Fun times with Windows Phone 8
Microsoft Corp. and its hardware partners are hoping Apple and Android smartphone users will consider making the switch to Windows Phone 8, which launched in late 2012.
I borrowed an HTC Windows Phone 8X for a month to test it out. Here is a rundown of some of the phone’s more interesting features:
» Interoperability with Windows 8 and Xbox 360. Windows Phone 8 can interface with Windows 8 devices and Xbox 360 game consoles in various ways. One of the more interesting examples is Xbox SmartGlass, which allows the phone to be used as a second screen to display additional information while playing
TECHNOLOGY games and watching movies on Xbox.
» More apps than you might think. While Apple and Android remain the king and queen of apps, with more than 700,000 available for each mobile operating system, Windows Phone 8 still offers nearly all of the most popular apps and has a total catalog of more than 120,000. You can find most anything you’re looking for in the Windows Phone 8 apps store.
» A useful feature for parents. One of the Windows phone’s unique features is called Kid’s Corner. It allows parents to set up a kid-friendly start screen for when their child wants to play with the phone. It can be customized to allow the use of certain apps only and to restrict in-phone purchases.
» A fantastic digital camera. The HTC phone I borrowed has, bar none, the most impressive camera of any phone I’ve ever used, and I have an iPhone 4S and a Droid Bionic. It takes crystal-clear pictures from any distance, and the phone’s camera app offers basic photo-editing options such as rotation, cropping and various lens effects.
» Web-browsing with Internet Explorer 10. Most people are familiar with Internet Explorer, and Windows Phone 8 manages to incorporate most of its useful features such as tabbed browsing and the ability to search for specific words within a Web page.
Overall, I enjoyed my time with Windows Phone 8. Those who already own a Windows 8 PC or tablet and an Xbox 360 might especially like it for the phone’s synchronization and interface capabilities.