Which iOS apps do you need that are not available in the windows ecosystem?

[spinedoc77]

I want something that lets me manage/write texts on the PC and have them sent through the phone though, does the regular WP text app allow for that?

I'm assuming you are trying to keep all of your messaging systems synced and also receive text messages sent to your phone, on your PC like iMessage and Mighty text let you do on iOS and Android? I don't know if there is a windows alternative, a quick search on google and I didn't see anything. Definitely something Microsoft should consider.

edit; I think you used to be able to do this, but it doesn't seem possible anymore, scroll down to "Third-party text messaging (SMS) service" and it seems there used to be an option to do this through Outlook and assign your wireless number. https://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook-help/send-and-receive-text-messages-sms-HA101823438.aspx

 

[sracer]

I don't get where the ipad is better in consumption? Seriously, I can view videos, movies, pictures, books, music, internet, etc just as well if not better in many cases on a windows tablet. For consumption I NEVER have to hunt tiny little buttons because I'm not on the desktop, every single one of those needs has a modern/touch app.

"Better" is a comparative. Do you own both an iPad and a Windows tablet and have you spent extensive time on each attempting to do the same things?

What I've found in my travels, is that whether someone prefers an iPad or prefers a Windows tablet, they generally have a "serialized" experience.... had an iPad for a while then had a Windows tablet. Having multiple devices simultaneously is not as common.

When you have multiple devices and need to get something done, the differences become easily identifiable. And those differences have different priorities and importance.

as an example: A Windows tablet could do 90% of the things that an iPad can do (if not better), but if that missing 10% of the functionality is THE main purpose for using the tablet, then the iPad would be superior in the situation.

That might help explain why you are unable to see how someone draws the conclusion that the iPad is better in consumption.

It's all good though, thanks for the input. This thread was a bit of an experiment to see if there are actually any apps that people miss on windows, it's also interesting to see people fish a bit when they realize that most apps are indeed available in some form.

It was also an opportunity for you to make a judgment on what people use.
One such example:

Google maps meh
itunes store is available as a desktop program. Personally I think it's an awful program
Reddit? Bleh.
Passbook: never found a use for it on iOS so I can't comment, but if you use it then it's a valid point.

 

[mKTank]

"Better" is a comparative. Do you own both an iPad and a Windows tablet and have you spent extensive time on each attempting to do the same things?

What I've found in my travels, is that whether someone prefers an iPad or prefers a Windows tablet, they generally have a "serialized" experience.... had an iPad for a while then had a Windows tablet. Having multiple devices simultaneously is not as common.

When you have multiple devices and need to get something done, the differences become easily identifiable. And those differences have different priorities and importance.

as an example: A Windows tablet could do 90% of the things that an iPad can do (if not better), but if that missing 10% of the functionality is THE main purpose for using the tablet, then the iPad would be superior in the situation.

That might help explain why you are unable to see how someone draws the conclusion that the iPad is better in consumption.





It was also an opportunity for you to make a judgment on what people use.
One such example:

Yea I was legitimately posting proper input but now I think I'll stop after this one.

I guess if you ignore that the Surface is twice the thickness, weight, heat production, etc. and about half the battery life, then maybe it'd be comparable to an iPad. But you'd also have to ignore the fact that most of apps on Windows Store are total garbage, and that's not even an opinion. Anybody who owns these tablets knows that the Windows Store is not even close to even Android's tablet store, and that's quite an insult in itself. And if you wanted to work with proper Windows programs on the desktop view, you'd have to work with a UI totally not made for touch input. I guess touching 10 square pixel sized buttons requires a certain finesse that I lack. Or maybe I prefer to use a UI that was actually designed for tablet use.

