invisibly" there.

So my contact list only has my Windows Live contacts...but contacts who have Facebook/Twitter accounts are automatically linked. And the other contacts (G/FB/Tw) are all visible in a search or when composing email, etc.

 

[amdhunter]

Hahaha, I just spent a ton of time downloading notification sounds for my various contacts and so on, just to find out you can't change them.

Ugh, it's like the first days of iOS here.

 

[Crono]

Hahaha, I just spent a ton of time downloading notification sounds for my various contacts and so on, just to find out you can't change them.

Ugh, it's like the first days of iOS here.

It's a fairly locked down system. Most people don't seem to know that going in, thinking it's like Windows Mobile (which, ironically, Android is the spiritual successor to, not Windows Phone).

Heck, custom ringtones is a relatively new feature for WP.

 

[Geekbabe]

I do a lot in social media & the tight integration of those functions is one of the prime selling points of the win 8 phones to me

Just got a Win8 phone yesterday, I like some aspects of it but am so deeply invested in android that I'm not sure if this could ever be my only phone.

 

[bearxor]

Microsoft went about it the right way, Windows Mobile needed the boot from mobile devices.

One thing I would have done differently, I would have bought HTC. They were already THE name in WM hardware. I would have started making my own devices immediately and discontinued HTC's Android devices.

The other thing that needs to happen is that Windows Phone needs to iterate faster. Google is on a six-month schedule (or so) and Apple is on a year schedule. WP needed (and needs) to play catch up and Microsoft needs to be pushing out updates a lot faster, even of its for just a few minor features at a time, as opposed to saving it for a yearly release.

There's promise in WP, but it needs to get its ass in gear now. The beta test that was WP7/7.5 is over.

 

[blurredvision]

Heck, custom ringtones is a relatively new feature for WP.

No it's not, they just made it easier in WP8 compared to WP7/7.5.

 

[blurredvision]

The other thing that needs to happen is that Windows Phone needs to iterate faster. Google is on a six-month schedule (or so) and Apple is on a year schedule. WP needed (and needs) to play catch up and Microsoft needs to be pushing out updates a lot faster, even of its for just a few minor features at a time, as opposed to saving it for a yearly release.

WP7 launched, the NoDo update was within 4-5 months I think. WP7.5 was out a year after WP7, WP8 another year after that. I had a few small updates between WP7.5 and WP8. As for WP8, I just got the first update from Microsoft earlier this week that has a few tweaks (was rolled in with the Lumia update).

The updates are there, they're just not reported on like every single Android or iOS version number change.

 

[Crono]

No it's not, they just made it easier in WP8 compared to WP7/7.5.

They only added custom ringtone support with 7.5. Which is pretty late if you got Windows Phone 7 at launch. It may have been possible to add ringtones pre 7.5, but it certainly wasn't a supported feature.

 

[openwheel]

lol, just user error. A very simple user error.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

They only added custom ringtone support with 7.5. Which is pretty late if you got Windows Phone 7 at launch. It may have been possible to add ringtones pre 7.5, but it certainly wasn't a supported feature.

can you have customized notification (for texts, emails etc) tones now? it was not possible in 7.5, which bugged me.

 

[zerogear]

can you have customized notification (for texts, emails etc) tones now? it was not possible in 7.5, which bugged me.

It was possible in 7.5. In ID3 tag name genre as RINGTONE, and less than 1MB/39 sec.

 

[pantsaregood]

It was possible in 7.5. In ID3 tag name genre as RINGTONE, and less than 1MB/39 sec.

I had no idea of this. I love Windows Phone, had an HD7, Titan, and will soon have a Lumia 920, but...this is extremely unintuitive. It isn't nonsensical, but it is unintuitive.

 

[notposting]

It was possible in 7.5. In ID3 tag name genre as RINGTONE, and less than 1MB/39 sec.

Nope, ONLY for calls. But not for any other notifications. Inane.

 

[Nebor]

They really did screw up the ringtone situation. Releasing a phone without customizeable ringtones was a terrible move. I just upgraded my Samsung Focus to a Nokia 920 and I'm fairly impressed.

 

[midwestfisherman]

Update: my n00biness made me hate more than I had to.
I linked everything to my phone, which I am not doing again.

DOH!