Upon joining Microsoft I was extremely impressed by the fact that Microsoft Lync 2010 with telephony was rolled out right across the whole organisation. There’s no phones on any desks (other than some demo SIP phones) and a headset is part of the standard ‘welcome pack’ along with a new laptop and a Windows Phone. No-one asks if someone can take a Lync call, it just happens. All conference calls use Lync (unless it’s set up by an external party). It’s a way of life and it just works.

However, as a ex-Sametime user, there was something missing… a mobile client, something to use to stay connected in real-time while the laptop is in my bag. But now that’s been addressed, and within the space of a couple of weeks Microsoft have released Lync clients for Windows Phone, iOS (iPhone, iPod and iPad) and Android.

Let’s have a look at the Windows Phone client first (as usual, click on the small images to view the larger versions). It uses the Windows Phone ‘panorama’ user interface (swiping left or right moves to different screens) – the first shows my info and allows me to change my status message (which is immediately reflected in the Windows client), set my availability, and change the options for call forwarding.

The next screen, if I move to the right (by swiping to the left), is the contact list. It shows the groups which can be expanded to show the contacts, their photo (optional) and their current status. Clicking on a contact shows their status message (which can be their out-of-office message from Exchange), phone number, e-mail address and location. It also provides options to start an instant message conversation, a phone call or send them an e-mail.

The next screen shows conversations in progress – any new conversations will be coloured blue (not illustrated here). From here I can enter the conversation and invite other people into it, call the other participant, and forward the conversation as an e-mail. Note also that new conversations are indicated on the Lync tile on the phone’s start screen (see first image above) and a Windows Phone ‘toast’ notification will alert me to a new conversation.

The final image here shows a conversation in progress – until the conversation is deleted I can to go back to it and continue the chat session. In this example, I was chatting with Lewis and his special festive photo, and celebrates the fact that my first ever Lync Mobile conversation took place using Starbucks’ free wi-fi on 6th Avenue in New York.

More soon… specifically the iOS Lync client.

Continuing with the Windows Phone theme… earlier this year Nokia announced their intention to embrace Microsoft’s new mobile OS. A few months ago, an internal Microsoft event previewed Nokia’s first phones and their ambitious marketing plans. Since then you may have seen a lot of advertising and events such as the Deadmau5 gig on the banks of the Thames with the Millbank tower’s eight hundred windows transformed into a huge screen.

In October Nokia announced two new Windows Phone offerings… the Lumia 710 and the Lumia 800. It was the Lumia 800 which grabbed everyone’s attention in the office, quite rightly as it was clearly the top-of-the-range option. Since the announcement, Microsoft colleagues have been making enquiries about how to get a Lumia 800. Cruelly, some internal events dangled the phones in front of our eyes, but with no hope of getting one other than being the lucky winner in a prize draw.

So I decided to call up a good mate in Nokia and try to shamelessly blag a Lumia 800… and it worked. I have thanked him profusely, I will show it to customers and contacts, and they will take note because this is a fine-looking device. The first thing that hits you is the display, but let’s come back to that.

Let’s start with the packaging. When I first bought an iPod (late 2004 I think) it was apparent that Apple had done everything to make the consumer live the Apple dream – even the box was cool, and had been designed by a designer, not someone who just makes boxes. Nokia have learnt the lesson. The packaging is well-designed and gives the impression that this is a high-end product. I removed everything from the box and I was able to put it all back in with factory precision.

The box contained the phone (it would have been a major disappointment if it hadn’t), a small number of documents (in their own sleeve which fitted the box construction), a USB cable with attachable plug, headphones, and a rubber case for the phone. The phone was the matt black edition, which would have been my first choice… blue would have been fine, but Pete Hampton was ready to wet his pants laughing had it been the pink edition. The phone’s outer shell is polycarbonate, and apparently won’t show scratches too badly because the colour goes all the way through the shell.

