Windows Phone

Feb 1 2012

How to Watch Premier League Goals on Windows Phone

Premier League football is extremely popular in the UK, and it’s shown regularly on Premium TV Sports Channels, but if you are out and about and can’t watch the match or you can’t wait until the evening highlights then there is an option to watch the latest highlights free on your Windows Phone handset, thanks to the sports Broadcast ESPN who have released the ESPN Goals App.

20120122-180826.jpgThe ESPN Goals App is completely free and is a great way to watch all the Premier League goals, when matches are underway  video updates are provided at regular intervals so you don’t even have to wait until the conclusion of the game before you can view the goals. Shortly after a match has finished a complete highlights package is available for that game, and shortly after, a highlights for all that days matches becomes available.20120122-180847.jpg

The video quality is good and even works well over 3G, so you can watch the highlights when you are mobile, but be warned if you are using a mobile network make sure you have a Unlimited Data Plan, for example Three’s The One Plan to avoid any extra costs. The ESPN Goals App is a great App, free of charge and is available from the Market Place

By Gadget Phil • How to Guides, Windows Phone • 0 • Tags: , ,

Jan 31 2012

How to synchronise Windows Phone 7 with Googlemail

Windows Phone is relatively new to the market, and the way the system works may be different to many of us are familiar with.

This post is part of a series of articles looking at the basics of Windows Phone, in this case the very impressive Nokia Lumia 800 from Three . To see the rest of the posts in the series click here.

Many people use Google Web services to synchronise their Email, Calendar and Contacts across devices, and Windows Phone makes the process easy.

To synchronise Windows Phone 7 with Googlemail:

1) From the Start Menu scroll down to the settings option.


2) in the settings screen select email+accounts.


3) select the option to add an account
4) choose the option to add a google account.


5) enter your google account email address and password into the account section and press sign in.

6) By default your google email, calendar & contacts are synchronised with your device, but you can go into your account options and opt not to synchronise any of these options. You can also select how often the synchronisation takes place.

By Gadget Phil • Windows Phone • 0 • Tags: ,

Jan 30 2012

How to rearrange the icons on the Windows Phone Start Menu

Windows Phone is relatively new to the market, and the way the system works may be different to many of us are familiar with.

This post is part of a series of articles looking at the basics of Windows Phone, in this case the very impressive Nokia Lumia 800 from Three . To see the rest of the posts in the series click here.

It’s possible and easy to re-arrange the tiles on the the Windows Phone Start Menu.

To rearrange the tiles on Windows Phone Start Menu:

  • Scroll to the Tile that you wish to move
  • Hold your finger down on the tile until it becomes highlighted
  • Drag the tile to the location you wish to position it.
  • Press the back button the bottom left hand side of the screen.

The tile is now placed in its now position.

By Gadget Phil • How to Guides, Windows Phone • 0 • Tags: ,

Jan 30 2012

How to Uninstall an App from Windows Phone

Windows Phone is relatively new to the market, and the way the system works may be different to many of us are familiar with.

This post is part of a series of articles looking at the basics of Windows Phone, in this case the very impressive Nokia Lumia 800 from Three . To see the rest of the posts in the series click here.

To free up space on the phone you may wish to remove apps that you have previously installed but no longer use, the process is easy but only do this if you are sure that you want to remove the app.

To uninstall an App on Windows Phone:

  • From the Start Menu Swipe Right to move to the Apps screen
  • Scoll up and Down until you find the App that you want to uninstall
  • Press on the App until a new Menu appears.
  • Select uninstall on the menu

The App will now be uninstalled.

By Gadget Phil • How to Guides, Windows Phone • 0 • Tags: ,

Jan 28 2012

How to remove an App from the Windows Phone Start Menu

Windows Phone is relatively new to the market, and the way the system works may be different to many of us are familiar with.

This post is part of a series of articles looking at the basics of Windows Phone, in this case the very impressive Nokia Lumia 800 from Three . To see the rest of the posts in the series click here.

