Windows 8 Phone - Early Observations

As I finish up my first full week of using a Windows 8 Phone I wanted to note some early observations here. Once I got past the limitations of the app store and music player I started to get comfortable with the phone otherwise. The integration of Microsoft Office, SkyDrive, Lync and Sharepoint are truly the strengths of the Windows phone. Accessing, reviewing and even editing documents on the phone are easier and faster than any other smartphone I have ever used.

The interface of the Windows Phone does takes a little time to get used to but after a day or 2 I quickly mastered its use and customization. I will give Microsoft this. Apple and Android phones use icons to display applications and multiple screens to organize the program flow. Microsoft actually innovated with their Windows 8 operating system. The “metro style” tiles only flow vertically. The tiles can be sized from small to medium and large. Many of the tiles are live which means that “live” information is displayed as opposed to the same old “icon”.

Technical Information – Nokia 8202Windows 8 Phone

Here are some technical specifications, which are all very acceptable. The Windows Phone I am using is the Lumia 820. The phone has a 4.3 inch screen.  The phone is 10mm thick and comes in at 160g, which is a little heaver then the Iphone5.  It has a dual core 1.5Ghz processor with 1GB of ram and a 8mp camera on the back. There is 16gb of internal storage and an expandable micro-SD slot. 

From it's easier to get at buttons; its wireless charging shells, expandable memory, to its exclusive apps the Lumia 822 is a fine smartphone. 

Final Thoughts After Week 1

In many ways, the Windows 8 smartphone operating system is superior to both Android and the iPhone, notably for the way it delivers information to you without you having to go out and grab it. Windows Phone 8 deserves the chance it appears to be finally getting.  I look forward to the continued evaluation of this phone.

Windows 8 Phone - That was Easy!

OK I am starting to settle in with my new Windows 8 phone. Once I got over (and accepted) the limited apps [in the store] and weak music player I really started to enjoy the smartphone for what is strived to be. A strong option for anyone who simply desires a great work device. First, if you are a Microsoft enterprise user, either on premises or in the cloud or hybrid the setup for these devices are exceptionally easy. Once the phone is activated all I had to do was log into my Microsoft account after which my email and SkyDrive accounts were setup and synced. Out of the box, Microsoft Office is ready to go. Open Microsoft Office and all of your files (through SkyDrive or SharePoint) are ready for you.

I set the phone up in under 5 minutes!   

I will talk more about the actual use of the phone soon but wanted to report on how easy these phones are to setup and use, especially if you are a Microsoft Office user.

I will touch on the current state of the Microsoft Store in a later article as well.

Secure Your Social Networks

If you keep one New Year’s resolution how about this one? Take social networks seriously. If you do not it's only a matter of time before you will get taken by malicious links and social apps that try to steal your personal information, financial information or spread spam (in your name).

And that doesn't even include dozens of other privacy issues. Do you really want your employer to see all your personal life details? So consider securing your social network security and privacy settings. Take a close look at the security and privacy settings for the social networks you use. Learn what each of the settings mean, and adjust them as you see fit.

Use PIN Protection On Your Mobile Devices

Protect Your Personal Data on Your Mobile Devices

Smartphones and tablets are mini computers, and if they get lost or stolen, others may be able to access your email and social networks, browse through your photos, files, and text messages, and access other accounts that you’ve downloaded apps for.

You can protect yourself by enabling the lock screen with a PIN number requiring a PIN or password before accessing your device in permitted.

Turning on PIN protection varies between devices, but you should be able to find it in your phone or tablet's settings app. A password or PIN isn't perfect, but it's a good first line of defense if your phone is lost, misplaced or ends up in the hands of a would be data thief. 

Windows 8 Phone - Music Player

I really do like much of what I see with my new Windows 8 phone. I really do. However here is a second article in a row with a negative tilt. You see I love my music. So much so that even in this cloud based world I need to have my music with me, on my devices wherever I go. One of the best things about the IPhone is its excellent music/iTunes interface. Syncing and organizing music on Apple devices is insanely easy. With Microsoft…. not so much.
  
The Windows 8 music player (pictured left) is weak, overly complicated and simply does not work very well. First you have the problem of getting your music to the phone. There are basically 2 choices for doing this. One is using the Windows Phone App which you can install on you PC. Once installed you can sync directly from your iTunes library or by browsing your PC for the music you want.

The Windows 8 Phone - PC App

The second choice is by dragging and dropping your music files to the Windows 8 Phone drive. Neither of these solutions are anywhere near the ease of use IPhones enjoy. My other problem with the Windows 8 phone music player is it seems to have a trouble displaying some of the cover art.

The sound quality on my Lumia 822 is fine and I could not hear any distinguishable difference from my IPhone.  

I will be patient here because the Windows 8 Phones are so new and there is sure to be improvement with the music player functions. There are strong rumors that music player abilities will be integrated into SkyDrive. This is exciting and could go a long way towards Microsoft finally challenging Apple with music integration.

