Slashdot Mirror
First Impressions of Windows 8 Powered Nokia Lumia 920 and 820
Nerval's Lobster writes "Nokia CEO Stephen Elop first took to the stage at Center548 on New York City's West Side, where Microsoft had first unveiled Windows Phone 7 in late 2010, to claim that Nokia was becoming a 'more nimble competitor' thanks to several strategic decisions under his tenure, including the choice of Windows Phone as the company's primary smartphone platform. ... In terms of [the 920's hardware]: the battery is 2000 mAh; the processor is a dual-core Snapdragon S4, which was apparently selected for its energy efficiency; and the aforementioned wireless charging, based on the 'Qi' wireless charging standard. ... Despite the enthusiasm displayed onstage for Windows Phone 8, the new smartphone platform poses something of a conundrum for Nokia. The company invested heavily in Windows Phone 7, all but abandoning its homegrown operating systems — including Symbian, once a dominant player in the mobile arena — in favor of Microsoft’s platform. But those Windows Phone 7 smartphones won't upgrade to Windows Phone 8 software, and nor will they run Windows Phone 8 apps."
"...here's your complimentary knife in the back."
After the announcement, Nokia stock price has gone down 15 % from yesterday's closing value at OMX Helsinki. So, not the kind of announcement the market was expecting, it seems.
U+F8FF
And I thought you'd be getting a free one, what with working for Nokia ; ).
"Kill 'em all and let Root sort 'em out"
There doesn't need to be when it will run all apps from WP7.
Fact is, developing for Windows 8 is also developing for (for the most part) Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8 RT, and probably in the future Xbox 720 (or whatever they call it). Whether you like Metro or not, Windows 8 will be shipping on all Desktops and Laptops in the Fall, and will be a viable platform with an immediate install base. As bad as Vista was, it still managed to find its way on more computers than Mac OSX. Developers *will* code for Windows 8, they *will* code for Windows RT, and if the marginal benefit is in their favor they *will* code for Windows Phone 8. Maybe that marginal benefit will not be there at first, but the scales will tip.
You have to have a Windows machine.
Listen, I like the Nokia phones, and that's what I was going to buy. I brought my Ubuntu laptop into the store to check it out, see if it was compatible, but it isn't. You absolutely must have a Windows install, and a virtual machine won't cut it. (This was the quite-new 610, but looking around online shows that the 700 and 900 have the same issue.)
It uses the Zune file system, and nobody but MS has been able to figure out how to mount it. You can't transfer files with Bluetooth. You can't put music on it. You can't sync to anything. It's a completely stand-alone device unless you're running Windows.
---
ECHELON is a government program to find words like bomb, jihad, plutonium, assassinate, and anarchy.
To think that Nokia's own Symbian had more than 50% smartphone market share only three years ago and big plans for their Linux based highend OS, which was universally praised, and instead now going for an OS that not only locks the user down, but locks themselves in a position where they give away control of OS development, outsource all manufacturing (after shutting down most locations in Europe and firing loyal employees by the boatload) and need to contend with the likes of Samsung who do their own CPU, RAM, display etc. fabrication is just unfortunate. It's hard to not be cynical about this.
Microsoft obviously is pushing for positive publicity offering free samples to bloggers etc. but all the money in the world won't make the OS more attractive to the end-user, even with their new funky looking N9-like design. Functionality wise the it's lacking compared to Android and the restrictive Metro UI whether on your computer or on your phone is butt-ugly at worst and uninspiring at best.
On the other hand this might actually what MS alternatives have needed to become worth considering by more end users.
Unfortunately, this is simply false. There is a Windows Phone Mac Connector program that allows syncing to the Mac. As a Mac user, I can attest it works great. This of course leaves Linux users in the cold, but it is not a Windows-only solution.
More to the point, there is less and less requirement to sync to a PC at all. Photos auto-sync via Skydrive. Email is all cloud-based. Podcasts are directly synched without requiring a PC to download them. Music comes directly from your Xbox Music Pass. Apps are directly downloaded. Files can be shared via dropbox or Skydrive.
There are obviously still cases where you would like to sync directly with a computer, but they are becoming really infrequent.
If you're an Android power user, and you want to see reasonable OS updates, then you know to buy a Nexus device, that's the point of them. Google can't force the various carriers and handset makers push out updates, and it's not in their interests to do so since they want you to buy a new handset every year, so you should understand what's going to happen there. OTOH my Nexus S had ICS and Jelly Bean almost from day one, no hacks, and running perfectly, and that's a pretty old phone now.
