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What Windows Phone 'glance and go' means to you [contest winner]

Publié: décembre 15, 2011, 9:30pm CET par Joe Wilcox

A month ago today at Midnight, we ended our Windows Phone contest. Finally, after too many delays, it's time to announce the lucky winner. Why did we take so long? The entries were just too good. We argued like X-Factor judges about how best to choose the winner. In the end, we left it to chance among the top contenders.

We requested: "Please tell us why glance and go appeals to you and how you would benefit from it". "Glance and go" is Microsoft's design and marketing philosophy for Windows Phone. Conceptually, Windows Phone enables people to live better rather than spend their lives tap, tap, tapping on the touchscreen. That concept, and the task-oriented user interface behind it, makes Windows Phone remarkably different from either Android or iOS.

Our panel of arguing judges narrowed the entries down to a dozen. We used a polyhedral dice from my old Dungeons & Dragons game -- yes, there was role playing before the Internet and Xbox 360 -- to cut the contenders to nine, six and three. The process infuriated some judges, who saw what they considered to be winning entries cast aside. If I had my way, we would have picked our favorites and done rock, paper, scissors. I was overruled, but it wouldn't be the first time.

Among the final three, we have a lucky winner: Petra O'Sullivan, whom I'll email to get her mailing address soon as I post.

This is where I stop to thank Microsoft for providing the Windows Phone, Samsung Focus Flash, which will be sent overnight to Petra as soon as I get her address. Yes, Petra, there is a Santa Claus and Windows Phone under your Christmas Tree -- if you're quick responding.

Below are 11 of the 12 entries that contended for the Samsung Focus Flash. We will separately post the submission from Travis Brown, which is quite long and provocative. I want to thank everyone who participated, particularly the 12 contenders, and if I had a dozen phones to give away you'd all be winners.

Bradley Jones

Dear @Betanews Joe,
Can you please send me some 'glance and go'?

Please make my icons become I can's,
As the live-tiles show me my day's plans

The tiles are fresh and innovating,
the Mango's ripe, I'm salivating!

Sure, many entries have their reasons,
but for me my plea is all about the seasons.

I have been a WebOS apologist and user,
But as it turns out, my platform is the loser.

So maybe I just like the little guy,
Or maybe I'm just not ready for Apple-pie.

Oh, please Joe, send me a WinPho!
And Steve will owe you one...for one more user!

Chris Dorrell

The design philosophy of "glance and go" is a logical one. Nine times out of ten when we wake up our phone we don’t need much info: what’s the time, when is my next appointment/event, should I ignore the email that just arrived? etc. Presenting as much of that data as possible without requiring interaction is a good goal.

This brings to mind Glance Armstrong. The man won the Tour de France seven consecutive times by taking quick peeks at his competitors and then going (fast). He rode a bike rather than a Windows Phone, but I suspect that was simply for personal comfort.

Johnny Kamel

Top 5 reasons of why glance and go is an amazing and beneficial concept:

1. When going to college I have to be extremely careful about the people driving around me since they're too busy unlocking their home screens, searching for apps, opening the app and then -- oh, wait, did they just crash into someone else also using their phone?

2. It is rude enough to use your smartphone when having dinner, so if one wants to be annoying on the table let them be annoying for a shorter amount of time reduced by the glance-and-go way.

3. It is amazing how much first impressions matter and a lot of people are so consumed by their phones that they miss out on meeting new people just because they were too busy navigating through their phones to show something to someone they see every day.

4. Time is money -- enough said.

5- Well there is no such thing as top 4 reasons -- 5 sounded better. So I'm just going to use this one to say that I have always been a Microsoft fan and think that the smartphone market is looking good for them just like when they first emerged with their xbox in the gaming market.

lissack

Glance and go is the only safe way to consult your phone while driving. It's much quicker than using your voice. I am a realtor. I am driving constantly. I have been using glance and go since the moment i could get it, and I will never look back. Safe driving friends.

Kevin Mars

The premise behind Microsoft's touch and go Windows Phone interface may just be what I need to save my life and my marriage. Currently as far as my wife is concerned I'm having an affair with my phone as it's getting more attention from me than she is. And she's giving me a hard time about not noticing when my kids are demanding my attention because I'm captivated by this small device that has got me hooked like a schedule-1 substance.

