Windows Phone 8.1

Hey all,

Not sure if anyone has looked at Windows Phone lately, but I thought I would share some thoughts.

I had been a long time iPhone user for their first 4 generations. It was a good phone and I liked the ease of use and good user interface. Overall, the phones had decent features and specs. However, with my current employer, I had to switch to an Android so I could demo wireless display (we make receivers). The transition to Android from iPhone was a bit frustrating as they are completely different in how they do things and how you manage your device. However, Android offered some really good stuff that Apple did not. So it was really much more customizable. I have been on Android for the past 1.5 years. Not bad but I've been looking for something that provides the best of both worlds...good user interface that is easy to use but more robust and customizable to my needs.

Well, let me say that WinPhone 8.1 has really caught my attention. My wife switched over from iPhone last month and all I can say is wow...this thing is truly impressive. She loves it way more than her iPhone. I think Msft has finally put out a viable phone OS that is either on par with both iOS and Android and leaps ahead in several other areas. Msft is doing things that the other platforms have yet to think of or add. Here are some of the very cool features.

Cortana: Digital Asst. like Siri/Google Now but better.
Cortana takes the whole digital assistant to a new level. Siri is really good at natural language recognition. She can set reminders and do basic searches. Google Now is really good at context aware, so it understands what you are asking and the context in which you are asking. Cortana combines both those features and takes it further. Cortana creates a "notebook" about your preferences, locations, contacts, etc. so that it knows when you speak to her about something, it not only knows what you are asking, the context in which it applies and takes action accordingly. Take reminders for example, you can set a reminder in cortana about a contact...next time you speak, text or email that contact, Cortana will pop up a reminder for you about that contact. i.e. "next time I talk to my sister, remind me to tell her about the camping trip". If you call your sister or she texts you, cortana pops up the reminder. Cortana also understand locations, etc. so "remind me when I get to the store to pick up milk" will pop up a reminder when you get to the store because it knows where you are...you can sort of do this with siri but you have to do it through contacts.

Flight tracking:
My wife uses this one a lot because I travel for work quite a bit. When I email her my flight info, Cortana recognizes that this is flight stuff and will automatically track it for her. It will let her know when to leave to the airport to pick me up, if my flights are running late, etc. all automatically.

WiFi Sense:
I love this one...so many places offer free wifi on primises (like starbucks, etc.) however, they require you to log in with credentials, email address, etc. With WinPhone, you can set it up with false credentials and as soon as it sees a wifi network, it can automatically log you in without having to give a bunch of info. You can set parameters on when it should or should not log you in, etc.

Data Sense:
Another cool feature if you are on a metered data plan. you can set alerts and actions based upon how much data you have used in your billing cycle. This helps you from going over your data allowance.

Quick Action Buttons
Along with a new notication center, Msft has added quick action buttons that are easily assigned to your choice of tasks/actions. You can set it to turn on/off airplane mode easily, turn on/off bluetooth, etc.

Anyway, I was pretty excited about all the features and how easy it is to use. I plan on upgrading as soon as ATT gets some higher end phones in stock that are not giant phablets like the 1520 (which my wife uses and loves).

No, I don't work for Msft or Nokia or any phone carrier. Just a tech junkie and engineer that was very impressed with this new phone OS. By the way, prior to WinPhone 8.1, I would not touch a Msft based phone as they did not have anything compelling to look at...now they do.

By the way, if you are on Verizon, they have 2 very cool phones, Nokia Icon and HTC One for Windows (the M8 running Windows instead of Android). Both are really nice phones that are fully featured. I wish ATT would get them in as I am stuck with them...frustrating for sure.

If you are on ATT like me, the 1520 is their high end phone but it is giant. The Nokia 1020 is OK, great if you take a lot of pictures with your phone. Has the best phone camera on the market but a long shot.

 

I am an analog man in a digital world. Just now getting the hang of my iphone!

 

Learning your way around your first smartphone can be daunting.

 

In order for Cortana to do all that stuff, it needs to know an awful lot of details about your life. And whatever Cortana knows, Microsoft knows. I would rather Microsoft or Apple or Google didn't know that much about me.

 

I understand your concerns, but don't you think they already have a wealth of info at their fingertips?

We all have a massive digital footprint just by being online. Your spending habits are tracked by banks, your web surfing habits are already tracked. Your property tax records are public. Your previous addresses, phone numbers, etc are all already out there..

Privacy is a sham these days...frankly speaking, I would trust Msft with this info more than I would the govt...at least with Msft, there is no hidden agenda, they are going to try to sell me stuff...who knows what the govt will try to do with the data...but you can bet it will not be in our best interest.

With Cortana, you can control what info you provide and what services she will be able to do.

Only way to minimize data collection is to use only cash, don't go online and pay bills in person. Even then there are still a ton of public records available to anyone that really wants it.

 

Hmm... Interesting about the Win 8...

Just just converted from land line phones relatively recently, a year ago, don't use Phones per se, Android, Galaxy III w/Verizon mostly for pics & apps. Finally got off the phone part an now just the 5gig/$50 data plan but I own my Glxy III now for just that using Verizon.

I'm glad to see Win8 getting good reviews, I guess time will tell.

Switching from for lack of a better word, Analog to Digital, is quite an experience and have yet to learn how to Text... can't get past the keyboard.. out in the field. I'll play with the Google's "Voice to Text?" thing, but haven't really used it. hehehe...
so Mike, I feel your pain and Jack, your review was insightful thanks... It's an ongoing thing to be sure...

I do use the Airline app, forget the name for international trips and it's pretty kewl as you forward the email to the app and it automatically pops up on the phone. Once it has the info, it will track, receive any updates accordingly..
Kinda kewl...

I'm finding there' pretty much an App for most things, but they still need adjusting for your use...

A fun/frustrating world it's becoming. heheheh..
Being dragged into Tech world, kick'n & scream'n the whole way...

funny..

 

One cool thing for me about it is the ubiquitous experience across my laptop and phone. WinPhone comes with One Drive/Sky Drive and Office Hub. Since I do a lot of presentations and the phone supports our wireless display technology, I can create a powerpoint file on my laptop and store in OneDrive, then open that same presentation on the phone from wherever I am at and present wirelessly on a TV/Projector at the customer location

With the office 365 hub on the phone, all my recent docs, files, presentations are all available to me on the phone.

While I don't have the phone yet, I did test all this using my wife's phone. It was freaking awesome.

Having all your contacts, files, data synced between laptop and phone is a very powerful experience.