Rumor: Microsoft set to roll out Windows Phone 8 update 'Apollo+' in Q1 2013 [Update]

I completely agree with the calendar improvement. Or allow 3rd party developers to create robust calendar apps without limitations. Right now my wife's Iphone has a 3rd party calendar app that smokes anything I can find on my WP8. Trust me, I have several calendar apps (eg: VSysCalendar, Week View, etc) and none of them are fully functional. They are nice add-ons but they are not robust. I'm still all in with WP but after 2+ years, my patience is wearing thin.

Your patience is wearing thin over the built in calendar?

My patience has already worn thin, had a Samsung Omnia 7 since it first arrived, great phone. Now got iPhone 5, best decision I could make! (not dissing MS as I love WP as an OS) I may come back to WP, but with the lack of third party apps (still), its a blessing I can get all the apps I require on iOS. When they're made for WP and big developers take WP seriously, im coming back, but in the mean time, technology moves to fast to still be waiting. 

"technology moves to fast to still be waiting."
You should mention that to Apple. Every phone release lately has just been a spec bump in their lineup. No true innovation, except for possibly Siri (which is debatable). Sure, Microsoft may not have the apps, but I think they have the tech that Apple is missing, especially with hardware devs like Nokia pushing the envelope. 

I don't disagree with you regarding the phone, but for me personally, it's about the apps I can use rather than the phone. I love the Nokia 920 and think its specs kick Apples arse, I just wish it had the ecosystem/developer apps now that would complement a great phone and OS.
 

not to criticize, but how many apps do you actually use on a normal basis?!

Mind throwing out a few examples?

Yes! All day events now seem to show on the live tile the day before but not on the day of. Kinda frustrating, if you don't open the calendar app every day.

Yep, I noticed that.

I agree, though what I'm looking for is a feature enhancement more than a fix. With Office 365 being a powerful - and I expect popular - way to manage your information, it would really be nice if the appointment categories (and their colors), as well as shared calendars, could be seen on the phone, so you have a seemless experience between Outlook, OWA, and your phone. To me, that's the most significant update that's missing.

I still don't understand why they haven't added it back after it was included in the pre-release 7003 build. Seems like one of the easiest things to re-add, especially since the homescreen doesn't have a landscape mode anyway.

The only phone that has screen rotation lock is dell venue pro. I can't appreciate how useful it is when viewing web pages. Oh and it has portrait keyboard too =] I plan to hold on to it for as long as venue pro like phones come along.

Orientation Lock is a must!!
 
+ they should fix the opening of multiple windows of Messaging app in multitask menu (even when you're txting the same person!)
 
+ and add a close button to open apps in multitask menu, or Swipe up to close..

Seriosuly..we need that goddamn orientaion lock. This is embarassing.

+100000000000

The orientation lock is the last thing on my list of must haves. I have no other complaints with the OS.

Me too! I hate the screen keep rotating! ;)

YES please orientation lock!  Really annoying when using the phone in bed!

Yes, make it so!

1920x1080p resolution support, notification center (although I don't care deeply for one at this time), swipe-to-close gesture when using multitasking view to quickly close out certain applications, WiFi calling, DirectX support (which was touted during the initial press conference for Windows Phone 8 earlier in 2012), and an assortment of fixes for freeze bugs and improved battery life.  I've also noticed WP8 devices such as the Lumia 920 bootup considerably slower than WP7 devices.  I did a restart test against a Samsung Galaxy S3 and my Lumia 920 lost by about 10 seconds!  However, my old Titan 2 beat the S3 by nearly 10 seconds.  What has happened to WP8!?

Sheez was nodo only this year?! I thought it was Last yr? :P

Hope its true, would make sense. Alot of WP8 devices being sold this Holiday season, have to address issues quickly...

NoDO was the update sent out Q1 2011, not this year right?

That's what I thought?!

Correct.

Post has been corrected.

Rotation lock, please! Also, an option to add name and email address or other contact info on the lock screen.

There are apps that do this by creating a background screen with your text.

I would lke to see separate volume controls and a notification center. Also, are current WP8 users wiling to wait that long for bug fixes? Seems it would be best if they rolled out bug fixes sooner (depending on how widespread and severe they are).

If they were to add a notification center, they would remove Live Tiles. Then it would just be a list of applications.

I see both working together without any issues. Live tiles are great for a quick glance, but notification center can provide greater detail, and can show updates for all the apps in one place. It's also beneficial for apps (offering push notification) that are not pinned to the Start screen. So, I think both can co-exist without causing redundancy.

^ this

Yes, there is absolutely no reason they can't both exist on the same device.

Who says??? We need both!

can we get past this already? Live tiles are basically widgets with rules. Most of them aren't that different than the counter badges iOS has used for years, and even iOS eventually saw the need for a centralised notification center.
Just this weekend I had multiple instances of "why did my phone just beep?", and none of my tiles were showing anything.

Its kind of minboggling that people dont get this by now.

I don't understand why people can't understand this either...

I think the user needs both of them.
Live Tile for the current imformation presentation, while notification is for re-cap any old information (most likely toast notifications).

Yeah, like a "timeline" of toast notifications.

Swipe left gets the apps, swipe to the right gets notifications. Like on the N9, keeps it simple with 3 main screens.
[Notifications]   <-  [Home]   ->  [Apps list]
 

+1

Yes!!; And louder volume!

+1
 

I like this idea. +1+1+1+1+1

Very good! +1

I'd prefer a swipe down from the top of the screen. Then it can be available as an overlay from anywhere, not just as part of your home screen. Like you get a notification and you can drag it down into a feature-rich notification center. Maybe app-specific notification extension too. Eg pull down a text notification to see a little text history and a basic reply box. When no notification is visibile, swipe down in similar fasion to how you access things on a win 8 tablet. Then you get a list of notifications and can drill in to the simple extensible actions for IM, etc. I'd much rather that than overloading the home screen with functionality.

More cut/paste options.

Eg, copy and paste phone numbers into dialing pad? Yes please! :)

Yo, dawg. I don't know if you know this, but you can totally do that in Windows Phone 8. I do it every day! :D

Just so you're aware. In WP8 you can copy/paste phone numbers into the dialing pad. So, that wish has been granted. ;)

Heck... WP8 actually does one better.  If you tap on any phone number in a website, etc... it actually copies and pastes it dierectly into the dialer for you and dials the number!
E-mail seems to work slightly different.  If you tap a number in an e-mail, it opens the number up as a contact.  You can then click the Call this Number option to place the call.
I actually used this the other day.  I was looking up the number for a local store and told my wife to grab a pen so she could write the number down. On a whim I decided to try and tap the phone number from the website and sure enough it started dialing!!!
Pretty slick!

pretty sure you were able to do the same thing in WP7.5, it may not have dialed the number right away but it allowed you to.

