From the Forums

We trust you've all had an eventful festive holiday and that the New Year will hold many good times ahead. Here at Windows Phone Central we've been busy bees throwing up content to push us into 2013 and our community forum hasn't seen a dip in activity either with a number of threads and posts being accumulated. So what's been happening?

Many have been experiencing draining issues with some Windows Phone 8 hardware, whether it be Nokia or HTC, now Windows Phone Central reader generalsu has published his experience with extreme battery loss through what was described as 'light usage'. Fellow member  posted a potential cause:

"Not sure bout other people... but I have noticed that if I open an app that either needs to use the GPS or games, is when I get the big battery drain. If I use the phone normal email, web browsing, etc. I get excellent battery life. My suspicion is that even though the app looks closed visually something in it doesn't close properly and continues to run in the background till the memory that it is in has been cleared. To test this I used crimson dragon for a short period of time (GPS used in game), closed it the phone stays warm long after I closed the application... did a restart and phone goes back to normal temp. So something is still running in the background."

Could we be looking at WhatsApp as the cause? Generalsu did note the app had been running when using the Windows Phone. How has your battery been on your Lumia 920 or other Windows Phone? Have you noticed any sudden drops in charge when using certain apps? Do share your experiences in the "Battery went from 100% to 42% in 6 hours with light usage. Normal?" thread.

Petition for Google apps

Does Windows Phone need Google apps? Yes and no. Yes, because there are those of us who still make use of the search engine services, but then there are others who either live in a Microsoft dominated ecosystem or are switching over to make use of Outlook.com, SkyDrive and more. It's a difficult balance to master and it would be better overall to have such solutions available on the platform.

Should a heavily integrated Google consumer look and Windows Phone and believe it to be worthy of a test drive, he (or she) may be turned away due to not being able to fully utilise already populated services. A petition has been created on Change.org that calls on Google to support its popular services and apps on Windows Phone. 

"Because consumers exercise choice and use multitude of products from different providers. Sometimes we also pay for those services. It is discrimination against consumers if they are being forced to choose platforms based on eco-system support and not their choice. There is no denying that Windows Phone is a promising platform, but app providers like Google keeping their apps walled to Android or iOS is not helping the consumers. The rivalry between the vendors is their own and consumers shouldn't be dragged into it."

do you believe Google should support services on Microsoft's mobile platform? Do you still make use of services from the search giant? Be sure to add your thoughts in the "Sign this Petition to bring Google apps to WP!" thread and sign the petition should you wish to do so.