In April 2012 I bought a Nokia Lumia 800. It was the first smartphone from Nokia with Windows Phone. Previous to the Lumia I had an HTC Hero with Android 2.1 which I really liked. Moving to Windows Phone was a radical move but I felt it was a very interesting new operating system and I loved the Lumia 800's look and feel. After six months using Windows Phone I wrote an article about my experiences: http://mgxp.blogspot.ch/2012/10/living-with-windows-phone_16.html
Two years on and although I was very happy with my Lumia 800, I've made the switch back to Android. I have a Sony Xperia Z1 Compact with Android 4.4.2 (April 2014). Why did I change back and what's missing from Microsoft and Nokia's phones? In this article I will explain some of my motivations and discuss where things may go from here.
Firstly I'd like to make it plain that I have no axe to grind and I don't work for any IT company. Everything here is just my opinion, take it or leave it.
After two years I wanted to change my phone and my subscription allowed me to do so. There are two main elements to consider, the phone (hardware) and the software.
Phone
I did not want a big phone, "big" for me is a 5 inch screen. Most of the current flagship models have these huge screens that make it hard to fit the phone in your trouser pocket. I know many people don't mind this but for me I wanted a smaller size. My Lumia 800 has a 3.7 inch screen. It also has a sleek design, it feels good in the hand and it is really tough - Nokia quality! How could I find the same now? I looked at the current Nokia phones and I did like the design of some, especially the smaller ones. But the problem I found was that the smaller phones have less powerful processors, less memory and storage. One area where my Lumia 800 was lacking was it's battery life, I wanted an improvement in this but smaller means a smaller battery, oh dear, I was getting stuck finding my ideal phone.
I was thinking to move back to Android - I'll explain later - this meant I was looking at other phones. Samsung make the Galaxy 4S Mini but it doesn't have a very high specification, the screen isn't especially great and the build quality of Samsung isn't inspiring. I would've loved to go for an HTC One Mini, but although the build quality is great (and beautiful!) the guts of it are so lacking umph that I was again disappointed. Having owned one of the first HTC Android phones in the past (the HTC Hero!) it was with regret that I had to look elsewhere...
In April 2014 Sony is the only company (to my knowledge) making a phone with a 4 inch screen and plenty of horse power. The battery life is also excellent - in practice I can get two days out of it and plenty of use browsing the web, making calls, text messages, etc. It's also a very well made phone, water-proof and sleek in it's design. A little bigger than the Lumia 800 and not quite so handy but nevertheless, Sony have made a great phone in the Z1 Compact.
Software
I lived with Windows Phone 7.5 and 7.8 for two years. I really love what they've done with this operating system, version 8 is of course even more mature. The problem I had is that when a third party provides an app for their gizmo, they only have iOS or Android apps, no Windows Phone. Of course it is a better situation than two years ago but still, after two years not being able to use some apps, I wanted a change. For example, I have a Panasonic camera, it has WiFi for controlling it remotely, there's no Windows Phone app, now with Android I can finally use this feature.
A lot of people have a go at Microsoft for not having so many apps on Windows Phone. It's not entirely Microsoft's fault. They are trying to build a eco system and they need more people to buy their (Nokia's) phones so that companies like Panasonic think to make an app. I can understand the third parties in some ways, they just think why should I bother if there are only a few million users? But also I feel this is lame. For example, the BBC, for years they've had a really nice news app on iOS. Then finally a couple of years ago they released the Android version. But they refuse to make a Windows Phone news app! I asked them using their feedback pages. But their loss is other's gain. Sky News and CNN have very good apps on Windows Phone. So sometimes companies like the BBC just don't make apps until the critical mass gets so huge, as it did when Android became so big. For such big companies it seems like a poor excuse. When you are a Windows Phone user in that circumstance you really feel victimised. Mind you, Weave is a great free newsreader app... That's how things work, you make do with what you have.
