From the Forums: Health + fitness discussions, Nokia exclusives and UK meetups

By Rich Edmonds
published

Howdy, folks. It's time for another From the Forums where you're kept up-to-date with the latest threads over on our community forum. It's been a rather slow start to the week with all eyes on the HTC One, so what's been cooked up by readers on the boards?

As you're probably more than aware, it's Mobile Nations Fitness Month. These 28 days are full of training, healthy eating and progress monitoring to see just how technology and health can be combined to work on a lifestyle that suits individual needs. We've been urging you all to get cracking and join us in activities and projects that have been undertaken by the Mobile Nations team. 

As well as participation (howdy, Windows Phone Central Fitbit group!), we've also dedicated a forum just for Fitness Month. If you haven't already done so, we suggest you head on over to the forum and engage in discussion with others. Not only that, but we're running a number of contests which you're more than welcome to take part in.

Be sure to check out our Health & Fitness forum when you get a moment.

Nokia's exclusives a good thing?

Nokia has done a lot for Windows Phone, there's no denying that. But some consumers are becoming slightly concerned at the number of exclusive apps that have been, are currently, and will be restricted to Lumia hardware. Apps have been coming to all other Windows Phones, but are the exclusives a good thing?

Forum member sniffs believes it's out of control:

"I'm getting annoyed by the fact that when apps are coming out for WP, they are timed Nokia exclusives. This isn't making me want to leave my 8X for a Lumia.. it's making me want to leave the entire platform. Nokia needs to stop buying exclusives, it's getting annoying and it's hurting the platform in general. Exclusives for an entire platform is one thing (360/Ps3), but exclusive apps between phone manufacturers is just out of control."

What are your thoughts? If you don't own a Lumia Windows Phone, do you want to see Microsoft doing more instead to bring apps to all devices? Head on over to the "Anyone else getting annoyed that apps come out as "Lumia" exclusives?" thread and voice your opinion.

Potential Windows Phone UK Meetups

Forum member Paladinleeds is planning a UK meetup for Windows Phone enthusiasts. There have been a number of events such as this hosted by members of the Windows Phone Central community in different locations. The plan is (should enough interest build up) to have the meetup in York, this coming April.

"Hey guys, I'm looking to try and get the ball rolling with some UK meetups. As this is in the UK, we'll be hovering between Scotland, Wales, and England. The first one, I am planning to host not too far away from my home, in a lovely city called York. It is planned to be held in April of this year."

Are you interested in a UK meetup for Windows Phone enthusiasts? If so, be sure to head on over to the "Interested in a UK Windows Phone meetup?" thread, as well as the Facebook page for more information.

Rich Edmonds
Rich Edmonds
Senior Editor, PC Build

Rich Edmonds was formerly a Senior Editor of PC hardware at Windows Central, covering everything related to PC components and NAS. He's been involved in technology for more than a decade and knows a thing or two about the magic inside a PC chassis. You can follow him on Twitter at @RichEdmonds.

16 Comments
  • Same old story on Nokia exclusivity, same old misguided arguments. HTC, Microsoft, Samsung are saints being dominated by the evil empire that is Nokia who use their evil mystical powers to stop all apps being released for all WP users and take them exclusivelty for themselves. Those dirty scoundrels! Stopping all those juicy Xbox live games being released, how dare they - oh wait...........!
  • i likes your comment.
  • Oh wait, what? Continue.........
  • Well said!
  • People who downplay the exclusive issue are obviously don't have Verizon, T-Mobile, or any carrier where the 920 isn't available. I picked the 8X because it is a better phone than the 822 and it's not only stupid, but insulting that I had to choose between hardware and apps. Nokia lost my business because they decided to play games and not given me the option of buying the phone I wanted and now they're continuing to screw me over. It's one thing to make their own apps exclusive but it's something completely different when they pay devs to explicitly keep me from having apps because I didn't buy a phone that they didn't try to sell me to begin with.
  • Amen to that.
  • they pay devs to bring their apps to the platform , not to keep them away from other oems. that is why they are timed exclusives.
     
