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Category Archives: Windows Phone

Flickr, PhotoBucket & SmugMug for Windows Phone

Windows Phone’s market share is growing, no doubt about it, and it might be growing faster than you think despite what those pessimistic analysts may have told you. One of the clues that proves this is the fast pace of the platform’s adoption from major companies including those in the image hosting sector.

As of today, users can find Flickr, PhotoBucket and SmugMug apps in the Windows Phone Marketplace. So if you are a user of one of those services and own a Windows Phone, you’ll be glad to know that you are now covered and can start uploading those priceless Kodak moments of your cat.

One of the unique things about Windows Phone is its metro interface that got positive feedback all over the world. That same metro interface experience is used in most of the apps in the Marketplace including the three mentioned in this post. The experience is so delightful and fluid that it almost makes you feel guilty for not uploading photos.

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Posted by Ahmed Eltawil on May 19, 2012 in Microsoft, Smartphones, Windows Phone

Windows Phone Feature Suggestion

12 May

It’s great that Microsoft gave their customers the ability to share their ideas through UserVoice to help improve Windows Phone. But is that enough? Absolutely not.

Microsoft allowed Windows Phone owners to add feature suggestions on the website since the product launched (or maybe a few weeks after) but never really showed us how those features are ever taken into consideration or even being talked about among the Windows Phone development team.

There are feature suggestions on the website that have been at the top of the list for over a year without any indication that they will be added in a future release or that they’re being discussed yet Windows Phone received several updates since it launched without including those items. There is a clear missing link between those feature suggestions and the development team.

Just like Windows 8, the team shows the world how they’re taking customer feedback into their next major release through Twitter, YouTube and even adding many detailed blog posts. Why isn’t Windows Phone following the same approach? In the end, Windows Phone is an operating system that is currently powering more than a million of smartphones today.

All I am saying is that Microsoft can’t just tell people to go and add their ideas on another website and then be completely silent about it. They need to engage and converse closely with their Windows Phone customers just like the Windows team are doing with Windows 8.

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Posted by Ahmed Eltawil on May 12, 2012 in Microsoft, Smartphones, Windows, Windows Phone

Should the mobile industry look for a new USB standard?

17 Mar

I remember when the world turned to micro USB ports as a new standard for cell phones and everyone, including myself, was glad to finally use a standard port. The conversion was quick specially with the cellphone manufacturers and consumers started using a single charger and the world seemed to be a better place.

But now, cellphones aren’t like before. They aren’t dumb phones with small screens that require little power. They are smartphones with larger than 3.7″ screens (now up to 5″ for smartphones and up to 10″ for tablets) and they get charged mostly everyday. Once you start holding your new smartphone to plug it in, you might start seeing a problem.

The micro USB port on your mobile device, whether it’s a smartphone or a tablet, is tiny. Once you’ve connected the cable it might feel loose and most of the times you could hold the micro USB connection while it’s connected to your mobile device and wiggle it from side to side. It’s not a solid snappy connection anymore.

To make my point even clearer, compare the thin micro USB connection with the iPhone’s 30 pin connection. Which one would you think has a better, solid and firm hold to the mobile device? Without any doubt, Apple’s proprietary connection wins this argument.

The problem is that our smartphones and tablets are large these days that they cannot continue using these tiny and flimsy micro USB connections. The industry might have to look for a new USB standard.

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Posted by Ahmed Eltawil on March 17, 2012 in Android, Apple, BlackBerry, Smartphones, Windows Phone

Tuesday, August 9 2011

09 Aug

As mush as I love the original concept behind Windows Phone’s start screen, I still have a few things to complain about.

There just seems to be a lot of wasted space on the start screen. You will notice there is a quite spacious black empty space at the top and at the right of the tiles. I understand why the top was left blank (for toast notifications) but it just doesn’t look right with all that space left blank.

The same thing applies to the empty space to the tight of the tiles. It just doesn’t make sense to me to see all that wasted space for displaying an arrow.

I don’t know if you also noticed, but the length of the home screen doesn’t fit the amount of tiles it can display. When you first see the start screen in its default position (scrolled all the way to the top) you will notice that your screen will only show the complete length of 3 tiles with part of the 4th tile covered where you have to scroll to see the rest of it. Even though it’s only a tiny part of it that is covered, that still feels like a flaw in the UI design.

Apart from those three design flaws (in my opinion at least) Windows Phone has proved itself to be the most enjoyable experience you can get on a mobile operating system.

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Posted by Ahmed Eltawil on August 9, 2011 in Microsoft, Rants, Windows Phone

Sunday, June 26th 2011

27 Jun

Windows Phones are great devices and they run on a wonderfully unique platform that seems to simply make sense right out of the box. But of course nothing is perfect and no matter how great the operating system is it also comes with its own quirks.

Hardware wise, since I am using a Samsung Focus, my main disappointment is the touch buttons that I keep mistakenly hit whenever I try to rotate the device to landscape mode to view a video for instance or whenever I try to take a picture.