I think Microsoft may need to provide some more porting tools or other help to get third parties to make Android apps. I hope they do because Windows Phone is a great system. I especially miss the straightforward email app that is included, it connects to an Exchange server without fuss. On Android I had to go looking for something in the Play Store. Also I like Windows Phones Facebook integration with my contacts, it seems a little more robust than Android's. The simplicity of those Windows Phone tiles too, now I have little icons with works below which seems so 1990's now!
Conclusion
I switched to a Sony from Nokia for these reasons:
Sony had a model with the physical size plus high specification that I wanted. Nokia did not have a model in the same league hardware-wise.
Android is more flexible and better supported. But I still must insist that Windows Phone is a more elegant operating system, I do miss it!
If you are looking for a mobile phone at present then I hope my experience and thoughts here have helped you. I really like Android and Windows Phone equally. They both have their merits. Which you will choose depends on what's important to you!
Introduction
One of the advantages of a smartphone is that when you are waiting for the train you can read the latest news without buying a newspaper! There are of course a lot of ways to read news, there are dedicated apps such as the CNN, Sky News and the excellent Engadget app for all your gadget and techie news. You can also browse to the mobile version of websites and pin them to your Start screen - that works but maybe you want to be a bit frugal with your data network usage? It's not the fastest way to read news either...
RSS (or Atom) news feeds let you download a bit-size portion of news stories. You get to read the first paragraph or so and decide whether you want to read the rest. There are a huge number of different RSS apps for Windows Phone, many are free. I've tied a few and here I'd like to talk about my favourite so far.
Many web sites have the RSS feeds (the orange icon opposite). You just have to copy the RSS URL and paste it into your RSS reader.
Weave News Reader
I've been using Weave for a few weeks on my Nokia Lumia 800 running Windows Phone 7.8. I have a number of feeds including The Verge, BBC News, 43 Rumors and BBC F1.
Many of the Windows Phone RSS news readers are fast and easy to use. I was using RSS Joy and I found it excellent. However, RSS Joy and many others don't have any photos. They link directly to the mobile web page too. I found that Weave was the best because it shows photos and text. When you press the article, it opens in a mobile viewer (not the mobile web page). It makes it fast and easy to navigate. Of course you can also open in the mobile web page if you want. Sharing with Facebook and other social networking is also very easy.
You can pin individual feeds to the Start screen. For example, if you want to have quick access to the BBC F1 news, pin it! It works well but there is something to be said for going into Weave itself and viewing all the feeds. Weave presents them in a very nice way, horizontally scrolling, Windows Phone style :-)
Conclusion
Try Weave, there's a free version so why not? I use it every day. It's easy to use and it is not over complicated. Weave could be better though, when a feed is pinned to the Start screen it would be nice if it were easy to switch to the full app. You have to press the [...] and select it from there - I'd prefer an icon. It's a small point, overall Weave is great!
Recommended: 8/10
PS - If anyone reading this has tried another RSS reader for Windows Phone and prefers it to Weave, please write in the comments!
Would you like to make dramatic photo panoramic pictures? To share and to allow the user to scroll through the photo as if moving their head to survey the landscape? There's an application called Photosynth that's free, easy and quick to use. It's been around since 2008 but oddly it hasn't had much attention.
You need a Microsoft Windows account to login. If you don't have one already just signup, it's free and has no strings attached. Plus you get free cloud storage with Skydrive and other goodies :-)
You can use the Windows Phone or iOS app (no Android or Blackberry apps unfortunately [6/12/2012]) to capture Photosynth images. Or you can use the Windows desktop app and any camera and some post processing - explained later.
Here's an example of a Photosynth I made with my Nokia Lumia 800 with Windows Phone 7.5:
This is the easiest method of making a Photosynth panorama because you do it immediately and upload it to the web straight from your phone.
Panoramas with a difference
You may notice that the above Photosynth is slightly different from a simple panorama. The difference is that you can pan more than just left and right. You can even zoom 'into' the picture. It's sort of 3D because in the above example I could've taken photos all around me and that would've made a completely 360 degree image! But I stopped short of that, it's still pretty good though, isn't it? After all, it was just five minutes work.
