So Far... Disappointed in Windows Phone 8 offerings

I was really excited about getting both my son, and I, new Windows 8 phones to offset the new iPhone 5's my wife and daughter just received.
I was particularly looking forward to the rumored Samsung ATIV S as it has everything I was looking for. Screen size, storage, power and an awesome look and feel that is light years beyond what we currently have.
But now as more information trickles in about Verizon's decision to off a variant of the ATIV named Odessy, while little is yet known about this variant it is commonly being described as a 2nd tier phone, it looks like Verizon is determinined to keep the Windows phones a step or two behind its other OS offerings.
As a developer I need a high end phone, with the most current technology, for development/testing and day to day usage that Verizon seems unwilling to offer, and that justifies the $350/month I spend with Verizon.
I hope early reports about the Odessy are wrong, but given Verizons track record... I am not optimistic.

I was hoping that the Lumia 920 would  be available at WP8 launch. Yes, I am disappointed but I am unwilling to wait another six months or switch to another carrier. Verizon offers the best service in my area. Besides, the HTC 8X looks like a great device and may even be superior to the 920 in some ways. I've owned HTC phones for Windows Mobile and I have a Trophy now. The TouchPro 2, in my opinion, was at it's time one of the best smartphones ever made in terms of features. The keyboard was spectacular. The Trophy has been a very reliable offering that has been a pleasure to use.
Don't count out HTC! It's going to be 8X for me.

Similar Messages

  • Disappointed with my windows phone!!(lumia 620)

    I bought a new lumia 620 as a back up to my android(htc one x+)..but I am very disappointed with some of these glitches..
    1. No notification centre..it's really a pain!
    2. Can't pay via SIM card to purchase an app..
    3. Can't play high mp4, mkv, flv videos though I think the snapdragon s4 is capable to do it..is Nokia waiting for a developer to put up such an app at the store?!!
    4. Limited file download size...!!! It's worst...I got an unlimited data plan and don't really have to care..why Microsoft has to protect me!! Instead they should turn it to a feature by allowing the user to decide the restriction..for example: if u have a 1 GB data plan you should be able to set a restriction which would protect you when your overall usage exceeds 1 GB! I feel as if windows is trying to follow APPLE blindly..why make it so complicated instead of user friendly!!
    5. My handset does crash and restarts at least once a day..
    6. Battery drains out too quickly..something which is not expected from Nokia
    7. Very few apps..most of them are **bleep**..if not they are too costly..I even feel Microsoft should reduce the price of app hosting
    8. Whenever I share via Bluetooth..my phone hangs for sure and there is no option other than removing my battery and restarting..
    9. If any unsupported file format is downloaded I don't know where is it stored..and eats up my memory...
    I am even using APPLE IPOD with which I share a better experience than my lumia...
    I am sure to ditch this useless paper weight within a month if no improvements appear..
    Sorry if my language is rough but it's my frustration with lumia..and I am fed up..expecting a good update...
    And these are what I know is all consumers want..Nokia and Microsoft should think about consumers satisfaction above all!!!
    Thanks
    Solved!
    Go to Solution.

    Paying through your mobile account for apps is the responsibilty of your network provider to support this feature for Windows Phone, so you need to take your complaint to them.

  • Why I left Windows Phone

    So yesterday I got my Samsung Galaxy S3. It is a great phone, but I felt kind of bummed out because the device I replaced was my HTC Trophy, a Windows phone. This ended my 1 year plus use of the Windows Phone OS and sent me back to Android once again. Why? There were a few reasons for this, I just wanted to name a few.
    1. Hardware - Anyone who jumped in on Windows Phone's only offering to Verizon customers at the time knew that the hardware was below par of most Android devices offered at the time. Lack of SD card and display made it a mediocre choice, but the new OS was intriguing enough to draw me in. I had an Xperia Play (another disappointing phone Sony)  and decided to trade it for my Trophy. Though the screen and camera were not on par with Sony's offering, I really wanted to give it a try. Being a Zune HD user made the transition pretty easy & the interface was beautiful. Again, hardware was lacking, but driven by an innovating OS. New hardware specs are pretty much on par with recent Android devices, but that cannot make up for....
    2. Software - I found my Trophy had a few hiccups once in a while. Nothing too bad, but apps would sometimes force close or not even open at all. There was a single upgrade that could not be done OTA, but had to be hooked up to Zune to download and install. This was not too much of a issue at first, but why no OTA over at least WiFi? It would come to be a non issue since the Trophy was the ******* child of Verizon, put in a room somewhere; forgotten about and left to just sit there with no updates whatsoever. After a while, I got frustrated and turned to XDA for custom builds. One was a 7.8 build which made the OS slightly more appealing, but still had OS issues with apps. Speaking of.....
    3. Apps & Marketplace - This was the major flaw with WP. No apps. Sure there were a few offerings, but nothing compared to iOS or Android. I know WP is newer to the market and had claimed a huge increase in apps, but from what I could see, nothing worth bragging about. One example was Draw Something. This game had come and gone, gone even further, and then was given life on WP, well sort of given life. It was buggy, crashed constantly, and finding someone to play with was hardly worth the effort. Other games like Mini Squadron and Final Fantasy ran perfect and provided a lot of entertainment. Oh, Physibricks was also a great one! Other apps were nothing more than web page conversions. The entire time I used my phone I only had good experiences with the Engadget app (when using 3G, WiFi was slower for some reason) and the Zune software, which was the best integrated music software ever imo. Songs loaded fast and the huge marketplace made it easy to get any song you wanted. This is the one feature I really loved about WP. I could be somewhere, hear a song, hit the search button and select music. Not only would it find the song, it would take me to the market to download it though my ZunePass. Spotify, Pandora, IHeartRadio, none of these services could hold a match to Zune Pass on WP. This is the only thing I will miss on Android, well, until Xbox music has it App up and running, and if it is as nice as its WP counterpart.
    Microsoft, you want to sell devices, then invest in the developers like you did with Xbox. You got Nokia which was an awesome start, but you knew the market you were getting into and knew what your competitors had out there. You should have gone in stronger than this. Offer developers 100% of their profits, 1 year of  Xbox music free with new device, $0.99 app submit fee, free development software, big incentives for developers to bring apps over from other OS's, $2.99 for Angry Birds?, bring more of your Xbox live titles to mobile,  and tap your home developers (XDA!) to see what you could do to bring customers. Start off big and work with handset developers and get their involvement. Its not too late to get things fixed, but to get me to come back to Windows phone and some others to leave iOS and Android, you need to get better fast or go the route of Kin.