I'm a very information-hungry individual. I spend a lot of time reading random things online -- whether it be world news, social news, video game news, tech journal,s etc. Back when I was using Windows Mobile 5 & 6 I was fairly limited in what I could pull down and much of it was text based so I could get the information I desired in a quick, albeit boring, format but it didn't consume so much of my time. With the iPhone I would spend too much time jumping between apps or looking for alternate sites that were more Safari friendly to get the information I desired. I hated the fact that it didn't really bring the information to me unless I looked for it.

My Samsung Fascinate does a much better job letting me setup widgets to pull down some of this info for me but it's still not quite ideal (plus all these things drain my battery and the device demands I pull the battery every so often like my work BlackBerry devices do) and it doesn't do a great job of linking the info together (especially social info) so I spend quite a bit of time jumping between items to consume the info I desire, not to mention jumping between the Android Browser, Opera and sometimes Firefox depending on the site, since I can't seem to get a consistent desirable browsing experience with any of them.

Microsoft's hubs seem to be on the right direction for what I desire. I would relish the opportunity to give it a spin and see if their device can help me get back to living and giving my family the attention they deserve. I am a mobile deviceaholic and I'm looking for a better way. Short of getting a neural-link to the 'Net, I'm very interested to see if Windows Phone can satisfy my hunger in a more efficient manner. What I've seen so far looks promising.

Chris Papadopoulos

Inner peace derives from easy data access and fast response to any given command, since all mobile devices put your temper to the limits! That will hopefully be the case with the Windows Phone and if I am uber-lucky I will be posting the awesomeness to the crowd.

PC_Tool

Benefits of "Glance & Go":

The stop-sign/stop-light quick check no longer pisses off all of the drivers behind you -- as you unlock, tap, scroll and slide to get to what you want to check. Less Road Rage saves lives.

All the info is right in front of you. Your screen stays cleaner (less swiping) and you lower your risk of carpal_thumb_syndrome. (Is that a syndrome yet? It should be.)

Shorter meetings. Instead of staring at their phones, they are staring at the presenter, and it's gonna freak him out. The faster he gets done, the faster they all stop looking at him.

And seriously? The major benefit is for those folks who use their phones mainly as a social-media content aggregator. Instead of going from app to app (launching, closing, with a trip to the home-screen/app drawer in between), it's just there. Right in front of you. No clicking, swiping, scrolling and mostly, no waiting. Well, at least, that's the idea. ;)

ShoutBits

I live in a downtown neighborhood with eight Starbucks shops within a few blocks of each other. With my clumsy Android phone, sooner or later I am going to crash into someone on the sidewalk and spill $4 worth of coffee. Maybe Glance and Go can save me and my neighbors from this.

Petra O'Sullivan

I'm the mother of a toddler. Glance and go is all I have time for in my life!

tiburoncito_2000

I promise to give up my iPhone addiction.

Jason Ward

The glance-and-go concept appeals to me because life itself is fluid. Though we often think of things in our lives in terms of origin and destination (i.e. leaving home; getting to work, going to college;getting a good job; meet Mr. or Mrs. Right; get married) the time spent between these events or destinations is also where life flows. Life doesn't start and stop in distinct iterations of events -- it flows.

Windows Phone's glance and go concept is designed to allow people -- us -- to use the Windows Phone as a tool while we continue to flow through life. Using a Windows Phone as a tool in our lives does not halt us -- forcing us into the world of the phone, but as a natural tool the glance-andgo concept fits into our world and flows with us.

In addition to this the actual fluidity of the OS -- how the words and pages of the Hubs and applications flow smoothly and effortlessly across the screen responsively instigated by the slight and natural swipes of the user -- is a visual manifestation of the continuity of the design of the Window Phone system to flow with our lives. Glance and go -- live and flow.

I believe that the Window Phone OS is the most natural mobile OS offering the most synergistic addition to our lives.
Get back to basic (and really fun) gameplay with retro-style OpenRA and UFO:AI

Publié: décembre 15, 2011, 5:41pm CET par Mike Williams

Many modern games are all about the graphics, with the developers exploiting the very latest engines and technologies to deliver some truly cinematic experiences. Get past the eye candy, though, and there’s not always a great deal left. So if you place a higher value on compelling gameplay, then you might find considerably more entertainment in a retro-style project, something that’s based on interesting ideas rather than just pretty pixels.

