The Glade 4.0

I recently acquired a new HTC Windows Phone 8X on a second line that i'm carrying as a second device.

I'm intrigued by some of the Windows and Xbox integration stuff that is going on with it, although I've experienced neither in depth. Hopefully I won't be disappointed.

I'm not in love with the UI, mainly because of lack of customization options, but it's easy to use and functional, which are the most important things.

I'm trying to mirror my Android usage. I hadn't realized how good my Android phone is at some day to day things, and how much I take them for granted, until I tried using this phone in it's place.

Some of the things I use my android handset for that I'm struggling to replicate on the 8X....

UI customization
This is really lacking on this device. I love the ability on my Gnex to customize the look and feel. And the ability to change it up when I feel like it. The 8x lets me chance the over all color palette, and rearrange and resize the homescreen tiles, but beyond that, there really isn't much.

Are there any good UI customization tools available for this?

Maps
The native WP8 maps app is very lacking. On Android, I've been using the google maps traffic layer and nav to find the shortest/fastest path through the gridlock that is Metro Seattle traffic for several years. I've really not found anything that combines navigation and traffic as well as Google Maps does. Unfortunately, this app doesn't seem to be available on the Windows Phone market.

I did find an app called gMaps Pro (.99 cents) on the WP Market that has some promise, but I haven't really had a chance to try it out in practical use.

Any good map/nav/traffic app recommendations?

Music
I've pretty much fully converted to Google Music for my mobile music/audio needs. I have about 30G of music imported now. I've also made a few purchases using the Google Play music store.

I played around the the Xbox Music app on my 360, and didn't care much for it. I haven't explored it on the phone yet, as it doesn't seem to have the ability to play from my Google Music storage. I also have a lot of my music in my Amazon Cloud storage, although I never really use it.

I'd really like to have the ability to have all of my music and media in the cloud somewhere, and be able to access it from any Internet connected device, regardless of the platform. Google Play will work from the browser for now, but it's a bit awkward on the phone.

I did find an app on the WP8 Market called Gooroovster that can play my google music, but the UI is awkward and klunky.

I uploaded a few albums to SkyDrive (Microsoft cloud storage) site, and played them using the SkyMusic app. I'm just not thrilled with the idea of maintaining two disparate cloud based music databases. Until I find something more suitable, i'm leaning towards staying with Google Music ( because it's free ), and just using the browser to play music on devices that don't have native apps.

Cloud Storage
I've become really infatuated with DropBox, and have it on all of my portable devices and PC's. I love the integration stuff they do (automatically uploading photos from the camera, integrating into Windows Explorer, etc...). I'm still only using the Free version, but am just about to the point where I'm willing to commit to expanding to their paid service to allow for more space. I've read that they are developing more functionality for it. If they were to add a music player app, and a WP 8 Native app, it would solve a lot of my problems :p~

Sadly, there is no native DropBox app for WP8. I'm hoping this will change. I'm still searching (when I have time) for a 3rd party app with DropBox support.

Messaging/Email
Not really much to say here. I think the WP8 device does a nice job of this. I've got it syncing my work email, google/gmail, and several POP accounts with no problems. I don't do much texting, and find the native messaging apps are fine.

Other/Misc
There are several other miscellaneous things that I use my Android phone for. I wake up every morning to my phones alarm. I've completely replaced my old traditional alarm clock with my phone sitting in a dock/cradle. There are a lot of great apps on the android market, but the alarms built into Jelly Bean are more than adequate for my needs. Sadly, the WP8 native alarm clock is rather feeble in comparison. They work, but lack some of customization options I like in Jelly Bean. I haven't checked the WP Market for 3rd party alarm apps yet.

I now there aren't many using WP8 devices. Maybe only Lenas here? Shelgeyr?

Anyway, i'd be interested in any suggestions or thoughts on this.

UI Related:
- WizTiles lets you create your own tiles. Lots of customization options, I use them to label groups of apps. Other apps that do the same things include Groupy, Custom Tiles Maker

Cloud Storage:
- I am a SkyDrive user. It probably isn't as good, cross-platform, as DropBox but it gets the job done for me.