    You are right, to each their own.
    I agree, the UI and the OS are good, but lacking in what is offered by the other two major OS's. Each one has their good and bad, but some more than others. You are right about low end options. I do like the 8X a lot, but after using other hardware besides HTC, I decided to give Samsung a try. The new WP8 hardware has started to look a lot more appealing, even in more ways than the normal Android offerings, but performance is still on par with what handset creators have been pushing on Android 6 months earlier.Dual Core processor, good GPU, MicroSD card slot, 4G, HD display. These are stats you could find in most Android devices a year ago. Now, does Windows phone need to surpass these stats? Not really, but its nice to have a somewhat future proof device that won't be obsolete 3-6 months after you get it with no chances of updating (WP7 users feel me on this). Microsoft set a standard HW requirement for WP7 and guess what, hardware manufactures stuck with it. Why? Because MS didn't allow a lot of the features that other phones had, weak strategy. Don't release behind the curve software if its not on par with your competition because you get behind the curve hardware to run it.
    Weak apps is a definite description I still stand by. MS made a huge deal about app requirements and efforts to get developers to create apps that fit well into the WP7 environment. I saw very little of this if any. Even top name apps are buggy at best (ESPN, CNN, LinkedIn). I've used these apps on iOS and Android and the quality far exceeds those on WP. I don't need a lot of apps, just ones that are useful and functional for my everyday personal and professional use. If I can't depend of developers of major apps to provide high quality apps for a high quality OS, then what is the use? I can tell you there were many productive apps on my Android phones that I could not find on WP. Now, this could be because of WP7/8 app compatibility, but could not be sure.
    Again, I wish I could had been more excited about WP8, but from my WP7 use, I could not trust entering into a 2 year contract with another unproven OS. I hope WP8 has majorly improved over its predecessor so I will be able to go back to a MS product, but until then, I'd feel better investing in a proven OS.

  • Saving to Windows Phone Documents Folder

    Greetings,
    I tried to look through the forum but could not find anything on saving to the Windows Phone Documents folder. From what I researched online on the Windows Phone 8 it was not possible to do this as Microsoft had blocked the ability to do this due to security
    reasons. But on the 8.1 release they allowed this area to be accessed by third party apps. Is this correct?
    If so how do I go abouts saving to the documents folder. Basically my app is really simple I just input a couple of words into different text boxes and that should save to a text file. How do I go abouts doing this.
    I tried doing this
    StorageFolder local = KnownFolders.DocumentsLibrary;
    However, when I run it the program stops at this spot:
    #if DEBUG && !DISABLE_XAML_GENERATED_BREAK_ON_UNHANDLED_EXCEPTION
                UnhandledException += (sender, e) =>
                    if
    (global::System.Diagnostics.Debugger.IsAttached) global::System.Diagnostics.Debugger.Break();
    #endif
    What am I doing wrong. Thank you in advanced!!

    I apologize for that I looked at it quickly on my phone. Ok so I managed to get it to save to a file. The problem is now is I want to be able to append to that same file. Is that possible?
    Here is what I have so far:
    using SDKTemplate;
    using System;
    using System.Collections.Generic;
    using Windows.ApplicationModel.Activation;
    using Windows.Storage;
    using Windows.Storage.Pickers;
    using Windows.Storage.Provider;
    using Windows.UI.Xaml;
    using Windows.UI.Xaml.Controls;
    using Windows.UI.Xaml.Navigation;
    namespace FilePicker
        /// <summary>
        /// Implement IFileSavePickerContinuable interface, in order that Continuation Manager can automatically
        /// trigger the method to process returned file.
        /// </summary>
        public sealed partial class Scenario4 : Page, IFileSavePickerContinuable
            MainPage rootPage = MainPage.Current;
            public Scenario4()
                this.InitializeComponent();
                SaveFileButton.Click += new RoutedEventHandler(SaveFileButton_Click);
            private void SaveFileButton_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
                // Clear previous returned file name, if it exists, between iterations of this scenario
                OutputTextBlock.Text = "";
                FileSavePicker savePicker = new FileSavePicker();
                savePicker.SuggestedStartLocation = PickerLocationId.DocumentsLibrary;
                // Dropdown of file types the user can save the file as
                savePicker.FileTypeChoices.Add("Plain Text", new List<string>() { ".csv" });
                // Default file name if the user does not type one in or select a file to replace
                savePicker.SuggestedFileName = "New Document";
                savePicker.PickSaveFileAndContinue();
            /// <summary>
            /// Handle the returned file from file picker
            /// This method is triggered by ContinuationManager based on ActivationKind
            /// </summary>
            /// <param name="args">File save picker continuation activation argment. It cantains the file user selected with file save picker </param>
            public async void ContinueFileSavePicker(FileSavePickerContinuationEventArgs args)
                string complete = "";
                string office = "";
                string revenue = "";
                string nps = "";
                string answer;
                answer = NotesTxt.Text;
                StorageFile file = args.File;
                if (file != null)
                    // Prevent updates to the remote version of the file until we finish making changes and call CompleteUpdatesAsync.
                    CachedFileManager.DeferUpdates(file);
                    // write to file
                    await FileIO.WriteTextAsync(file, answer);
                    // Let Windows know that we're finished changing the file so the other app can update the remote version of the file.
                    // Completing updates may require Windows to ask for user input.
                    FileUpdateStatus status = await CachedFileManager.CompleteUpdatesAsync(file);
                    if (status == FileUpdateStatus.Complete)
                        OutputTextBlock.Text = "File " + file.Name + " was saved.";
                    else
                        OutputTextBlock.Text = "File " + file.Name + " couldn't be saved.";
                else
                    OutputTextBlock.Text = "Operation cancelled.";
            private void SaveFileButton_Click_1(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)

