Windows phone = counter-intuitive?

[danhodge]

From everything I had seen of the Windows phone, I had thought it was the most simplistic, intuitive phone out there.
But my mum has just got the HTC 8S, and she asked me for help with a few things, and even I have gotten stuck over it. And these are simple things...

Okay, putting music on the phone. On a Windows PC, dragging a music file into the music folder in the phone just doesn't work. This is windows PC to windows phone - what the hell?

Adding a ringtone. On my HTC Desire S, I hold over a song and press 'Set as ringtone'. That is intuitive, and it seemed obvious as soon as I got it (my first Android phone, I might add).
I still haven't worked it out on this. You don't seem to be able to do this from the music part of the phone, so I went into settings, and into the ringtones part, and tried to do it from there. And there seems to be no way of using a song that is saved on your phone as a ring tone.

Am I missing something obvious here? Am I just too used to Android?

Please, if anyone else has a Windows phone, give me your opinion of it. Before I saw this, I wanted one too. The only good things I have seen are the home screen (which kicks Android/iOS ass) and the ability to use Office (which, as a student who does homework on his phone as it is, looks great) - but aside from this, I really don't like it at all.

Thanks for reading, and I would love to see some other opinions here.
Danny

 

[KSoD]

What version of Windows Phone is in use? Is it the older 7.8 or the new Win8 Phone?

Sync my Windows Phone | Windows Phone How-to (United States)

There is the directions for Windows Phone 8. The older versions require Zune, which is no longer available.

Sync music, ringtones, and podcasts using my computer | Windows Phone How-to (United States)

There is the information for Ringtones.

I have personally used a Windows Phone before. It was an older version running Windows Phone 7.5, while it is a change from Android it is actually very easy to use. Once you get used to how it operates compared to Android. Since I had one of the original versions of the phone, everything I did was through the Zune software. It wasnt easy but once I figured it out the phone was great.

 

[danhodge]

I'm not sure what version it is, actually. Its just a massive pain to have to use the laptop for something on the phone.
I thought phones had advanced to the stage where you can use them fully, without a computer...

 

[KSoD]

If that was the case, then why do you connect your Android Device to your PC to sync up music? Why must you connect an iPhone to iTunes to activate it for the first time?

No phone out there is completely wire free. There are somethings that will require a PC to do. I couldnt do half of the custom ROM installs on my phone without my USB Connection.

If you want to do something completely on the phone, check the market place for apps to do so. I know they have them as I used them myself. I dont have specific names as I dont own my Windows Phone anymore. You would have to go to a specific Windows Phone Forum to get such answers.

 

[carnageX]

If that was the case, then why do you connect your Android Device to your PC to sync up music? Why must you connect an iPhone to iTunes to activate it for the first time?

No phone out there is completely wire free. There are somethings that will require a PC to do. I couldnt do half of the custom ROM installs on my phone without my USB Connection.

With Google Music, you can put up to 20k songs on the Cloud (unfortunately need to be on internet connection to play it, unless you sync it for offline use from the Cloud as well) .

As for the ROM stuff... can always download directly from the device or transfer wirelessly .

 

[danhodge]

I don't need to connect to my PC anymore for my phone. I only do when I want to put a picture onto my computer, but even then, I use Dropbox...
But I see your point - however this is something which should be able to be done on the phone. It has been a feature for years, and having to plug it into a computer to do is a step backwards in my opinion.

 

[KSoD]

With Google Music, you can put up to 20k songs on the Cloud (unfortunately need to be on internet connection to play it, unless you sync it for offline use from the Cloud as well) .

As for the ROM stuff... can always download directly from the device or transfer wirelessly .

But you still need a PC to upload the music collection to Google Music. Unless your collection is only stored on your device and you sync that with Google Music. So even though Google Music is Cloud based, a PC is still required at some point.

I have tried downloading directly, but the MD5 sums rarely match up. Only way to be sure that I am getting the complete ROM is to get it on my PC and then check the MD5. Yes I can use DropBox, but it takes longer for me to upload it to DropBox then download it to my phone than to just connect it via USB and transfer it. Tried used AirDroid, same results.

I don't need to connect to my PC anymore for my phone. I only do when I want to put a picture onto my computer, but even then, I use Dropbox...
But I see your point - however this is something which should be able to be done on the phone. It has been a feature for years, and having to plug it into a computer to do is a step backwards in my opinion.

But you already have your files on the phone. So while you may not need to anymore, I am sure at some point you did connect it to a PC to get media on the device.

It isnt something that should be done only via the phone. No way I would expect my phone to connect to my PC other than thru USB to get the media I want. It would take far longer for me to transfer my music by using my phone and selecting the files than just using a PC. Especially when I have 300GB of Music and 40GB of pictures to sort through to find the ones I want just on the device. Trying to do what via my phone and thru WiFi will take far longer than just connecting it via USB.

So connecting via USB is very much a personal preference issue. You say it is a step backwards, I say it is a necessity for what I am doing. As every other method via the phone only will take longer and eat more battery life than just connecting a single cable.

Again there are apps in the Market Place on the Windows Phone for Ringtones and Wallpapers. I had one of each myself and used them regularly. But the selection is far less than anything that you can get on a PC and just transfer to the phone with ease of a USB cable.

 

[carnageX]

But you still need a PC to upload the music collection to Google Music. Unless your collection is only stored on your device and you sync that with Google Music. So even though Google Music is Cloud based, a PC is still required at some point.

Oh yeah, I'm not arguing that a PC is needed for certain aspects; just bringing up the point that a lot of it is still trying to be moved away from being dependent on a PC for a lot of things.

I have tried downloading directly, but the MD5 sums rarely match up. Only way to be sure that I am getting the complete ROM is to get it on my PC and then check the MD5. Yes I can use DropBox, but it takes longer for me to upload it to DropBox then download it to my phone than to just connect it via USB and transfer it. Tried used AirDroid, same results.

That's odd, I've downloaded tons of things over the air directly on my phone (with both Wifi and 4G data), and checked the MD5 on the device (there's apps to do this), and it's matched up fine. What have you used to download? I've had decent luck downloading with Dolphin.

If I have the file already saved on my computer, I'll usually just toss it over to my FTP server over LAN and then copy it to my phone over FTP as well.

 

[KSoD]

Just recently I tried to get the latest nightly of CM for the Quincy. It downloaded and when I went to flash, it was a bad download. Good thing I had another ROM already stored on my card so get the phone working again.

But typically my ROMs are not downloading properly. I dont know why. The first was from CM and the other was a CM Cherry Picked by a great Dev for my device. That along with a custom Kernel. Of the 3 things, only the Kernel has ever successfully downloaded. Via WiFi or 4G.

Guess AT&T round here doesnt like me downloading ROMS....