    i'm kinda tired of all this moaning. times like this i just wonder how the hell would you moaners react if nokia chose to leave the platform. hell i even wonder what would have happened to wp without nokia. they own like 80% of the wp pie and in one year since they joined microsoft, the marketplace increased with 100.000 apps. this while in the previous year it only reached 10.000 apps with support from how many oems...the only reason why this platform has this many apps now and developers are even interested in wp is because of nokia and their sales. so say thank you and move along to you oem of choice.
     
    and i can't believe the comments of some when htc announced their wp8 lineup. saying how proud they are in their devices, that they have the same quality in their hands as nokia owners. well it's good to see after all this time what htc and samsung is doing in reality: release hardware and then mostly forget about it with the exception of some bug fixes and general updates. and by the way, no one is stopping htc and samsung from bringing exclusives to their phones also. this would also help the platform, especially since they have more authority with developers from the android side. but instead they just sit back and wait till the platform grows on the back of another company
  • The app argument is beyond ridiculous now, if you bought anything other than a Nokia, you knew what you were getting Into. So you wanna leave the platform that you presumably enjoy because you are missing an app or two? HTC has some nice apps that we don't get to use either and if they went after exclusives, im sure you wouldn't be crying foul for us Lumia owners!! Stop whining about the choice you made and enjoy what you have, like that 720 HD screen with an extra row, beats audio, unique design and colors, and the best os around. Nokia is hard at work to sell phones, and you think they should give you free apps for buying an htc?? Interesting business model...
  • Good one
  • If this were just about Nokia's own apps it wouldn't be an issue. I don't expect city lens on my 8X and I only have drive because Microsoft licensed it, but they are paying 3rd party devs to snub non-Nokia users when they themselves wouldn't make the effort to make their devices as accessible to potential customers as HTC did.
  • Again, it is really Microsoft who should be getting these apps/games onto the OS
  • yes, and concentrate on local markets too with local developers not just america. wp is in need of local oriented apps. and also bring some of their own games franchises to wp. port first generation xbox games, or make new titles available. i think after all the advertising budget they caould afford to invest in some high quality games of their own
  • Facebook group is garnering interest. Looks like I will be running it after all if the momentum keeps up. And yes, I'm really looking forward to this meet. I just didn't expect to get support.
  • I wouldn't say people are moaning about it. Nokia initially chose exclusivity and some of us never really had a choice on what phone to pick. I was excited to get a lumia but I was with o2 and my hd7 gave out and had no choice to get the 8x. Its not a bad thing that Nokia gets exclusive games, but the fact Microsoft hasn't shown support makes me personally feel left out that Nokia owners gets stuff and we don't. If we had a regular stream of game releases it wouldn't bother as much people
  • Its so funny that guys from US and UK are ditching Nokia for their exclusive apps... Here in India, HTC has two windows phones 8s and 8x... Does anyone happy with these choice if Lumia not there... We have Lumia from 9000 INR to 36000 INR.. Lumia 510, 610 620 to be released, 800, 820, 900, 920... List goes on...with the best OS and best support availability, who cares for HTC... Oh!!! Forgot to mention a name.... SAMSUNG(SUMSHIT) does anyone believe Samsung as an OEM for Windows phone.... Crap... Nokia the best in WP.... Wanna use WP... Opt for Nokia
  • I guess people forget that iPhone was ATT exclusive for YEARS. IIRC the 920 is ATT exclusive for six months. Nokia opened up Drive to all WP users. Plus, almost every OEM in other mobile space (android) has customization of the software and even exclusive apps. Its just like everything else, do research on what you want, decide what matters most, and make a choice. If you can't switch carriers but have to have a Lumia 920 or else? Wait it out for your carrier with your current device, go with an alternative (822, 820, hell iPhone or Nexus if you want to), or move carriers. Exclusive apps aren't THAT amazing and I agree the Lumia line is really carrying the OS.