Review: Nokia Lumia 900 and Windows Phone

You have probably seen the ads on TV: The smartphone beta test is over, and the result is the Lumia and Windows Phone.  I have had my Nokia Lumia 900 Windows phone for a few weeks now and think it is time to weigh in with a review.

I have been using an Android smartphone for a few years now and have become very comfortable with its operation and capabilities. The primary functions I used it for include email from several accounts, multiple Twitter accounts, Facebook, GPS navigation, pictures, and music.  Android and my LG Optimus is a combination proven to be a very competent performer in all these areas, so let me compare it to the Lumia in these chief-to-me functions.

Email

First and probably most important to most people is email. Just as Android links to a Google account, Windows Phone links to a Hotmail/Windows Live ID.  This instantly integrates the phone with your Hotmail account if you have one. The phone also has native support for Exchange and Office 365, "Nokia Mail," Yahoo!, Google accounts, Twitter, and "Other" POP and IMAP accounts. Connecting to Google was easy and carried the benefit of importing my contacts from that service.  The integration with Google is nice since my business is run on a Google Apps Domain.

Once the email accounts are set up, you will have a "smart tile" on the home screen for each account. Each one will have a counter on it if you have new, unread mail. Tapping the tile takes you to the inbox for that account.

One downside to the email accounts.  When I tried to set up IMAP access for my corporate email from my "day job," I couldn't. The certificate is expired on the server so Windows Phone absolutely refuses to connect.  Android gives you the choice to accept the certificate anyway, but not so in Windows Phone, so I can not get my corporate mail on my phone.  This is a conversation that could go in many directions, but for me, the bottom line is that I know the system and I trust it, so I would appreciate the freedom to permanently accept the cert and get my mail.  Kind of a bummer there.

Twitter

I use Twitter for personal use as well as a means to keep in touch with my clients, so I have two accounts. Android has the wonderful app Tweetdeck which allows you to configure multiple accounts and then set up the display in columns like mentions, timeline, etc.  The really great thing is that you can have timelines from multiple accounts all in one configuration. i.e. I can view my personal timeline and swipe to see my business timeline.  Very cool.  I can also tweet from any or all of my accounts, and as an added bonus, Tweetdeck allows me to include Facebook accounts as well.  No more "#fb" when using this killer app.

Unfortunately there is no Tweetdeck for Windows Phone. I sure wish there was because none of the Twitter apps for Windows phone have given me that much power in a single place. I truly miss Tweetdeck on my phone.  I still have it on my PC and Tablet, but I don't always want to bust out those larger devices.

There is native Twitter support for a single account. Configuring this will integrate Twitter info into your "Me" tile on the home screen. (More about tiles a little later.) This native support will also allow you to tweet and post to Facebook at the same time, however it doesn't appear to show you tweets.

I have looked at some of the Twitter apps and settled on one called "Rowi." The latest version allows me to use multiple accounts, but not as fluidly as tweetdeck, adn no FB integration.  It also does not notify me of new activity unless it's an @ mention, so the "live tile" that is supposed to let you see everything that's happening at a glance doesn't.  We might still be beta testing.  :-) You can add columns, but only from the same account.  If I want to see what's happening on my business Twitter feed, I have to manually switch to that account and vice versa.

Facebook

The Facebook app is pretty decent and looks like the standard mobile Facebook app.  The live tile has never shown me anything other than the F though. If you've seen any facebook mobile, you've probably seen them all.  You have your newsfeed, notifications, photos, and wall.  Navigation, like everything in Windows Phone, is by swiping horizontally.

GPS Navigation

On Windows Phone there are a number of ways to do GPS navigation.  Windows Phone integrates with Bing Maps to show your current location, traffic, etc. and you can search for a location and get driving directions from your current location. Getting to the point where the map route and directions are displayed is nowhere near as intuitive as Google Nav, but after time, I'm sure I'll figure it out.

But the integrated Maps app is not my favorite nav app.  Nokia offers "Nokia Drive" which is more akin to in-car GPS routing devices. You can select 2d or 3d maps, day or night color schemes (no automatic switch to night colors at sunset tho, like Google Nav.). The main map displays your speed and there is provision for excessive speed warnings if you want them.  You can also select to have the display show you elapsed time or distance traveled. It's a nice app, and it's free. You can download the entire country map onto your phone, so when you drive to the boonies and fall off the network, you can still see where you're going.  It was kind of unnerving for me the first time I was doing business on the Arkansas rice plains and Goggle Nav needed to update but there was no network. I was wishing I had printed my route before I left.  Lesson learned and no harm done, but having the entire map with you is nice.

AT&T also offers a navigation app, but it's a pay app, and with these two sufficient free apps, I thought it quite unnecessary.

Pictures

This is perhaps the most disappointing part of the Lumia. It just sucks, in my opinion. When I'm shooting pics in "auto" mode, it should be automatic, clear, crisp, and rich, especially with the hype about this 8Mp Carl Zeiss camera. Unfortunately my shots always seem to have more blur and noise in them than my android phone's camera.  Maybe I need to mess with the settings, but in "auto" it should just work, unless I misunderstand "auto."  You can see several side-by-side photos in a c|Net shootout between the Nokia and iPhone at this link.