As for playing GTA4 on an Atom tablet...ROFL no. Unless it's at 800x600 resolution, it's not happening at an FPS higher than 30. My quad core i7 laptop with a midrange AMD mobile GPU and 16GB of RAM doesn't play it anywhere near native resolution and nowhere near smooth enough FPS...I highly doubt that you're telling the truth. Or maybe your definition of "having fun" has been stretched a bit. And at that point it's not really playing the game as much as it is suffering. And at that point you have a keyboard and mouse plugged in...so much for portability. Expect about 2 hours of ultra low resolution, low FPS gameplay with wires dangling all over the place. But if you're having fun then who am I to stop you?

Conclusion: if you bring up desktop games and programs to a tablet fight, you're kind of losing the tablet fight. How is an Atom tablet any different from a keyboardless Netbook? It loses at both categories: desktop apps (because touch isn't easy) and mobile apps (because there aren't any good ones..yet?)

I'm not just being some fanboy by the way, I use my Surface more than I use my iPad simply for the fact that I have courses every day and the Surface is instrumental to my studies. But I'll never lie to myself and tell myself that I would actually prefer the relatively huge, hot, heavy, crap battery life Surface over the iPad Air for media consumption. It just doesn't work like that.

 

[spinedoc77]

"Better" is a comparative. Do you own both an iPad and a Windows tablet and have you spent extensive time on each attempting to do the same things?

What I've found in my travels, is that whether someone prefers an iPad or prefers a Windows tablet, they generally have a "serialized" experience.... had an iPad for a while then had a Windows tablet. Having multiple devices simultaneously is not as common.

When you have multiple devices and need to get something done, the differences become easily identifiable. And those differences have different priorities and importance.

as an example: A Windows tablet could do 90% of the things that an iPad can do (if not better), but if that missing 10% of the functionality is THE main purpose for using the tablet, then the iPad would be superior in the situation.

That might help explain why you are unable to see how someone draws the conclusion that the iPad is better in consumption.





It was also an opportunity for you to make a judgment on what people use.
One such example:

Yes I do currently own an ipad AND a windows tablet. I've spent years comparing consumption apps, although I can't say I've tested them all I think I've gotten to all the most popular ones.

 

[spinedoc77]

Yea I was legitimately posting proper input but now I think I'll stop after this one.

I think the dispelling of some nonsense is in order here, it probably is a good thing this was your last post.

the Surface is twice the thickness, weight, heat production, etc. and about half the battery life, then maybe it'd be comparable to an iPad..

ipad retina display thickness: 9.4mm, weight: 1.44lb., battery life: 10hours.
Surface Pro 3 thickness: 9.1mm, weight: 1.76lb., battery life: 9 hours.

Yeah because facts shouldn't get in the way of a discussion...

most of apps on Windows Store are total garbage.

Quite subjective, but then the entire discussion is. I mainly asked the question which apps people were missing and when some come to the realization that their apps are really not missing they start to use the quality argument. That's fine though, I am hardly objective either. I find many if not most of the apps on iOS to be too simplistic in general and they lose a lot of functionality, making them inferior quite often, once again subjective and simply my opinion.

I guess touching 10 square pixel sized buttons requires a certain finesse that I lack. .

Definitely a valid point which MS needs to address, no argument there. Although I'd say that native MS programs scale quite well, Office on the desktop is a great example. May programs run quite nicely as well. Many programs look like utter crap due to the scaling issues. My take on it is I'd rather have the option to run millions of desktop programs than be pigeonholed into only apps, that's also the reason I don't like the RT paradigm. I can run my tablet in Modern mode 100% of the time and never know the desktop exists if I wanted to.

As for playing GTA4 on an Atom tablet...ROFL no. Unless it's at 800x600 resolution, it's not happening at an FPS higher than 30. My quad core i7 laptop with a midrange AMD mobile GPU and 16GB of RAM doesn't play it anywhere near native resolution and nowhere near smooth enough FPS...I highly doubt that you're telling the truth. Or maybe your definition of "having fun" has been stretched a bit. And at that point it's not really playing the game as much as it is suffering. And at that point you have a keyboard and mouse plugged in...so much for portability. Expect about 2 hours of ultra low resolution, low FPS gameplay with wires dangling all over the place. But if you're having fun then who am I to stop you? .