Build quality – although it’s pretty much the same weight and dimensions as my HTC Windows Phone it feels more solid and overall just better quality. I guess you can’t really appreciate it until you hold one and then the other. The phone features a little hatch in the top (revealing the micro USB port), volume and camera buttons on the right-hand side and a speaker on the bottom. The back is very simple, featuring Carl Zeiss optics for the 8 megapixel camera and a flash.

Okay, let’s talk about the screen – side-by-side with the HTC this is the biggest difference and is the phone’s eye-catcher. It’s a capacitive AMOLED display protected by Corning Gorilla Glass in a slightly raised curved design. The colours are incredibly vivid, the black is very black (again, winning the side-by-side comparison) and the images are very sharp. The touch-screen is extremely responsive and smooth. Nokia have done an extremely good job on it.

As you know, the Lumia 800 runs the Windows Phone OS… it ships with ‘Mango’ and a small update was available. So the operation of the phone was really no different to the HTC – even though it has a faster processor, the Windows Phone OS and it’s apps are so zippy that I’ve yet to have any issue over the phone’s performance. That’s more than can be said for my iPod touch, which should be renamed the iPod sloth after the iOS 5 upgrade. Yes, the more responsive touch-screen is a bonus. Nokia have a included a number of apps which won’t be found on other manufacturers’ phones – Maps, Music and Drive. Maps is like Google and Bing Maps, and Drive is sat-nav (looks very good, and although I have a Tom Tom it would be great value for someone who doesn’t). Music is (you’ve guessed it) the app for managing and playing music. Music has a very cool gigs feature, telling you where gigs are playing near you – Rihanna is playing at the O2 tonight, which is the most exciting thing happening within a 34 mile radius apparently. Personally I’d take ear plugs.

Sound quality is excellent, both on a call and when music is playing. To be honest I haven’t tried the camera yet – other reviews say that it’s fairly average. I firmly believe that if you want great photos you should use a proper camera – no-one has tried to shove a phone into an SLR camera, so why should anyone have great expectations of a camera shoved into a phone?

Every colleague who has spotted the Lumia 800 on my desk over the past couple of days has admired and envied it, and inevitably asked me how I got it and if I can get them one (no, I can’t). It has that effect – it’s impressive on the eye and the build quality is visible from afar and close-up. If this is Nokia’s first stab at a Windows Phone, I can only imagine the great things to come. Nokia made a bold leap in taking on the Windows Phone OS which is currently trailing the others in terms of market share. I always say to people who knock it “try it”. It’s a great OS, and on a Lumia 800 the experience is even better.

I think I mentioned Windows Phone recently, but as yet I haven’t mentioned Nokia’s first offerings for the platform. The Lumia 800 is one of two phones released so far (more are coming) and has been getting rave reviews. I have held one on two occasions, and twice considered making a run for it with the gorgeous device in my thieving paws. At the weekend I noted that some of the many mobile phone shops in Camberley had fully-working demo units on display (not those non-functional dummy units), so if you’re interested in seeing the Lumia 800 in the flesh there are opportunities to do so.

However, if you can’t be bothered to haul your back-side from the chair that it’s currently positioned on, here’s another option. Nokia have set up a Facebook page, The Amazing Demo, which allows you to experience the user interface and some of the functionality. The best of the demos is the people hub, and it does a good job of showing the different aspects of interacting with a contact via Facebook, e-mail, SMS and the phone (although it omits Twitter).

Please note that the performance of the simulator does not represent the performance of the Windows Phone platform itself.

Just a quick one, a blog post about another blog post – Binary Tree’s Henry Bestritsky explains why his company left the Google Enterprise Partner program and threw its full weight behind Exchange upgrades and migrations to Office 365. The choice quote is…

…media perceptions and market hype could not hide the fact that we were not seeing customer demand for Google in the enterprise.

You can read the full blog post here.

