Category: Mobile

Microsoft Surface

Greg Leave a comment

[sc:hardware-category ]Two interesting items came out last week about Microsoft’s Surface line.

First off, the holiday Microsoft stores will be opening on Oct 26th, just in time for the Windows 8 launch and presumably the Surface RT tables to go on sale.  This makes my life a little bit easier as I won’t have the drive to the US or wait until the new Microsoft store opens in my area.

The second interesting thing that came up was the rumor (which seems to be confirmed by multiple sources now) that Microsoft will be building their own phone sometime in the new year.

First off I’m not waiting for an MS phone, I’ve pretty much decided now that I’ll be picking up a Lumia 920 as soon as I can as my primary phone.  While it is a bit larger/heavier than I would like, the inductive charging has won me over.

So why is MS making its own phone?

I think the answer is simple.  Microsoft has finally realized that depending upon partners to make designs that will compete with the top end phones isn’t working.  As great as the Nokia and HTC phones look, they seem like mid range phones really instead of high-end ones.  Now some might say the 920 is top of the line, which is true for the feature set, but it really is a big and heavy phone in comparison to the Apple iPhone and Samsung Galaxy S III.  Samsung Ativ S is a slim/light phone but with a huge display and no LTE.  Likewise it just seems too much like a re-purposed Android device.

So the obvious answer is for Microsoft to make their own phone.  A phone that will be comparable to the specs of the iPhone and GSIII while adding a design flare that clearly differentiates it from anything else out there.  MS has done it with the Surface tablets and the phone seems like a logical extension.

Microsoft could once again sell it primarily in their physical stores and not trample all over their partners while having a showcase phone to use in its advertising and marketing campaigns.

Time will tell for sure but here’s a though… The PC industry is pretty conservative in its design too, could a Surface PC and laptop push PC makers to compete not just in the mass market but for a designer market as well?

 

What will be my first Windows Phone 8 device?

Greg Leave a comment

[sc:mobile-category ]So Bell has said they will be releasing two Windows 8 Phones and that one of them will not be the Nokia 920 (presumably Rogers will get the 920), which leaves Bell with either the Samsung, HTC or the Nokia 820.

First, let’s be clear, they all look to be great phones, but in the end it leaves me in a quandary.  The 920 seems to be the phone I want, but I’ll have to pick up an unlocked version at full price (not a big issue).  However that means I have a huge credit with Bell as I’m due for an upgrade.

Then there’s Nokia.  Why did you have to make the 920 so good, yet clearly lack 2 important items?  The replaceable case of the 820 and the Micro SD card slot?

32g is probably lots of storage but it just irks me that you know they’re going to release a 950 or something that adds the Micro SD slot.

Likewise I don’t intend on swapping cases every other day or anything, but I have to admit I REALLY like the matte finish of the 800/900, and being able to swap out the shinny default for a nice matte black would be a really nice thing.

So let’s for a moment assume Bell not going to go with any Nokia WP8 phones (if history is any indicator, Rogers will get the 820 and Telus the 820).  That leaves the Samsung and HTC devices for me to choose.

I’ve had both a Samsung and HTC phone before and both have been quite good.  I have to admit I don’t think I like the Samsung’s physical Windows button, but I image I would get use to it.  In fact thinking about it some more it’s not the physical button I dislike, but the mix of capacitive and physical that irks me.

The HTC devices seem like the natural choice as I have the HD7 now, however I’ve always been disappointed in the camera on the HTC phones.  I hear they are much better now and by no means am I a photographer, but still, when I do use it I want it to work well.

And speaking of HTC, what’s with the 8X not having a micro SD slot either?  Is there some conspiracy that the high-end WP8 devices shouldn’t include micro SD?  Both the 8X and 8S look to be well designed phones but the S is too low-end and the X not high-end enough.  Rogers has announced they will be carrying the 8X, both an 8g and 16g model.  The 8g will be exclusive to Rogers, which practically screams that Bell or Telus will have the 16g version as well.

I’m leaning towards a two-pronged approach, get an “official” phone from bell, probably the Samsung phone.  Then when Nokia releases the second generation WP8 phones, get an unlocked one and move the HTC to my development/hacking phone and the Nokia to my primary phone.  I keep waffling though as I REALLY want the wireless charging…

Nokia has just put me in a position where I can’t buy the 920 without feeling some level of regret as it doesn’t have the Micro SD slot.  Likewise I can’t buy the 820 because I’ll always be thinking of the better display and camera on the 920.

Sigh… Beat. Head. Against. Wall.

 

 

Bell, Nokia and the iPhone 5

Greg Leave a comment

[sc:mobile-category ]So, just in case anyone missed it, Apple had a little press conference last week and announced the iPhone 5.  There’s also been a little bit of news around what Windows Phone 8 devices will be on the Bell network.

First off the Bell news, which is kind of disappointing for me, they won’t be carrying the Nokia 920.  However the good news is that they will be carrying two Windows Phone 8 devices.  The linked article speculates that it will be a Samsung and HTC phone, which would make sense as Bell has traditionally carried HTC and no many Nokia devices.  Of course they could be looking at the Nokia 820 instead of the Samsung device.  We’ll have to see if there are announcements when Microsoft makes WP8 official.

Now then, that other little piece of news from last week 😉

How can anyone be excited about the iPhone 5?

New design?  No.

Better camera?  No.

Bigger screen?  Kind of.  It’s longer but that doesn’t seem like a good thing really.  I’ve type on the iPhone a few times and the display is just to narrow.

NFC?  No.

Wireless charging?  No.

Big update to battery life?  No.

Removable storage?  No.

Big software change?  No.  Let’s face it, iOS is looking pretty long in the tooth these days and Apple seems to have no plan to move it forwards.  They’re playing catch up to the other OS’s for integrated features (like Twitter and Facebook) and haven’t brought anything new to the table, well unless you count Siri which doesn’t seem to work really.

How much longer will everyone continue to stick their heads in the ground and simply buy whatever Apple shoves out the door?  I guess time will tell but that seems like a painful wait 😉

 

Windows Phone 8 SDK

Greg Leave a comment

[sc:mobile-category ]So Microsoft has finally decided to launch the Windows Phone 8 SDK, but in an unusual way.

First this is just a “preview” of the SDK.  Which means it’s still in flux, which seems odd at this late of date in the cycle.  Normally if we were going to see an October release, Microsoft would have RTM’d the software months ahead of time (like it did with Windows 8) to give partners and developers time to get ready for the launch.

The preview is only going to be open to existing developers with at least one app in the Marketplace, and even then to a limited number of people.  I will certainly be in line to get a copy, but with only one app in the Marketplace I doubt I’ll be high on the list to get it.

So this means I’ll have to wait, until the release of WP8 to get my hands on it, which seems strange, but I guess MS is running up to the last minute on this one to get everything done.

Hopefully that doesn’t result in a low quality product.

Another very odd thing about the announcement is that it occurred just hours after the Nokia/Microsoft press conference for the new Lumias. Microsoft took the stage twice during the conference, wouldn’t have been great for the to make the announcement live instead of in a blog post?

I wonder if they felt some pressure to release something due to the SDK leak a few weeks ago?

Don’t know for sure but I’ll be interested to see how things unfold over the next several weeks.