Tag Archives: Windows Phone 7

Windows Phone 7 – Review

(Spark* repost)

In our Nokia Lumia 800 review earlier in the term, we skipped going into too much detail on the Windows Phone 7 operating system it was playing host to, since that alone could fill a whole review. So that’s exactly what we’ve done.

Windows Phone 7 is a complete overhaul of the Windows Mobile software that Microsoft has been touting for the last decade or so. Having been thoroughly eclipsed in success by Apple’s iPhone, in a fraction of the time, Microsoft finally ended development of Windows Mobile in 2010 and released the inaugural version of Windows Phone 7 in October that same year. Since then, it’s undergone only minor tinkerings until the first major update: 7.5, codename ‘Mango’, was rolled out last September. This is the version you’ll find installed on all available WP7 handsets, if you can fight through the heaps of Android handsets and avoid tripping over the worshipping congregation surrounding the iPhone.

The Homescreen

On the Tiles

The home screen is the first iteration of Microsoft’s soon-to-be ubiquitous ‘Live Tiles’ interface, which is set to make it’s second appearance in Windows 8’s tablet mode. Rather than simply a static array of icons, the tiles that link into apps and menus are fully colour customisable and can be configured to display pertinent information at a glance. Things like RSS feeds, news headlines and Facebook notifications can be set up to show in tiles, which is really useful if you find yourself checking the same sites constantly for updates. Unlike iOS, the home screen shows only apps that you want to be visible, and a full list of installed apps can be quickly accessed with a swipe. However, the tile bar is oddly off-centre in order to accommodate a single icon, which feels like wasted space, and it doesn’t display the signal indicator in the top bar unless the area is pressed. Nevertheless, such a feature-rich home screen gives the Live Tiles interface a very lively look that was really fun to use and behold.

Social Mosaic

Windows Phone 7 has been created with social networking in mind, and is capable of an unprecedented level of integration with these websites, effectively turning your phone into a all-purpose social hub. While this will be jarring for people who like to keep a clear distinction between social networking and real-life, it is a lot of fun to play with. When you link it to a Facebook account, your contacts are incorporated into your phone book, and it will allow you to unify old contacts with Facebook profiles. The ‘People’ tile then comes alive with an ever-changing mosaic of your friend’s profile pictures which was quite entertaining to watch. Looking at individual contacts will give you a full range of contact methods (from texting to poking), as well as run down of their most recent updates. This will also create a ‘Me’ tile, pasted with your profile picture, that allows you to access all your myriad accounts under one banner. From here, you can check notifications and push new updates to many accounts at once; and, as it updates in real-time, you won’t have to wait for new notifications to download and can check for them from the home screen’s Live Tile. Whilst I really enjoyed these features, the packed menus and plethora of options became a little overwhelming to look through and I did get lost. There are still superb dedicated apps for Facebook and Twitter, but the social features of WP7 are so quick and enjoyable that you won’t feel the need to use them.

The 'People' tile also conveniently doubles as a hitlist, if required

Not ‘Appy

The relative infancy of the OS means that the range of available apps for WP7 is lacklustre. Whilst it has most of the biggest and popular apps, it lacks the same diverse developer base that the iOS and Android enjoy. Although you could argue that it trims the fat of the arguably bloated Android store and allows easier app discovery, this will nonetheless hurt sales. Whilst Microsoft have bundled in a great deal of useful native apps, it still lacks the quirkiness and creativity that its competitors have in spades. Sadly, this will create a viscious cycle: independent developers, that add this character, won’t code apps for a platform that still has a market share in single figures, whilst the barren app store will be a deal-breaker for a lot of potential users.

You cannot be Siri-ous.

Another nifty native feature on the OS is limited voice control. It’s not quite Siri, but it’ll dictate text messages, dial contacts and initiate searches (albeit using Bing) with reasonable accuracy and with no prior configuration needed.

Internet Explorer 9 Mobile

Web browsing is perfectly functional, once you get used to the disheartening feeling of seeing the Internet Explorer logo each time and being constrained to use it. In fairness, it does seem to lack most of the faults of its clunky computer-based cousin. There were no overly offensive mistakes in rendering web pages, though it certainly has a better time displaying mobile sites than normal ones. Whilst it’s perfectly fine for most purposes, I’d definitely like to see a few alternatives pop up in the app marketplace soon, just to drive up the competition.

