Windows Phone 8: HTC, Nokia and Samsung

As of a few days ago, the current count of phones that will ship with Windows Phone 8 is…five. Two from Nokia, two from HTC and one from Samsung.

With Windows Phone 8 set to officially launch in October, it seems that many phone manufacturers wish to jump on the wagon and make some money. In this day and age, any competition is good, pushing companies to one-up one another creating the better device and consumers reaping the rewards. As long as no company is copying another, all is good (won’t go too much into the recent Apple vs Samsung fiasco because to be honest, who cares?). So what is currently being offered by the three big non-fruit phone makers then?

The best iPhone yet...wait wha?

I shall start with the Samsung Ativ S. For all those hoping for something different, you will be disappointed. It is as if Samsung has taken the Galaxy S3 and put WP8 on it with a compatible CPU. The Ativ S has the same 4.8 inch display, almost the same form factor (although less “round” than the S3) and the same 16GB or 32GB option plus microSD card slot.

The Nokia Lumia 920 and 820 are a different story. Building upon the reasonably successful design of the Lumia 900 and 800, the successors are set to take back what was rightfully Nokia’s – the claim to the mobile phone throne. The only differences between the two Lumias are the Lumia 820 has a smaller form factor and has a 4.3 inch 480 x 800 pixels display using AMOLED technology, 8GB of on-board memory plus an added microSD slot. The Lumia 920 does away with the microSD slot and gives everyone 32GB of memory. There is a 4.5 inch display pushing 1280 x 768 resolution, yes that is beyond HD 720p (slightly taller than widescreen) @332 ppi density – higher than retina. The touch screen technology is IPS with ClearBlack offering incredible vibrance contrast and is super sensitive meaning that one no longer has to use just their fingers to navigate their phone; a great feature especially if you use gloves or prefer to use a pointer for writing and drawing. The Lumia 820 has interchangeable covers one of which includes a wireless charging backplate but the Lumia 920 has this as standard.

820 far, 920 close

Both phones will have front facing cameras, albeit the 820’s one only being capable of VGA whilst the 920 one is capable of 1.2MP. As with the main camera, the 820 will have an 8PM camera plus flash whereas the 920 will have a 8.7MP one with PureView with Optical Image Stabalisation and a camera backlighting technique that captures low light images as if they were shot during the day.

Wireless charging? Yes please!

Both phones will be available in a selection of colours, are LTE (4G) capable and will be offered exclusively on UK’s 4GEE (Everything Everywhere) network, which is a bummer for guys like me who aren’t on T-Mobile or Orange, EE’s partner networks, and wanted to upgrade later this year.

The copycats

And finally we get to HTC. HTC unveiled its newest Windows Phone 8 devices, the 8X and 8S. With a similar naming scheme to the One X and One S, one would expect the WP8 siblings to have similar specs and appearance, just like with any HTC product, and one would be right, sort of. The HTC 8 series boast unibody designs and a selection of colours with the 8X being the larger one with a 4.3 inch display and the 8S with a 4.0 inch one. The 8X display sports a nice 720p resolution and the fact that is it 0.2 inches smaller than the one in the Nokia 920 means it has a density of 342 ppi, giving it the crown of density along with Sony’s new Xperia range. The phones will have the same processor as the one in the Lumia range. Like with all HTC phones, the classic flip clock interface is now present as a large live tile. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer praised the newfound partnership with the Taiwanese mobile giant but mentioned nothing of the all important billion dollar partnership Microsoft has with Nokia. What is interesting is that the HTC phones are WP8 signature ones, whatever that means, and Nokia’s Lumias aren’t. It is doubtful that this will make any difference to any of the sales, followers, stocks, arguments or trolling at all.

Now everyone can have a HUD!

During all the announcement events, the most anyone had to see of any software was at Nokia’s, where it showed apps such as City Lens – augmented reality showing POIs overlaid on your camera display. Microsoft has been very tight lipped about its operating system, which can either mean it is still unsure about something, perhaps a bug, and is unable to suppress it during any demo, or that it is highly proud of its creation and doesn’t wish to display anything until the actual release. Whatever the case, here’s to hoping it will be great.

