The new Outlook and Skydrive

Recently Microsoft has been modernizing it's  core products in quite a fast pace. I've already talked about Windows 8, but now also Outlook.com and Skydrive.com have new, fresh and modern appearance and they're totally worth a try.

SkyDrive
 

I've used SkyDrive a lot in the past year because of the great integration with my Nokia Lumia 800 Windows Phone. Instead of always connecting my phone to the computer to download the images, I quite often upload them to the cloud storage straight from my phone. The SkyDrive app on WP7 is pretty neat, but now that Skydrive.com has been totally modernized, I'm very pleased to use it on my computer.

The interface is very clear, simple and fits greatly to the browser window. You can easily have side panel to show extra info, or access the settings or social media share options, etc. The new SkyDrive site uses some modern HTML techniques that enables e.g. re-arranging photos with drag-and-drop gestures and uploading photos by dragging them from your desktop to the browser window, skipping the annoying "Select files to upload" type of dialogs!

One of the few things that annoy me is the fact that you can't rotate images that are already uploaded to SkyDrive. That should be fixed since sometimes the camera doesn't get the rotation of the image right, causing many portrait images rotated into landscape pics.

Outlook.com

I haven't used Hotmail much since it's always been my secondary email, but with the re-branding (to Outlook.com) I'm considering using it more than before. First of all the web email interface is better than anything else I've tried, even Gmail seems less easy to use compared to it. You can change the interface main color, reading pane position and more very easily.

One cool thing is also an extra panel that shows social media (FB, Twitter) content from the person who's email you are reading, nice! You can also chat on Facebook (also on SkyDrive) directly from Outlook.com without need to swap back to other browser tab or window. It's the same high social media integration that I've seen on Windows Phone.

Outlook.com could have many inboxes, from 3rd party services like Gmail, but I haven't tried that yet. What I did like was the option to create aliases for my old Hotmail account. The old email, macjuhruo@hotmail.com, obviously isn't the best possible, so just with few clicks I created a juho.ruohola@outlook.com alias that automatically forwards the mails to my Hotmail-account and inbox. There's still plenty of settings and stuff I haven't tried, but overall the impression of outlook.com is very positive.

Microsoft, the cool kid

Windows Phone 8 start screens

The title of this post is something I could not have imagined to say just few years back. But things change, and the technology sector for sure is constantly evolving. I believe things can change dramatically either by innovation or pressure from the competition. In Microsoft's case I think both are prominent.

In the last few years Apple has been growing so fast that everyone else seems to be the underdogs now.  Despite having a small share in the PC market throughout it's history, Apple now dominates the tablet market which many think is the way of the future, "post-PC era" as it's called. Apple's innovation (and overwhelming success) in the tablet and phone market has been the major wake up call for Microsoft.

The Surface tablet from Microsoft. Drool-worthy.

I think they've gotten the message and now, and are taking big and fast moves to change their own identity. With Windows 8, Windows Phone 8 and the Surface tablets Microsoft is making their debut as the cool corporation, dumbing the boring, gray old face we've all gotten used to. There is doubt over how Windows 8 will succeed on the dektop/laptop market. But for tablets, it is fantastic. And by bringing their very own tablet to the game, Microsoft clearly states they are serious about it.

So, next fall will be interesting. With Windows products as cool and elegant as Apple's, will Microsoft be able to push it big time into the tablet and phone market? Hard to tell, but when I saw the Surface tablets with their bright, vibrant keyboards/covers, stylish metal chassis and Metro tiles running on it's screen, I was WOW and basically ready to buy. Quite an achievement for Microsoft, a company a regular Apple guy like me so much loathed not so long time ago.

Windows 8 on Mac Mini

Ever since I saw the first video clips from the upcoming Windows 8 sometime in 2011 I wanted to see it live and try it myself. The Metro UI was simply looking so fresh and cool, coming from Microsoft after all! Sometime afterwards I started using Windows Phone 7.5 on HTC Radar and Nokia Lumia 800. WP7 also features Metro-styled Live Tiles and UI in many of the apps so it's pretty close to the Windows 8 Metro user interface.

Even despite Windows 8 consumer preview being available to public, for free, I had a problem: I was using a Mac instead of a PC and wasn't planning on buying a PC in the near future. It wasn't until late May 2012 when I got tipped (Thanks to @gadgetero on Twitter!) that the Win8 preview can be run on a Mac with ease, using VirtualBox virtualization software, also available for free download.

