Well I bought into Windows Phone right from the beginning and have owned variety of Windows Phones. I like the experience of Windows Phone because it is different from iPhone, multitude of Androids and Microsoft’s very own Windows Mobile, which is a predecessor of Windows Phone. I have used iPhone 3G to iPhone 4 in addition to good number of Androids made by Samsung, HTC, Motorola and LG. I come from Pocket PC family, and that is my background. I do a lot of mobile app development.

Now coming to the point, I bought this HTC Titan II to replace the HTC Titan I won sometime early May this year. I loved the size of Titan and quality of pictures I could take from it. My only concern with that phone was audio quality. Yes, HTC Titan sucks and your caller hardly hear you. It is little better than Motorola Atrix line but that’s it. The Titan II is an awesome phone, could definitely compete with Nokia in many areas except the audio quality, of course which way better than HTC Titan and Motorola Atrix.

Enough of talking about Titan II. Now coming to the point, I use my phones (both Nokia and Titan II) for my daily communication needs, either email checking, text messaging, Skype, or good old audio conferences in addition to regular phone usage. I am a heavy user and by the end of the day, both the phones will be at 25% of usage. The data goes in and out at constant pace. Almost every email I receive, will be checked on my phone first then the desktop outlook reads it. Apart from regular business usage, I also use it for entertainment after hours.

Something interesting I noticed today, after using it for almost 4 months. Around 4 PM this evening, while waiting for my son at his school, I noticed the emails were not delivered to my HTC Titan II, while my Nokia Lumia 900 picked up the same. When I looked into time when the emails stopped delivered, the last message was received at 2.00PM. So forced it to download the messages, and it came out with errors in syncing with Windows Live, Exchange, Office 365, GMail, Yahoo! I was surprised and the phone was dragging to halt. I checked my SMS, and there also it was the same. I tried the phone part, it worked fine. I took a snap, there I see a lag, which I never noticed before. I thought probably a reboot would fix the situation, and viola, like I guessed, the phone started working fine.

I have to reboot my HTC EVO 3D, Samsung Galaxy Tab definitely every week. I have to reboot my Motorola Atrix almost once every alternate day. Well, iPhone probably once in a month or two.

Windows Phone probably would last longer than these other “Smartphones”. The Samsung Focus, I used before had to be rebooted 3 or 4 times in a year of its usage. Titan, I had to reboot only once in 5 months of its usage. I am waiting on Nokia Lumia 900 reboot requirements. I bought these two almost at the same time. The common thing in these phones is all of them are powered by Windows Phone 7.5. And Windows Phone is rock solid and even if the underlying hardware platform sucks, the OS is stable and keeps the phone running, which is most important factor. OTOH, no matter of how powerful the hardware platform with latest processors and sensors, if the underlying OS is not hardened for stability, it brings the phone its knees.

After about 4 months of usage, I finally rebooted my HTC Titan II for the first time. Wow. Our of curiosity, does anyone else experience the same stability with Windows Phone? What about other Smartphone platforms like Blackberry, Android, and iOS?

Brutal Chase was preleased and pulled about a month ago and there were a fewe people that grabbed it and said that the graphics (3D) were awesome and that the game play was fun. Another great aspect of the game is that it is free! Well  Brutal Chase is back and still free and you can grab it on the Marketplace now:

http://windowsphone.com/s?appid=818ea0b2-37dc-46b1-8b43-b9eee2153f02

Thanks to vacationing David K for the heads up!

Now the iPhone 4S SIRI, which has Artificial Intelligence muscle powered by Wolfram Alpha engine thinks the best cellphone out there as Nokia Lumia 900 4G Mobile Phone – Cyan (AT&T) as the best one in the market. It is funny and most interesting result. The Wolfram Alpha is a computational knowledge engine that is developed by Wolfram Research. Wolfram Alpha differentiates itself from other search engines by computes answer from a structured data rather than providing a list of documents or web pages that contain an answer or not.

Try ask an iPhone 4S “What is the best cell phone ever”, and it will tell you Nokia Lumia 900 4g Mobile Phone – Cyan (AT&T). Now that is funny.

