Author: Clinton

At Mobile World Congress today, Microsoft announced the new Lumia 640, a mid-range Windows Phone that is a step up from the popular Lumia 635.  The Lumia 640 comes in three variants, the 3G Dual SIM, LTE Dual SIM and an LTE Single SIM and it is expected to sell for less than $200 when it reaches the US.  Yes, the Lumia 640 is coming to the United States!  It is expected to be with AT&T, T-Mobile and MetroPCS but what is unclear is which variant will be with which carrier.  While I’ve voice my opinion on the need for a flagship Windows Phone from Microsoft, it is good to see this Lumia 640 as it is, specification wise, not bad at all for a sub-$200 device.

The Lumia 640 will run on the Snapdragon 400 quad-core processor at 1.2GHz and will sport a 8GB of storage on board.  That can be augmented with up to 128GB on a MicroSD card.  The rear camera is a 8MP autofocus capable of shooting 1080p video while the front facing camera is a HD 1MP wide angle. The display is a 5″ HD 1280×720 IPS that does support Glance which if you don’t have, once you do, will love.  It is expected to launch this month in various markets globally.

As we come into Mobile World Congress 2015 in earnest this week, I’m reminded of a stark reality as a Windows Phone enthusiast.  That reality is that beyond two devices that are both over a year old, Windows Phone has no flagship device.  That, in itself, should not be news.  If you are reading my site then you are likely a Windows Phone user or at the very least have a morbid curiosity on how the other 3.5% live (that’s the rough market share of Windows Phone) and know that there hasn’t been a flagship worthy Windows Phone in a long while.  The last three devices of what many would consider “Flagship” were the Lumia 930 (Icon), the Lumia 1520 and you may be able to stretch and say the HTC M8 Windows Phone.  The last of those was launched mid-year last year but the Lumia 1520 came out at the end of 2013 and the 930 early last year.  In terms of half-life for mobile devices, that is an eternity.  One could argue that the Lumia 830, the “affordable flagship” is a reasonable stop-gap but let’s be honest with ourselves here, it’s not a flagship device not matter what the marketing materials says.

Microsoft has been very busy on the low end of the market and you often hear the term “the next billion” when referring to the segment of the market that is moving from mobile phones to smartphones.  There is, in many parts of the world, an untapped customer base, thus the next billion.  But equally the argument could be made that Microsoft needs – indeed must – cater to the upper end of the market at the same time.  They don’t have to look any further than their own competitors in the market to see this need yet seemingly are willing to ignore it.  It is disappointing, frustrating and not helping win mind share around Windows Phone as a platform.

There are a lot of places that Windows Phone and Windows users can get help but one of the best is the free Microsoft Community site.  If you haven’t visited them before or forgot about them, now is a good time to go and check them out.  You will find everything from problem solving tips to information and insights on how to do something better in the Windows world.  Once more, there are a huge number of experts that are in the Microsoft Community sites.  Those experts can be MVPs nominated by the community and Microsoft, and fellow users.

For my part, you will usually find me in the Windows Phone section of the site but I also drop into the Windows 8.1 section from time-to-time.

As with any self-help or user-centric help site, not every question will be answered and it may take time to get your answers.  Be patient.  Remember that everyone in the Microsoft Community pages are doing it on their own time so it may be a few days to get an answer to you.  If your matter is urgent then contact Microsoft support or visit your local Microsoft Store.

You can find the Microsoft Community at http://answers.microsoft.com.  From there you can search for any Microsoft product to get the extra help you need.

Before Twitter was taken over by llamas and dresses of different colors, there was a flutter of a different type.  It started with Google’s purchase of SoftCard, a mobile payment solution, and the subsequent dropping of Windows Phone support just two days after the acquisition.  The result means that Microsoft and Windows Phone have no mobile payment app or system available in the short term (rumor has it that Microsoft is coming out with something with Windows 10 for Phones) so we loyal users will need to continue to whip out the plastic to make a purchase and not our shiny Lumia’s.

The undertone of the move however was far more ominous than just Google pulling support for one Windows Phone solution.  Google has never supported Windows Phone and scarcely Windows on the desktop.  In fact if you search the Windows Store you will find exactly one app from Google for Windows 8.1.  That one app is Google Search.  There is no Gmail app.  No Google+ app. Not even YouTube. Nothing.  Meanwhile, in the Google Play store, if you do a search for Microsoft you will find 64 apps they have developed for Android.  Sixty Four!  To make it more challenging, many of these apps are better on Android than they are on Windows Phone.  I expect that to change in Windows 10 for Phones but today, it is what it is.

If you look in the Windows Phone Store for Google apps you will find exactly one app as well, Google Search.  So really, the comparisons are not even a comparison.  It’s one sided.  But it gets worse and it is quite clear that Google wants nothing to do with Microsoft.  Need proof?  Go look at iTunes.

In December of last year I posted a How To on taking screenshots of your Windows 8.1 tablet and it turned out it was one of the most popular How To’s on the site.  Apparently a lot of you like taking screenshots on your tablets, which is done in a similar way to Windows Phone.  However a few of you have written asking how this can be done on Windows PCs.  From your emails, it looks like most of are using Control+PrintScreen to take a screenshot which saves it to the Clipboard then editing that photo (or creating it more-or-less) in Paint.  There is an easier and quicker way.

The NOAA Hi-Def Radar app for Windows has received a nice update today, bringing amongst other improvements Live Tile support to your Windows 8.1 Start screen.  The update, version 1.1.0.13 for those keeping score at home, has a lot of fixes and improvement throughout including a nagging issue with the Bing map authentication.  It seems that Weathersphere, the developer of the app, got that sorted out along with other general bug fixes and improvements.

NOAA Hi-Def Radar for Windows (Universal App) – $1.99 – Download Now

NOAA Hi-Def Radar for Windows Phone (Universal App) – $1.99 – Download Now