Windows Phone: Think Different™
In truth, Think Different summarizes Windows Phone in a nutshell.
Ubiquitous Social
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
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
A point of pain, as well as love.
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.
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.
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...
