Tried out Windows Phone 8

[mlody]

Did you update your 928 to WP8.1? If not, do it and you'll notice a huge improvement with features, including how the app store looks and operates.

I apologize for not mentioning, but I do run WP 8.1 DP on my Lumia 928. I only used my WP8 for like 5 minutes overall (was my friend's phone). When I got my Lumia 928, the 8.1 DP was already available, so I went straight to install it and never looked back at WP8

 

[spinedoc77]

You can create folders on wp that looks just like it does on iOS, only it is more complicated to create a folder than on iOS. That said, once a folder is created, adding, moving and deleting apps from a folder is soooo much simpler and faster to do on wp than either iOS or Android.

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One of the reasons the Windows 7/XP lol is preferred over that Metro look in Windows 8. I never use the Metro tiles homescreen on either my PC or my Venue Pro 8. I'm just glad Microsoft didn't force users to use Metro tiles and we still have the option to use the normal desktop. If it had been Apple, I doubt that option would exist.

You can't create folders in the Start screen, which is what replaces the Start button menu where you could create folders. IMO this is 99% of what irks consumers who complain about the missing start button. I'd like to ask the moron designer who thought that it was a good idea to have dozens and dozens of programs haphazardly thrown around, probably the same moron who designed the app drawer.

edit: I'm talking about Metro on the PC, as I have no idea how it's laid out on WP.

 

[Lloydbm41]

You can't create folders in the Start screen, which is what replaces the Start button menu where you could create folders. IMO this is 99% of what irks consumers who complain about the missing start button. I'd like to ask the moron designer who thought that it was a good idea to have dozens and dozens of programs haphazardly thrown around, probably the same moron who designed the app drawer.

edit: I'm talking about Metro on the PC, as I have no idea how it's laid out on WP.

Nope, on the PC you can't and another reason why many people don't use the Metro interface on PC. What I have done is to place those tiles I do use (PC Settings for example) on the status bar, next to the start button on the bottom of the screen. Microsoft did the same thing for update 1 by putting the Store tile there. Even they realize people prefer the Win7 interface.

 

[SurferMan]

iOS 6 was very unique, it's iOS 7 that is total Android wannabe.

Not sure what you mean, iOS and Android are pretty similar, swiping the home screens/spring board, notifications, the spring board is essentially the app drawer etc. Sure there's little customizations that can make it quite different especially on Android. But they share a similar use and basic "look". Windows looks completely different, is set up different etc, doesn't feel the same as Android or iOS....it's just fresh feeling and a nice change from normal mobile OSs

Not sure what you mean by iOS7 being an Android wannabe? iOS7 looks like it was designed by someone who only watches kids movies lol.

 

[ozaz]

You can't create folders in the Start screen, which is what replaces the Start button menu where you could create folders. IMO this is 99% of what irks consumers who complain about the missing start button. I'd like to ask the moron designer who thought that it was a good idea to have dozens and dozens of programs haphazardly thrown around, probably the same moron who designed the app drawer.

edit: I'm talking about Metro on the PC, as I have no idea how it's laid out on WP.

It's funny.......the organisational capabilities of the Win 8 start screen is actually the thing I've always liked about it compared to Win 7 start menu. I find it much quicker and more flexible to create app groupings on the start screen than folders in the Win 7 start menu.

 

[spinedoc77]

It's funny.......the organisational capabilities of the Win 8 start screen is actually the thing I've always liked about it compared to Win 7 start menu. I find it much quicker and more flexible to create app groupings on the start screen than folders in the Win 7 start menu.

I think it depends how many programs you have. If you have a couple hundred programs I think it would be nuts to have them all splayed out on one page, even if you did group them up. It's not just the programs, but EVERY single menu and subprogram. So if you install a program in the old days you hit the start menu and the program might have some subfolders, maybe an uninstallation file, a program like Office might have 10+ entries. So now with Metro start screen you get ALL of those 10+ entries on the start screen, multiply that by programs installed and you can start to see why it doesn't make sense.

For me I simply went back to the old start button/menu. Classic Shell is an awesome program which does this. But the solution is so simple, they just need to simply add folder options in the start screen.

 

[ozaz]

I think it depends how many programs you have. If you have a couple hundred programs I think it would be nuts to have them all splayed out on one page, even if you did group them up. It's not just the programs, but EVERY single menu and subprogram. So if you install a program in the old days you hit the start menu and the program might have some subfolders, maybe an uninstallation file, a program like Office might have 10+ entries. So now with Metro start screen you get ALL of those 10+ entries on the start screen, multiply that by programs installed and you can start to see why it doesn't make sense.

For me I simply went back to the old start button/menu. Classic Shell is an awesome program which does this. But the solution is so simple, they just need to simply add folder options in the start screen.

Are you using Windows 8 rather than Windows 8.1? Unlike in Windows 8, in Windows 8.1 you don't get anything added to the start screen when you install a program. It's up to you to manually choose which ones to pin to the start screen (you choose from the all apps screen) so you don't end up with things like installers and helper apps spewed over the start screen.

Anyway, I've got about 85 programs manually pinned to my start screen. I've got them organised into about 13 groups such as 'Office & Notes', 'Scientific & Numerical', 'Graphics', 'Audio', 'Video', 'File Utilities', 'Disk Utilities', etc. I find this really useful because I've got many programs I seldom use but do a key task. A quick scroll through my start screen quickly reminds me what programs I have to do a particular task.

I actually also use a desktop start menu (Start8) so that I can quickly launch any app without switching away from the desktop, but I do really appreciate the quick overview of my main apps that my personally curated start screen provides.

 

[spinedoc77]

Are you using Windows 8 rather than Windows 8.1? Unlike in Windows 8, in Windows 8.1 you don't get anything added to the start screen when you install a program. It's up to you to manually choose which ones to pin to the start screen (you choose from the all apps screen) so you don't end up with things like installers and helper apps spewed over the start screen.

Anyway, I've got about 85 programs manually pinned to my start screen. I've got them organised into about 13 groups such as 'Office & Notes', 'Scientific & Numerical', 'Graphics', 'Audio', 'Video', 'File Utilities', 'Disk Utilities', etc. I find this really useful because I've got many programs I seldom use but do a key task. A quick scroll through my start screen quickly reminds me what programs I have to do a particular task.

I actually also use a desktop start menu (Start8) so that I can quickly launch any app without switching away from the desktop, but I do really appreciate the quick overview of my main apps that my personally curated start screen provides.

I use 8.1. I think I confused the issue by saying start screen, I meant the "app" screen that you get when you swipe down. I just set up a replacement tablet the other day and it's already has like 6 pages of apps, including uninstallation files, readme files, help/support files, etc and things like that. The start screen is ok, I still think folders is better than grouping especially if you have a lot of folders. I mean, the start screen is still a sort of desktop and if you had a lot of similar files on the old windows desktop you probably wouldn't just splay them all on the desktop, even if you could group them.