Going all-Microsoft - UPDATE: Got a Lumia 930; tis brilliant

[ethanfitz]

ahhh at least im not the only one who thinks like this... :thumbs: plus all apple products look the same... at least there is choice and personalization with Nokia and MS products.

Bottom line go MS. Apple may have been good for a year or two but now they are so far behind and struggling to catch up!

 

[jacko]

a good solution to the tablet issue is to buy a full win spec lenovo yogo....it folds in half so its a tablet but its as powerful as a laptop.

and give it a year as they are VERY new in 'pro' format so still expensive

in 2 years all but the tiniest tablets will be full windows

but tbh i do most of my home surfing on my nokia 920 (larger one) and its fine for facebook, ebay etc (making an ipad useless and expensive to me)

 

[evilrob]

a good solution to the tablet issue

There isn't a "tablet issue" - I like my iPad, and I like the Surface RT. I am quite happy with a like-for-like swap. I'm binning off my Apple products not because they aren't any good or because they don't do what I want them to do, I just fancy a change - so can we stop with the Apple-bashing; you're embarrassing yourselves.

 

[evilrob]

no one is defending apple in this thread.... surely that tells you your answer...

No-one is defending Apple because there isn't an argument here. This isn't the "which is better - Microsoft or Apple" thread; I just wanted to know about people's experiences within the Microsoft ecosystem.

 

[evilrob]

Also:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0la5DBtOVNI[/youtube]

 

[Dal]

^bookmarked^

k:

 

[Cartman]

Wel that escalated quickley

 

[jacko]

your getting confused

having a personal opinion and shouting about it is 'embarassing'

having a vast knowledge of the area by doing industry relevent research and then doing your best to pass this info on to save your friends time, money and effort is just being nice. being passionate about spreading this info is just being extra nice

your welcome!!!!

but i will shut up, do your own research and waste as much money as you want. (or as i tell others; save 50% by buying ms and give the other 50% to charity if your determined to spend over the odds)

 

[evilrob]

having a personal opinion and shouting about it is 'embarrassing'

I value your opinion, Jacko - it's the conjecture and misinformation that's letting you down.

having a vast knowledge of the area by doing industry relevent research and then doing your best to pass this info on to save your friends time, money and effort is just being nice. being passionate about spreading this info is just being extra nice

There's being passionate about something, and there's being bigoted - you fall into the latter category on this occasion.

You can't have done that much research or you wouldn't be propagating utter bollocks like this:

most things inside apple products have come from an ms world and suppliers, ms even do a lot of apples software for them!

This obviously isn't true, and even if it were - I don't care about either company's supply chain, I just want to know what their devices are like to use.

apparantly they cant afford to make their own architecture, hardware OR software anymore!!!

Apple are sitting on an estimated $170,000,000,000 in cash and design their own chips for their mobile devices you clown!

your welcome!!!!

For what, exactly? If you re-read your posts, you'll find that you didn't tell us anything objective or constructive about what's good about Microsoft products, you just ranted about how much you dislike Apple.

It is possible to commend the merits of something without disparaging something else, as everyone else in this thread managed to do.

but i will shut up

Probably best.

 

[Neil]

I do find it amusing how the Android vs Apple vs Windows vs Everything Else battle rages on.

It's a phone/hardware platform.

 

[mix2000]

It never ceases to amaze me how polarised people get over a device


The best thing about apple is the worst thing, they have a closed OS.
The best thing about MS is the worst thing, they have an open OS.
The best thing about Android is the worst thing, they have an reeeeally open OS.
Opinions are divided but it really down to use and personal opinion...(and cash)

To answer you original questions...(in my opinion :| )

How are the Xbox Music / Video stores to live with? PITA
Decent selection of content? 'ish..
Reasonably priced? Not Really but it has been a few months
Reliably delivered?OK
How easy/reliable is it to stream stuff from Windows 8 / Windows Phone / Surface to the telly via Xbox Glass? (i.e. replicate iPhone/iPad to Apple TV via AirPlay; I don't have a DNLA-enabled telly)
Found it Ironically easier to stream to ps3??? (than any of the 7 xboxes I've have had, but that's another story)
What's Outlook.com like to live with? Ssssok, Ive had no problems...

 

[evilrob]

How are the Xbox Music / Video stores to live with? PITA
Decent selection of content? 'ish..
Reasonably priced? Not Really but it has been a few months
Reliably delivered?OK
How easy/reliable is it to stream stuff from Windows 8 / Windows Phone / Surface to the telly via Xbox Glass? (i.e. replicate iPhone/iPad to Apple TV via AirPlay; I don't have a DNLA-enabled telly)
Found it Ironically easier to stream to ps3??? (than any of the 7 xboxes I've have had, but that's another story)
What's Outlook.com like to live with? Ssssok, Ive had no problems...

Thanks for your constructive input, Mr. Mix! :thumbs:

Can you elaborate on why Xbox Music / Video are a PITA?

iTunes/Apple TV isn't flawless either, so I can cope with a bit of inconsistency here: iTunes store via Apple TV can be flaky at times - occasionally it can't connect to the iTunes store so you can't access your previous purchases or buy/rent new ones. A reboot of either the Apple TV or router usually fixes this. This may be a WiFi or broadband issue, or just a general wider internet packet loss issue. Spotify can play silly buggers sometimes too.