  • Bar Code Scanning for Windows Phone 8.1

    Hi,
    I need to find proper way how to scan bar codes in Windows Phone 8.1 or in universal app. I found out that there is native class BarcodeScanner available only for client apps and not for WP. I also find 3rd party library zxing.net, which is not working very
    well on WP 8.1. I have done really deep research, but I have not found any single working solution for WP 8.1, so I would like to ask for your help in finding of library with which I will be able to scan barcodes on WP 8.1.
    Thank you.

    If you don't need a universal App you could build a Silverlight 8.1 App and use the old Camera APIs which work nicely with ZXing.Net. I have done so myself.
    As for Windows 8 and Universal Apps - you would have to implement a CustomSink for the Video Stream, extract Frames from there and pipe those though a recognition library. So far there seems to be no ready made solution that offers this.
    So right now using the old APIs would be my suggestion.

  • Voip application for windows phone 8.1 fails store submission

    A voip application with the new 8.1 architecture based on a separate process for the voip server is not accepted by the store.
    Voip architecture is based on 8.1 sample: https://code.msdn.microsoft.com/windowsapps/ChatterBox-VoIP-WP81-64921ad4
    Errors during submission:
    3011: The package is missing RpalManifest.xml. Update it and then try again.
    1028: The native API api-ms-win-core-processthreads-l1-1-2.dll:ExitProcess() isn’t allowed in assembly doubango.BackEndServerHost.exe. Update it and then try again.

    Update.  I am currently working with the sample team to update the sample.   We found the problem to be in the way the BackEndServerHost VIsual studio 
    project was created.   While we work on re-creating that from scratch, testing, and re-publishing I wanted to post what we have done so far in case anyone 
    wants to move forward.
    First there are a couple bugs in the sample, maybe you worked around those already in your development but in case not here they are.
    In the backendaudio.cpp BackEndCapture::InitCapture I changed the code:
    if (SUCCEEDED(hr))
    WAVEFORMATEX format = {};
    if (SUCCEEDED(hr))
    FillPcmFormat(format, m_pwfx->nChannels, m_pwfx->nSamplesPerSec, m_pwfx->wBitsPerSample);
    m_sourceFrameSizeInBytes = (format.wBitsPerSample / 8) * format.nChannels;
    hr = m_pDefaultCaptureDevice->Initialize(AUDCLNT_SHAREMODE_SHARED, 0x88140000, 1000 * 10000, 0, &format, NULL);
    The m_pwfx was already retrieved via GetMixFormat earlier, just use that.  Don’t create a custom one.
    In the BackEndAudio::Stop routine change the order of cleanup:
    if (m_pDefaultRenderDevice)
    m_pDefaultRenderDevice->Release();
    m_pDefaultRenderDevice = NULL;
    if (m_pDefaultCaptureDevice)
    m_pDefaultCaptureDevice->Release();
    m_pDefaultCaptureDevice = NULL;
    if (m_pCaptureClient)
    m_pCaptureClient->Release();
    m_pCaptureClient = NULL;
    The next step is to basically delete the BackEndServerHost project and create a new one with the following steps.
    1)  Add a new C++ Dirext X App (Windows Phone) to the solution and name it VoipBackendServerHost  NOTE: using "." in the name causes problems, so don't use the same name as the original sample.
    2)  Remove the Common and Content Folders
    3)  Remove App1Main.cpp and App1Main.h
    4)  Contents of app.cpp should be:
    #include "pch.h"
    #include "App.h"
    #include <windows.applicationmodel.core.h>
    #include <wrl.h>
    #include <string>
    #include <stdexcept>
    using namespace ABI::Windows::ApplicationModel::Core;
    using namespace ABI::Windows::Foundation;
    using namespace Microsoft::WRL;
    using namespace Wrappers;
    HRESULT __cdecl MyGetActivationFactory(_In_ HSTRING activatableClassId, _COM_Outptr_ IInspectable **factory);
    class GetCustomClass : public RuntimeClass<RuntimeClassFlags<RuntimeClassType::WinRtClassicComMix>,
    IGetActivationFactory,
    CloakedIid<IAgileObject >>
    public:
    IFACEMETHODIMP GetActivationFactory(_In_ HSTRING activatableClassId, _COM_Outptr_ IInspectable **factory)
    return MyGetActivationFactory(activatableClassId, factory);
    private:
    HMODULE m_hMod;
    [Platform::MTAThread]
    int main(Platform::Array<Platform::String^>^)
    HRESULT hr = Initialize(RO_INIT_MULTITHREADED);
    if (FAILED(hr))
    throw std::runtime_error(std::string("Failed to Initialize(RO_INIT_MULTITHREADED), HRESULT: ").append(std::to_string(hr)));
    // Scoping for smart pointers
    ComPtr<ICoreApplication> spApplicationFactory;
    hr = GetActivationFactory(HStringReference(RuntimeClass_Windows_ApplicationModel_Core_CoreApplication).Get(), &spApplicationFactory);
    if (FAILED(hr))
    throw std::runtime_error(std::string("Failed to GetActivationFactory(RuntimeClass_Windows_ApplicationModel_Core_CoreApplication), HRESULT: ").append(std::to_string(hr)));
    ComPtr<IGetActivationFactory> spGetActivationFactory = Make<GetCustomClass>();
    spApplicationFactory->RunWithActivationFactories(spGetActivationFactory.Get());
    Uninitialize();
     5) Right click and bring up Project properties.  go To Linker->Input.
     6) Set the Configuration and Platform dropdowns to change all configurations all platforms at the same time
     7) Choose Edit for Additional Dependencies and set to this:
    $(SolutionDir)$(PlatformTarget)\$(Configuration)\BackEnd\PhoneVoIPApp.BackEnd.lib
    WindowsPhoneCore.lib
    RuntimeObject.lib
     8) Under Cofniguration Properties->General Set the Target Name to PhoneVoIP.BackEnd.HostServer and Output directory to $(SolutionDir)UI
     9) APply the settings. Then click OK
    10) Build the Proxy Stub
    11) Build the Agents
    12) Build the new Project
    13) Expand the UI (Windows Phone Silverlight 8.1) Project and find the PhoneVoIP.BackEnd.HOstServer.exe and remove it.
    14) Right click UI and Choose Add Existing and add the PhoneVoIP.BackEnd.HostServer
    This should hopefully get you moving forward.  Please test and make sure your application is working. The end result should pass WACK now.  Please let me know if there are any issues.  It is a lot of steps and I hope I didn't miss any.
    Bret Bentzinger (MSFT) @awehellyeah