Oh no... it's the future.
Fact is, developing for a smart phone is a completely different thing from developing for a desktop or game console; the difference in screen size, input methods, memory size, processing power and battery restrictions make them utterly different. Windows 8 apps may be theoretically runnable on Windows Phone 8 (And I'm not convinced people will be writing them anyways--as has been pointed out elsewhere, people will be writing Windows XP apps for a while yet for maximum audience), but they won't be *usable* on Windows Phone 8. I'm not surprised that Microsoft doesn't understand this; the entire attempt to shoehorn Metro into Windows 8 shows that they don't understand that you can't run a cellphone interface on a desktop, and vice-versa.
Yes, it will. You misread the summary. WP7 will not run WP8 apps. The other way around will work as Microsoft has repeatedly stated.
I was hoping see some decent competition from MSFT to keep Apple on its toes but that is so weak. Why do they insist on that stupid flipping titles? People that I care about? If I want to see what "people that I care about" are doing, I can see notifications in the notifications bar pop up on my iPhone 4S or I can *gasp*, go into my facebook or twitter app instead of cluttering up my homescreen with their faces. Alternatively, I can alway "call" them. I hate the hub concept still and the flipping tiles are likely to give someone an epileptic seizure. It reminds me of some really badly designed website from the late 90's or early 00's.
Get it through your thick skulls MSFT, people like apps and they don't like distractions with flip-flopping tiles on the homescreen. I have to give you credit for trying to be original but give it a rest already. Also, nobody except fanboys like the "hub" concept. Stop trying to oversell your Xbox live and other services on the mobile platform.
BTW. Nice touch on slavishly copying Apple on the screenshot with the power and home button combo.
Jesus was a compassionate social conservative who called individuals to sin no more.
I know that I swim against the /. current here when it comes to Window Phone. I haven't drank of the MS or Apple or Linux koolaid. I use all three desktop OS flavors at work every week and they all have strengths and weaknesses. I never bought the first iPhone because of the soldered in battery. At the time I was using 2 batteries a day in the field. (not to mention the privacy concerns of not being able to REALLY turn off my phone). I had a miserable experience with the first Droid (randomly calling and texting). I went Blackberry for a while. Revisited iPhone, but the screen typing was horrid (large fingers). When it was time to upgrade in 2010 I went with the Samsung Focus and it just worked for me. I do like the Metro interface on the touchscreen, but always by-pass it when using Win8 on the desktop. Seems pretty useless on the desktop, but it would surely be useful on a tablet and possible a laptop with touchscreen.
The Nokia 900 WP7, had some advantages over the Samsung Focus S on the spec sheet. Bigger screen, bigger body (again... large hands), and the camera cmos appeared faster to me in the store. The other advantage is the Xbox Live connection. Love it! Games developed my interest in computers and I am a gamer at heart. My only complaint is that with the Case-Mate case I confuse the phone with my wallet when it's in my pocket sometimes, but I am working on the brain power required to recognize the difference.
I am only mildly concerned about not being able to upgrade to Windows Phone 8 with my Nokia 900. If I feel like I'm missing out on some must-have super app before my 2-year upgrade comes around, I will bite the bullet and pay the phone price.
For every benefit you receive a tax is levied. - Ralph Waldo Emerson
I'm sorry, I only have my own experience to draw from, from real life. I really wanted to get the Lumia, but I had had enough of missing features with my Walkman, and I didn't want to play that game again.
If I was hallucinating at the time, I apologize. My dream-state, which looked surprisingly like a Best Buy, was unable to mount a Nokia Lumia 610 Windows 7.5 phone to an Ubuntu installation. Now, I was only there for about an hour, dreaming, but the phone and my computer together made it impossible to mount.
Perhaps there are instructions for how to do that. If there are, they aren't online anywhere.
---
ECHELON is a government program to find words like bomb, jihad, plutonium, assassinate, and anarchy.
This phone has no SD card slot.
So as long as just about everything you need is in the Microsoft ecosystem, then you won't really need to sync. Great!
Speak for yourself. I transfer files to my Android phone over Wifi all the time. And I'm not alone - my mom just got a phone and she wanted to be able to pull pictures from relatives' phones without requiring both phones to have the same obscure transfer app. I told her she could do this natively on Android over Bluetooth, but it may only work with other Android phones since Apple likes to lock down Bluetooth (probably to make the record labels happy). So even non-techies are looking to do things that are not possible with these locked-down platforms.