Clearing out my office this week I found my last Windows Mobile phone the Orange SPV E650.  It reminded me that I have always been looking for something more than just a telephone, I really wanted a smart phone and the lure of the Windows mobile device lead me away from what was the mainstay of my mobile experience, namely the Nokia 6310.

However I found the windows mobile experience disappointing, the SPV E650 was the best it ever got and in it’s day it was THE smart phone to own as this review in 2007 shows getting 10/10 and being described as:

The SPV E650 is the first device I’ve come across that can truly be described as a single solution for data and voice.

What is most surprising is that in January 2007 Apple had announced the first iPhone, which was to be released in June just a couple of months after this review of the SPV E650.  The iPhone as we all know was a game changer and I along with millions of others made the switch.

Apple Fanboy

I have to confess here that I am not an Apple fanboy,  I didn’t queue up outside of an Apple store to be the first to own one, in fact I didn’t get an iPhone until the 3G was released. I did however see the iPhone as a solution to my mobile device needs even making the switch from Orange to O2 to get one, something I regret doing due to O2′s appalling customer service even worse mobile coverage,  did I mention I couldn’t get a mobile signal at home!

The iPhone feature had got me, it was a game changer. Apple had stood by their vision and released a truly disruptive product.

I did make the switch to the iPhone 3GS but not for any specific features it was a way for me to end my contract early with O2 and get back to Orange where I could at least get a signal at home – albeit the iPhone gave significantly worse reception than my wife and friends phones based on Nokia and Sony Ericsson.

I got into the iPhone not because I buy into Apple’s Why (read Simon Sinek’s Start with Why to get some background), but because the iPhone was the only option for me, it had what I wanted, it was the rational choice.

When I upgraded to the iPhone3GS Google had started to compete with it’s Android phones, but to me the Android always seemed to be playing catch up and a bit of me too with the iPhone – so on a purely rational basis I stuck with Apple.  I was expecting a big announcement ‘the iPhone 5′ – something new, game changing, disruptive – but alas it was just more of the same the 4GS.  Then along comes the Nokia Lumia 800

It not just Mango

Microsoft released Windows Phone 7 in 2010 with the first devices launched in Europe in October.  This was no “iPhone me to!”, Microsoft had really taken a brave step forward.  But I wasn’t queuing up to be the first to own one.  I had an interest in it but more from a will Microsoft see this through and will it be able to compete. 

The Mango release of Windows Phone 7 software really got people interested in the product.  A lot of OEM partners created phones, Samsung and HTC doing a good job technically but nothing that yet made me want to leave my iPhone behind,  however when Nokia announced it’s entry into the market with the Nokia Lumia 800 I started to notice.

And a couple of days after launch I got my new phone and relegated my iPhone to just playing music in the kitchen.

I must confess I did pre-register my interest in the Nokia and was on the phone to Orange on the day of launch looking to upgrade.  Now one week in, how does it compare?

Apple v Mango

I can sum up my experience in one sentence

I don’t miss my iPhone!

Yep, as many of my twitter followers will agree I dig the new phone, perhaps a little too much for some of my Apple fanboy (girl) friends -  “@Little_George RT @AndrewWoody: Love the integration in people hub on #wp7 < muting #wp7 tweets *yawn*”

Things I like or prefer

- I didn’t need a computer to start using my phone

- No more iTunes

- Setup of the phone was simple, including all of my online services like twitter, linkedin and facebook

- Linked my Office365 mail account and it goes “oh by the way we’ve setup SharePoint for you”

- Office 365 integration especially SharePoint

- People Hub – bringing all my contacts together from everywhere

- Live tiles – I like the updates and additional information on the main screen, so much better than just saying you have 1 thing

- The Nokia phone feels very well made – comparable to the iPhone, which the Samsung and HTC phones don’t

- Voice dialling and texting just worked,  I’ve not tried Siri but the Voice control on my iPhone was rubbish

- The amount of applications on the Market Place was a surprise, most of what I want seems to be there already

- USB charging – yheh, one charger for every device

- Covers for the inputs,  I was forever getting fluff out of the iPhone connector

- Trying to be less App centric, but need to open up a little or teach the app developers how to integrate

Apps I have added

- Kindle

- Twitter App – you can tweet with the basic phone software but sadly it’s not good for a prolific twitterer.  I first added Birdsong based on recommendations but the lack of features around hash tags, picking people in tweets and integration with Read It Later lead me to MehDoh

- Premier League+  I need my football fix

- Foursquare – again the phone has a check in built in but should allow 3rd party apps to hijack this,  I use foursquare I don’t want to check in somewhere else

- BBC News

- Tube Map

- Adobe Reader

Nearly all of the app’s I have added have looked good, work well and add to the phone experience.