Cloud backup of application data and start screen layout.

+1

Backup of application data is a must. Startscreen layout would be nice, but we would need the sync software to install the apps as well.

WP8 does reinstall previously installed apps when restoring.

Screen rotation lock would be welcome, but a notification center is not necessary, that's why wp has live tiles...

+2 what's the point of live tiles if i have one spot for everything? Plus we have notifications on the new lock screen. People just trying to make this like android ios its not it wp

Live tiles are useful, but are limited in their purpose. A notification center can show greater detail and can also show all the notifications in one place. Moreover, users may opt to not pin certain apps to the start screen, and a notification center would (should) be able to gather updates for such apps as well. So, I would argue both - live tiles and notification center would perfectly complement each other. Just my thought on the matter - as you can see, I'm pro notification center! :)

+1. Live Tiles and a notification center is the Holy Grail.

I'm thinking half-press volume button to bring down menu, and then swipe down from the top of the screen, pushing the menu away and revealing old notifications. If you don't want them anymore, just swipe them away! I know this sounds a lot like iOS, but the iOS-way is just really annoying especially when you're playing games on a smaller screen and you swipe twice from the edge and the game pauses >

+1 and Blutooth, wifi, and NFC could be put on the notification pivot (it should be the left pivot) so you can get to everything easily.
Right now to get to wifi, you have eitehr pin a 3rd party app or the system screen to the start page. It's a hassle. Android handles it much better with the nice top drag down. I'm a windows fan, but if we are honest the notification on android is better.
A left pivot would do the trick just as nicely as the top down for android.
 

my thoughts exactly.  the entire homescreen is a notification center tailored only to the notifications that you care about.  I really don't get this obsession with a Notificaiton center for wp8.

So how about this scenario, you here a notification sound on your phone but dont look at it right that second/minute and when you go to see what it was it's gone and nowhere to figure out which app it came from. I'm not talking text messages, phone calls, emails, but more of lets say a sports score from the ESPN ScoreCenter app that sends a notification to my phone when one of my teams scores a TD (real time). If you do not here it or see it with in the window of time it is gone and I mean gone!

It seems like this scenario has to be explained ad infinitum to all the "no need for notification center" people. I wish they would listen for once.

I think some listen but a lot of them can't "here" what's being said. LOL

I would think it safer to assume they don't care because its not really an issue for them. Personally for me its not an issue yes sometimes it would be nice to see a missed toast but generally if I actually care then that app is pinned and I see an indicator or the text display of the tile has updated. That is the point of the live tile system. The problem is not really ms or the is its devs that are doing straight ports fom other platforms and not using this platforms unique features. Case in point weather app. I would like to know about the weather fairly regularly so its pinned and at the top it normally displays the current temp and flips with the local radar image if I get a sever alert and mis the toast I see a nice badge indicating sever weather along with the current temp whose background reflects the condition outside and whose back tile shows the radar pretty mch everything a notification center would show and pretty much the same info contained in the toast for the most part this is all the info I desire but f I want more then tap the tile and when opened its UI is up to date with relevant info and the ability to dive into more detail. see a properly written app for the platform removes the need for notifications. If your app does not show what you want talk to its developer most of us listen to users or at least should its how we make a living

correct me if I'm wrong but if it meant that much to you wouldn't you pin the ESPN tile to the Start Screen and it would show there's a little 1 in the corner to tell you there's a notification so you open the app?? I think that's the argument against having a notification center.

While it's certainly a workaround, there are a couple of issues with that argument -
1) It's telling people what to do with their Start screen. This defeats the purpose of personalization. Users should be able to leave apps off the Start screen but still leverage their push notification capablities. This becomes especially useful for less-often used apps (in my case - Flight Aware and Parcel Tracking). I (and I'm sure many others) don't want to constantly pin-unpin apps just to leverage push notification.
2) Live tiles do not offer details regarding the updates. Most apps show either the latest update, or, a number indicating an update. This is where a notification center becomes very effective. It shows all the updates (and the details regarding each update) that happened across all apps (pinned or unpinned) in one location.
This is why I feel both - live tiles and a notification center, are essential.

Apps with push notification, if not pinned to start screen, you won't know if you had any. That's the issue. They show up and disappear. So there is a need for some kind of notification center, unless MS can come up with something else.

Exactly.

Thank you. I don't understand why other people don't get this! Currently the CNN app (for WP7) does toast notifications for breaking news but even with the live tile the app doesn't tell you that it just tried to notify you. If you don't check in time, that breaking news toast notification is gone forever.

You're right - regarding the CNN breaking news toast notification - apparently it's the only way to show the "breaking news" marquee in the app. If you miss the toast notification, you can't just open the app to see the breaking news. It truly is gone forever! Wish CNN would fix this in a future update.

I said this above, but a timeline style list of toast notifications would be cool. Just a place that collects and keeps the toasts. Make it work like the texts list. Where new and untapped toasts are highlighted and tapped ones are muted, select to delete individual toasts or clear the lot.

All this speculation and no official word. Not buying into it until it happens. The whole trail up to WP8 devices and WP8 has been a whole phantom menace.

Only until Microsoft Strikes Back and gives us WP8 users New Hope.

This might just be my favorite comment that I've ever read on WPCentral. Thank you for that.

I'm confused about seperate volume controls. My Lumia 920 volume controls seem to fnction differently than my Titan and Dell venue pro before it.
It used to be that my phone volume was the same for music and alert volume. Now however it's different. When I connect to my car via bluetooth for music, the volume is different than my call or alert volume. Aren't those seperate volume controls? Quite frankly I prefered the simpler WP7 way.

Call volume has always been separate (along with alarms). Ringer, texts, emails, etc. are controlled via the main volume--at least, in WP7.5.

This is a FEATURE I love! I use car Bluetooth at volume 30, office Bluetooth at volume 10, and the phone remembers the setting. Now I'm don't have to worry about blowing up my Bluetooth office speaker when I connect my phone right after leaving my car.

