Is this necessary?

Finally an OS without a file manager is a pretty shit OS to begin with forcing you to have multiple copies of the same file so multiple apps can access it.

File managers are so 1990. iOS doesn't need one I don't see WP needing it either.

Are you even serious, read the rest of the posts. You also give an opinion without supporting it!

Supporting what? File managers aren't necessary. If you need to spoon your WinMo 6.5 because you refuse to move one that's fine.

Using SkyDrive or Drop Box for this is lame and don't get me started on emailing stuff. I was trying to share a ringtone but guess what? I can't navigate to it using Xbox Music, only songs. If I am missing something here, by all means please point it out.

smoke without fire

Thanks for posting this

I still dont get it....windows had windows mobile which was the ultimate in phone software.....yes it needed a facial lift....true.....new interface? True....but thats almost it.....they came up with a software thats indeed a beauty to look at....but thats it......they fukced up their market share.....they are now fucking up even with windows.......i mean i cant even look at win 8 at work! At home....it nice to flick thru those live tiles.....but practically? Oh please.......they are going apple's way when apple is tryng to get out......i dont want to see ms fail.....they made our lives so much organized nd meaningful!

I was also very disappointed when MS left WM users in the dust and then they redid it it with WP 7. Now they are telling us that they will eventually drop WP as well so that there is only one OS. I do hope it will support old apps by then.

They did not say that they are dropping Windows Phone. They are working on merging the OS more closely, but doesn't necessarily mean WP is going away.

seems like MS is dropping down wp7 again, sosad.....

That's just pathetic that this is barely coming to Windows Phone. M$ not only has the worst phone software but they can't even put basic features into their own OS? Lumia 520 and 521 are the only reason why WP is still surviving today. RIP the worst software to ever run on a phone

Basic? iOS will probably never have a file manager... iOS had a 3 year head start on Windows Phone. What is their excuse? You obviously don't know what you are talking about and are just trolling.

Stupid wizza peep my join date phaggot

On another note, ios is still greater than wp in EVERY category. It's not half-baked like your precious os is. A headstart would mean that microsoft also had a chance to offer it right? You guys dont even have a notification center lol... Beyond pathetic

What are you like 5 years? What a low life.

Are you guys telling me that iOS does not have a file manager? You are not serious. How glad am I that I went with Android. I did not know this. Incredible news! Why would anybody choose an OS without a file manager? Well I suppose if you just make phone calls and read face book it could work.

Or a phone that doesnt crash every five seconds or lag. Maybe thats why people go with ios dont you think? I guess an android is good for when you need to take a shit and ran out of toilet paper?

I don't miss it at all on the phone. Music is managed by Xbox Music, so no need for a file manager there. Pictures and video are managed by the Pictures hub, so no need for a file manager there. All the other documents I have are Office documents, and, you guessed it, they're on the SkyDrive. So, I'm not seeing the need.

I own a Nokia Lumia 520 and both the phone and the gorgeous UI it runs is amazing. I too did not feel the need for a file,manager until yesterday when I downloaded videocasts from Hubblesite and they ended up lodging themselves in my phone's internal memory and the only way to access them is via UCBrowser, through which I actually downloaded them. It's an inconveneience yes but not enough to overshadow everything else for me. Still it's good to hear that they have resolved it in a future update.

Don't lie to yourself

You may not needed now but it's still a nice feature to have.

Yay finally! Wonder if dev unlocked phones gets the update early. Apps to sd and file manager is much needed IMO

For me only a few more things left:

update the music player api. Currently makes the local playback music experience far worse than android and ios.

Quick toggles (or interactive live tiles)

default apps

And after that, I'm pretty much satisfied with the os.

In what way is the music experience worse than Android or iOS? And what do you mean, "default apps"?

There's no gapless playback and it doesn't understand albums with metadata for 2 discs. Xbox Music WP looks cool and operates smoothly but that's about it unfortunately :(

bad navigation, hard to set up playlists etc etc.The music api is just too restrictive as of right now.
More points and opinions here
http://forums.wpcentral.com...

What I mean is setting default apps, like if I want to open a link I would want it to open my browser of choice not ie. Like ios, you can kinda hack it in by hard coding an app to choose something other than stock choice, but again it's a hack and not very elegant. Still the stock apps are pretty good in wp. So not as big of a deal for me. Still a problem though.

So you don't mean like iOS, you mean like Windows...
I haven't played with any of the music apis but I don't have any complaints about the app itself.

Well like windows pc or andriod, that's where I would like to have windows phone to go in terms of setting default apps.

