GDR3 Officially Announced

[grim]

It's indispensable to anyone who needs to regularly connect to services on your LAN. I RDP to our internal servers/PC's all the time on Android/iOS, as well as various other internal only services. Have been doing this for years and it's just utterly amazing that this is not possible on WP.

RDP on a 3.5"-4.5" screen??? Why would you torture yourself like that?

With an official RDP client from MS on the way it'll most likely support connecting to RDP session via a RDS gateway which will solve that problem, not that I see the point in RDP on a phone.

Gmail is a special IMAP account specifically setup for Gmail on WP. Try using standard IMAP - it forces the names of your send and delete folders, and completely doesn't handle subfolders, the ability to copy between folders, to name a few showstoppers and unbelievably, this has been the state of windows phone IMAP support since the first windows phone version.

Haven't used any other IMAP accounts on it, so wouldn't know. Exchange FTW

Ah, the mythical *2014* 8.1 update. I won't hold my breath.

In the meantime I just love seeing a notification popup but just missing reading it, so ending up trawling through every app to try and work out where it came from.

Bad app is bad if it doesn't display something on it's live tile to notify you of it.

The notification center is there in 8.1, there's been multiple leaks about it from reliable sources that tend to get MS/WP leaks spot on.

This is so ridiculously far behind the standard. Every now and again I dust off the Lumia to update it and see if features I've taken for granted in Android and IOS for years have finally been added because I happen to think WP is *potentially* a great platform, and every time I find myself amazed that, no, the IMAP support is still as crappy as it was in WP7, and no, you still can't do basic things like connect to an office server over VPN.

GDR3 was only made available as a preview last week and has already been officially rolled out to the HTC 8XT on Sprint in the US.

MS promised a accelerated schedule for updates on WP, which we're already seeing, so yes we will see 8.1 early 2014 and then a number of smaller GDR updates for it again through out 2014.

8.1 will also include the enterprise feature pack which includes:

• S/MIME to sign and encrypt email
• Access to corporate resources behind the firewall with app aware, auto-triggered VPN
• Enterprise Wi-Fi support with EAP-TLS
• Enhanced MDM policies to lock down functionality on the phone for more enterprise control, in addition to richer application management such as allowing or denying installation of certain apps
• Certificate management to enroll, update, and revoke certificates for user authentication

The enterprise feature pack might be made available before 8.1 depending on it's readiness vs 8.1's readiness to be launched.

 

[MrGray]

RDP on a 3.5"-4.5" screen??? Why would you torture yourself like that?

With an official RDP client from MS on the way it'll most likely support connecting to RDP session via a RDS gateway which will solve that problem, not that I see the point in RDP on a phone.

I've restarted services, restored databases, fixed server glitches etc while sitting on a Mango flight to Zanzibar, from a tuk-tuk in Bangkok, on a beach in Vietnam, from nightclubs, dinner parties and theatres, places you'd never imagine when all I've had at hand is a phone. I can respond to support issues on the fly, wherever I am, and the client has no clue that I'm not at the office in front of a desk.

I am surely not unique in this?

 

[grim]

I've restarted services, restored databases, fixed server glitches etc while sitting on a Mango flight to Zanzibar, from a tuk-tuk in Bangkok, on a beach in Vietnam, from nightclubs, dinner parties and theatres, places you'd never imagine when all I've had at hand is a phone. I can respond to support issues on the fly, wherever I am, and the client has no clue that I'm not at the office in front of a desk.

I am surely not unique in this?

No, but my tablet is always close by to see to issues like that.

I also try avoiding work when travelling, we always have at least one other person that can deal with any issues should someone be unavailable.

 

[MrGray]

Another amazing oversight - still only ONE volume control for everything. So if you you want to listen to quiet background music, your ringtone and notifications all have to be similarly quiet.

Is this laziness or stupidity on the part of MS, I've never figured it out?

 

[McCrazieGoalz]

Samsung Ativ S Already Getting GDR3?

Story here.

If you've got an Ativ S, please let us know if the update is downloadable locally already.

 

[rogerwe]

Story here.

If you've got an Ativ S, please let us know if the update is downloadable locally already.

The Ativ S is still NOT receving GDR2, which is required for GD3 to work. So making GD3 available for Samsung Ativ S is pointless in South Africa.

I'm on prepaid, with MTN but I bought the phone prepaid via Vodacom.

 

[grim]

The Ativ S is still NOT receving GDR2, which is required for GD3 to work. So making GD3 available for Samsung Ativ S is pointless in South Africa.

I'm on prepaid, with MTN but I bought the phone prepaid via Vodacom.

You will then be reliant on Vodacom making the update available as the updates need to be approved by the network operators first. Seeing as you bought the phone from Vodacom it will rely on their update availability.

Not sure Vodacom is to blame here though as I got my Lumia 925 begining last month and I've already received a firmware update for it.

 

[rogerwe]

Thanks grim. I've tweeted Vodacom and will email them shortly. I've also emailed the tech evangalist at Microsoft SA to put pressure on Vodacom from their side. I'll keep you guys updated on progress or lack thereof.

