Windows Phone 8 - Missing Features
Features which would make Windows Phone 8 even better
Windows Phone 8 is at the moment the first choice operating system for my mobile. It is very fast even on not so fast hardware and its design and usability are modern and simple. But still there are some features that are missing. For sure Microsoft does not want Windows Phone 8 to be a "Feature-Beast" like Android is. But the following missing features are rather basic. I think all kinds of users from beginner to advanced would like them.
Windows Phone 8 - the Missing Features
- Deactivate Auto-Rotation on Orientation Change: Try reading websites on your Windows Phone Mobile when laying at the beach or in bed. You will see the content on screen will rotate as usual, which makes sense, just not in the case that you are in horizontal position yourself. The sad truth is: You can´t deactivate the Auto-Rotation in Windows Phone 8 globally. Some Apps have Auto-Rotate Settings, but Windows 8 Phone itself does not have it. I hope in the next release of Windows Phone 8 Microsoft will implement it. I guess Settings -> Display would be a nice place for a switch-control to set the Auto-Rotate Setting.
- Task Manager: There is no way to kill an app which crashed or is just not responding anymore. Even on Windows Phone 8 apps can crash. You can wait till Windows Phone 8 removes the app from memory automatically or you restart your phone. Both ways are rather annoying. I want Microsoft to add the "kill"-option in the overview screen of all apps which are currently open (you get that screen by pressing the back button for some seconds) with the possibility to press long on the crashed app and a context menu appears with the desired option: force quit. I like!
- File Manager: So far Microsoft does not give access to the File System of your Windows Phone 8. There are even no apps to manage your files. I´m sure Microsoft is going here the Apple-Way (get simplicity with restrictions) to prevent users form killing the system by playing around with the File System. But in the case you are running out of free memory on your phone this can be rather annoying. If you want to delete files then you always have to open the corresponding app (e.g. the Photo App to delete Photos or the PDF Reader to delete an PDF). Of course this apps are not specialized on managing files: So you can´t perform a proper file search or it´s hard to identify big files and memory wasters. I would like to see an central app where I can manage all my files (mostly that are just Photos, Music, Videos, Documents). This can be still simple and does not need full File System access.
Thats just the beginning. Sure I will find more :)
Let me know if you discover a missing feature in Windows Phone 8. You can also tell me if a missing feature suddenly shows up :)
Greetz,
Florian