Windows Phone 8, I'm already ready!

Oh man. I’m pumped. I’m super pumped. Microsoft heald the Windows Phone Summit today and had a lot to say about Windows Phone 8. It’s the piece that ties at all together. One harmonious, Microsoft-based ecosystem. “One Microsoft Way,” as the street address of Microsoft headquarters states. And I’m one of the ten people on the planet who is all for it!

Android fans are rolling their eyes, saying it’s about time. iPhone users… well… they’re keeping quiet as upgrades to iOS are starting to lag behind the game that “big daddy M” is talking about. But when the announcement of Windows Phone 8 came today, I was at the edge of my seat. Microsoft proudly states that the software at the true core of the OS will be a shared core with Windows 8. In other words, it’s fairly straightforward that Windows RT and the Windows 8 Metro experience overtop of the Windows 8 Home and Pro desktop environments, is going to be all of the hard work that the Windows Phone team made come true. Taking the guts out of Windows CE and Windows Mobile, and turning it around to something that is this good was a lot of work, and I really hope the Windows Phone team is reaping the benefits!

Don’t take my word for it. During the very beginning of their presentation today, it was pointed out that Windows Phone 7 is really getting their biggest reward from their users. Somehow it’s still not selling, but the user reviews on Amazon rate seven of the top 9 phones on Amazon… as Windows Phone 7 devices. It wasn’t a joke, it wasn’t an exaggeration – I checked it out myself.

And what is Windows Phone 8 going to bring us? Better software – the same stuff you can get on the Windows 8 Metro store, you’ll be able to get on a Windows Phone 8. 90% of the code used on Windows Phone 7.5 can be ported to Windows Phone 8, there will be almost no effort needed to have all of the apps already in the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace will be able to make their way to Windows Phone 8. Windows Phone 8 is also going to introduce multi-core support (dual core right away, and more to come – and they’ve already tested it up to 64 cores!). Support for two new higher resolution (720p and WXGA) screens are going to help keep higher definitions coming along, while not causing massive fragmentation along the platform.

MicroSD sounds like it’s “about time” but it is still exciting to know that I’ll essentially be carrying a full-blown Windows device with a memory card in my pocket – it’s not just going to be pictures and ringtones, it is going to be just as useful as an external hard drive on your current laptop. Microsoft made a big deal of their support for NFC, something that sounds convenient when working with multiple devices, and the new “NFC Wallet” type of experience, but that’s not a huge deal for me. Not enough brick and mortar stores that I’ve been to support that. I guess everyone in Seattle and Silicon Valley must have a need for it, but not so much me.

There are a few other benefits that were described, and these really have nothing to do with the real end-user features that Windows 8 will be pushing, but the one they are quite proud of is the more customizable start screen (as seen in the screen capture at the top of the page). Microsoft has decided to take Windows Phone 7 and the Metro UI’s most powerful feature, and make it even more powerful. I can’t wait. This fall, I will have a Surface, I will have a Windows Phone 8, and I will be thrilled. If you want to know more about what to expect from Windows Phone 8, or see it in action, check out the presentation stream from Microsoft’s Channel 9.

How to use Skydrive on your Android: Browser for Skydrive

Update: Microsoft has released an official SkyDrive app for Android. Original article below.

Browser for SkyDrive is a free app for Android which allows you to access files on your Microsoft SkyDrive account. Sounds pretty straight forward, and it is.

Even though Windows Phone 7 and iOS are covered, Microsoft has yet to release an official SkyDrive app on Android. This app takes fills the need, and does so in quite a professional fashion. An easy to use, split screen interface shows your local file system, and the files on your SkyDrive. You are able to quickly navigate and transfer files of nearly any type back and forth. It is easy to trust the application made by a third party with your Windows Live ID password because it actually takes you take a Microsoft logon page where you authorize the app access, rather than just entering your password and letting the app store it however it wants and send it wherever it might. All in all, it’s a very professional, and very well done replacement (or at least placeholder) for an official Microsoft app. I’ve used it a few times and have been quite happy with it.

A small, non-resource-intensive banner ad at the bottom of the application keeps the app free. I click on it from time to time to support the developer. I encourage everyoen to check out Browser for SkyDrive by Bolero on the Google Play Store.

2001 – Train – Drops of Jupiter


For this special “day after father’s day” edition of Music Monday, I decided to sneakily go through my father’s iTunes and see what he’s been listening to the most of, lately. It was a quick and easy statistics to pull up.

A little background – I grew up in the same area as my father – we’re northewestern Pennsylvanian folks, for our whole lives. Where we’re from, not a lot of fame comes from your neck of the woods, when someone makes it big, you hear about it. Pat Monahan, from the band Train might ring a bell. And while for most people the novelty has worn off, but when I got my father an iPod so he could listen to The Beatles while he worked, I never thoguht he would load it up with music from a band who had their big break when I was wrapping up high school.

The answer in iTunes was clear, Train’s Drops Of Jupiter was undoubtedly my father’s most played album. I thought this was strange. Someone who raised me on everything from The Beatles, to Stevie Ray Vaughan, to Rock Around The Clock was hooked on a band that my friends and I have to roll our eyes when we hear that they put out yet another album.

So I gave it a fresh listen. And part of my transported back to my days as a roller skating rink DJ, playing Drops of Jupiter for friends, and listening to Meet Virginia from one of their other albums. Sometimes I listened to the lyrics and music in a more mature light, with another decade behind me since I first heard the the Drops of Jupiter album. Giving at a fresh look, taking off the jaded tinted glasses of a 2012 hipster who wants to criticize everything that’s ever gone main stream, I can see why he goes back to this album time and time again.

The album showcases a lot of talent, the songs have enough variety to keep you interested. Ballads, acoustic guitar songs, stronger sounds of rock, and Pat Monahan’s vocals tearing through the music of each track. “What would / you give / to Getaway? I know this is how I could be over you / you know this is not another waste of time / All this holding on can’t be wrong / Just come back to me so I am not alone” he cries out in the song Getaway.

But far and away, my father’s most listened to track was I Wish You Would. So I listened to it on repeat a few times to put myself in that place – but it certainly was obvious what drew him to the track in the first place. I Wish You Would features a harmonica, which I hadn’t noticed anywhere else on the album. It also comes right out with a hint of country twang, some fighting words, a drummer trying to punch right throught the drumhead, and a little bit of indignation. Although, lyrically, I don’t think the average person is going to identify much with moving away to become big and famous and hoping your girlfriend follows you to San Francisco – but musically, it’s a great song to get swept up in.

And it isn’t just Drops of Jupiter, Save Me San Francisco, the title track of another Train album, is his second most played song in iTunes. He tells me all the time that the band just has so much talent that he really enjoys listening closely to the different parts as he listens to each song over and over. He picks out the bass, the drums, the harmonica, and listens to the song as if that instrument was playing the solo. Musical talent seeks musical talent. His days in a band are long behind him, but he still loves listening to great music, and if he’s listening to it? Well, then… I think I’m going to be a little less jaded and try to give a fair shake to some of this “popular” music!