Today we mark a milestone: the mobile operating system Windows Phone celebrates its 15th anniversary. While the exact date may vary depending on how you define its beginnings, it’s been about a decade and a half since Microsoft formally launched the Windows Phone platform ushering in an era of bold ambitions, distinct user interface design, and ultimately a story of both innovation and cautionary lessons.

The Beginning

Microsoft introduced Windows Phone 7 on February 15, 2010 at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.  Commercially it launched later that year: November 8, 2010 in the U.S. marked when the first wave of handsets arrived. 

The platform was built to be a fresh start: instead of simply iterating on the older Windows Mobile line, Microsoft reimagined the mobile OS experience with a new “Metro” design language, live tiles, and a modern consumer-oriented UI. 

What Made Windows Phone Unique

Live tiles & dynamic interface: Unlike traditional icon grids, Windows Phone’s start screen gave what looked like widgets that changed in real time. This visual style set it apart. Design focus: Microsoft emphasized typography, bold colours and simplicity in a marketplace dominated by iOS and Android.  Tied to Microsoft services: The platform aligned tightly with Microsoft’s ecosystem Exchange, Office, OneDrive (SkyDrive at the time) showing how the company imagined phones as part of a larger productivity stack. New hardware partnerships: Devices launched from manufacturers such as HTC, Samsung, LG, Dell and later Nokia, giving Microsoft a broader hardware footprint. 

Highs and the Rise

During its life cycle, Windows Phone achieved some notable moments. For example:

The partnership with Nokia was a big deal: Nokia adopted Windows Phone as its primary smartphone platform around 2011, creating the Lumia line.  The model Lumia 520 (running Windows Phone 8) became one of the best-selling Windows-based devices, showing that Windows Phone could make inroads especially in budget/entry categories.  Technically the shift from Windows Phone 7 (CE‐kernel based) to Windows Phone 8 (NT‐kernel) gave the platform more modern underpinnings. 

The Challenges & Ultimate End

Even with these strengths, Windows Phone stumbled in several key areas:

App ecosystem: Despite its design and potential, the app selection lagged behind Android and iOS. Many developers opted to prioritise the dominant platforms first. A recurring narrative.  Late momentum: By the time Windows Phone proper launched, iOS and Android were well-established. Gaining meaningful market share proved hard. Hardware/partner fragmentation & transition issues: Microsoft’s acquisition of Nokia’s devices and services unit complicated things, while the shift to Windows 10 Mobile further muddied the brand.  Support and ecosystem wind-down: In October 2017, Microsoft announced no new features or hardware would be developed for the platform effectively signalling the end of the mainstream push. 

Why It Matters after 15 Years On

Even though Windows Phone is no longer a major player in the smartphone OS market, its legacy is meaningful. Here’s why:

Design influence: The emphasis on clean typography, minimal chrome and live content (tiles) influenced how UI for mobile and beyond evolved. Lessons in platform building: The story of Windows Phone is also a roadmap of what happens when an ecosystem (apps, partners, developers) fails to come together, even when the product has strong ideas.

Microsoft’s pivot: The platform’s fate sharpened Microsoft’s strategic shift: rather than build a full mobile OS to compete for dominance, the company moved to embrace cross-platform strategies (bringing Office, Teams, Edge, etc to Android & iOS). Nostalgia factor: For many tech enthusiasts and mobile historians, Windows Phone stands as a “what might have been” moment a credible third option that didn’t quite make it.

A Look Back at What Went Right … and What Didn’t

What went right: Fresh UX ideas, strong hardware partners (especially in the Lumia era), deep integration with productivity services.

What went wrong: Insufficient developer support, late arrival in a saturated market, brand/marketing confusion, hardware momentum never eclipsed the incumbents.

Final Thoughts

On this 15th anniversary of Windows Phone, we’re reminded of the boldness of trying something different in mobile and the crushing difficulty of doing it successfully. Microsoft’s attempt deserves credit for shaking up the mobile UI paradigm, and the journey offers rich lessons for anyone interested in platform warfares, ecosystem dynamics, and tech strategy.

If we reflect on the smartphone landscape now, Windows Phone may seem like a footnote. But for those of us who remember pinning a live tile, flipping through People Hub, or snapping a Lumia photo in hopes of “what’s next” it remains a distinct chapter in mobile history.

Here’s to Windows Phone: the tiling smartphone that dared to be different.

I am a staunch fan of Microsoft and use their technologies in every walk of my professional and personal life. After realizing that there is no device coming from Microsoft after Lumia 950 in the near future and learning that Bill Gates switched to Android, I had given a long thought and tried to hold on to the Lumia 950 for a while even Microsoft might not release any new device in near future. But I had to jump ship after a long struggle that is nearly a year of struggle as my device is becoming long in the tooth.

My Daily Driver Needs

Microsoft powered devices are my daily drivers for my daily life even before the advent of Smartphones. I had started in pocket smart device journey with HP Jornado 720 (handheld device) powered with Windows CE and after Microsoft released Pocket PC, I bought the very first Pocket PC HP Jornado 545 and used it as my contacts manager and pocket notebook that includes keeping track of my finances. I switched to Smartphone when HTC released Blue Angel with Pocket PC OS, and then I never looked back. I used almost every primary Windows Mobile device such HTC Diamond, HTC Advantage, HTC TyTn, and HTC TyTn II. I also have used HTC Shift x9501 which was released with Vista and tortured Windows Mobile. I had immense pleasure in using the Windows Mobile and I never looked for other alternatives. I used to be very active on XDA forum and cooked my own ROMs too.

When Microsoft shifted gear to Windows Phone 7 realizing that there is no market for Windows Mobile, I switched to WP7 buying the Samsung Windows Phone 7 on the release day itself (November 8, 2010). Then I realized Samsung WP 7 is not that great and tried HTC Titan and Titan 2. While Titan 2 was great, I really liked the Lumia 900 (Nokia’s WP7 device) and switched to Cyan version of it. Then I upgraded to Lumia 920, 1020 (I still have this and I use it for taking pictures), 1520 and then Lumia 950. While Lumia 950 is great, I found the battery is dying on me for every two hours and also in pocket ghost reboots are annoying. That made me switch to the new one. I checked the Alcatel and HP offerings of Windows 10 Mobile, but I really didn’t like the hardware. Nothing can beat Microsoft hardware, I own and operate Surface Book and Surface Pro 3 and I like them totally. I am happy with this choice even though App ecosystem is limited when compared to Android and iOS. Since I use my device for communications, content consumption, collaboration, Microsoft Office, keep up with personal finances, casual surfing, and photo taking,  and as those are perfectly feasible on my Lumia devices, I found it as a great companion, and never really looked around.

Alternative Choices

I had considered Android before moving to iPhone X. I have had a mixed opinion with iPhone as I have an iPhone 7p, which I use for development. I also have a Samsung S7 Edge for development. While S7 Edge runs with Microsoft Launcher and other Microsoft apps, it failed two times on me. The first time, the device screen died and after back and forth with Samsung support, I got that replaced. This was immediately after it was launched. Then the screen started displaying pink vertical line on the right side, now there is no alternative other than replacing the display or get a new one. I tried an LG G5 as the pink line is becoming annoying for my development and I found to my surprise LG G5 is also not great, as it is going into continuous bootloop and then suffered from backlight bleed and blooming issues and I had no choice other than returning it back. These made me think that the Android devices are nothing but beta hardware. I am not trying to generalize and stereotype, but I strongly felt that they were not good as my daily drivers. I wanted to get Google Pixel 2, but I couldn’t as I found the smoothness of that is not that great as iPhone X.