Panoramic photos from your camera
If you take a series of photos that overlap each other, you can stitch those pictures together to make panoramic photos to upload to Photosynth. To stitch photos together you should use a free Windows desktop app called Image Composite Editor - or ICE as it's more commonly known. Microsoft make both Photosync and ICE so they work together nicely. ICE allows you to stitch many photos together, it can even handle hundreds! Of course usually it's just three or four. Here's an example of a panorama picture I created and then changed into Photosynth:
In Flaine back in January 2011 I took the following photos with my Panasonic Lumix LX5 camera:
The above is just a resized sample to give you an idea. Each of the three original photos were high quality files around 3-4MB in size each. The LX5 has a 'panorama assist' feature that helped me line up each shot but it does not stitch the photos together in the camera. Using the PHOTOfunSTUDIO software that came with my LX5 I combined the above photos into the following very nice panoramic photo:
It looks great! But it is not easy to view, on Facebook for example, it looks rubbish because Facebook reduces the size. I've done the same thing here, I've reduced the size, the length of this graphic is 2806 pixels. The original panoramic image PHOTOfunSTUDIO made was 7643 pixels, you can image how wide a monitor you'd need to get the best out of such a photo.
Photosynth is the answer. I put the three source photos into ICE, it quickly made a 'synth' (sort of 3D panorama) and I uploaded it to Photosynth - here is the result:
Notice how you can see more detail, try zooming in on the people to the left. This really showcases your panoramic image.
Try it
It's free and it works so why not have some fun? Try Photosynth: http://photosynth.net/
[The above websites were last accessed 05/12/2012]
Conclusion
Photosynth is easy to use and fun. You can do more with your panoramic photos, you can display them easily on Facebook by posting a link. You can embed your Photosynth images in your own blog or website as I've done in this page. I think it breathes a bit of life into panoramic photos. I was not going to bother with them any more but I think now I'll do some because being able to move around the image in almost 3D is fun.
I've been living with a Nokia Lumia 800 running Windows Phone for over six months now. I say 'living' because mobile phones are so personal and as a smartphone it does so much. The alarm to get me up in the morning, checking the weather before going out, reading the news while waiting for the train, these and more are common place uses for what we loosly call a "phone". When we make a choice for a mobile phone these days we are stuck with it for one or two years depending on the subscription. As it is so personal, we need to make the right choice. Here I will explain about my choice, maybe it won't be yours but I hope you'll find it interesting.
Background
From August 2009 to April 2012 I was using an HTC Hero running Android. It was a wonderful little smartphone. I was very happy with it, I embraced the world of Google, I switched to Gmail and having all my contacts in the cloud was perfect. No longer did I need to think of backing up my phone or managing contacts in multiple places.
In 2012 I wanted to upgrade to a new smartphone. Being used to and happy with my HTC running Android, my search started with the then new HTC One X and S models with Android Ice Cream Sandwich. I very nearly got the HTC One S because it was a good size for me and it was an amazing design. But something made me stop. There was a lot of advertising for the then still new Nokia Lumia 800. I wondered if I should make a change, try something new? The first thing I liked about the Nokia Lumia 800 was the hardware design. It is sleek and doesn't have bits sticking out of it (the HTC One S camera lens sticks out a little from the body). Crucially for me the Lumia 800 was small enough to go in my pocket - remember that I was used to the ultra compact HTC Hero.
But I paused and thought again about getting a Lumia 800. The hardware and design being great but it wasn't running Android. Did I really want to jump to Windows Phone? What about my Google contacts and Gmail? Would it work as seamlessly with my Google cloud? Would the Microsoft Windows Phone operating system tie me to Hotmail and other Microsoft solutions? I wondered. Also the stories in the press about few apps for Windows Phone - would this be a limiting factor?
I'd seen Windows Phone before on a colleagues mobile, I knew it was interesting but I wasn't convinced it was for me. I used a Lumia in a shop, I did some more research, watched reviews on Youtube and read articles. I finally took the plunge and bought a Nokia Lumia 800 in April 2012.
