Windows 10 Anniversary Update now available for Windows 10 Mobile

I had an HTC One M8, running Win 8.1 until a few months ago. Once I found out that it would never get the Win10 Mobile OS, I got rid of it and switched to the Samsung Galaxy S7 and I have not looked back... I was a Windows Mobile user for 5 years but no more and never again....

Hi,

there is a new update for the Windows Camera app for Windows 10 Mobile. The new update includes Panorama feature

Winuser said:

I very happy with my Lumia 640XL. I will only go back to a Android phone when I can no longer buy a Windows phone. Apple has never been on my want list and probably never will.

I agree with you 100%, however since my post at the beginning of this thread, I've just been faced with this exact scenario and am sorry to say I'm now no longer a Windows 10 Mobile user.

I had a problem with a faulty rear speaker on my Lumia 640, so I needed a replacement phone. However, as the retailer no longer stocks the 640, they had to issue me with a refund instead. The problem is, Microsoft currently only sell three Windows 10 Phones (the 950, 650 & 550), of which there is no replacement for the 640.

The 950 is out of the running, because I'm not going to spend that sort of money on a phone that Microsoft will probably ditch support for again in a couple of years. So, that leaves the 650, but this is a downgrade from the 640. Without going into things like CPU/GPU changes, compass, etc. it doesn't record 1080P video like the 640 did and has a smaller battery than the 640 too. On top of that, it's also more money than I paid for the 640 earlier this year. As it is, Microsoft currently only offer one Windows 10 Phone capable of recording 1080P video and that's the 950. So buying a new Windows phone is a problem, because there's nothing in their line up for me.

My next thought was to go back to an old Windows phone for the time being. I have both a 630 and 635 running Windows 10 Mobile (10586), which they received when I was in the Insider Program, however they won't be receiving any more updates as Microsoft no longer supports Windows 10 on 512MB devices (despite Terry Myerson saying they were going to). Not supported means no more security updates and who knows what else will break as time goes on and everything is being developed for 14393 onwards. Microsoft's official solution is to roll back to Windows Phone 8, but I was never really a fan of Windows Phone 8, so off to the recycling centre for those devices.

So, what did I do... Well, Google and Apple will never get a penny from me, as I don't like them as companies and the way they operate. The same reason why Facebook, Sony and Electronic Arts won't either. So, I went back to using a Nokia 6303 running Symbian and I must say I still really like this little phone. No kidding, it's small/light and the battery lasts forever. Although, I kinda miss sat nav. :)

So in conclusion, I liked my Lumia 640 a lot and I like Windows 10 Mobile a lot. If a replacement for the 640 was available I'd still be using Windows 10 Mobile. But to be honest, I'm not happy with Microsoft's attitude towards Windows Mobile either. I'm not gonna lie, the move they pulled by advertising the Lumia 635 as being upgradable to Windows 10 Mobile, but then changing their mind was a pretty under-handed move. I'm still not sure what the real reason for this was, because Windows 10 Mobile ran perfectly fine on both my 630 and 635 (which were 512MB devices). But I gave them the benefit of the doubt, because my thinking was that maybe it wasn't Windows itself that required 1GB RAM, but the built-in apps such as the updated maps app that would be running on it too.

Worse than that though is Microsoft's current attitude, where it appears they just can't be bothered with mobile anymore. Sure, they update Windows 10 Mobile, but that's about it. No passion, no excitement, nothing. Few and far between blog posts that are a million miles away from Nokia's Lumia Conversations days. They barely even acknowledge it at events anymore. If they can't be bothered, why should I or anyone else? In January 2015 they at least had a fighting chance because companies can't just ignore entire countries such as Italy and France, but Microsoft have managed to even let that slide away over the last 18 months, which is pretty incredible for such a massive company.






It's quite concerning when Microsoft pay more attention to Android and IOS than their own company's products and something that I can't say I've ever seen any other company do. The new Microsoft Authenticator App is a prime example. It's a first party Microsoft app, one that's primarily for Microsoft products and yet when they released it, they released it on IOS and Android only. Then when they released it later for Windows 10 Mobile, all they done was rename the 'Azure Authenticator' app to 'Microsoft Authenticator'. That was it. An ugly app with nothing more to offer than the original Authenticator app. Yeah, cheers.

So, in conclusion I like (and have always liked) Nokia, I like Windows 10 Mobile, I dislike Microsoft's attitude. They can't afford to do this when they're up against companies with the huge influencing power and resources of Google and Apple. Otherwise when laptops and desktops are replaced by phones with docks, Microsoft are going to be in serious trouble.

If they don't pull their finger out soon, the future of the internet seems pretty bleak for me. My worst nightmare in fact. Windows Mobile fails to gain back any traction. Google and Apple launch docks (and later wireless technology) for their phones that allows them connect to monitor, goggles, keyboard, pen, mouse, etc. and also offload compute power either via Thunderbolt when at a base station or to a cloud server. Rendering those 3D models in Maya goes from 12 hours on full desktop PC, to a fraction of the time using a cloud server to do the heavy lifting. Laptop and Desktop users pretty much don't need their desktop computers anymore as they can use their phones for absolutely everything. Desktop disappears. Apple and Google get the entire mobile and the desktop market between them. Developers only develop software for IOS and Android. Companies stop creating websites for the open web and instead concentrate solely on IOS and Android apps instead. The World Wide Web becomes a ghost town like usenet. People suddenly realise they're locked into an ecosystem controlled entirely by Apple and Google. I have to go back to reading books made from actual paper.

The stage Microsoft is at today is the stage they should have been at 4 years ago. I only hope that they are just waiting for all the Windows 10 pieces to be in place, before coming to life in 2017 and really going for it in a big way. Afterall, they had 24 Billion to spend on Linkedin, so if they can do that whilst ignoring their current products, they presumably must be waiting for something before making a stand... right?


/rant

PS: Apologise for the loooong post.