First things first. I don’t have a Blackberry Playbook, HP Touchpad (I sold it). I don’t have Android Tablet with ICS or up installed. I sold them on eBay and bought a nice Surface Pro for me. That puts my tests incomplete, but they gave me a basic idea. Since Playbook and Touchpad have minimal market, I decided not to worry and test against them, unless some great soul loans me those. I might get a Galaxy Note Tab in a few days and I will update this again.

Here I am not talking about App Ecosystem (iPad and Android). I am not talking about MS Office availability (Windows RT). I am not talking about fast boot approach like browser as a OS (Chromebook) or wide choice of devices (Android). I am also not worried about cloud sync, because almost all these devices are capable of syncing to cloud through natively or 3rd party apps. I am also not talking about which lasts longer on a single full charge or which is lighter to carry around.

I just want to be able to sync my smartphone through USB to the tablet I have, and explore it and sync the content. This is just because most of the media and good number of great analysts of Wall Street, IDC and Gartner are talking about death of PC or Post PC devices and even some of them say Microsoft is doomed and it is going to die tomorrow. If that happens, my PCs will not work because a dead company can’t release something to support my devices. I should be able to USB sync my devices, because if I can’t pay for internet for unforeseeable circumstances, the so called cloud services will not be there for me and I really can’t touch my media in the cloud.

Yes, with this type of economy an average Joe like me should be prepared for the worst come and in this case it is having a media backup locally instead of in the cloud would save the day.

Anyway keeping the rant at bay, I tried USB sync iPhone 5, HTC EVO 3D with Android ICS, Windows Phone 7.5, and Windows 8 with Surface RT, iPad 2 and Chromebook.

Here are my findings:

Note: I erased or blurred some parts of the screenshots, as they are not necessary.

Surface RT or any Windows RT tablet could USB Sync with iPhone 5, Android, and of course Windows 8. In the case of Windows Phone 7.5, Microsoft said it needs Zune Client, which is a legacy Windows app developed for x86/x64 compatible processors not ARM compatible processors. Windows RT runs on ARM processor, so which is understandable and you have to use SkyDrive to sync.

When you USB sync your iPhone with Windows RT tablet here are the sequence of events that happen on your Windows RT Tablet.

It shows a dialog box on the upper right corner of your tablet like this:

and then once you tap that you will be presented with this:

If you select “Import photos and videos”, it opens the Photos app and you can import the pictures and videos from your phone.

If you select “Open device to view files”, then the Desktop App gets opened and within desktop Windows Explorer application gets launched like the following:

Once you tap Internal storage, it gets expanded and all you see is the DCIM folder and that’s where your photos and videos taken from iPhone Camera’s gets stored:

If you Sync your Android with Windows RT, once you USB sync your phone you will see something similar to the following. Please note the following are similar screens presented on your Android phone even if you USB sync with your Chromebook:

Once you tap Charge only, you will see something similar on your phone. Please select Disk drive option and tap on Done:

Desktop App on your Windows RT tablet gets launched and it opens the Windows Explorer application and you could see that your Android device mounted as external drive. And you could transfer files between your Windows RT Tablet and Android device. Please wait for 15 to 20 seconds to see this:

Now let us do Windows Phone 8 USB Sync. If you have already done that, you might have Windows Phone App already installed on your Windows RT tablet and it takes care syncing between your phone and Tablet. But if you are doing it for the first time, you will similar to the following screens:

Once you tap, it starts downloading and installing the Windows Phone app from Windows Store. Once it is installed you will asked to change your phone name and option to automatically import media to your computer. Click on All Done and you will taken to Windows Phone App and you could see the pictures, videos, and options to sync music etc:

Ok now let us see iPad 2 sync with various devices. With iPad, of course you have to use iPad USB Adapter to sync with your iPhone, and it opens the Photos App on your iPad and allows you to import pictures/video from your iPhone. Surprisingly iPad doesn’t work with any of Android, Windows Phone 7.5 and Windows Phone 8. It threw an alert box saying “Cannot use USB Device. Connected USB Device Not Supported.”