If there is an unused tile or App on your Start Bar you may prefer to move to off the Start Menu, this won’t uninstall any apps but  will keep your Start Menu well organised with your favourite tiles.

To remove an App or Tile from the Windows Phone Start Menu:

  • Find the tile you wish to remove
  • Hold your Finger down on the Tile until it becomes highlighted.
  • Press the unpin icon that has appeared on the tile.

You can still see all your installed Apps by swipping right on the screen to move to the apps screen.

By Gadget Phil • How to Guides, Windows Phone • 0 • Tags: ,

Jan 26 2012

How to add an App to the Start Menu on Windows Phone

Windows Phone is relatively new to the market, and the way the system works may be different to many of us are familiar with.

This post is part of a series of articles looking at the basics of Windows Phone, in this case the very impressive Nokia Lumia 800 from Three . To see the rest of the posts in the series click here.

Windows Phone allows you customise the start menu by adding links to installed Apps.
All the Apps installed on your Windows Phone can be seen by swiping to the Apps screen on the right hand screen.

To add links to your start menu on the Windows Phone:

    • Swipe right on your phone to move to the apps screen
    • Scroll down until you find the App that you want to move to Start Menu
    • Hold you finger down on the App, until it becomes highlighted and a new menu appears.
    • Select the ‘pin to start’ option.

The app will now be visible on the bottom of the start menu.

By Gadget Phil • How to Guides, Windows Phone • 0 • Tags: ,

Jan 22 2012

A look at Windows Phone

After almost losing all traction in the mobile market, in 2010 Microsoft released Windows Phone 7 to mainly positive reviews, and towards the end of 2011 they followed it up with an impressive software update (known as Mango) which added further key features. As its market share grows and with a key partnership with Nokia, has Microsoft done enough to make it’s Phone software a viable alternative to iOS & Android?

Rather then try to imitate its competitors Microsoft have developed a new style of Interface featuring large, high contrast, tiles which change to pass on information, and a focus has been put on ease of use rather then technical power

In this article I’ll outline my thoughts on Windows Phone, as seen on the Nokia Lumia 800 provided by Three.

Phone Navigation
Navigation through the system has been designed to be as easy as possible, your default home page, referred to as your Start menu, is where all your live tiles and links to your favourite Apps are stored. To see all the tiles in the Start menu you simply scroll up and down using your finger.
The tiles themselves are relatively large so there’s little danger of you pressing the wrong link, and generally contain a description image and title to signify its purpose, some tiles are designed to display you live information, for example, the calendar tile shows you your currently reminders, your email tile displays how many unread emails you have waiting and your Pictures tile displays a preview of images you have stored on the phone.
The tile system might be a new way of operation, but after you get used to it, you can find information very quickly.

From the start menu you can scroll right to a page containing a list of every App that is installed on your phone, this list 20120114-223056.jpgmay be quite long and navigation is again performed by scrolling up and down so finding an App might take a while, but apps can be pinned to the start menu by simply holding down on the icon an selecting a menu option.
Just under the bottom of the phone screen are 3 hardware buttons/icons, a back arrow to skew you to your previous screen, a Windows button which always takes you back to the Start Menu and a search button which takes you to the Bing Search Engine.
The Bing search tool should not be underestimated as it is a powerful tool. Along the top of the screen is the familiar Internet Search tool, but along the bottom of the screen are a number of useful tools. From the Bing screen you can scan QR codes, identify music that’s playing around you, give voice commands and even see events that are taking place near your current location.

Communication
Windows Phone places a large importance on communication and many of the phones functions are focused on keeping you up to date with all your latest messages from several sources. Windows Phone supports Windows, Outlook, Nokia, Yahoo, & Google Email accounts as well as LinkedIn, Twitter & Facebook Social Networks, and it takes all the information from these sources and aggregates it into central locations on the phone.
Email and SMS are given their own Apps but Key to social communication are the Me & People Apps. It’s worth mentioning that the font used by Microsoft Phone is easily the most readable font on any mobile phone.