Fight!

While the selection of devices is a bit thin, all the phones released offer something that the Apple iPhone 5 does not and that is the fresh factor – the feeling of using something new that no longer feels outdated. BlackBerry has suffered this recently and the more learned of the iPhone 5, users are definitely feeling that Apple’s innovation may be grinding to a halt. There will no doubt be those arguing about the amount of apps in the iTunes store compared to the Windows one but the point is that the main and most useful apps such as the social networking ones, RSS and mail clients, camera and productivity tools are available on both platforms.

GCSE Changes, for Better or for Worse?

Recently, there have been a number of changes within the education establishment. The most prominent one is, obviously, the scrapping of GCSEs in favour of a new system. A lot of people don’t understand exactly what these changes are and what they mean for people. It’s partly because of misunderstanding and partly because of the vitriol that’s being thrown around by politicians at the moment. This article aims to clear all that up, though.

Politicians

What Does it Mean?

  • The removal of modular exams. One exam will be taken at the end of the course, which will last for three hours.
  • There will be a tier system within the paper where students can earn more marks by choosing the harder questions.
  • Grade boundaries will be much higher so fewer students will be awarded the top grades.
  • One exam board to reduce competition.
  • Harder questions, such as full essays instead of smaller answers in English exams.

Modular Exams

Take a look at modular exams and you will think that removing them is a good idea. Of course, why should students just get to redo their exams until they get the right mark? Surely that would be something like issuing a referendum until the right answer is given, oh wait! In principle, this is a good idea, but not in the way that they have decided to put it forward.

Little Jimmy is a model student. He hates PE, he gets beaten up by the big kids, yet ultimately he’s on course to run a multi-national company where he will earn more in a week than they earn in a lifetime. Now, little Jimmy has got his exams coming up. The problem is that his mother just died, he’s just recovering from heart surgery, and he’s got a cold. Hard life, eh? Well now he’s going to fail his exams because he’s not up to his normal standard through no fault of his own. That’s unfair.

What needs to happen is that modular exams need to be taken with limits on how many times they can be redone. How about this? Allow every student to take one exam each year. If a student fails their exam in year 10 then they can do it again in year 11. That’s fair. A one-year limit is sufficient enough to eliminate excessive retakes.

Tier System and Boundaries

There are no issues with the tier system change. It gives students control over what they do. It’s merely the combining together of the current tiers into one stronger paper. That’s not making things more difficult and it’s not unfair, that’s called streamlining.

Too many people are being given the top grades and the boundaries are in need of a desperate change.  It’s not because the exams are necessarily getting easier, it’s because these quotas that the exam boards have to meet are getting bigger. The government wants a certain number of people to be getting a specific grade every year. Schools are being leaned on. Unsurprisingly, they go to the exam board that gives out the highest grades more often, and then the exam board is more successful. Great change.

A small note on difficulty, I believe that the difficulty moves with the boundaries so it’s all about increasing and decreasing the amount of students getting certain grades. Nothing special about that, it’s been done for years.

One Exam Board

Leading on from my previous point, schools are going to choose the easier exam board. The unpopular exam boards are going to make their exams easier to get more schools to choose from. And thus the cycle continues. It’s, as the papers say, a ‘race to the bottom’. I’ve never understood why there wasn’t one exam board to start with.

Or if you want to have multiple exam boards make them specialise. Allow no competition. AQA can handle History, WJEC can handle English, and Edexcel can handle Maths. What’s hard about that?

Is it Good?

In my opinion it is. It does have its flaws, but I think the main issue is that people fear change. Critics say that some students are going to suffer because of these changes. I would argue back, however, that some students are suffering now. No system can please everybody. Sooner or later you just have to put your foot down and admit that people will suffer. Deal with it.

A grade

Think the iPhone 5 Has the “World’s Most Advanced Display”? You’re Wrong.