OpenRA, for instance, is an open-source implementation of the Red Alert engine, which right now supports classic Westwood games like Command & Conquer and Command & Conquer: Red Alert. These aren’t clones of the originals, rather they’re what the developers call “reimaginings”, with “improved and rebalanced gameplay”.

If you don’t remember the originals, then these are real-time strategy classics, which helped to create the rules that many RTS games still follow today. In a skirmish, for instance, you’ll start with a single base; begin collecting resources to build up your economy; construct base defences, buildings and units; then scour the rest of the map for your enemies, turning every last one to dust with your high-tech weaponry.

You can play against the computer, but there’s also support for multiplayer games played both locally and over the Internet, and the authors are constructing a single-player campaign, too.

Graphics? They’re, well, basic. Even by 1990′s standards. We’ve always loved the Command & Conquer series, though, and OpenRA provides a fun and free way to enjoy their engrossing gameplay once more.

If OpenRA’s tiny sprites are just too basic for your tastes, though, you might prefer something like UFO:Alien Invasion. It’s based on a version of the Quake 2 engine, so still isn’t exactly what you’d call leading edge, graphically speaking, but it can look reasonably good. (Although the down side is that all these maps and visuals make for a bulkier download at more than 500MB.)

Gameplay this time is based on the old X-COM PC games, where you control a secret organization charged with protecting with world from a brutal alien invader.

Some of the game is played at a fairly high level, in Geoscape mode. You’ll build bases, research new technologies to help you in your battles, select and train soldiers, deploy and launch interceptor craft to shoot down invading UFOs.

The heart of the game, though, is Tactical Mode, where you send a hand-picked team of specialist soldiers to an area with reports of alien activity, and have them find out exactly what’s going on.

What’s really interesting here is that this works in a turn-based form. Every soldier has a certain number of “time units” to spend per turn. You might use these to move a soldier as far forward as possible across a map, for instance. But, you may find his very last step brings an alien into his sight. And so when your turn ends, the alien will be able to attack and kill him with ease.

So what you have to do instead, then, is be careful, move forward slowly, don’t rush around blind corners or into rooms unless you know what’s there and other members of the team are available to cover you. Which is, of course, actually quite what this situation would be like in real life. So although the turn-based approach seems primitive, and won’t be to everyone’s tastes, it turns out to be surprisingly good at generating tension and excitement. And if you’re looking for a free game with the depth to keep you engrossed and entertained for quite a few hours, then UFO:Alien Invasion could be a very good choice.
Microsoft will push automatic updates to Internet Explorer, starting January 2012

Publié: décembre 15, 2011, 5:18pm CET par Ed Oswald

Microsoft is set to get a little more pushy ensuring you have an up-to-date browser and will automatically update Internet Explorer to the latest version on Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7 beginning in January. This will occur for those who have enabled Automatic Updates within Windows Update, the company says.

The move echoes a trend started with Google's Chrome, which automatically updates itself by default: other browsers (such as Firefox and Opera) prompt before updating. Chrome's update strategy is why a previous version loses market share quickly when a new version comes out.

For Windows XP, this means the update will deliver Interner Explorer 8, while Vista and Windows 7 browsers will get the latest version of IE9. Those who have specifically declined IE8 or IE9 in the past are opted-out.

Microsoft provides the IE8 or IE9 Automatic Update Blocker to prevent the update from occurring, an option many businesses choose to use. Microsoft plans to integrate automatic update blocking into the the browser in future versions.

"The Web overall is better – and safer – when more people run the most up-to-date browser", Internet Explorer Business and Marketing manager Ryan Gavin writes to The Windows Blog. "Our goal is to make sure that Windows customers have the most up-to-date and safest browsing experience possible, with the best protections against malicious software such as malware".

Microsoft has made a big deal about upgrading IE at the consumer level. Earlier this year it launched a public relations campaign to get users of Internet Explorer 6 -- a decade old browser -- to upgrade. At the time, some 12 percent of Web surfers still used it: that has since fallen to about eight percent according to Net Applications.

Australian and Brazilian Windows users will be the first to receive the automatic updates, which will be scaled up over time. Microsoft will not change any settings or personalization as a result of the update, it claims.
Google Galaxy Nexus is finally here, will you buy?

