Archive for

December 2011

 

Windows Phone: Initial Thoughts

So, I finally have one of these things, and what can I say? I'm in love.

Phone

From the start screen alone, it's fascinating to actually see a Windows Phone with your own content, your own customizations, and make the little chimes and vibrations as messages come in.

Group
Getting to the homescreen, it's interesting to learn the tricks of tiles, setting up the Me tile up top to get your own notifications and update your status. Put people, messaging, Hotmail near by, plus a good WeatherLive Live Tile, plus a Check-In Now Foursuqare shortcut provided ala 4th and Mayor.

The other piece, what's in the picture above, are Groups. Built out of your People hub, each of these serve a purpose for me, keeping track of what's happening with family, classmates, news, Microsoft, as well as a group of Twitter folk I enjoy.  On occasion, it's actually fun to see how the profile pictures cycle through and create ... interesting people, like the hybrid bunny and boy on the bottom left there.

(download)
As for apps, it's interesting on this phone. It's not meant for applications. In many respects, most of what I need is built in between Facebook, Twitter, and Email. Where they are needed though, they actually are quite nice, 4th and Mayor a wonderful and quick Foursuqare client, MetroTube a stunning YouTube client with some, in my mind, classic Metro elements inside.

Overall, it's something to have one of these to call your own, pictures of friends flipping about in Group tiles, or going through your People and Pictures hubs noticing pictures you've never seen before. Oh, and Zune, Zune exploration is great on this larger screen, though the odd tidbits that are missing are, well, signs of how foreign Zune is at Microsoft I suppose.

Still, a few days in and I'm in love. There are quirks, minor issues here and there, but I'm amazed. With any luck, I should have a review-type post up here soon.

Filed under  //   opinion   windows phone  
Posted December 9, 2011
 

Lists: The Channels of Twitter

Twitterlists

I'm a bit methodical when I do things.  When it comes to Twitter, this is useful.

While Twitter is considered by some to be useless babble, I'm convinced it's a platform that's only useful once you find your purpose for it.  In that respect, my own use for Twitter has been to find interesting people's work, share my own, as well as hold conversations and keep up with what's happening in the world.

So, once you figure out your purpose with it, the question is how you use it effectively.  For myself, consuming my Twitter feed is quite an enjoyment because of two things: Lists and the number 80.

Let's go over the first one, lists.

Lists 

Everybody gets a list!

Okay, seriously, Lists make the Twitter experience breathable no matter if you're following 80 people, or 8,000 people.  While your main stream contains everything, lists provide an option to have a more focused stream of thought, whether it's just a group of closer friends, or those of a specific topic.

In practice, I make use of three lists: Posse, Microsoft, and NewsNow.

The first of these, my Posse, are a handful of folks in the Twitter-verse who I find myself being a little closer with, like a small group of friends, and I keep this private.  

Second, the Microsoft list, is a mixture of Microsoft bloggers, as well as some folks inside, and gives me a good scope of what's happening in the Microsoft-verse.  This list embodies one of the biggest advantages of lists: You don't have to follow everyone in it.  If anything, this helps keep your main stream clean, as well as makes that information available more easily.

Last, I have my NewsNOW list, which I've built to give me news about everything (@breakingnews), business (@bloombergnow), tv news (@tvnewser + @insidecablenews), Seattle (@king5seattle + @kiro7seattle), and technology (@arstechnica).  Now, this list is my newswire, and nothing truly compares to the point that you can have constant stories flow by and catch the ones you want to share, or maybe go and read further.

In all, each of these make my experience better, but there's one more piece.

80

Another piece to my strategy of Twitter is to limit who I follow.  While arbitrary, 80 has been the number that I can fit everyone I'm interested in underneath, as well as be able to keep a good scope on what's going on.  Earlier, I had let this creep over 100, and it was amazing how useless my stream became, and how Twitter just became another thing vs. something I enjoyed.

So, that's how I make use of Twitter. How do you?

Filed under  //   opinion  
Posted December 1, 2011