Flash (Ahhh!)

The Mango update also imbued the browser with HTML5 support, but until that gains wider support on websites you’ll have to get used to not being able to view pages that lather on the Flash too heavily. To remedy this slightly, WP7 ostensibly comes with a YouTube “app”, which is actually just a direct link to its mobile site. Google have specifically designed their mobile site for YouTube to be flash-less so you can watch these with impunity, but otherwise you’re out of luck. However, this is not a WP7 issue but rather an issue with mobile web browsing on any device. Hopefully, either the uptake of HTML5 video players or the expedience of Adobe’s mobile flash support will put this issue to bed soon enough.

Zuneral

Microsoft bundles music functionality on the OS under a ‘Zune’ app, a fairly unremarkable music player that takes its name from Microsoft’s line of MP3 players. The ‘Zune Marketplace’ allows subscription-based music streaming, but with a recently released Spotify app available for WP7, boasting a wider music selection for a lower price, this is not likely to be a widely-used feature. Like most of the menu systems in WP7, the Zune player have so many menus and sub-menus that it’s very difficult to keep track of where you are or how to do key tasks. Managing media syncing from your computer requires installing Zune software on your computer, which was difficult to set up and will seldom be used. Unfortunately, Microsoft seems to be electing to roll out updates via the Zune software, so doing battle with it can’t be avoided.

Eminem is known for his endorsement of technology he has no idea how to use

Multitask Madness

Though Windows Phone 7 supports multi-tasking, the way you use it leaves a lot to be desired and it clearly hasn’t been properly thought through. With an app open, pressing the ‘Start’ button (the Windows logo on the front of the device) will take you back to your home screen, but the app is still open. Holding the ‘Back’ button shows you the apps currently running and allows you to zip between them, but you can’t close them from here. To do this, you need to go into the app itself and can reportedly close apps by double-pressing the ‘Back’ button rapidly (which we only found out by searching forums). However, most of time rather than closing the app we simply got thrown unceremoniously back through it’s multitude of menus. In the web browser, this simply meant going back two web pages, but the browser remained resolutely open; only when it ran out of web history did the app finally terminate. If you’re willing to do the legwork to find ‘how-to’ guides, you can master the multi-task madness, but that kind of speaks to how unintuitive it really is. Hopefully, this will be refined in later updates but it’s a pretty elementary feature that Microsoft really shouldn’t be getting wrong.

Best of both worlds

For updates, Windows Phone 7 strikes a neat middle-ground between it’s two rivals. Apple’s careful exclusivity of OS to hardware in the iPhone puts off those who want a wider choice in specs. Meanwhile, Google’s liberal distribution of Android to anything more powerful than an abacus gives a lot of choice, but means that software updates are not be compatible with large numbers of Android handsets. Microsoft impose “tough, but fair” minimum spec requirements on devices that they’ll license WP7 out to, which presumably any future updates to Mango will be tailored to. But with an OS that clearly needs further development, we would hope that this is the case.

Conclusion

Windows Phone 7 feels like an OS that has had a lot of time and energy put into it’s look, and doubtless this is what has fueled it’s promising start. The problem is that it largely feels like so much effort was put into the interface that it falls down in other areas, so we end up with labyrinthine menu systems that stand in stark contrast to the relative simplicity of iOS. Further, it’s lack of apps do it a great disservice and lend the OS a feeling of untapped potential. It’s a powerful OS that demands a powerful device, but it lacks any software or features that fully make use of it. With a hostile app environment to break in to, it may be too-little-too-late for Microsoft’s renewed foray into the smartphone market, but they might yet surprise us.

Nokia Lumia 800 – Review

From just a cursory glace at the smartphone market as it currently stands, it’s pretty clear that 2012 will see handsets judged by the features of the operating system far more than the unholy abomination of plastic and glass it happens to have been stuffed into.

