Windows Phone 8 queries from an Android user

[gino76ph]

I'm very aware downloading/installing apps is very network or wifi dependent. I usually update & install apps when i'm at home.
My down is at least 70MB. By UK standards that is freaking fast.

I don't plan to install high-end apps (which are normally take up more space on the internal drive) but it would be nice if Nokia/Microsoft can iron out those minor "sluggishness" in the OS.

 

[jimbo45]

I don't think USB to video would work. Those are completely different interfaces.

You are spoiled with yout big screen. Try that on my 4" cutie. LOL

Samsung has screen Mirroring via Wi-Fi and a receiver (HDMI) plugged into TV screen (or Samsung smart TV can do it directly via "network" connectivity. There's also a USB-->HDMI sort of thing if you don't want to use Wi-Fi. I think Appl iPhones have similar --not seen it for Windows.

For Office documents which allow editing and is reasonably compatible with Ms Office try Kingsoft Office -- seems to handle Ms office docs just fine and its FREE -- but whether that app is available for Windows phones I don't know.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[HippsieGypsie]

Yes, I would imagine creating a PP presentation would be a B, but I can create and edit Docs and spreadsheets with ease on this 1520. Remember this is a phablet in size, whs.

The only reason I was reluctant to buy my 1520 was the fact of no HDMI. Does anyone know of a way to USB video to a monitor or projector yet with WP8 yet? I’ve scoured the Net to no avail. Will it be possible with 8.1 I wonder?

Yep! Windows Phone 8.1 has USB video output! I have yet to try it!

Thanks. Very cool!

My thoughts at the time of prepurchase was that sooner or later it would be implemented and here we are.

 

[Coke Robot]

I'm getting a Windows Phone not for PP presentation or mirroring my files to my 5-year old full HD Sony TV.

If i could send any file from my WP8 to other non-WP devices via bluetooth then i'm happy.

If i could connect my WP8 to a wireless speaker via bluetooth then i'm happy.

I just wish everything could be faster though. I have seen/read/heard that there is still slowness with: downloading/installing an app, starting the camera and (the most painful of them all) updating the OS.

Agree?

You'll be happy except the Bluetooth share. NFC share via Windows Phone to android works only with webpages.

As for slowness...not really. The Nokia Pro camera does take a second to start up over the system camera, but other than that it's all rather quick. App updates are also fairly quick too, depends on your data speed. OS updates, you get screwed over if you're on att for sure. Verizon has been fairly decent at authorizing updates in a timely manner.

 

[XweAponX]

I would think that creating a PP presentation or a spreadsheet on the phone would be extremely finagle. Even if it were possible, I would not attempt to do that.

It's actually easy with iOS using numbers or Keynote, even export them to work in Office. I was keeping Battery Usage Logs exported from an app in my phone in Numbers, eventually exported into Excel.

I use Pages on my iPad to keep lyrics, pages loaded in the order we're playing the songs and I have a stand for my iPad I can use when I'm playing, the iPad Mini is just large enough for me to see it, then reach over and flip the page. But I've used Pages to manipulate Docs on my iPad I've grabbed from my PC's - It reads Docx and Doc and even PDF files, even opens the PDF's so you can edit 'em.

 

[XweAponX]

No it is not full office. And you don't get a subscription to office 365. Every WP comes with, Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote.


Yes, you can create documents, not just open and edit.

But you CAN get Office 365 and unlock those features? Can it open docs that were created in the app?

The way it is in iOS Word, is you can OPEN, but just not edit or print.

 

[XweAponX]

They don't come with a free Office 365 account, they come with Office Mobile 15, which is version Office 2013 basically. It's a simple Office suite for Word document creation/light editing/viewing, PowerPoint creation/light editing/viewing, and Excel creation, you get the gist.

If you bought the standalone 2013 Office suite, you will need to buy 365 for ios. Those are two different SKUs.

But Office on Windows Phone is baked in, free to use without subscriptions or anything. Think of it as how Microsoft bundles in Office Home and Student for baby sized tablets.

Ok, but there is no Office for iOS, they are free apps, but only work with an office 365 prescription. The only change was the release of the Word app for iOS, but that also is Office 365 only.

But you are saying, you CAN edit, Print and Open then, with the built in Office Suite on a WP... THAT sounds a lot better. So, Microsoft in other words does what Apple does with iOS 7 now, by including free access to a full working "Office" suite - They used to call those apps "At Work" or maybe iWork. But now they each have their own area in iCloud.com, and what I like about it, is if I start a Doc in Pages, I can resume editing on any Mac or PC Desktop via any browser and iCloud.com. Apple made sure there is full Office compatibility, you can save any pages doc as a Word docx file. If Microsoft does the same thing for any docs you create in Office for WP, then that is a great thing.

