As already reported, Microsoft is planning to roll out the Windows 10 'Anniversary Update' on August 2nd, 2016, and 'expects' to begin over-the-air rollout of the same update to 'mobile' (i.e. phones) from that date too. Yet, despite a frantic pace of Insider test builds (several a week), time is, quite simply, running out, and Microsoft will either have to delay the Windows 10 Mobile version or roll it out with plenty of known issues.
The best photos? Well, some of them, at least. While flicking through some old paper DSLR magazines I was reminded how we can all learn from, and be inspired by, the photos taken by others. With that in mind, I've gone through some of the Lumia groups on Flickr and plucked out examples - all from 2016 - that are particular noteworthy. See which of these you like and then be inspired to match them!
The release of the official Formula 1 UWP app for Windows 10 prompted me to try it out during the British Grand Prix weekend. But I was also using PitlaneOne, a longtime favourite and also now with a UWP version for Windows 10. Turns out that the official app gives you very little for free, while the unofficial free app gives you just about everything you need. For obsessive detail though, the official F1 application does ultimately win out - at a cost.
With the Lumia 950 heading firmly into the mid-tier in terms of pricing, if not specifications, it's becoming more appropriate to compare it to the latest breed of high-spec mid-tier Android smartphones - typically those from brands other than Samsung, Sony and HTC. In this case Alcatel, whose Idol range has been creeping up ever further from the budget end of the market each year. With the brand new Idol 4 in hand, I compare it to the Lumia 950, blow for blow.
Rafe and I were fortunate to spend some time recently with the HP Elite X3, its desk dock and lapdock. The phone itself was near final fit and finish and seemed almost ready for retail, ditto the desk dock, while the HP Lap Dock was a genuine prototype, but then this isn't scheduled to ship until (at least) a month after the Elite X3 itself. Read on for our first impressions of this 'evolution' in computing from HP.
It's the very latest kid on the smartphone (flagship) block and it has got a much better than expected camera. But can the OnePlus 3 defeat the Lumia 950 XL in terms of imaging? I've already compared the two devices in detail, but it's time for the cameras to shine. And they do - the OnePlus 3 is no slouch in this regard!
When it comes to 2016 specifications at the flagship level, we're talking screens up in the 5.5"+ region, fast processors, killer cameras, and so on. Microsoft's Windows 10 Contender is the Lumia 950 XL and seemed relatively competitive until I put it side by side here with the very latest bargain du jour, the OnePlus 3. How do the two flagships stack up, blow by blow?
One aspect of the Microsoft ecosystem which we've never covered on AAWP is Microsoft Family. This is a cross-device, cross-account monitoring system for you to manage what your family gets up to on their Windows smartphones. It had been heavily re-engineered and rebranded for Windows 10 and, thanks to reader Julian Grail, we've been sent a real world report of what one of his kids has been getting up to (suitably redacted). Very interesting.
In a blog post, Microsoft has announced that the old Windows Phone 8.1 'Kids Corner' feature is to be retired for the upcoming Windows 10 Mobile Anniversary Update (a.k.a. Redstone), citing low usage. Hardly surprising, since Apps Corner, also built in, is more flexible and can do the same job for most people. Here's how to get going with it.
I'm sorry, but I've been patient long enough. I've suffered through a dozen builds under various Insider 'rings', installed on at least six different phones in varying states of readiness. And there's one bug in Windows 10 Mobile which I just can't keep silent about any longer. And oddly I've not seen anyone else complain about it, at least not yet, which is why I wanted to vent here and check that I'm not totally alone. The issue is that Windows 10 Mobile's pop-up (volume button) media controls are utterly broken.