Yeah, noticed the same thing.  I just got an 8X this past Friday and noticed something that I didn't really see discussed much. I use my phone to play music over bluetooth in my car a lot, and on my previous phone, the Trophy, as most people know there was no way to have a separate volume for bluetooth audio. What I've noticed on this phone so far, though, is that there IS separate volume. Typically, with my Trophy, I'd turn the volume up to like 20 or 22 when playing music on bluetooth, then when I'd get out of the car I'd immediately turn it down to my normal setting of 12. Well, I went to do that this weekend with my 8X, turn the volume down when I got out of the car, but it was already back at 12. Then when I went somewhere else and listened to music again, it was already back up at 22.

I would like to see how I can sign up to get the update earlier. That is something I really want to know still.

Agreed!! They never mentioned it again after the original announcement...was it even an announcement? I've forgotten...

I want to be able to sync Xbox video content to my phone

And iTunes videos.

And xbox music collection! Its buggy and dont work for me

xbox music works fine on my 920 but i must find a way to get either my zune/xbox videos or amazon videos on my phone so they better fix it asap

I just want to see it carved in stone that ATT can't hold this up for 6 month per their usual dismal Customer Service

This!  + you win the internets!

Seriously!! Just give out the update without all this nonsense with having to get it AT&T approved.

AT&T lika the juice no? I think the updates were supposed to come directly through MS with Windows 8... If not you're carrier will most likely hold them up...

Didn't MS add a feature where if you opt out of at&t's (or whatever carrier) warranty they'd allow you to directly update your phone?

A more complete backup and restore feature.  If i restore on a different device, settings, start screen, texts, pictures, videos should be on my new phone. 
 
Right now, not all the settings are restored, only some of them.  I should be able to replicate right away what my previous settings and look were onto a new phone, yes, it will take more time, but that is the easiest to set-up your phone i fyou lose or your phone is defective. 
 
Add notification in the me tile, rotate lock, issues with ie10 viewing embedded videos on a forum i got to, faster ie10 performance. 

Apollo's version of NoDo, I'm sure. (Don't expect any real features, folks.) There always seems to be those little bugs that were missed in beta but that urgently need to be changed. Kid's Corner, much?

What's wrong with kids corner I use this alot, because of my daughter. Just curious

Orientation Lock
Battery software percentage
Notification center
AND MOST OF ALL, a better media player app. The music+video app sucks.
That's all I ask.

How does it suck? Its far better than what iOS and stock Android offer.

Inability to edit playlists is a major drawback, IMO.

^This, This, and This. Major drawback. Also I find that many of my music files are recognized by Nokia Music but not Xbox Music+Video, which is a pain.

I'm curious how the music+video app sucks. The desktop/metro companion app sucks, but the music+video app is as good as it has ever been.

I'd like ability to select folder of photos for Favourites and lock screen - so it is easier to swap them around

*Xbox Movies work as advertised.. damit this pisses me off.
 
*Notification center
 
*IM service that works over Wifi natively (Skype, but built in - let the software determine what to use based on connection type - wifi or 4g)
 
*VOIP native (Skype, but built in - let the software determine what to use based on connection type - wifi or 4g)
 
Complete mirror image of WP Backup and restore - every thing...
 
*and a 1 year subscription to Vivid

Viber for all windows phones! Nor just Nokia Microsoft!!!!!!!!!!!!

Viber HD isn't on Lumia WP8 devices.

Give us access to our Xbox movie purchases!!!!

Agreed!!!!!! I thought it was 3 screens and seamless integration

in the meantime I would happily take an Amazon Instant Video App

VPN.  Rotation lock would be nice too.

CUSTOM TEXT ALERTS for the love of God.

A-FREAKING-MEN!! And a better windows phone app for your desktop.

Soooooo +1!! It's ridiculous right now.

Yes please!

#firstworldproblem

I would like to see Microsoft give the finger to all the carriers and not allow the carriers to make any changes to the OS. That is the one feature I would like to see copied from Apple.

Let.me get this straight.. Windows phone 8 has a scheduled update and we still don't know when is windows phone 7.8 update coming out.

+10000000000

yes, and that update will arrive before 7.8 does.

This. Just release 7.8 already

They can't anyway. Most they can do is add a suggested apps list in the store and bundle a bunch of apps with the phone, all of which are uninstallable. What are you referring to?

WTF are YOU referring to?

Yeah. Apparently Microsoft thinks the existing WP costumers were not mistreated enough already.

Flip to silence!!

But how would you use the wireless charger too?

In a world where we text more than call people, give us custom alert sounds please.

XBOX VIDEO AND ITUNES VIDEO SUPPORT FFS!!

 
Please add a notification center! PLEASE! I hope they make it so you can swipe to the right on the homescreen to pull out a notification center much like swiping to left brings up all the apps. I also would like for them to add the ability to swipe up or down on apps when in the multitaksing veiw to close apps. If they add those two features i'll be extremely happy. 
P.S. We also need nokia drive for all windows phone 8 devices to be rolled out! 

Turn on your phone. Swipe up to unlock. BAM, notifications. :)

Better Bluetooth support. Can't play music in my Audi with my 920. Don't know if that's a WP or Audi issue.

I can play music in my Ford Focus just fine. I've benen able to do it with all of my phones including the iPhone, all of my android phones and my Lumia 920. By the way, the audio system is powered by Microsoft Sync. It's so compatible.

Works fine on my 920 / Honda Oddesey

Audi issue. Dunno which Audi head unit you have, but none of the VW/Audi vehicles I've driven supported Bluetooth streaming. Bluetooth handsfree calls, but not streaming.

INSTAGRAM, SNAPCHAT, AND MINECRAFT ASAP!!

This!!!! And a notification center would be very nice.

Not Microsoft's fault you guys. Come on, think McFly, think! Its the developers of these apps, annoy them.

Ability to watch movies on my windows phone.  I purchased a movie on my windows 8 PC.. only to find out i couldn't watch it on my shiny new lumia 920...  so sad.. so sad

Please add smart dial support.

This is a little touch that means a lot! I miss this madly from my One X.

Notification center
Custom alerts
Landscape view of the start screen
Volume controls for phone and for music separated
That is all I really want/need
Other than that fully satisfied.

One touch silence (and I don't mean set to vibrate). I mean complete silence!