  • Inking for Windows Phone 8.1 (Not Silverlight)

    Is there any way to use Inking for Windows phone 8.1 application. I am able to use it in Silverlight application for freehand drawing.
    But is there anything available to use for this purpose in WinRT?

    Hi Morichi,
    As far as I known in Windows Phone 8.1 Runtime there is no such a Inking api or control as in Windows Phone 8.1 Silverlight app. If you want to implement the inking function in Windows phone 8.1 Runtime application, please try to refer to
    the @Rob Caplan - MSFT's reply in this thread:
    http://stackoverflow.com/questions/28862500/inking-for-windows-phone-8-1-not-silverlight .
    Best Regards,
    Amy Peng
    We are trying to better understand customer views on social support experience, so your participation in this interview project would be greatly appreciated if you have time. Thanks for helping make community forums a great place.
    Click
    HERE to participate the survey.

  • Will MDM for windows phone 8.0 support for windows phone 8.1

    We have successfully implemented MDM solution for windows phone 8.0 . Enrolment and polling working properly.
    Now devices will come for windows phone 8.1 .Will this existing system work for 8.1 also? Or is there any changes need to be done?

    As far as I am aware it will be ok. 8.1 just exposes additional functionality and CSP's available to be manipulated.
    I will double check on that to be 100% sure.

  • What to use instead for isscriptenabled for windows phone 8.1 in webview control

    For Windows phone 7/8, we could use the Webbrowser control in XAML and use IsScriptEnabled to true or false to run JavaScript code. I can't find this attribute in XAML for the webview control. Is there an equivalent in WebView for me to use in my Windows
    Phone 8.1 app?
    Thanks
    mujno

    Hi Mujno,
    Yes, as you said that the IsScriptEnabled is not supported in the WebView. Then as far as I known there is no such an attribute in XAML for the webview control that is equivalent to the IsScriptEnabled attribute in the WebBrowser. For the workaround
    please try to refer to @Rob Caplan [MSFT]'s reply in this similar thread:
    https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsapps/en-US/1f8c9832-ce12-47c8-bb7a-96694cf80622/is-there-an-equivalent-of-webbrowserisscriptenabled-for-the-windows-8-webview-control?forum=winappswithcsharp
    Best Regards,
    Amy Peng
    We are trying to better understand customer views on social support experience, so your participation in this interview project would be greatly appreciated if you have time. Thanks for helping make community forums a great place.
    Click
    HERE to participate the survey.

