Windows Phone: Think Different™

In truth, Think Different summarizes Windows Phone in a nutshell.

Ubiquitous Social

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windows-phone-think-differenttm-zqotwfouAunDxHCGGHhE.zip (23.62 MB)

There really is something cool when you can get Facebook in a people-centric form, sans the updates of pages you've liked, plus your Twitter stream. Converge that all into a hub and you really do get a good scope of your social media friends, from top to bottom.

Open up your own tile, or a friends, and you get instant access to their current status, all their contact information, their feed of status updates from Facebook, Twitter, and if you have it set up Linked In, as well as their pictures and history of text messages and emails with them.

In terms of messaging, this is, this is the untold story of the device. If your friend is available on Facebook, you can chat with them there. Messenger? Yup. Text Messaging? Absolutely.

With that said, the future here is interesting to say the least. With the concept of reducing steps and making things simplier, it would be interesting to see FourSquare integration here, or even the location service of Facebook to the extent of showing a friend's location, not just being able to sign in to a location. Also, since Microsoft did purchase Skype, it would be interesting to see them integrate that into the OS, something said to be coming, but not seen yet.

Gaming

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windows-phone-think-differenttm-hEHxgbJCEekwdlsotatb.zip (9.55 MB)

Achievements, need I say more?

In truth, gaming on the phone is as much fun as one would expect, all of your games easily available under the Games hub on the phone. Split between games and XBOX Live Games, the qualities can vary, but it's very much what you'll find on other platforms.

In terms of the big names, such as Angry Birds, Plants vs Zombies, Fruit Ninja, and others, they fall under the umbrella of XBOX Live, supporting the option of trials, as well as achievements when you purchase the games. I can't really speak to how much time I've lost enjoying Plants vs Zombies, or Angry Birds.

Again, with that said, some of the games have the feeling that they need to be updated to support the multi-tasking ability of Mango, Angry Birds starting from the boot screen every time, and Plants vs Zombies being a touch slow to load on my Samsung Focus.

Apps

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windows-phone-think-differenttm-dDBqJgHudJojfAvrrEew.zip (19.05 MB)

First of all, let's recap the Metro Design Language and underline what this means in apps. In short, you're talking about making actions quicker to achieve, as well as reducing UI to the essential base of what's needed. Now, how many apps achieve this is extremely erratic.

Included above are some of my favorites I use on a near daily basis, including 4th & Mayor, a FourSquare client, Rowi, a Twitter client, MetroTube, a YouTube client, and WeatherLive, a weather client.

In terms of look and feel, each are quite fair to the language, respecting the light/dark and color choice of the user, WeatherLive adding a background image from Bing as well.

Now, in terms of actual simplicity and steps, that's a mix. 4th and Mayor probably tops the list due to the option of a "Check In Now" tile which actually makes checking in an almost automatic activity, followed by Rowi and MetroTube, both which make browsing their respective mediums easy. WeatherLive is a big of a mess, the app going through a UI change in the latest version to be more understandable, but still a touch too much information for a pivot UI.

Which brings up the issue with Metro, at least how people make use of it. The weakness of the language is in how people use layout styles, as well as forgetting the concept of "reducing steps". Panoramas, Pivots, and the other styles each serve a select purpose, and some apps don't understand this, such as my local news channel's King 5 app.

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windows-phone-think-differenttm-jlqHcDfiBkvqgrBAHFnn.zip (14.34 MB)

Built from an apparent template. the app includes pivots throughout to the amount of over 80. 80! This isn't to mention the point that as a template there's pieces that are broken, presenting just a simple block with a paper icon indicating something I'm not quite sure of. Add to that the point that it features ads and it's just a deal breaker.

(download)

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windows-phone-think-differenttm-jsktpDbEwnczeEhrqJzF.zip (14.34 MB)

On the other end of the scale, you have a third party app like BBC News Mobile which really present's a news organization in a great way. Starting out a user in a panorama with the latest stories listed right in front, a user can also view tiles with imagery of the story, or even dive into the feeds they choose. Once you jump in, you get a long feed of stories, and diving into any one of them presents the story, as well as imagery when possible. Elegant.

Aggravating? You bet. Deal breaker. Nah, you just avoid the bad ones.

Part 2 To Come...

Is 'The Social' Dead? (Update: No, It's Not)

Update: After nearly a week of downtime, apparently somebody found the error and fixed it. Thanks guys.

