For those in the Windows Phone Preview for Developer program, a new update to Windows Phone 8.1. Update 1 is now available for download. The build number for this release is 8.10.14157.200 and is available to everyone in the program. Remember that you can join the Preview for Developer program for free by downloading the app and registering your device. More details at the end of this post.
As has been expected for several weeks now, HTC made a big push back into Windows Phone today with the announcement of the HTC One M8 Windows. The new phone, available on Verizon in the United States and to other carriers later this year, is identical to the Android-based M8 and brings all the 5″ display goodness of that device to our favourite Little OS That Could.
Spec wise the HTC One W8 is identical to the M8. It is the same hardware and there has even been speculation that if you were able to bootstrap the phone you could load either Android or Windows Phone onto the device. The W8 features the same 5″ high resolution display as the M8, BOOM sound and even brings the Dot Case clock to the phone, something that is unique to the M8 until now.
I have spent the better part of the last three weeks I have all but completely immersed myself in Windows Phone having been exclusively iOS for the past four years. I’ve tried to turn every knob, pull every lever and use every feature not only so I can share that here but also I can get myself back into the swing of this platform. In the middle of all this fun came Windows Phone 8.1 and then, for me, Update 1 via the Preview for Developer app. That meant that for me living in the UK, I could sample Cortana, the new personal assistant from Microsoft.
After getting Update 1 installed on my Lumia 1320, what is the first thing I do? I test out Cortana of course! What’s the second thing I do? Compare it to Siri of course. The results? Cortana pretty much kicks Siri to the curb. Every time.
There are a lot of good camera apps in the Windows Phone Store, most of which are better than the default app built into Windows Phone itself. For example, I use the Nokia Camera app for all my photo taking needs because I like the controls better and I think it produces a slightly better photo because of how the app renders the photo.
On my Lumia 1320 I have a camera button on the side but by default it is set to the camera app built into Windows Phone. Changing this however is easy and can be done in Settings. By changing your camera app in Windows Phone you can have your favourite camera app literally a click away.
When the opportunity came up a few weeks ago to try out and review a Nokia Lumia 1320 I jumped on the chance. While I had seen them in my local phone shops, I had not really had a chance to play with one or try it out. It looked impressive with all of it’s phablet, 6″ screen glory but I didn’t know if this was a phone with all show and no go. After all, it was the little brother of the almighty Lumia 1520.
Having used it now in earnest for two solid weeks and full fledge adopting it as my daily driver, I can honestly say that the Lumia 1320 is nothing short of impressive. For a device this big with this unbelievable battery life, to be priced at just $229 US/ £219 UK, it is an incredible value. It is powerful and if you can get around the average camera built into it, this should be on your list of considerations when it comes to your next Windows Phone.
This weekend here in England will be the start of the 2014-2015 football season. All the leagues, most notably the Premier League and the Champions League, start in earnest as do many of the European leagues across the continent. Over the last few weeks I’ve been looking for a good app for Windows Phone to follow my favourite teams along with keeping up with news from around the various leagues. I think I’ve found it in OneFootball for Windows Phone.
OneFootball for Windows Phone allows you to select your favourite team and follow them in detail as well as get push notifications during matches (when you can’t find your way to the pub to watch for some reason) and detailed information on each match and the season. Further, you get a great news feed of all the information from across all the various national leagues and can even go into another league and setup notifications for a particular team. All this in an app that is free.
The Windows Phone Calendar app is pretty power and intuitive. You can sync multiple calendars from multiple sources including Gmail, Yahoo and yes, even iCloud. Each calendar is represented by a different colour in the Windows Phone Calendar app and sometimes these colour choices are not exactly what you had in mind. Fortunately there is a quick and easy way to do this in the app & I will show you how to customise this in this How To.
The research firm IDC has released their second quarter results for mobile platform sales and its a bit of a mixed bag for Windows Phone. Overall, compared to the same quarter in 2013, Windows Phone saw overall market share slip from 3.4% to 2.5% with device shipments dropping from 8.2 to 7.4 million in the comparison. For those who love & support the platform, not exactly a ringing enforcement by fellow mobile device users. Android remained the dominant player globally, amassing 84.7% of the global market share followed by Apple’s iOS platform at a distant 11.7%. Still though there are some positives to come out of this report from IDC that should give Windows Phone users some comfort.