HTC releases the first Android flagship running Windows: HTC One (M8) for Windows.

HTC One (M8) for Windows Announced

Xbox One August Update enables mobile purchasing among other several features.

Xbox One August Update Rolling Out Generally Now

Windows Phone 8.1 Update 1 is rolling out to developer preview devices. Mobile Internet Explorer gets a big behind-the-scenes boost.

Windows Phone 8.1 Update 1 Developer Preview Is Here: Internet Explorer Even Better Now

Forget One Windows for all devices, here are some features in Windows Phone that must come soon to Windows 8.

One Windows: Forget Single OS, Can We Get Some Feature Parity?

The storage bump to OneDrive is now available to all consumers. Office 365 subscribers now get 1TB included.

Office 365 Subscriber? Your Terabyte of OneDrive Storage Awaits!

The official roll out of Windows Phone 8.1 begins, coupled with Nokia’s firmware update named Cyan.

Official Rollout of Windows Phone 8.1 Begins. Lumia Cyan Also Released

With online storage costs dropping rapidly, it makes sense to move music collection to the cloud. I moved mine to OneDrive and realized I can stream music!

Put That OneDrive Space To Use: Move Music Collection to the Cloud and Stream It

A trio of new Office 365 plans are announced for small businesses.

New Office 365 Plans Coming For Small Businesses

Xbox Music API is now open to all third party developers. The affiliate program is interesting too, but will developers come?

App Developer Focused On Music? Use Xbox Music API and Make Money!

T-Mobile (and MetroPCS, which it acquired) announce the availability of the powerful and inexpensive Lumia 635 for the US market.

Powerful and Inexpensive Lumia 635 Available on T-Mobile and MetroPCS in July

A growing number of Windows Store and Windows Phone Store apps are websites wrapped inside app wrappers. That’s not a good thing.

Windows Store and Windows Phone Store: Website Apps “Problem”

OneDrive announces a new free tier of 15GB, reduces prices for storage purchase and increases storage included with Office 365 to 1TB.

OneDrive Increases Free Storage and Office 365 Gets 1TB Free

In a pro-developer, open-communication move, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer team releases a Developer Channel release which runs alongside existing IE.

Microsoft launces Internet Explorer Developer Channel

Microsoft’s Power BI team did an Ask Me Anything and provided good responses to questions asked. Here is a summary.

Summary: Microsoft’s Power BI Team Does an AMA

iOS 8 is a massive update to an already popular mobile operating system. Is it enough to bring Android power users back to iOS?

iOS Bulks Up with iOS 8

I have been playing with Excel’s Power View, Power Query (my favorite) and Power Pivot (older but still fantastic) and a few weeks ago someone tweeted something about their twitter archive. That gave me an idea to see if there is any pattern in my tweeting.

So I went to twitter web settings and requested a fresh archive. As a side, how awesome is it that twitter lets you request an archive and that it is ready in minutes. This is a company that could not go back more than a few days in history not so long ago!

Anyway, I brought in all the data from the csv file and put a couple of simple charts together. I’d have loved to share this as an embedded Excel file but because it has all the data, the file is ~19MB and Excel Online can only handle file size of 5MB and below :-(

Anyway, it is interesting to see that my peak twitter was 2012, and for some reason, April of 2012. And as for the clients, MetroTwit, which is still one of the best twitter experiences I have had, very surprisingly dropped to negligible levels after 2012.

Anyway … as usual, there is more insight to gain from the data. I just found these to be the quick and easy ones to look at.

[caption id=“attachment_3601” align=“aligncenter” width=“646”] Tweets by month[/caption]

[caption id=“attachment_3602” align=“aligncenter” width=“646”] Tweets by client[/caption]

I have long had my main address book in the cloud on what is now called Outlook.com’s People app. It not only is my central store of all contact information, it is also smart because it is connected to twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Google. As a result, my “master” contact card for any person is smart enough to show me not only what I have for them in my address book but also information that they have chosen to make available to me via any and all of those networks.