Music:
- Microsoft fanboy alert. I actually have used the Zune service for years so I had no problem transitioning to XBM. Streaming or downloading anything to the phone is pretty sweet.

Maps:
Unfortunately I can't recommend anything. I use Nokia Drive for my navigating needs and unfortunately it's only on Nokia handsets.

Misc Apps I use:
- Live Tile Countdown, makes tiles with deadline countdowns to whatever date you like. Good for holidays, birthdays, anniversaries.
- Voice Translator, great voice translation app from Microsoft. Works well.
- Save As, lets you rename files on your phone so when you sync you don't get WP_000024_00x.jpg
- Connectivity Shortcuts, lets you pin wifi/bluetooth/airplane setting screens as tiles for quick changes
- Battery Level for WP8, lets you make a tile with a battery indicator, and can also display battery on lock screen

UI customization
Dunno - I enjoy the native UI, so I've never tried to customize it.

Maps
I use Nokia Drive, also. Sorry, can't help ya.

Music
I've got Win8 on my home PC and once I showed XBox Music where all my MP3s are, it made most of them available to me through their cloud service.
I can now stream roughly 75% of my music collection to any Win8 device I own, for free.
Perhaps not quite as good as the way Google Music handles your music collection, because my music is only streamable from the cloud if it was already there - and some of my tracks aren't in the XBM cloud, but it's still a pretty nice feature.

Cloud Storage
I use Skydrive, and have 28GB of free storage there.

Alarm clock
I don't use my phone as an alarm clock, so I can't speak to this.

Honestly, I don't do a whole lot with my WP.
I've got my Facebook, Google, and work calendars all in one.
I text/FB chat through the messaging app. Love how it handles that.
I use Nokia Drive and Nokia Music (I'm still on a WP 7.5, so I don't have XBM on my phone) but neither very frequently.
My single favorite app would probably be SoundHound, for those "omg, what song is that?" moments.
Primarily, I treat my phone as my "need to look something up on the internet right now" device.


Thing is, and this has been said before, which smartphone you use sort of comes down to either:

• One or more specific apps you must have, that can only be had on one platform
• Which cloud service you're most tied to

If you're already pretty much tied to the Google cloud, and have no pressing need to switch, I honestly wouldn't recommend doing so.
I didn't already have an iPhone or Android when I got my Windows Phone, so I wasn't tied to anybody's cloud yet.
Now I'm kinda tied to the Microsoft cloud and can't easily imagine what it might take to convince me to switch.

_________________
Go back to zero, take a pill, and get well ~ Lemmy Kilmister

This doesn't directly adddress your issues but I found this list had some good apps to pick up.

http://tech.uk.msn.com/microsoft/window ... hone-eight

_________________
The Dude abides.

Thanks guys..

I'm a tad confused about. the Xbox Music/Xbox Music pass...

I'm not really interested in a streaming music subscription (ala Pandora/Spotify). I do have Pandora, but rarely use it.

What I need is a music system that allows me to store my music in the cloud, and play it back on multiple platforms.

Does Xbox Music do this? If so, does it require a subscription?

If I'm correctly understanding how XBM works, by having a Microsoft account, you already *have* a subscription - at the free (non-premium) tier.

And so far as I can tell, XBM doesn't let you store your music in the cloud. It has lots of music already *in* the cloud, and where your music collection and theirs intersect - you can stream those tracks to any Win8/WP8 device.

For example, Manners & Physique is in the XBM cloud, but Soundtrack for Depression isn't, so I can listen to the first from my tablet without having to transfer the MP3s over, but I cannot do that with the second. All I needed to do was open the Win8 music app on my home PC and show it where my MP3 collection is. It pretty much did the rest.

_________________
Go back to zero, take a pill, and get well ~ Lemmy Kilmister

Hmmm..

I have about 30G of music stored on one PC (Windows 7) that I used as my master when syncing to Google Music.

last night I connected the 8X to this PC, and told it to sync music. It tried to copy all 30G directly to the phone, and mostly failed...

I must be missing something... I'll dig around some more and see if I can figure it out...