Publié: décembre 15, 2011, 4:59pm CET par Joe Wilcox

It's the question I'm asking myself, so I pose it you. After countless launch day rumors, Verizon Wireless is finally offering the Google-branded Galaxy Nexus, the first Ice Cream Sandwich Android, to us poor dodos here in the United States. Seemingly everybody else in the world got it first, like Samsung Galaxy S II before it.

Related is another question: Will you pay more now or pay less and wait? Verizon has Galaxy Nexus available right now for $299.99 -- a penny more than the comparable iPhone 4S, which is HSPA and not 4G LTE; you can walk into a store and get Galaxy Nexus into your greedy grubby hands right away. Fry's Electonics will sell you the smartphone for $219.99 online, with a 2-to-3 day wait, which just might make Christmas; I assume it's in stores today, for West Coasters seeking immediate gratification. AmazonWireless has the best price I've seen so far, $199 -- and that's with no tax. I went through the ordering process, but didn't buy, and got December 29 delivery date -- that's no Christmas for you, bud. Better pricing means waiting longer, and Verizon made you wait so long already.

There's also option of waiting even longer for the Android 4.0 smartphone to pop up on another carrier. But there might not be LTE. Verizon turned on its LTE network in more cities today, with coverage now reaching 200 million Americans. AT&T offers LTE in 15 cities, promising to reach 70 million people by end of this month. My buddies back in Washington, DC see 20Mbps downstream or more on AT&T LTE. Some BetaNews readers report speeds approaching 40Mbps. I tested Verizon's network on XOOM LTE here in San Diego last night, consistently getting close to 18Mbps downstream. Waiting might get you faster bandwidth -- or you could pay $700 or more for an international unlocked phone (I wouldn't), which supports AT&T and T-Mobile HSPA+ networks.

One question GSM phone geeks are sure to ask: "Can you do data and talk at the same time?" Since Verizon's CDMA network can't do it. I called a couple Verizon Wireless stores this morning asking that question. One customer rep answered: "For the 4G network, correct".

For people considering iPhone 4S or Galaxy Nexus, some specs:

iPhone 4S: 3.5-inch multitouch display with 960 x 640 resolution (800:1 contrast ratio); 800MHz dual-core processor; 512MB RAM; 16GB, 32GB or 64GB storage; GSM/HSPA; 8MP rear-facing and VGA front-facing cameras; LED flash; image stabilization; 1080p video recording; accelerometer; ambient-light sensor; gyroscope; GPS; proximity sensor; digital compass; Bluetooth; WiFi. Measurements: 115.2 x 58.6 x 9.3 mm, 140 grams.

Galaxy Nexus: 4.65-inch multitouch display with 1280 x 720 resolution (100,000:1 contrast ratio); 1.2GHz dual-core processor; 1GB RAM; 32GB storage; CDMA/4G LTE; 5MP rear-facing and 1.3MP front-facing cameras; LED flash; zero shutter-lag; 1080p video recording; accelerometer; ambient-light sensor; barometer; gyroscope; GPS; proximity sensor; digital compass; Near-Field Communication (NFC); Bluetooth; WiFi. Measurements: 135.5 x 67.94 x 8.94 mm, 135 grams.

Too Many Delays

Someone at Verizon should be fired -- and perhaps at Google, too -- for the late launch. The earliest rumors had the phone going on sale a month ago, which makes lots more sense because of iPhone 4S, Verizon skipping Galaxy S II and Christmas holidays. Somebody gave up weeks of sales on arguably one of the best, if not the very best, handsets available this holiday season.

Three days ago I asked: "Are you tired of waiting for Galaxy Nexus?", wondering who among BetaNews readers had given up waiting.

"I couldn't wait and just got my iPhone yesterday, motta writes two days ago. "They dropped the ball on this one if you ask me. By the way the iPhone is ten times better than I thought it was going to be. Facetime rocks!"

"I was planning to switch to Verizon for this phone", EWilliams1914 writes. "However, after the revelation of bloatware (even if it can be disabled), the Google wallet debacle, and the ridiculous wait, I finally just ordered one from the UK".

DatBoyK: "Its gotten to the point where I've lost all my excitement for it. If I do get it it will be because there is just nothing else I wanted at the time. What a piss poor job they have done with this phone".