GTA4 runs quite smoothly, look it up on youtube for some examples. I did mention it would run at low resolution. I don't have an issue with the performance and am quite happy, definitely not "suffering" through the game. The truth is out there, youtube videos, forum users, etc.

And at that point you have a keyboard and mouse plugged in...so much for portability. Expect about 2 hours of ultra low resolution, low FPS gameplay with wires dangling all over the place..

There are some options for running with touch controls, one of them being: http://gestureworks.com/ Very cool program to make your own virtual touch controllers for any game. I must say though that mouse/keyboard is a far superior experience to using touch controls in many games, but iOS doesn't have a large catalog of such games compared to the PC. As for wires, shhhhh lemme tell you a secret, they invented this thing called Bluetooth some time ago, it lets you play without wires... Also let me see how many hours of battery you get on the ipad while playing a very graphically intensive game... about the same? Yeah I thought so.

Conclusion: if you bring up desktop games and programs to a tablet fight, you're kind of losing the tablet fight. How is an Atom tablet any different from a keyboardless Netbook? It loses at both categories: desktop apps (because touch isn't easy) and mobile apps (because there aren't any good ones..yet?).

Actually I'm not, but that's only if you like to have more choices. How is an ipad different than a huge iPhone? Desktop programs: hit or miss but at least I have the option. Mobile apps: the vast majority of the ones on iOS are covered in windows, or did we miss some on the list?

But I'll never lie to myself and tell myself that I would actually prefer the relatively huge, hot, heavy, crap battery life Surface over the iPad Air for media consumption. It just doesn't work like that.

Or you could look up the specs, weight, battery life, size, etc and compare them yourself, research is a good thing. Although if you don't want to just scroll up where I put the specs up.

 

[Vetvito]

It is taking a while, but more developers are coming on board. I don't use Pinterest, but supposedly an official app dropped for that today

Lol that's a web wrapper. Which is pathetic. Like most of the other apps. Spotify is horrid even after the latest update.

Tapatalk is horrid even after TH latest update.

6tag is rubbish. You'll miss notifications or won't get them at all. Rudy is good but it'll take more than him.

What's missing?

My bank app.
The games I actually play.

 

[Lloydbm41]

Lol that's a web wrapper. Which is pathetic. Like most of the other apps. Spotify is horrid even after the latest update.

Tapatalk is horrid even after TH latest update.

6tag is rubbish. You'll miss notifications or won't get them at all. Rudy is good but it'll take more than him.

What's missing?

My bank app.
The games I actually play.

Like I said, I don't use Pinterest , so can't comment on quality, but if it is just a web wrapper, then maybe it is a place holder while a real app is built?

And I use USAA for banking, and am lucky enough to have a bank that cares about users on all platforms. What bank do you use? I know I have seen BofA and Wells Fargo apps.

Last, I use Tapatalk on ocassion and find it a comparable experience to Android. Not sure what issues you are having there?

 

[mKTank]

I think the dispelling of some nonsense is in order here, it probably is a good thing this was your last post.

I'll bite

ipad retina display thickness: 9.4mm, weight: 1.44lb., battery life: 10hours.
Surface Pro 3 thickness: 9.1mm, weight: 1.76lb., battery life: 9 hours.


Yeah because facts shouldn't get in the way of a discussion...

Except it hasn't even been released yet. Good job arguing with specs of an unreleased product. Also the Surface Pro 3 got around 4 hours of real world use in actual reviews. I looked at a handful and they averaged around 5 hours, whereas iPad Air consistently gets over 10 hours, with Anandtech managing to get 13 hours of video. The best the Surface 3 manages to get is maybe 8 hours, and that's still quite a bit worse (20% worse).

The iPad Air is 7.5 mm thick, not 9.4. It's 1.03lb, not 1.44. Did you really look up specs for an old iPad to try to win this argument? And then compared it to an unreleased tablet? Whatever happened to the facts getting in the way of a discussion thing you were just talking about?