My New Daily Driver

After a long consideration and searching the App Store on my iPhone 7 Plus, I found there have the Microsoft apps that I use regularly, and interestingly they are stable also. I also found the Google apps also are great on iPhone than Android. And I thought this was great and decided to replace my Lumia 950 with iPhone X as my daily driver. I really never thought that I would be on to iPhone system as a daily driver, but it happened and that was meant to be. I bought iPhone X and started playing with it for the past few days and I found it as a not bad device at all even though there are certain issues that could make it as a pre-release device, I would not call it as beta hardware, but nearly production ready device. I have one great gripe with my choice, which is not on the phone, but with the App or feature. In my Lumia I could call Cortana from in-car dialing by giving a command saying Call Cortana, and then interact with Cortana on road. This comes pretty handy like learning weather ahead, news, traffic conditions, or any other emergency alerts, taking or diverting calls, texting etc., without leaving hands on the steering and eyes from the road. While there is a Cortana App for both Android and iOS, it can’t take calls as it is not integrated with the system and interestingly neither Siri nor Ok Google can’t be invoked by calling them from Car Bluetooth. The other gripe, while Siri is hot, I can say Cortana is more intelligent and useful, but to each their own.

iPhone X turned into another Microsoft powered device

Outlook

I use Windows Mail on my device and Outlook on my computer for email and I found the Outlook app from Microsoft as a pretty stable and I could manage my calendar also easily with it. As I am totally into Outlook for my daily communications, I found the Outlook App as great. The Focused Inbox feature of Outlook helps me to filter out unwanted crap as newsletters or non-essential email. The other advantage is its ability to integrate with cloud storage and the ability to easily load files from the cloud are always my choice and I immediately found it at home.

OneDrive

I take a lot of pictures daily and while I miss my Lumia 950 quality, I found iPhone 7 Plus camera as a good one and the one iPhone X as improved one. I also backup my photos on OneDrive, and I found that I could automatically backup my pictures to OneDrive easily with one setting.

OneNote

I take a lot of notes in my professional life and I use OneNote and as I could continue on my Phone and PC with OneNote, I found it as handy. The 3D touch feature enhances the OneNote.

Edge

While a lot of people use Chrome or Safari on their iPhones, I love using Edge browser and I could use the Continue on PC to continue my surfing after I reach my PC.

Office Apps

While I rarely edit Word, Excel or PowerPoint on my phone, I sometimes use them to quickly correct the documents and send them for review as I get involved in designing and architecture. Also, I could open my PowerPoint and fix any issues. As these apps are available on iOS also, I found it close.

Sway

Recently I started using Sway for creating ad-hoc presentations with my photos and it as totally useful.

Azure Management Portal

I do a lot of Azure development in my professional life and this is a pretty handy app and I started loving it.

Office Lens

I use Office Lens a lot to quickly take a picture of a document and convert it into PDF.

Bing

I use and prefer Bing (I already said I am a Microsoft fanboy) and the Bing app is totally awesome and handy.

Cortana

While Cortana integration is seamless in Windows 10 Mobile, and I found the app is limited in feature such as in-car dialing to Cortana, I found this as not a bad one. I could set up reminders using Cortana and I can get that read on my other devices including Harmon Kardon Invoke too.

Skype for Business

We Skype for Business (formerly known as Lync) for our business communications and the app is totally great and its integration with cloud services and Office are great.

Delve

I use Delve app a lot, which comes pretty handy as most of my office emails contain attachments and I can find them easily without searching or scrolling through the email.

Authenticator

I use this app for security and logging into systems securely.

Translator

Microsoft Translator comes pretty handily whenever I start communicating with my friends that live throughout Europe.

Write Ideas

This is a Microsoft Garage app, which I use a lot to convert my speech into text and save it into word documents and edit them.

Teams and Group Me

While I rarely use Group Me, I use Teams a lot to communicate and collaborate with my teams.

Visio Viewer

As an IT architect and engineer, I interact with Visio diagrams regularly and this app is pretty handy and useful.

With these apps and services, I found iPhone X is not bad at all, while it may not be my beloved Windows 10 Mobile, I think I have bought a stable hardware powered by not a bad Operating System with great Microsoft App ecosystem.

I don’t have many apps, mainly because they suck. Not just on windows phones but speaking more generally. Having to dive through dozens of apps for things has never been something I want to deal with. I don’t think I’ve ever had more than a dozen (not including games) apps on my phones. To my surprise, I found one app that, thanks to Microsoft abandonment of the platform, is much better.

Yo necesito ir a la clase de Espanol. Hence, I downloaded Duo Lingo. My fiancé and roommate did as well. My lady and I are learning because basically no one we work with speaks Spanish and we like money and promotions. My roommate is learning German because he’s trying to get laid. Priorities. Regardless of your reason for using it, Duolingo is actually pretty awesome. I feel like I’ve learned more Spanish in the past two weeks than two semesters in high school. This could have been due to the fact my priorities were more closely aligned with my roommate’s at the time.  As we’ve progressed through our linguistic journeys I noticed him doing something strange on his phone.

I walked through the room the other day and he’s staring at ads on his phone. I don’t know what that’s like, mostly because I usually buy apps to avoid that sort of thing or just use a windows phone and no one thinks advertising to three people is worth the time. I asked him what he was doing staring at his phone like it was undressing, and he replied “learning German”. I wasn’t sure what he meant and asked if some new and updated Android Duo Lingo app had German ads for you to watch and translate. Turns out on every other platform Duo Lingo has ads, once again showing scientifically that windows phone was the right choice. Seriously, 10$ for one month of ad free use? I’m serious about learning Spanish to help myself, not others.

Most arrogance aside, Duo Lingo is an awesome app and if you’re interested in learning another language (and also living under a rock because it’s been out for six years). It makes the process fun and very effective at reinforcing the things you’ve learned, even if you don’t have anyone else to speak the language with.

So, two crazy things happened today. One was from Australia, where the Brisbane Supreme Court ruled that an unsent text can be a substitute for a will. The second was from Yahoo news when they used a Windows Phone in their news article on 10/11/2017!  I just joined the financial world not long ago and the passing of estates is a convoluted and varying process, not only from country to country, but even between our united states. This is very interesting and a little disturbing precedent, although obviously not for our own legal system just yet. Let me illustrate why all of this is very strange and slightly discomforting.

I’m in North Carolina. Where we hate bathrooms and are mixed about our confederate statues. We also have intestate laws, which govern how estates are settled when someone dies. Typically, if you have a will, it follows whatever provisions you have laid out after creditors are satisfied. There are a few exceptions to standard, traditional, made-by-a-lawyer, wills. If a person is on their deathbed and still of sound mind, they can simply attest, or speak, their will in front of witnesses who must later testify that the deceased was actually trying to convey their last will and testament. The other provision is if a letter, handwritten in the deceased hand, is found among the deceased personal effects like a safe deposit box. The important thing about both of these provisions is that they either require testimony by at least two people or must be handwritten in their own hand. Now this is all a very common sense approach to dying and passing on property. This common-sense element is where Australia lost me.

The story goes that Australian man and wife separated, wife goes back to ex-husband leaving current husband incredibly distraught. Husband commits suicide and has no will. Inside the husband’s phone investigators found an unsent text message ‘detailing’ the dissemination of his property. The court ruled this permissible and denied the wife any money or proceeds from the real estate. This is scary because we have absolutely no way of knowing if he actually typed out that text message. Anyone could have typed it. The court argued that because of specific knowledge located within the text message that it could only have been written by the deceased. That is an enormous crevasse to traverse regarding the legal precedent of people dying, especially in an era where people commit suicide or die just before divulging incriminating evidence against politicians seemingly like clockwork. Also, I would never, EVER, commit suicide. Just getting that out there. This is, however, not the strangest news I’ve seen today.