+1. I never understood why they don't let me enable/disable vibrate mode directly. I always have to go into the setting menu. Currently you can tap on the bell sign to turn on or off the sound. They should just add two more states like this:
- sound on, vib off
- sound off, vib on
- sound on, vib on
- sound off, vib off
 

Ditto this!

This, a million times this.

+1 I wonder why this ever has been removed since WM6.5 its just such an obviously useful feature and one that doesn't need a rocket scientist to implement I am sure.

Better syncing and podcast support in the UK.

Create new contact from Text... Or at least the ability to copy the phone number or something. Doesn't happen all the time.. but has happened a few times since I moved to WP7 and WP8

I can copy/paste numbers for contacts very easily... and I can create them from texts/calls just fine, so I'm not sure what you mean.

Um... tap the phone number at the top of the message thread screen, then tap Save?

I would hope that SOMEONE over at MS would lose some sleep if Apollo+ gets formally announced and dated before 7.8.

One handed keyboard use and notification center. Btw live tiles are sort of dumb played out cause you still need to open the app. (concept was good though)

Live Tiles do exactly what the app developer allows them to do. No more, no less. You need only look at Amazing Weather to realize how good they can be or Phone Dialer for how minimal. The point is, if you don't like a live tile, make it bigger, or contact the developer of that app and request it.

Static icons in android are dumb played out. This is one of the stupidest comments I've read.

If they call it Apollo + (reads as Apollo plus), then it technically doesn't end in an "-O" which was their previous naming convention. They should call it "Ocho" or Apollo ocho" to keep up with the naming convention and keep with the Windows 8 branding. (Ocho means 8).

I have my money bet on this: If they do a notification center, then it will be a live wallpaper that has a companion app so you can set a picture as the backdrop for the notification center live wallpaper.

Anyone could do that now using existing API's and Native Code.

DO we really have to wait until Feb-March 2013 to get the basic bug fixes. UUGH!.  I won't be able to play purchased video from XBOX Video store until then.... I would rather have bug fixes sooner and features later.

What do people mean by screen rotation lock ? Like, I'm confused. Is it, the screen rotates? '-'

The screen would be able to be locked in either portrait, or landscape mode.. Whatever your choice. Rotating the phone would not affect the orientation of the screens position.

OOOH gotcha. Thanks !

There are a couple basics I would like to see.
1.  The ability to have the phone keep notifiing me that there is a text message or voice mail until I have acknowledged it.  This was on my IPhone 3g.  If my phone is downstairs and I am up stairs and don't here it or if I have stepped away from my office and get a text, I would be nice for the phone to keep trying to let me know I missed it. 
2.  A decent calendar.  I have seen a couple apps that are close but still a no go.  I would like to be able to actually read the calendar.  I have mulitple accounts that for different things.  The calendar needs to beable to let me edit and see the different accounts in different colors.  I have work for on account/color, than personal and family that me and my wife can both access and edit.  With kids this for me is a must to keep everything in order.
3. Finally, a nice simple, easy to use music player.  I don't play games and all the other stuff.  I just want a simple music player.
So far that is all. 
 
 

They didn't update that calendar for, like, years

Regarding #1 ... they did. It's called a live tile. See all those numbers next to the icons? ;) Not being a smartass, just saying that's the design paradigm, and they're not going to change it unless/until they implement a full notification hub. Regarding #2 ... yes. The Calendar app is atrocious. Regarding #3 ... that's one good thing WP has going for it already. It is very simple to play music on it. And buy music on it. Many, simple options. It's getting your existing music ONTO the phone that's annoying, but if you came from iPhone, you have an easier time since it's probably all in iTunes and you don't have to change anything.

I'm of the opinion that wp7/8 has the best native music player out of them all. As for syncing......

I don't understand #2... this works just fine in Agenda view. Different colors for different calendars and everything. #3 doesn't make any sense to me either... the music player is awesome, and not tied into games at all, right? It can access videos, but it's just one selection branch after clicking on music and video to get to music.

In regards to #2, have you checked the settings in Calendar. You can specify whatever colour you want for all your syned calendars.
Also the music player on Windows Phone is the best I've used.

What about audio/video out?? I've been asking for this feature since day 1!!!!!!

Smartglass and DLNA

Smartglass app is already available. Nokia had an DLNA "Play To" app available, it's still in the marketplace but was not updated to fit screen sizes bigger than WVGA.

Yes, a form of Play To should be baked into Windows Phone 8, and should support all DLNA devices, not just "Microsoft Certified" ones like the Surface RT has.  (My Sony Blu-ray player has DLNA and I use it regularily, but I can't use it with either my phone or tablet, which is a little frustrating to me.)

Audi issue. Dunno which Audi head unit you have, but none of the VW/Audi vehicles I've driven supported Bluetooth streaming. Bluetooth handsfree calls, but not streaming.

In the text message/chat window, I'd like to know what phone number the text came from, or sending to.  If a contact has multiple phone numbers, you only see the name, but no idea which number it came from.
 

Messaging will ONLY allow texting to their "mobile" number, so there really isn't much confusion unless the user has contacts duplicated on your phone (and shouldn't the user be responsible for cleaning those up). Although, I have seen people have their mobile number on Skype and Facebook that was listed incorrectly (forgot to update numbers, etc.), and that will list a duplicate mobile number. I find it easier to remind that person to fix or remove it, to be honest... they usually appreciate the reminder.
 
Knowing it will only text to mobile numbers, you can tap on the name and see the full contact details and immediately know what number to use.

Click the switch button at the bottom

I would like to see SMS privacy like android and ios

With you on this. Basic privacy issue and has been for some time!

This is what I have been waiting for.. Bring out the surface phone.. Im jumping from my current device to it...

I need many improvements to editing, formatting and viewing documents in Word for WP8. They could take a look at Mobile Word as it was years ago on Windows Mobile, or at QuickOffice for iOS and Android. I need to be able to adjust font-size by points, not just "bigger" and "smaller".  A few standard font choices would be nice along with line-spacing and more paragraph formatting. I also need to be able to view a document in an un-mobilized form, with word-wrap turned off so that I can see what my document will look like when the recipient opens it in Word, and/or prints it out.  I also need to be able to either edit old .doc files, or convert them to .docx files within the phone. Word may be "free" on WP but it's ridiculously limited and embarrassing to show iPhone/Android users.  That's frustratingly ironic, given that Word and WP are both Microsoft products.

This and VPN compatibility will open WP8 for the business world and give it a greater following.

