Andrew's Inner Sanctum

I thought I’d spend some time talking about smartphones. In the smartphone OS market today we have 5 major players: Apple’s iOS, Google’s Android, Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7, RIM’s Blackberry and Nokia’s Symbian. There are others who make OSes for smartphones, but I believe that they are so insignificant that I don’t need to mention them as contenders here. I also believe that 2 the above platforms are going to be disappearing soon. Nokia has not competed well with their Symbian OS. There is a lack of apps for the platform and it just seems old fashioned compared to iOS, Android and Windows Phone 7, which were all built from the ground up for capacitive touchscreen phones. I believe the same fate will occur for RIM’s Blackberry OS. Developers have not flocked to the Blackberry OS because it has been too difficult to develop on in the past and while they plan to improve this, I think it’s a bit too late. Everything the Blackberry OS used to be good at, iOS, Android and Windows Phone 7 can also do just as well.

The reason I listed Windows Phone 7 as a major competitor, even though it’s only 2 weeks old is because it’s a great OS that consumers will love because it’s innovative and simple, but also because Microsoft has spent a lot of time, effort and money ensuring that developers will flock to the platform. To write apps for the Windows Phone 7 platform, you simply need to download the free Windows Phone Developer Tools which include Microsoft Visual Studio Express for Windows Phone which is a development environment focused on coding, Microsoft Expression Blend 4 for Windows Phone which is a development environment focused on design and user interfaces. Also included is an emulator so that you can test your applications without having to have a phone. The language used to code a Windows Phone is mix of Silverlight XAML for user interface elements and properties and C# .NET for the actions that each user interface item performs. Also coming soon is the ability to program the actions in Visual Basic .NET instead of C# .NET. Games are programmed using the XNA Framework, the same language that is used to write games for the Xbox 360. So what this means for developers is that they can use the same tools they would normally use to write Windows applications and Xbox 360 games to write phone apps, without having to learn a new language or programming environment. Although currently the Windows Phone Marketplace doesn’t have a lot of apps, it has all the right apps. It has Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Messenger and plenty more coming soon. Microsoft is also working with developers who need special access to the OS (such as Skype and its need to use Sockets) so that their apps will be available soon.

The rest of the reason why I believe Windows Phone 7 will be a success is that it currently fills a void that is missing in the market. The iPhone was the first serious player in the smartphone market; in fact it defined the smartphone market. The problem is that it is a very tightly controlled platform. There is only one iPhone, it has one form factor, it is only made by one company, it only allows apps into its one App Store if they successfully make it through the strict application process and apps can often be rejected for the smallest reasons, you can only write apps for it if you own a Mac and you can only sync it using iTunes which is not a great program. It’s very controlled, which is a good thing in some ways because using it is consistent between iPhones and developers only have to target one OS and everyone generally is running the same version of the OS, but some of the control is just a bit over the top and anti-competitive.

Google Android on the other hand is extremely uncontrolled. There are multiple handsets with multiple form factors from multiple companies running different versions of the OS with different UI skins, multiple app stores (or manual install from a website if you don’t want to use an app store), you can write apps for it using Windows, OS X and Linux and do just about anything with it. Google simply writes the base OS and throws it out there to whoever wants to use it. This is good because it provides the user with choice, but it is also becoming the single biggest problem for the platform. Each model of Android phone these days seems to come with a different UI and also there are at least 4 different versions of the OS floating around that are still in use and even still available to buy. Lots of Android phones still on sale come with version 1.5 or 1.6 and many of these phones will never be able to upgrade to 2.1 or 2.2 which means they will always be inferior. Android users say, well just root the phone and install it yourself, but I can’t imagine my Mum or Dad rooting their phone anytime soon. There’s just too much choice for many consumers. The main reason that Android has taken off has been a lack of cheap competitor to the iPhone and also because there are many more models of Android phones available instead of the one iPhone. Having competition drives down the price of all Android Phones. What consumers really need is something in the middle. Something between the openness and chaos of Android and control and simplicity of the iPhone: That middle of the road is Windows Phone 7.

