Wrapping up MWC 2017 week, and with Rafe exhausted after 100,000 steps in five days, I wanted to provide at least a taste of this year's show, via Rafe's Twitter feed, via my own analysis, and so on. On the AAWP front, we saw the revised HP Elite x3 and news that the IDOL 4S Pro is heading to Europe, but the scope of MWC is vastly wider and Rafe's good at finding interesting tit-bits, see the embedded tweets below!
In a break from traditional content, here's something that the 361 team recorded a few days ago... It's AAS & AAWP editor/publisher/owner Rafe Blandford's 'origin' story. Packed with details that even I didn't know and with a few chuckles along the way, this is a must-listen hour of chat for anyone who reads the sites.
Security is very much in the news recently, whether physical, in terms of terrorism, or personal, in terms of hacked servers, potential ID fraud, and so on. Then there's the raft of security holes found in various versions of Android, arguably the dominant OS on the planet at the moment. Regardless of other factors, including the 'app gap', you have to wonder whether security should be a factor when choosing which smartphone platform and ecosystem to invest your time and money in? I contend that it absolutely should be.
In the interview below, I fire a load of questions at Leila Martine, Head of New Devices for Microsoft UK, concerning the new Microsoft Band and the company's ambitions for it. As you might expect, the reponses are guarded and defensive, but they still make interesting reading. Plus, I get in some more comments of my own along the way.
Late last week, a stylish new Twitter client was launched for Windows Phone - Aeries. It's in my review list, but I'm waiting for the application to stabilise before delivering a full verdict. In the meantime, though, I caught up with its developer, Brad Stevenson, chatting about his new Twitter app and all things Windows (Phone). See the video below.
As something of a fan of wireless charging in general and Qi in particular, I jumped at the chance to interview John Perzow, VP of market development at the Wireless Power Consortium (WPC), which created and is continually evolving the Qi standard. A man to answer some of those questions I'd been wanting to ask for ages....
I'm a sucker for power solutions on mobile. So when Michael Krikheli, pictured below, got in touch about his company's innovative new 'key ring charger', recently successful on Kickstarter (it completes in a couple of days time), I couldn't resist the chance to ply him with some questions. The only bad news is that retail gadgets are still a couple of months away, so you won't be using the Megalo Mini on your summer vacation.
Guest writer Keir Brython reports back on his four months with the Nokia Lumia 1520 after a year with the Nokia 808 PureView. It's safe to say that he didn't find the journey from one platform to another all plain sailing and it's telling that he now has to carry around both smartphones, since the Windows Phone won't yet let him do everything he wants a smartphone to do.... Brickbats and bouquets abound in this real world testimony.
This is the fourth in a series of articles giving real world, honest feedback from Symbian users of varying levels of expertise who have tried moving to Windows Phone in general and the Nokia Lumia 710 in particular. Here uber-power user James Honeyball, despite generally being very open in terms of mobile platforms, finds a few showstoppers for him, at least, with many astute observations along the way. Here's his attempted move from Nokia N8 (and then 808) to Windows Phone on the 710.
At Mobile World Congress a few weeks ago, Rafe sat down with Aaron Woodman, Director for Windows Phone at Microsoft, to talk about Windows Phone 7.5's new reduced hardware requirements, the entry into new countries (most notably China), the partnership with Nokia and future directions for the platform, and a potential direction for Microsoft's Windows Phone marketing.