What would Steve Jobs do, if he were alive and saw this?

For the unbelieving eyes that still think it is Photoshop job just go to Wolfram Alpha web site and type in the same question “What is the best cell phone ever” and you would be surprised to see this:

Source: WMPoweruser.com

Yes, you heard it right. Steve Woznaik, Apple’s co-founder, went on saying that Windows Phone is pretty and cool. He has given few reasons why Windows Phone is beautiful and intuitive than iPhone and Android. He went to AT&T store recently to get a Lumia 900. He tweeted few days back via foursquare saying that he was waiting at AT&T to check on Nokia Lumia 900. Of course there was nothing from after that and we don’t know whether he got one or not. But it seems he got one and loves it. He is a true gadget geek and his review definitely means something to world. He is known to carry multiple Android phones in addition to iPhones.

A New Domain’s Gina Smith met “Woz”  along with Todd Moore at Togo’s for a lunch in San Francisco and called KoPoint’s Dan Patterson to talk about his passion for gadget. From the talk they found he likes Lumia even though he prefers iPhone. Here are some of the interesting points from the talk:

“Just for looks and beauty I definitely favor the Windows Phone over Android”

“….I’m just shocked, I haven’t seen anything yet that isn’t more beautiful than the other platforms”

“Intuitive and beautiful”

“it’s makes me feel ‘Oh my gosh, I’m with a friend not a tool’”

“I just really like the experience and will be carrying the Windows Phone everywhere”

“Apps look more beautiful than on Android or iPhone”

Here is my take on this:

The first point – Both Verizon and Sprint should be shamed of not supporting Windows Phone with full heart. And AT&T reps who still downplay Windows Phone should be slapped on their fingers.

Second,Third,  and Fourth points – Steve Jobs would have been crying if he were alive. I know all the Apple fans would be cursing “Woz” by now.

Fifth point – This makes iPhone fans not happy at all.

Sixth point – I know what Google would do next. Make a clone of Windows Phone. And Google fanbois and gals who always say Metro is fugly would claim Metro is the next best things since sliced bread.

Of course he also said that the app selection is limited and even though he likes Lumia 900 over other phones, he still prefers iPhone 4S because of app selection and utilities.

Via: The Report, WPCentral, msn Now

I went to local AT&T store to check the Lumia 900. The store is little crowded and normally on Friday evenings you don’t see that much traffic there. Lot of people are coming to see the Lumia that are displayed. Nokia did a good job it seems by giving away Lumia to Reps and trained them. I asked the rep there and she said lot of people are enquiring about Lumia and she said very few people are asking about Samsung Note and iPhone 4S these days. I got my turn to look at the Lumia and feel it in person. I checked both Cyan and Black Lumia 900 and the phones are smooth and clear black AMOLED display is really good and lively. The size is 4.3” smaller than my Titan but I felt both are of similar weight. I give credit to HTC because they made the phone lighter even though it is bigger than Lumia. 

One thing I found very interesting and different from most of the smartphones is screen is little raised (fraction of millimeter) than the enclosure. You could feel this separation in both colors, cyan and black. I saw something similar in HTC Titan and Vivid and few more.

I liked the cyan one over the black one, even though I personally prefer black phones  or white in the case of iPhone, but here I liked the cyan phone over black. And our David K also likes the cyan Lumia 900. There are two reasons. The black enclosure is not rich black  and looks light colored before display of the same phone. And the cyan seemed more suitable with the black display. I think the contrast choice of colors is pretty neat combination in the case of cyan phone. The phone enclosure seems like a tube with contoured edges, but they are sharp and provide a very good grip. All these days I felt iPhone shell quality is superior over most of the phones available in the US except few of the Samsung phones, even those Samsung phones feel plastic. I really think iPhone enclosure quality is inferior to Nokia Lumia 900 phone.

I might buy a full priced one because my upgrade is not up until July.

Nokia annouced five white Lumia 800 phones to be won by 5 lucky persons. They added a game before you register yourself for a chance to win, where you have to catch a white tile within 60 seconds. Once you catch that tile with in 60 seconds, and of course you will given many chances if you can’t catch that tile within 60 seconds, and you will be asked for email address once you catch that tile and the winners will be contacted by email once the contest is over. This contest is open for  world-wide. Of course you have to read and agree to rules and regulations of the contest.