A Windows Phone in a news article about cell phones in 2017? That’s insanity. Yahoo must have missed my article a few days ago. This is the kind of uphill battle Microsoft had to play.  Too bad the news media just got on board considering Windows Phones as something newsworthy following the wake a few of us held for it on Monday.

What do you folks think? Should we start accepting digital and unverifiable documents to act as official wills? Should something like this allow the passing of at least non-real estate property like personal effects? Let us know and remember, I didn’t commit suicide.

You know what Windows Phone and Civil American Political Discourse now have in common? Well two things. Obviously, they’re both dead and they pretty much got worse as time went along. Long time windows shepherd, Joe Belfiore took to twitter to torment the three people who still have windows phones on Sunday, letting me, Jimski, and my fiancé (It’s my fault: We met the day I sold her a windows phone) know that, like the possibility of bipartisan legislation, our hopes for new developments are no longer well placed. So with that news let’s take a walk down the road of Windows Phone yore, at what made it different and, until something radically new emerges, the most efficient smart phone anyone made.

The year was 2010. Microsoft’s previous smartphone iterations were as awful and disjointed as the company itself had grown. The lumbering behemoth of too many years at the top of the electronics chain, was being entirely undone by a company they had recently saved from the trash (Apple) and the future malevolent “do no evil” rulers of us all (Google). With the iPhone basically creating a consumer desire for smartphones that didn’t do work, but made fart noises and had a capacitive screen that could be fingered and thumbed by the simplest of human brains. No longer was the smartphone a smart thing, but it was given the mass market that no one knew anyone wanted. Google, quick to notice anything trendy as they locked up the world’s web search market share under shady business practices, were right on their heels’ as they presented what was supposed to become an open source smartphone operating system. Instead, Google worked to, over time, coopt the basic foundation security and functionality that was developed by many companies and even volunteers into a closed and proprietary system that required licensing fees. Then came Windows Phone 7.

This was the first Smartphone that was designed with the user in mind. With more than a single needed step back from the creation of a truly user-based smartphone system, Microsoft had to invent drawing boards that would fit their ultimate phone creation. The idea of a static row of icons just sitting there, doing absolutely nothing useful for the consumers, so desperate for the flood of information that these new devices could give us was a travesty that Microsoft and crew could not abide. Live tiles were born. A shameless embrace of digital iconography in a world that still uses white backgrounds for either word processing or forcing headaches onto people who are doing word processing. It wallowed in the crisp digital display of information with its “Metro” design language. It wasn’t simply its image that was a complete game changer either.

With the iPhone and Android the new name of the game was apps. I feel this is where Microsoft and the world truly parted ways for smartphones. Try to find a picture on an iPhone. The first step is going to be remembering what App it’s currently stored inside of, whether that be Instagram, facebook, snapchat, your camera roll, your online back-up camera roll, your google drive, your time machine, or your super-secret app that doesn’t look like an app at all but stores all those… personal pictures. That is a ridiculous thing to have to remember in a world of multiple devices and ready to use API’s across every internet or mobile service of the time. Microsoft saw this and devised a system that would aggregate content from EVERY service provider into a single location for the user. This was, and is increasingly, revolutionary. In 2010 when the “internet of things” was emerging from our lexicon, there weren’t five dozen photo app services. There was basically facebook and twitter, both of which Microsoft was able to strip just the wanted information from and bring straight to the user without the need of an app or even a web browser. This was OS level functionality. You just went to photos and they were all there. No facebook ads, no twitter announcements, just the raw usable data we wanted without interference from the content deliverer. Much the same way the best ideas for the people are often buried under special interest, so was the greatest smartphone platform ever devised.

Content providers were livid. Users weren’t going to their site. They weren’t seeing their ads. They weren’t getting blasted with the Facebook brand over the Twitter brand or vice versa. So instead of be a part of a system that empowered users, that gave them the time and freedom to access their content on their terms, these companies pushed back and refused to make apps for this new revolution. In fact as time went on and API’s for this sort of delivery could have improved, most companies removed this functionality in a uprising of apps that saw the writing before it hit the wall; If this type of digital interaction takes off why would anyone need them? And, we didn’t. Since owning a Windows Phone, the only apps I’ve installed were to replace functionality that was taken in an “upgrade” to the platform.

Every operating system needs updates. Users expect improvements in every level of operation these days. Not only speed, reliability, battery life, screen size, functionality, even though many of these expectations are often contradictory. Windows Phone 7 was no different. However, with these content delivery companies refusing to make apps, removing API functionality, or sometimes both Microsoft had to address them to improve their marketshare in the face of these challenges to their design. In the end, Microsoft burned through piles of money courting app developers and hardware designers that could have easily paid off most of the student debt in the USA. None of this could stop the bleeding. As they gave up inch after foot, foot after yard, and yard after mile, the original ideas and concepts of user data unity and ease of access without apps were burned as not convictions of a better life for users interacting with their devices on their terms, but as tokens of compromise that were never intended reciprocation.

Which brings us to the creation of Windows Phone’s tombstone. Windows Mobile 10… Windows Phone 10… let’s face it, these guys were so fucking done at this point they didn’t even bother to give it a name. When the world of bloggers and twatters out there began to wonder what the hell to call this new iteration so much that multiple articles were written with widely varying names assigned, someone at Microsoft PR finally found something to do, other than put out fires about Windows 10 upgrades. They finally named the death of their platform, and it was such a half assed attempt I don’t even care to remember it. Completely gone of almost everything that made their phone different, Microsoft (in their best attempts to pretend it was still alive, presumably after several viewings of weekend at Bernie’s) released Windows Phone/Mobile 10. With two devices and nothing in the pipe from ANYONE else, only the most stubborn disbelievers (yeah, me and Jim, the fiancé by extension) didn’t need to wait in line, but did traverse an entire metro area to our only Microsoft stores to buy an unlocked and $650 electronic coffin for another of Microsoft’s ideas that was far beyond its time. I’ve enjoyed my 920. I will probably continue using it for as long as it remains viable. Hopefully by then the next wave of whatever it will be, I’m guessing some sort of augmented reality, in the vain of google glass or a far less enormous Hololens.

What are your fondest memories of Windows Phones failed experiment?

From our own Matt Anderson:

I feel increasingly silly every passing day that I carry a Windows Phone. The grim reality has started creeping into the peripheral noise and nuisances of my days as apps disappear, CEO’s switch hardware, and new hardware slips the surly bonds of two year old tech for edgeless displays and better battery life.

F$@# an iPhone though. At least my phone can scan my iris without me peering into it like a f@#$ing zombie while hoping my 1,000$ electronic disappointment is not a total farce designed to do nothing but take away a much better unlock method in the name of “progress” and sell a few proprietary accessories in the process.

I’m with ya Matt. I will never succumb to the iWorld Kool-Aid. I bought an Android phone a couple months ago, for…..err, testing purposes. Yeah, that’s it. Although it does have the same Micro SIM slot as my 950. Unlike my Lumia 650, which has a Mini SIM slot. A basic Asus Zen something. $149. I have downloaded all of the Microsoft apps available, but have not logged in to any of them. I have managed to keep my Google personal dossier down to maybe a few dozen megabytes over the past 30 years. And want to keep it that way. Unless their willing to send me a check every month. I am reluctant to give Google access to my Microsoft credentials. Not sure what their spiders will do to my protected privacy. I was even able to initialize this phone with my Yahoo account, which is tied to my Google/YouTube account. So I can go to the Google Play Store WITHOUT a damn Gmail account.

