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"Smartphone Tech and Apps"
Today Microsoft hs released an update for your shinny new Windows Phone 7. In order to get it, you have to connect to your zune software and for some reason it was not a push update but I had to click on update to find out about it. Its a small download that is supposed to make future updates seamless. OS version has changed from 7.0.7004 to 7.0.7008.0. Here is more information from Microsoft
Windows Phone 7 Update Zune Interface
samsung-omnia 7 with Windows phone 7 software
Microsoft Windows is synonymous with desktops, laptops, netbook and sometimes tablets of the early 2000s and windows mobile. Windows Phone 7 is a different beast built from the ground up and also stripped of that Windows mobile silliness. By now you are thinking cliché this, cliché that, but I will tell you that this is one of the best smartphones I have ever used period. iPhones and Android phones have almost the same way of doing things but Phone 7 takes it to another level. Here is why:
User Interface:
The START user interface is tiled instead of having a screen filled with small icons like an android phone or iPhones. The tiles scrolls upwards or downwards without informing the user of any limit you have on screen space
Most of these tiles are live in the sense that it is animated if there is information coming in from the application. The UI is built around the idea that everything is an application and that you can unpin and pin any application you like. The Start Interface can be activated by pressing the Windows button located below the screen on the phone. The left image below is the background that shows before you enter the START interface when you click on the power button oddly located at the top right side of the phone. This also acts like a notification when you receive emails, phone calls, etc. The right image below is the list of applications when you swipe left from the main screen and everything here can be pinned on the START interface. Tile can be set to different colours. There are 2 background themes and 10 accent colours which you can use to change the look of the tiles.
The tiles are very responsive that you want to play with it even if there is no need to. The killer feature about this tile is that long pressing an application will bring up
a menu list like uninstall which will allow you to remove a program instead of going deeper into the phone to do it. The interface is so clean that even the battery and network icons do not show except when you tap the edge on the top of the screen.
Contacts:
windows-phone-7-contacts
Microsoft contacts also known as PEOPLE is a more of integration with social networking sites like Facebook and everything connects through a Windows Live account. In order to get all your contacts to sync with your phone, a windows live account should be connected to facebook or messenger. Pictures of your phone contacts are taken from their facebook which is very convenient or you can add them manually. WHAT’S NEW menu gives you live updates of friends you follow or like from facebook but that is just it. Coming from an android phone, If a contact had 3 phone numbers, it displayed it one after the other which is really poor but the Windows software organises it so that it shows only once but when pressed will show you a list of numbers behind the name which is very neat.
E-mail and Messaging:
Microsoft does not allow you to customise e-mail and messaging to whatever theme you want but it works as intended. You can add new windows live accounts, outlook, yahoo mail, Google, Facebook or other accounts using POP and IMAP for advanced users. All of these is done with so much ease and elegance.
Internet Explorer:
Internet explorer can be a little slow when opening web pages and does not support flash which I think Microsoft will soon update. Like I said earlier that you
can pin anything to the home and this applies to websites. You can pin any website to the start menu for a quick access. Other features in IE includes search a page for a particular word and sharing it by messaging, hotmailing, etc. Zooming works by placing multitouch.
Xbox Live:
Xbox live
I am a PC gamer and I have a Games for Windows Live account which is also an Xbox live ID which means once you sign in with your Hotmail account which must be linked to Xbox live, you can see all your games on windows phone 7 including your avatar and messages even if you played the game on PC, Xbox 360 or Windows Phone 7. Any game that supports Xbox live achievements will update in your account. As an avid gamer, this is a huge plus for me and the best application on this phone.
Marketplace:
Windows phone 7 marketplace is where you download applications like Facebook and twitter. There are thousands of apps in the marketplace including Xbox live games, music and also from the Samsung zone which is rather empty at the moment with just a few apps.
Zune Software:
This phone is nothing without the Zune software which can be downloaded online. It allows you to sync music, videos and podcast to and from your phone. Applications can also be installed wired and wirelessly using Wi-Fi connectivity. Movies can also be downloaded to your phone for watching which you can get using Microsoft points.
- Zune Software – Windows Phone 7 App Store
- Zune Music
Hardware and connectivity:
Omnia 7 has 1GHz Scorpion processor, Adreno 200 GPU, Qualcomm QSD8250 Snapdragon chipset with 512MB memory for smooth operation.
Omnia 7 also has a super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen with 16 million colours, resolution of 480 X 800 pixels, multi-touch input, accelerometer sensor, proximity sensor for auto turn off. It has a 5 megapixel, autofocus, LED flash camera that takes beautiful pictures, 720p video and recording.