So I went and downloaded the Windows 8 consumer preview from Microsoft and VirtualBox from Oracle. I recommend to follow the instructions on OS X Daily.

Installing VirtualBox was very easy as was setting up the virtual machine and it's options. Really nice software! When I was a kid, virtual PC emulators for Mac cost a lot of money so it's cool you can nowadays get such quality stuff for free. Next up was the installation of Windows 8. It crashed during the installation once, but I think it was due to me being away from the computer (Win8 installed faster than I thought!). Despite the crash, I could finish the installation right after reboot with no further problems. Afterwards the VirtualBox Win8 always got stuck in the start up screen, but I could bypass this bug by changing the virtual machine boot order from the settings (Hard Disk as #1 boot drive).

 Windows 8 with Metro UI running on VirtualBox on my Mac Mini.

So what do I think about Windows 8 now that I've gotten the chance to try it? I think it's really great! Instead of the half-empty desktop and static icons I've used to, the Live tiles were truly alive, telling me info without opening the actual app. The ones that were immediately working for me were the E-mail and Weather (after set-up) tiles, but I can only imagine how cool it will be once all kinds of apps are built to utilize the Metro stuff to the max. Many have argued that the big tiles are not suitable for a mouse use on a big desktop computer screen, but I found them rather easy to use with a mouse too and I do love simplistic design. You can get a lot of info just looking at the tiles, plus to me it's like the quick place to launch any of my favorite apps, especially if I see there's some interesting new stuff going on in it. I don't need a gazillion icons (they tend to pile up on my desktop anyways). Of course it's not going to be an optimal start up view for everyone, but you can get to the old style Windows desktop and resource managing with one single click.

I love the vibrant colors, nice little animations and clear, fresh, neat interface Metro has to offer. Time will tell if I feel like that after months of using it, but the first impression is good! I can imagine Windows 8 will rock on a tablet since mobile devices are the ones where Metro is really meant to shine after all.

I have to admit the built-in preview apps themselves were quite buggy and crashed many times. Also my Mac Mini isn't the most powerful machine on Earth so e.g. games were so laggy they were impossible to use. But the basic Metro desktop etc. worked pretty smoothly, albeit not in full screen. But no matter if you're using a Mac or PC right now, you should give Windows 8 Consumer Preview a try, there's no complete escape from it anyway once it starts shipping later this year!

PS. thanks to @gadgetero again for the social links code on the right menu =)

Storage in the Cloud

These days when Internet connections are fast and everywhere, saving data on local hard drive is rapidly becoming obsolete. Many applications are already running on external servers rather than on the user's computer as well. It's a very fascinating scene - it gives the freedom to save data/apps in one place but use it anywhere, on multiple devices from desktop computers to phones.

"Cloud" services as such aren't entirely a new thing, however. I'd imagine e.g. Picasa Web Albums can be counted as one and I've been using it for years. But it's been a very specific service. Today, there are fully functional web-apps, vast amount of services but also plain and simple cloud storages, They've been around for some time too, but now their use among regular users are exploding, thanks to the extremely user-friendly interfaces (e.g. Dropbox) and system level integration in Mac OS X (iCloud) and upcoming Windows 8 OSes (SkyDrive).

I don't have experience from iCloud (even though I use a Mac), but I've been getting familiar with SkyDrive since I use it a lot on my phone. In fact, I am slowly moving away from physically connecting the phone to my Mac to transfer images and videos, I simply save them from my phone to my SkyDrive folders and they're safe there even if something happened to my phone. SkyDrive actually has automatic image back-up from the phone, but I don't use that (I want to trash bad pics immediately). Same functionality is in iCloud backing up your docs, apps, music, pics etc. automatically. So even if your back-up hard drive was destroyer along with your device, the stuff will still be safe on servers far away, and you can fetch the stuff back. Pretty cool!

Left: SkyDrive app on Windows Phone 7.5. Right: Dropbox icon in Mac OS X.

My version of OS X cannot run SkyDrive application so I can't tell about that, but browsing through the files and folders and uploading stuff is pretty convenient through web browser as well. Dropbox, on the other hand is fantastically integrated into OS X desktop itself, it appears as if it was a local folder. Just drag and drop files and they'll synch into cloud! Ready for you to use on different platforms whenever necessary.

So if you're thinking about getting a back-up hard drive or a new USB-memory stick, think again, they might not be necessary at all! Most of the big players in tech industry are now offering some sort of cloud storages/services, mostly for free! You should check them out.