But it’s getting tougher. All the apps I have lost, or don’t have available on my Windows Phone, are on this test phone. PayPal, Amazon, Capital One, OnStar, myChevrolet. But I am reluctant to login to many. Especially my financial apps. Damn Evil Google. But the list grows every day. I don’t think it’s time yet. But it’s getting close. Maybe Bill can email me with some inspiration. Or, maybe not.

I truly believe that everything happens for a reason. Can’t explain how or why, I just know it to be true. The owner of our small company has recently been going month to month on our 3,000sf office/warehouse suite as she contemplated; renewing a long term lease, or look for a larger pad for our growing business. Two weeks ago, Mr. Landlord came in to advise that he had leased out our space and we had until May 1st to vacate. Hey, it’s just business. We wanted to stay close to our current site as our primary supplier is just down the block, so the search began. As if by fate, a nearly 6,000sf reasonably priced space will be available as of April 1st, less than a mile away. It will meet our current and future needs. At least for the next five years anyway.

All the gears have now been put into motion to move our business in six weeks. As acquiring and outfitting nearly a dozen production/office spaces across North America, more than 600,000sf, was part of my previous life, I felt right at home with this challenge. Along with drawing a floor plan for a new space, my first order of business would have typically been to develop a detailed Microsoft Project file, often with hundreds of tasks, to ensure that everything stuck to the timeline. A weekly review of the subsequent Gant chart was expected. But I wasn’t about to go out and spend $500 on a current Project license for this six week project. I was further dismayed when Ms. Boss Lady came into the conference room on Monday with a four page convoluted list of tasks, printed from an Excel spreadsheet. I knew we were in trouble.

Then like magic, or that unexplained reason eluded to above, I read about a new app in the Windows Store on Thursday, Project Studio, a project management app that can sync across devices and multiple users. Better yet it was free (with basic functionality at least). I have tried a multitude of Task apps over the years, many trying to do double duty as a project management app. But none really got even half of it right. Project Studio is as close as you are going to get to a professional project management app for next to free.

After downloading Project Studio, you will be prompted to create a vSoft account, so the info you enter in the app will be synced to the vSoft server. It’s important to note that this app does not rely on your Microsoft account settings and does not sync with OneDrive. That’s a little troubling to me as we have all seen best intentioned Microsoft Store apps disappear, most recently Package Tracker, because revenue couldn’t support the cost of Cloud Server storage.  But I am hopeful that this app will rise above the rest and find a place on many Windows desktops (and possibly a couple Windows phones).

Settings are fairly sparse. You can choose between two views for your Home screen and change the Sync Interval between 1 or 5 minutes. Each time the app syncs, you will see a little circle arrow appear next to the Projects list. You can also toggle logging on/off, I suppose for troubleshooting bugs. The sidebar of the app shows; All Tasks, Overview, and a list of current Projects. All Tasks will show, well, all of the tasks created for the projects you have created, or those where your are a member. Overview will give you a view of all your current projects, showing current status and how many open tasks remain for each. Creating a New project is as simple as entering a title, some additional optional details,  and a planned start and end date. You can also create stages for the project, which will allow you to move tasks along. Each project is setup with To Do & Done by default. A task will change to Done automatically when completed, but the stages between To Do and Done, need to be flagged manually. I have added Assign Tasks to my projects for example. The app also provides plenty of space for additional notes. Finally, you can add members to each project from this screen. More on that later.

Creating tasks are as simple as typing a line of instruction and clicking Save. Before clicking Save though, you can set; Start, Due or Duration, flag the task as Important, select which Project to assign the task to (the current project is the default), and assign a Group. I am still trying to understand how Groups are intended to work. It appears you can add individuals you have invited to join a project to a specific Group and then assign that Group to a task. But the individual task still has individual assignees. So I believe Groups is more for filtering tasks, rather than setting responsibilities. You also have an option to add more details, which includes; adding time reminders, adding a checklist or steps to complete a particular task, and again a generous space to add additional notes. Or, like me, you may choose to enter all of your tasks first, one right behind the other. And then go back later to fill in the details for each, creating your timeline along the way.

As a part of the detail view for a task, there is an tab labeled Discussion. I had to create another user, an alias I sometimes use with a different vSoft login, to see how this works. A user can enter a comment or question in a discussion, and each minute it will sync with all the users assigned to that specific task. Users are alerted with the Notification  icon in the upper right of the app, as well as a notification in Action Center. A user can then write a comment/reply and that will sync back to everyone else. Sort of like a message board for each individual task. Pretty intense. Tags can be added  which can be used for filtering your tasks. Finally, you can add attachments to each task. As these are not stored on vSoft servers, you can only add attachments from/to OneDrive and Dropbox. Before you can use this feature you will be prompted to login to your OneDrive or Dropbox account. The options available are; Upload File, From Camera & From Clipboard, which will copy/save the associated file to your OneDrive/Dropbox account. Or Link Existing File, which will link a file from OneDrive/Dropbox. Clicking a file, a Word or PDF file in OneDrive for example, will open a OneDrive viewer or the Word Online app. You can view in a window or expand full screen. Or click Open to open the file in your browser, with the option to Download. When another users opens a task with attachments you have linked, they will be prompted to login to OneDrive (if you created the links from OneDrive), but they will be logging into their own OneDrive account. The logging in simply allows the Office Online Viewers to run from OneDrive, displaying the attached/linked files.

The summary view of all your tasks will be sorted bottom up by default, but there is a myriad of options available. For example, you can choose to display; Priority, Stage, Date Status, Project & Group, Assignees and Tags for all tasks. You can also sort by (ascending or descending); Due Date, Start Date,  Task Stage, Assignee, Project & Group, Priority and Description. There is also an extensive list of filters by; Start or Due Date, Assignee, Project, Priority, with multiple options for each filter. Somewhat overwhelming. Completing a task in summary view is as simple as clicking the checkbox to the left of the task title. From this view you can also switch to Timeline, or Gant chart, view. You can shrink or stretch the view to see more or less of your project. While there are no printing options available via the app, you can export the project to an Excel file, which creates a well formatted spreadsheet with all the relevant data. All you will ever need for the conference room and the computer non believers.

After creating a project you can invite/add additional members. The FREE version of Project Studio will allow for two free members to share a project. To add more members to a project though, they would have to opt in to a Premium membership; $2.99 for 3 months, or $9.99 for a full year. So a Premium member could add two free members to a project. Got it? The full year was on sale yesterday for $6.99, but not sure how long that will last. Well worth the cost for me though either way. When you invite a user to join a project, they are prompted via email to either download the app, or to login to their vSoft account. The vSoft website is nothing more than a login credentials portal for adding a thumbnail photo, changing your full name or changing your login password. There is no online version of this application. You need the app on your Windows 10 PC or Windows Phone to access any data. When you share a project you can choose to give the user read only or read/write permissions. I have loaded the app on two desktops, and two of my 2 in 1s. On my Lenovo Book, I logged in as the aforementioned alias above to see how discussions and assignments work. I also loaded the app on my Lumia 950 and it looks just fine. Not sure if the functionality is exactly the same, but I don’t expect to be developing a complex project on my phone.

I should add that the app looks beautiful. Everything about it is inviting. One little niggle of mine is that the Save button is far off the the right of the screen. So there is a lot of mouse movement with most all the other actions occurring on the left, or left/middle of the screen. If you forget to click Save though a popup will appear reminding you to Save or Discard your changes. There are a few quick tutorials which will come up the first time you create a project or task (you can reset these in settings to see them again). But I do wish the tutorials were a bit more extensive and covered a few more features, like those darn Groups. Overall though, this app is a winner. It’s getting a five star review from me today. I will compile a list of little suggestions for the developer over the next couple weeks. But if it never gets updated, it’s perfectly fine as it is right now. Really.