A couple of months ago I provided a list of new bits and pieces in the ‘Mango’ update to Windows Phone 7. One of the things I didn’t include was ‘local scout’. This feature can be accessed from the Bing search screen, or it can be pinned to the start screen. The first time I used local scout was in York – I was staying the night at a hotel and after seven hours of sleep I was ready for a spot of breakfast. However, I usually make a stand against expensive hotel breakfasts (all I want is a cup of tea and a couple of slices of toast) and so when they told me it was £15 for the continental breakfast I turned on my heels and left the breakfast room. That £15 wouldn’t have come from my pocket, but I don’t see why my employer should be ripped off.

Despite my principles I still needed feeding, so I checked out, got in the car and pressed the local scout tile. There was a McDonalds just over a mile away, and a McMuffin is a good way to start a day. I pressed the McDonalds entry, then ‘directions from my location’ and I was there in five minutes. Local scout saved Microsoft £12.

So, what does local scout make of Camberley? The screenshots you’re seeing here (click on them for larger versions) are based on the location of my house, and indeed the nearest of Camberley’s fine food and drink establishments is The Carpenters’ Arms. Having said that, there’s so many things bunched together in the town centre I don’t think the order means too much in this example. Clicking on any of the selected places provides the address, phone number, reviews and ratings, and of course the directions.

There’s also a list of things to see and do. I’ve been to the Vue cinema, but I’ve never been to the Surrey Heath Museum (which is a tragedy). Further down the list, out of view on the screenshot, is the Basingstoke Canal Centre. We’re going to leave that for a day when we’re really bored.

The third page on local scout, not pictured here, is shopping. And again, local scout gets it right… the Majestic Wine Warehouse is the nearest shop to us, located before we get to the town centre.

On each of the results page a small map appears at the top – clicking on it expands the map to full page and shows the locations of the exciting places in Camberley. There are two new hotels being built in the town centre, so why not consider a holiday here in the jewel of Surrey Heath?

Continuing the recent trend of blog posts about Windows Phone, and because Bill Buchan loves reading about the operating system, here’s a quick update on one of my favourite apps… the aptly named ‘Tasks’. It probably won’t be a surprise for you to discover that it’s a task list app (no, really).

It was already a good app – apart from being free (a big plus-point) the killer feature is being able to pin tasks or task categories to the Windows Phone start screen. With control over tile colours and icons, the app adds real impact to your start screen. I nearly left the office today without picking up an important document from the fleet office, but I was saved by a pinned task.

Inside the app you’ll find a rich and functional interface utilising the Windows Phone’s panorama navigation. Tasks can be applied to projects, thus allowing you to look at groups of tasks associated with something you’re working on. The projects can also be pinned to the start screen and provide a count of the open tasks.

Version 1.3 of Tasks was made available this week, and among the many new features was the big one… synchronisation with Outlook tasks. So, if you use Outlook and a Windows Phone, this app is a must.

Click on the small images to see larger versions.

Regular readers of dadams.co.uk will know that I love modern art… mainly because it gives me a chance to be sarcastic and rude about the complete tripe that someone people produce. Usually I turn my barbed wit upon the Turner Prize, but as luck would have it another group of artists has provided some ammo. Taking the Michael out of art is often like shooting fish in a barrel, but this occasion it’s like shooting dead fish in a small barrel at point blank range with a long-muzzled revolver.

I saw this story featured on the BBC news yesterday morning, and it’s also featured on their web site:

A series of 12 Olympic and Paralympic posters, designed by leading UK artists including Tracey Emin and Chris Ofili, has been unveiled in London.

Most of my vitriol towards modern art is based on the simple fact that once an artist becomes well-known or gains a reputation they can produce any old load of tosh and have art critics falling over themselves to praise the genius of the works. And here we go again. I’m going to pick on three works in particular, for no better reason than if I hadn’t been told otherwise I could easily mistake them for something a five year-old would proudly bring home from a school art lesson.