Windows 8 Phone – Living Without Apps

The first thing I found myself doing with my new Windows 8 phone was looking for the same apps that I had become accustomed to with my IPhone. I was not surprised to find that many apps were not available. It is important to remember that Windows 8 (phone) is young and although the app store inventory is growing it currently is simply missing many of the apps I have enjoyed in the past. Several of the basic apps are there, like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, NFL Mobile, ESPN, CNN and Zite. While others like Instagram, Pandora, and LogMeIn are not available at this time.

While I believe Microsoft will eventually make most of the popular apps available in the months to come there is a workaround. This is because Windows 8 (phone) comes with a fully functional version of Internet Explorer. Therefore you can simply go to the webpage and “pin it” to your desktop. In fact in many cases the native website is actually superior to the app.

Living without some of my favorite apps is definitely one of the biggest challenges I am struggling with so far.

Coming up next  is my review of the music player.

Windows 8 - iMessage You Haunt me

Why Switch to Windows 8 Smartphones?
OK so as I reported in yesterday's article I decided to switch to a Windows 8 phone in order to evaluate it's potentional as a professional smartphone. Right now our users have a mixture of Android and Iphone devices. Both of these operating systems bring some good things to the table while each are also weak in other areas. As a management concern having mulptiple devices issued can complicate tech support. If, and this is currently a BIG if, Microsoft can bring a strong smartphone solution to the market I believe information technology departments will move towards Microsoft over the next several years. However these Windows 8 phones are just becoming available so the end result will not be known for at least a year. It is a result of all of this that found me switching from my iphone to a Windows 8 phone.

The Switch
OK so here we go. Yesterday my new Nokia 822 Windows 8 phone arrived. I shut off my iphone and called Verizon Wireless to switch the phone. After the switch everything was working fine. Indeed setting up our Microsoft 365 email account, SkyDrive, Lync and Sharepoint could not have been any easier. In less then 5 minutes all of my Microsoft accounts and files were working great on my new phone. However after about 30 minutes I realized that text messages were not making it to my phone. I could send messages and they arrived at their destination without a problem. The problem was that the responses were not making it to my phone. I quickly discovered that the problem was only happening with iphones. I called Verizon Wireless who had me "wipe" my old iphone but the problem continued. I was then transferred to Nokia support who reported it was not their problem and I was sent back to Verizon Wireless. Within minutes I was on a conference call with Apple Support.

Beware iMessage
Now if you have a iphone and you are considering switching to an Android or Windows phone pay attention friends. The Apple Support representative asked if I had other "Apple" devices. I said that I had an IPAD. I was directed to turn off the "imessage" service or at least remove the "phone number" from the "imessage" setup. Once I did this text message starting arriving to my Windows 8 phone! I was so happy.

If you have an iphone and use the text messaging service you probably noticed that the color of the text bubbles change based on if you are communicating with another iphone or another type of smartphone. It is this "imessage" service that makes this happen. Because the "imessage" service was running on my IPAD the text mesages were going to my IPAD and not making it to my new Windows 8 phone. Once "imessage" was turned off on the IPAD the messages were not going there and the messages were allowed to continue on all the way to my new phone.

You have 2 choices if you switch from an iphone to another device type. This is only a concern IF you have other Apple products with "imessage".

1. Simply turn the "imessage" service off.
2. You can leave the "imessage" service on, however you will need to uncheck your mobile phone number from it.

Moving On
OK now that all this is behind me I can actually start using my new Windows 8 Phone. I will post more articles as my experience continues. Wish me luck and stay tuned.

Windows 8 Phone - Day 1

First let me apologize about my abscence from the "West Chester Tech Blog" for the past couple of weeks. The end of the year was very busy in my office and then of course the holidays were upon us and much of my time was consumed by Christmas & New Years. Anyway with all of that in the past and 2013finally here this fine blog is active again.

Thanks for sticking with me.

First on my agenda was switching from my iphone to a Windows 8 phone this week. I had read and continue to read many good reviews of Microsoft's new mobile OS. Therefore as 2012 was closing I knew that a month long demo was called for in early 2013.

I will say that I have high hopes for Microsoft's new mobile OS. With the integration of Microsoft Office, Sharepoint and SkyDrive there is a real possibility that the void left by RIM can finally be filled for those of us looking for an excellent mobile platform to fullfill our mobile needs both at work and play.

Today I switched to the Nokia Lumia 822 running Windows 8. I am going to end today's post there but do not fear because I will continue the adventure of switching from Apple's to Microsoft's OS tomorrow. As with most things in life it was not as easy to switch as it should have been. Today I was lucky enough to speak with tech support at Verizon Wireless, Nokia and even Apple.

Tomorrow I will report on the experience I had today when switching from the iphone to the Windows phone. During upcoming articles you will be able to follow me as I continue to make the transition from the very hip iphone to Windows 8.

