Hands on with Nokia Drive and Nokia Transport, two location-based apps which come with Nokia Windows Phone devices.

Hands on with Nokia Drive and Nokia Transport

Video of the ESPN app for Nokia Windows Phones.

Nokia Windows Phone ESPN App Walkthrough

Budget smartphone with free built-in turn-by-turn navigation and 2D/3D maps ($100 value, at least)? Check. The Nokia Lumia 710. For $50.

[youtube [www.youtube.com/watch](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDECIwJPWBk?wmode=transparent])

Sexy, large-screen, 4G LTE-enabled, dual-camera boasting smartphone? Check. The Nokia Lumia 900. Coming soon.

[youtube [www.youtube.com/watch](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1qurHPAeDA?wmode=transparent])

I was able to get some pictures of the Nokia Lumia 900 at the Nokia booth at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES).

Nokia Lumia 900: My Hands-On from CES 2012

Microsoft’s Ben Rudolph runs yet another awesome campaign to show non-Windows Phone users how they phone is slower than Windows Phone. Puts $100 on it!

Microsoft’s Ben Rudolph with Yet Another Cool Campaign (#smokedbywindowsphone): Smokes Galaxy Nexus, iPhone 4S, Others

After a blog post created large-scale uproar, Microsoft clarifies the state of Windows Phone updates. It’s business as usual.

Windows Phone Executive: It’s “Business as Usual” with Windows Phone Updates

Windows Phone engineering team did a fantastic job after NoDo update fiasco - increased transparency and forced carriers/OEMs to synchronize. Sadly, that story seems to be ending.

Windows Phone Updates Are Now Completely Opaque

My wish list for Windows Phone for 2012.

My 2012 Wish List for Windows Phone

Wow. The #droidrage promo that Ben Rudolph ran a couple of days back, got 3,200 tweets in about 30 hours! That's 2 tweets per minute!

I guess Android owners are not too satisfied with their phones, eh? Must be the low-class nature of their existence? (I keeeeed, I keeeeeed!)

Wow, lots of #droidrage out there. 3,200+ people shared Android horror stories with @BenThePCGuy with hopes for a #windowsphone.

— Bill Cox (@billcox) December 15, 2011

BTW, those 3,200+ #droidrage horror stories all came in just 30 hours... nearly two responses every minute.

— Bill Cox (@billcox) December 15, 2011

Manan Kakkar just blogged about how some of Microsoft's iOS apps are a bad thing for Microsoft, and how the SkyDrive app for WP7 is useless to him. I'd like to use this blog post as a response to some of his remarks, criticisms and rants.

Kinectimals for iOS leaves no USP for the Microsoft ecosystem in the living room

I agree with Manan that there was an implicit promise of Windows Phone working very closely with Xbox and Windows in a way that iOS and Android could not and would not. At the same time, you have to remember - Microsoft is clearly pitching Xbox as a platform. If they want the Xbox to become a platform, they will need many more consoles out in homes. At the same time, the reality is that most Xbox users are most likely users of iOS devices of some shape or form.

Giving a taste of how a mobile device can work tightly with the Xbox gives Microsoft several wins:

1. Exposes a Microsoft Studio game (in this case) to iOS users. If they don't have an Xbox and they like the game, they may start thinking about it.
2. Shows how Microsoft can integrate the mobile phone into its console. "With Windows Phone, the experience would be even tighter" could be the carrot.
3. If the iOS user already has an Xbox, they may be tempted to look at other add-ons for the game, perhaps other games, other content, etc. In other words, fueling the increased use of the console, leading to potential increase in revenues related to Xbox content.

All of these create the vicious circle of creating a bigger market for the console as well as selling more content off the console. For a platform company, is there a better recipe?

Microsoft is at a very interesting stage in its history. For the first time since it became the most dominant company in the world, it is facing a world where its operating system (note: not "software") may not be the most popular system. The world is moving towards smaller, lighter computing devices where so far, we have not seen Windows at all. Until we see Windows 8 succeed, we will continue with the argument that Microsoft is not a player in this new world where PCs will be outsold by smart devices which do not run Windows.