You can find Project Studio in the Windows 10 or Windows Phone Store.

It’s so close I can almost touch it. With 14 days to go and at 90% of their fixed goal, I’ve got a good feeling about this. And it doesn’t hurt that Winsupersite recently offered a positive review (and the author ordered a NexDock). That’s after WindowsPhoneCentral did the same a day earlier. Will NexDock change the world as we know it?  Probably not. Is it a must have? Certainly not. But at $119 (or the suggested retail of $149), it is inexpensive enough to have some fun with. Whether you use it with your smartphone, rasberrypi, tablet, or mini PC, it’s pretty certain to be a mind blowing experience. No doubt there will be many more dumb terminals to follow, but it’s always nice to be first at something.  For me, it’s the culmination of waiting two decades for a device like this. In 1999, I would have gladly paid $500+ for a NexDock that would have connected to my Palm Pilot.

I ordered my Microsoft Display Dock last week and expect it to be here Monday. Along with that I gathered up all of the cables and connectors that I might need from Amazon to connect my phone to the 23” spare monitor I have at home (no HDMI, bummer) as well as the anticipated NexDock. I think I’m ready. If you want to be part of the revolution, you can still snag a NexDock for $119. What are you waiting for!

Yesterday afternoon, I pulled my Lumia 950 off my belt and unexpectedly noticed that my battery was below 50%. I then saw a popup message indicating that my phone needed to restart to install updates. What updates? Anyway, I placed the phone on my wireless charger, went to settings and clicked restart, at which time I was reminded that I needed at least 40% (I was at 39%) to continue. Not wanting to wait an hour at the office for updates to complete I decided to let the phone charge and restart when I got home. On a wired charge the phone updated just fine. All good, right? Not so fast buddy.

This morning, as I do every morning, I got into Nextgen Reader and started reading about all of yesterday’s news, including all the new theoretical news from BUILD. I got down to the Windows Phone section and saw an article indicating that a Slow Ring update had gone out on Wednesday (yesterday) to Windows Mobile users. As I continued reading, I saw that there were some “known issues” with this new Slow Ring build. Wait, I said to myself. “Why should a Slow Ring build have known issues”. Isn’t that what the Fast Ring is for? As I read further I discovered that this new build, that I inadvertently installed last night, had a teeny little problem. If you happened to own a Microsoft Band 1 or 2, it would disconnect from your phone and you couldn’t pair again without hard resetting your phone. WTF!!!! Would Microsoft really release a Slow Ring build with a “known issue” that effectively disconnects their own products from each other. I went in to other room to fetch my Microsoft Band 2 and got the answer to my question. Yes. I tried pairing multiple times with no success. Rebooted the phone. Reinstalled the Microsoft Health app. Rebooted the Band. Nothing. Just a stupid error message explaining that the two devices could not pair. Note that I was pairing Bluetooth devices when many of you were still toddlers, so I found this downright silly. No actually, I found this seriously fucked up.

Now I won’t deny that I was the guy complaining that the Slow Ring folks never get any love. Usually receiving a new update the same day as the general public. Of if we were lucky, the day before. So I NEVER, NEVER, expected a Slow Ring build to be released with a bug that “REQUIRED” a hard reset of your phone. I just didn’t believe that would ever happen. But that’s exactly what I did this morning before jumping in the shower to get ready for work. I checked first to see that I had a reliable backup from 5:35AM today (that was convenient) and then tapped the RESET button. I was so frustrated at the time, I didn’t take all the other precautionary steps to backup some of the apps I have with peculiar backup methods (CSV files, email dumps) etc., so once I got to work and started to rebuild my phone I realized I had lost a lot of stuff. Probably not very important in our ever troubling world, but important to me. What for example. My mileage and fuel tracker, that I have been faithfully updating since my first Windows Phone in 2010. All the data, gone. Or the Weight Tracker app that I have faithfully updated every Saturday morning since June of 2015, helping me track my weight loss from 235 down to 194 last week (yah). Along with my future goals and targets. All gone. Or Clever To Do, now showing recurring tasks from 1/4/16, the last update. Not going to bother tapping through three months of tasks. Then of course, there is all the Authenticator nonsense, resetting signatures on eight email accounts, adding passwords to five of the eight accounts. Then checking all the sync characteristics to make sure everything is correct. Then relinking account, renaming, etc. Then restoring all the apps that do use Dropbox or OneDrive for backups. Got to the office at 12:00pm and haven’t done a snot of work yet. That means I will be here to 9:00 or 9:30 in an attempt to catch up. Thanks Microsoft. No, FUCK YOU MICROSOFT!

I tried to send the above screenshot from my phone using my Sharefolder app (of course, I have to reconfigure all the connections again) but was getting an error. It’s happened before after an update, so I deleted the app and went to the Store to reinstall. That’s when I was greeted by a message that there were 165 Pending Updates. WTF. I don’t even have 165 apps installed. Actually, before I went to the Store, I went through my apps and deleted anything I haven’t used in several months. Probably 50 or 60 apps and games. Leaving maybe 20-25 third party apps on the phone. I will purge more tonight.  I finally just emailed the images to myself. It’s just so tiring.

Needless to say, I am back on the Production Build with my L950. I’ll leave my L640 on the Fast Ring as it only has pre-installed apps, and frankly I don’t give a shit about a $40 phone. But I am effectively done with Windows Insider. Microsoft can get feedback from others who don’t have anything better to do. I was really let down today and I’m disappointed. I don’t know. Maybe the whole Windows Phone / Windows Insider thing is a big psych experiment to see how people handle frustration and disappointment. Maybe if Microsoft discourages enough Windows Phone users they can tell the world they abandoned the mobile platform due to lack of interest. They sort of made that clear at BUILD. Maybe 2017 they say. Maybe. Oh, and FUCK YOU Microsoft!

Let me get back to reconfiguring my Windows Phone and my Band. Got another few hours to go.

…and in with the new. While I have been sporting Windows 10 Mobile on my Lumia 950 for several months, and even longer on my Lumia 635 test device as a Windows Insider, it’s nice to know that the OS is being released to everyone. Well, not quite everyone. It appears that some of the devices that Microsoft thought would work with Windows 10 Mobile received some bad feedback through the Windows Insider Program. Ironically, the same portal that allowed users like me to experience Window 10 Mobile first hand with a non-qualified device. Am I bitter or disappointed? No. Truthfully, while I didn’t spend a tremendous amount of time navigating W10M on my Lumia 635, the little time I did was not always pleasant. So it’s no surprise that my device, nor any other 512MB phone, made the final cut.

Now there will be some Blu WIN Jr owners who are not going to be happy with the news that their devices will NOT receive the W10M update, despite being assured by Microsoft that they would. Hopefully someone makes it right with a nice trade in offer for those left hanging. And for those Lumia Icon owners out there. Well, I suppose there is still hope. If Microsoft can go kiss some more butt over at Verizon to convince them it’s the right thing to do. But then, when has Verizon ever done the right thing regarding Windows Mobile, Windows Phone, or Windows 10 Mobile. My guess is there is no technical limitation on the Lumia Icon. Just plain old fashioned stubbornness, or stupidity. Take your pick. For the rest of the devices that didn’t make the cut, maybe it’s time to send them out to pasture. My Lumia 1020 included. While the phone may still work great, the insides simply can’t handle the demands of this new OS. It’s time that Microsoft stopped trying to make “everything” backward compatible. The two year promise for updates is reasonable. And what about the other guys. Do all Android devices get OS updates for two years from date of release? Uhhh, no. And while Apple gladly lets you update your old iPhone 4S to the latest OS version, the experience is so crappy, you’ll be waiting outside your local carrier store to put down some more cash and retire that 18 month old relic. Funny how the attitudes of iPhone and Windows Phone customers are so different. Bahhhhhhh.