Other hardware features: Internal storage: 8GB or 16GB, 3G HSDPA, 7.2 Mbps; HSUPA, 5.76Mbps Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth, 3.5mm jack etc.
Summary
Positive
- High quality super AMOLED screen with amazing blacks
- Slick interface that is very responsive
- Good camera quality
- Xbox live gaming experience
- Unique app experience
- Bing maps
- Simple to Use
- Microsoft Word, Powerpoint, Excel
- Sharepoint
Negative
- Slow internet browser
- No micro SD expansion
Nokia’s market share has been falling since the release of iOS and Android in the past 3 to 4 years and has also changed CEO
to a former Microsoft top executive, Stephen Elop. Although Nokia has 37.6% of market in 2010, symbian is not a winning strategy in the foreseeable future. Microsoft Windows phone 7 platform is new and interesting and not as vast as android and iOS in terms of sales and penetration. Nokia is a unique company that will just be another mobile phone manufacturer if they decide to choose android as their software of choice. The “burning platform” memo holds some clues and the reason why I think Nokia will go Microsoft.
For more on market share, read here
PowerAmp for android is probably one of the best music players for any android phone running 2.1. The main screen gets a large album art which downloads if any music art is missing.
Other features include:
- 10 band graphical equalizer
- 10 presets to start like Rock and POP
- Mini-display area
- Play songs or podcast from folders or arrange as libraries
- Nice widgets on the main screen and also lock screens
- 3 Themes in the form of Matte Metal, Aluminium and white plastic
- A lot of customization options like various look and feelm album art, music folder selection, etc.
Power Amp has a 15 day trial but because this package is very good, you can get it for around $5 or £4. Highly recommended
Tweetdeck for your android is exciting and fresh. Once downloaded from the marketplace for free, you can light up your android phone with seconds, minutes and hourly tweets from people you follow and people that are following you can see your tweets on the go.
Tweetdeck is not just for twitter, it integrates other platforms like facebook, buzz, foursquare all with different colors so you do not mistake a twitter feed for a facebook feed. It is easy to login and setup with a sleek user interface
Widgets can be added to your android screen space with 3 options: bar, columns and post for immediate peek into all those news updates from your friends and colleagues
Highly recommended
Jokes are a part of life and it makes us giggle while inside a bus on the way to work, school and video club and it also makes us laugh out loud sometimes. Luckily for us, the android platform has funny jokes on the go for all you chuckle heads. This application can be downloaded on the android market for free and contains humorous jokes about yo momma, one liners, blonde jokes, rednect jokes etc and my all time favorite Chuck Norris facts.
Highly Recommended
Flixter is one of those apps I immediately install when I reset my android phone because instead of going a website and look for movie showtimes … this app actually gives you in details recent release of movies, DVDs, box office and cinemas close to you using distance which is perfect and works every time. If you are the road or somewhere you do not have access to a computer .. install this app and find a cinema close to you quick and easy.
This app is call Movies on the Android Market
Highly Recommended
LastPass is the best and the most secure password storing application you will ever find on either a phone, desktop computer and notebooks. LastPass is not limited to Windows and MAC OS but can be installed on iPhones, blackberries, symbian, android, linux, etc. LastPass for Android is a 14 day trial.
If you have been writing down all your passwords on a text file or hoping that Internet Explorer or firefox or Safari remembers your passwords, don’t fret, LastPass will not only collect all your logins from all the websites you have ever visit, it will make sure that it is secure with a single master password so you do not have to remember logging in to 100 websites.
You can access LastPass vault when you login using your master password to access settings in order to increase security or decrease security. Other features which is a bonus is that it will add any phone devices you have installed LastPass into the vault.
If you decide never to auto login to a website, LastPass provides you with the feature that allows you to block auto logins to certain sites.
If you are also tired of cracking your brain for passwords to give website, LastPass will generate and store secure passwords so you do not have to remember. LastPass can also save all your fillable forms so you do not have to fill long complicated forms the next time you go to a different website. With one password, you can login to lastPass on any platform and all your details will be available even if you are away from your home or office computer or on your mobile.
The best of all these is that everything is encrypted in such a way that even the company that owns the application does not know your password
Go to Lastpass.com and download a free version and try it out. I am using LastPass on my Android, Home and Office Computer and I love it and all I needed to do was install the browser plugin for internet explorer, firefox, chrome, etc.
On 28 July 2010, there was an update for HTC hero from Orange that weighs in at 3.14 Mb and it turns out that my ROM has been upgraded from 2.73.61.66 of February 2010 to 2.73.61.92 This an over the air update so preferably be close to a Wi-fi network to get the update. There might be little changes made to the phone with this update but I believe this is a first of a bigger push to the long awaited 2.1 update.
