Update – My Lumia 1020 Experience

I managed to connect the phone to Office 365 last night.  I think I originally set up the phone during the DNS issue that impacted Microsoft last week and that if affected my configuration.

One of the problems that I’ve had with Windows Phone in the past is podcast management – The store only works in a few countries.  It’s a big deal for me.  Podcatcher is still as bad as ever.  I tried something different last night: i PodCast.  It’s not as good as Dogcatcher on Android but it works OK so far.  I’ll see how it goes after a few days.

The other issue that I had in the past was using the phone with my Parrot bluetooth car kit.  I managed to talk to a friend for about 20 minutes on the motorway this evening, so no complaints.

The camera got tested out by a few of my work colleagues today.  The image quality has impressed all so far.

Apps that are important to me are all there:

• Aer Lingus
• British Airways
• TripIt
• Yelp (spotting a theme yet?)
• Audible
• NFL Mobile
• NFL Gamepass
• Flickr (way better than Apple version)
• Irish Times (best version on any platform)
• Last Pass (can’t live without it)
• Viber
• And more

There are a few more that I’d like, such as Odeon Ireland, The Journal.ie, and more.  Maybe the folks in Microsoft Ireland can get something moving there ;)  Two more apps I’d like to see:

• Scheduled do not disturb: I hate when I get called in the middle of the night.  iOS has this built in and there are several excellent apps on Android.
• ProXPN: Not a deal breaker (because it’s more important on Windows and my Android tablet) but it would be nice for Netflix.

The Twitter app also needs some work.  I dislike how it doesn’t scroll to the oldest unread tweet, especially when you need it to load more older tweets.  And why oh why must it keep notifying me of stuff when I’ve disabled notifications?

Other things I am liking:

• Syncing lots of calendars.  I’ve got my personal O365 calendar and my work calendar all in one place.  A quick look in the evening and I know what’s coming up tomorrow, without opening up 2 mail OWA and Outlook.
• Nokia Here Drive+: I downloaded some maps last week and was able to navigate from the heart of Redmond to Fry’s in Renton while offline.  It worked perfectly.  I guess I’ll be able to keep my phone on charge while navigating now, instead of unplugging it to insert my GPS.  Winning!
• Multiple mail accounts.  This is another time saver.  I have connected work mail and my personal O365 mail account to the phone.  Both have different tiles on the start screen, which I like, and I can quickly jump into either one.

Whoda thunk it – I’m being sort of positive about my Windows Phone 8 experience!!!!  Someone call a shrink!