 

[VC-1]

I was informed by Nokia that the official GDR3 will be available for updating mid January 2014. Sorry I have no more details for now whilst waiting for Jan 2014, not interested in other ROM's.

 

[rogerwe]

I was informed by Nokia that the official GDR3 will be available for updating mid January 2014. Sorry I have no more details for now whilst waiting for Jan 2014, not interested in other ROM's.

Maybe is Microsoft/Nokia's way of squeezing out the competition who are making windows phones (HTC and Samsung) by not releasing updates. Obviously Nokia will be up to date, because Microsoft has massive stake in Nokia.

 

[rogerwe]

Not sure Vodacom is to blame here though as I got my Lumia 925 begining last month and I've already received a firmware update for it.

After calling Samsung and MTN, it seems they are both pointing fingers at each other. I'm waiting for Vodacom to get back to me.

 

[McCrazieGoalz]

I was informed by Nokia that the official GDR3 will be available for updating mid January 2014. Sorry I have no more details for now whilst waiting for Jan 2014, not interested in other ROM's.

Hold on.

But, the Lumia 1520 with Nokia Black is already out (22 Nov 2013 = official start of sales) and there is that article about GDR3 being pushed out to the Ativ S already. January 2014 doesn't make absolute sense to me.

The OP also says you can download GDR3 if you have a WP app 'creator' account.

Jan 2014 is not making too much sense to me with the above info taken into consideration.

 

[VC-1]

Hold on.

But, the Lumia 1520 with Nokia Black is already out (22 Nov 2013 = official start of sales) and there is that article about GDR3 being pushed out to the Ativ S already. January 2014 doesn't make absolute sense to me.

The OP also says you can download GDR3 if you have a WP app 'creator' account.

Jan 2014 is not making too much sense to me with the above info taken into consideration.

Okay lets not turn a simple thing into a big sing song. I was merely referring to the official GDR3 update for us who still own the old Lumia 920 etc. thus not for the latest bells and whistles owners of the Lumia 925 and later. I took the choice not have the WP app 'creator' route for my GDR3 thus my original posting is still valid.

 

[p51mustang]

Besides, even you have a Lumia and a WP dev account, all you install is GDR3, you still have to wait for Black to roll out early next year.

 

[grim]

For those with the GDR3 preview installed there is a small update available to 8.0.10521.155

 

[madtza]

After calling Samsung and MTN, it seems they are both pointing fingers at each other. I'm waiting for Vodacom to get back to me.

I've also been waiting but doubt Samsung or Vodacom are going bring the update to us. Was going to update it myself using the Dev account method but since I'm still on GDR1, I first need to upgrade to GDR2.

The link below has instructions on how you can do it, haven't tried it yet though so please know that if you follow this method then you're doing it at your own risk!

http://forums.wpcentral.com/samsung-ativ-s/246521-update-any-ativ-s-gdr2-now.html

 

[rogerwe]

I've also been waiting but doubt Samsung or Vodacom are going bring the update to us. Was going to update it myself using the Dev account method but since I'm still on GDR1, I first need to upgrade to GDR2.

The link below has instructions on how you can do it, haven't tried it yet though so please know that if you follow this method then you're doing it at your own risk!

http://forums.wpcentral.com/samsung-ativ-s/246521-update-any-ativ-s-gdr2-now.html

I have good news, bad news and sweet news:

Good news: On Saturday, miraculously my Samsung Ativ S, on the MTN network received GDR2 update. I couldn't contain my excitement, especially having waited since September last year for my phone to pick up GDR2. However, after the install I was very dissapointed.

Bad news: So the GDR2 installed fine (because the Version Number on the About Screen says so), but Sumsung/MTN/MS South Africa (we'll never know who's to blame) stripped out ALL the extra GDR2 extras. So just the version number changed, but no DataSense, no FM Radio.

Sweet news: So after the GDR2 installed ,I tried installing the GDR3 developer preview because it requires GDR2, and it worked!!! At least I get Screen Orientation Lock and Task Killer (when you hold the back button) which I'm very stoked about.

In order to get the GDR developer preview you just install this app: Preview for Developers.

So if you want GDR2 badly enough, maybe get an MTN pay as u go sim, because I'm on MTN and got my update this weekend.

Here is a screenshot of my About Screen on my Samsung Ativ S, which as you can see has the latest GDR3 build a mentioned by grim 2 posts ago (8.0.10521.155 )



So hopefully this means that we can get updates direct and not depend on the local channels anymore.

 

[madtza]

Nicely done and thanks for the feedback! Getting my sim today to try this out. Strange that it's MTN that provided the update when it's Vodacom that sold the phone. Don't really mind not having the FM Radio but Datasense would've been really useful(though I vaguely remember reading somewhere that it was only available to Nokia devices).

 

[rogerwe]

Strange that it's MTN that provided the update when it's Vodacom that sold the phone. .

Yeah, I also got mine on Pay as You go on Vodacom, but put my MTN sim in. Lucky these phones aren't service provider locked.
Good luck, I hope it works for you too!

 

[grim]

The updates are depended on which operator the phone was bought from not what sim you have in it.