1. Work No. 1273 by Martin Creed – a blue block on top of a slighter bigger pink block, on top of a slighter bigger black block… then yellow, then green. Mr Creed said the shape represents an extended podium. It must have taken him all of five minutes, including washing the brushes. By the way, Martin Creed is a Turner Prize winner, responsible for the exhibit where lights were turned on and off. Say no more.
2. Rachel Whiteread’s work representing the famous Olympic rings. To create the same effect, ask a five year-old to place the bottom of a mug in some red paint and then stamp it on a sheet of paper… and then repeat using green, yellow, blue and black paint. According the BBC site, organisers said the stains act as “memories of a social gathering”. No they don’t. They serve of memories of art lessons at primary school and coming home with paint on your shirt. Having said that, this work of art would make a nice design for a tea-towel.
3. Howard Hodgkin’s swimming artwork – this is my ‘favourite’ because the art critic on the BBC news was particularly sycophantic about this one, talking about the painting’s chaos and energy. Mr Hodgkin himself describes the work as “representational pictures of emotional situations”. The Beeb point out that a figure in ‘the water’ (or the splattering of royal blue paint) can just about be made out. Shame that it looks more like a toad than a human. Maybe Mr Hodgkin will come clean and admit that one of his grand-children knocked this one off in three minutes at nursery.

Just to prove that I’m not always negative about art, take a look at Michael Craig-Martin’s work (the word ‘Go’ on a stopwatch). It’s artistic and relevant to the subject, and would look good on a canvas. So I declare him the winner. As for the rest of them, the genius is not in the actual artistic skill, but in the ability of the artist to create something which allows us, the mere mortals, to use our own imaginations to interpret something meaningful related to the subject. Or something like that.

You may think that this is becoming a blog dedicated to Windows Phone – it’s not, but Windows Phone is something that I’m enthusiastic about and deserves more praise than it’s getting. In a previous post I discussed live tiles, which have become more common-place in apps since the release of Mango. In the last day I’ve indulged in a bit of jiggery-pokery (that’s the technical term) which has resulted in me being able to capture Windows Phone screens. So here, dear reader, is a better look at the live tiles I was talking about. Click on the small pictures to see the larger versions.

Screen #1 :

• Phone, having missed one call and a voice mail waiting.
• People hub – access to anyone from Outlook, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Windows Live (they’re all optional). Inside the people hub is an aggregation of updates from the social networks subscribed to.
• BBC News – a flipping live tile shows the two most recently-updated top stories, often with pictures.
• Outlook e-mail – a new one has arrived.
• Messaging – Facebook, Windows Live and SMS. I can switch between the three to keep a conversation in one thread.
• Me – my favourite feature. From here I can see responses to my most recent updates in Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, and post new updates to all of them or a selection.
• Marketplace – the Windows Phone app store. An update is available for one of my apps.
• A to-do, due on November 10th, from the Tasks application, and pinned to the start screen.

Screen #2:

• Countdown tile – shows the number of days to an event.
• My Football – a fully-featured football app, but I’ve selected Arsenal as my team and can see their record in the last five games.
• Foursquare – again, a fully-featured app, but the live tile shows my position among my friends.
• Pulse – a news application featuring lots of feeds, but you can take any of those feeds and pin them as a live tile.
• Tasks – same app as seen in the first screen, but this accesses the main app and shows an overview of the number of tasks (it flips to a secondary tile to show the number of overdue tasks).
• Daily Dilbert – a new comic strip everyday. My life is complete.
• My family group – rather than wade through all of the contacts I’ve put my family members into a group, and pinned the group to the start screen. The live tile shows updates and their faces.
• The weather in Camberley – there’s loads of weather apps, this one is from The Weather Channel.

Screen #3:

• Wi-Fi – a shortcut to turn Wi-Fi on or off, but this one shows whether it is on (or off).
• Bluetooth – a shortcut to Bluetooth.
• My calendar, which shows the next appointment or event from any of my subscribed calendars.
• Microsoft group – as described above, this group contains Microsoft colleagues and shows recent updates. Tony Cocks has hurt his foot.
• Xbox Live – access to games, and features my handsome avitar.
• Another task pinned to the start screen.
• A news category from The Guardian app. Any of the news categories from the app (all sporting different colours) can be pinned to the start screen and will periodically update.