The program rules say “The Contest begins on 16/02/2012 at 18:00 p.m. GMT and ends on 01/03/2012 at 18:00 p.m GMT (hereinafter referred to as the “Program Period”).” And here is the twist I find odd, once you register your email address, you will get notified on that page that the winners will be announced on 02/27/2012 i.e. 3 to 4 days before the contest is officially over.

Source: Nokia Facebook page.
Via: GoWindowsGo.com, and WMPowerUser.com

The Skype App for Windows Phone 7 is coming soon as per Rick Osterloh, Skype’s VP of Products. During an interview at CES 2012, he said Microsoft is “working on a Windows Phone product that  will be coming soon.” Until now Microsoft hasn’t released any kind of news or details on voice and video calling services through this App. Microsoft acquired Skype in October 2011.

Joe Belfiore, Director Windows Phone Program at Microsoft, promised that Skype would be coming to Windows Phone in late 2011, but until now there is no word from any Microsoft official regarding this even though late 2011 is already “late”. We have to see whether Skype will be installed just as an App or will be integrated into the Core Services of Operating System. If the later part is true, Skype will be installed as an update to the Mango system. But I am definitely seeing Skype as integral part of Windows Phone “Apollo” and beyond.

Anyway since Mobile World Congress 2012 is nearing, I am hoping we will know more about Windows Phone 7 roadmap and at least a demo of Skype within Windows Phone 7, or Microsoft just announce the launch of Skype for Windows Phone 7 then itself. There is nothing wrong in wishing.

Source: The Verge

I for one waiting for this for a long time. Today HTC also announced its first Windows Phone 7 LTE HTC Titan II which has some wow factors like 16 MP Camera. Now this, and Lumia with its stylish build will definitely bring Wow into the mouths of anyone looking for a new LTE phone once it is released. The super smooth Windows Phone 7 looks brilliantly awesome on both HTC and Nokia LTE phones that are announced in today’s shows. But Nokia will definitely make the people drool over its style.

Here are interesting things that definitely make one to crave for this phone:

1. The Nokia Lumia 900 allows data downloads up to 50Mbps on AT&T’s 4G LTE network.

2. It boasts a large, 4.3-inch AMOLED ClearBlack display  which offers a big, crystal clear and super-colorful screen indoors and out. The resolution is 800 by 480 pixels. (But HTC Titan II runs on 4.7” Super LCD with 800×480 pixels resolution). Yes, Super AMOLED beats Super LCD anytime, and the proof is Samsung Focus Vs. HTC Titan in this area.

3. Lumia 900 is powered by updated chipset from Qualcomm, 1.4GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon APQ8055 + MDM9200.

4. Bands supported are GSM/EGSM 850/900/1800/1900, WCDMA 850/1900/2100, LTE Band 4 (1700/2100) & 17 (700)

5. Its all in the battery power,  Lumia 900 powerhouses 1840mAH battery  and that will last for about 7hrs talk-time and up to 300hrs on standby and running on LTE (Android LTE phones make a note of it).

6. Lumia 900 intuitively provides the Nokia Maps and Nokia Drive that makes it separate from the rest of LTE phones either powered by Windows Phone 7 or Android. iPhone is in no where near this. Nokia Drive offers free, turn-by-turn, voice-guided navigation everywhere.

7. Nokia phones are known for their buildquality including Cameras that  are housed in those phones. Actually Mega Pixel doesn’t make any sense if the lens is not at quality. On the back, there’s an 8-megapixel camera with a Carl Zeiss lens and a dual LED flash. This model has a larger, f2.2/28mm aperture, allowing more light into the camera for faster performance, lower chance of motion blur and better low-light shots. You are talking about Nokia, not other. I think even HTC Titan II 16MP Camera doesn’t meet the quality of this 8 MP camera.

8. The video recording quality is at 720p (barely HD), most of Android phones offer 1024p HD recording. Having said that I think 720p makes sense in most of the cases. Lumia 900 supports hi-res video capture for 720p/30fps.

