iPhone 4 (vs Galaxy S) vs HTC Windows Phone 7 evaluation - two months without my iPhone

Regular readers will know I gave up my beloved iPhone 4 for a month in October to test drive a Samsung Galaxy S. Summary: Android ok, but not switching. The next test is an HTC Windows Phone 7 for a month - the month has now been and gone, and I'm still carrying the phone...that tells you something! I reluctantly have to give it back this week, so time to put cards on the table. Here's a breakdown:

For those of you who've never seen a Windows phone, here's a useful intro from http://msdn.microsoft.com/.

Image copied from http://msdn.microsoft.com/ used under fair use

The thing I particularly like about the Windows Phone operating system is the way instead of thinking about apps (Twitter, Facebook, SMS, Email etc...) I can think about People, and see everything related to a particular person centred around them. I'll let Wikipedia describe this idea of 'hubs' to you:

Windows Phone features a new user interface, based upon Microsoft's Windows Phone design system, codenamed Metro. The home screen, called the "Start screen", is made up of "Live Tiles". Tiles are links to applications, features, functions and individual items (such as contacts, web pages, applications or media items). Users can add, rearrange, or remove Tiles. Tiles are dynamic and update in real time - for example, the tile for an email account would display the number of unread messages or a Tile could display a live update of the weather.

Several features of Windows Phone are organized into "hubs", which combine local and online content via Windows Phone's integration with popular social networks such as Facebook, Windows Live, and Twitter. For example, the Pictures hub shows photos captured with the device's camera and the user's Facebook photo albums, and the People hub shows contacts aggregated from multiple sources including Windows Live, Facebook, and Gmail. From the Hub, users can directly comment and 'like' on social network updates. The other built-in hubs are Music and Video (which integrates with Zune), Games (which integrates with Xbox Live), Windows Phone Marketplace, and Microsoft Office. 

Extract from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Phone 13/12/2011

Things I love...the ideas behind the interface. And some of the features; like the voice control and the way if you're running late for a meeting you can email the organiser straight from the diary reminder, very cute.

My big criticisms of the Android was the ability to get photos off the phone and music/videos onto the phone via my MacBook Pro - not an issue at all on Windows Phone. Using the Windows Phone 7 Connector App (free through the Apple App Store) this is simple, natively syncing with the iTunes music and iPhoto albums. Spot on.

Things I love less...well the number of applications available is hugely limited compared to the iPhone App Store. I don't think you can make screengrabs. If that's it, then that's not bad.

So. What next? I don't want to test a Blackberry for a month. Does anyone think it's worth my while? I want a Nokia Lumia Windows 7 Phone. Everything I like about the HTC but slimmer and sleeker.

Cards on the table. I really like Windows Phone. Better than iPhone? I don't know - they're different. But I'm sticking with Windows. For now, at least.

The Future of Flash - a talk by Seb Lee-Delise

Today I attended a talk organised by the Digital Media students at the University of Brighton, presented by Seb Lee-Delise, a Flash/Javascript/Interactivity guru.

Seb Lee-Delise inspiring his audience to keep on learning

For a considered opinion on the demise of Flash and the rise of HTML5 read this post by Adam Yeats (who co-organised the talk today).

Seb was a highly engaging speaker, taking us through the highs and lows of Flash over the last 10 years. He demonstrated the demand for Flash and actionscript coders (15 times LESS than HTML and javascript programmers at the moment) with stats from real job listings. I particularly liked the way Seb used his tweet stream to engage with his audience, responding to the tweets and identifying the tweet authors in the room. 

So, what is the future of Flash? Is it dead? No, according to Seb, it's not dead. Tomorrow somebody could write the next in-browser multiplayer game to replace World of Warcraft using Flash and suddenly demand could change completely. On the other hand, maybe they won't, and Flash will fade away, left only for specialist applications where video is involved and it really is the best solution. We're in flux. We just don't know what's around the corner. And that links to Seb's leaving remarks - as illustrated in the photo above. We can't stand still, Flash one day, HTML5 the next, who knows what tomorrow! Love learning and experiment and it will be an exciting ride.

What's in a kiss? Seminar - considering language online

This Wednesday I attended a lunchtime seminar: What's in a kiss? Emoticons, initialisms and kisses in instant messaging language presented by Dr Lynn Cahill.

Lynn was presenting the work of a student comparing features of language use in Instant Messaging chat between teenagers and undergraduates. Their findings are shown in the slide below, which gives you a flavour of their research:

A new concept arising from their work is that of 'medial kisses'. Many people sign off messages and emails with an 'x' but medial kisses are those used to end sentences throughout a conversation, almost in place of a full stop.

I was intrigued by the idea that most teenagers don't capitalise the word 'i' unless it's at the beginning of a sentence. This is an irregularity in the English language anyway, so if any changes result to written English over time due to this behaviour it will be to standardise, which may not be a bad thing. In fact the typical view seen in the press, that teenagers are ruining the English language and don't know how to use it properly, was completely overturned in the qualitative analysis of this research. The participants showed that by knowing how to use English properly they were better able to subvert it for efficiency and impact (following the current trends) when typing with their friends.

I've discussed this with a few colleagues since and decided there is definitely something generational happening here. I tend not to type an 'x' on anything unless it is family, a close friend or possibly somebodies birthday. I do however use emoticons (eg smilies like ;-} ) on emails and facebook posts very regularly in order to help clearly express emotion or lighten the tone.

I'm off to check my Twitter stream...how often do I use x and ;-} and LOL in my tweets? I'm pretty sure I always capitalise my 'I's though!