Microsoft Starts Selling Lumia Windows Phones Again (theverge.com) 111
After removing its Lumia devices back in June, Microsoft has started selling them again at the company's online retail store. According to Windows Latest, Microsoft U.S. Store is selling the Lumia 950 for $399, Lumia 950 XL for $499, Lumia 550 and Lumia 650 for $139 and $199 respectively. From the report: A Microsoft Store sales agent confirmed to us that Lumia phones are back in the store on February 4 after a long gap. "They are recently back this early February. Specifically, on February 4th 2018," Microsoft sales team told us. Rumor had it that Microsoft wanted to sell as many Lumias as possible until stores ran out of stock, but it looks like the plans have changed or the company is selling the remaining stock which they recently discovered.
Windows Phone 10 is still alive and well (Score:2, Informative)
Posted via a Windows Phone 10 Alcatel Idol 4S.
Re:Windows Phone 10 is still alive and well (Score:5, Insightful)
It really is a decent OS, but I wouldn't say better than the alternatives. They really wanted world dominance or nothing, without any patience for getting there. And they had to be delusional to think everyone would jump ship from established ecosystems.
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The walled-garden approach to block code written in third-party languages was like a death-knell to it. I mean, if it were possible to run something like Firefox (with XUL, allowing browser extensions), then it would have been reasonably meaningful.
All these things are not possible on iOS either. Then again, XUL isn't possible in Firefox desktop either now.
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Not delusional, just failed (Score:2)
And they had to be delusional to think everyone would jump ship from established ecosystems.
Actually, they were not dellusional.
They knew they would need to at least enable accessibility to one of the major ecosystem : They knew they needed to find a way to let users run Android apps.
They simply failed at implementing this succesfully.
WSL - a.k.a. Bash in Windows - is what Microsoft managed to salvage out of the remnant of this failed attempt.
They managed to get support for a few key Linux APIs, the bare minimum to get console applications ELF working and a bit of networking (so enough to run Bash
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It should be about quality, not quantity of apps.
But I'm still trying to think of examples of quality apps for Windows 10.
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It should be about quality, not quantity of apps.
Absolutely, but windows phone has neither, both of which were a consequence of Microsoft using a horribly kneecapped API. Too many app developers (after being harassed by windows phone fans on developer forums for not "doing enough") said they wanted to have feature parity with their apps on competing OSes, but they cited limitations in windows phone for why they couldn't add X feature.
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Nice. Did you make any money out of that?
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About $15. Seems like there's no money to be made in mobile games. The race to the bottom of mobile games where everything is free with In-App purchases has meant that unless you create a game that caters to the masses (people with zero attention-span that needs constantly mindless stimulation) and design it around maximizing In-App payments rather than gameplay (basically to scam people by playing on their addictive personalities) then you probably won't make any money. This free-to-download trend seems to
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That's really a shame. Ever considered doing development on contract?
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It should be about quality, not quantity of apps.
But I'm still trying to think of examples of quality apps for Windows 10.
Quantity of apps wasn't really the issue, but the lack of some essential apps definitely was. Like the lack of any popular video or VOIP app for the phone until WhatsApp added it. Also there was no Uber Partner or Lyft Driver app in this, for anyone who might want to use the phone to pick up passengers. It was just okay for some barebones utility: if you were an employer who didn't want the employees to use the phone for personal fetishes that they might do w/ an iPhone or a Galaxy, this certainly was t
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If Microsoft is bringing back the phone, make Microsoft Launch a part of it as well
I think if they were bringing it back, they would have resumed development on windows 10 mobile already. This just sounds like the last of the channel inventory that has been sent back to Microsoft from retailers who couldn't sell it. It would make sense too, given they're already gone. Judging by Microsoft's own internal phone deployments, I imagine that if the mythical "Surface phone" ever showed up, it would probably be an Android variant with Microsoft apps installed by default, and probably with the Am
Re: Windows Phone 10 is still alive and well (Score:2)
Exactly! This is just found new old stock they are dumping on the market.
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I did. About 5 apps I use were not available, and some were not free. Most apps were of really poor quality compared to Android.
And even on Android I miss 2 apps that are only available on iOS (the same would be the case on iOS - so that is not clearly better).
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Have you bought an Android phone lately? Most come similarly a couple years out of date OS wise and will also see few if any updates after you buy it.