As a phone

A smart phone still needs to do the phone bit and the Nokia wins here for me in the most important area – it picks up a better signal than the iPhone.  This is not a scientific finding but based on real world use examples

Commute

Spending about an hour in the car travelling to/from Telford over the past year or so I often catch up with Ant.  I use a bluetooth headset and have the phone sat in the centre console cup holder.  With the iPhone I would always get a call drop out in two places on my route home.  With the Nokia these black spots are a thing of the past and the phone just keeps working.

Home

I do live in a rural location and the mobile coverage here is limited at best, O2 doesn’t work at all.  Orange, and it’s merger with T-Mobile, do provide reasonable coverage at home however with the iPhone I would find I had to position it on the window sill to get a reliable signal.  Often I would answer a call only for it to drop out and have me leaning on the window or heading to the garden to return the call.

With the Nokia I haven’t had this, the phone seems to work everywhere in the house, I’ve had no drop outs yet and seems to be connected always.

Disappointments

I was concerned the first real day of use as the battery didn’t give me a full days use eventually shutting down when I arrived at SUGUK Manchester at 6.30pm.  I haven’t had the problem since having switched on the save battery when it’s low option.  I did turn off push notifications on the iPhone for similar reasons.  I also (like the iPhone) top up power when the opportunity presents.

I tried the supplied protective case, but that’s gone now.  I never had a case for the iPhones and won’t for the Nokia – it has to deal with it.  I am also taking time to get used to the keyboard layout, after 3.5 years of iPhones my thumbs have a certain amount of muscle memory, the most annoying is the delete/return keys.

Please let developers extend the phone software and integrate their apps.  When I checkin from the Me screen I want it to check in to foursquare, when I reply I want to a tweet I want to use the advanced features of my chosen twitter app – don’t allow the phone to become app centric like the iPhone.

In summary

“Changing with the times, disrupting the status quo – it’s what we’ve always done. And we fully intend to keep doing it.”

Sounds like Apples Why?  In fact this is Nokia’s Why and is what I hope they continue to do.  Nokia became the status quo for phones, perhaps losing sight of the core values.  Apple came along and disrupted things with the iPhone – Nokia are back making great phones.

I know a lot of people are very loyal to Apple, the products feel right and they won’t want to switch, but there are many people who have a good feeling about Nokia, they associated with Nokia’s why and their phones just worked, and they will make the switch.  The coming years will be interesting with the loss of a its leader at Apple and Googles push with Android.

For now though I’m a very happy Nokia and Windows Phone user.

Server URL for EMEA: red002.mail.emea.microsoftonline.com

I suspect you can guess the one for the USA, but to be sure you can get this by going to Accounts in Outlook,  select your BPOS account and choose Change. 

You will see a screen similar to this, and you will see that the Microsoft Exchange server is pointing to a local server – this is how they get the single sign on to work.

Click on More Settings -> Choose the Connection Tab -> Click on the Exchange Proxy Settings.

This will show you the actual server URL that you will need to use on the iPhone.

On the iPhone

Choose Settings -> Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Add Account.

Select Microsoft Exchange  (if you already have one setup you will need to delete it first as you can only connect to one exchange account).

Enter your email address, the username is also the email address and your password.   No need to enter a domain so leave it blank.

Click next and accept the certificate error.

Enter the server name (see above), excluding the https:// prefix

Click next and the account should be verified and you are good to go.

One of the great things about BPOS is that ActiveSync is included by default on all accounts,  previously I had to pay an additional fee for every account.

** Frankie Boyle – Look at the Shiny Shiny  (Please note Frankie Boyle is likely to offend)

‘this message has not been downloaded from the server’

Having tried numerous things to fix it, different connectivity like WiFi and 3G I could not get the email content to download.   I even deleted the account and re-added it, all the messages got loaded but again all I could see was the summary view.  Eventually after searching various forums I saw a recurring suggestion that turned out to be the solution.  If the Date and Time on the phone is wrong then you get this problems with email.  Most threads talked about POP3, however it was enough to get me to check – and sure enough the date on the phone had reset to the year 2000.

Correcting the date and time however did not immediately solve the problem,  I no longer had the ‘this message has not been downloaded from the server’ message the contents of the email was just blank. 

I had to delete and re-add the account after setting the time.

Not SharePoint related I know but something that I thought worth blogging as its one of those annoying issues that the solutions seems to be totally unrelated.