The Me App is your Hub on the phone, it lets you post a message to any or all of the Social networks that you are a member of, it lets you check in to a location and sets your real time chat status. It also gives you notifications of any updates to Facebook conversations you have joined and also notifies you if someone mentions you in a tweet. The Me App also summarises all your social activities since your last view of the App.

Along side the Me App is the People App. People takes all your contacts from all sources and all brings them together in one place. Here you can see all your contacts from all possible sources, sorted alphabetically. It’s also possible to link contacts, so if you have the same contact on different networks you can synchronise their details into one unified contact entry.
Selecting a contact will show you all the information you have about the person, if you know their phone number you can phone or text them, if you know their social network details you can interact with them, if you know their their postal address you can get directions to them, and there are many other options. You can even view each contacts recent activity on Social networks, It’s very impressive how many data sources are all brought together into the one place and how interactive it all becomes.
Very simply it’s one of the most powerful social communication tools on any phone, and in this regards it puts iOS to shame.

Apps20120115-230031.jpg
Apps have really come into their own on smartphones and theres no doubt that WindowsPhone is still catching up with Android and the iPhone, although things are slowly starting to improve.
Out of the box Windows Phone doesn’t come with many Apps installed, apart from the usful and surprisingly productive Microsoft Office, the much advertised Nokia Drive Sat Nav App, so you may wish to add your own by using the Market place.
The market place is separated into applications, games and music, and has a comprehensive search function, there are both free an paid Apps

Pictures & Camera
Rather than a software launcher, Windows Phones have a dedicated Camera key which when pressed launches the camera App, this works well although it might be different to what you are used to.
The camera key can also be used to take a focus and capture a photo, although its also possible to focus on a specific object in view by pressing on it on the phones screen.
The quality of the image will depend on which phone you own but in my tests the quality is as you would expect from the hardware.
As on other phones your pictures are presented to you through a photo roll system, sharing is easy but there is a lack of picture editing facilities, limited to only a auto fix option.

One of the great elements to the Pictures App is that not only does it provide access to all the pictures you have stored on your device but it also acts as a hub to all the pictures that your social media contacts have posted online too, so you get a one stop shop for all your friends photos.

Whats missing?

Windows Phone is relatively new to the market so it hasn’t had the opportunity to evolve in the same way as iOS or Android. Microsoft have rightly concentrated on getting the basics right, but power users will notice that there are some features missing.
Online video compatibility is hit and miss, YouTube works but other popular sites including BBC iplayer and tvcatchup don’t work yet. The quality of the video image on our test device (a Nokia Lumia 800) is probably perfectly fine for the casual users but the iPhone and Samsung Galaxy S 2 play the same videos at a far better quality, and the speaker quality was a little sub par.
Power users have come to expect the presence of WiFi hotspot functionality on their smartphones and as yet Windows Phone doesn’t support this feature, front facing camera’s for video chat also aren’t supported at the moment which will disappoint some.

Windows Phone is ideally suited to the average mobile phone user, who likes to keep in touch with their friends, or those who enjoy heavy social network use.
Power Users may have to look else where but Microsoft have done a fantastic job at producing a great system for the majority of phone users.

By Gadget Phil • Windows Phone • 0 • Tags: ,

Jan 20 2012

Nokia Lumia 800 Review

Always keen to see the latest in technological developments, we were eager to get to grips with Nokia’s new Flagship Mobile SmartPhone, the Windows Phone powered Lumia 800, and fortunately we have the opportunity to put it through its paces on the 3 mobile phone network for our Nokia Lumia 800 Review.

The Look and Feel of the phone
Nokia make nice looking hardware, it’s been their software that have been letting them down in recent years, and the Lumia 800 is a great looking device. Stylish sleek square edges with a rounded back makes the device feel comfortable in the hand and gives it the feel of a much smaller phone.

The Nokia Lumia has an 3.7 inch AMOLED capacitive touchscreen which runs at a resolution on 480 by 800 pixels. Whilst the resolution of the screen doesn’t match that of the iPhone’s retina display, the large screen is nice to look at and text is ready to read. The AMOLED display produces bright and vivid colours which help to bring out the best in photos and videos.