For anyone who's familiar with the Zune service & devices, one part that's largely unused, but still present, is the Zune Social. Recording everything you play and part of the engine that helps you find new music, it's essential to the service.

There's one problem. It's down. 

Its been down. For five days or more.

@ZuneSupport replies with essentially non-responses.

That's great, but truthfully, I'd love to hear something out of you guys to explain this. Our servers failed and we're recovering data. The application is broken and we're working on a fix. Everything was destroyed and we're in the end times. Anything.

It's working online; I can see my profile online is having its play count updated, but no sign of it working in the application in sight.

Come on!

Windows 8, The Ribbon, and Metro

Um...we'll hear about all of this at /build/, so let's all just shut up for awhile, okay?

Windows 8: I'd Tap That.

After months of leaks, from one website to another, Windows 8 has finally been brought out into the open for it's first appearance. So, what exactly did we see?

Tile Based Start Screen

One of the first things we were introduced to in Windows 8 is a brand new start experience, focused around Live Tiles, a user experience which first appeared on the Windows Phone.

Alike to those tiles, many of these appear to present relevant information, such as a latest e-mail, or the current weather conditions. Compared to what we've seen on the phone though, the ones presented in the video do not appear to be animated, though whether this is final or just in the current build isn't apparent.

In use, this start screen has a horizontal orientation, vs. the vertical one we've seen on the Windows Phone, as well as the tiles have a horizontal placement style. At this point, we don't know whether this has a vertical orientation, but we'll likely see that in later builds.

Panoramic, "Immersive" Applications

Another part of the Windows 8 experience includes "Immersive" applications, a user experience similar to Panoramic applications on the Windows Phone.

Exampled with a weather application (above), as well as a news reader and stock checker, the experience here appears to be equal to those of the Windows Phone, presenting you a cascading amount of information across the screen, navigable by moving left to right throughout the lists provided.

On the developing end, this appears to be a bit confusing. Microsoft has said that this new experience is powered off of HTML 5 and JavaScript, and it has been said that APIs would be provided to developers to connect into "new services." Now, if Microsoft is serious about this being HTML, I can't help but imagine that not lasting ala the iPhone development system from their launch days.

Touch Focus First

From top to bottom, this UI screams touch.

On the start screen, the experience features large tiles more than capable of being touched easily on a wide arange of screen sizes, and the experience requires movement left to right, something easily possible with a finger, no so much a mouse and keyboard. While theoritical, I can't help but imagine there's a possibility that this is a prime location for a Kinect for Windows experience to exist, waving your hand about to enter experiences.

On the application level, you once again have lots of touchable elements, as well as menus which appear to be touchable in size and placement, though how this evolves toward launch will be interesting to see as well.

Small Touches

This, this is what Metro is all about. One major piece of it is 'Motion'

Life is in motion. So Are We.
Motion brings Metro to life, moving swiftly,
responding to input, tying everything together.
You know how good that feels?

This is essential, and 8 is keeping to this mantra.

Watching through the video with a keen eye, you can really notice how much more fluid of an experience this is comapred to any version of Windows prior.

How so? Fluid in that the tiles fly into the screen in a natural way. Applications also fly in in a similar form. Moving left to right, up and down, each have a smooth as silk appearance throughout the OS.

(download)

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windows-8-i-d-tap-that-GfGnEqyDuFomHBaeycFD.zip (1.21 MB)

What truly gets me as a Windows user, and I mean this like mad, is the point that the desktop resolution can change this smoothly. Once again, go to the video, but resizing the desktop, from the 95 days to even 7, has always included flickering, bumps, and bruises. This is fluid beyond belief, and I'm just amazed.

The Legacy Lives On

Now, I'm sure most would hear this and think code, but I'm talking about all the user experience elements build over years and years of experimentation.

Ultra Mobile PCs

The moment I saw the split keyboard presented in Windows 8 I couldn't help but think of the Oregami Project and the Ultra Mobile PCs.

An experiment from the early 00's, and refreshed during the Vista launch, these small devices featured a thumb keyboard of a similar, but different form.

Windows Media Center

Also, seeing the file browsing experience, which was shown while choosing an image to upload, was also a bit of a kickback to a product I know very well: Windows Media Center.