  • Submit: Great Skype for Windows Phone ideas

    We have just launched a new Windows Phone idea board to let you all share and exchange your ideas on how to improve and develop Skype for Windows Phone.
    Before you start sharing your ideas, here are some guidelines to help you get started:
    Idea Submission Guidelines
    Search before posting. Do a quick search and make sure you are not submitting a duplicate. If the idea already exists show your support by giving kudos to the original idea rather than watering down the potential impact across multiple submissions.
    Draft your idea. Be as clear as possible, tell us what your idea is, how it would benefit users and why you think we should consider it. That will not only help us to better understand what you want, but we may even be able to solve your problem more quickly another way. Please avoid text speak and keep the idea short and to the point. Ideas are available within a limited number of topic sections of the community as they are not discussion threads.
    Currently you can choose one of the following topic labels for your ideas:
    Video Messaging
    We‘ve just launched Video Messaging on Windows Phone so you can now send video messages to family and friends, even when they’re not online. Let us know what you think of Video Messaging on Windows Phone and any ideas you have for how we can make it better. 
    Phone Integration
    Tell us how you would like Skype to be integrated with Windows Phone. Would things be easier if Skype was better integrated with the People Hub? Integrated into the messaging app? Or in the dial pad? 
    Contacts
    How can we make it easier for you to find friends and family on Skype and add them as a contact? What are your thoughts on how contacts are managed on Skype for Windows Phone? Do you have any recommended improvements?
    Calling
    Tell us how you would like Skype to be integrated with Windows Phone. Would things be easier if Skype was better integrated with the People Hub? Integrated into the messaging app? Or in the dial pad? 
    Instant Messaging
    Video calling is one of Skype’s most popular features. What do/don’t you like about Video calling on Skype for Windows Phone and do you have any ideas for how we can make video calling even better? 
    Some things to include:
    Start with a clear title
    add appropriate label(s)
    list features and benefits
    Review the ideas of others. Look at other ideas to see what your fellow community members are requesting and feel free to exchange on them in the comments section. While we take into account the numbers of kudos an idea receives, we also consider the amount and quality of member feedback when making our decisions.
    Add value. Vote for those items that you like and agree with by giving the idea a kudos. It's really a significant way to recognize someone's effort. We are using votes as a barometer to find out more about what our contributor community thinks is important, so we can factor this into our prioritization process.
    Submit a new idea. Adding an idea is just like posting a message on a board. To create an idea, click on the “New Idea” button, located on the left side of the page content tab, and in the left column under the actions heading click “create an idea”. Be sure to enter a clear title and description of your idea so others can decide how they would like to vote. Remember, the more complete your thought, the more likely it is to get noticed! You can use simple HTML, format the text, or add links or images. You can also preview your idea and check your spelling before you post the idea.
    Do not be discouraged. Sometimes what seems simple may not be so simple to build. Some ideas take longer than others, and some ideas will not be possible within the scope of what we want to accomplish in the next year or so.
    Be respectful. Comply with the Community Guidelines and Skype etiquette.
    Disclaimer: Skype may or may not use your comments, ideas, or suggestions. Skype reserves the right to use for any purpose including commercial purposes, comments, ideas, suggestions, code, products or services (“Content”) that are posted on this community without any obligation to compensate the individual or entity that provided the Content. By posting any Content in the community, you hereby relinquish any right you may have in such Content and to any future compensation for publication, use, distribution, license or sale of the same. By posting Content, you represent and warrant that you either own or control all of the rights to that Content, and such Content does not violate any third party rights or these Skype Terms of Service. You agree that all opinions expressed by users of this community are expressed in their individual capacities, and not as representatives of Skype.
    Frequently Asked Questions
    What is the Idea Board all about?
    Idea Board is a new part of the Skype Community, where members can share their ideas about existing products and services. Anyone in the community can see and vote on the ideas you post.
    We encourage you to give kudos and comment on submitted ideas as we are more likely to take the top kudoed and most discussed ones into consideration.
    How do I navigate the Ideas Board? 
    Finding your way around the ideas board is a pretty straightforward task, here are some of the things you will see to help you get around.
    •  New Ideas – The most recent ideas.
    •  Hot Ideas – The most popular ideas right now.
    •  Top Ideas – The most kudoed ideas.
    The sidebar widgets
    In the sidebar you'll find more ways to sort the ideas board, see new and popular ideas and the top rated contributors to the idea board. It's also really easy to view only the ideas with certain status', for instance if you only want to see ideas that are “Accepted”.
    How to check if an idea exists already?
    Use the search function filtering by the ideas board – or click here (direct link to search function)
    What do the votes/kudos mean?
    Just as you can give kudos in the community boards and blogs, you can vote for ideas you like on the Idea Board. Ideas with high vote totals are more likely to be recognized and accepted by the teams at Skype who develop our products and services. You can also leave comments on ideas, but remember to be kind!
    What do the different idea statuses mean?
    We strive to review submitted ideas on a biweekly/monthly cycle. Each idea will go through a life cycle that will be assigned statuses at each milestone. The statuses are explained here:
    New Idea - Sparkly new idea, submitted by you, and ready to be vetted by the community.
    Comments Requested - Items set as Comments Requested will be open to the community for feedback and votes.
    Under consideration - Idea has been forwarded to appropriate business team who is determining feasibility.
    More information needed - More information is needed before our Product Management team can take this forward, please review the comments left by the team.
    Duplicate - Ideas in this status have already been submitted in some form or another. We will link these items over to the other idea so you can review the status or track the progress there.
    Already exists - This is available in the product. 
    Future possibility - Idea is a good one but not something we can include in a near-term product or software release.
    Accepted - Idea has been accepted and has been taken forward for implementation, check back soon for updates.
    Not right now - We like the idea but just not for right now, we will revisit it in the future.
    Implemented - You asked for it, we did it!
    My idea has been accepted. How long will it take to be implemented?
    Sadly, we will not be able to provide dates for the implementation of any accepted ideas within the community due to the number of factors involved. Please be patient and let us make sure it is completely ready before we make it available.
    How will I know if an idea has been implemented?
    You can track the status of your ideas as your ideas are sent to the people here at Skype who can make them happen and you will see the status of your idea is updated. We will be telling you if the idea is something we are working on now or would like to do in the future, or if it’s something that is not feasible for us at this time. To ensure you don’t miss any updates select “Subscribe” from the “Idea Options” menu when viewing your idea.
    What ideas have been implemented so far?
    You can check "Accepted and Implemented ideas" topic here.
    Can I edit or delete my ideas comments?
    No, you can't. Be sure to check your spelling and preview your comment before you post it; you can't edit a comment once it's posted.
    Who and how often moderates/ manages the ideas board?
    The community team is monitoring the board on the daily basis and product managers will come in on a monthly basis to update statuses of the ideas and post their comments.
    If Skype decides not to pursue my idea, will you tell me why?
    We do not always provide the reasons for our decisions regarding ideas submitted for review but will strive to provide an explanation where possible.
    I have an idea to improve the Windows Phone software itself?
    Microsoft has set up a Windows Phone Feature Suggestion Box for exactly that purpose. Share your idea here: http://windowsphone.uservoice.com
    If I am not comfortable submitting my idea over the Internet, is there another way I can do so?
    No.