Compatibility
The first thing I did was configure my Lumia for Gmail. It was very easy, Windows Phone has Gmail as a standard option. It was just as easy as it was on my Android phone. I could synchronise e-mails - easy. The Windows Phone built-in e-mail app is nice too. Then my contacts... yes, no problem, all my Gmail contacts synchronised. Just like on my Android I was also able to synchronise my Facebook contacts too and match them to my Gmail contacts. Excellent! In fact that part was easier and faster than I'd experienced on my old phone. The calendar also works. You add something in Gmail and it appears on your phone and the other way round too. It works.
What about IE (Internet Explorer)? On my desktop I use Google Chrome and so going back to IE felt strange at first but the thing is, it's just perception. In fact IE on Windows Phone is slick and works very well. The only odd thing is that it sometimes doesn't show the mobile version of a website when you'd expect it to. Apart from that, it does the job. Adobe Flash doesn't run though. At first I was upset with this but as there is an industry trend away from Flash this is less of an issue now. Apple was one of the first to drop it and even Adobe itself isn't producing new versions of the player for Android anymore. By the way, don't be worried about Youtube - it works fine on Windows Phone IE.
Interface
The iPhone has rows of static icons. Android has static icons and widgets providing live information. Windows Phone has live tiles. Tiles give it a clean look and pracitically tiles are easy to press as they are a good size and not fiddly. Best of all, tiles are alive! This means you get live information shown on the tile - you don't have to enter the app. You can have as many tiles as you like, the screen scrolls vertically.
If you swipe to the right you see the full app list. You can pin any app tile to the start screen. On the start screen you can easily move tiles around by pressing and dragging. It is easy and slick. The speed and responsiveness is excellent. There's no lag or slowdown when using Windows Phone, at least not in my experience with the Lumia 800 (which surprisingly only has a single core CPU).
All Windows Phones have three physical buttons. The Back, the Windows (start) and Search. When you have apps open, press the back button to go leave them or cancel something you are doing. But if you want to leave the app open, press the Windows button, it takes you back to the start screen. The app is left running, this is multi-tasking. If you want to see what is running, press the Back button, hold it down and you'll see a list of open apps.
Apps
The Windows Phone market place has much fewer apps than the Google or Apple store. But don't let this put you off. There are still many thousands of apps for Windows Phone. There's a huge number of free apps, I've not purchased even one so far, yet I have a lot installed. Every day I read the BBC news, I read Endgaget, I use WhatsApp, SoundHound, etc! Of course it is true that not all software companies support Windows Phone or they make apps for it last after the more popular operating systems. However, it isn't the spartan app world that is sometimes portrayed. There are a lot of great Windows Phone apps.
Nokia have really been trying to boost their Lumia range by making apps. Their phones come with Nokia Maps, Drive, Local Scout and more. These are truly useful, quality apps. I've used Nokia Maps and it's almost as good as Google Maps, maybe I am saying "nearly" only because I am used to Google Maps? There's something called Nokia City Lens - point the phone in a direction and it'll show you points of interest nearby by overlaying labels onto the camera view. It's really clever but so far I've not used it for real, to find a restaurant for example. It shows Nokia is dedicated to innovation.
Nokia Music is an app that comes with Lumia phones and it's excellent. Frankly I don't listen to music a lot but I can see that this is great. You can download free music! Completely free, no catch. The following video explains:
There are a lot of free photo/camera related apps to download. Recently there was an app called Photo Extras that added new functionality directly into the camera software. This was welcome but my favourite photo app is PhotoSynth. It lets you take panorama photos - but special ones! They are 3D. It's easiest if you experience it yourself, click here.
I used to have a Blackberry Bold 9000 from work. It always had problems when it came to reading attachments. With my Lumia there are no such issues because it comes with MS Office mobile pre-installed. Word, Excel and Powerpoint! Plus you get OneNote which I've used a lot for jotting down notes when I've been out at the shops or where ever. Your files can be even be saved to Skydrive, the cloud!