Once you USB sync your iPhone 5 with iPad2 using USB adapter (purchased separately from Apple), you will see the Photos App launched and you will given an option to Import and delete pictures/video from your iPhone 5 like this:

But if you USB Sync your Android device or Windows Phone (7.5 or 8), you will see something like this:

Now let us see how Chromebook works with iPhone, Android Phone and Windows Phone (7.5 and 8).

Once you USB Sync either your iPhone or Windows Phone (7.5 or 8), you will not see any action on the Chromebook. I waited for more than 10 minutes nothing happened. I opend Files App on my Chromebook and still I didn’t see anything, except for Downloads and Google Drive folders on that:

Chromebook can be synced with Android devices using the Disk Drive option once you USB sync your phone. And since it becomes an external drive, you could transfer files, media between devices like it did with Windows RT tablets. I synced my HTC EVO 3D with ICS and it launched the Files App and I could see my phone listed as USB Drive:

I am planning to get an Android tablet and see how it syncs with various phones. I don’t have a Blackberry or Symbian phones. If someone provides me those, I could run these again and see how they could be able to sync up with Tablets.

Now if Microsoft could provide a way to sync the stored contacts, text messages using USB, then that would complete it.

To me personally, Windows RT tablet is more savvier and appealing than competing tablets. It comes Microsoft Office for RT, which is much better than many Office like Apps for Android, iPhone/iPad or Google Drive. The Windows Store is growing and it already has good number of applications, currently looking at 50,000+ apps and Xbox Games. Windows RT tablets come with USB port support and HDMI support. Of course you could do the same on Android and iPads too. They also have support for various sensors and cameras like higher end Android tablets and iPads. Support for RDP is there like Android Tablets, and iPads. And I could connect to variety of cloud services just like other tablets. The factor for me is having Lync support. I use Lync most of the day to communicate with my peers at work.

Don’t you think Windows RT tablets are better than competing platforms?

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?

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

Most of Windows Phone lovers who go around tech blogs know Paul Thurrott  and his WindowsITPro, WinSuperSite sites. He is one of the early adopters of Windows Phone and spreading word about Windows Phone  and its developments on his sites Supersite for Windows and Windows IT Pro. On 20th April he blogged that his Microsoft insiders said that there would be no roll out of Windows Phone 8 aka Apollo for the Generation 2 and Generation 1 Windows Phones. He made few points why Microsoft wouldn’t release the upgrade for existing Windows Phones including the Generation 2/higher end Windows Phones such as HTC Titan, HTC Titan II, Samsung Focus S, Nokia Lumia 900 etc.

He says “Allow me to set the record straight. No. It won’t happen. Not for the Lumia 900, and not for any other existing phone. It won’t happen partially, through an update that will deliver just some features, and it won’t happen for those who wish to pay for such an update. It simply isn’t happening. Sorry. But please don’t email me about this; I’m just the messenger". Ok, I am not shooting the messenger, but he and his insiders were proven so many times regarding the Verizon’s Trophy launch, Mango launch, and other. He is a great resource for all of Windows Phone lovers, but he had been proven wrong many times and his tipsters probably misled him this time too.

One of his point is “Second, the experience would be terrible; Windows Phone 8 is based on Windows 8, not Windows Phone 7.x, and requires headier, higher-end hardware with two or more core processors.” This is totally moot in many regards. Since Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 share same kernel, he also agrees to that, and Microsoft showed Windows 8 running on Single Core ARM Processor at Mobile World Congress 2012 Barcelona, that experience statement is totally moot. Ok, I understand that is a “Consumer Preview”. Few of us including David, Jim and I are running that Windows 8 CP on older single core processors without hitch. David and I use ExoPC powered by Intel Atom Oak processor, and Jim uses his 8 year old Fujitsu Lifebook. My point is when a beta of Full OS is capable of running on single core ARM without hitch, then why a stripped version of it running on Single core is an issue. 