    I would really appreciate if you guys work on the feature “ custom backgrounds for chat notifications”.If users will be able to choose any image of their liking in the custom background feature if would add value. Currently some of the chat messengers provide this facility to the users which makes interesting to the users while improving user friendliness and satisfaction. Options that would include areTake a photoChoose from albumsSearch from webDeleteThat appears to be a reasonably robust selection. In search, a user can use a built in engine to pull up images based on search and then select it as it their choice. Once you chose an image, it will be asked to confirm and ‘set’ as the universal chat window for all contacts. 

  • March 2015 TechNet Guru Awards! See who's boss in Windows Phone! It could be YOU!

    The results for March's
    TechNet Guru competition were posted!
    http://blogs.technet.com/b/wikininjas/archive/2015/04/17/the-microsoft-technet-guru-awards-march-2015.aspx
    Below is a summary of the medal winners for December. The last column being a few of the comments from the judges.
    Unfortunately, runners up and their judge feedback comments had to be trimmed from THIS post, to fit into the forum's 60,000 character limit, however
    the full version is available on TechNet Wiki.
    Some articles only just missed out, so we may be returning to discuss those too, in future blogs.
     BizTalk Technical Guru - March 2015  
    Steef-Jan Wiggers
    BizTalk Server 2013 R2 Instrumenting an orchestration with ETW
    Sandro Pereira: "Really nice article, I love it, nice use of the BizTalk CAT Instrumentation Framework. And once again, the article well detailed and excellent formated in terms of images and text format. Good work Steef-Jan."
    Ed Price: "Fantastic depth in the Introduction, Scenario, and Wrap Up!"
    Steef-Jan Wiggers
    View BizTalk Send Port Subcriptions
    Sandro Pereira: "Really useful script! Good job Steef-Jan."
    Ed Price: "Good context setting in the introduction (the image helps a lot)!"
     Forefront Identity Manager Technical Guru - March 2015  
    Tracy Yu-MSFT
    The Ultimate Tools to work ith RCDC in FIM
    Søren Granfeldt: "Very nice and a great help for all of us struggling with RCDC's"
    AM: "Thanks for posting Tracy! RCDCs can be very frustrating to troubleshoot."
    Wim Beck
    FIM2010: Protect passwords in configuration files
    Søren Granfeldt: "Nice technical explanation and good approach"
    AM: "Far too many FIM environments I find plain text passwords stored in scripts - great contribution.
    Another helpful resource"
     Microsoft Azure Technical Guru - March 2015  
    saramgsilva
    Avoid Nightmares Using EF First Migration in Azure Mobile Services
    JH: "Another nice one from Sara. Definitely worth a look."
    Ed Price: "I love the use of embedded links to the related library articles! And the article is rich with descriptions, well-formatted code with great commenting, and clarifying images. Plus a link to the source code. Fantastic job on
    this!"
    Alan Carlos: "Great! Very detailed!"
    Ken Cenerelli
    Creating an Microsoft Application Insights resource
    Alan Carlos: "Great article!"
    Ed Price: "Incredibly thorough how-to article!"
    JH: "Application Insight is something everybody should have on his radar. Ken provides a nice article to get started."
    Prashant Mahajan
    Azure: MVC application to refer js from blob
    JH: "Nice alternative on deploying JavaScript on Azure. Worth a look in some deployment scenarios
    Ed Price: "This is a great topic! Could be improved on with code formatting and a See Also section. Good article!"
     Miscellaneous Technical Guru - March 2015  
    XAML guy
    Convert and Edit Microsoft Office Live Meeting Recordings
    Alan Carlos: "Thanks XAML guy! Very yseful!"
    Durval Ramos: "This article was "welcome", but "a little late". Simple and clear. Well done, Peter!"
    Ed Price: "Fantastically crafted instructional guide!"
    Richard Mueller: "Great information. Good use of article guidelines. I like the images."
    Andy ONeill
    Silverlight: Trouble Shooting Installs
    Alan Carlos: "Cool Andy!"
    Durval Ramos: "This article is very detailed, has a demo and use description in different browsers, but could change sections order or maybe split article: "What's Silverlight?" and "Trouble Shooting Installs". Well,
    one more time... Good job Andy!"
    Ed Price: "Incredibly exhaustive with a lot of great supporting sections!"
    Richard Mueller: "Good use of article guidelines, like "See Also" and TOC."
    Tom Mohan
    Zen coding with Visual Studio
    Durval Ramos: "It would be welcome if added images and references about your use in VS"
    Ed Price: "Great topic with some great code formatting! Could benefit from section headers and a See Also section. Very helpful article!"
    Richard Mueller: "Very interesting. This tool could prove useful, once you get used to it."
     SharePoint 2010 / 2013 Technical Guru - March 2015  
    Murugesa Pandian
    Simple understanding on SharePoint Provider Hosted App Model
    Jinchun Chen: "Nice article"
    Hezequias Vasconcelos: ""
    KB: "Please correct typos. I like the explanation on difference between app only permissions and user permissions"
    Ed Price: "Great explanation! The diagrams are very helpful!"
    Margriet Bruggeman: "Interesting start, but I feel this article needs a lot more work to become really useful. Not because the article is bad, but because of the fact that the topic is so complex."
    Melick
    JSOM List Operations in SharePoint Apps in a proper way (Provider
    Hosted and SharePoint Hosted)–CRUD
    Margriet Bruggeman: "Clean implementation of a very useful JS library. I really like this approach"
    Hezequias Vasconcelos: "The sound is great content for development in SharePoint"
    Ed Price: "Good topic with helpful code snippets! Could benefit from Headers, a TOC, and a See Also section. "
