Windows 10 for Phones myths and explanations...
I've been reading a lot of articles, at times from people who are well familiar with Microsoft seeming shocked by perfectly justifiable things. Other times it is people I don't know complaining. Either way, the complaints are a bit crazy.
First up is that W10PST (Windows 10 for Phone and Small Tablets) was only released on a small subset of phones. People cried fowl that their device wasn't included, especially those running the 1520 since Joe B showed it off on that in both live and official W10PST videos. Those in the 1520 camp even go so far as to question the validity of the excuse. As I suggested though, a likely reason he was able to run to it on that device is because of using a different, perhaps more challenging/riskier means of flashing the device. And, amusingly, MS seems to be confirmed correct by hackers who managed to get W10PST on 1520's. The only way they succeed is when they do a fresh reset and nothing else before hacking the Preview in, otherwise the system doesn't have enough space on the OS partition.
Take it or leave it... but it sure sounds to me like you weren't lied to and the explanation holds. I for one won't be messing with this technique. Normally I would be the first on such a bandwagon, but I highly suspect partition stitching will be supported and new devices popping up in short enough order that merely the possibility of needing to rely on Nokia's recovery tools isn't worth it.
Next is people complaining that Cortana's region support has back tracked. I understand the statement, but it is patently false. W10PST *IS* Windows 10, *NOT* Windows Phone. Crack open the W10 preview on your desktop. Unsurprisingly Cortana on the phone supports exactly the same things as the desktop version. This is the point that even some of the "experts" I follow on Twitter ignored/got wrong. I won't name anyone, but the person acted not just upset, but genuinely surprised. And I'm 100% sure they tried the desktop preview.
I guess Microsoft is to blame for making the UIX match between WP8.1 and W10PST, but appearances here are deceiving. While the UI's may look identical, this is not the same OS. Cortana has not regressed, the phone is simply only as far along as windows 10 is. Because the phone IS running Windows 10. This really isn't that hard to wrap your head around. In fact, I basically knew this was going to happen the second people started reporting unsupported regions on the desktop.
Personally, I would have enjoyed a minor UI refresh. It might help with optics on some of these issues as well as help revitalize the platform.
Some people are also surprised to find Univeral Apps replacing their existing native WP apps. This too makes sense. Firstly, Universal Apps are a huge part of Microsoft's direction at the moment and they wouldn't want to be seen not trusting their own recommendations, but it also means less unique codebases to manage. I expect that virtually every app will be a Universal App by the official launch. Only exceptions I might be able to think of are the phone dialer and text/messaging apps. But, I think that would be a bad move in the long run.
Basically, it sounds like Microsoft is being totally on the level and people are, I guess, not used to that from a major tech company. My suggestions are as follows; don't force dev preview on unsupported hardware unless it is a backup phone, don't expect features in WP10PST that aren't in W10 and don't be surprised that a new OS layer means new apps.
First up is that W10PST (Windows 10 for Phone and Small Tablets) was only released on a small subset of phones. People cried fowl that their device wasn't included, especially those running the 1520 since Joe B showed it off on that in both live and official W10PST videos. Those in the 1520 camp even go so far as to question the validity of the excuse. As I suggested though, a likely reason he was able to run to it on that device is because of using a different, perhaps more challenging/riskier means of flashing the device. And, amusingly, MS seems to be confirmed correct by hackers who managed to get W10PST on 1520's. The only way they succeed is when they do a fresh reset and nothing else before hacking the Preview in, otherwise the system doesn't have enough space on the OS partition.
Take it or leave it... but it sure sounds to me like you weren't lied to and the explanation holds. I for one won't be messing with this technique. Normally I would be the first on such a bandwagon, but I highly suspect partition stitching will be supported and new devices popping up in short enough order that merely the possibility of needing to rely on Nokia's recovery tools isn't worth it.
Next is people complaining that Cortana's region support has back tracked. I understand the statement, but it is patently false. W10PST *IS* Windows 10, *NOT* Windows Phone. Crack open the W10 preview on your desktop. Unsurprisingly Cortana on the phone supports exactly the same things as the desktop version. This is the point that even some of the "experts" I follow on Twitter ignored/got wrong. I won't name anyone, but the person acted not just upset, but genuinely surprised. And I'm 100% sure they tried the desktop preview.
I guess Microsoft is to blame for making the UIX match between WP8.1 and W10PST, but appearances here are deceiving. While the UI's may look identical, this is not the same OS. Cortana has not regressed, the phone is simply only as far along as windows 10 is. Because the phone IS running Windows 10. This really isn't that hard to wrap your head around. In fact, I basically knew this was going to happen the second people started reporting unsupported regions on the desktop.
Personally, I would have enjoyed a minor UI refresh. It might help with optics on some of these issues as well as help revitalize the platform.
Some people are also surprised to find Univeral Apps replacing their existing native WP apps. This too makes sense. Firstly, Universal Apps are a huge part of Microsoft's direction at the moment and they wouldn't want to be seen not trusting their own recommendations, but it also means less unique codebases to manage. I expect that virtually every app will be a Universal App by the official launch. Only exceptions I might be able to think of are the phone dialer and text/messaging apps. But, I think that would be a bad move in the long run.
Basically, it sounds like Microsoft is being totally on the level and people are, I guess, not used to that from a major tech company. My suggestions are as follows; don't force dev preview on unsupported hardware unless it is a backup phone, don't expect features in WP10PST that aren't in W10 and don't be surprised that a new OS layer means new apps.
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