Corner Geeks Podcast Feed (mp3)

Corner Geeks 25: The Windows Phone Experience


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  • Lumia 520 for AUD$176
    • Specs don’t really matter because it’s a pretty good experience
    • 512MB RAM which limits some heavier apps but still a pretty smooth experience. Much better than cheap Android phones
    • Good Polish unlike Android back in the day that had a lot of rough edges
      • In between iOS and Android but closer to iOS
      • Find my phone
      • Sky Drive Integration
        • Save Photos automatically
          • can’t seem to enable only on WiFi so may be hazardous to your 3G data
          • doesn’t upload screenshots
          • Office Documents synced in the cloud
          • Office
            • Can create and edit Word and Excel files offline
            • Can view Powerpoint files
            • Bluetooth transfer data migration
            • Consolidated settings (like iOS) but also and in app
            • Glove usage! (probably a Lumia feature)
            • Good Features
              • People Hub
                • Combines all social streams (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn) into one stream
                • Like Twitter lists but for all social networks supported
                • Photo Stream of all updates with photos
                • Bluetooth image sharing!
                • Has Android like intents/sharing of data to other apps. E.g. from photo app, can share photo to apps like WhatsApp / Email / any app that supports receiving images
                • Gripes
                  • App selection still small. No official Dropbox app, no instagram
                  • Search page is not a web page. E.g. Search in browser address bar brings you out of the browser to the search page, and clicking a link in the search page goes back into the browser
                  • Sharing Intents inconsistent
                    • But doesn’t seem to work for all things… Can share photo (.jpg file) from camera to WhatsApp but cannot share screenshot (.png file)  to WhatsApp. Can’t share URL to WhatsApp.
                    • Perhaps more of a non-mature app ecosystem rather than Windows Phone fault. App developers need to program their apps right
                    • Notifications could be better
                      • If app is a Live Tile, then you can see the notification number
                      • If app is not a Live Tile, there is no easy way to know what app caused the notification (iOS has it best with badges)
                      • No quick toggles
                        • Have to go into settings to turn things on and off similar to iOS (e.g. enable/disable data / WiFi)
                        • Hard to toggle vibrate
                        • Can’t disable screen rotation. Less sensitive than Android which is good.
                        • No file explorer or file system like Android
                        • No auto-sign in like Android for Google sites
                        • Switching apps shows “Resuming…” quite a bit. More to do with how Windows Phone handles apps. Could be due to limited memory of 512MB and may not occur with higher end devices with more RAM
                        • No Bluetooth tethering (available in iOS and Android)
                        • Links

                          • Lumia 520 Review – The Verge
                          • Lumia 520 – GSM Arena
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                            Corner Geeks Podcast Feed (mp3)By Timothy Lim