I have to say that the new Samsung Omnia M is something of an oddity. Firstly because you'll almost certainly have either not heard of it or seen it, thanks to an exclusivity deal (in the UK, at least) with Phones 4u. Secondly, because this Windows Phone 7.5 handset is very late in the day. Very. We're talking about only a couple of months until we've got Windows Phone 8 handsets coming out of our ears - and the Omnia M, like all the other Windows Phone 7.5 hardware, can't be upgraded to version 8 of the OS. Moreover, it's a somewhat bewildering combination of both sumptuous and stingy components...
Picture a time when it took four minutes to open a game, when your games ran at a resolution of 256x192 pixels with just 15 colours, and when the religious war was "Commodore vs Speccy". Now get ready to relive it on your Windows Phone with MetroSpec. This is a full blown emulator of the first ZX Spectrum , the popular range of 8-bit computers from the 80s that started with the 16K model, and finished with the disk-drive enabled Plus 3. MetroSpec emulates the 48K and the Spectrum Plus, which is effectively the same model but had a fancier keyboard than the rubber chicklet of the 48K model.
Time for a little bit of fun on Friday as I look at 'Save The Roundy' from AE Mobile. It's another gravity powered puzzle game that takes a level-based approach. The physics is spot on and it's a good diversion, but it's missing a little bit of sparkle to lift it out of the 'average' game category.
One of the basic tenets of a modern 'smartphone' is that it should be always connected. Yet this is where Windows Phone has traditionally let itself down slightly, as I shall explain below. Happily, a new utility, Active Wifi, completely solves the problem, so this is one story that has a happy ending (albeit costing you £0.79p)!
Much like Pendulous, which I reviewed yesterday, Chillingo's latest Xbox Live title, 'Contre Jour' has you guiding the central character - in this case "a mysterious creature called Petit" - through the levels and towards the exit portal. The quirk? You have no direct interaction with the beautiful blob as she passes through a sumptuous looking game.
Now this is a fun little physics number! Pendulous, like many level based arcade games, asks you to get from one side of the screen to an exit point, past some tricky obstacles. The trick to making these games fun and addictive is not in the level design, although that is a huge part of the appeal, but in a control system that is different, accurate, and easy.
Sometimes my mind wanders, as it has this week when I decided to look for a coffee shop application for my Windows Phone. While the major chains don't have a presence on Windows Phone just yet, independent developer Denham Software Solutions has come up with an app called Starbux Card. With all the features of the first party apps, this is a smart piece of code that's pretty helpful for the Starbucks fan.
From part of the design team that brought you Panzer Dragoon on the Sega Saturn comes a little Xbox Live title with heavy echoes of the 1995 classic. Crimson Dragon: Side Story is a shoot-em-up, viewed from the side, that tells the story of the Crimson Scale disease on the planet Draco. B-movie plot aside, this is a damn fine little arcade number, and potentially one of the best action games on Xbox Live.
The phone case is an oft-overlooked item these days. There was a time when having a phone in a leather case clipped to one's belt was the norm, not so much these days as thin touch slabs tend to casually slip into our pockets or bags. That hasn't deterred manufacturers like Noreve who claim to make 'haute couture' for mobile phones. We give its cases for the Lumia 800 and 900 the catwalk treatment.
If I was to break down what I use my smartphone for, I suspect that the media player (specifically for music and audio podcasts) would be a big part of Windows Phone and of the devices and Operating Systems I've used before. Those historical handsets all had third-party applications that would link my musical listening to the popular Last.FM music service. I've not yet found something suitable for Windows Phone... will MetroScrobbler be the app to change that?