Cloud
In order to save Notes files and the configuration of your phone to the cloud, you have to have a Microsoft Windows Live account. This is free and they don't ask you for a credit card (unlike Apple). With a Windows Live account you get Skydrive, which is a free cloud storage drive (like DropBox or Google Drive). Skydrive integrates seamlessly into Windows Phone, you can even see photos stored on Skydrive in your phone's gallery. In May 2012 I installed Windows 8 Preview on an old desktop computer. It asked me to login with my Windows Live account - it was great, my Gmail, my Google Calender, my Google Contacts, it all came to my desktop.
Facebook
Back in 2009 my Android phone linked to my contacts to my Facebook account. Windows Phone does the same and more. The best part is that it does it in a seamless way and it is reliable. You have control, you choose if you link to Facebook or not. I like this a lot as I use Facebook and the integration is so good that I hardly ever open the Facebook app. Instead click a contact and you'll see their status update, photos, etc. Posting photos is very easy, there's a little button, click it and you can share to Facebook, Twitter, etc. The Facebook integration goes even further. The messaging app where you send SMS texts, press an on screen button and you can send Facebook instant messages from the same place. I've used it and I like it, unfortunately few people use the Facebook instant messanger. In addition to all of this integration, there is also a very good official Facebook app you can download and install.
Search and More
Windows Phones have a dedicated search button that brings up the Bing search. Not only does this allow you to search the web but also, with the press of a button, you can scan barcodes. If you are in a shop and want to get more details on a product you can point your phone at the barcode and it'll search and give you the details. It's practical and you don't need to install an app to get this functionality. You can translate text too. OK, it doesn't sound all that amazing but what's nice here is that if, for example, you have a letter written in another language, your Windows Phone can scan the text and translate it for you. It's automatic and there's no app to download. The iPhone 4 and above have a feature called "Siri" where you can speak to your phone. Windows Phone has a similar feature called Tell Me. You can create text messages by just speaking, it will read text messages too. I've tried it and it works well but for me I am not that keen on voice activation, I can type pretty fast ;-) Here's a video that shows this feature:
Reliable
Windows Phone is reliable. I've not had to switch off/on my Lumia. I've never seen any kind of crash so far. It works as fast now as ever. It is impressive, at least in the six months I've been using it.
Nokia Lumia 800
The Nokia Lumia 800's smooth screen, curved edge and unibody design really make it feel like a quality product in the hand. It's hard to explain but it just feels right. Here's a short video by TechnoBuffalo that compares the design to the iPhone 4:
I like the feel of this phone, it's easy to carry, I slip it into my trouser pocket every morning. The screen is tough and scratch proof. I can say from experience that after more than six months of use it is as new. The screen resolution of the Lumia 800 is not as good as many phones on the market now but somehow you don't notice that much because it is still a very bright screen with a lot of contrast. It's clear and usually I don't find it a problem to see the screen unless the sun is very bright or directly on the screen.
For in-depth information on the Lumia 800 here's the link to Wikipedia's page:
Conclusion
After more than six months living with Windows Phone I can say that I am happy. It's slick and easy to use. It is fast, responsive and reliable. The screen is uncluttered, it feels fresh and clean. If you are looking for a new phone then take a look at Windows Phone, you maybe pleasantly surprised.
I used to have an HTC Hero Android phone, it had a great weather app built into it. You'd get rain drops on your screen, sunshine, all kinds of animation. In April 2012 change to the Nokia Lumia 800 with Windows Phone 7.5, there was no weather app included! Nothing! What to do? I know animations will be thin on the ground because Windows Phone is about simplicity and speed. However, I want a functional and practical weather app for my Lumia. Here I'll explain about my experiences with four weather apps. As always this is just my opinion but I hope it is of use.
Four Weather Apps
There are many weather apps available for Windows Phone, most of them are free but there are some with a price tag. I have chosen to look at four free weather apps:
Microsoft Weather
AccuWeather
Weather Duck
Weather View
I had these four apps installed for a few weeks. At first I tried to give each a fair chance but eventually just let myself naturally decide which was best by which one I reached for.
