Tag: Microsoft

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Ask Juan: Should I Upgrade my Desktop (non-touchscreen) to Windows 8.1?

Screenshot (1)From one of our readers using our contact page:

Hey,I have an older quad core AMD desktop running Windows 7 and was going to put in a SSD. While I was doing that I thought maybe I should upgrade to Windows 8. I don’t have a touchscreen though, so I was curious if you thought that would be a good idea? Thanks, Alex

First of all, I run an older quad core in my workstation, and installing a solid state drive (specifically a Kingston HyperX) made my system feel brand new. I think you’ll really dig it.

The upgrade to Windows 8.1 is a slightly trickier question. It’s pretty obvious that Microsoft is using this new interface as their first attack on tablets and touchscreens. Microsoft’s job moving forward isn’t to “save” the PC market, but redefine the what a PC is. If you’ve read much on this site, you would know that I’ve been fairly positive on their progress so far.

Stepping outside the tablet-y stuff however, I think Windows 8 can offer up some benefits to non-touchscreen users as well.

First of all, boot times are seriously improved. The combo of Windows 8.1 and an SSD will feel like an absolute screamer compared to Windows 7 and a spinning disc hard drive. My low power Windows 8.1 ultrabook with an SSD cache boots in about half the time as my desktop did with Windows 7 and a proper SSD. My Lenovo absolutely destroys my Nexus 7 in a cold boot race.

windows 8_1 file transfer dialog boxSecond, I think Microsoft has made some solid improvements to file management. It’s not the sexiest aspect of an OS upgrade, but you get substantially more info when moving files, better estimates for completion, and the entire file browsing experience has been more stable. I would run into issues on Windows 7 with folders that had tons of files. As my computer would scan through creating thumbnails it would occasionally just get stuck on a file and never finish the scan. What ever file it would lag on would just become completely inaccessible, and I’d have to jump through CMD prompt nonsense to fix it. I haven’t had any issues like that with Win8.1 so far (knocks on wood). Continue reading “Ask Juan: Should I Upgrade my Desktop (non-touchscreen) to Windows 8.1?”

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App Review: Phonly RSS Reader for Windows Phone

wp_ss_20131029_0010Phonly is a sweet Feedly RSS reader created by Geek Industries. I actually stumbled upon this app in the Microsoft App store, and I decided to download this highly rated app to see what all the buzz was about.

I’ve never really used a feed reader before but what better time than now to try it out! Soon as Phonly finished installing I opened the app up to give it a go. The first thing I did was create a Feedly account and start adding feeds.  Adding your favorite feeds is pretty straight forward as you can enter a URL, title or topic to find your favorite sites or find a new feed.  You can also create custom categories to keep all your feeds neatly organized.

Phonly has a ton of options on how you would like your feeds to be displayed.  To refresh your feeds, a simple swipe down on the screen and Phonly will automatically refresh all the sites you’re subscribed to! The free (ad-supported) Phonly has a fluid modern UI with a light theme. The dark theme can be purchased in app, which also removes ads. Both the Light and Dark themes are very easy on the eyes.

Some of the key features of Phonly: Continue reading “App Review: Phonly RSS Reader for Windows Phone”

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Real Person Review: Tony Talks About His Nokia Lumia 925

nokia lumia 925 review (1) fatboy wireless charging sled somegadgetguyTony is a pal of mine in Florida, and he owns a Lumia 925 on T-Mobile. Having previously owned an iPhone, I asked him a couple questions about making the switch to Windows Phone.

What phone/phones did you use before the Lumia 925? Which have you liked? Which have you disliked?

The only other smartphone I’ve had was the iPhone 4. I did have a Motorola Krzr long ago, but there isn’t enough room on the internet for me to fit all my praise for that phone. Despite having switched to an entirely different OS now, I didn’t have major complaints with the iPhone and it really was quite a good device. One thing I did find frustrating was the restrictiveness of iTunes and the difficulty in using my iPhone as a mobile music library shared between my computers at home and work.
Thoughts on build quality, design, and ergonomics?

nokia lumia 925 review (4) rear back plate sled somegadgetguyThe Lumia 925 is just a beautiful phone. The colorful plastic cases of other Lumia models are fun, but I really like the sleek aluminum frame on the 925. The curved edges make it very easy and comfortable to hold in a single hand. My one complaint may be nitpicky, but I noticed the non-removable plastic back of the phone isn’t firmly attached near the top and has small but noticeable give when pressed. I don’t think I would mind as much if the entire phone were plastic, but this minor defect undermines the feeling of solidness given by the glass front and aluminum frame and slightly cheapens the experience in my mind. Continue reading “Real Person Review: Tony Talks About His Nokia Lumia 925”

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Microsoft Posts Video Showing XBox One Dash and Multi-Tasking

xbox one home start screen dashboard live tiles kinectGetting really hyped up for the next console generation!