9. Unlike Nokia Lumia 800, this phone has  a second, front-facing camera to give support for high quality video calls at 1MP supported by f2.4 lens and 30fps capture. Now, Microsoft has to release Skype for Windows Phone 7.

We will know more about Nokia Lumia 900 during the week and I can’t really wait to see an actual phone at local AT&T store. By then my Samsung Focus lines (2 of them) would be ready for contract and possibly my budget will allow me to capture both Lumia 900 and Titan II.

The complete technical specifications are:

• Networks: GSM/EGSM 850/900/1800/1900, WCDMA 850/1900/2100, LTE Band 4 (1700/2100) & 17 (700)
  OS: Windows Phone Release 7.5 – Mango Commercial Release 2 (Mango + LTE)
  Memory: 512MB RAM
  Storage: 16 GB internal memory (14.5GB user memory) + SkyDrive cloud storage
• Camera: 8 MP Carl-Zeiss f/2.2 lens with 720p HD Video Capture at 30fps, and 1MP Front Camera with 30fps for Video Call.
  Weight: 160g (5.6 ounces)
  Dimensions: 127.8 x 68.5 x 11.5 mm (5 x 2.7 x .45 inches)
  Display: 4.3” Super AMOLED with 800x480MP resolution.
• Rest of the specs like GPS, Gyro, Compass, WiFi, BlueTooth and other are pretty standard in majority of Windows Phones.

Via: Conversations.Nokia.Com

It was just 5 days ago when leaked pictures of the HTC Radiant, an almost exact clone of the HTC Titan except this version would have LTE on it made the rounds. Paul Thurrott mentioning that Windows Phones would not necessarily be waiting for the Tango update to roll out and that we would see LTE Windows Phones at CES. And now we have it from the Windows Phone Blog that we will be seeing the HTC Titan II heading to AT&T with 4G LTE.

Just some slight rear cover changes is all you’ll notice on the outside, and almost nothing on the inside except the LTE hardware. The Titan II will still be running a 1.5 GHz Snapdragon processor what has been incredibly fast on my Titan. Now here comes the shocker, the Titan II will not have the same 8 megapixel shooter on the rear , but will now sport a 16 megapixel camera that will feature: “a fast wide-angle lens (f2.6, 28mm), autofocus, and dual LED flash. Shutterbugs will appreciate extras like red eye reduction, image stabilization, a panorama mode for landscapes, and a burst shot mode for sports or kids”. Also included will be a front facing 1.3 megapixel camera and 720p HD Video recording. I am not a fan of how the current Titan compresses pictures when you send them, but at 16 megapixels, I would thing some compression would definitely need to happen! Don’t forget the 4.7 inch screen, but if you are like me, you are still blown away by 16 megapixel camera.

Stay tuned cause’ Ballmer hits the stage at 6:30 Pacific Time tonight and will hopefully elaborate more on the Titan II!

Last week we got tipped from Paul Thurrott that we would see an announcement from AT&T about their LTE enabled Windows Phones coming in 2012 at the CES show in Las Vegas. As a matter of fact, the Nokia ACE, the HTC Radiant, and the Samsung Mendel will be the LTE trifecta for Microsoft.  Originally rumored to release with “Tango”, it is looking more like these devices will remain “Mangonized” for now.

Today however, Pocketnow is claiming to have the goods on the first picture of the HTC Radiant, the LTE hot rod heading to AT&T. As you can see from the picture, it looks almost identical to the current HTC Titan. Nothing wrong with that, but wonder why AT&T broke from old habits and didn’t call it the Titan 2 and really confuse some folks!

The specs are all pretty much in line with the current HTC Titan except some back cover changes. Looks like the case has  a lower plastic shroud and the dual LED flash has been moved to the right side. There will be the same 1.5GHz processor which has yet to fail me on the Titan, but we will see what the 1600 mAh battery life, which is stellar on the Titan ends up being with LTE on it. Lastly, word is that our friends down under will get the Radiant on Telstra.

Stay tuned for more on the Consumer Electronic Show announcements and the HTC Radiant heading to AT&T sporting some LTE goodness!