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Sure, if you buy a cheap Chinese phone. My LG G6 is current, and will be updated to Oreo. And I have an app ecosystem I use, have invested in, and that serves me well, with services I use and that give me value. Not so much with Windows Phone.
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Apple lost me when the 3G was unsupported about 9 months after the last new ones were sold in stores. Yes, that includes security updates. Screw you Apple.
Sadly, not buying again after being screwed means I can generally buy from a company only once (especially for phones).
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I just turned on my Galaxy Note 4 after several years of it being just buried in a drawer. Turns out that they have been issuing security updates this entire time. Sure, Android 5 is out of date, but it's rare to find an app that doesn't work with it as most are built against Android 4.0 these days (before 4.0 was technically 2.3, and you can find plenty of apps that support that even.)
Unlike Windows Phone, Android never broke app compatibility between major versions; developers only have a need to increase
Re: Windows Phone 10 is still alive and well (Score:2)
Only better if you prefer tiles that flip even when you're not finished reading it and it only opens the app when you tap it, vs widgets which are fully interactive (i.e. a scrollable calendar) and tapping the event/email/stock quote opens that within the app rather than simply starting the app and then having to find it.
Also if you like wasting bezel space on an ultimately useless search button that other phones got rid of 8 years ago, windows phone is great.
Actually there are TONS if reasons why the UI wa
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It looks more like a garden variety troll [slashdot.org].
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Windows Phone 10 is still alive and well. It's still a better phone OS than the other two. Posted via a Windows Phone 10 Alcatel Idol 4S.
How is it alive? Last year, Microsoft not only yanked the phones from its mall stores, they also stopped all updates to the OS, and disabled WiFi in the OS. I was pretty much forced to switch back to Android, despite hating Google.
If Microsoft wants to be taken seriously in any market, the least they need to do is not sabotage an existing user base of anything for any reason - be it Windows 7, Windows Phone 8, Windows 10 Mobile, Xbox, Windows CE or whatever
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I bought this phone in a Microsoft mall store this winter.
they also stopped all updates to the OS
Nope, got one [microsoft.com] last week.
and disabled WiFi in the OS
I'm posting this over wifi now.
Is there like some tech version of Infowars that you spend time reading, or something?
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Windows Phone 10 is still alive and well.
Oh, and about that:
https://support.microsoft.com/... [microsoft.com];
The OS will be fully dead and buried on December 10th, 2019 (unless you have windows phone embedded handheld edition, then it's some time in 2021.)
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Windows Phone 10 is still alive and well. It's still a better phone OS than the other two
Some one is off their meds again.
Call me crazy (Score:2, Informative)
But I'm actually tempted to try a windows phone. Android vendors don't patch their shit, instead they recommend you buy a new phone. iPhones are way too locked down for me. The only real question I have is will a windows phone do the few simple tasks I need the phone to do? I'm sure it will but I'll have to learn the tools available in their system. Lucky for me, all I need is a windows PC to see. I trust Microsoft more to keep their phone OS patched then I do Android vendors.
Re:Call me crazy (Score:5, Interesting)
Android vendors? Android is open source and manged by Google... But if you are talking about a particular phone ISP( Internet Service Provider ) who is generally the one which works with the hardware vendor to put a customized version of Androind on the phone... Well then you shouldn't be clumping them all as "Android vendors".
That's like saying Windows vendors have too many virus's and their patches break the computer all the time.
But I really don't get how you can complain about updates and then roll over and say you just need a phone to do basic tasks. Do the Android based phones stop working and doing these basic tasks and the phone ISP won't update it and get those working again?
Or are you one of the many hired tolls getting paid to post about the idea of trying Microsoft again.
AOSP is open and free. Android is not. The Android running on popular phones is Android + Google Services + Play Store + Google Apps. The coveted "stock" Android the fanboys rave about is Android + Google Services + Play Store + Google Apps + Google Theme/Launcher + Latest Generation Pixel Time-Exclusive Apps + Latest Generation Pixel Time-Exclusive Services.
If you want the latest Android stuff from Google, you'll need to buy a Pixel every year. Not only did Google give a big FUCK YOU to the latest Nexus owners at the time of the Pixel launch, they doubled down when they did the same to Pixel owners during the Pixel 2 launch.
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I have a Pixel (last generation) and it's fine. The only new stuff is stuff that you need Pixel 2 hardware for, otherwise all the OS updates and software features are available on my device too.