GTA4 runs quite smoothly, look it up on youtube for some examples

Not on an Atom tablet. Not with acceptable settings, unless you're particularly fond of pixel art.

As for wires, shhhhh lemme tell you a secret, they invented this thing called Bluetooth some time ago, it lets you play without wires...

The wires isn't the main problem; it's carrying around desktop peripherals for use on a tablet.

Also let me see how many hours of battery you get on the ipad while playing a very graphically intensive game... about the same? Yeah I thought so.

Anandtech got 7 hours flat running a very hardware intensive benchmark on loop.

Actually I'm not, but that's only if you like to have more choices. How is an ipad different than a huge iPhone? Desktop programs: hit or miss but at least I have the option. Mobile apps: the vast majority of the ones on iOS are covered in windows, or did we miss some on the list?

How is a Windows tablet different from those horrid netbooks we were making fun of earlier in the decade? Oh, they're actually worse, because now the only way to use a mouse-oriented OS without extra peripherals is with a touchscreen. Great, what an upgrade.

Or you could look up the specs, weight, battery life, size, etc and compare them yourself, research is a good thing. Although if you don't want to just scroll up where I put the specs up.

Research is a good thing. Too bad you didn't bother to make sure you were looking up the right iPad. But hey if comparing hardware with an age difference of 2 years is gonna win the argument, why not, right?

This is why I replied even though I said I wouldn't. I don't want some poor guy misled by the 'research' you did.

 

[spinedoc77]

I'll bite



Except it hasn't even been released yet. Good job arguing with specs of an unreleased product. Also the Surface Pro 3 got around 4 hours of real world use in actual reviews. I looked at a handful and they averaged around 5 hours, whereas iPad Air consistently gets over 10 hours, with Anandtech managing to get 13 hours of video. The best the Surface 3 manages to get is maybe 8 hours, and that's still quite a bit worse (20% worse).

The iPad Air is 7.5 mm thick, not 9.4. It's 1.03lb, not 1.44. Did you really look up specs for an old iPad to try to win this argument? And then compared it to an unreleased tablet? Whatever happened to the facts getting in the way of a discussion thing you were just talking about?


Not on an Atom tablet. Not with acceptable settings, unless you're particularly fond of pixel art.


The wires isn't the main problem; it's carrying around desktop peripherals for use on a tablet.



Anandtech got 7 hours flat running a very hardware intensive benchmark on loop.



How is a Windows tablet different from those horrid netbooks we were making fun of earlier in the decade? Oh, they're actually worse, because now the only way to use a mouse-oriented OS without extra peripherals is with a touchscreen. Great, what an upgrade.


Research is a good thing. Too bad you didn't bother to make sure you were looking up the right iPad. But hey if comparing hardware with an age difference of 2 years is gonna win the argument, why not, right?

This is why I replied even though I said I wouldn't. I don't want some poor guy misled by the 'research' you did.

That's a horrendous excuse, lol. It gets released this Friday. So my argument won't be valid until Friday? It's not vaporware, I have one on preorder, just utterly horrible argument. Also 4 hours real world use is complete BS, you know it and I do. For just about the most scientific review the SP2 comes in at 8.3 hours of internet wifi browsing by anandtech: http://www.anandtech.com/show/7478/microsoft-surface-pro-2-firmware-update-improves-battery-life and the SP3 should have about 20% more battery life. There are dozens of battery reviews of the SP2, pick whichever you want it still gets about 7-8 hours of real world use.