This is one of the stupid things I have ever heard, i.e a mobile OS needing dual cores or multiple cores. Well there could be some games or apps that might need dual core processor or higher, but for majority of the apps and games, I don’t think so. If that is the case of needing higher end hardware such as dual core or more for a mobile OS, why would Microsoft just released a Tango update, and making the lower end phones can enjoy competing with other platforms’ lower end phones in emerging markets? This allowed Nokia and other Microsoft ODM/OEM partners and carriers to sell cheaper phones in emerging markets such as China, India, Brazil, Russia etc. If Microsoft is that stupid, they might deserve a failure in Mobile market considering Paul and his Tipsters are right this time. I own Microsoft stocks and I hate see Microsoft losing the mobile market.

And also there are rumors contradicting this that WP8 running on Nokia 610 tweeted by MS_Nerd few days ago and a Chinese forum saying Nokia 800 running Apollo (WP8) and its translation you could  see at Insideris.

The only tech reason I see is a clean install might be needed due to different kernel and that may make user to lose her/his stuff. But I bet that that can be fixed with some sync app to SkyDrive and this can be easily done by Microsoft.

And if Microsoft is not doing it means there must be a business decision that is overriding technology is a request/order from their partners including OEMs/ODMs, Carriers, Board, but not tech issues. And why is Microsoft so quite on these for a long time and let the rumors happen is out of my knowledge. I hope Microsoft will end these rumors pretty soon.

And I hope Paul Thurrott is totally wrong this time too.

Source:  Windows IT Pro, MS_Nerd Tweet, Insideris, wpxap,

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 is taking over New York with most anticipated Lumia 900 launch. Last time they did with Lumia 800 around the world and the one in London with most advanced 4D technology together and created an amazing free light show at Millbank Tower, London. I am sure they will do the same to New York if not more. Nokia wants to storm the US market, and I think they already have a great start with Nokia Lumia 710 at T-Mo stores. But Nokia Lumia 900 is much bigger with America’s second largest mobile operator, AT&T. Bad, I moved out of New York Metro long ago, otherwise I would have made to that this evening.

Here is the event they did at London with Lumia 800.

If you can’t make it to Time Square, probably you could watch using EarthCam,

Picture Credit: The above Time Square picture is from McCullah.org

The other day David showed me a good app, Travzine, currently available only for Windows Phone and as per the app developers, iOS app is in works. This is a good app for travellers. If you love traveling and share the moments to your friends and family, then I think this app is a good and handy choice for you. You could create a logbook or zine (I believe magazine in short) and share it via Facebook. Once you start the app, it will ask you to login into it using your Facebook credentials. Having Facebook account is a must and dependency. With this app, once you login you could do Status Updates, Location Check-Ins and Photos – woven into a beautiful zine to show off your travels to your world.

The top features of the app, I found until now are

• Timeline mode where you could allow your friends to view your trip as a timeline. And if you are a Facebook buff, you would definitely love this.
• The other mode I loved is Zine mode, where you could create a magazine like experience with your travel moments and your friends could flip through the entire trip you made just like reading a magazine.
• The feature I liked is explore feature where you could search for the zines around the world. And this feature is available in the trail mode.

The app comes with trail mode where you could create any number of  zines, but it only allows you to log 3 entries per zine. The app costs $1.29 to own and is available on Marketplace here.

The Marketplace entry of the app goes like this

“A must have for travel fans! Travzine allows you to capture the best moments of your travels and then share them as an immersive timeline or a magazine. Your travels are exciting, and sharing them should be more fun. Travzine is a WP7 first app and will be updated regularly. We pinky swear :) iOS App in the works. Fully featured trial grants you unrestricted access to explore the zines created by others. All Zines are PUBLIC currently. Privacy mode coming soon! Trial mode allows you to create as many zines as you want but only allows 3 log entries per zine. **Facebook Account Needed for App** Our goal is to create the best zines from some of the hottest spots all over the world. Here are some features: – Pinnable Zines – Metro Styled Zine browsing – Browse in Timeline mode as well as Magazine mode – Explore featured users and hot zines from all over the world. Please provide feedback on www.travzine.com and help us build a better app!”