Music

What can you say about music. Doesn't everything play music well?  Probably, but what I really like about Windows Phone is the option to get a Zune Music Pass. This is something you can buy from Microsoft and it allows you to search for and listen to unlimited music as long as your subscription is current.  You can download music to your phone and sync it to your media center at home.  It really broadens my horizons in the realm of music.  Granted, it's an extra cost and technically not part of the phone.  The phone does have a ridiculous capacity for your MP3's etc, and includes an FM stereo tuner that works great.

Home Screen

The Windows Phone home screen consists of several "Live Tiles" that you can move, add, delete, and configure.  They flip and twist to tell you that a friend posted a new picture, someone commented on something. They scroll through your photos to provide an ever-changing scene. They can show you the weather.  The possibilities are endless.  You can create a group, add contacts to that group, and pin a tile for that group to the home screen.  That tile will then keep you up-to-date on what the people in that group are posting on social media, and (and I find this really useful) you can click on the groups tile and send an SMS or email to all the members in one action.  It's very handy for family or for a group of co-workers at a convention, etc.  Tiles can be just a shortcut to an app (like OneNote) or they can convey information.  The more information, the better, in my opinion, but I'm not sure we have fully arrived at the end of the smartphone beta test. As the platform matures, I'm sure we'll see better use of the live tile functionality, and I'm looking forward to that.

Summary

I like the Lumia, but I think there is a lot of room for growth. I can't really blame Nokia or Microsoft for immaturity in the marketplace. I'm sure app offerings will broaden and improve with time, as will the OS. Hopefully soon I will be able to decide for myself when the wireless is turned off or on instead of the phone deciding for me.  Hopefully app developers will be able to incorporate more into the live tiles that aren't quite stellar. Hopefully the nut between the keyboard and chair can get acclimated to the new way of doing things.

I would say I am satisfied, but anticipating greater things, and I would recommend it to someone who is using a 4 year old phone, at a point in their contract where they can upgrade, or looking for their first smartphone.

Postscript

I do have to say I am pretty disappointed with teh implementation of Skype on the phone.  I use Skype to communicate with clients and if Skype is not the app with focus, it shows me as offline whereas on Android and PC, I can minimize it or use another app and still appear online and get notifications of incoming messages. Come on Skype! Do better!

Schreibnet Technology Awarded IT Security Contract

Schreibnet Technology LLC announced this weekend that it was selected to provide IT security adminstration and consulting services to Santa Ana, CA based Axiom Cycles,  beginning immediately for a term of four weeks. Services provided will include security analysis, penetration testing, and auditing of network assets including domain and SQL database servers.

"It's a mildly complex environment, but I'm sure we can get the job done, and we will go above and beyond to satisfy the customer. We look forward to a mutually successful partnership with Axiom" said Scott Schreiber, the firm's president.

The Schreibnet.com IT Services division,  Schreibnet Technology LLC, is a small independent firm that can provide you with the support you need to keep your computer systems running smoothly.

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To The CLOUD!

We've all seen the commercial where the actors are stuck in some situation where there is lots of time due to waiting, but they don't have access to their data to do some work until...the light bulb goes on and one of them shouts "To the CLOUD!"  Suddenly we are shown how, even while stuck in an airport with just a laptop, we can now grab our files, email, calendar, and even edit photos from anywhere in the world.

Geared more toward the business users out there, you may have heard of Windows Azure or Amazon Elastic Cloud (EC2) services or other options where business applications and data are stored and run from offsite "Cloud based" infrastructure.

What does it all mean? What is "the cloud?" What are "hosted apps?" What happens when I use Hotmail, Google Apps, Office 365, search with Bing or Google, etc?

You may have this picture in your head that there is a Dell Optiplex GX-2 under a desk somewhere that provides these types of services for you.

Obviously that's not what's going on.

"The Cloud" is a buzzword that is kind of hard to nail down. It's about as nebulous as its real-world counterpart, and that's ok.  There's a great reason for this.

When diagramming networks there are symbols for everything; computers, servers, printers, routers, hubs, switches, and on and on.  But when you get outside the bounds of the stuff you control, or to a place where you didn't need to be as specific about what exactly was out there, the cloud symbol was used. It represents that "gosh there's a lot of stuff out there and we really don't know/aren't concerned right now with what it is.

"The Cloud" is anything from Hotmail/GMail/Yahoo Mail to Instagram (running on Amazon EC2), to high-powered business apps you never knew weren't living inside the company whose logo is on the app.

It includes things like hardware you rent to store data or run software you "own," software you rent and run on rented hardware, or pieces and parts of all of these.

In its current usage it is really a marketing term that means "something else, somewhere else, using someone else's overhead" but as I said, it's a buzzword, so people use it waaaay too much!