Why should I own a Windows Phone and not an iPhone, if the Xbox integration is going to be so tight with the iPhone?

First, I don't think every game is going to be made available on iOS. Kinectimals is one of those games Microsoft may be toying with, to see if there is any sense in pursuing that market.

So from a user perspective, you can be assured that Windows Phone will continue to have Xbox LIVE games which won't be on any other platforms, it will be the only platform with Xbox Achievements, and if there are games which get on iOS, Windows Phone will get them first for sure. It may not be a convincing argument, but frankly, if it were a convinving argument, Windows Phone would have sold way more than it has already.

Clearly, users don't really care much about Xbox on their phones enough to keep it a strict exclusive.

You bring one game, you have to bring all

I am not sure why they should be forced to bring every game with such tight integration. They chose this game just like EA Games or Pop Cap Games chose to bring one or two games to Windows Phone. I don't see any logical reason to bring every single title to iOS necessarily.

WP7 SkyDrive app is useless

This one confused me. Not because there is no basis for Manan's point. WP7 after all has an extremely efficient concept of Hubs which in fact avoid the need to have separate apps for each service. In that regard, my SkyDrive pics/vids can, and are available in the Pictures Hub. Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote can, and are available in the Office Hub. So I'd call the new SkyDrive app redundant in some ways, but not useless.

• SkyDrive app provides a single place to see "your personal cloud". What about generic files on SkyDrive you may have uploaded, like for example, an AutoCAD file? Where would you find that file on the current WP7? Nowhere, actually.
• SkyDrive app allows creation/modification of folders and deletion of files. Given that Microsoft is pitching SkyDrive against the likes of Dropbox and box.net, having a "drive" to access in one place would be better than spreading it all over the place.
• SkyDrive app allows you to selectively share files/folders via links for read and read/write scenarios. Again, tying this back to using SkyDrive as a cloud storage option, it is easier to have all the stuff in one place.

Hubs are meant to make it easy to see and share stuff that you care about like Pictures, Music, Office docs, etc. The purpose of the SkyDrive app is not to just let you browse the stuff, but also allow it to be selectively shared with others.

Finally, I believe Manan has concluded that the app is useless because it does not serve two of his wishes (more than being really useless) - being able to save an attachment to SkyDrive, and being able to see files on other PCs and devices from SkyDrive. The former is a missing feature of the Mail application and perhaps of the OS itself (not exposing the file system) and the latter is a missing feature of SkyDrive the service. Neither is a shortcoming of the SkyDrive app.

By having an app, Microsoft can also rev it faster than the OS updates, much like Google's apps on Android which are now de-coupled from the OS itself.

I feel bad having the need to write a long response but twitter's 140 characters were just not enough to make my point.

Manan, cheers :-)

SkyDrive app? It's as if the Gods at Redmond have finally heard the prayers of the peasants! Not very useful on WP7 though.

— Manan Kakkar (@manan) December 14, 2011

@manan what do you want it to do? i see it being quite helpful. share/send link/browse. WP7 has adv of being able to edit from Office.

— Romit Mehta (@TheRomit) December 14, 2011

@TheRomit honestly, it's a useless app only released to avoid the shit storm of "Oh MSFT releases app for iOS leaves WP7"

— Manan Kakkar (@manan) December 14, 2011

@manan what it provides over-and-above Office Hub is Send Link and creation/deletion of files.

— Romit Mehta (@TheRomit) December 14, 2011

.@TheRomit essentially, nothing. I need access to my devices.live.com stuff. Till then SkyDrive's cloud promise is broken.

— Manan Kakkar (@manan) December 14, 2011

@manan so you want access to files on other PCs/devices. functionality of the app remains the same, yes?

— Romit Mehta (@TheRomit) December 14, 2011

@TheRomit the app's functionality is no different to the Office hub. I preferred SkyDrive within Office hub.

— Manan Kakkar (@manan) December 14, 2011

@manan that is still there. don't put it in past tense :-) unclear if you could enable sharing from Office Hub.

— Romit Mehta (@TheRomit) December 14, 2011

@TheRomit it makes more sense of adding capabilities of sharing into the hub than create an app that does all the same stuff.