Thanks

XBM basically just saves a list of your music to the cloud. When you open the app and it shows your history, you can play anything and it'll stream from the XBM servers. Alternatively, you have the option to download music directly to your device, so if it's something you listen to often, you don't need to keep using data for it.

The "free" XBM is bullcrap, really. I think it gives you 30 second preview clips. The paid pass works wonderfully though.

I'm having a rough time adapting to this phone OS. There are a couple things I'm looking for and still haven't found/figured out how to do:

1) A file manager to manage what's on phone storage.
2) Save an mp3 on SkyDrive directly to the phone. No matter what avenue I take to do it, every "download" function opens the file directly rather than saving it to storage.
3) An app that turns off/on sound based on the time of day.

Any advice on these? I'm trying hard to like this OS, but I just feel restricted. For the couple things WP8 can do quicker, it seems to make more than that harder to do.

_________________
The Dude abides.

Re: SkyDrive, I think there is an option to "move", but it doesn't seem to want to download a copy.

I tried the free version of "SkyManager" but as far as I can tell, it pretty much does the same thing the official SkyDrive app does.

Midgen - does this address one of your earlier concerns?

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthr ... ?t=2069743

_________________
The Dude abides.

The thing is, in order for XBM to properly identify your MP3 collection and make a list of what you can stream from the cloud, you need to open your music collection *with* XBM - which is only available on the Win8 and WP8 platforms. Your Win7 computer can't have that app and that's going to make it tough for you to get your music "clouded".

_________________
Go back to zero, take a pill, and get well ~ Lemmy Kilmister

Well, that certainly splains it...

Thanks Shel.

Well, I have a Win 8 Enterprise install on an old laptop that I'm using to play with this. I was able to download and install the Google Music Manager, and am currently in the process of downloading my entire google music catalog.

Once it is done, I'll turn on XBox Music and see that happens...

As for the other apps (GroovRooster, CloudMusik), none of them work well. They do strange things like start a song halfway through, and are slow to respond to inputs. I suspect the problem is not the apps themselves, but restrictions Google puts on it's API for Microsoft (but not Android or Apple).

http://www.zdnet.com/is-google-trying-t ... 000009325/

You can also use Xbox Music on your 360 and anything that you play through there will show up under your "Recent" list on your phone.

Midgen,

It's not on WP8 (yet), but you can now get DropBox for Windows 8:
http://www.wpcentral.com/dropbox-app-no ... -windows-8

_________________
The Dude abides.

Oh sweet!.. Hopefully WP8 isn't far behind. That will make a huge difference for me...

I did manage to get my google music into the Xbox Music cloud by first downloading into a local music library on a Windows 8 desktop, then allowing Xbox Music to read it all in.

I haven't had a chance to go through it all to see what's there, but at least I got that far...

It seems like an oversight to me that they aren't allowing XBox music on Windows 7. I know they want people to upgrade, but most desktop users have no real incentive, and if they want a lot of penetration with Xbox music, they need to expand it beyond the Windows 8 platforms...

If you're on Windows 7, use the Zune desktop client. It's just rebranded on Windows/WP 8.

http://support.xbox.com/en-US/zune/software/download

And it syncs with the Xbox Music cloud?

Sheesh...

They're the exact same service. Microsoft is just trying to phase out the "Zune" brand because it was a failure and they wanted a fresh start. There's nothing new about Xbox Music other than the name and it being built into Windows 8. It's the same exact Zune service other people have been using for years.

Google Maps returns to Windows Phones: http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/09/goog ... -hands-on/

It's just a browser link, and it's functionality is limited, at least on my HTC 8X. But it's a start.

I wish Google and MS would work our their differences and get some native apps that have the same functionality as their android counterparts...


Hey, stop laughing... a guy can dream..

Been having issues with Microsoft Music. I went searching on the net and found a post here that describes the issues I see:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/winp ... 26090289a3

_________________
The Dude abides.

Nokia Drive+ Beta is now available on all WP8 devices, instead of being Nokia-only:

http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/store ... 018fcea606

Just discovered Photobeamer yesterday. Instantly show off your photos via a website without having to create an account and give someone a specific link to your gallery.

_________________
Go back to zero, take a pill, and get well ~ Lemmy Kilmister