While Microsoft’s latest Windows Phone 8 update is slowly rolling out to existing handsets, the company is prepping new changes that will be made available by the end of the year. Sources familiar with Microsoft’s Windows Phone plans have revealed to The Verge that the software maker is currently testing a General Distribution 3 (GDR3) update. The update is designed for new hardware initially, and will provide a rotation lock feature, UI changes to Live Tiles, and a driving mode option that’s designed for in-car use.
Apple and Google are surely shaking in their boots.
Reaching parity with main runners is important.
Windows 8 would also benefit from having one if only it had apps worth running.
Ive never felt the apps lacking… and ive been using windows phone since the first gen!
The concept of feature parity is one that windows phone should try to avoid in my view. They are trying to make a new interface that behaves in its own way. Mimicking everyone else will simply make it another tree in the forest..
I would rather then tried to innovate their way into mindshare than simply tick off the android/iphone featurelist
Yes! Winp should never have included a camera, speakers and a mediaplayer. They should innovate and bring something new.
What are you talking about? Seriously. Some of you go off of the deep end when it comes to anything Microsoft.
If you didn’t understand the comment was it productive to broadcast that?
I have faith in your cognitive abilities, so I’m sure there was a point buried in there somewhere, so I was curious as to where it was.
Ok you made me laugh.
I Understood it. Shall i explain it to you?
The original poster said that feature parity with other platforms wasn’t important because WP8 is “all new, and sooo different”. Fergy pointed out that they shouldn’t have bothered with things like a camera as they are “soo different”, after all adding a camera is merely matching features with other platforms…
So let me get this straight (and since you’re doing such a kick ass job explaining, I’m sure you’ll be able to elucidate): Where do those hardware features have to do with anything in an interface, which is what the OP explicitly (you can scroll up and read again to refresh your mind) stated?
Where would you get the implication that it was even a universal notion, that every feature had to be differentiated uniquely, and not just the ones deemed by Microsoft to be worth it?
The Windows Phone interface isn’t actually much different. It’s just a slightly different layout (vertical scrolling, whoop-de-doo!) with a different icon shape (rectangular). Pretending that WP8 is so radically different that it somehow doesn’t need better notifications (it does) and easier access to commonly used settings (it really, really does) is just disingenuous: WP8 does not, functionally, distinguish itself from other phone operating systems. Hell, it doesn’t even scroll smoothly (its one biggest selling point, if fanboys were to be believed).
User experience is a lot more than the direction you scroll in, and hopefully you know that.
I haven’t personally seen choppy scrolling on my Windows Phone in a long, long time. Certainly not WP8. Its freakishly smooth and consistent.
As far as the other things, I agree some need work and I don’t think anyone is making excuses for their absence, merely providing insight as to the best way to go about implementing them.
Live Tiles are a twist on notifications, but they’re not enough. I would however be disappointed to just see them rip a notification center from Android. I don’t think its unreasonable to be hopeful for creativity and thoughtfulness.
The scrolling is certainly consistent, but it’s always ~30 fps. I would have expected a consistent 60 fps, which is certainly possible. It’s certainly a lot worse than the Nexus 4. Perhaps better than the old Nexus 7, which is a bit jerky (and Android really is more inconsistent at this).
WP8’s user experience has some things going for it, at the moment mainly the use of big icons instead of small ones. But. The keyboard sucks donkey balls. My last Nokia was the N9, and its keyboard is so much better than Microsoft’s that it’s an insult. The WP8 keyboard is worse than Android 1.6. The menues are messier than Android 1.6. The functionality isn’t on par with Android 1.6. The whole OS is a bit shit. But it’s got big rectangles. Really. That’s all it’s got going for it.
Come on man. You’re talking to someone who runs with a debugging FPS counter on all the time. Scrolling is consistently ~60FPS.
As for the other stuff, I guess that’s your opinion.
Maybe the Lumia 920 just sucks then. It’s never 60 fps.
It may be the device. For example last year when I got an L900 the scrolling was off. It was smooth just kind of jittery and low-FPS. Meanwhile my L800 which I previously had was smooth and high frame rate.
I haven’t owned a 920 since March but I don’t remember it having the same problem. My 8X doesn’t either so it may just be a one off thing or some sort of firmware bug in the OS.