Windows Phone 7 will be available on a number of different handsets with different form factors (e.g. some with keyboards, some without) from a number of different phone carriers like Android is, but each handset must have the same minimum hardware requirements for CPU, memory, graphics capabilities and storage, plus they must have the same buttons on the phone (Back, Start, Search, Volume Up, Volume Down, Power and Camera) which ensures that every Windows Phone will have the same compatibility as the next one. This is a similar experience to what you get on the iPhone, every app designed for iPhone works on every iPhone. Windows Phone’s App Marketplace takes similar route to the Apple App Store in that you can’t install apps that don’t come from the store and apps that are in the store have to be approved first. Thankfully, unlike Apple, Microsoft’s App Marketplace rules aren’t draconian. Microsoft is also taking Apple’s route for updating the phone to new software versions. Unlike Android where it is the carrier’s responsibility to provide updates to the phone (and they very frequently don’t because they’d rather sell you a new handset), Microsoft will be the one controlling the updates and will make all updates available to all phones. Carriers can delay an update by one update cycle for testing if they wish (it is assumed that one update cycle will be about 1 month), but for the most part, updates will reach all phones as soon as they are released. This will mean that Windows Phone 7 will not become fragmented like Android and like Windows Mobile before it, they’ve learnt their lessons.

Finally, it’s important to address the problem of missing features. Windows Phone 7 is a version 1.0 platform (even though it has 7 in the name). It shares absolutely nothing in common with Windows Mobile. With nearly every version 1.0 platform, features will be missing initially. When the iPhone first came out, it was missing stacks of features. Many of the features most demanded didn’t appear until version 3.0 of the iPhone software. The difference between the way Apple and Microsoft have dealt with missing features is that Apple normally says, “You don’t need this feature, our device works fine without it and there are no plans to implement it” and then they’ll implement a stack of the missing features in a new version of the iPhone saying “brand new, you’ll find this experience just magical, so buy today”. Microsoft’s way of dealing with this is to say “We realise that this feature is missing, but we will add it as quickly as possible via a free software update and we’ll release each separate update as soon as it’s ready”. It’s a more honest approach and it means that you won’t have to wait for your new features once per year.

So all in all, I think Windows Phone 7 is a serious contender in the market because it provides the middle ground between Android and iOS and ultimately will be a win for customers. I plan to get one of these devices around Christmas and the New Year so I’ll be able to write more about the device then!

Yes, yes, I know – Apple updated their iPods, iTunes & Apple TV. But who cares – it wasn’t very innovative anyway and in fact the Nano lost features in return for a weird touch screen interface, so let’s ignore that!

It has been a big week for Microsoft. Today Microsoft’s brand new innovative Phone OS called Windows Phone 7 reached the Release To Manufacturing stage today! This means that this version of the OS is complete and is being sent out to phone manufacturers now to put onto their phones and add their own customisations to it. The final version of the developer tools that anyone can download for free and build apps for the phone will be available September 16th and the Marketplace will open to developers so they can upload apps in early October. The phones should reach Europe by October, US by November and hopefully Australia by December! So it’s very exciting, but I wanted to share (and I had this post planned for a few days, so today’s announcement is a co-incidental pleasant surprise) some information about the awesome apps being developed for the phone.

Unlike the iPhone apps which only really scroll up and down, the Windows Phone apps will be panoramic experiences if the app developer decides to build their apps this way, which means you can scroll up and down, but also left and right to access “different pages”. The idea is to make the content front of stage rather than the interface. The interface is simply there to show the content, not to take over the content – so in some cases such as the calendar or email app, it’s very blank and bland because it’s just text you want to look at, while the Music & Pictures apps look really graphical and stylish. Manufacturers & phone companies won’t be allowed to completely change the interface of the phone like that have in the past (just like they can’t modify major parts of the iPhone), but they will be allowed to add some apps to the phone. Here is an example of what Telstra’s app will look like.

Telstra One Hub

It looks pretty cool, but this isn’t the whole app. Because of the Panoramic experience, where you can scroll left and right and up and down, there is plenty more in this app that you can’t see. You can see the start of the next page on the right and if you scrolled your finger to the right (using a flick or drag), it will move pages. The title also gives you a clue, because the word Telstra One is cut off, meaning more pages are available. Here is what the entire app will look like, with the phone layered on the top to show you how much fits on one screen.

Telstra One Hub All Screens

Another example of an app for Windows Phone 7 in development (I’ll just say now, none of these apps are completed yet and will be updated when the final version of the Developer Tools arrive on September 16th) is Twozaic – which is a Twitter client for the Windows Phone. Again, the main idea here is content, there is little UI such as buttons etc and the main thing is the content.

Twozaic - A Twitter Client

Another example of content being the most important thing about Windows Phone 7 is the lock screen. On the iPhone, the lock screen is actually a pretty useless screen, it shows you the time and maybe a text message, but other than that it is pretty useless until you unlock it and open the specific app. The Windows Phone 7 lock screen not only displays the date and time, but also – the number of missed calls, unread text messages & emails and also the upcoming calendar appointment. This is so you can pull the phone out, and see all of this information at a glance without even having to unlock the phone!

iPhone Vs Windows Phone 7 Lock Screens

Finally Windows Phone has something called Hubs which sections of the phone, where apps or services which are linked to each other such as the Pictures Hub where pictures from the Camera, Phone Storage, Facebook, Flickr and other services are all put together, the People Hub where Windows Live, SIM & Facebook contacts all appear together (and merged into one profile per person even if they’re on multiple services) and the Music/Videos Hub which integrates the Zune store, music and videos uploaded to the phone via the Zune PC Software and also services such as Last.fm and Pandora. Here’s the People Hub.