Microsoft and Nokia have less than stellar track-records in this arena. Microsoft’s ‘Windows Mobile’ platform was already pretty antiquated when Apple’s iPhone first came out, and failed to capture the imagination on the fledgling smartphone users with its clunky, productivity-oriented design. Its rebranded ‘Windows Phone 7’ has taken the last few years to mature. Meanwhile, Nokia’s staunch refusal to budge from imbuing their blowers with their own software until as late as 2011 very nearly signalled the death knell for them. Can the union of two former titans, incarnate as the Nokia Lumia 800, succeed where neither could alone?

The three main colour options

The first thing you’ll notice is that the Lumia 800 looks almost identical to HTC’s crop of Windows Phone 7 handsets. That’s because Microsoft only licenses out WP7 for devices that meet certain hardware requirements, such as three touch-sensitive buttons on the front. Uniquely, though, the Lumia’s gorilla-glass screen is embedded in an injection-moulded polycarbonate body; though this deprives the phone the slenderness we’ve come to expect from smartphones, it does make it feel much more durable and stalwart. Our review model is a neatly understated black, but in true Nokia style it also comes in a range of gaudy fascia colours, such as sky cyan and tepid pink.

On top you get the microSIM slot, 3.5mm headphone jack and a rather flimsy cover for the USB port. The right edge houses volume rocker and buttons for power and the camera, whilst the bottom seats the microphone. Around the back, you get a pretty decent Carl Zeiss camera and flash, though it lacks a front-facing camera. The screen is a gorgeous 3.7-inch AMOLED display with a 252 ppi resolution. The handset comes with a rubber case that, thankfully, doesn’t add much bulk to its already stocky form. Though since the Lumia itself looks like it could take a beating or six it’s probably not necessary. But still, having some padding between your phone and the ground never hurts.

The Lumia comes pre-loaded with the ‘Mango’ blend of Microsoft’s ‘Windows Phone 7’, which will be the standard install on every WP7 handset from hereon in. Since this is a review of the Nokia Lumia 800, whereas WP7 will be present on an increasing number of handsets in the coming months, we won’t go into too much detail about the OS here. Instead, we’ll be bringing you a full review of the Windows Phone 7 software itself later in the term. For now, we’ll just say that it’s refreshingly different and fully customisable homepage is a delight to behold, and made finding specific app tiles a breeze. Though the home screen has been sinfully underused (such as no signal indicator or quick-access to connectivity options) and the only browser option is the always dejecting sight of the Internet Explorer logo, it is otherwise a very well-designed and very usable interface. The app marketplace for WP7 is a tad lacking at the moment due to the relative infancy of the OS, but that looks set to change and the more popular apps are already there. For the Lumia’s part, the interface between hardware and OS has clearly been thoroughly tested and is seamless.

Black

Nokia have always had a love of tacking their own software onto their handsets, far more than the users do, and haven’t let the Lumia 800 escape their tinkerings. ‘Nokia Drive’, ‘Nokia Maps’ and ‘Nokia Music’ are three pre-installed apps that distinguish this phone from its HTC cousins.

‘Nokia Music’ is a fairly unremarkable music hub, combining streaming with local files and a store that has to not only fight off music-monolith Spotify (available from the App Marketplace) but also Microsoft’s own Zune software that comes pre-installed too. Not great co-ordination there.

‘Nokia Maps’ is, oddly enough, a map. Once again, Nokia have bundled this very basic application into the WP7 software that itself already comes with a far more sophisticated and feature-rich map app.

‘Nokia Drive’, on the other hand, is a unique addition to the handset and provides free turn-by-turn Satellite Navigation. Feature-rich, detailed displays and utilising the GPS receiver rather than hog your data allowance with 3G, this is definitely a nifty add-on. Although, we did notice that ‘Nokia Drive’ ran down the battery pretty rapidly, so you may want to buy an in-car charger if you’re planning to use the Lumia for a lengthy voyage.

Nokia Drive

As mentioned, the Lumia 800 lacks a front-facing camera and this was a massive disappointment for us. With the WP7 Skype app just around the corner, Nokia could’ve used this chance to add one more killer feature to the device. The flap covering the USB port, which opens by a peculiar mechanism of applying pressure to the hinge, seems almost destined to snap off over the phone’s lifespan.