So, the central store and federation is a big deal. Coupled with those things, I am able to pull in this address book via Exchange Active Sync (read: 2-way, instantaneous push and sync) on all my devices: Windows Phone, Windows 8, iPhone, iPad, Android.

Needless to say, this has become indispensable for me. I love that I am able to forget about syncing and keeping a master record, and more importantly, not worry about losing that data if I lose or reset a device.

However, the downside is that when something weird happens, it instantly becomes a major cause for worry for me. Like a few weeks ago, my niece’s contact information disappeared from my iPhone. The way I realized it was through WhatsApp; her message showed up without a name and instead, just a nick and a phone number. I looked up my Contacts on the iPhone and couldn’t find her. I panicked. I had no idea what happened. Was I hacked? Was there something I did? What could delete this account? What else was deleted? All these thoughts started circling in my head. The problem of complete automation, I guess.

The good news was that the contact existed on People app on the web, and it also existed on my Windows devices. The phone number though, was missing. Bizarre. I added the number because I wanted to first get back on track and then troubleshoot. For whatever reason, I could not force a sync back to the iPhone. It is supposed to be instantaneous, but it simply did not bring that contact over to the phone! I contacted Microsoft support on twitter and posted on their forums.

Anyway, since it was so random, Microsoft support suggested I just remove and re-add the account on iPhone and see if that resolved the issue and it did. Problem solved, kinda-sorta. It was “solved” for the support team. Not for me. However, I had no idea what may be going on, and no time to investigate. So I ended the chapter there, with slight dissatisfaction of knowing I had not really solved the problem, only worked around it.

Today, I noticed that another family member’s phone number is missing from my phone’s contacts. Again, it showed up because in WhatsApp, her message showed just the nick and the number. I checked the phone, and the contact does not exist, and in this case, the contact as well as the phone number exists on the web as well as Windows devices.

Something really strange is going on with the way contacts are syncing from Outlook.com to iPhone via the “Outlook” account type (not “Exchange”). I am not sure if it is something Outlook.com needs to address or Apple, but I know that I am just not comfortable with the setup I have at the moment.

Time to create some backup plans. :-(

The Windows Phone Podcasts app has a lot to like but some key features and annoyances need to be in place to make it a slam dunk winner.

Windows Phone Podcasts App: So Close Yet So Far

The Surface Pro 3 is a great laptop replacement. What does the Surface Family of devices say about Microsoft’s plans?

The Surface Family Evolves: Where Does It Go from Here?

I posted a few pictures of beer from a recent trip and here are some more pictures, this time of flowers at Keukenoff Gardens.

As you know, these are all mostly from a Lumia 920, and some from an iPhone 5s.

Some samples embedded below:

[gallery type=“slideshow” columns=“2” link=“file” ids=“3581,3582,3583,3584,3585,3586,3587,3588” orderby=“rand”]

Several updates, including external storage support, are coming to Xbox One in the June update.

External Storage Support Coming to Xbox One in June Update

I tweeted this out a few days ago, but I thought I’d put it here as well. Some shots of beer I took on a recent trip to Brussels, Bruges, Amsterdam and Copenhagen. (All pics are Lumia 920 or iPhone 5s, as you may have read in my earlier post about this vacation.)

[office src=“https://onedrive.live.com/embed?cid=BABF6748D49265DB&resid=BABF6748D49265DB%2139263&authkey=AF_Yr6GQQE5HMWM” width=“339” height=“163”]

If you bought Xbox LIVE Gold and don’t need it after June, you can request a refund after the update rolls out.

Good News: Xbox LIVE Gold Can Be Refunded after June If You Don’t Need It

Two big cost-cutting moves made by Microsoft: Xbox One will be sold without Kinect and entertainment apps will now be free and not require Xbox LIVE Gold.

Xbox One Will Be Sold Without Kinect and Entertainment Apps Now Free to All

Joe Belfiore revealed that a Windows Phone File Manager app is coming, hopefully by the end of May. It is needed, but not for what you may be thinking.

Windows Phone Is Getting a File Manager App Soon