Well I wouldn't hold my breath on any of that so soon, but yes, I agree. It should act the same as the Web App versions, at a minimum. Which makes me wonder... have you tried using the web apps on WP?

Yes I have. And Word and Excel seem to work fine through IE10. However, forget trying to edit Onenote. For kicks and giggles, I went to my local Att store and played with the HTC OneX+, logged into my live account via the browser and found that I could use and edit Word, Excel and Onenote much easier. I was disappointed with my browser at that point. MS has alot of work to do with alot of things to improve. The browser needs more plugins to view and manipulate more pages efficiently. I would be happy if I could view everything my wife can on her Iphone4 at least. I love my WP. The layout and efficiency with the design are fantastic. Come on MS, time to deliver.

I'd like to see a voice-to-text microphone key on all keyboards in all apps as a default. That would be huge.

Yes!! This would be fantastic!! Technically, though, this is already possible. The app developer need only enable the API in their app.

Would be nice to not have my phone reboot itself 3 times a day!!!! Piece of crap HTC 8X

Uninstall Skype beta

Fix for signal misregistration (although this could be a Nokia bug)

Please clarify what you mean by this...?

Better Music syncing and podcast management. Basically, revive Zune and call it Xbox music/Video.

^^^THIS..... I cannot believe they discontinued ZUNE for the broken joke of Xbox music on WP8. No Podcast support unless in the MP??? Crappy No-sync of music and playlists and not even being able to open an mp3 file in IE10. WTH! Tell me to install Itunes to download podcasts! Its insane what they've done. Can't play Video I bought in Zune! I'm still carrying my T-II just to listen to podcast.... They need to get this right. I know people taking phones back because they can't listen to their voicemail mp3's.

Well, since we're posting our Wish Lists, I'll suggest the following:
  SmartDial (why this was taken out of WP, I will never know) Facebook Comment Liking in People Hub WAV File Support (why this was taken out of WP8, I don't understand) Week View in Calendar Better Xbox Music / Zune Pass Support Flash support would be a dream come true (WinRT whitelist would be great) VPN Support (At least support PPTP and L2TP/IPsec options like Windows) Wi-Fi Improvements (EAP-TLS, Always On) Battery Life / Power Management Improvements (Fix the Battery Drain Issues) Ability to pin Settings items to Home (ie. battery saver or internet sharing) Custom Alert Tones (SMS, Email, etc.)  
Yeah, I think that'd do nicely. Oh, and you know, continue to work on that whole 3rd-party App Ecosystem thing to shutup the app who--- whiners, lol.

And incidentally, I'm not a coder but as a fairly technical person, I believe that half of those could be done with one developer spending a week on them (including planning and testing). The other half, a small group of developers could do them within a business quarter.

Agree, seems those things would be drag and drop modules by now based on how commonplace they are... Some decent developer should be able to compile those on short order. Only thing I can think of would be IP rights on how those tasks are accomplished. They are actually copyrighting code now and before code, they will copyright a process on how to accomplish a task, so it's hard for many people to find an alternate method, and even when they do, they get sued for copyright infringement and have to spend millions defending their alternate methods. Half the time its cheaper to license the current methods... Sad world that Apple has created with IP lawsuits for everything.

No WAV file support.  Seriously?  I didn't know that.  I have plenty of stuff in WAV format still.  You seriously saying that I can't play that music on my Windows PHone?  Which I have yet to purchase yet.  Still deciding?

Correct. It's a HUGE limit right now, but take comfort that Joe Belfiore is on record that they're "working on it."

You didn't know about the limitation, so you obviously don't need that feature. Why so angry?

He also hadn't purchased, and this may prevent him in doing so. Why so harsh?

I can't imagine why you need to play a .wav file on a phone when there are far less memory-consuming options. Time to do some media conversions, I reckon!
I love my Lumia 920 but there are two MAJOR things wrong with the support for Win8 Phone:
#1 - No all-in-one media management solution (like Zune Player was until they took the app store out of it). Windows Media Player is the best of a bad bunch but using Nokia Music or allowing XBox Music to run with my phone totally screws up my media library, with genres being altered (wrongly), artists and album info being altered (wrongly) and missing artwork that is actually embedded into the mp3 file itself! My library was organised into about 20 genres...after copying what I wanted over to my phone and running Nokia Music, I had over 40 genres and half the info was wrong or missing. Microsoft need their very own iTunes...the Nokia Desktop app looks like a Commodore Amiga program from 1995 and syncing files is not as automated as it would seem. Zune Player worked perfectly well and they have removed it without offering one fully-functional alternative. Poor show.
#2 - Apps - while I don't need 500 "Daily thought from the Bible" apps, the kind that bump up the numbers for the iOS and Android stores, Microsoft haven't done a great job of getting some of the most useful apps ported. BBC iPlayer, for example. I think anyone who installs more than 50 apps on their phone is installing for the sake of installing (I mean, how many do you really need to use/can actually use regularly?) WP8 does a great job of bringing social networking and email together and I rarely use the twitter or FB apps anyway...but they (MS) needed to speculate to accumulate. More people will migrate to the superior WP8 OS if they know their iPhone apps will be there when they do. I've had WP7/7.5 before so I haven't had many grumbles but it would be annoying to get a better phone (if I had been on Android, for example) but miss out on a few obviously popular apps. 

Amen

I am still waiting for custom ringtones on other than phone calls like sms, email, etc.
 
Not OS related but need to work on getting more of the popular apps on board. That is what everyone is still complaining about.

1. Kids corner separate lock code or no code option this will be very handy if you have older kids probably 6 and up
2. PDF file sending capabilities

Those are definitely possibilities, although Joe Belfiore is on record stating that the lock code thing is "by design" for now. I guess his logic makes sense... they want the user to maintain the control over access to the phone, which is smart. It does defeat the purpose when parents get sick of entering it in and just tell the kids the code, but then parents have no one to blame for the mishaps. As for PDF sending, I suspect that they could easily add that since you can now drag/drop any file type onto the phone by Windows Explorer.

I agree notification centre and VPN support would be great, but what I want most is my storage back! It seems a phantom folder titled 'other' is taking up half of the storage on my 8x, and although it's only a 16GB device, that was ample with my HD7. What the hell is in that folder and how do I delete it! Please feel free to check your devices too, I have afunny feeling it's a standard issue. And no, it does not seem to be some sort of dynamic cache that frees space as you need it. I recorded in 1080p (20 mins ish) until my phone said memory was full. The 7GB otherfile was still there. Really needs sorting.