The wait is over. Will you buy? Or have you already? Please answer in comments, and if you got Galaxy Nexus please share your first impressions, which will matter to other prospective buyers.
One password to bring them all and on Windows 8 bind them

Publié: décembre 15, 2011, 12:49am CET par Joe Wilcox

Microsoft has long looked lovingly at identity, and providing the "one" that binds consumers and businesses to Windows. Users benefit by being freed from managing multiple identities and passwords across the web and, presumably, by improved privacy and security as a result. Microsoft gains by controlling a master identity system that keeps some of its core technologies relevant.

But Microsoft couldn't bring a single-identity system to market during the last decade. Privacy groups filed complaints about Passport, leading to a Federal Trade Commission investigation and later a settlement. Soon after, Microsoft settled its US antitrust case, agreeing to five years government oversight that instead went on for nearly 10. But Federal and state watchdogs left in September, and as I explained then Microsoft is freer to integrate stuff into Windows. Today, Dustin Ingalls, Windows Security & Identity, explains exactly how Windows 8 will tackle the identity problem.

Luckily for Microsoft, during its lost decade of government oversight, no single ID system emerged. OpenID isn't it, as many open-source supporters had hoped. But Apple and Google are leading candidates -- the one leveraging from iTunes/iCloud IDs and the other Gmail profiles connected to dozens of services, respectively. So Microsoft can't move fast enough to take its leading asset, Windows Live ID, and bind it to the operating system in a compelling and useful way. Ingallis rightly lays it out -- using Windows 8 and Live IDs to reduce the burden of managing identities and passwords and improving privacy and security in the process.

"Our research has shown us that the average person using a PC in the United States typically has about 25 online accounts", he explains. "That's a lot to keep track of. In fact, the data also shows that the number of unique passwords across those 25 accounts is only about six. For folks who spend time thinking about security, that's a worrisome finding".

Some of these services are really frustrating. Several I use limit passwords to eight characters and prohibit security-enhancing special characters, like % or #. My typical password, and they all vary in length, is minimum a dozen characters, unless restricted by the service provider.

"Password reuse is very useful to hackers", Ingallis rightly observes. "They know that if they can learn your password for one site, it’s highly likely that you use the same password on other sites. Even worse, an attacker can often use your sign-in information to reset the password for other accounts where the password actually is different".

He then goes to state all the different reasons why the existing password-model is deficient. Then explains:

Windows 8 simplifies the task of managing unique and complex passwords in two important ways. The first is by providing a way to automatically store and retrieve multiple account names and passwords for all the websites and applications you use, and do so in a protected manner. Internet Explorer 10 uses the credentials that we store to remember names and passwords for websites you visit (if you choose). In addition, anyone building a Metro style app can use a direct API to securely store and retrieve credentials for that app. (It is important to note that IE respects instructions from websites about saving your credentials – some websites specifically request that passwords not be saved.)...

One of the great things you get when you sign in to Windows with your Windows Live ID is the ability to sync the credentials you’ve stored to all of the Windows 8 PCs that you register as your 'Trusted PCs'. When you store credentials in conjunction with signing in to Windows with your Windows Live ID, Windows enables you to set your password for each account to something that is both complex and unique; since Windows 8 will automatically submit the credential on your behalf, you’ll never need to remember it yourself. If you need to see the actual password at some point later, you can view it in the credential manager shown here, from any of your Trusted PCs.

Google offers an optional two-factor authentication that I would use if it worked right. But Google's mechanism isn't automatic for all its services and requires special setup for applications. Simply stated: It's a pain in the ass. From that perspective, among others, I see sense in Microsoft making authentication a core part of the operating system.

That's not really new, in a sense, as Windows Vista, 7 and Server 2008 support TPM -- Trusted Platform Module -- which requires supporting hardware to dynamically create encryption keys. Microsoft plans to improve Windows 8 TPM support in a variety of ways that will benefit businesses, particularly. Like Windows Live ID, there is unique benefit for developers creating Metro-style apps, which, Ingallis says, "have APIs that make it easy to automatically enroll and manage keys on your behalf".

Microsoft will take a very OS-centric approach to identity when Windows 8 ships. But as more business-to-business, business-to-consumer, business-to-employee and consumer-to-consumer transactions take place, there's reason to ask whether Windows, or any other PC operating system, really is the best identity hub. After all, more of us use cloud-connected mobile devices every day.

Photo Credit: Gunnar Pippel/Shutterstock