Now that I can capture screens expect more Windows Phone content and features soon.

I’ve had several conversations with people (friends, ex-colleagues) about Windows Phone, and have argued about them being dismissive of the phone’s chances against Android and iOS. Sure, Windows Phone is going to have to catch up from a long way back – that I recognise – but what annoys me is people who are willing to dimiss the phone without actually having seen it or touched it. Those who do get to tinker with the phone often like the experience. Personally, the more I use it the more I appreciate the way it’s designed, especially now that so many apps boast live tiles.

I hope that yesterday’s announcements from Nokia and the forthcoming awareness campaigns will bring Windows Phone to a wider audience, but in the meantime it’s pleasing to see articles such as this one from The New York Times saying (mostly) positive things about the phone. Yes, they do mention some shortcomings, but the article chooses to focus on the things that Microsoft have done a good job on (most notably the Bing searching and the social network integration into the people hub).

Windows Phone 7.5 is gorgeous, classy, satisfying, fast and coherent. The design is intelligent, clean and uncluttered.

Most impressively, Windows Phone is not a feeble-minded copycat.

Now, if this phone had arrived before the iPhone, people would have been sacrificing small animals to it.

Remember the days when you had a phone with a monochrome screen, just enough of a display to read a phone number or a text message? Remember the days when a mobile phone really was just a phone, when it had less computing power than the control centre of the Apollo moon program? In those days of the distant past, my phone battery seemed to last forever.

Compare that to now… I bet your phone has a large, bright, colourful screen, a processor which five years ago would have graced only the highest-specced laptop (someone nerdy will argue that), and it’ll be processing loads of stuff in the background even when it’s in your pocket apparently doing nothing. All those factors of this bright new world will be chewing through your battery like a plague of locusts at a vegetarian buffet.

As mentioned in an earlier blog post, Windows Phone 7.5 (Mango) has a battery saver function. What this actually does is cuts down on then phone’s activity (e.g. turns off multi-tasking, automatic e-mail delivery) from one handy setting rather than having to poke around at many different options… and there’s also an option to turn battery saver off automatically when the phone is charged. But there is more you can do to save that precious electrical juice… turn off Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

If I’m at home or the office, I like to have Wi-Fi on, but Bluetooth off. In the car I have Bluetooth on (to hook up to the BMW’s in-car functionality) and Wi-Fi off. On a train I generally turn both off. So what I really need is a quick and easy way to get to both of those options, rather than having to dig around in the settings. Again, some kindly app developers have come to the rescue. Here’s a few (free) options…

ConnectivityShortcuts – very simply, places icons for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, mobile network and flight mode on the start screen. A nice feature about this app is that you can customise the tiles, changing the colour and the icons… having said that, there is something wrong about setting the Bluetooth tile to pink or brown (or green, or red). This app gets a ten out of ten for simplicity.

Connection Tiles is extremely similar – the only difference is that you have a different set of icons to choose from, you can rename the shortcut tile, but you can’t change the colours. Eleven out of ten for simplicity.

WP Shortcut Tiles – this one does a little bit more because it also provides quick-access tiles for creating a new e-mail, a new SMS, sharing your status (to Twitter / Facebook / LinkedIn) and the Music Store. The bonus feature with this app is live tile support – the Wi-Fi tile will tell you whether Wi-Fi is on or off. However, curiously, the Bluetooth tile doesn’t. Maybe there’s a good reason – there’s another (not free) app which offers displaying of the state of Wi-Fi and data but not Bluetooth.

And finally Toggle – same basic functionality again, adding tiles for quick access to data, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and ‘Airplane’. It offers a background task to update the tiles with the connection status – nice that it can be turned off, as we started off discussing conserving battery power. But the killer feature is reminders – you can set up reminders to turn vital connections on or off, and the reminders provide a quick-link to the connection in question. It would be nice if you could automatically schedule connections to come on or off – again, maybe there’s a good reason that this doesn’t feature in Toggle or the paid-for apps.