That doesn't diminish its usefulness.  Benefits include a more robust disaster recovery/business continuity plan than most small and medium businesses could afford on their own, scalable computing power at prices lower than buying your own additional servers, scalability on the fly to meet more demand without downtime for configuration changes, redundancy, high speed access and so on.

Now though it's called "the Cloud," it doesn't move or evaporate.  It has to be somewhere physical.  Going back to the Optiplex mental picture, it's a little bigger than that.  Here is a great video tour of Microsoft's data centers which form a large part of "the Cloud."  It takes a look at all 4 generations of MS datacenters and I think you'll find it fascinating.



And here is a look at the Google Data center that might host this blog or your GMail.



So there you have it.  Hopefully this is and informative and interesting look into "the Cloud" and the things we do each day via the Internet.

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A couple application highlights in Vista

Of the new applications in Vista, there are a couple of stand-outs.

First is Internet Explorer 7. The most significant leap in IE technology is implemented in Protected Mode and the Mandatory Integrity Control (MIC). MIC is a security feature of Vista that carries the concept of least priviledge over to applications and processes. When IE7 is run in Protected Mode, it is assigned the Integrity Access Level of “Low.” This protects the system and the registry from writes by malware you may have stumbled upon while surfing the `net.

This is a quantum leap in internet security from the practice of loging on as an Administrator and running your processes with that status.

The other application that I really enjoy is Windows Meeting Space. This is a great tool for collaboration, and you don’t have to break the budget to implement this in your workplace, since it’s included in Windows. Not only is it great for remote participation where you can’t physically get together, but it’s also great for when everyone is around the same conference table. In this scenario, you can all share documents, suggest changes, etc. It’s much better than having the meeting, emailing the file out the the participants afterward, and having a slew of revisions come back to you. You almost need another meeting to discuss everyone’s revisions. With meeting space this is avoidable. That should increase productivity.

Firewall and Security

In today’s world, firewalls and data center security are as necessary as locks on doors and windows. Without some device or software to handle security between your computer and the internet, the Sans Institute’s Internet Storm Center reports that the computer will be under the control of a malicious coder in less than 20 minutes. That was in 2004. You can be sure it’s at least that fast today.

Microsoft’s Windows Firewall has undergone extensive improvement since its implementation in Windows XP. The new version that comes with Windows Vista is infinitely more configurable. In addition to the rather nebulous “on” or “off” settings which you had in XP, you can now configure specific rules for programs, ports, or protocols and apply them to different network profiles.

Perhaps even more significant is the addition of outbound traffic controls in the Microsoft Windows Firewall. This is a giant leap forward for this utility and makes it a worthy security option for the home user, especially in view of it‘s partnering with Windows Defender.

In addition to the Microsoft Windows Firewall, for residential scale networking I like to be very familiar with and employ the hardware firewall included in many home networking routers and wireless access points. The two most common of these are the Linksys and D-Link products for home networking. These products often have a web-based configuration utility that allows you to set up specific port behavior and program exceptions, much like a more expensive product, in a way that is accessible to the home user.

Just as “least privilege” is the best practice for user objects, your network should be set up for least access. That is to say that you should only open the ports you absolutely need. An open port in your firewall is like an open window in a locked house. What? You say “but I require a password for remote desktop port 3389.” Ok, so that’s like a screen in the open window in a locked house. Every opening in the firewall is an additional venue for the malicious coder to get control of your computer and your personal information, so it’s best to keep them all closed. If you are a gamer or employ some other application that requires port forwarding or otherwise opened ports, consider closing them immediately after your session.

Once you have the firewall where you think you want it, it is important to test it to be sure. “Testing Proves Testing Works,” as they say. Security Metrics is one of several online sources for security testing. The Free Port Scan and Firewall Test page of their web site will determine your public IP Address and use that to scan your computer for open ports or possible vulnerabilities. It’s basically a self-inflicted port scan from the internet. This way you will know for sure what is open on your network. A tool like this should be used every time a change is made to the firewall configuration on any network.

Vista is Good. It's Time to Admit It.

Vista came out a while ago now. When it first came out, there were issues, and they were primarily related to drivers. Drivers are the responsibility of the hardware vendors, not the operating system programmers. Secondary issues came into play with legacy custom software applications.

Well, here we are in 2009. Vista service pack one has been out for some time now, and service pack two is about to be released. Hardware makers have gotten up to speed with the driver model. Users have had time to understand and implement "Compatibility Mode." Today, Windows Vista is a stable, widely compatible, excellent operating system. It's time to stop repeating the same thing we heard three years ago.

Join me. Drink the Kool-Aid.

I read comments on IT specific discussions on the Internet where people say things like "When XP stops working, I'm going to Mac!" That's irrational and silly. Sure, we're creatures of habit, we don't like change, but that sentiment is oxymoronic. I can't think of much bigger change than going from Windows to it's largest commercial competitor. It's kind of funny when you think about it.

The bottom line is this: Don't be afraid to embrace progress. Maybe not right away, but it's been a while now, and things improve and move forward. Vista is great. Windows 7 is fantastic.