Update: Google Drive went official today so it joins the competition of the largest Cloud storages. Engadget has put up a nice comparison table
 

Links:

SkyDrive from Microsoft
Dropbox
iCloud from Apple
Google Drive from Google

HTC Radar with WP7

I have now been using my HTC Radar for about a week and here's some of my thoughts of it in brief. I also added sample photos and couple videos for you to see.


Windows Phone 7.5 'Mango'

For the past few years I had been using Apple's iPhone 3G, a great phone, but badly outdated by now. I could've stayed in the iOS 'ecosystem' but decided to try something new - WP7. When I got my hands on the HTC Radar, it was my very first experience with the Microsoft developed mobile OS. Previously I had never seen or tried a WP7 phone anywhere, except for YouTube videos.

Considering the background, the switch from iOS was surprisinly easy and pleasant. Maybe it was because I'm tech-oriented guy. Nonetheless, the WP7 operating system is very nice. It's different from iOS or Android, and fits somwhere in between them, in my opinion. The logic is different from the two most popular mobile systems, but after a short while you'll get used to it. Most notable are the features of Live Tiles on the home screen and the Metro style UI.

Live tiles are more than the typical icons on iOS and Android because they show much more information. E.g. "Me" tile shows notifications from social media apps, calendar shows upcoming events, etc. etc. Metro style is in use in most of the apps, the logic is that different views inside the app are horizontally arrangend. You move between these views with familiar swipe gesture. Live tiles are colored according to the current theme color and it can be changed from the settings at any moment.

 WP7 application count is growing at fast pace with some 40 000 apps currently available at the Marketplace. Many of the most popular apps are already available, such as Facebook, Foursquare, Twitter and WhatsApp. There are some nice "WP7 specific" things, such as pre-installed Office suite and of course Xbox Live that is really nice addition to a mobile device! It makes it's easier to keep up with Xbox Live friends and it's more fun to collect achievements from games on your phone rather than just playing them without such goals.

The Windows Phone slogan "Put people first" is apt. One of the cool features of the OS is "people hub" that integrates your contact info from all social medias and accounts into one place. Then, by tapping a person you can choose which way to contact him/her, whether it's a post on Facebook wall or SMS. You can also arrange people into groups and tap contacts to the start screen.

Some of the settings where rather hard to find or I wasn't unable to find them at all. Sometimes (mostly in the early stage) it was also difficult to understand that the physical "back" button on the phone itself also applies to moving within the applications.

Other than that, WP7 is easy to use, swift and - imho - looks gorgeous.


HTC Radar

General

My first impression of the phone was: surprisingly elegant. HTC Radar is packed in a neat, clean package with not too much of extra materials. Once I took the phone out of the box, it looked and felt great: the grey metallic body was quite sleek and it had a feeling of better quality than what I expected.

Sure, it sorf of looks like the most of the usual smartphones out there, but itlooks great anyway. It's almost identical in the size with my iPhone 3G (Radar: 120.5 x 61.5 x 10.9 mm, iPhone: 115.5 x 62.1 x 12.3 mm) with a little taller and slimmer design.

Setting up the phone was easy by following the on-screen instructions. Sadly though, my SIM-card didn't have any contact so I had to manually insert people who were not on my Facebook or Window Live services. I hope the transition to my next phone will be easier, though I doubt it.


Screen

The screen in HTC Radar is 3.8" in size and with the WP7 standard of 800x480 pixels it gives a very nice resolution of around 246 ppi. To me, it was a positive surprise to realize how sharp the screens in the smartphones are these days. The text is so sharp that you basically don't see the pixels anymore. Also the viewing angle is great (comparing to my old phone).

The glossy surface of the damage resistant Gorilla Glass display looks and feels great, although it reflects lamp lights etc. in "right" angles. The automatic brightness level setting seems to work well and I like to keep it on.


Camera

The camera on HTC Radar is a 5 Mpx with a F2.2 lens that gives a bit more wider angle and better low-light photography than perhaps the average cameras on other phones (it's getting more common I think, though). The photo quality is OK: looked up close the pictures are quite blurry on flat surfaces, but for any online use they scale down to be great. Photos taken on daylight can also qualify for regular print photos, but not any larger print than that I think. But what I really love is the simplicity of taking a photo: even when the phone is in lock screen, you can start the camera quickly by pressing down the camera button.