How about some reviews for the SP3 from some pretty anti-Microsoft sites:

Gizmodo: "we found we could average around 7 hours of heavy use" http://gizmodo.com/surface-pro-3-review-the-greatest-laptop-tablet-hybrid-1581896186

The Verge: "It stayed alive for 7 hours and 50 minutes in our battery rundown test" http://www.theverge.com/2014/5/23/5743416/microsoft-surface-pro-3-review

As for ipad air thickness, what's your point? The last I recall you said "DOUBLE" the thickness, correct? 7.5 x2 = 15mm, or at least that's what my 11 year old nephew told me when I asked him. The SP3 is thinner than an ipad that is currently sold by Apple (ipad with retina display) which is 9.4mm, it is only 1.6mm thicker than the ipad air not double. Although the SP3 is not meant to be compared to the ipad because it has such a humungous amount of increased functionality over it, but I'm sure you are aware we are arguing apples and oranges anyhow. Same with weight, it's a 12" screen with a desktop class CPU in it, versus a 9.7" screen, but once again apples to oranges. Facts still remain, yes they are a bit pesky at times. But let's revisit this Friday when this vaporware product should appear like the Loch Ness monster from the depths and we can measure it (not unlike the dozens of reviewers and journalists have) and see if it is truly double the thickness and weight, and you can even use the ipad air for comparison.

GTA4 runs smoothly, low res on my Baytrail tablet that I just sold. I'll put up a review when I get my SP3 Friday over the weekend. Skyrim runs also, Elder Scrolls Online, Tomb Raider, those are just a few I installed and have run. I can get a link out for you on the windows tablet forums about members talking about running PC games on their baytrail tablets. But it's a moot point for me anyhow as I sold mine and will have a Core tablet in a few days, with GTA5 on it as well when that comes out. Similar to the ipad I can also run Angry Birds on it, much to my relief.

Desktop peripherals. Here's the beauty, the SP3 has an awesome keyboard cover that doubles as a keyboard and a protective cover. I always had a case and cover on my ipad, but that's just me. So the wires argument didn't fly eh? Anyhow I don't have to carry any desktop peripherals with me unless I want a superior gaming experience, or a superior content creation experience, or a superior Office/word processing experience, etc etc. But options are a bad thing right? The option to use a mouse on a tablet is a bad thing, the option to use a stylus on a tablet is bad thing, yah I already know.

So yes research is a good thing, and saying the SP3 is "double" (your word) the thickness was not a good use of it, and that's even with the ipad air.

In any event these are not meant to be compared. There are Atom/Baytrail tablets which match the ipad air closely in thickness, battery life, weight, etc and still run the full windows and these are what should be compared. The SP3 is something different and there is a thread open for that if you want to disagree with me, I'd be more than happy to keep the discussion open, but this thread is for apps and software, so let's keep on topic.

Here is the Surface Pro 3 thread, I'd appreciate keeping the hardware discussion there and we can discuss the original topic on here about which apps on iOS you find missing on the windows platform: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1735778/

 

[mKTank]

That's a horrendous excuse, lol. It gets released this Friday. So my argument won't be valid until Friday? It's not vaporware, I have one on preorder, just utterly horrible argument. Also 4 hours real world use is complete BS, you know it and I do. For just about the most scientific review the SP2 comes in at 8.3 hours of internet wifi browsing by anandtech: http://www.anandtech.com/show/7478/microsoft-surface-pro-2-firmware-update-improves-battery-life and the SP3 should have about 20% more battery life. There are dozens of battery reviews of the SP2, pick whichever you want it still gets about 7-8 hours of real world use.

How about some reviews for the SP3 from some pretty anti-Microsoft sites:

Gizmodo: "we found we could average around 7 hours of heavy use" http://gizmodo.com/surface-pro-3-review-the-greatest-laptop-tablet-hybrid-1581896186

The Verge: "It stayed alive for 7 hours and 50 minutes in our battery rundown test" http://www.theverge.com/2014/5/23/5743416/microsoft-surface-pro-3-review

As for ipad air thickness, what's your point? The last I recall you said "DOUBLE" the thickness, correct? 7.5 x2 = 15mm, or at least that's what my 11 year old nephew told me when I asked him. The SP3 is thinner than an ipad that is currently sold by Apple (ipad with retina display) which is 9.4mm, it is only 1.6mm thicker than the ipad air not double. Although the SP3 is not meant to be compared to the ipad because it has such a humungous amount of increased functionality over it, but I'm sure you are aware we are arguing apples and oranges anyhow. Same with weight, it's a 12" screen with a desktop class CPU in it, versus a 9.7" screen, but once again apples to oranges. Facts still remain, yes they are a bit pesky at times. But let's revisit this Friday when this vaporware product should appear like the Loch Ness monster from the depths and we can measure it (not unlike the dozens of reviewers and journalists have) and see if it is truly double the thickness and weight, and you can even use the ipad air for comparison.