People Hub

So that’s Windows Phone 7 for now – I hope to get myself one of these sometime next year

Time to post again. A big sorry for my lack of posting during the school term, I decided to concentrate on other things so this blog kind of got forgotten. I’ll now give you a brief update of the last 9 weeks. Year 12 started off really well. I’ve posted 2 articles to my website in the last 9 weeks. One of them because I was annoyed at all the Vista bagging going on at school when I returned, and the other was my IPT assignment. The task was to write an argumentative  essay on whether or not Stephen Conroy’s internet filter was a good policy. I wrote a strongly worded essay arguing heavily against the policy and for that I got an A.

The rest of the term was just the standard types of assessments for year 12 students: reports, essays, exams and orals. I also have been keeping the minutes and agendas for the after school prefect meetings all under control and up to date. The term has turned out really tiring actually. It finished off with the QCS practise test, to see how much the in school tuition has improved our results. Personally I do not think setting an all day test on the last day of school is such a wonderful idea, but that’s what occurred. I also think that the Queensland education system and the way we examine and assess senior students across the state is fundamentally broken, because what everyone else in my subject or my school scores in a test, should not affect what my exit score should be. That gives schools with more resources and a better socioeconomic area a better advantage over schools who don’t have these positive factors, but that’s another story for another time. I also finished uploading all 419 podcasts to the Spoonman Fan Club. The Spoonman was an awesome late night talkback announcer on Triple M from 2005-2008  and when his show finished, KG and I decided to set up a central tribute/info website for him. It’s taken me nearly 1 and 1/2 years to upload all the podcasts, but they’re all there now.

I’ve also been following the developments in the tech industry, most of them by Microsoft. The Windows Phone looks absolutely fantastic and I cannot wait to get one next year. Good on Microsoft for starting afresh with their phones and trying something different, instead of just being an iPhone clone. The other big one for me is Windows Live Wave 4. I obtained a leaked copy of the Live Essentials for Wave 4 and so I may be writing an article about them soon. Here’s a sneak peak of  Windows Live Messenger 2010.

Windows Live Messenger 2010 Beta Milestone 2

These holidays I have a few things planned. It will be mainly relaxing, but I have a few tasks and little jobs to do that will keep me busy and also Sam and I plan to visit The Bryan Madigan of SeaFM 91.9 on the Sunshine Coast. He’s the guy who used to take the callers on the Spoonman show and also was one of the 3 announcers of the ATFS podcast. Lastly – on Wednesday when Windows Live Messenger had a bug in in when people were appearing offline when they were really online, I posted here the instructions on how you could get around that. I thank all of you who came here and read the post, I had nearly 3000 viewers in one night and so I’m really grateful and I hope you all stick around to see what I post and also for updates on my main website, which you can find at the top of this page.

Thanks for reading, leave comments as you wish and I’ll hopefully have holidays content to write here for you!!

Update: Microsoft Fixed The Problem Soon After This Post Was Published

Hey Everyone. Figured Out A Way To Make Messenger Let You Appear Online and Still Let You Use Windows Live Messenger.

The problem is, that they’re testing a new feature on the MSN servers which will appear in Windows Live Messenger 2010. This testing is causing everyone using the Windows Live Messenger client to appear offline for now, when they’re really online. This doesn’t stop you from talking, except you don’t know if they’re online or not.

Easy way to Fix it, till Microsoft finish their testing.

1. Sign Into Windows Live Messenger as normal. It will say online, but you’ll appear offline.

2. Open Internet Explorer (don’t think this works on Firefox, definitely doesn’t work on Chrome) and goto the normal Windows Live Hotmail website (either www.hotmail.com or mail.live.com) and sign in to your Hotmail.

3. In the Top Right Corner, there’s a Messenger menu which will probably say Available. Click it and pick Sign In From This Location. Once you do this, you’ll appear online to your contacts and they might talk to you.

This works because, other web messengers like Ebuddy and Web Messenger etc are working properly, but the Windows Live Messenger program isn’t. Web Messenger is the only one which lets you sign in to both Windows Live Messenger and the web version at the same time. So the Web Messenger is making you appear online, and then you can use Windows Live Messenger normally. Don’t Go Deleting Files on Your Computer – WILL NOT FIX IT!

Andrew