Hard to say though.
Nah, we’re actually both right. It’s either 60 or 30 fps depending on usage. When flicking it quickly and removing my finger, the remaining movement is smooth, whereas it’s jerky when moving it at my own pace with my finger.
I have heard some complaints about that actually. Its quite peculiar.
BTW, what is the performance on Lumia 520?
Windows Phone keeps getting Me releases, when they seem to need a 7 release very badly.
did you decide to completely miss windows phone 8 (ME) because it was unstable and slow and stick with windows phone 7 (Win98) until windows phone 9 came out (XP)??
That’s what happened with ME, WinPhone 8 is simply not following that analogy..
I guess you are trying to imply its a failure. 3% market share may not seem much, but its fairly consistent in a CROWDED market worth an estimated US$150.3 billion by 2014. 3% of a number like that sounds quite successful to me!
None of the above. Me was a minor update, 7 was a major upgrade. My point is that WinPho 8 needs a major upgrade, not tweaks. Sorry I was too subtle there.
7 was a minor update which did little more than change the bad perception Vista had.
OK, you’ve convinced me. *NOTHING* can save Windows Phone!!!
Happy?
I just think these analogies are stupid.
Thom’s trolling aside, more hardware support (SoC and resolution) is always a good thing.
GDR3 launching so soon after GDR2 and then Windows Phone 8.1 in early 2014 is also a good thing.
Oh come on – learn to take a joke. Not everything you disagree with is trolling.
Oh, my bad. I didn’t know your article lead ins required a mind reading accessory.
More hardware support is something that should be taken for granted. Something that happens out-of-band from the feature updates and transparently to users.
It should not be something to be publicly super-proud of and certainly not a reason to be banging on ones chest (“Look at us, we deliver THREE updates a year! Of course, those are not updates as usually understood but, hey, why can’t we move the goalposts when everybody does!”)
Furthermore, I seem to remember that the extremely limited set of HW configurations for WP was precisely to ensure that updates would be delivered fast and painless. Still waiting for that infamous GDR2 (the biggest features of which is support for NEW hardware)…
Who’s banging on their chest? Microsoft has not even publicly spoken about GDR3. This is a leak of speculated features.
GDR2 which they have spoken about includes the usual API fixes, bug fixes, new features (SMS/Call blocking APIs which enabled Nokia to ship a Settings extension to provide it on day 1, support for the DAV suite, DataSense available to all carriers, updates to stock apps most notably Xbox Music,etc.. improved HTML5 in IE) and this is also coupled with Nokia’s out of band Windows Phone feature update known as “Amber” which includes Glance screen from the N9, new Camera applications and functionality, improved Map/Location apps, Flip to Silence, location based WiFi hotspot searching etc.
GDR2 also included advances to even make the 41MP sensor work on Windows Phone. That as I understood it was a decent engineering feat.
So GDR2 is no slouch. It includes a health amount of updates, especially when you use a competent OEM (like 85% of Windows Phone users do) you actually get a steady stream of updates. This is without counting the various updates to Nokia’s official apps that are regularly released, or even 3rd party ones like WhatsApp, Twitter, Skype, and Facebook which routinely update their apps with more functionality.
GDR3 contains support for new processors (quad core), new Bluetooth Profiles, and new screen resolutions. There is a thoughtful and gradual introduction of new hardware configurations to enable a few permutations of extremely polished hardware/software integrations.
There’s a reason a 1GHz single core Windows Phone felt smoother than any dual core Android phone when WP7 launched. They spent an extraordinary amount of time optimizing for the silicon.
You can do a few correctly, or a lot half assed. The move to the NT kernel likely made things easier (multicore especially).
Denial?
What a moronic comment.
Oooohh.. you shouldn’t be so hard on yourself bud. I was just going for the comedy relief angle.
Are you actually going to contribute anything?
But I have already contributed; I was pointing out the inappropriateness as a “technical” point, of something as subjective as “feels” on top of a grossly dubious generalization.
In other words: no
Mere moments ago I found out that T-Mobile users of the HTC 8X will get GDR2. if GDR3 comes out soon after, maybe I’ll get that, also.