Windows 8 Phone Experience

So, my wife's old phone died. I will also say that she has never wanted data on her phone and all of the sudden she did. After a bit of research I came across the Nokia Lumina 521. I saw it on sale at Walmart online for $69 but when I went in, they would not honor their website price. So I went to Bestbuy which has a price match grantee. They brought the price down $68.99 to match!!! So after a day messing with the system I have to say that I kind of like it. I just can't believe a phone of this quality can be bought brand new for $70!

Cool. Is the core Windows CE or different?

I remember back when a 5 megapixel camera would have cost 10 times that amount. You got a great deal.

My big question: Do the apps that you can load on the phone support direct printing to your wireless printers? That is the one thing missing with all Android devices.

Rich, I think that Google is filling that printing gap at last. W/ my S5 (KitKat), I'm able to print directly from Google's QuickOffice to an HP wireless printer. I needed a free HP app from the Playstore, and that was it. Chrome also prints directly. TextMaker has no print, nor does the discontinued QuickOffice Pro (the best Android wp, imho, though the bar is set low).

Still no email printing, at least not with the stock email app.

Jake

That's the problem...no consistency in how the things work. I have 4.4.2 KitKat on my Kindle 7. I can run programs like PrintHand or other 3rd party printer apps to print emails and such...but not from the native program, and not because there are standardized printer drivers loaded.

I would like for Android to develop to the point that Windows is...that is I can print from any app at any time...dump any screen whenever I want.

So if Windows for smartphone is like CE, then that may something that makes it better than Android for some of us.

I've had the Lumia 521 for a while now and really enjoy using it. I'm not sure about the printing, Rich; I haven't had need to print, so haven't really tried. I'll take a look at home tonight.

I had far more problems with the Galaxy S I used prior to the Lumia - locking up, spontaneous re-booting, etc. The Lumia has been pretty steady. I've gotten used to the tiles, and find general navigation a bit more intuitive than with android. I'm looking forward to 8.1.

Not sure, I will check when my wife gets home.

"Windows Phone 8 replaces the Windows CE-based architecture used in Windows Phone 7 with the Windows NT kernel found in Windows 8. Current Windows Phone 7 devices cannot run or update to Windows Phone 8 and new applications compiled specifically for Windows Phone 8 are not made available for Windows Phone 7 devices. Developers can make their apps available on both Windows Phone 7 and Windows Phone 8 devices by targeting both platforms via the proper SDKs in Visual Studio [6]" - Wikipedia

so.... hm... NT Kernel, that's more interesting.

I remember reading on the Microsoft forums that one of the MS developers stated that the demise of CE was primarily because the Win8 phone system not only fulfilled all the CE niches, but offered greater expansion and platform compatibility as well. In other words, it would be the demise of CE as it was more powerful and simpler to program for.

CE will still be in use under the surface on a lot of embedded systems for some time yet.

This will be interesting to test, what with there being a free version of Windows 8.1 coming to a low budget underpowered netbook near you!

Will it really be usable on low-power devices?

Why not, I think of the embedded XP that was on my thin client laptop...very nice, very powerful...and it was very small. Only the essentials that you needed.

Now wouldn't it be cool for a free Windows 8.1 be distributed for an ARM compatible device....think of all those Android netbooks that would love to suck it up...

Yeah that will be cool. Open sourcing it up will be a one radical move Microsoft can take to regain ARM market.

Just an update:
This phone is great! I just cannot believe how well it works for the money. By the way, Walmart online has them on sale for $49.88!!! http://www.walmart.com/ip/T-Mobile-Pre-Paid-Nokia-Lumia-521-4G-Smartphone/24099994?action=product_interest&action_type=title&placement_id=irs_bottom&strategy=PWVAV&visitor_id=48220210906&category=0%3A1105910%3A133261%3A1056206&client_guid=818ff0bc-92ba-4947-a2e6-837f7ed811d8&config_id=0&parent_item_id=37621322&guid=9f2171c3-e62a-4fe3-884f-01b6fa3bacc6&bucket_id=irsbucketdefault&findingMethod=p13n