You could find more from Travzine website.

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

Many thanks to Andrew Bares for providing the live tweets from Microsoft Booth.

There is nothing major shown regarding Windows Phone 7 except the Local Scout integration with Open Table API for making reservations at a restaurant and hardware of Nokia Lumia 900 and HTC Titan II, both are high end Windows Phone 7 devices running on Mango (Windows Phone 7.5) supporting AT&T LTE. Surprisingly I haven’t seen a single reference in the tweets about Skype for Windows Phone 7 and Skype for Metro. I hope Microsoft would talk about it at least during Mobile World Congress 2012 in Barcelona, Spain. Another surprise is until now Samsung, their another major OEM partner, haven’t announced LTE Phone running on Windows Phone 7.5, probably they have something in surprise and will announce at MWC 2012. But Samsung announced good Windows 7 Tablets today though.

The focus is on Windows 8 majorly and Microsoft’s Marketing Officer Tami presented the show regarding Windows 8.

The interesting points from the demo are:

1. Lock screen with Picture Password

2. Lock screen with notifications

3. Apps written for Metro will run on both the ARM and x86 processors without issues

4. Well anticipated Microsoft Store, that will be launched in February supporting all languages that Windows supports. That makes it global store.

5. Symantic Zoom (a new feature). This lets you pinch out on the start screen easily pan through. This also allows users to group Live Tiles and name them. I wish I see this feature adopted onto Windows Phone 7 as a quick update from Microsoft. I hope Microsoft patented this.

6. Metro UI lets the users to share the information without leaving the app. Microsoft presented emailing a recipe without leaving the app. Sounds like one of the feature that Bill Gates requested while making a decision on letting Courier go. Definitely an interesting feature. I hope Microsoft Patented this.

7. Desktop version of Office with split screen. Metro on the left and Office on the right. This definitely reminds the dead project at Microsoft also knows as Courier. If Microsoft brings out the Courier capabilities into this, my Money is right on it. I hope Microsoft patented this too.

8. Smooth panning in Metro Browser, which is always plugin free, sounds like browsing experience at lightening speeds.

9. HTML 5 Videos can be watched only in Metro browser.

10. Every windows 7 PC will be ready for Windows 8 on day one

11. Kinect is coming to Windows on Feb. 1st.

12. Xbox is not limited to Gaming. It is for entertainment including Movies, Music, and other media.

13. Microsoft is making entertainment experience “easy” with Kinect’s natural user interface capabilities.

14. Kinect will transform the “TV” experience.

14. Kinect can be used outside of gaming, education, medicine etc.

15. Future enhancements of Kinect will bring-out two-way experience of TV Entertainment, Microsoft presented interactive Sesame Street Show, where you through virtual coconuts on Kinect and it puts them inside Elmo’s world. I could only imagine how much my kids would get excited if they get something like this experience.

16. Microsoft is planning to ship next milestone of Windows 8 in February.

17. Microsoft is totally empowered by Metro.  

Ballmer mentioned, "Metro will drive the new magic over all of Microsoft’s experiences." When he was asked what’s next? Ballmer stated, "Metro, Metro, Metro. Windows, Windows, Windows." That concludes Metro is the future of Microsoft.

Side Note: It seems Steve Ballmer uses a Nokia Lumia device himself (as per Andrew Bares tweets), I think it is Nokia Lumia 800 or could be 900, who knows. I haven’t attended the CES personally.

In between the show a group of African-American church singers sang the tweets that people twatted about Microsoft CES, Tweet Choir. Very interesting.