Once again, it's another piece of the legacy which has helped Microsoft get where they are with Windows 8. This isn't even making note of the hundreds of Research projects at Microsoft, plus products including the Zune desktop software, hardware, Windows Phone, Kinect, and XBOX.

What's Left?

As evident through the leaks, as well as the tiny preview we got of Windows 8, there's a lot left that we don't know about.

On the user experience end, we haven't seen an actual productivity application inside of this new experience, so how well those can be executed, and how usable they'll be, has yet to be seen on this scale. We've seen them on the Windows Phone, but not on the desktop yet.

Also, there's other parts of the experience which apepar to be in transition. If you paid close attention during the video, the Windows Explorer is being transitioned over to a Ribbon, and there's likely other changes to occur to the traditional Windows UI.

On the backend, there's plenty of questions left. What options exist for developers inside the new experience? Will there be legacy support on ARM? Will we get a new file system? That's all likely to be explained at BUILD in September.

So, What Does it Mean?

In short, and this may be from a touch of a fanboy point of view, but Microsoft is finally tying together their years of experience into something that appears to be a cohesive strategy for tablets, and likely to be a good evolution of the desktop.

While services were not mentioned, the next big thing Microsoft would have to do, to truly tie everything together, would be to show how this new OS would tie into their Windows Live services, as well as a media experience ala Zune or however that part of their company is re-shaped.

So, truth be told, Windows 8 looks exciting. It's a culmination of 10 years of experimentation, from Windows XP Tablet PC & Media Center Edition, to the Oregami Project and Zune, plus the Windows Phone & even Kinect.

Question is, will they execute it well, and will people buy it?

The 'Metro' Revolution

It's not that often we get to see a revolution, but this is one of them.

If you've been paying attention to Microsoft lately, it's been quite visible that 'Metro' has been a focal point of their branding, taking their homepage into the 10's with a fresh modern approach, along with their store.

For their services, MSN, Bing, Windows Live, Zune, and XBOX all appear to be taking the same tact, pushing much simpler, cleaner front ends with their respective content being the key.

On the product end, the transition is slowly occuring, including Security Essentials, the upcoming Windows 8, upcoming Office 15, Surface, Windows Phone, Zune, and Zune software.

It's, to be honest, interesting to see Microsoft truly take what's essentially design guidelines and spread it throughout their products and services, transforming it at each end to meet the needs of the situation.

Ultimately, it lets them do something they've never really been able to: Simplify.

As much as Microsoft may have tried in the past, there was no true design direction at the company. XP's Luna look was largely panned, the old 9x era look was good for its day but was never a stunner, and truthfully nothing has been this cohesive out of the company before.

If they can keep this up, and truthfully spread their wings into this content-driven future, I think they could stand a chance against Apple, as the slightly more open alturnative, affordable to everyone, and available on anything.

Oh @Zune, such a tease!

So, it's April 2nd, and you know what that means? New apps! Why? No clue.

*sigh* As goes with owning a Zune HD, we get these sporadic and apparently non-planned app releases, this round bringing us a decent enough e-mail client, plus a new game, BBQ Battle.

So, how do they hold up?

The e-mail client is a mixed bag, browsing and managing your e-mail accounts (Windows Live, Gmail, POP) simple enough with a Windows Phone style UI, but there's a glaring miss here: HTML support. So, instead of regular looking e-mails, some appear with odd [bracketed] elements. Nonetheless, the experience is surprisingly good once you get it down, everything readable with a basic black-and-white scheme, and Metro-style buttons to help you finish actions.

As for the game, BBQ Battle actually is enjoyable as well, defending a piece of food from an impending group of insects, and is a solid edition to what's available.

So, Zune, I'm wondering, any chance of a Spring firmware update? I'd love some improvements to the browser, if possible, plus maybe some minor bug/performance fixes.

Heil, mein Führer! Sieg Heil!

RIP Zune Hardware: 2006-2011

I'll admit it, I was late to the social, only diving onto the Zune banwagon after the HDs release, being convinced through the Pass, and iTunes frustration, and it looks like we've hit the end of the line.

Ala Bloomberg, it looks to be all but confirmed that Zune hardware is going to be phased out, Microsoft focusing in on its Windows Phone devices with Zune integration, and the platform as a whole moving forward.

As for why the devices failed, there's any number of reasons. Advertising was awkward, if non-existent. Devices were clunky early. Software was lacking by many accounts early on. Etc. Etc. Even the HD, for the advantages it had, it doesn't have apps in numbers.