The other hardware issue I am facing is due to the locations of both the power button and the volume control buttons on either side of the device. They are located exactly opposite to one another which causes me to hit them both accidentally when I try to hit the power button to wake up the device. That usually confuses the device or me personally.

On the software side, I can’t complain much since it’s in its first stages of maturity, so there is still a long road ahead before I could state my criticism. Maybe I could start complaining after Mango is released, if there is anything to complain about.

In general, I do like (maybe even love) the user experience and the concept behind combining similar activities in hubs, it just makes sense instead of jumping from one app to another.

I am certain that Mango is gonna make things even better for Windows Phones, not to mention Nokia’s adoption for the platform over MeeGo.

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Posted by Ahmed Eltawil on June 27, 2011 in Microsoft, Windows Phone

What’s New With Microsoft Zune?

13 Mar

Ever since Microsoft shifted focus to Windows Phone 7 there has been nothing new in the Zune department. It’s like Microsoft completely switched all its resources and dedication to marketing and pushing the Windows Phone 7 platform, and I don’t blame them. Windows Phone 7 is the new kid in town when it comes to mobile operating systems and Microsoft needs to prove themselves to phone manufacturers and wireless carriers. But that doesn’t mean they should forget about Zune players completely.

There are still thousands (if not millions) of owners of the original Zune and Zune HD and I believe they would like to know “what’s next” when it comes to Zune. Microsoft seems to release an app in the Zune Marketplace not very often and it has to come from them and not from any third party developer which raises concerns on how will it continue to evolve and gain market share like that.

I believe Microsoft is trying to (and will) build an ecosystem that encompasses Zune players, Windows Phones and Windows 7. Doing so might take time and money to get there. All I am saying is that recently it feels like there is no one working in the Zune department and I am sure lots of people are interested in knowing where Zune sits in Microsoft’s roadmap.

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Posted by Ahmed Eltawil on March 13, 2011 in Microsoft, Windows Phone

Samsung Focus is Coming to Rogers

28 Oct

The first Windows Phone 7 is coming to Rogers in the form of a Samsung Focus smartphone. Think of it as the Samsung Galaxy S Android smartphone but infused with Windows Phone 7′s goodness along with some minor hardware changes.

I like the fact that it has a 4″ touchscreen and 512MB of RAM with Samsung’s 1GHz processor. That’s a lot to drool for and hours spent day dreaming about.

That being said, I am up for a device upgrade on Rogers and the arrival of the Samsung Focus on Rogers is imminent. Should I upgrade to the first Windows Phone 7 to land in Canada or pick another Android smartphone? Of course both platforms have their pros and cons and I can’t hide the fact that Windows Phone 7 has more cons than pros compared to Android. But still, there is something attractive about Windows Phone 7 that acts as a serious gravitational pull towards it.

It’s going to be a hard decision.

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Posted by Ahmed Eltawil on October 28, 2010 in Microsoft, Smartphones, Windows Phone

Windows Phone 7 Push Notification

16 Oct

Has anyone heard Steve Ballmer talk about push notification for Windows Phone 7? We know it has a robust unobtrusive notification system but no one mentioned if it supports push notification like on the BlackBerry and Android. To me, that’s a definite deal breaker. I mean, Windows Phone 7 has all the bells and whistles you could think of (not including copy/paste and 3rd party multitasking) but all that wouldn’t matter if I have to setup my Windows Phone to check my email every 10 minutes. It’s almost 2011, get with the program Microsoft…or correct me if I am wrong.

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Posted by Ahmed Eltawil on October 16, 2010 in Windows Phone

Samsung i900 is Officially Announced

09 Jun

A few moments ago I decided to check out GSMArena.com and I noticed they posted official news and pictures of the much anticipated Samsung i900 “Omnia”.

Apparently, the screen size isn’t 3.5″ as all previous posts have mentioned. Instead, the screen size actually is 3.2″. And that black square-shapped flat surface located at the bottom of the device is actually the previously seen optical mouse which seemed to dissappoint most people.

Another interesting piece of information that I didn’t know about is the device’s built in accelerometer. Which means the screen will automatically rotate if flipped to its side.

It also sounds like there will be two versions of this phone. One with 8 Gb of storage and another with 16 Gb. And it also supports miniSD cards which allows for further more storage if needed.

It would be great if a third version of this wonderful phone existed with a built in slide-out QWERTY keyboard to attract more business users and people who can’t live without a physical keyboard such as myself.

Nevertheless, I can’t wait to watch a video review of the phone sometime soon.

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Posted by Ahmed Eltawil on June 9, 2008 in Smartphones, Windows Phone

Samsung i900 – New Images

28 May

New images for the Samsung i900 emerged on IntoMobile.com today morning. I have yet to see a more slick and stylish Windows Mobile device than the i900. Still no word on any release date but more than likely this beauty will be in stores by the end of June.