Just curious... can you tell me exactly where you're seeing this, and how to get there? I have a Lumia 920, so I'm curious if it's a WP8 thing, 8X thing, or 'You' thing. What have you done to troubleshoot it?

Go to settings and check storage. When the bar comes up, press it and i gives you the breakdown. Alternatively, plug into a comp and it shows on the app. There are threads on WP Central and the Windows community websites about a fair few people experiencing it, so I doubt it's a me thing. I cleared my e-mails, deleted most of my texts and cleared all map data. I'm hugely reluctant to reset the phone as I've just got it how I like it. As I said, i is pretty much exactly the same as my HD7 with perhaps 2 further games and 3 less apps. Pretty sure that's not 7GB worth of diference.

I have a 1.63GB "other" section. I'm curious to know what "other" means. I would have suspected map data or some type of other app cached information. Shame we don't have more detail. Did you copy any regular documents over to the phone via Explorer?

The 1.63GB for others is map data. I can tell you this cos i downloaded many maps on my phone and have 6.86 GB as others. By the way i have a lumia 920. So i guess what he is experiencing is a htc thing tja i guess thats what you get for going against us (Lumians) lol.
On a serious note thats messed up, not only do you get less storage but your storage is also consumed y some unknown place holder.

Nope, there are no documents, no maps, 4 texts, a couple of e-mails with no attachments and everything else seems accounted for. 

In 7.5, the "Other" section was just music/video/picture data that had been moved onto the phone before Zune had been installed or before the last phone update.  Basically, anything Zune wasn't able to state for sure was this or that (why they don't use the file extensions to type it I don't know).
 
If you add up your videos and music does it seem right?

Yeah I remember and this phone has literally exactly the same content as my HD7 but I had loads more space on that. Yeah, I've got like 7 albums on there and no videos at all. I'm baffled.

Notification center
Custom text tones
Contact specific ringtones
Orientation lock
Kids corner without pin.
Live tile sto toggle common settings (BT, WiFI, NFC, GPC, LTE, Airplane mode.
Full silence.
Weekly/4-day calendar view
Do not disturb / answer by text.

Well I can help you out with one of them... you can already use contact specific ringtones. :)
 
And you can have full silence, but you have to choose it between volume/silence or volume/vibrate, not all three. Settings, Alerts, and toggle Vibrate off. Then your volume toggle is noise or silent.

Had ringtones for contacts since 7.5 at least... I use quite a few already for friends and family on my L900.

Google talk integration into messengin hub is my first on the list.  Screen orientation lock next.  FInally, allow keyboard apps such as swype.  A fantasy feature would be live moving background instead of just black or white.  Hm...now it looks a little bit like android!

Well, technically speaking, the new WP8 API's already allow keyboard "customization" options, so while I've not heard it discussed, SWYPE is at least a technical possibility. Google Talk integration is also already possible now, thanks to SIP application API's. As for backgrounds. No. Hell no. Hell **** no. That crap kills battery life, wastes processor resources, and all around sucks.

Separate code for Kids corner will let u maintain phone security without feeling weird about holding phone screen away from kids... It just doesn't feel right to do this with my 8 year old whom I wish to instill family trust.

XBox Video Intergration from Windows 8.  It is simply rediculous that it doesn't already.  Please.  Thank you.

I'd like to play .wav files again like I could before on 7 and 7.5

They need to fix the DRM issues with Xbox Music....I'm really over it already.

I would like more sound notification settings. For example I would like to have my wife have one sound for txt, one for email, one for calls. And also have another email address from my work play a different customized sound when an email is received

I live by my calendar and to-do list, so the following would be huge for me:
1. Separate live tile for to-dos/tasks
2. Ability to change the account associated with a calendar event or task AFTER it is created (move from one calendar to another)
3. Be able to change the interval for minutes when picking start times; scroll in 5 minute intervals instead of 1 minute
4. Set date limits on recurring appointments (ends by)

Too many things still missings to WP8... and Microsoft continue to not listen us...but WP8 is faraway to be complete...
 
Very important Notification centre Backup for apps data Start Screen folder / add view by categories for app list VPN Remote Desktop Separate Volume for Ringtone/media/notification A quick menu for Orientation lock/BT/WIFI/NFC/GPS/Sound Manual IP fo WIFI connection Multiselection for messages Xbox Video Integration  
Lower Priority Custom tone for notification/sms/email Full silence. Do not disturb for notifications  
Some of these are basically functions for a mature mobile  OS.
I will not buy a WP8 until Microsoft will not make some step in the right way...

#firstworldproblem

+1

Backup for apps is already possible via SkyDrive API's. Many apps actually take advantage of it... most do not. That is solely at their discretion, as it should be.
 
Remote Desktop has NEVER been a pre-installed app on any mobile platform, and I'm OK with that. Also, ConnectMe is a fantastic 3rd party app... and it's a shining example of using SkyDrive API's.
 
Multiselection already exists for messages in WP8.
 
Otherwise, I'd say pretty consistent preferences based on other posts.

Multiselection on messages it's only for the entire conversation = useless. We need a selection of single messages to delete them quickly.
Microsoft should make a serious backup. We can't wait for every developer. At each change phone we'd lose all save data in this way. Apple can backup apps data and System files toghether or divided: so you can restore the entire system or, after a hard reset, restore only app and data. Why Microsoft can't do this?
Micorosft should also realise a proprietary Remote Desktop app...

Notification center...folders...Xbox Video support. Anything else is gravy...or can easily be solved via third party apps

Need to wait another 4 months from the random reboot fixes?  I'd say it's rather slow.

Umm, "up to" 4 months. :) Q1 is Jan 1 - Mar 31. But your point is noted, and I agree. I really feel that a "fix" pack should be much higher on the priority list.

Xbox video integration for the love of god!

Yes

Start screen landscape mode. As well as app screen and just about every other stock app. Annoying when mounted in a car to read stuff sideways.
Ability to change font size for title/menu bars (people should not take up 1.25 inches of real estate)
Swipe delete email or messages ala webOs (hate the check box thing everytime I try to read an email the box comes up
NUMBER ROW ON MAIN KEYBOARD

Not sure why rotation lock is such a big deal... But a feature is a feature, and ill take it. I DEFINITELY need a notification system. I hate hearing my phone go off, and by the time I get to it, I don't know what beeped at me. Its sad really. I do want folder tiles, like how games separates out the games from the rest, I want to pin a folder(tile) to start, then associate a custom list of apps, available by either long press on the app itself and adding it like you would a song to a playlist, or by launching live tile(folder) and adding additional apps, that way I can have all my finance apps in one place, and my news apps in another and so on...