GTA4 runs smoothly, low res on my Baytrail tablet that I just sold. I'll put up a review when I get my SP3 Friday over the weekend. Skyrim runs also, Elder Scrolls Online, Tomb Raider, those are just a few I installed and have run. I can get a link out for you on the windows tablet forums about members talking about running PC games on their baytrail tablets. But it's a moot point for me anyhow as I sold mine and will have a Core tablet in a few days, with GTA5 on it as well when that comes out. Similar to the ipad I can also run Angry Birds on it, much to my relief.

Desktop peripherals. Here's the beauty, the SP3 has an awesome keyboard cover that doubles as a keyboard and a protective cover. I always had a case and cover on my ipad, but that's just me. So the wires argument didn't fly eh? Anyhow I don't have to carry any desktop peripherals with me unless I want a superior gaming experience, or a superior content creation experience, or a superior Office/word processing experience, etc etc. But options are a bad thing right? The option to use a mouse on a tablet is a bad thing, the option to use a stylus on a tablet is bad thing, yah I already know.

So yes research is a good thing, and saying the SP3 is "double" (your word) the thickness was not a good use of it, and that's even with the ipad air.

In any event these are not meant to be compared. There are Atom/Baytrail tablets which match the ipad air closely in thickness, battery life, weight, etc and still run the full windows and these are what should be compared. The SP3 is something different and there is a thread open for that if you want to disagree with me, I'd be more than happy to keep the discussion open, but this thread is for apps and software, so let's keep on topic.

Here is the Surface Pro 3 thread, I'd appreciate keeping the hardware discussion there and we can discuss the original topic on here about which apps on iOS you find missing on the windows platform: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1735778/

So my previous reply was entirely accurate and you provided a wall of text reply with beating around the bush and word nitpicking. I don't think anybody here would be surprised that I'm just going to nope out of...whatever you call this. I've made my point and I honestly don't have any more time to waste on people that can't be helped. Take care.

 

[sracer]

Yes I do currently own an ipad AND a windows tablet. I've spent years comparing consumption apps, although I can't say I've tested them all I think I've gotten to all the most popular ones.

Which windows tablet do you have?

 

[spinedoc77]

So my previous reply was entirely accurate and you provided a wall of text reply with beating around the bush and word nitpicking. I don't think anybody here would be surprised that I'm just going to nope out of...whatever you call this. I've made my point and I honestly don't have any more time to waste on people that can't be helped. Take care.

Yep it was totally accurate if you say the SP3 is "twice" (your words) the thickness and weight of the ipad Air, gets only 4 hours battery life and doesn't run PC games, hmm... make sure you check the specs to see if you were truly "accurate". Otherwise I don't see much accurate about it. Don't let the door hit ya...

 

[mKTank]

Yep it was totally accurate if you say the SP3 is "twice" (your words) the thickness and weight of the ipad Air, gets only 4 hours battery life and doesn't run PC games, hmm... make sure you check the specs to see if you were truly "accurate". Otherwise I don't see much accurate about it. Don't let the door hit ya...

I was comparing the two newest models, the ones that were actually available (and still the only ones available as of now) because there's no point in comparing unreleased tablets. Good try putting words in my mouth, making it seem like I was referring to unreleased products. How's that straw man working out for you?

The Surface 3 will be an improvement, but will still have worse battery life (9 hours won't happen unless you're on power saver with the brightness at 10%), much heavier, and now instead of much thicker (actually it's still quite a lot thicker), it will be much bigger in dimensions. Yay progress.