The lack of a dual core processor may lead some of you to expect the Lumia to run a little slowly but the complete opposite is true, as Windows Phone doesn’t have the processing overhead of Android and the Lumia 800 is quick, nimble and without any lag whatsoever. Apps load and operate very quickly, and media is handled well.

The Phone comes with 512 mb (The Windows Phone standard) and 16gb of on board storage space, unfortunately there is no way to add any additional storage space so if you take lots of Photos or record long videos then you will need to manage your storage space wisely, online Storage facilities like Microsoft’s SkyDrive may provide an solution.

Mobile Data Functionality

The Lumia 800 support 802.11b/g/n networks, and switchover between mobile data networks  (eg 3G) and known WiFi networks is automated, transparent and seamless, a feature which doesn’t always work very well on some Android devices.

The 3 network has come a long way in recent years, and wherever we tested the phone we got fast HSPDA data speeds, emails were transmitted quickly, video quality was good on Youtube;  without significant buffering and  Synchronisation between the device and Google Accounts were almost real time.

On 3′s One Plan Internet usage is unlimited, and this is when Smart Phones come into their own, if you find yourself away from your home Wifi network, you can send pictures, large emails, and upload videos quickly and without having to worry about extra data costs or data caps.

The Nokia’s Lumia 800 Camera

Nokia have become well known for the quality of the cameras on their Smart Phones, indeed they are probably considered to be the market leader for phone photography, and so the Lumia 800 has a great Legacy to live up to, and whilst it may not quite meet the ultra high standards of the Nokia N9, the Lumia 800 holds it’s own against most of the market.

The camera’s specifications would indicate that it’s a high end device featuring an 8 mega pixel sensor with Carl Zeiss optics and a dual LED flash to provide light in dark scenes, and the Lumia puts the hardware to good use.

To put the camera through it’s paces, we took several photographs in different lighting environments on the Nokia Lumia 800 and also took near identical photos on the Apple iPhone 4s, which has the reputation of having a good camera, to act as a base line.

The first set of example photographs that were taken were of a plastic plant in a tropical fish tank. The scene had strong over head lighting and because the photos were taken through glass it meant that a Flash could not be used.

Both Cameras took good Photographs. As you would expect, foreground detail was clear in both and neither showed any obvious signs of Blur. The photo taken on the iPhone perhaps shows a higher level of detail in background objects, but the colours are certainly brighter and more vivid on the Lumia. Which level of colour you prefer is up to you!

The second set of example photographs that were taken were of a planted tree at night with no light source – this put a real dependency on the flash. This is where the Nokia Lumia really produced a better image, whilst not a perfect image it’s still a good picture, and the flash did a good job of producing the right amount of light to the scene to enable good colour in the image. Whereas the photo taken by the iPhone was very washed out producing a very poor picture

Nokia Lumia 800 Example Photos - click to enlarge

iPhone 4s Example Photos - click to enlarge

The Lumia 800 is also able to record High Definition video, and although only at 720p resolution this means that you can capture reasonably good quality video whilst on the move. Certainly the quality of video is more then good enough for sharing on Youtube or burning to a DVD

Final Thoughts

The Nokia is a very nice smartphone, and with Windows Phone its ideal for the majority of Smart Phone users who want to communicate and Social Network but don’t need the additional features that a Power User requires.

The Lumia 800 represents a massive change of direction of Nokia, moving away from it’s traditional Symbian Operating system and it’s existing albeit shrinking user base, and over all it’s a very positive move. There are a few small hardware tweaks that could be made to appease  power users, and Windows Phone is still a little way off maturity but for simple and integrated communication all packaged together in a great piece of hardware the Nokia 800 is difficult to beat.

Useful Links

Our Look at Windows Phone

Nokia Lumia 800 on 3 

By Gadget Phil • Hardware, Windows Phone • 0 • Tags: , , , ,