Microsoft: Windows Phone 8 reboot fix. You'll have to wait till December.

Tired of your Windows Phone 8 doing random reboots? Microsoft is taking it's sweet time to fix the problem. According to a statement (below), an over-the-air fix is on the way sometime in December, reports All Things D. In the meantime, if you have a really bad case of the reboots, there isn’t much you can do other than bring your phone back to the store and try and arrange a swap. We’ll let you know as soon as we hear more.

Windows Phone 8 Suffering Random Reboots and Battery Issues

Windows Phone 8 users are starting to report early issues across HTC and Nokia handsets. In a thread over at WPCentral with 143 replies, a variety of HTC 8X users report that handsets randomly reboot while in use. A thread on Microsoft's own support forums has also gained 50 replies complaining about the issues. The Verge can confirm that an 8X we are testing has rebooted on more than one occasion.
Nokia Lumia 920 users are also reporting random reboots and freezes, with some complaining of poor battery life too. In a thread on Nokia's support forums, a number of users appear to be complaining of lock ups and resets with the Lumia 920. Battery life issues have led to some users wiping their devices in hope of a quick fix, unfortunately that seems to have resulted in some devices left stuck on a Nokia splash screen. In our own experience with several Windows Phone 8 devices, we've found that disabling the tap + send (NFC) feature results in improved battery life. We have reached out to Microsoft, HTC, and Nokia to discuss the issues and we'll update you accordingly.

Microsoft currently testing its own smartphone, says WSJ

Microsoft surprised the world earlier this year when it moved into producing its own computer hardware with the Surface, but the company's plans may not stop there. According to the Wall Street Journal's sources, Microsoft is currently testing a smartphone with Asian suppliers, although it's unclear whether or not the device will enter mass production. The phone reportedly has a screen size somewhere between four and five inches.
The Verge previously heard that while Microsoft was considering making its own flagship Windows Phone, such a device would be unlikely to see the light of day before the year is out. Indeed, Microsoft has gone out of its way to promote the efforts of hardware partners such as HTC and Nokia, and our sources tell us that any "Surface phone" would likely be deployed as a "Plan B" should Windows Phone 8 fail to gain significant traction. If the Journal's report is to be believed, however, this plan may be further along than previously thought.

Windows Phone 8 Launched And I Find Myself Very Ho Hum

Microsoft launched Windows Phone 8 today with a big event in San Francisco. I was hoping for some cool interesting hidden fanfare and after watching the broadcast found it very repetitive and on the face of it, to the public at least, nothing more than a point upgrade. Ok there is probably plenty under the hood but lets face it as nice as it is in some respects the only way Microsoft is going to this thing rolling is the strategy it's trying to employ,and thats put the phone interface it's Windows PC and new tablets and hope people get to like it and choose the phone option. Don't get me wrong, I love tech and was hoping for. I'm reading that people like the UI and the features like Kids Corner (being able to hand your phone to someone and only a few apps are available), more oomph in the OS and IE, Hub Rooms ala Google plus, and a small but decent selection of apps are winners. YEs there is 120,000 apps but if the quality is anything like the apps on Windows 8 they seem like toys to me. Lack in depth and are overly simplistic. Wheres the power?
Time will tell, but Microsoft has not managed to gain the mindshare required of the public but maybe with Windows 8 and a new large selections of Windows Phone 8 handsets they will finally get some traction. It still doesn't grab me but I'm sure it will many others

Why Windows 8 Made me love Windows 7 more . Out the door, back in the door, and repeat.

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Over the years , and yes I mean years I have used just about every OS on the planet. From my first days running DR DOS on my 8mhz dual 5 1/4" flopped XT IBM computer, thru OS2 from IBM all sorts of Windows , Linux Distros and OSX. Have I tried them all? No, that would be pretty impossible. Though I have used some interesting things like GEO Works. Boy I wish I still had a copy of the and Windows 3.11. Anyway I digress:

I had been using Windows 8 (alongside OSX ) for the last few months and somethings I have liked and others … well, not so much. I was doing a few updates on my beast of a Hackintosh and found a VM image of Windows 7. So I though lets boot it up. I did and was I surprised. Hey this looks nice, very polished, runs smooth and easy to get around. After using it for half an hour it become blindingly obvious to me that what I was enjoying most over all after the pretty looks was the fact I didn't have to go out the door and back in all the time to do a lot of things. So what am I on about. Some people have obviously talked of this before but not using my analogy of the doors. Windows 8 is a lot schizophrenic. Seems like there is always another layer I have to go through to get something done. By layer I mean door.
The fact I have to go out the door of the desktop and outside almost to the start menu and then back in the door to the main menu all the time is a giant pain in the "Talk about inefficiency".
It's like being forced to run multiple despots at the same time and the only way to start sometime new is to go to the other desktop and fire it up and then back to the desktop again. So it's out the door grab the "thing" go back in the door. Then repeat. There always seems to be an extra layer to go through which is just not nice. As a big fan of a simple clean desktop, yes I love OSX though it isn't perfect, I found Windows 7 a lot cleaner and with less layers to get to something. I am not a fan of the apps either. Frankly they such on a desktop computer. Try looking at an app on a 46" screen! Just plain dumb. Trying to be all things to all men just isn't working. So do I hate windows 8? Not at all. It's got some major upsides. Not the least of all is its a speed demon. I hate its look, 2D and flat looks like a cheap toy to me.
So why did Microsoft go to all this trouble to make something great and others drive you plan nuts? I mean they spent a lot of time polishing up to Windows 7, taking some nice cues from OSX and people really loved it. They did a great job of Windows 7.
Windows 8 will be great on a touch screen type tablet. Thats really it. They had to get into this space. I makes sense but as I said trying to be all things to all men is not going to work well at this stage.
So what would we like them to do? Well just make the start screen less intrusive and maybe even be able to shrink it down on the desktop left corner almost like a start menu of windows 7. Yes they could modify it a bit. No problems there. Just don't make it take over the whole screen . The new start screen has one thing I really like . When you open it just start tiping a few letter of the app you want and bash the space bar and your away. Why do I like this? Well it reminds me a lit like spotlight on OSX. Hit the common plus space bar , type sat hit enter and bam safari is running. Only difference is it didn't force take over the whole screen and back again. Thats kind of an inefficient use of graphics/screen realist ate and cpu power. Totally not needed at all.