I've never had any trouble cross platforming between OSX iOS or any MS OS.

 

[whs]

iOS is one thing, but my 4" lumia screen is really too small. Once the on-screen keyboard comes up, there is only room for a couple of lines.

 

[XweAponX]

iOS is one thing, but my 4" lumia screen is really too small. Once the on-screen keyboard comes up, there is only room for a couple of lines.

I get about half a usable screen in my iPhone, it's better to use Landscape Mode.

 

[Coke Robot]

iOS is one thing, but my 4" lumia screen is really too small. Once the on-screen keyboard comes up, there is only room for a couple of lines.

If there is a will, there is a way.

My old Lumia 900 has a four inch screen much similar to yours and I've used that for document creation and typed several legit pages worth of content on just that.

 

[Coke Robot]

They don't come with a free Office 365 account, they come with Office Mobile 15, which is version Office 2013 basically. It's a simple Office suite for Word document creation/light editing/viewing, PowerPoint creation/light editing/viewing, and Excel creation, you get the gist.

If you bought the standalone 2013 Office suite, you will need to buy 365 for ios. Those are two different SKUs.

But Office on Windows Phone is baked in, free to use without subscriptions or anything. Think of it as how Microsoft bundles in Office Home and Student for baby sized tablets.

Ok, but there is no Office for iOS, they are free apps, but only work with an office 365 prescription. The only change was the release of the Word app for iOS, but that also is Office 365 only.

But you are saying, you CAN edit, Print and Open then, with the built in Office Suite on a WP... THAT sounds a lot better. So, Microsoft in other words does what Apple does with iOS 7 now, by including free access to a full working "Office" suite - They used to call those apps "At Work" or maybe iWork. But now they each have their own area in iCloud.com, and what I like about it, is if I start a Doc in Pages, I can resume editing on any Mac or PC Desktop via any browser and iCloud.com. Apple made sure there is full Office compatibility, you can save any pages doc as a Word docx file. If Microsoft does the same thing for any docs you create in Office for WP, then that is a great thing.

I've never had any trouble cross platforming between OSX iOS or any MS OS.

I think there needs some general clarification of Office on Windows Phone.

It is totally and utterly free to create, view and edit Office documents. No 365 subscription needed like ios. It's baked into the system as how Office is on Windows 8.1 RT.

You CAN connect an Office 365 account into the Office hub on Windows Phone for general document syncing between devices as that's one of the main benefits of 365. What you do on your Windows Phone with a Word document can be edited on an ipad and finished on a PC. If you currently have a 365 subscription, you have documents saved onto your hefty OneDrive. Signing into your account just enables all of that.

Without 365, you can save documents or view them from your OneDrive, or save/import them locally onto the phone. USB transfer can also be done through File Explorer on Windows. Copy and paste a PowerPoint into the Documents folder on the Windows Phone, open it up locally, save it locally, email it locally, whatever. You can fetch files from OneDrive, edit them or view them, and see those changes on Office 2013 with your Microsoft Account.

Currently you can't print. This is an arbitrary thing Microsoft did as if user feedback demands printing support, they will. So far, that can't be done only on Win32 Office 2013 or whatever version.

FYI for everyone.

 

[whs]

Coke, you are my hero, LOL. I am not that good. I need the comfort of my 22" screen for producing anything. All my smaller devices are for consumption only. A few settings here and there I can just barely manage. Don't forget I am 76 and my eyesight is only 40%.

 

[XweAponX]

It is totally and utterly free to create, view and edit Office documents

That's good enough for me, plus there are probably plenty of apps that you can import the Doc into and Print.

With iOS you are stuck with Airprint-Only printers unless you install one of several apps for Epson, HP etc that add Printing functionality to whatever Printer you have on your system, as long as you have the proper printserver program installed to your PC. There used to not be many of them, but for newer printers, you can print from your iOS device on other than Air printers now.

 

[gino76ph]

If all Lumias Windows Phone have pre-installed Office then i'm very happy.

All Apple apps are almost always quite expensive compared to Google or Windows Phone.

Screen size? I found throughout my 4 years with Android and a year of iOS the ideal screen size is somewhere in the region of 4.7" screen. Very comfortable in the hands, even with one hand. A 4.5" Lumia 920 i can manage i suppose.

 

[Tepid]

Let's confuse the issue even further, shall we?

Office 365 is a confusing mess of information.
It is literally all over the place,, and nothing is consistent or explained well.
It is very confusing.

The Office 365 link on the WP under the Office Hub, has to be an Office 365 Business/Enterprise Account to log in.