Surfacing & Best Buy?

Good news here. I have just received information that the "Microsoft Surface" which is basically only available at Microsoft's website will be available through third party retail outlets, including Best Buy starting in January. In addition to the easier availability the newer model of the "Surface" will come with Windows 8 Pro or to Windows 8 RT. I of course recommend the Pro vs. the RT.

It's important to remember that the "Surface" is the first piece of computer hardware made by Microsoft itself. This in itself is exciting. Once you have Windows 8 Pro operating on a Microsoft Surface I believe that this tablet will truly be a wonder.

Stay tuned for more dedicated readers.....

Don't Be Fooled This Holiday Season

The holiday season brings unsolicited email messages pretending to be from delivery services such as FedEx and UPS.

Ignore these! Do Not Click on any links in these email message.

If you do you will probably be sent to a malicious website.

Tip! If you do receive a message from FedEx or UPS and you are worried about a delivery contact the delivery provider directly. Do not respond through the email message.

This is a sample malicious message from FedEx.

Training Session 7

Thank You to everyone who attended today's technology training. For those of you who could not attend here is the slideshow we used.

You can make the slideshow full screen by selecting the outward arrow box on the far right of the bottom toolbar.

 

Time is Running Out for Windows XP

The Time To Upgrade is Now

Did you know that Windows XP has fewer than 500 days left to live?

The 11-year-old operating system will exit support April 8, 2014. What this means is that if you are still using Windows XP after April 8, 2014 Microsoft will no longer support the operating system which includes no more security patches.

Why are so many people continuing to use Windows XP anyway? Well I believe there are a couple of reasons.



1. Windows XP which was released in 2001 was a really good, crisp and easy to use operating system. It worked mostly the same for both consumers (at home) and corporate (at work).

2. Microsoft's follow-up, "Vista" (2006) was clunky, buggy and therefore never enjoyed wide acceptance in the marketplace. In addition the corporate world never adopted Vista which left out a huge customer base.

3. By the time Windows 8 arrived in 2009 many consumers had lost confidence in Microsoft due in large part to "Vista" and many simply delayed or refused to upgrade to Windows 7. This is unfortunate because Windows 7 was an excellent improved over XP and obviously Vista.

4. Windows 8 is only now premiering and it brings major changes to the Windows interface.

As a result of all of this Microsoft is ending support for XP and the pricing for Windows 8 upgrades have been set very low (about $40.00) in order to entice as many users as possible to finally move off of XP.

Happy Birthday Text Messaging

Happy Birthday text messaging! Although text messaging could be traced all the way back to 1920 when RCA introduced the first "telex" service the text messaging we have all relied on for years was born on December 3, 1992. It was on this day that Neil Papworth used a personal computer to send the text message "Merry Christmas" via a Vodaphone network to a cellular phone.

Fast forward to 1995 when paging services starting appearing everywhere. It was during the mid and late 1990's that text messaging really exploded. Just watch a movie or TV shows from this time period and you will often see the characters with pagers on their hip. These text messages were usually limited to 160 characters. Often after reading the text message the recipient had to then go find a phone. Just think about that!

As cellular phones became available and affordable in the late 1990's "pagers" started disappearing as text messaging become a service of the cellular phone itself. The popularity of smartphones in the mid 2000's ended the reign of pagers altogether.

Even with all the technical changes and enhancements since 1992 "text messaging" itself has continued to grow in it's use and with many of us is actually used more then actually using mobile phones for their primary purpose, "talking".

Services such as "Twitter" are an out growth of that very first text message way back on December 3, 1992.

Think Before You Click

Did you know that many programs--especially those that are free install additional software on your computer? First it is important to know why they do this. They do this as a form of advertising, and they may make some money off of it.

This situation gives you an additional responsibility, especially if you care enough to keep your computer running efficiently. If you're not careful about how you install software, you can end up with a lot of unwanted programs. In addition to causing your computer to slow down these programs leave messes all over your PC.

Here is one of the biggest questions I get. “Bill, why don't antivirus programs block these programs from installing unwanted software?” Well it is because these programs are legal, and because, annoying as they are, they're not anywhere near as bad as real malware or out and out viruses. In addition these unwanted programs don't hide their existence.

What's very important to know is that, in almost every case, you can install the program you want and bypass the unwanted add-on programs. You just have to pay attention while installing and stop clicking before you think.

A good practice when installing programs, especially free ones is that you should never select the "Typical" or "Automated" installation--which will almost certainly be the default. Select the Custom installation or a similar option. Then read each option through the install process and unselect any unwanted programs or add-ons from the install. Not only will you find you can unselect unwanted applications but this is where you can stop the madness of having multiple internet explorer toolbars and search windows. These also will slow down your internet browser.

In the end, the only way to protect yourself from installing unwanted programs and internet browser add-ons is by first, selecting the “advanced” install and unchecking any unwanted options. Think Before You Click!