So, I'm back to Windows 7 for my Microsoft OS use. It feeeeeeeeeeeellllls sooooooo much nicer and smoother to me. I don't have to have these flashes of total screen changes all the time which is hard on the eyes after a while. Of course Microsofts really avenger her is to sell more stuff. The new surfaces they will release soon and other tablet type devices, and of course probably the main reason in my eyes, Windows phone 8. (No it's not Windows 8 Phone) all microsofts screens on all there devices will look the same. Yes the same. Oh look, a Windows Phone 8 device, I know how to use this its just the same as my windows desktop (which sucks) and my windows 8 tablet device.

Ok rant over. Back to Ableton Live on my Macbook Air to make some soothing music.

HTC 8X and 8S Running Windows Phone 8 Looking Very Pretty.

HTC announced the new Windows Phone 8X and Windows Phone 8S smartphones. The 8X and 8S represent a new focus on Windows Phone for HTC. Microsoft has committed to a heavy promotion of HTC's new devices, and it's even gone so far as to call them the "Signature of the Windows Phone 8 brand. HTC's new flagship Windows Phone. The 8Xs t packs a 1.5 GHz, dual-core Snapdragon S4 chipset and 4.3-inch 1280x720 display good for a PPI of 342 and It's light and thin as well. The tapered edges of and soft-touch finish of the make the phone easy to hold, though you do feel the edges dig into your palm a little when you grip it. The screen is beautiful. Deep blacks, and eye-popping colors that immediately impress you.The combination of the screens responsiveness, the beefed-up processor, and OS improvements really make for an experience that's fast and fluid. The 8X keeps pace with the Lumia 920 in nearly every category, and even bests it in a few. It has LTE, a gig of RAM, an 8-megapixel rear camera (with dedicated button), a 2-megapixel front camera, 1080p video recording, NFC, and Beats Audio enhancement with an "enhanced" headphone amp (of course). The one major downside to the phone is that it's only available in a 16 gigabyte storage capacity, and has no expandable storage. And while it does have a slightly smaller, but comparable, 1800 mAh battery and a slightly smaller screen than the 4.5-inch Lumia 920, those may not end up being negatives if battery life is the same and you prefer a smaller screen.



But that's not the only phone HTC has in tow; the HTC 8S is the cheaper, smaller sibling to the 8X with specs that reflect that across the board. Whether its the 4-inch, 800x400 Super LCD, the 1 GHz Snapdragon S4 CPU, the 512 megabytes of RAM, lack of LTE, or the 5-megapixel camera (with no front cam), there's no room for debate as to which phone is better. The one plus is that because it only has 4 gigabytes of storage, HTC included a microSD slot for system expansion. But those looking for a cheap-ish Windows Phone could probably find worse.
Looking at the 8X and 8S, with their loud color schemes and boxy designs, Nokia's design influence is apparent. It's almost as if HTC took Nokia's playbook, lifted the pages about design, and then made some strikingly Lumia-like devices. All of this with Microsoft's blessing, approval, backing, and on-stage support from Microsoft's CEO.
Nokia has put a lot into the Windows Phone platform. Unlike HTC, Nokia is betting its whole hand on WIndows Phone, and it has developed a number of differentiating software features for its Windows Phone smartphones. Nokia Drive, Nokia Music, and Nokia's Camera Lenses are all valuable software additions that Nokia brings to Windows Phone. HTC, on the other hand, is focusing mainly on hardware features to separate its Windows Phone 8 smartphones from others, and it hasn't done the extensive software development on the platform that Nokia has. Likewise, HTC does have its line of Android devices to fall back on, should Windows Phone 8 fail, but Nokia doesn't have a backup platform if things go south.







Both phones will begin shipping in November on AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile, in an array of very bright colors (reds, blues, yellows) or just black. Pricing has yet to be finalized, but HTC would hope to keep both phones under $200 with contract. [HTC]

Nokia Lumia 920, you have some serious competition here.