Mobility Digest has a post exploring the screen of the iPhone 5, described by Apple CEO Tim Cook as the “world’s most advanced display” at the launch event, and comparing it to the screen on the recently announced Lumia 920 (and the 900). The result? Cook is either ignorant of his competition, or he lied. If he is emulating Steve Jobs, then we’ll place money on the latter, but who knows?

To give a quick rundown, the iPhone 5 has a resolution of 1136 x 640, compared to 1280 x 768 on the Lumia 900. The iPhone 5 also has 326 pixels per inch (PPI) vs the Lumia’s 332.

The Lumia 900 has 600 nits for brightness, the iPhone 5 has 569. These Lumia specs are from its existing model, and the 920 has progressed even further. “The next generation of Clear Back Display [Nokia’s outstanding screen technology] technology found in Lumia 920 adds a high-luminescence mode that works automatically improving contrast and brightness outdoors performing even than the old CBD in 900.”

Bear in mind that 900 won awards, against the iPhone and others, for its visibility outdoors. The 920 automatically adjusts itself depending on glare and brightness outside.

The screen refresh rate on the 920 is 50% faster than the iPhone 5, producing “a clean transition from frame to frame allowing the display to deliver a steady 60 FPS without any blurring” (head over to the Mobility Digest article to see the comparison of this).

Apple is boasting about the iPhone 5’s sensitivity – the 920 works with almost anything, including thick gloves.

The end result? Compared to the Lumia 920, the iPhone 5 results are:

Screen PPI: -2%

Screen Resolution: -25%

Screen Sensitivity: it would be embarrassing to find a percentage.

Screen Refresh Rate: -50%

Screen Brightness: -5%

Screen Reflectance: -40%

Screen Outdoor Legibility: -15%

 

Apple Maps: The Disaster (And How the Competition Fares)

For iOS6, Apple realised the importance of mapping software as part of an ecosystem and decided to ditch Google Maps in favour of its own offering. This is fine in theory, but the problem is Apple has not got the maps to a particularly useful standard before pulling the plug on Google’s. This has led to a backlash from users, and even led to TomTom, the supplier, speaking out in defence of its service so it doesn’t get caught up in the criticism.

So what’s wrong with Apple’s maps exactly? A whole new Tumblr page has been created especially to show the problems, and some images can be seen below:

 

A bumpy landing lays ahead
Oulu is the biggest city in Northern Finland, but iOS doesn’t know where to find it
This is Bogota, Colombia. Apparently.

 

Mashable also has another collection of iOS6 map photos

 

This is Apple’s idea of walking navigation. The red pin marks where the blue line should be going
Mumbai does actually exist.
Looks like the Brooklyn Bridge needs some structural attention.
 

Not missing a beat in recent months, Nokia has used this opportunity to explain how its own mapping services are the industry leaders. The new aggressive marketing from Nokia is a moment to revel in for its consumers, given the company’s reluctance in the past to hype its own innovations. In the arena of maps, Google is considered the one to beat. That may be true for mindshare, but when it comes to the most superior product, Nokia stands without peers.

 

Somehow, Apple is still employing its ‘reality distortion’ field and telling people that “it’s the best mapping program on any mobile platform“. The world begs to differ Apple…

Samsung Takes a Swipe at Apple (& Users)

Samsung isn’t known for being the most respectable company, or one that oozes integrity, so it comes as no surprise to see the following video came from Samsung rather than another smartphone vendor. Opinions on whether it’s right or wrong though, it has to be handed to the Korean company – it has found a nail and hit it on the head. Samsung isn’t much of an innovator in the mobile space, preferring to load its devices with unnecessary specs (anything to make Android lag less though, right?) and market them on that. However, each year Apple comes out and announces a device that ignores the industry standards, shuns compliancy with existing technologies, and lacks features. From day one the iPhone lacked something as simple as 3G connectivity; the 4S launch brought remarks of “the iPhone 5 will have the big features next year” and the iPhone 5 came out with a slightly bigger screen, sub-par maps, and panoramic picture shooting. No NFC, no improvements to the screen’s visibility outdoors, no microUSB, and so on. Once again, iPhone users are left waiting another year in the hope of getting a genuinely new, innovative feature.