    Michaelle de las Alas
    Expandable/Collapsible Headers Solution for SharePoint Pages
    Hezequias Vasconcelos: "The page management and scheduled SharePoint content is a great resource."
    Ed Price: "It's simple, well-written, and very helpful for the community! Could benefit from headers, a TOC, and a See Also section. Great topic!"
    Margriet Bruggeman: "I like it. A useful idea that is easy to implement." 
     Small Basic Technical Guru - March 2015  
    Philip Munts
    Small Basic and the Raspberry Pi
    Michiel Van Hoorn: "Wonderful idea and good write up. Would be cool so have something running with the "regular" Raspbian."
    RZ: "This is incredible. Detailed step-by-step instructions and pictures/screenshots. Makes me want to jump up and try it myself now. But I will save it for a nice rainy day project to work with my boy. I am sure he will be all in awe!"
    Yan Grenier
    Small Basic: Timeline for the games
    Michiel Van Hoorn: "Great advance article on timelines. Very usefull to those looking for more complex games."
    RZ: "This is a difficult topic, especially for beginners. But Yan explained it very well with details and examples!"
    Ed Price - MSFT
    Small Basic on TechNet Gallery
    Michiel Van Hoorn: "Very useful "baseline" for those who want to blog / post."
    RZ: "Very nice explanation of the TechNet Gallery"
     SQL BI and Power BI Technical Guru - March 2015  
    Jens Vestergaard
    SSIS Script Task and Proxy Auto Configuration (PAC) Script
    RB: "Great article, that applies to any kind of web content."
    PT: "Good quick reference example. Thanks for submitting it."
    Ricardo Lacerda
    SSIS: Data maintenance with Microsoft Azure SQL Database
    PT: "This is a very complete tutorial on setting up CDC which makes the process quite clear. Thnaks"
    RB: "Great article !"
     SQL Server General and Database Engine Technical Guru - March 2015  
    Visakh16
    Parsing Out Data From Flat File With Inconsistent Delimiters in SQL Server
    Durval Ramos: "Very useful. Good job !"
    Ed Price: "Fantastic job on the code formatting, in-depth descriptions, and robust use of images!"
    AM: "Thanks for presenting multiple approaches to solve the problem. It would be good to see a second part describing the format file."
    DRC: "This is a good article which provides different ways to import the data to SQL, But this article needs some modifications. Suggestions: • It would be helpful, if mentioned on which version of SQL server and Visual studio scenario
    was tested • We might encounter errors while using the format files, for example we get the below error if the format file doesn’t have blank space (character ) at the end of each line Msg 4862, Level 16, State 1, Line 10 Cannot bulk load because the file
    "C:\temp\good.fmt" could not be read. Operating system error code (null). • So it will be helpful if you can provide a sample format file and TSQL script along with the possible output which can be tested and compared. • The sample query and the
    format file is not yielding the right output. Screenshots shown in the article has invalid values (for example ID coulmn has invalid values). Format file need to be fixed to get the right data. • The format file under section “Files With Text Qualifiers” is
    also invalid and the data is not imported properly. • Implementation of import using the SSIS package needs more details about how to make the delimiter consistent, Attaching a sample package would be helpful. "
     System Center Technical Guru - March 2015  
    Noah Stahl
    Make System Center Orchestrator Text Faster than a Teenager using PowerShell
    and Twilio
    Ed Price: "Wow, I love the breakdown of sections. As Alan wrote in the comments, "Wow! Great article!""
    Mr X
    How to educate your users to regularly reboot their Windows computers
    Ed Price: "I love the table and use of code snippets and images! Great article!"
     Transact-SQL Technical Guru - March 2015  
    Saeid Hasani
    T-SQL: How to Sort a Column that Contains Character-Separated Numbers
    Durval Ramos: "Great article! The samples in this article are very enlightening."
    Richard Mueller: "Good use of guidelines. Good images. Grammar needs work."
    Saeid Hasani
    T-SQL: Troubleshooting When a Column Alias that
    Created in the SELECT Clause Cannot be Used in the ORDER BY Clause
    Richard Mueller: "Great use of article guidelines. I like the images and "See Also". Good explanation of an advanced topic."
    Durval Ramos: "An interesting topic and also have T-SQL script on TNGallery, about related issue in MS Connect. Good job!"
    sql-pro
    T-SQL: SQL Server Agent Job Execution Status
    Durval Ramos: "This article has interesting content, but needs to be better worked."
    Richard Mueller: "A great idea. We may need more references/links."
     Visual Basic Technical Guru - March 2015  
    Reed Kimble
    Simple Multi-User TCP/IP Client & Server using TAP
    Durval Ramos: "This article offers a complete description about an TAP implementation and has a download code on MSDN Code. Good job!"
    Richard Mueller: "I liked this article a lot. Good use of article guidelines. A lot of useful links, but some could be collected in an "Other Resources" section."
    .paul.
    Factorizing Quadratic Equations (practice and solver)
    Durval Ramos: "Very good. Well formatted article and has images that clarify how to work equations. "
    Richard Mueller: "A fun article with good images."
     Visual C# Technical Guru - March 2015  
    Isham Mohamed
    Setting custom Messages in user defined Exceptions
    Carmelo La Monica: "Good articles and sample code!"
    Jaliya Udagedara: "A short and to the point article. Answers a common problem."
    Tom Mohan
    .NET: Equality Features
    Jaliya Udagedara: "Great article. Has links to MSDN when needed. Definitely enjoyed reading."