Once in the camera mode, you can either choose to take pictures with the physical camera button, or tap on the screen to focus and shoot on a specified target. You can also access the many options and settings of the camera while in the camera mode. I especially love the Panorama mode that helps you take panorama pictures by stitching 3 photos into one as you turn your camera horizontally. Very easy and great way to capture landscapes etc. Click the link to see some of my HTC Radar sample pictures

HTC Radar can also capture 720p HD video that seems to be quite good in quality. Unfortunately, I haven't had a chance to really test it in life, but you can see some of my not-so-great test videos on YouTube: HTC Radar HD video sample 1 | HTC Radar HD video sample 2

HTC Radar also has a front facing camera, but that I haven't had a chance to test in any way. Guess it'll be useful if you like to make video calls.


Software

The phone came pre-installed with some HTC specific apps, but I haven't found them that much useful since there are many other apps that can take their place (weather apps, photo editing tools). But when getting started, they were a good addition.

Talking about the photo editing apps, it's great how easily you can edit the photos on your phone. Once you've taken a picture on your phone you can directly open it in your favorite image editing app from the camera roll. Then, after editing the photo is saved in Saved pictures folder.

One absolutely great thing is the easy of sharing pictures and videos into social media: just tap on the share action and you can choose to which services you wish to share that picture, whether it's Facebook, Twitter, email or SkyDrive. One thing to notice: the built-in share feature compresses the images into smaller size, so if you want to upload the full resolution image, you need to use specific app of that service, e.g. Facebook. Many of these share and other features are part of the WP7 system and it has been just a thrill for me to find and use them on this my first WP7 device.

One of the not so great experiences is the syncing the of the phone with my computer that happens to be a Mac. There is an Mac application for this use and the interface is nice and easy to understand, but when syncing it uses iPhoto which I don't use, and getting iTunes music to the phone seems to be blocked because of some DRM things. But you can get files off the phone with direct file download, which I tend to use now. It's a shame the phone doesn't shop up on desktop as a USB memory or a connected camera like the iPhone does.


Some final thoughts

The price tag for HTC Radar is very compelling, since it's a mid-range smartphone and not the flagship phone or even flagship WP7 phone of HTC (Titan is). There are some lack of hardware: the processor isn't the best of all with 1Ghz but it's enough to run almost everything very smoothly. The only case so far I've had a slight lag is on some games with alot of stuff going on. Radar doesn't have a compass either, so some apps will miss it.

On the other hand, HTC Radar has most of the stuff a modern smartphone should have: great screen, good camera with HD video, GPS, front facing camera, tons of sensors for games and apps to use etc. etc.

For regular use HTC Radar has all you need, it looks and feels good and it's nicely priced. WP7 is worth trying and if you don't require the most top-notch phone, HTC Radar might be a great choice for you.


You can find detailed technical specifications of HTC Radar here: http://www.gsmarena.com/htc_radar-4131.php

Happy 10th Anniversary Master Chief!

Ok, I'm few days late with this, but better late than never, right? =)

Anyway, so it's been 10 years since the launch of the original Xbox from Microsoft, along with Halo, it's launch title and what one might call the console's "killer app".

I was thrilled about the original Halo since it was to be released on Mac by Bungie who had made the outstanding Marathon game trilogy (indeed, Marathon is the spiritual predecessor of Halo). I kept watching this video of the initial Halo announcement by Steve Jobs over and over again.. But then Microsoft bought Bungie to port the game for their upcoming console. It was such a sad moment and I lost interest in Halo - until the summer of 2010.

It was my little brother who introduced me to Xbox 360 and two titles in specific: Dirt 2 and Halo 3 (in multiplayer). I was so impressed about the games and the thrilling atmosphere in Halo 3 multiplayer that very soon I bought my own Xbox 360 and Halo 3 alongside it (before playing the campaign I also bought and played through the original Halo: CE and Halo 2 so I wouldn't miss anything from the story!). Later on I also got my hands on Halo: Reach and Halo 3: ODST.

Now, I will have the opportunity to play the original Halo completely refined to match the look of modern games. The original Halo: CE I bought and played on my Xbox 360 was already 9 years old, in 4:3 ratio and with laggy frame rate and old graphics.

So it's time for me to finally experience Halo: CE as a new game just like the others had enjoyed it 10 years ago. I also look forward on the new multiplayer map experience over Halo: Reach. See you on Xbox Live!

My gamer tag: AliquisNJ