Wednesday, June 22, 2016

Just A Normal Day In Windows Update Land...


So, I noticed that I hadn't visited this page since April of this year. That means I'm almost 2 months overdue for my next, Windows Phone has failed me post. I have to say that with a grain of salt, because it isn't Windows fault that it's not in my pocket right now, it really isn't. What I mean by this is that it's not that the OS is poor, or my HTC One M8 for Windows is an inferior device for some reason - in fact, it's quite the contrary. The sad reality is that no matter how hard I try to make Windows my daily driver, there's just too much out there for other platforms that will never find their way to Windows.

To put the power of Windows in perspective, I had a 16GB Lumia 925 that NEVER ran out of space. It powered through 2 days of use on a single charge. It had all the necessary evils: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc... I had Nokia Mix Radio for downloading a playlist or two (or streaming over Wi-Fi to protect my data and storage) and a camera that out performed most devices on the planet even today. To this day, I still can't tell you why I ever left my 925, it seemed like the perfect phone, and it just may have been.

Since then, the rotating levels of cheap Lumia devices have done NOTHING for me. 500 series were great starter phones, or a good device for Grandpa's first smartphone, but they weren't for the serious user. Then we had the 600 series, which was a bit of a step up, but still fell flat. The 800 series never came back to it's former glory and the 700 series was left only to Verizon's 735, which again, left a rather bland taste in my mouth.

The last saving grace would have been the Lumia 950 series, which was limited to only one US carrier - and not one that I have wanted to use in quite some time. The $650 sticker price also threw that device far from the realm of, sure, I'll give up everything Android for a decent enough device, but with a price tag that is out of the normal range of a Nexus or even something more powerful. No thanks.

Overall, I can honestly say that nothing has happened in the world of Windows Phone/Windows Mobile in the two months I've been wandering around and playing golf. Sure, they've been polishing the OS a bit and squashing a few bugs, but in all honesty, the official device list has been cut, the feature sets have been limited to 2 devices and there looks to be no hope of anything new coming to market soon. The question is, how much longer will Microsoft continue on this mission before they either exit the market or release something that shocks the industry. It can go either way and I for one am still hoping for the latter.