They get the job done but functionality wise the music apps are no where near the ios and andriod counterparts. If there are any apps like poweramp on wp8, then I'll be happy with music play back on my lumia 520.

I'm not sure I see a real deficit. Playlist could be easier and saved to the cloud but few android players are as good as WP and certainly none of the built in apps come close.
The thing that doesn't make sense to me is why this default selection is needed on WP. Maybe when you're browsing through skydrive or dropbox this might be relevant but pretty much everything else you open the app you want to use first.

"few android players are as good as WP"

Really? I have yet to see any wp music player that comes close to poweramp, else I would've used wp for my music player.

A great reason for default apps is youtube, I link all my youtube subs to my rss feed, but on my wp it opens them on ie, not youtube hd, my prefered youtube app on wp. It just really slows down navigation.

Yeas really, the default player on wp is better than most I've used on Android in the last 4 years. Sure there are plenty that have more features than the WP counterparts but these are mostly superfluous. I don't miss having to constantly fiddle with these "features" to get some descent sound or digging through file structures just getting music to play.

So you want links to open in something other than the default browser? I can see that. As far as you tube goes though I haven't seen an app that improves the experience but I see your point.

Ah the classic downplaying argument. All the stuff the other does and the stuff it does better is useless!! lol. Can you give me a reason why it's "superfluous"?

I haven't been forced to fiddle with my music player for years on my android. I get equally great sound on poweramp by simply tapping play on the widget instead of opening the app like on wp. If I want superior sound than wp and even ios, I start fiddling, and with equalizer profiles and what not, I don't even need to do that much. Sorry but the facts show that wp is behind in the local music playback department.

Really you think the mobile website is better than metrotube or youtube hd? Because I always get the mobile website for YouTube, every time I tap a youtube link on my rss and Reddit app on my 520. It's utlra annoying. The ads and the g+ integration for the website kinda makes it even worse. Not so for android. I get my favorite youtube app (viral) every time I open a youtube link regardless where I am. And like youtube hd, far faster and more good looking than the mobile website with no time wasting ads and has a lot more features as well.

WP is still beta. No separate volume control etc...
MS don't want fix it. This is like suicide.

Separate volume control for what? I'm not finding a deficiency in the volume control it already has.

Having the volume always work is one of the things I like about WP and something I hated about Android. If they added a mixer like the full windows OS so that you can control everything by a single volume or individually then I could live with it. If I have to play guess the volume like I did on Android where every thing is controlled separately and you have to actually play a type of sound to change the volume then what's the effing point in having any volume control.

Read this

http://windowsphone.uservoi...

Most wanted feature.. and MS show customers BIG f***

I expect the file manager to be incorporated into the SkyDrive app, just like in Windows 8.1. This could mean the ability will be there with Update 3, then the SkyDrive app just needs to be updated to take advantage of it. If not now, definitely with WP 8.1.

I agree, SkyDrive is the future. But what if you don't have internet conection??

It would still work for local file management. That is what this is about. The Windows 8.1 SkyDrive app works with local files regardless of whether the device is connected or not.

that sounds perfect. I really look forward for that future for the cloud

The cloud is just gas, not something you want to rely on.

WP functionality while slow to implement sure is welcome feature

Nothing on my notification hub? :(

Why do you need a notification hub? You already have the most useful and customizable notification system around.

I hope your not referring to those ugly tiles? Those suck ass for notifications. Wait 30 seconds for the tile to flip in order to see... Lol

The tiles are great especially when you take advantage of groups and individually linking inboxes to separate your messages. And what are you talking about waiting to see? if you have a notification you click the tile, like you would any notification widget to see your notifications.

3 reasons :
I can't pin every app to the home screen, and if I did it wouldn't be efficient
I can't see older notifications (no one does it like BlackBerry yet)
I can't see notifications while on an open app, I have to go to the home screen
But hey that's just me

I can pin every app I care about on the home screen...
Notifications on tiles stay available until you clear them. And my work phone is a BB Z10 so thank god no one does it like they do.. The hub is horrendous when you have a lot of information or multiple accounts. It has absolutely no useful way to organize information. Even the Android notification shade is better than this.

I meant older as in read notifications. I loved that feature. Anyway "entre gustos no hay disgustos" translate that from spanish. It doesn't sound cool in english :)

You're right, it doesn't sound cool in English. Maybe try "To each his own"?
What value is there in read notifications? BB10 is the only OS that allows you to see notifications that you have already read and that's a major pain in the but I'm particularly tired of getting multiple notifications for a single action which all have to be opened to clear the notification. It's also very useful for the phone to notify me that it has changed the time zone to the same one it started in.
Personally I've never found a use for old notifications about things I've already done cluttering up my inbox.