Faced with a device (my L635) that would no longer receive Insider updates and would eventually need to revert back to Win 8.1, it was time for a replacement. So on Friday, after seeing the final cut of updatable devices, I ordered a new Lumia 640 GoPhone from Amazon for $43. Probably should had done that the last time it was on sale for $29.99. Oh well. It arrived this morning as Amazon had promised. An hour before it arrived though, I got an email from the Seller explaining how I could unlock the phone if I chose to. While I have been an ATT customer forever, and this phone most likely will never see an active SIM card (unless my L950 takes a dump some day), I thought it would still be nice to have an unlocked phone should I want to sell the phone to someone on another network someday. Made sense to me. I followed the directions for first activation and went through the steps. In two days I will find out how easy this is to do.

With all these phones floating around, it’s been a busy day. I used an L950 backup to restore to and activate my new L640. After it had completed that, I decided to do a backup of my L950 just for good measure. I deleted almost all the apps on the new device as I only use it for testing, and my next step was going to be joining the Fast Ring to get the latest Windows Insider update. So I wanted as much available memory as possible.  Then the L640 did a full backup, but unfortunately, it decided to call itself a Lumia 950 (duh, I renamed it after the backup). That gave me two backups on OneDrive for today, both labeled Lumia 950. Ugh. I deleted both backups and started again with a new, fresh backup  of my L950. Done. I started a rollback restore of my L635 to Win8.1 with the Windows Device Recovery Tool, but I got a warning that my battery was really low. So it’s on a real charger for a bit  before I roll it back. I’ll find someone at the office who needs a nice, lightly used phone for their kid. Meanwhile, the L640 is updating to a new build. Hopefully the latest Fast Ring build. Not sure what to do with my L1020, which I haven’t turned on or touched since last December. I guess a hard reset is in order. After that, not sure.

This new L640 is certainly a good looking, capable device. It lacks some bells and whistles, but for the price I don’t have any complaints. Think of it as a Ford 150 vs. the 350 (L950). They both look the same, but the latter can tow your Tiny Home wherever you want it to go. So, don’t fret that your Windows Phone is not getting updated to Win 10 Mobile. If you simply have to have the latest and greatest, suck it up and get a new phone that can update to this new OS.

Here is a list of compatible Windows 10 Mobile devices, if you haven’t already seen it.

It looks like the NexDock project, being funded through Indiegogo, is moving along. But not fast enough for my satisfaction. I really want to see this project proceed and at this point that’s certainly not guaranteed (unless this is like an eBay auction and everyone waits till the last minute). I am keeping my eye on the number and may just have to commit to a few more to help the project reach its goal.

As a refresher, NexDock, being touted at the World’s Most Affordable Laptop, is a clamshell 14” screen with Bluetooth keyboard and high capacity battery. Is has no brain so to speak, and is designed to serve as a second screen for your; desktop, laptop, tablet or smartphone. It can even work with one of those new PCs on a stick. It works seamlessly with Microsoft’s new Continuum for Windows Mobile, as well as with other software bridges available (although limited) for Android and iPhone. I have been searching for a good end use to justify Continuum and I think I will find it with the NexDock. With either the Microsoft Display Dock, or using wireless charging, I’ll connect my Lumia 950 to NexDock and set it to the side of my desk. From there I can send and receive texts, something promised by Microsoft for years, and also be able to interact with my personal email accounts that I keep off my office desktop to avoid clutter. That’s a good start for me.

Below is that latest update from the NexDock Team:

We are happy to announce that our 2nd perk has been sold out as of yesterday and the 3^rd perk is going fast too. NexDock is getting closer and closer to being in backers’ hands. To add more momentum, we also introduced a new 2-pack perk, which offers more than 25% discount.  

We met with the founders of Pine 64 the other day at their Milpitas office. Pine 64 is another great crowdfunded mini PC and we’ve got the chance to test NexDock with it. NexDock and Pine64 worked fast and seamless together. No doubt that Pine 64 users are going to love NexDock and vice versa.

We also met with the founder of Maru OS which is the equivalent of Continuum for Android devices. Although it is only ready for Nexus 5 at the moment, it will be open source soon and will probably start working with many other Android smartphones. The NexDock also worked pretty good with Maru OS on Nexus 5 turning it into a Laptop running Debian OS.

We believe that NexDock is the long awaited solution with its stand alone offering and compatibility with numerous operating systems and hardware such as Raspberry Pi, Pine 64, stick PCs and even the upcoming Android devices with Maru OS.

Despite these good news and all our pitching to editors, the big media continues to ignore NexDock.

It really troubles me that the folks at Engadget, TechCrunch and others have not mentioned this new, revolutionary product. Last week during MWC, my Nextgen Reader feeds were ablaze with news of HPs new Windows Mobile phone and especially their new “NexDock like” dumb laptop accessory. Why is news of NexDock any different. I’m not sure of the policies of these Tech News giants, and maybe they do have a policy of not endorsing crowd funded projects. But no one is asking them to “endorse” anything. Damn, they don’t even need to provide a link. Just report the “news” as they are obliged to do. Unfortunately though, in this modern World, news providers “choose” what they want to share and what they want to keep buried. Not sure if that’s financially or politically motivated. But I am certain that the Editors at these services harbor preferences and prejudices, which unfortunately do a disservice to their readers. Something you will never, ever see at Mobility Digest.

Assuming this project gets off the ground, and I really hope that it does, I am sure you will see a new and improved NexDock2 six months after Version 1 is released. So your investment might be short lived. Not much different than the original Surface RT really. But think of it this way. If NexDock doesn’t get off the ground, you may never get to see Version 2. Just like we may have never seen the Surface 4 Pro, Surface 3 and Surface Book, if Microsoft and the SRT had been wholeheartedly rejected and shunned by the media. A snowstorm starts with a snowflake.

You can learn more about NexDock and help support the cause here. I’m counting on you to do the right thing.

Outlook Mail for Windows 10 left a lot to be desired when it launched back in July. So much so that it forced me from using the Windows 10 Mail app to using Outlook Desktop on my office PC. I struggled through using Outlook Mail on my notebooks and tablets for the past six months, but I must say things have improved quite a bit. Definitely at a usable state now, although maybe not enjoyable. Outlook Mobile Mail was an equally frustrating experience while I was running beta versions on my Lumia 635 via Windows Insider. But when I got my Lumia 950 with Windows 10 Mobile installed, Outlook Mobile Mail worked pretty well. Not perfect mind you. Compared to Windows Phone 8.1, some things were better, some not so much. One thing I am pretty sure of though is when I started typing a recipients name in the “”To:” box, all the names starting with those letters would pop up.

Well it looks like something changed in the past few weeks. Now, when I start or reply to an email on my 950, only names where the email address also starts with the same first few letters will popup. So Outlook Mobile Mail is filtering by “email address” only. Not first name, not last name. Email only. The same is NOT true for Outlook Mail for PC, which BTW is “supposed” to be a Universal app. Right. You can see in the top photo, I have two contacts named Mike who have email addresses that don’t start with “mik”. Trying the same thing from my phone, those two names are filtered out.  If I start type the email address of my coworker Mike, which starts with “redsox” (he’s a big fan), his name pops right up. WTF!

I tried People, Messaging and the Phone app on my 950, and they still filter by first name or number. No problems. No idea why or when this changed, but it’s disturbing that in 2016, I now have to remember all the email addresses of my 400 contacts (most of which have more than one address) in order to send an email. Come on Microsoft! How hard can this be.