Microsoft is teasing us with this short video showing off the Xbox One’s Kinect integration and giving us a sneak peek of what the UI will look like. Kinda nice seeing some Live Tiles on a TV screen, and it’s certainly clear that Microsoft wants to be the front end interface for your entire living room, as we also get to see IE and Skype in action. Thankfully they remembered to include a little game play footage as well. Because, you know, it IS a game console and all…

Check it out below.

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So Many Tablets! I Join BooredAtWork to chat iPads, Lumias, and Surfaces

iPadAir-iPadMini_34B2B_lock-blue_home-nebula-PRINTMany, yesterday was a pretty full day. Microsoft started selling the Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2. Apple showed off sleeker iPads. Nokia unleashed a Windows Phone phablet and a Windows 8.1 RT slate. Plenty to keep a solo tech blogger like myself busy. Thankfully I have a few friends in the tech blog community to help me out. I joined BooredAtWork.com in hangout last night to chat about all the exciting developments.

It was a lively discussion, chatting up all the news. What was your favorite announcement yesterday? Are you looking forward to a Retina iPad Mini? LTE on a Nokia tablet? Drop us a comment!

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Nokia Finally Officially Unveils the Lumia 1520 For Real, Lumia 2520 Windows RT 8.1 Tablet Unveiled at $499

lumia 2520 22I’m a little exhausted by Lumia 1520 leaks and rumor posts. Thankfully Nokia has made this thing real, so now we can talk about it again.

Soon-to-be-Microsoft-Employee (CEO perhaps?) Stephen Elop took the stage at Nokia World this morning in Abu Dhabi to show off Nokia’s new wares. The worst kept secret in tech made it’s appearance, and we all finally got to confirm what the rumors and leaks have been feeding us for a couple months now. Nokia is making a phablet, and the Lumia 1520 looks like it’ll be a formidable piece of gear.

lumia 1520 02The 1520 will sport a 1080p six inch display, the highest resolution screen ever put into a Nokia or a Windows Phone. The Qualcomm 800 is unsurprisingly confirmed as well, boosting Windows Phone into more current quad-core processors. Along with the GDR3 software update (now called Nokia Black), the screen size has allowed Nokia to add a third column of Live Tiles to the home screen. lumia 1520 03It’ll have 32GB of storage on board and will be the first premier Lumia to finally include a MicroSD card slot for expanded storage (up to 64GB). Nothing like walking around with almost 100GB of flash storage in your pocket to make you feel powerful. The purchase of a 1520 will also include an additional 7GB of Skydrive storage free.

lumia 1520 04The Lumia 1520 sports a new 20MP Pureview camera, something of a halfway point between the Lumia 9xx series and the monster 41MP Lumia 1020. It’ll sport optical image stabilization and oversampling software tech, which means we’ll probably get some of the zoom and crop capability from the 1020, and photos downsampled to 5MP for uploading online should look pretty good. Also of note, the camera app is getting a refresh. Dubbed ‘Nokia Camera’, most of the features from the separate Nokia Pro Camera, Smart Camera, and Video camera apps are getting rolled into one interface. I would expect the horsepower of the Qualcomm 800 to improve on the auto-focus and white balance speed of the sometimes pokey dual-core in the Lumia 1020.

lumia 1520 05

Continue reading “Nokia Finally Officially Unveils the Lumia 1520 For Real, Lumia 2520 Windows RT 8.1 Tablet Unveiled at $499”

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AT&T Locks Exclusive on Nokia Lumia 1520, Will Sell Lumia 2520 Tablet too!

lumia 1520 04AT&T and Nokia have been pretty tight since the first Lumia 900 hit the USA. It seems whenever Nokia drops cutting edge hardware, it’s likely that AT&T will have first crack at it.

It’s now been officially announced that Nokia’s newest handset, the Lumia 1520 phablet, is destined to be on Big Blue’s LTE network. This will also give AT&T the most robust collection of Phablets on the market with the Lumia standing along side the Galaxy Note 3, the LG Optimus G Pro, and the HTC One Max.

It was also announced that AT&T will be carrying the Lumia 2520 Windows 8.1 RT tablet, which will be one of the more affordable tablets to include LTE when it’s released later this year.

No pricing or availability as of yet, but at least now you know so you can plan for your holiday phone and tablet shopping.

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(via AT&T)

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Instagram and Vine finally officially come to Windows Phone

lumia 1520 09It was always the ultimate irony. The line of phones from Nokia featuring some of the most advanced camera optics were denied access to the world’s most popular social photo and video services.

No longer.

Announced this morning in Abu Dhabi at Nokia World, official Instagram and Vine apps are finally on their way to the Windows Phone App Store. IG will face some hearty competition from the third party Instagram solutions already in the ecosystem. Personally, I’ve been a big fan of 6Tag for uploading and sharing pics on my Lumia 1020. However, for those of you concerned about third parties having access to your log on, or you just really want that “pure” IG experience, you wont have to wait much longer.

Expect both apps to drop later this year.

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