If Xbox Music works most of the time, that's good enough for me. If there are more worrying concerns, I'd be interested to know about them!

As for streaming wirelessly from phone/tablet/laptop to telly via Apple TV - AirPlay can sometimes take a few attempts to connect, occasionally drops/stutters/gets out of sync - but show me a wireless protocol that works 100% of the time!

From what I understand, there isn't really any need to stream stuff from Windows phone/tablet to Xbox anyway, as the Xbox has native connectivity to the kind of things I currently stream to TV which the Apple TV doesn't have. I realise I'll need an Xbox Gold subscription to access some of this stuff but I was going to get that anyway for GTA V.

I quite often want to show photos I've taken on my phone, on the telly - I'm led to believe that with Windows Phone / Xbox and SkyDrive, I can just slideshow my photos directly from SkyDrive as Windows Phone can be set up to automatically upload photos to SkyDrive immediately after they've been taken.

Pricing - I've had a look at the pricing; Xbox Music subscription is a pound a month cheaper than Spotify (£8.99 vs. £9.99), and Xbox Video seems to be priced at general market rates for film downloads/rental (£3.50-£4.50 for rentals. £10-13 to buy new releases generally, £7-10 for older titles).

Glad to hear you've not had any major issues with Outlook.com, though - this is reassuring.

 

[mix2000]

With Xbox music takes ages to synch and seems to suffer music quality issues when having multiple devices on wifi.
Couple that with xbox issues with devices over 16GB

 

[evilrob]

With Xbox music takes ages to synch and seems to suffer music quality issues when having multiple devices on wifi.

Standard issue web-based music service woes, then. Doesn't seem like it's worse than any other - I've had similar issues with Spotify, Rdio etc.

Couple that with xbox issues with devices over 16GB

What issues are these? I wouldn't be hooking up the 32gb phone to the Xbox; Windows Phone has a native Xbox Music app to access the service directly.

 

[mix2000]

Standard issue web-based music service woes, then. Doesn't seem like it's worse than any other - I've had similar issues with Spotify, Rdio etc.

Yes but hours??(maybe something to do with the latency of living in the sticks)

What issues are these? I wouldn't be hooking up the 32gb phone to the Xbox; Windows Phone has a native Xbox Music app to access the service directly.

#3 different 32gb players refused to be recognised on my sons and my xbox, the same brands 16gb equivalent weren't a problem, heard a few others had issues similar.

 

[yippeekiay]

I do find it amusing how the Android vs Apple vs Windows vs Everything Else battle rages on.

It's a phone/hardware platform.

Agree 100%, I just go for the item that does what I want for the cheapest price.....simple really. I couldn't give a rats arse about how cool or fashionable or fandangled it is as something new comes along that apparently trounces it soon after and I'd rather save my cash for more important things that are needed.

And to the OP, always used Windows products (still use XP pro and always had hotmail - now Outlook which I'm still getting used to) and rarely have problems with any of it save for the odd crash here and there on the PC and glitch on Outlook but I suppose that happens on other OS & Email providers.

 

[evilrob]

Yes but hours??(maybe something to do with the latency of living in the sticks)

I am fortunate in that I live close enough to an exchange that I can get BT Infinity fibre optic broadband - the internets generally work quite well.

I just installed the Xbox Music app on Windows 8 and am using it as we speak - it seems to work fine, and I currently have about 5 devices connected to the router via WiFi.

The user interface is a bit glitchy - you click 'play' - nothing seems to be happening - you go to click 'play' again, it starts playing before you get there. Once it starts playing, it sounds great, had no buffering interruptions yet.

#3 different 32gb players refused to be recognised on my sons and my xbox, the same brands 16gb equivalent weren't a problem, heard a few others had issues similar.

Oh right... that does sound like the sort of random wonkiness you come to expect when dealing with Microsoft, but I can't see I'll ever need to do that.

Any other gotchas you think I should know about?

 

[evilrob]

to the OP, always used Windows products (still use XP pro and always had hotmail - now Outlook which I'm still getting used to) and rarely have problems with any of it save for the odd crash here and there on the PC and glitch on Outlook but I suppose that happens on other OS & Email providers.

Cheers, Yip.

I'm currently running Windows 8 and I've yet to crash it (famous last words!)

 

[yippeekiay]

I keep thinking about upgrading to 8, already have that and 7 on disc which I've never even bothered to install as I'm still happy with the XP interface and they say you can't teach an old dog new tricks, more a case of this old dog not wanting to know any :lol:

 

[evilrob]

I keep thinking about upgrading to 8, already have that and 7 on disc which I've never even bothered to install as I'm still happy with the XP interface and they say you can't teach an old dog new tricks, more a case of this old dog not wanting to know any :lol:

If your Windows XP computer is connected to the internet, you should consider upgrading the OS for security reasons as there will no longer be any patches issued after 8th April next year:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-GB/windows/end-support-help" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Windows 8 is actually quite good when you get used to how it looks; they've really stripped it back to basics - runs beautifully. It's noticeably faster than Windows 7 in my experience (particularly in booting up and shutting down), which in itself was noticeably faster than Vista. So if you have the choice of installing either, I'd be going straight to 8 personally.