I am curious, why exactly did you buy a Windows phone? I only know two people (IRL) that have them and neither is very tech savvy. You seem to be more so. I looked at WP but at least a half dozen apps I use regularly are not available on WP and there is nothing comparable. Not to mention the whole "tile flashing" thing would drive me more batty than I already am. Nokia makes good hardware and there is some speculation that Microsoft bought Nokia because they were testing Android on their handsets. If Nokia went Android WP would have been sunk.

Based on this report, WP may be dooming itself:
http://www.pfeifferreport.com/v2/wp-con … ootout.pdf

We will even pay shipping!

You're not the only one in that boat. I've owned a Sony Mylo, a Slacker G2, a Acoustic Energy wifi radio (which is technically not orphaned, but has a particular Edimax 802.11 b/g wifi dongle inside that totally melts down when anywhere near an 802.11n signal.

Let's not forget the Palm T|X and the Pièce de résistance this digital wifi enabled picture frame mp3 player. Controlled through a dead web page, www.framechannel.com, it had some early Facebook and Picasa functionality. The very first thing I had to do when I got mine was contact Edge Tech to find out how I was supposed to enter a WPA passphrase when it only accepted 40 characters (WEP). However the thing was advertised as being WPA compatible. Never worked correctly. So gone and forgotten that this was the *only* reference I could find for it.

Now if I could just find one of these

Brian

First of all, thanks for the links to the hats. This aluminum foil I wear on my head gets uncomfortable sometimes.

There are two reasons I got a Windows Phone. First, I would have loved an iPhone but can't afford one. Second, I admit I am on a personal crusade to keep Google from learning anything more about my life. If there was an "open source" chrome OS phone I'd love it. I was on the verge of buying a discontinued webOS phone. I'd still love that OS, but read about mechanical problems with some of the "new" old phones being sold now. So Windows Phone was just my choice by default.

There was one other factor in this- it was cheap, but all reviews said it was good build quality. It cost $100 with no contract.

Today was just my first day of using it. It has a lot of quirks that aren't covered in the official lit but were easy to find on the forums. This is a Nokia 620 and it really does feel solid, responds quickly, has a nice screen and good sound. This is only 3g. Another carrier has the 520 which is 4g but an inferior display.

The WP8 tiles aren't really annoying at all, once you figure out how to move them. You can also go right go a second screen which just has all the apps in a list, like the Windows "start" list.

The whole system is not intuitive but the learning curve for the basics is pretty quick.

I found that a lot I'd read in reviews was wrong, sometimes for the better, sometimes worse. They're playing up a big update "Amber" and making it sound like it's available now, but it's just trickling out.

One big disappointment is that Wp8 is also very cloud-centered like Android. I think there will be work-around. Most of my day today was controlling the "crapware" just like on a new computer.

A big negative for me is that so far the only browser is IE10. It makes me appreciate how remarkably good Opera Mini was on my dumbphone.

If it was a different world, I wish I could have tried out a BlackBerry.

I'll let you folks know how things go. Brian and everybody, these phones really should make us appreciate how cool our old PDAs were. I just bought a battery to try to revive my old iPaq.

@BoloMKXXVIII- thanks for lots of good leads. - Thought the FF OS was months away- definitely would have gone for it. Oh well, guess you can never do enough research.

Will check those browsers more, but was a little scared by the "permissions" of that UC Browser. That's my problem w so many smartphone apps in general. IE works, after turning off so many options, just like the desktop version. It's just such a bummer after avoiding its clumsiness since Netscape days.

As for the flashing tiles: if you shrink them to the smaller size, they turn into static icons. I've also pulled many of the tiles off the start screen, replaced them with useful things like a "settings" tile. Should be able to get it down to about 10 tiles, many using the small ones.

Also, if you keep the phone in power-saving mode, it prevents most things/tiles from auto-updating until you change the setting back.

Nokia has added a really annoying feature, haptic feedback. Every time you press the hard buttons like "back" or "windows" you get a little quick vibration from the phone. So far there's no way to turn it off. Little torture, but hopefully they'll fix it. Users on the boards are freaking about it.

Again, thanks for the tips. Hope these FF phones catch on, that's like a dream come true. Just hope Google doesn't crush it.

My big thrill for today is my iPaq 110 finally held a charge and is kind of working again. That's what I'm writing this with, in my fave Opera Mini. These were the good old days.