UPDATE: 2/10/16: I was pleasantly surprised this morning when I read that Outlook Mail had been updated, and upon testing discovered that the problem outlined above was “fixed”. That was fast. Now, it appears Outlook Mobile Mail filters by first & last name, same as the desktop version of Outlook (Modern) Mail. Not sure if adding, “filter by email address”, would be a good thing. But at least now I only need to remember a person’s or company’s name. Thanks Microsoft!

Well, not really. Sorry for the click-bait title, but I am hoping to get Microsoft’s attention and catch them in a “duh” moment. The whole idea of Continuum excites me. Three days after I powered on  on my Lumia 950, I had a USB-C to Display Port adapter (only 1366 x 768) connected to an extra 23” monitor to see what all the fuss was about. While the resolution was not ideal, and my phone was losing juice quickly (even while sitting on a wireless charger) I understood how and why Continuum could become a very important thing. I would have loved using this 15 years ago when I regularly traveled multiple times a week to different company sites. Back then, when I found someone willing to listen to my rambling, I would start talking about how my Palm Pilot could be plugged into a dock connected to a $200-$300 dumb terminal (when laptops cost $1000+), allowing me to work more efficiently on a big screen. Obviously, I was ahead of my time. My end use needs have changed since then, but not the excitement of transforming my pocketable device into a full blown computer.

And this is where I think Continuum’s problem currently lies. Everyone loves the concept and might want to try it out. But no one has really come up with some solid end use scenarios. That’s going to keep Continuum and the Display Dock in “Geek Status” limbo for the time being. My suggestion to Microsoft; “throw as many rubber tipped darts at the pegboard as you can and see if you can get a couple to stick”. Then you can market real reasons for people to take  interest in Continuum, along with its byproduct Windows Mobile. Sure, you can have a kiosk, with a fixed monitor, keyboard and mouse setup at your office or home all the time, but does that really make sense. Is that really how people envision using Continuum? And all those cables.  Or, would they prefer to be mobile, portable, flexible, cable minimalistic, as much as their smartphones. I know you can use Continuum wirelessly, but until that experience is every bit as good as wired, meaning; zero lag, zero disconnects, zero stutters, zero freezes, then we are going to be stuck with a few wires for now. The Display Dock, as it’s aptly named, is full of ports. It’s got an HDMI Port, a Display Port, (2)  USB-C ports (power & phone input) and (3) USB-2.0 ports. All those ports. But yet, for some reason Microsoft chose to “not” support USB powered monitors when designing the Display Dock. Why?

I may be way off here, but I’m guessing that in the near future, ALL monitors, except maybe those 27”+ 4k behemoths, will be powered by 5.0V USB. With all those USB ports, couldn’t Microsoft make one that would work with something like the monitor below. Resolution: 1920 x 1080, weight: 2lbs. , cables: a single USB cable for display and power. What’s not to like about that. And couldn’t you envision this displaying stuff from your Windows Phone. Rather than dragging out a 10lb. 21” display.  And then using that unwieldy HDMI (my jumper cables are more flexible) cable to connect that heavy monitor to the itsy bitsy Display Dock, which will move around your desk, wherever that HDMI cable decides it should go. I don’t get it.

As I shopped around Amazon I thought I had found a few USB to HDMI adapters, but then discovered that they basically don’t go both ways. So outputting USB video to an HDMI input, ok. But feeding HDMI back to a USB input, sorry Charlie. For now, that leaves me with an alternative like this GeChick below.

Or this little guy, with a touchscreen. Three times the price of the Asus above. Hell, you might as well buy a Surface 3 and forget about Continuum.

I don’t know if Microsoft can get the Display Dock to support USB monitors via a firmware update for the Dock as well as Windows 10 Mobile. If they can, I suggested they do that, today. If they can’t, I may just have to wait for the Display Dock 2. Duh!

I love using a task manager to help keep me organized, and to make sure I don’t drop any balls due to my cluttered brain being constantly overworked. I’ve gone through several iterations, starting with Franklin Planners, evolving to Outlook Tasks, and more recently to smartphone task tools that could “effectively” sync up with all my devices. I have tried a multitude of apps since Windows Phone launched in 2010, and all have failed to provide in at least one area or another. Most especially, syncing across devices. Todoist has been my go to task application for the past 6-8 months and it has yet to fail me. It’s currently available as a desktop/smartphone app across pretty much any platform. Additionally, there are plugins for Outlook & GMail, as well as a Windows 10 beta app. I currently use the Outlook plugin on my office desktop, and rely on the Windows Mobile companion app for most of my other interaction, although the Win 10 beta is installed on all my machines.

Today, Boards by Todoist was released as an experimental first-party app in the Windows Store. Being a Universal app, it’s available for download on all Windows 10 & Windows 10 Mobile devices. Ten or fifteen years ago, I might have offered the tip off a pinky finger for something like this, juggling dozens of projects at any one time. Today, my workload is bit more subdued, but I still get involved with projects that involve several steps and sub-steps. Still working on collaboration with my generally, “technology deprived”, coworkers, but I will keep trying.

As the Todoist Outlook plugin gives you a minimalist view of your tasks, Boards looks like it will be an nice addition to my desktop. The initial release of Boards is fairly basic, but it essentially allows you to edit and move your tasks through different stages, from To-Do, to In Progress, to Completed. It’s nice to be able to visualize a project on one screen. I have used these kinds of interfaces with other Windows Store task apps, but it was part of the interface, whether you wanted to use it or not. And then there was that syncing thing. Lets not go there. All of the tasks in Todoist automatically sync up with Boards, so there is nothing to do to start using it. All of the same features available in Todoist; assigning tasks, leaving comments, uploading attachments, are all available within Boards. Things would really get interesting if you were collaborating with others on a project. I’m trying to find out if Boards will be available on iOS and Android, so that I might be able to collaborate on some projects, but I haven’t found that answer yet.

If you’re looking for a great to-do app, you don’t need to look any further than Todoist (or TaskCrunch on Windows 10 Mobile). If you’ve always wished that Todoist offered Kanban type boards to sort through complex projects, your wait is over. You can download Boards in the Windows Store here.

For the Slow Ring that is. Hey, I know that the Fast Ring will always get more frequent updates. Along with more frequent bugs. I get it. But to date, the Slow Ring has been really underserved. I think the last Slow Ring update came the same day the update was released to everyone else. Guess that’s not a bad thing. I mean, not using a preview build that’s behind the current build. But unless us Slow Ringers are going to be getting updates more than a day or two before everyone else, maybe they should rename it to “Dog Bone Ring”, or something like that. Here, take your bone. Now go in the corner and keep quiet.

Oh well. Hope this helps with a few nagging bugs.

Looks like Microsoft is planning to make the Windows Mobile  WordFlow keyboard available to iOS users.  It’s being reported that Windows Insiders who use an iPhone have been asked to trial the iOS WordFlow keyboard app on their devices. Sending an email to “wordflow@microsoft.com”,  with the Subject: “I Want In!”, is all it takes. I haven’t spent a lot of time with the iOS default keyboard (ugh), but I am certain the WordFlow keyboard would be a big improvement. Not that you would ever get an iOS user to admit to that though.

Of course, there is going to be a lot of bellyaching about how Microsoft is giving all the good stuff away to the mobile competition. And that’s why Windows Mobile can’t get past 3-4% marketshare. But how about this as a twist. Maybe Microsoft is working to make it easier for users on competitive platforms to switch to Windows Mobile in the future when maybe Continuum matures. Or your IT Department hands you a “secure” Windows Phone and tells you this is your only option. As more users on other platforms use Microsoft’s products; Office, Groove Music, OneDrive, Outlook Mail, Bing Search, Maps, and now Wordflow, the Microsoft brand becomes more familiar. Something to think about.