Specifically what am I missing that constitutes a "fuck you"?
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I have a Pixel (last generation) and it's fine. The only new stuff is stuff that you need Pixel 2 hardware for, otherwise all the OS updates and software features are available on my device too.
Specifically what am I missing that constitutes a "fuck you"?
You're missing the late availability of Android updates/features for Pixel users because the Pixel 2 had to be the first to have it.
They artificially held things back in order to let them be selling points for the Pixel 2.
The fact that you think "you need Pixel 2 hardware for" any of it is pathetic. "Oh, our camera is so great, and it can only be done on the Pixel 2, WOWOW MAGIC WOW!!" Then a few months later that shit gets ported to the first Pixel.
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But the hardware is solid, the OS is pretty, and has a lot of innovative features not found in Android/iPhone.
While I agree that the OS is pretty good (its UI at least) the hardware is not that good. I bought a cheep lumia 525 and it sucked a lot. Its touchscreen is not good (unusible with slightly moist fingers). The OS hangs & the battery drains occasionally. May be Lumia 950 is a good phone. But you can't win market share with the expensive stuff, you earn it with the cheep phones. And cheep phones sucked.
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I bought a Windows Phone 7 for my wife around 2015 since we found a great deal on it. And it was actually quite good, she thought the OS was better than Android, especially the much snappier feel of the UI & apps compared to Android phones with similar CPU/price. Well, OK, I guess that is not hard, as Android is not that good an OS (and that would be putting it mildly if you had tried something like the Nokia N9).
BUT, then came the Windows Phone 10 update, which was almost mandatory (some things which I
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It was a Lumia 535, it came with Windows Phone 8.1 (not 7, my bad), it was most certainly upgraded to Windows 10 (and shelved soon after). It was much better off with Windows 8.1 as I said - not due to it being a better OS (it probably wasn't), but because with the update a few of the most useful apps disappeared or replaced with inferior ones.
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My partner had a Lumia 1020 and really liked it. The UI designers made a few questionable decisions, but it was better than iOS or Android. Nokia's Here Maps was pretty good, but was spun off to a consortium of German car makers and discontinued for Windows Phone. It never got an update past 8.1, so died for the same reason as my old Android phone: it no longer supported newer versions of TLS and older ones were increasingly being disabled for security. This meant that she couldn't connect to things lik
Re:Call me crazy (Score:4, Informative)
I'm actually tempted to try a windows phone
Just keep in mind that security patches are scheduled to be discontinued on December 10th, 2019, per Microsoft's website.
https://support.microsoft.com/... [microsoft.com];
On that date, the final nail will be hammered on the windows phone coffin, unless you're a windows 10 mobile enterprise customer, (do any exist?) then you get patches until some time in 2021.
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Microsoft hasn't said that they're discontinuing Windows Phone 10.
Yes, they have:
https://www.theverge.com/2017/... [theverge.com]
Very strong indication that the October release will be the last major build, save for any small patches.
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But I'm actually tempted to try a windows phone. Android vendors don't patch their shit, instead they recommend you buy a new phone.
LineageOS is cheaper than buying a new phone if your device is supported and Google malware (Google Play Services) is completely optional.
I trust Microsoft more to keep their phone OS patched then I do Android vendors.
A fully patched Microsoft phone still comes bundled with Microsoft malware.
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Unfortunately, though Google Play Services is completely optional, that means that you're limited to apps from F-Droid.
It is trivial to download APKs from Google store and sideload them so long as they are free or license enabled and not separate purchased versions.
Never had any issues with app availability without play store however YMMV I'm not a big smartphone app user.
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But I'm actually tempted to try a windows phone. Android vendors don't patch their shit, instead they recommend you buy a new phone. iPhones are way too locked down for me. The only real question I have is will a windows phone do the few simple tasks I need the phone to do? I'm sure it will but I'll have to learn the tools available in their system. Lucky for me, all I need is a windows PC to see. I trust Microsoft more to keep their phone OS patched then I do Android vendors.
What are the tasks you need to do? For me, the minimum that a phone has to do is VOIP/video calling in addition to the normal, and from what I know, WhatsApp hasn't dropped support for it. But most banking apps ain't there or ain't fully functional as Android or iOS: try depositing a check, for example, on a Lumia, if you have a bank that has no nearby offices.