    Carmelo La Monica: "Article very detailed in all parts, congrats!"
    Vithal Wadje
    Constructors and Its Types in C#
    Carmelo La Monica: "Well done in all its content , and very exhaustive of the types of constructors of a class"
    Jaliya Udagedara: "Explains Constructors in detail. Please do format the code as Andy suggested."
     Wiki and Portals Technical Guru - March 2015  
    Davut EREN
    Turkish Ninjas Team Council Center
    Durval Ramos: "Great collection of Turkish articles!!!"
    Richard Mueller: "Amazing collection of links."
    Ed Price: "Great job in using this article to build out Turkish content and encourage the community!"
    Alan do Nascimento Carlos
    TechNet Wiki - Images
    Durval Ramos: "Very useful for use in "Wiki Ninjas" Blog posts."
    Richard Mueller: "A great collection of fun images."
    Ed Price: "I can see this article being well used as we leverage these images in blog posts!"
     Windows Phone and Windows Store Apps Technical Guru - March 2015  
    Damien Allan
    Make a Styled Button in XAML for Windows Universal Apps
    JH: "Styling has always been special in XAML-based applications. This article shows nicely how to style a button in Blend in universal apps."
    Ed Price: "Great explanations and how-to content, with helpful images and code!"
    Carmelo La Monica
    Part four: The control Maps on Windows Phone 8.
    JH: "Another article about working with the maps control in Windows Phone 8. Nice to see another one in this series."
    Ed Price: "Fantastic and exhaustive explanation of the Maps control!"
     Windows PowerShell Technical Guru - March 2015  
    Noah Stahl
    Make System Center Orchestrator Text Faster than a Teenager using PowerShell
    and Twilio
    Alan Carlos: "Wow! Great article! Congratulations!!!!"
    Ed Price: "What a powerful solution with great details and helpful images!"
    Richard Mueller
    PowerShell Script to Search Active Directory
    Ed Price: "This article is amazing, due to great details, a couple of helpful tables, lots of supporting images, and a plethora of related links at the end!"
    Alan Carlos: "Very useful!!!"
    Dan Christian
    Add MSG file metadata to a SharePoint list using PowerShell
    Alan Carlos: "Excellent!"
    Ed Price: "I love the supplemental video and helpful images!"
     Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) Technical Guru - March 2015  
    Andy ONeill
    Uneventful MVVM
    Ed Price: "Amazing depth on this article! I love the See Also and Other Resources sections! Astonishingly great article!"
    Peter Laker: "Supurb article Andy. Nice work again."
    Magnus (MM8)
    WPF: Implementing Global Hot Keys
    Ed Price: "I love the breakdown of sections and clear descriptions!"
    Peter Laker: "Excellent topic and well explained Magnus!"
    Tom Mohan
    Asynchronous data binding using IsAsync and Delay
    Peter Laker: "Great tip Tom, thanks for your contribution!"
    Ed Price: "Very valuable topic!"
     Windows Server Technical Guru - March 2015  
    Pierre-Alexandre Braeken
    Active Directory - Clone a Domain Controller in Windows Server 2012
    with Hyper-V (VM-GenerationID)
    Mark Parris: "The principals of cloning a DC."
    JM: "This is an excellent article on cloning a DC, nice work and thanks for the contribution."
    Richard Mueller: "Excellent topic and great images."
    Mr X
    Netstat for Beginners
    JM: "This is a great article on netstat, thanks for your contribution."
    Richard Mueller: "Very good tutorial on this important tool. I like the images and tables."
    Mark Parris: "Good Insight"
    Pierre-Alexandre Braeken
    Set up a virtual infrastructure at home with Windows 8 + Hyper-V
    Manager and a Synology DS412j
    Mark Parris: "Nice how to article."
    JM: "Although not aimed at Windows Server users, this is also an excellent article."
    Richard Mueller: "Extensive documentation for all the steps."
    As mentioned above, runners up and comments were removed from this post, to fit into the forum's 60,000 character limit.
    You will find the complete post, comments and feedback on the
    main announcement post.
    Please join the discussion, add a comment, or suggest future categories.
    If you have not yet contributed an article for this month, and you think you can write a more useful, clever, or better produced wiki article than the winners above,
    here's your chance! :D
    Best regards,
    Pete Laker
    More about the TechNet Guru Awards:
    TechNet Guru Competitions
    #PEJL
    Got any nice code? If you invest time in coding an elegant, novel or impressive answer on MSDN forums, why not copy it over to
    TechNet Wiki, for future generations to benefit from! You'll never get archived again, and
    you could win weekly awards!
    Have you got what it takes o become this month's
    TechNet Technical Guru? Join a long list of well known community big hitters, show your knowledge and prowess in your favoured technologies!

    Congrats to Damien and Carmelo!
     Windows Phone and Windows Store Apps Technical Guru - March 2015  
    Damien Allan
    Make a Styled Button in XAML for Windows Universal Apps
    JH: "Styling has always been special in XAML-based applications. This article shows nicely how to style a button in Blend in universal apps."
    Ed Price: "Great explanations and how-to content, with helpful images and code!"
    Carmelo La Monica
    Part four: The control Maps on Windows Phone 8.
    JH: "Another article about working with the maps control in Windows Phone 8. Nice to see another one in this series."
    Ed Price: "Fantastic and exhaustive explanation of the Maps control!"
    Ed Price, Azure & Power BI Customer Program Manager (Blog,
    Small Basic,
    Wiki Ninjas,
    Wiki)
    Answer an interesting question?
    Create a wiki article about it!

  • Windows Phone 8 Lync 2013 will not sign in. Although Apple and Android mobility works fine.

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