Bye bye Windows Phone

Gifed myself a new Motorola G4 Plus. Bye Lumia 720, Lumia 640 and MS!

Onedrive: This was the last nail in the coffin for my Windows Phone. They gave me 15GB of free storage and additional 2GB when I signed up for auto upload from my wife's phone. So was happy with 17GB and nicely uploading the photos and videos, until one fine day MS said that I have only 5GB and need to delete all the excess data. Holy crap! I had excess of 10GB and my account is read only and with important backups at stake. Got the message loud and clear from MS - get lost from Windows Phone!

Here's how the transition went.

1. Contact transfer - Went to outlook.com and exported the contacts to csv file. Imported the contacts to the Google account. (under Gmail/Contacts). Realized that it does not import the Nickname, which I had a lot of entries. I did a lot of manual updates in the csv file before importing to Gmail and got everything in. Another option is to install Outlook app for Andriod and connect the outlook account, which will sync all the contacts.
2. SMS transfer - Exported the SMS to SD card using Settings-contacts+messages backup (install app from MS store). Converted the file to an xml file using a python scrit. More details here: https://medium.com/@matteocontrini/how-to-transfer-windows-phone-smses-to-android-6d5e941f3362#.yi0ef6y5u Got everything intact, that even MS could not do properly when doing a hard rest and restore.
3. WhatsApp messages: This was a stumbler - Realized that there is no way to transfer the messages from one platform to another. WhatsApp don't support it. I had no option but to start fresh. From the WP, sent all the chats via email, for the records as a saving grace.
4. WhatsApp media: The good thing in WP is that the WhatsApp media is saved in the SD card. I made a backup in the PC of all the SD card data and will organize it later.
5. Music: I had a vast collection that I downloaded form Nokia MixRadio that was still in the SD card. MS Groove Music could never read those music files properly and made a mess of it in the library (classified everything as unknown album/unknown artist). I just copied these music files to the Moto SD card and the Google Music immediately made a nice library with all the ID3 tags and album art pics. How neat!!! (Cursing MS again...)
6. I had a lot of waypoints/POIs saved from my Nokia e71 days, which eventually got transferred to Here maps and finally to Maps in Windows 10. Got the Here maps installed in Moto and was pleasantly surprised and revealed to get all those collections in my Phone finally.
7. All the other data is in the SD card and I could directly use it in the Moto.

Windows Mobile 10 adventure

The Windows 10 Mobile Technical Preview lasted just a day for me and I am back to the good old Denim (8.1).

Here are some thoughts:

• Installation of Win 10 took a very long time - both download and install.
• The only UI change I liked in Win 10 was the keyboard layout. And the keyboard function is way ahead of Android.
• Phone history/speed dial is a joke - tabs instead (like Andriod) of panaroma page (swipe left/right)
• No Office, Onenote in this build
• Outlook Mail and Outlook Calendar. One inbox that cannot be separately pinned to the home screen
• Notification is improved. Can dismiss individual items in a notification group.
• Performance is on the slower side. Battery is however not much affected by the upgrade.

I appreciate Microsoft for providing the preview to the users to get a feel of what to expect in future. To be fair, all the shortcomings were disclosed prior to the release. And I would not recommend the installation of the preview on your daily phone. After all its in an alpha phase.

Finally after playing around with it for a day, I reverted back with Windows 8.1

To do that:

1. Download and install the Windows Phone Recovery Tool from microsoft website.

2. Connect the phone and launch the tool

3. Click on the phone and wait for the software to report the version.

4. It may say that you have the latest software. But go ahead with Reinstall option. It will indeed install 8.1

I will wait for the Windows 10 to get stable and then do a migration, probably on a new faster phone.

Screenshots
Weird banner at startup (Not for resale?)

New keyboard layout, with controls for cursor movement.

Mic stopped working

I got the amber update for my Lumia 720 and it was working fine for a day. Suddenly the mic stops working. I did not realize it until I found that there is no audio for the videos shot. Did multiple soft resets and the problem persisted. After much googling, found a reply to a suggestion in this link:
http://windowsphone.uservoice.com/forums/101801-feature-suggestions/suggestions/3700267-to-solve-a-problem-with-the-microphone

Alberto Bernacchi commented  ·  July 25, 2013 8:41 am 

Hello guys! To solve headset and microphone issues after upgrading to WP 8, just deactivate all TTY/TDD features from Accessibility options in settings menu.

Enabled the TTY to full and the mic started working (check immediately by voice command - long press windows key) Disabled the TTY and the mic still works. Glad that it was only a software issue.


Update: The issue worsened over time and the above solution did not work many times. Took it to the service center and they replaced the mic/USB unit under warranty.

Brilliant ! Absolutely no way to watch what I want! (XBOX Music & Videos)

I downloaded some videos from MSDN Channel9 site and copied to my phone. These have long file names and this is how I see it in the Music & Videos App (XBOX).  The screen or the file names doesn't scroll right!. How am I supposed to view what I want? Tried to get a landscape view but the view is locked. I am utterly disappointed with this serious lack of some basic functionality. Totally surprised and disgusted, especially knowing that this thing is from Microsoft, the 'gurus' in UI and functionality. Lack of testing? or Lack of commitment?

#WP8UIHorror

Here Drive

I upgraded Nokia Here Drive (on my 720) last week. I haven't tried the new app on the road yet, but what I noticed is that I lost the global navigation capability. For global navigation, I need to buy the license for Rs. 970. I thought it was same for all Lumias, and here came a surprise. Saw my friend's 820 got upgraded to Drive+ and was wondering why I did not get the Drive+. After a bit of googling found that Drive+ is not enabled for 520 and 720, but enabled for 620. One reason for 620 owners to rejoice! Here is more info:

http://www.wpcentral.com/why-l...t-nokia-driv

Battery woes

I was on a visit to Mumbai for a week and the place I stayed had a bad network coverage. I knew that the battery would suffer in those conditions but it turned out to be worse. It was draining around 20% per hour, just sitting idle. I had this app called Insider that plots a nice battery stats and I used to check it frequently. The curve was very steep during those days and I thought I will disable the data connection for a while. Now, the Insider seems buggy that it won't plot while the data connection is off. In the picture, the battery is at 24% and the plot is stuck at 30 when I disabled the data. And it complains that the background task has been turned off. Weird.

Temple run on 512MB WP8

So, Temple run finally got released on 512MB devices. Cannot say that its buttery smooth, it takes a few seconds of initial play to stabilize. I find that you may miss some jumps and turns if some new game objects appears on the screen at the same time. Surely they have done some hacks to 'delay load' stuff, to reduce the memory requirements.