Sailfish OS (Score:2)
another alternative to consider would be Sailfish OS from Jolla.
(A full blown GNU/Linux, with a nice sleek QML based interface, and the commercial version supports Android 4.4 Kitkat apps).
Currently, they sell official installation images "Sailfish X" that you can install on select Sony devices part of their official "Open devices" efforts (currently : Xperia X, the Xperia XA2 is planned in the near future)
Their own venerable Jolla 1 smartphone from 2013 still gets the latest updates (and thanks to QML bei
What kind of masochistic idiot would buy one? (Score:5, Insightful)
Seriously, with all the dickery MS has pulled over the years with their phones, just how much of a glutton for punishment would you have to be to sign up for this? And how stupid would you have to be to expect anything but the worse?
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How long would you have to keep your IPhone or Galaxy to get to this low yearly cost?
News? (Score:2)
I have just had a look and the specs are fairly compelling really:
Display resolution: WQHD (2560 x 1440)
Mass memory: 32 GB
RAM: 3 GB
Expandable memory card type: MicroSD
Replaceable battery: Yes
That looks pretty good for $500 of my local money (an iPhone X is $1799 for comparison).
Still, it's Windows phone, so I won't be buying one.
Probably just found a bunch (Score:2, Insightful)
Someone probably came across a couple pallets worth in the back of a warehouse that had been forgotten about, so they're trying to sell at least some of them rather than write them off completely.
And I agree with the others. Windows Phone was surprisingly good. If it had a more robust app ecosystem, it could have given Apple and Google a run for their money. Android, now matter how much Google improves it, always has this "not quite finished" feel to it, and iOS is generally very polished, but is also very
NOS (Score:2)
Yeah, it's pretty much New Old Stock.
They stocked a lot to inflate numbers, now they "found" them...
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More flexibility than iOS
Hahaha, I'm not an iOS user but even Apple got rid of the itunes requirement to sync files, added an adblocker and is generally more hackable than a brick like WP
more polish than Android.
Are you referrering to the same WP where apps and contacts are nicely sorted but settings menus are a lowercase lists of randomly placed items?
HP Elite X3 for me (Score:1)
Windows Phone Dock (Score:2)
MS were not working cross platform collaboratively enough.
Are you kidding me! (Score:2)
So I finally replaced my WinPhone about 2 weeks ago. I loved my WinPhone - they're just so good. If I had known this a couple of weeks ago I would've waited.
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it's still a dead end platform from the Software side.
Didn't they pull the plug recently on the server for the "live" tiles ?
Got a few. (Score:1)
Long time ago in a galaxy far far away I had an Android phone. It still sits in one of the cubby holes in my desk for when I want to play with Android programs. I bought a Nokia 550 with windows 8 on it. Later, when my wife finally broke the Motorola Razor VC3 she stole from me, I gave my wife the 550 and bought a 640. When my wife dropped and broke her 550, I bought her a 640. I now have a broken wrist from trying to take the 640 away from her. Mine runs Windows 10, hers Windows 8.1. She will not let me up
Re: Got a few. (Score:3)
Dropped it? You do know these are the easiest phon a to work on right? Parts are extremely cheap , you can replace a screen in less than 10 mins, the back covers snap off and many colours are available. I really hate that MS abandoned the platform, for business , there was nothing better, having Office on a phone was pretty nice, too bad it's all dead and just hasn't fallen over yet.......
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This is a few days late, but it deserves a response just because of the level of misinformation you are showing.
I wrote dropped, but did not say why or what happened afterwards. My wife and I were working on a commercial lawn job together. She dropped the phone, I ran over it with a commercial 42 inch mower.
You jumped off the deep end about how it could be fixed, and how easy it was without having the facts. A common failing of many people.
So please, ask for information before jumping off a cliff.
.
As Former Linux Zealot I have one of those (Score:2)
And it was good.
It all started when my wife one one those. Because of her friend has one. Any way it was simple, speedy and tough very tough.
And I was very late for smarphone and still uses old nokia 1110 anyway. When I need a navgation I was give up old nokia and buy new one a 1320 and still using it. It cost me around $300 maybe less.
After four years it still takes beat. Battery stil good and good enough for reading ebooks, navigations etc. Still same windows problems need reboots maybe one per month.
I'm
Market Saturation BHAG? (Score:2)
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Three months till they change their mind again... (Score:2)