— Manan Kakkar (@manan) December 14, 2011

@TheRomit so when they do that the app might make sense. But they don't right now. Hence the app as of now is useless.

— Manan Kakkar (@manan) December 14, 2011

@manan i streamed video that i had uploaded to one of the folders. today.

— Romit Mehta (@TheRomit) December 14, 2011

@TheRomit going by that logic, why show me office document in the app. They are Office documents.

— Manan Kakkar (@manan) December 14, 2011

@manan however you could make a case that sharing other files could be done via Pictures Hub. Sure. But one-stop shop is nice.

— Romit Mehta (@TheRomit) December 14, 2011

@TheRomit I still am looking for a reason as to why I need the SkyDrive app on WP7. I see none. At all.

— Manan Kakkar (@manan) December 14, 2011

@manan the app is for storing and sharing vs self-consuming. Helps?

— Romit Mehta (@TheRomit) December 14, 2011

@TheRomit nope. since I can't store a PDF file I download which was an email attachment.

— Manan Kakkar (@manan) December 14, 2011

@manan is that SkyDrive app's fault that you cannot access the file system? No.

— Romit Mehta (@TheRomit) December 14, 2011

@manan (2/2) it may not be as necessary on WP7 w/hubs and stuff, but i can see how it can be useful. also, as an app, it can be reved faster

— Romit Mehta (@TheRomit) December 14, 2011

@TheRomit I don't care. I can't convince my univ's IT dept to endorse SkyDrive with that statement.

— Manan Kakkar (@manan) December 14, 2011

Steve Ballmer moves Andy Lees out of his position as President of Windows Phone. Terry Myerson takes over for Andy Lees, who moves to an interesting role.

Windows Phone Executive Shakeup: Andy Lees Out, Terry Myerson In

Windows Phone social champion Ben Rudolph (@BenThePCGuy on twitter) runs a promotion to offer Windows Phone for angry Android users.

Got #droidrage? Tweet to Get Your Android Replaced with a Windows Phone

Verizon Wireless wants Microsoft to include LTE in Windows Phone. Microsoft will need to react or else risk being cut off from the largest US network.

Verizon Wireless, Windows Phone, LTE and Microsoft’s Mobile Strategy Problem

Windows Phone enthusiasts now have a way to unlock their devices to sideload applications.

ChevronWP7: Windows Phone Unlocker Now Live

An interview with Chris Sainty, the developer of gReadie, a Google Reader client for Windows Phone 7.

Developer Interview: gReadie app developer Chris Sainty

Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) has been released. A Windows Phone user’s take on ICS.

Android Ice Cream Sandwich: From a Windows Phone user’s perspective

Microsoft erases the nightmares of NoDo and other updates with a super-efficient, coordinated, global rollout of Windows Phone Mango.

Microsoft fixes NoDo nightmare with super-efficient Mango rollout

[youtube [www.youtube.com/watch](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oALIuVb0NJ4?wmode=transparent])

Freaking hilarious. Snarks aside, he has absolutely nailed the double standards Molly showed during the 2-week trial. She would rather have a broken Android than a Windows Phone. She did not like that there was no turn-by-turn navigation in Windows Phone, but has no reason not to let her friends choose the iPhone over Windows Phone, while iPhone does not have turn-by-turn navigation either. Nor does it have her other wanted feature, compose email by voice.

Can someone please let me know what she is trying to conclude? I didn't get it. Oh no, I did. She concludes, "I like Android". Sigh.

[youtube [www.youtube.com/watch](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAq-zes9ri0?wmode=transparent])

Windows Phone Mango has achieved RTM. This post looks at what are the key features missing from Mango, but are already available or announced for iOS/Android.

Windows Phone Mango RTM: What is still missing?

Windows Phone “Mango” has fixed several shortcomings in the initial release of Windows Phone 7. Here are some of my top annoyances with Windows Phone “NoDo” which have been addressed in Mango. Videos, Podcasts, Contacts History are some of these annoyances with fixes and enhancements made in what is referred to as Windows Phone 7.5

How Mango Has Fixed Some of the Annoyances of Windows Phone 7