Improve browser capabilities. If I can view a page on my PC, I should be able to view the exact same content on my phone. No omissions.

Switch to desktop mode. That option has been there even since WM6.1

Thanks for the advise. However, I do have it in desktop mode. What I mean by viewing all content, I mean absolutely everything on a web page. Try www.behr.com or www.houlihans.comfor example. They don't display properly. There are tons of examples out there. It can and should be done.

A way to confirm what is actually running.
Quick way to close apps of you hold the arrow to multitask you should be able to close from there in one step

My wishlist: Notification Centre
Separate Volume Controls
Orientation Lock
WiFi Remaining Active Option
 
 

Fix the rebooting bug - number 1! Then gapless playback

Forward button in browser

I'm amazed at all the request pointing to Message Center..
My wants:
1. Ability to search SMS/Text messages
2. Ability to enable / disable history (SMS/Phone calls etc)
3. On/Off feature for the top notification which auto-hides the signal strength indicator, battery, time and wifi
4. WIFI keep alive
6. Improving Live tiles notification.  Example if you have unread or missed nofication, live tiles should change color or get dimmed or do something else to get your attention.
7. Dual-live tiles.  Meaning I can configure a live tile for 2 apps, live tiles will be flipping constantly.  For example, one tile is CNN and the other is twitter.  This allows me to put more apps in Windows Phone start screen withouth swyping horizontally because the tile can have two apps representing itselft. Let's not be iOS or Android.  If they can pull this off then I'm completely sold.
8. A better synching app or better yet give us access to areas of the phone like photos, music, office docs where we can simply plug the phone and do drap and drop and treat it like a normal usb storage device
9. Printing function
10. Improved multi-tasking.
 
there it is.  Goodluck to us.  I hope someone in MS is reading this thread.
 

Number 8 is possible, plug in to PC or mac, shows up as external storage. Drag and drop.

It would be nice to be able to set some "open with" preferences. Like YouTube links open with SuperTube. When I first got my 920 I downloaded SuperTube, then later on a certain YouTube link said I needed the YouTube app. Lame! Now I have the lame YouTube app and LazyTube. Sort of redundant. Flash and or whitelist support as IE 10 in Windows 8. Rotation lock. Fix battery drain issue. Custom text alert noises. Search button such be app specific and should pull up Bing only from start screen. Back button should not be able to take you out of an app. I go into an app, do my business, and should be able to press back to get back to first thing that app opened to. Start button should be only way to leave app. Annoying in IE if I'm using it, leave it to do other things, come back to it, and if I want to go back to a previous page, it just exits me out of the app. WiFi persistence. More tile colors. Option in email to always show images if its not in my junk/spam folder.

The back button MOSTLY works as you describe... taking you back to the previous screen. Only IE doesn't seem to comply with this policy in a meaningful way. I'd prefer they fix IE than change the behavior of the button.

That's great, Microsoft must prove their support after that 7.8 fail, also important is to show that they're able to release their stuff on time. WP 8.1 update with a juicy 8.2 or 8.5 in June/July and in 2014 WP 9.0.

7.8 fail? Yea right, this comment is fail tho however

I would like to see a patch for the Bluetooth switching. My Lumia 920 has issues.

For the love of God Microsoft, give us custom text message/email sounds/voicemail/calendar sounds!!!  Thank you.

no kidding we have been begging for this since 7.0.0.0.0000000000
 

Just give us Instagram.. I have so many friends that love my phone (920) but won't switch over just because of the lack of Instagram.

Not Microsoft's fault, but we do need instagram

The calendar sucks, please improve it Microsoft

I want a nice week view of my schedule

Microsoft is not going to read this comment so it's quite stupid to put their name in it, plus agenda and month view works well anyway.

Actually it is well known that members of the Windows Phone development team peruse the more well known Windows Phone news sites and they do indeed read comments and listen to feedback. ;)

Keep unread emails count on the email tiles!

It's already there- stupid comment

He means don't clear the number just because you opened the email app... have the number be a reflection of the emails that are actually marked as unread. I disagree with him completely and like the way it functions now, but that's what he meant.

Oh I see.... I get it now, you're a troll.. Welcome troll. :wave:

WiFi keep alive sounds awesome. My old focus was very quick to reestablish WiFi lock - the same amount of time it took to get past the lock screen. All WP phones I've used since then (some 7.5, some 8) take a while longer. My iPhone just gets it almost as soon as the screen turns on (and I've never had an app starve for data right after unlocking the iPhone, either). Sure, its just a case of waiting for a few seconds, but why should I? Even my dilapidated Atrix is quick to grab a connection.

1.    Ability to assign static IP
2.    Persistent WIFI
3.    Customizable SMS/MMS notification tone
4.    A way to shut down backgrounded apps like Win8, flick or drag down to quit app. When required have a simple dialog of "save app state, yes or no?"
5.    Device wide contextual search
6.     Toast notification hub

Print

wow. 200 first world comments. 

Wow. 200 first world comments and yet only one first world douchebag.

Why do you even read this site?
 
What point about smartphone functionality would you NOT classify as a "firstworldproblem"?  Should everyone just shut up and never make a suggestion?
 
So stupid.

Well alot of these are very minor complaints or just user error

To have  a scrolling feature when listening to music, and watching youtube, hate fast forwarding by pressing arrows long enough.

AWESOME idea! I hate the arrows too... always seems hard to get it to work.

Ability to finally tag people through the people hub in your Facebook statuses!!! Pretty much make the twitter and Facebook apps unnecessary so you only have to use the People Hub!

yea i think they should allow you to tag people to your status updates done via yhe people hub, as well as to check ins done throughtpeoples hub. i've always wished i could do that on my phone.

You already can...

How haha?!

Notification Center definitely!

Swipe to the left to have Notification Center, problem solved

From the start screen of course

Notifications system and separate control.... And, very much required, orientation lock, search button in zune,

I would love that too, but something gives me the feeling that Apple may have copyrighted those functions... I hope I'm wrong.