Surface 2 Pro: 1.98lb
iPad Air: 1.03lb

Surface 2 Pro: 13.50mm
iPad Air: 7.5mm

Next reply: something something perfect multiple, more talk about unreleased hardware, comment about how I didn't leave after all, and further strawmanning into the argument.

 

[spinedoc77]

I was comparing the two newest models, the ones that were actually available (and still the only ones available as of now) because there's no point in comparing unreleased tablets. Good try putting words in my mouth. How's that straw man working out for you? If it helps you win the argument though, why not right?

Surface 2 Pro: 1.98lb
iPad Air: 1.03lb

Surface 2 Pro: 13.50mm
iPad Air: 7.5mm

"oh noo but it's not a perfect multiple plus vapourware lol unreleased tablets"

I understand now you were comparing the SP2 to the ipad air, that's great no arguments there. We had a miscommunication then and I'll be just as guilty as you for using the retina ipad instead of the air. So let's chalk it up to a miscommunication.

Here are the specs for the latest and greatest from each company for a fair comparison:

ipad air: thickness: 7.5mm, weight: 1.05lb, battery life: 10 hours.
surface pro 3: thickness: 9.1mm, weight: 1.76lb, battery life: 9 hours.

In any event please limit the discussion here to software and apps, I've already linked the appropriate thread for us to discuss hardware, which I'd be more than willing to continue there.

 

[spinedoc77]

GTA4 on the SP2 at 720p, looks very playable. Pair this with onscreen controls from Gestureworks https://gameplay.gestureworks.com/ and it looks very cool. Titanfall, Battlefield 4, COD, etc all play well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUp8-ggWas4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rsei_42adXg

 

[MozMan68]

I switched from iPhone to WP at the beginning of the year just for the hell of it.

Yes, there are MUCH fewer apps...but none that I really cared about at the end of the day. All of my airline apps, social media apps and other travel apps are there.

The experience has been so much better with Windows from a productivity standpoint that I'm finally getting off the iPad for good when I get my Surface Pro 3.

Yes...I have to synch my phone to get my iTunes songs on there, but that takes about a minute once a month or whenever I buy a bunch of songs that I want on there. Not a big deal.

My loxcal bank app is the only one I guess that I use regularly that I actually "miss," but once I have my SP3, I'll simply add the webpage as a tile on there...and will be able to do some more things on there that they simply didn't add to the app.

 

[sentinelsx]

Just wondering, can you play watch_dogs on a surface pro 3? if so, that is such a major win for it when considering my near future tablet purchase

On topic: I have always thought once windows pro tablets get better with battery life and screens/thickness, they would be better than a mobile OS tablet like ipad or android one because of amazing amount of windows programs available.

I do hope they don't get noisy or hot like my laptop though, because then my Nexus 7 or an iPad mini would be better for couch surfing/in bed movie watching etc.

 

[rav16]

I recently made switch from wp8 to android and iOS . have iPhone 5s and nexus 5 .

2 major apps which I use now very often and which are not available on wp8 are snapseed and vsco cam .

I mean I use them a lot , so in case I switch back to wp8 I need to have at least one ios or android device with me to use these 2 apps .
Vsco cam may come or may not , but snapseed being a Google app now will for sure not come to wp8 .
Wp8 have some of the best cameras but other then 2 or 3 there are no decent photo editors' in the app store .
I was using wp since HTC trophy times from wp7 .

 

[spinedoc77]

Just wondering, can you play watch_dogs on a surface pro 3? if so, that is such a major win for it when considering my near future tablet purchase

On topic: I have always thought once windows pro tablets get better with battery life and screens/thickness, they would be better than a mobile OS tablet like ipad or android one because of amazing amount of windows programs available.

I do hope they don't get noisy or hot like my laptop though, because then my Nexus 7 or an iPad mini would be better for couch surfing/in bed movie watching etc.

Yep, watch dogs looks quite playable on the SP2:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIFZFXNPlZY&feature=kp

 

[CyanLite]

MyFitnessPal.