Generally
Generally all four apps provide the same basic information, the weather now and a forecast for the week ahead. Also, all of these apps you can enter a number of locations and pin a shortcut tile to your start page. Some do have some more features and that might sway you in making your choice. For me I would like simplicity and clarity. Typically I look at the weather once in the morning and possibily later on, depending on how changeable the weather is. For me easy of use and speed are most important, I'll explain more as I go through each of the apps:
1. Microsoft Weather
Everything about this app is simple. The graphics are very plain. This is a little disappointing at first but sometimes I was glad of this because it is quick to see what the weather will be. There's no fuss with this app. The live tile is sometimes a little slow to update but when it does you get the temperature and the weather now shown. Touch the tile and it opens very quickly to display the weather now and for the hours ahead. Humidity and UV index are also shown. If you swipe sideways you'll see the forecast. The forecast page only shows a list of the coming days of the week with high/low temperatures and a weather symbol.
It's free and does not have advertising. The interface is uncluttered.
This is a very popular app and for good reason. It has lots of information. The graphics are clear and easy to read, it's very nice. However, the live tile isn't so live. Touch the tile and it is slow to open. Then you have to swipe to and touch again to see the weather for today. Don't get me wrong, it's a great little app, it's free (there is an advertising banner) and the forecast is accurate. But, for me it is not fast and simple enough. During my test I used it less and less.
This app is a little like the Microsoft Weather app. Weather Duck is fast to open and the information you need is shown on the screen without any fuss. The live tile is also good, it shows the temperature and a weather symbol, it also flips over to show the rain fall and wind speed. The graphics are a little more sophisticated than the Microsoft Weather app. There is an advertising banner inside as with AccuWeather but Weather Duck's interface is cleaner. Swipe to the side and you can see the weather for the days to come. Similar to Microsoft Weather? Weather Duck shows a page for each day so you can see more details. I prefer this as it even shows the rainfall in millimeters for each hour of the day.
This app has more elaborate graphics. Each weather symbol is rendered with detail and you can see a lot of work has gone into this app. When you touch the tile it opens slowly. The first view is shows today and the following days down the screen. The screen looks a bit too cluttered for my taste. You have to swipe sideways to get more information. There is a lot of detail and you can see a lot of work has gone into this. If the graphics were not so much 'in your face' I think I would like it more. It doesn't have an advertising banner so it is completely free.
Out of the four I use Weather Duck (number 3) more than the others. I found the weather forecast was accurate and detailed. It's also quick to load and the graphics don't overwhelm you (like Weather View!). I also like Microsoft Weather for its true simplicity but it lacks details such as a per hourly forecast. Sometimes when I wanted even more detail I would look at AccuWeather but it just is a bit slow (or appears to be). Weather Duck gets my vote overall!
But don't forget there are more weather apps out there. Maybe there's something better? Feel free to add your favourite in the comments. Here's a link to the Windows Phone site showing the weather apps available:
Sometimes when using your mobile you'll want to switch off the WiFi or Data (mobile data network, 3G/Edge). WiFi drains your battery, if you aren't using it, switch it off. Also you may want to turn off the data connection if you have a limited data plan.
On an Android phone it's easy, there are shortcuts you can add to the screen so it's one click away to turn off WiFi or Data. But what about on Windows Phone 7.5? You have to go into Settings | Mobile Network, for example. That's a pain! It would be good to have a tile on the start screen.
Toggle
There's a free Windows Phone app called Toggle - download it from the market place. It allows you to add tiles to your start screen to get to WiFi, Data, Bluetooth and Airplane mode just with one touch.
Toggle is simple and straightforward. However, it's not quite as good as what you get on Android because Toggle just takes you quickly to the screen for changing the setting - it doesn't change the setting itself. That means it's more than one screen touch. There's a feature called Double Bill, I don't think it's much good, it just takes you to the Data screen and then the WiFi screen in turn. I prefer the individual tiles.
Update - May 2012 After some time using Toggle I found a problem with it. The live tiles were not updated sometimes, it would say WiFi is off but it wasn't, for example. This was rather annoying.
I'm now trying an app called Battery Saver, which also has the ability to pin tiles to the start screen to turn on/off the WiFi and Data. It's going well so far... I'll update this page later with more news.