This is what Im looking forward to:
1. Segregated Volume controls for Keypad & Music & Phone. Add Silent Profile Shortcut in keypad like Samsung.
2. Import/Export to SIM
3. Full Color Palette for themes & NOT FIXED colors. Allow Multple Color Tiles on the homescreen, rather than 1 fixed color for all homescreen tiles.
4. End Task button for suspended apps
5. Adjustable display brightness and volume control
6. Call Recording, in-built
7. Custom ringtone for reminders/Calenders/To-do
8. Option to Permanently show or hide phone icons, such as Battery/Network etc..
9. Full backup like iphone or selectiv ebackup like BB
10. allow selection of mp3 as ringtones without having to shortening it to less than 1min

All I want is some text tones.

I wouldn't expect any major feature changes or additions: I suspect they will add a few missing bits and pieces like VPN, persistent Wi-Fi option, and perhaps better DataSense - but the focus will be on stability and bug-fixes.

I already mentioned this in a thread nobody answered yesterday, but this is what I want:
1. A setting for having the phone permanently on; no auto-lock after 5 minutes.
2. A simple mechanism for deleting a sound track currently playing.

Ive only found the app 'Stop the music!' for this, but it works.

Eprint support at OS level like iPhone. Really miss this feature in WP OS. Should not be an app, would create a non standard method of printing across other apps. PDF, web, photo, reader printing support a must.

the native news and sports apps they have on windows 8, from what my friend tells me they're pretty nifty apps. and of course a notificaiton center

I would just like to be able to purchase a windows 8 phone.

I'll have a notification center please.

I'd like to see seperate volume controls & notification center also. 
I'd also like to see a few fixes with the UI.  I'd like to see more tile size options, for instance small unit tall but multiple units wide.  I'd also like them to get rid of the wasted black space at the top of my screen.  The tiles should move up closer to the clock, rather than having so much empty space. 
I also agree that the calendar needs to be fixed.  My live tile shows the next day, not the current. 
Lastly, whatever security issues need to be taken care of so that my bank IT department will allow use of windows phones needs to happen. 

XBOX VIDEO SUPPORT PLEASE!

I like everyone's comments that are pertaining to the phone getting better.....Also I will like for Microsoft TellMe to be competitive to Siri, just like that commercial posted years ago....Make it superior to Siri please!

How about full enterprise e-mail support on par with iOS and Android? Many of us are still problems, and without it, WP8 is just a fancy toy.

Besides all suggestions given by everyone, what Microsoft needs to add is the proper coding and encryption for CDMA 2000 networks for the US and Japan.

Turn by turn on my 8x please.

First and foremost they should be fixing things like the massive battery drainage that happens sometimes and the reboots that some users experience.

Better podcast support and a real replacement for Zune software.

This is MY list after having the phone for over a week now: Messaging
Copy text from received messages. Xbox Music+Video
Playlists creation, editing, sync
Can't clear "current playing" (currently only able to by power cycling the phone)
Lots of duplicates in music after awhile.
Be able to add Podcasts from other sources.
Search local files.
A desktop application for Windows 7 (access/pay/steam Music, and Videos from the store)
that will synchronize existing music/videos to phone.
DLNA - Client and server SD card
add "store documents", "email attachments", and "PodcastSeries" to store on SD card. Speech
More speech recognition in more areas of the phone (all text boxes). Sounds
Custom sounds for "New text or IM", "New voicemail", "New email"
Custom sounds per contact (add IM, email) Phone
Call length in Phone history Quick switching of WiFi and Airplane mode on or off. Search
Includes local files, calendar

You can copy another persons text messages by holding down on the message for 2-3 seconds and you can clear current playing through an app called "stop the music"

1. Better sync options including Wi-Fi syncing. Really now, my Nokia Lumia 920 requires a usb cable to sync to my Windows 8 computers - it's so 2008. Very lame.
2. Orientation lock.
3. Kids Corner should have the option not to require a passcode. It currently defeats the purpose with having to put in the master passcode. Yes, I take full responsibility for anything that could happen. No problem though, because I only put stuff on Kid's Corner that I want them to have access to. If you're silly enough to put your Facebook and Twitter connections up there, then having to enter a passcode isn't going to save you from your own bad judgement.
4. Connectivity to Windows Media Center and even other media centers over Wi-Fi. One would assume connection to Windows Media Center would be there right off the start.
5. Be able to populate contact info from an email signature and copied text. PLEASE!
 

I hope Microsoft keeps striking while the iron is hot. This is the time for action! There are a lot of new users with influence. There are a lot of onlookers, ready to join. Microsoft needs to respond ASAP to user requests. There needs to be improvements to battery life and stability. I trust MS is working with 3rd parties to bring modern apps to WP8. There is a lot to be impressed with. I think WP8 could be the tipping point, if Microsoft keeps the pressure on. 

Definately Bluetooth Low Energy API's for GATT so we can use all the nice Accessories being produced right now.
Weeknumbers in the Calendar (a MUST in Europe, somehow Americans don't get it).
Notification "center" (slide left like on N9)
APT-X hifi audio through Bluetooth!
 

File browser. Multimedia app that filters by folder hierarchy. Consistent sync to whatever account (1s interval).

We deffinatly need seperate volume controlls for ring volume and media players. This mono volume does my head in.

1. email attachments (docs, multiple, from within email. 2. HTML in email without manual download. 3. Standby time of Never, not just 10 minutes max. 4. Longer notifications. 5. More robust calendar. 6. Voice navigation. 7. File management. All of the other recommendations too.              

App CLOSING

1) Option to use glowing Windows button as indicator of missed notification
2) Orientation lock
3) Option for better SMS privacy (ie able to block toasts or get less intrusive notification)
4) Numerical battery icon
5) Notification center, swipe left from home to access.  Also could swipe down the lock screen instead of swipe up to jump right to it.

Screw the orientation lock, you NEED to address the independent volume control. There's been so many times I've missed a call or my alarm clock because I turned it down listening to music or turned it down to play something. This issue needs to be addressed yesterday. Had a windows 7 device for two years, dealt with it. Got the new HTC 8x and figured you guys would have this down by now. Apparently not. This is the most BASIC of controls. I remember my old LG flip phone having a control for music separate from the ringer and the alarm. At least get an app we can download to fix this... Other than that, i love my windows phone and wouldn't trade it for an android or iphail in a million years.