Office that is pre-installed on all WP's is Office Mobile
This is not the same as Office On-Line or Office 365.

Office Mobile | Windows Phone 8 | Windows Phone How-to | Windows Phone (United States)

Use Word Mobile | Windows Phone How-to (United States)
Use Excel Mobile | Windows Phone How-to (United States)
Use OneNote Mobile on Windows Phone 8 | Windows Phone How-to (United States)
Use PowerPoint Mobile | Windows Phone How-to (United States)
Work with documents on SharePoint | Windows Phone How-to (United States)
How to sync documents with SkyDrive on Windows Phone | Windows Phone How-to (United States)

While these are not full fledged versions of the Desktop Counter Part, or Web, they do work.

Further Notes:

Office Hub | Windows Phone How-to (United States)

Microsoft SharePoint 2010 (or later) site, or on a SharePoint Online site (which is available with Microsoft Office 365).

That is not Office 365 Home or Personal,,, Only works with Business and Enterprise
Buy Office 365 for business ? business productivity software

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there.

All you guys seem to have forgotten Kingsoft Office --can read AND EDIT most Ms office doc types and is FREE - so unless you are creating a hideously complicated spreadsheet (and who would even THINK of doing that even on a 7 inch tablet --never mind a smart phone) the lack of Office software shouldn't be a problem.

I think also some of you might want to look at the possibilities of "Screen Mirroring". Android and IOS devices can do this - either via cable ==>HDMI or by a Wi fi piece of kit - full 1080P output to large screen etc,

The Windows phones don't (yet) have this capability --once you've used it you wont want to be without it.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[Tepid]

Actually, Windows Phone 8.1 DOES have Screen Mirroring...

Project My Screen app (MSI) with USB.
Microsoft's Project My Screen PC component available for download | Windows Phone Central

http://download.microsoft.com/downl...4E9B-9259-0F72FDEDD153/ProjectMyScreenApp.msi

The Nokia Lumia 1520, Lumia Icon and the new Lumia 930 will also be able to project content wirelessly to Miracast-enabled screens, TVs, and projectors.

Source

Miracast is coming later this summer.

As for Office,,, Again,,, many of these other Office Suites can (and most likely will) cause documents to corrupt
when shared between multiple suites.

BTW, Screen Mirroring works great, is fast and fluid
Also, no, not everyone has this ability yet, but, USB Screen Mirroring will be available once the Service Providers release WP8.1 OTA
That could be as soon as mid June or later this year, depending on the Provider and how quickly they release OTA.

There are scheduled, at least 1 or 2 more minor to significant updates coming from MS this year to help cinch up the WP8.x capabilities.

 

[HippsieGypsie]

Good stuff! Thanks again for the info you post, Tepid. Seems I don't get a lot of time to research and read up on new developments. Didn't get the time to update my phone this weekend either.

Off to an afternoon and dinner with the future inlaws.....

 

[Coke Robot]

Let's confuse the issue even further, shall we?

Office 365 is a confusing mess of information.
It is literally all over the place,, and nothing is consistent or explained well.
It is very confusing.

The Office 365 link on the WP under the Office Hub, has to be an Office 365 Business/Enterprise Account to log in.

Office that is pre-installed on all WP's is Office Mobile
This is not the same as Office On-Line or Office 365.

Office Mobile | Windows Phone 8 | Windows Phone How-to | Windows Phone (United States)

Use Word Mobile | Windows Phone How-to (United States)
Use Excel Mobile | Windows Phone How-to (United States)
Use OneNote Mobile on Windows Phone 8 | Windows Phone How-to (United States)
Use PowerPoint Mobile | Windows Phone How-to (United States)
Work with documents on SharePoint | Windows Phone How-to (United States)
How to sync documents with SkyDrive on Windows Phone | Windows Phone How-to (United States)

While these are not full fledged versions of the Desktop Counter Part, or Web, they do work.

Further Notes:

Office Hub | Windows Phone How-to (United States)

Microsoft SharePoint 2010 (or later) site, or on a SharePoint Online site (which is available with Microsoft Office 365).

That is not Office 365 Home or Personal,,, Only works with Business and Enterprise
Buy Office 365 for business ? business productivity software

365 is kind of a mess they need to sort out with Windows Phone it seems...

The idea I would assume would work here is if you use your Microsoft Account that is tied to your Office 365 subscription to use as your Microsoft Account on the Windows Phone. My guess is that everything on OneDrive syncs over just fine from the 365 account to your device.

I'm not sure the reason why only business 365 accounts are only able to be signed into on Windows Phone.

 

[Tepid]

That is the case however, as I have never been able to login to it