So, what's next for a Zune devotee? I'll keep using my Zune HD 32, and I'm going to keep my eyes set on getting a Windows Phone, probably a Samsung Focus, if any of them.

Can't deny my disappointment. Bye Zune.

(Oh, the German solute is for Apple. Long live your ugly world of gradients, centralized power, and one man controlling the world.) 

Pipedream: Zune HD2

Why should Microsoft do this? To be honest, it would allow those who can't afford a smart phone plan to have a Windows Phone based device with thousands of applications, plus XBOX Live support, and Zune intergration. It would expand the base of users for Windows Phone, making apps that much more needed, plus have that many more eyes in front of them to be bought. Plus, as a devoted Zune owner, it would give us a route to a product truly on par with an iPod Touch.

As a device, what would it need?

• 3.5 or 4" Super AMOLED display, with a resolution of 800x480
• 16, 32, and 64 GB capacities
• Intergrated Speaker
• Rear facing camera
• HD Radio
• Windows Phone 7 OS, with access to apps, XBOX Live, and alike services.

So, it's essentially a Wndows Phone 7 spec device.

As for pricing, targets should be parity with iPod Touches, though whether that can be achieved is a whole different issue.

Maybe, just maybe, I can hope that's what this announcement coming up is, but believe me, I am in no way holding my breath.

Death to the Zune: Where's the Advertising?

With all of the talk of the looming death of the Zune brand, I have a question: Where was the advertising?

During this last holiday season, Microsoft did push out an ad for the Zune HD, "available at Best Buy" as I remember it, but prior to that, was there any real advertising? But what about the Pass, has there been any advertising for that?

Looking back, the only real ad for I remember seeing for the Zune Pass aired after each program on [adult swim] on the Cartoon Network in the US (this ad). They did push out there one with the financial analyst, but seriously, beyond the financially focused, does this really speak well for the service? Then there's this ad, longform, on the Zune YouTube page, which is heading in the right direction, but have you seen any piece of that on TV?

Microsoft can say the brand is dead, they're going to rebrand it and throw it into XBOX or Windows Live, but do they really have anyone to blame but themselves? Even with Windows Phone, their flagship portable device now, they've advertised the XBOX Live games, but not the Zune portion, unless I've missed an ad somewhere. I mean, it's a compelling service in the states, and they really should be hawking it in front of consumers in ads.

But, alas, maybe that'll come post-rebranding, whenever that's supposed to happen, if it happens.

Death to the Zune, Long live the Zune.

For those who use the service daily, and even own a Zune HD or an elder MP3 player, this is probably one of the best, but most unknown, pieces of the Microsoft puzzle. It's the dream of subscription music, working, as long as you're in the right country. Yet, here we are, with news Microsoft is going to kill it off.

Now, kill is a stretch, but it appears that a rebrand is looming, possibly under the Windows Live umbrella (Windows Live Music, Windows Live Entertainment), or more likely under the XBOX brand (XBOX Entertainment), but it's coming. The question is, will this change anything?

In A Word: No.

For the devices, it'd be a change of icons, Windows Phone and XBOX exchanging mentions of Zune for the words XBOX Entertainment, plus the addition of some new branding icon.

As for the services, this doesn't really change anything. Microsoft is still fighting in many countries to get the subscription Pass service available, let alone straight music, movie, and TV show sales. If you look on the chart linked earlier, it simply is a mess at this point, and we only get sporadic, literal sudden updates if the services are widening.

Would there be benefits though? Sure.

The largest advantage Microsoft could see from this rebranding would be simply name recognition, Zune being a brand likely unknown to most common people, or seen as a joke through the words of that one geeky friend, or family member, they know.

As well, this opens the door to something else: Portable Gaming.

Microsoft has been pushing games on the Windows Phone ala the XBOX Live umbrella, and there's little to stop them from taking the Windows Phone OS, cutting off the ability to text message, phone calls, + 3G service, and slapping it on a device to make an awesome experience for those who don't want, or need, a smart phone. (myself included in that group)

So, is Zune dead? No. It's here to stay, it's part of Microsoft's overall puzzle, the question is whether they can work fast enough to get international agreements, create a portable unit for the non-smart phone set, and if they can simply convince more people 15 bucks a month is worth it for all the music you'll ever want.

*Sidenote: Less we forget, music/movies is a joke on Android, by most accounts.