Battery life is contentious. Just after it hits the shelves it was subject to a storm of criticism over a bug that gave the phone a battery life of about eight seconds, but our review model managed a comfortable 36 hours of moderate use straight out of the box. When the update purported to fix the legendary battery glitch descended, the practically clockwork lifespan of the battery became a mercurial mess. At times it would struggle to eke out 8 hours but at others it would nearly reach its former glories. Having turned off a few pertinent battery-intensive features, we’ve managed to get an average life approaching 40 hours. It’s also worth noting that, due to the one-piece polycarbonate shell, the battery is not user-replaceable.

The Nokia Lumia 800 is a great leap forward for both Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 software and Nokia’s modernisation of their smartphone offerings. It’s by no means perfect and that’s probably why the follow-up Lumia 900 has already been announced for imminent release; which will feature the front-facing camera lacking on its predecessor and more colour variety. If the 900 gets a UK release, then by all means hold out for that; but if you can’t wait then the 800 will serve you very well.

Top 5 Christmas Gadget Ideas

Everyone has a nerdy friend, this has been proven by science. If you’ve been unfortunate enough to have been landed with him or her for Secret Santa (or in the off-chance you actually care about them) you’ll have been looking for present ideas to match their utter lack of ungeekiness this Christmas. Look no further, as Spark* Sci-Tech’s annual ‘Top 5 Christmas Gadgets’ list is here to help.

5. Amazon Kindle

We’re cheating a bit here since the Kindle was on the list last year, but a reworked user interface, a keyboard-ectomy and a modest price drop has made taking the first tentative steps into the eReader market even easier. The lowest price Kindle we could find was £89 by most high street shops or direct from Amazon, and the slightly pricier models come with contract-less 3G connection to download eBooks. But bear in mind that the gleeful recipient of the Kindle will still have to sink some cold, hard moolah into eBooks to deck it out with.

4. Windows Phone 7

Another slight cheat, but now that Microsoft have had time to iron out the kinks of the Windows Phone 7 operating system, and cram it into a few handsets, it’s a much more appealing prospect. Big manufacturers like Nokia and Samsung have already released the first WP7 handsets and reviews seem to be more enthused by the OS than the hardware itself. It’s become quite clear that 2012 will see phones judged on the merits of their OS rather than the wedge of plastic and glass they’ve been stuffed into. WP7 is definitely one to consider if you’re torn between the walled-garden of Apple or the lawless abandon of Android, though a somewhat lacking app store may put some people off.

3. Nintendo 3DS

Though the 3D can be a polarising feature (nerdy pun intended), there’s no denying that as the only major games platforms released these last twelve months, it stands as arguably the most up-to-date console around. The main gimmick of this particular handheld is the ability to play games in 3D without having to use glasses (though if you’re buying this for a geek that wouldn’t be an issue), but there have been numerous complains of it hurting the eyeballs after prolonged use. Regardless, it’s relatively low price, good screen and wide selection of games make it an ideal present for your local gamer that won’t break the bank or your back trying to carry it.

2. iPhone 4S

It wouldn’t be a gadget list without the JobsCo making an appearance. Apple’s long-awaited iPhone 4S shattered all rumours of new casings and new cameras and gave us…a slightly better iPhone 4. It’s most notable feature, of course, being the silver-tongued/golden-eared ‘Siri personal assistant’ application that finally shattered the prejudice associated with having conversations with inanimate objects. It’s about time. However, with rapidly upcoming competition, no Steve Jobs to fill it’s charisma-quota and a buzz that Apple have run out of ideas, it may be that come next Christmas the iPhone 4S will be incredibly out of style, and you may be stuck in a 24-month contract.

1. Angry Birds Cookbook

No, seriously. Anyone unfortunate enough to be sat in a long, boring lecture but lucky enough to have a smartphone knows the addictive draw of Angry Birds; it’s not just for geeks anymore. If your token nerd happens to be a fan, and validates the stereotype for clueless cooking skills, then this cookbook based on Angry Birds, containing mostly egg recipes (ironically provided by chef Aldo Zilli, the guy from the Optivita adverts who’s really concerned about your cholesterol) will keep your resident geek alive at least long enough to fix your computer.