To help you be even more productive, for a limited time in select markets^*, you can fully realize the power of Windows 10 with a 1-year subscription to Office 365 Personal included (MSRP: $69.99 USD) with purchase of a new Lumia 950 or Lumia 950 XL.

But you have to be careful if you already have a Office 365 Home subscription it will override it.

^* Offer available in U.S., UK, Germany, France, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. Click here for more.

Goins’ app, which he has subsequently refined, takes advantage of three of the latest sensor’s key features: its time-of-flight infrared data stream, its high-definition-camera color data stream, and face tracking. The infrared stream returns an array of infrared (IR) intensities from zero to 65,536, the color stream returns RGB data pixels, and the face tracking provides real-time location and positioning of a person’s face. He thus knew how to capture a facial image, measure its infrared intensity, and gage the RGB color brightness level in its every pixel.Goins’ app uses a blind source separation algorithm on the four sources of light—RGB (red, green, and blue) and IR—to obtain an estimated separation of components that contain a hidden frequency, the blood pulse signal. . These color data streams from the Kinect sensor enable Goins’ app to calculate the changes in color brightness at 30 frames per second. And since the amount of color intensity that the face radiates changes when the heart contracts—as more arterial blood is pushed through the facial capillaries—the IR and RGB values will change slightly over time as the heart contracts and relaxes. The frequency of these changes corresponds to the frequency of cardiac contractions—in other words, the pulse. The pulse is then calculated mathematically by separating the pulse frequency from other noise and color signals in the face—providing the user with a calculation of the heart rate.

Fast forward to the new Windows devices that feature Hello to login and the hardware seems to line up. The 950 Xl contains a 5mp front facing camera as well as an iris scanner which is an infrared camera. So, put it all together, and you should be able to do real time heart rate monitoring by merely having the front facing camera pointed at your face. It’s a neat trick but in terms of fitness (such as a mount of an exercise bike) it could provide useful data without anything touching you.

It’s been 12 days since the launch of Windows 10, Microsoft’s latest attempt to satisfy the masses with a modern, touch friendly OS. It’s also been more than six months since millions of users, testers, have been playing with different iterations of Windows 10, to ensure that the launch build would be as close to ideal as it can get. Overall, for Windows 10, I’ll offer a B+. For Windows 10 Mail, a D- (and I’m being generous because it usually opens when you click on it). In my opinion, Windows 10 Mail is by far the worse version of free mail Microsoft has ever released. Worse than Outlook Express, worse than Live Mail. And most certainly worse than Windows 8 Mail. If your going to compare specs and features, Windows 10 Mail might score some high marks. But if you actually try to use the application, say for a full day, reality will set in.

After playing with Windows 10 Mail, otherwise know as Outlook Mail, in preview mode on my Yoga Pro and Nokia 635 the past couple months, I approached Windows 10 Launch Day with cautious optimism. I thought, for sure, they would clean up the crashes, the constant account disconnects, the incoherent UX. But no, none of that happened. On my personal machines, where mail gets used occasionally to file away an Amazon receipt, the ineffectiveness of Windows 10 mail is a nuisance.  On my office machine, it was downright intolerable. By July 30th, it was driving me nuts. By July 31st I was setting up all seven of my accounts in Outlook Desktop (which I own by way of an Office 365 subscription) in an effort to stop the bleeding. I haven’t opened Windows 10 Mail on my office machine since. And I won’t until I read an article somewhere that says “everything” has been fixed. Why don’t I just use Outlook Desktop you say? Well, because Windows 8 Mail is was easier to use. Oh, and I have voiced my opinion on every one of those, “So how do you like Windows 10 so far?” e mails, and any place else I can. I figured 12 days was a long enough waiting period for launch jitter politeness. Now it’s time to take some action.

What kind of problems have I experienced with Windows 10 Mail

– Pretty much every time I open mail on any of my devices, 3 or 4, or sometimes all of my accounts, will have the little warning triangles pictured above. Clicking Fix Account flashes the login screen for part of a second and then it goes away. Usually doing this with each account 3 or 4 times solves the issue. That’s 3 or 4 times, x 3 or 4 accounts x every 5 or 6 hours. WTF. This also happened with Windows 10 Mail when I was previewing the builds back in June. Oh, and this happens, at least occasionally, on all five of my devices; desktops, laptops and tablets.

– On several occasions, right in the middle of composing an email, Windows 10 will simply close without warning. When I reopen the app, the last couple sentences of my mail message will be gone and I have to pick up where I left off. It can happen multiple times while composing a longer, time consuming message. This has happened on more than one machine, so it’s not a bad install. And it also happened the first time I tried Mail during the Win 10 preview. More often though, when Windows 10 is sitting idle in the Task bar and I click it to open, the app will simply disappear. I then have to go to the Start menu to launch again.

– Action Center alerts and visual alerts seem to be very intermittent. Sometimes I get them all. And then for a couple hours I get nothing. No understanding as to what’s going on.

– It can take forever for mail reads, deletions and other actions to update on other devices, web mail, etc.

What absolutely sucks

– Conversation View, that’s what. Enough said. I need an option to turn this burden feature on/off for each account.

– Having to click Accounts to see my list of accounts. And then having to open each account (after fixing all the triangle warnings) to check for new mail. Who thought this was a good idea? Probably a marketing guy who wants you to click through 1200 unsorted search returns for USB Flash Drives on BestBuy’s website.

– Looking at that silly ass blue sky thing every time I open a mail account. Hey dudes, how about showing me some damn mail in your mail app.

Compared to Windows 8 Mail, I am finding Outlook Desktop to be clunky and tiring. I was a big Outlook Desktop user back in the last decade, so maybe it will grow on me. I guess Windows 8 Mail spoiled me a bit. Which brings up an interesting question. Why would anyone at Microsoft sign off on such an inferior mail experience? I have a couple theories. First, of all the people I have seen using Windows 8, none of them were using Windows 8 Mail. But these same people didn’t even know there was a Microsoft Store, and only clicked on a tile when they absolutely had to. Most of their business was done on the desktop with shortcuts pinned to it. They all used web mail; Gmail, Yahoo, or Outlook/Hotmail for their daily mail fix. Leaving the browser open whenever the machine was on. Of course, most of these people only have one mail account. Or, at least only one where they can remember the password.  So maybe Microsoft determined that a Windows 10 Mail app was irrelevant, but they would throw one in anyway. Wait thought, didn’t they just buy some mobile mail company that was better than sliced bread and serviced most of the iPhones in the world. If Windows 10 Mail is a result of that acquisition, that may explain a lot about iPhone users.

My alternate theory, my conspiracy theory, is probably closer to the truth. As it’s closer to Microsoft’s wallet. Windows 8 Mail was so good that no one needed to use anything else. Users didn’t need Outlook Web mail, with all those ads flashing on the sidebar. And they certainly didn’t need to purchase Outlook Desktop/Office 365 as Windows 8 Mail could satisfy all but the most demanding user. So Microsoft added Windows 10 Mail to the new OS, just to tick it off the list. But they made sure it wouldn’t satisfy anyone, driving users to the more profitable alternatives. If this is the case, I offer Microsoft a challenge. Strip the code for Windows 8 Mail out of the Windows 8 OS and offer it up as an app in the Store. Charge $19.99 for a one year subscription, same as paid Outlook Web mail subscriptions. And then let’s see what happens. Or maybe some developer entrepreneur will seize the opportunity, and sell 10 millions copies of a “good” mail app before Microsoft realizes that they screwed up. Hey, I can dream, can’t I.