Windows Phone 10....

I have been using Windows 10 on my Nokia 925 for two weeks now and for the most part there is a a lot to be thankful for. It is a development of the Windows 8.1 Phone, especially the not widely released one that spookily turns up on your phone just before Windows 10 if you decide to go down the Windows Insider path, I would like to spend a bit more time with that one.

However, as with Windows 10 on the PC there are signs that Microsoft are struggling to to hit that one OS rules them all goal that they started with Windows 8.

It is all beta still but as we are expecting an Autumn (fall) release, you would expect them to have nailed the basic design of the OS and supporting in house apps and just be fixing GUI and interface issues and any bugs. Unfortunately there are still, in my opinion some major issues with some functionality which I would have expected only from an immature company not one that built it’s empire around how the user interacted with its software and could make it work for them.

Problem one is that the App that you use to report bugs to Microsoft crashes. This really is a bad day at the office.

Problem two is that the email client they have moved to is unusable for me. When reading or trying to type an email the text is so small I need to put reading glasses on to see even vague words, there is no way to make this bigger and it does not respond to any common gestures to make it bigger.

They have decided to put all email in one place and one tile on the home screen. There is no live tile yet, so I won’t judge that, but when you go in to the App the default is to go to the last account you looked at. There is no overview that shows you unread emails or anything useful, you are left to wander around to see if you have anything, multiple clicks and it is not the most responsive. Yes there is the notification center but to be honest it requires too much work to be useful, it would better to turn it off, if I could work out how.

With the small text I can’t read, the reduced usability and the fact that the app doesn’t even link to any choices I have made on themes such as dark background or text size preferences, the Outlook app is a major backward step is usability and productivity for me.

Under Settings > Phone apparently you should see your number, it isn’t there yet (well not on my phone) but to be honest how hard should it be to find out what your phone number is? Yes I should remember it but for some reason mobile phone numbers just don’t work for me. At least ther is hope.

Cut, Copy and paste should work everywhere, but it doesn’t, for example there are two apps that won’t update in the store, I can get an error code up but I can’t just say “Cortana go and find a fix for that error”, or cut and paste the code in to Spartan or do anything, I have to remember the code and search myself.

Old school hit the back button and it would close the app, now everything stays open, so if you go in to settings and set up your phone, press and hold back button there will be around 10 to 20 apps/windows open. That is a massive retrograde step, windows 8 did something similar were Metro apps wouldn’t shut down, Windows 8.1 solved it, windows 10 brings it back.

Searching is the worst experience ever. If you type something in to the address bar in IE or Spartan it will basically start Cortana and eventually bring back some random stuff from Bing, after you have waited about 3 minutes, I have started going to Google and doing searches from there.

I like Windows Phone 8.1, it is a simple and easy way to do the smart phone thing, yes it isn't perfect but it is better than the alternatives for me. From trying to use Android on tablets and the like it feels too messy and unintuitive, iPhone is not a path I want to go down due to price,  their closed environment and compatibility issues I have seen.

Right now it is my opinion that if Microsoft release Windows 10 on phones as it is,  it will kill them in the phone market completely, it is like watching Blackberry all over again.

Ask yourself, what do you want from a mobile phone OS?

For me it is simplicity to do the task I want to do.

Easy UI customizations to deal with my physical imperfections (memory and eyesight), simple ways to access key information like upcoming meetings, phone numbers, documents etc, make me look good simple to take photographs and easy integration to the cloud for offline storage.

Windows 10 does not do it this and is worse that Windows 8.1.

Unless MS pull the proverbial rabbit from the hat I will be looking at Samsung’s in house OS and Firefox OS because the future Windows Phone is looking like something that just does not work for me.