It's available on Windows Phone but it doesn't work properly at all. It got updated in Dec last year and hasn't been updated since, people in the comments are all saying that you have to keep reinstalling it to make sure it works, fast forward 7 months, and it's still having the same problems..


That's why I can't switch to WP, not yet anyways. Devs don't care about it, they just release their app so they can say that they have an app on WP and they don't support it, ever. Even Rudy Huyn, who many WP users like to praise doesn't update some of his apps. His TV Shows app hadn't been updated for a long time and kept crashing, I think it took him a couple of months to fix that. And now it's been 4 months and still no update to put in WP8.1 specific features.

And even for things that Rudy Huyn does care about, Microsoft just limits his apps. For example, his 6tag app, you can't upload a pre-recorded video and Rudy can't do anything about it because Microsoft is the one limiting his apps.

 

[Oohara]

Well this was a first (?) - an actually very nice looking game released on WP first. I saw it on the WP Central Youtube page and immediately headed over to the Play Store to pick it up, but no dice.

http://www.wpcentral.com/pako-windows-phone-gameplay

 

[MozMan68]

Well this was a first (?) - an actually very nice looking game released on WP first. I saw it on the WP Central Youtube page and immediately headed over to the Play Store to pick it up, but no dice.

http://www.wpcentral.com/pako-windows-phone-gameplay

I'm downloading now....

 

[ozaz]

Well this was a first (?) - an actually very nice looking game released on WP first. I saw it on the WP Central Youtube page and immediately headed over to the Play Store to pick it up, but no dice.

http://www.wpcentral.com/pako-windows-phone-gameplay

Along these lines, I noticed recently that one of the most visually impressive iOS Anatomy apps - Essential Anatomy - came to Windows Store before coming to Google Play. Only by a couple days (so I guess they were submitted to the stores at the same time), but I was surprised nonetheless.

http://apps.microsoft.com/windows/en-gb/app/essential-anatomy-3/c62b78ce-cebb-4d7d-a319-8553cb70c7ba

 

[sunapple]

I recently switched from an iPhone 5 to a Lumia 1520 just to try it out. The biggest concern I had with WP8 was the availability of apps since I had about a hundred apps on my iPhone. I assumed things would't be as bad as they were when Windows Phone just launched, so I gave it a try.

Now that I've used my Lumia for two months, I can safely say that I don't like Windows Phone very much (the hardware is amazing though!).

When I used my iPhone it was all about apps. News, social stuff, some new populair apps, some games, etcetera. It alway felt like every app I could possibly need was in the App Store.

On Windows Phone though, the experience is a bit different. Yes, the most important there are (almost) all there, which is great. But the fact that an app is available doesn't make the app great. Most smaller apps are poor copies of the web-app and contain bugs. I find myself replacing apps with links to the browser. The apps also don't seem to get updates as regularly as I was used to on iOS, so progress is very slow.

So in short; most apps are there, but they're by far not as good as they are on iOS (or Android I guess). Also, (up-to-date) games are even more rare.

I'd rather go back to an iPhone 4S whilst waiting for the iPhone 6, than having to miss my apps another day. It really depends on what you're used to though.

 

[alex0002]

For a long time, this would have been my answer - the HP Support Center app, but it looks like they have an official Windows Phone version now:
http://www8.hp.com/us/en/business-services/it-services.html?compURI=1078323

For most of time since the app was introduced in 2012, those engineers supporting Windows laptops, desktops and servers on HP hardware couldn't use the HP Support Center app on a Windows Phone.
http://techport13.web11.hubspot.com...obile-Trend-with-HP-Support-Center-Mobile-App

So here is another one I'm using that doesn't appear to have a Windows Phone option, or at least not an official one:
http://blog.bandcamp.com/2014/06/24/bandcamp-app-update-now-with-search-music-discovery-k-hole/

Still on the music theme, the SoundClould app might be another one:
http://help.soundcloud.com/customer...hey-soundcloud-where-can-i-download-your-app-

Once again, there might be some unofficial apps available that could work for some devices.

Disclaimer: I'm using android, but the answers would be the same with iOS.