What it's like to keep clinging onto Windows Mobile's sunken ship

Microsoft's Windows phones are the pariah of the tech industry. It wasn't always this way. Pre Windows Phone Windows Mobile once occupied a dominant position in the smartphone manufacture equally a platform for professionals and techies. Then the iPhone pushed "smartphones" into the mainstream, and everything changed. Microsoft would never once more approach the 40 percent mobile market share information technology once accomplished.

The iPhone's 2007 launch initiated Windows Mobile's precipitous fall which Microsoft sought to stall with the bear on- and consumer-friendly Windows Phone's 7, 8, viii.i and Windows 10 Mobile. Conceding Windows-on-phones market defeat, Windows x Mobile was infamously realigned with the enterprise sealing its fate. With each Bone "advancement" Microsoft's smartphone market share continued to autumn. Many fans held on hoping for a turnaround that never came, and a deeper delivery from Microsoft that never materialized.

Most diehard fans have since left the platform for greener iPhone and Android telephone pastures. A few of united states of america remain more or less content with the vestiges of a platform that honestly began to disappoint, effectually Windows Phone 8.1, fifty-fifty before the bottom cruel out. Still, I've been using Windows phones since 2006, and my Lumia 950 XL with Windows 10 Mobile is yet my daily driver.

Related: Hey Windows phone fans, here's why you may desire to pass on Android
Related: Hey Windows telephone refugees – hither's why you should pass on iPhone

What drew me to Windows phones?

The idea of "Windows in my pocket" drew me to my first smartphone (which was my second jail cell phone), the Cingular 2125. It was a candy bar shaped Windows Mobile 5.0 smartphone with a physical keyboard and a "big" (for the time) 2-inch screen that I bought in 2006 for $299. It allowed me to surf the spider web, picket saved movies from the SD Card, download apps from the web and much more. My Cingular 2125 Windows telephone was superior to the flip and characteristic phones my peers and others were using at the time.

My Tilt and Tilt II, followed my 2125 with Window Mobile half-dozen.0 sporting slide-out keyboards and larger displays. Their blueprint combined with Windows 6.0/6.five made me feel similar I was conveying a min-laptop in my pocket. Modifying the UI of this open operating system (OS) was one of my favorite parts of Windows Mobile. And so after Apple launched the iPhone with its closed Os and locked-down UI, I was disappointed with the overly simplistic, closed Windows Phone 7 Os and UI Microsoft launched in response.

It wasn't until Windows Phone 7.5 and the "massive" HTC Titan that Live Tiles, Hubs, the OS level integration of social media platforms, the UI fluidity and more won me over to Windows Phone. I loved interacting with Facebook friends directly from the People Hub equally if FB and Twitter we part of the OS. I enjoyed posting to social media from the Me Tile and the aesthetic and social network integration of the Photos Hub. The person-focused Messaging Hub which provided a continuous chat stream centered around a person even when I switched from a text messaging to Facebook Messenger was a joy. When Windows Telephone 8.1 brought welcome additions like Cortana to the mix, while ditching the power of the Me Tile and more, the "progress" was bloodshot.

Windows 10 Mobile with the addition of hamburger menus and eradication of the large fonts and the carousel aesthetics all merely killed the beauty of the OS that drew me in. I'm even so here, even so, because I still prefer Alive Tiles (I know there are Android skins), the platform still works for me, for now, and the cost of getting what I desire, a Galaxy Note 9 at $grand, is more than than I tin justify paying correct now.

My Ode to Windows Telephone 8

Do we actually need top of the line smartphones?

Windows Phone 8.ane improved upon and took away from the Windows Phone 8 experience.

I'm a techie so of course, I desire the latest and greatest tech. But equally a Windows phone user who is using a three-yr-old device what I, and maybe most of u.s., need and want are very unlike things. I'm not a heavy app user. And statistically, most people only utilize six top apps ninety-percent of the time. So statistically most people are not heavy app users. And those apps that are most used, like Facebook, Instagram, and others, are found on Windows phones (for now).

Now I am painfully aware that many apps many people use, like my banking app, is no longer available on Windows Mobile. Apps that my wife and I need for our small business organization are also missing. And many apps similar my favorite News program and other advertised apps are missing. Merely for what nearly of what most people exercise most of the time: surf the web, spotter videos, interact on Facebook and Twitter, email, message and more, fifty-fifty in its failing state, Windows phone even so does the job. Would an iPhone or Android phone do things ameliorate? I'thou convinced that yes, they would, but they're not Windows phone. I'thousand likewise enlightened that the lack of some apps on Windows Mobile is a barrier to certain jobs. I'm not trying to convince anyone to switch to or hold onto a sinking send. I'm sharing my experience.

I know that the tech industry and many of our own internal motivations convince the states that we demand the latest and smartest devices to participate in the modern age of mobile calculating. I believe that that urge in most cases is driven past want rather than actual need, however. Equally someone in tune with the tech industry and immersed in this world I debate we could get forth just fine without catering to the annual ritual of spending hundreds of dollars for an incremental step in device evolution at the behest of tech companies in their quest for more profits. Peculiarly when the device we spend $1000 for this year volition be used to surf the web, listen to music, watch videos, message friends and take pictures just like the device we spent $1000 for terminal year.

Let's exist honest, no i really needs a $1000 smartphone

What lies ahead?

I'll eventually move on from my 3-yr-old Lumia 950 XL. Information technology will likely be to a $200 Android telephone or perhaps a $1000 Galaxy Note. That'due south if I don't hang on long plenty to reap the possible Surface Andromeda fruits of Microsoft's Windows-on-mobile strategy of which Windows-on-phone has ever only been a role.

My switch to Android or Microsoft'southward Pocket PC (if information technology makes it to market) is inevitable folks. When the time comes I'll be sure to permit you know.

Minecraft Preview can now be downloaded and played on Windows

New means to test

Minecraft Preview can at present exist downloaded and played on Windows

On Monday, Mojang Studios appear Minecraft Preview, a new Minecraft game that will let players test upcoming changes and updates before they release. Minecraft Preview volition eventually replace the current Minecraft: Boulder Edition beta program.