MobileViews Blog

Category: Mobile Devices

  • MobileViews Podcast 122

    Jon Westfall and I (Todd Ogasawara) take a look back on Microsoft’s ultra-mobile strategy since 1996 in light of its recent announcement that it will write down $7.6 billion in assets related to its purchase of Nokia’s smartphone business and lay off an additional 7,800 employees (most of whom came to Microsoft from Nokia). Ref: Microsoft

    You can find more details and my recollections of Microsoft’s mobile strategy since 1996 in this article I wrote for Extreme Tech: Microsoft Windows Phone: A 20-year retrospective of a meandering mobile strategy

    We also briefly discuss Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 10166 released on June 9 and my initial impressions of joining the smartwatch club by buying a Moto 360.

  • MobileViews Podcast 121: Wearables roundup!

    In this podcast Jon Westfall and I (Todd Ogasawara) welcome back mobile devices experts Jack Cook, Sven Johannsen, and Frank McPherson to discuss wearable devices (mostly smart watches).

    We asked each of the panelists:

    1. How frequent do you wear your device? (i.e. is it essential or do you take it off some days?)
    2. How’s battery life?
    3. What is your most useful feature (i.e. you have to pick one!)
    4. What features / apps does your platform have? (i.e. what does it do other than notifications?)
    5. What features / apps do you wish your platform had? (i.e. what do you envy from others?)
    6. What do you think of the appearance / build quality / accessories of your device?
    7. You have to jump ship: What wearable device do you move to?

    We kick things off, though, with a brief discussion of Microsoft’s three Windows 10 Insider Preview build releases in the past week and the upcoming Windows 10 launch at the end of this month.

    If you’d like to know more about what Frank has to say about the Moto 360 smart watch, you can read his article here: Me And My Moto 360 – What do I like?

  • MobileViews Podcast 120

    In this podcast, Jon Westfall and I (Todd Ogasawara) talk about:

    1. Firefox plug-in container taking up 60% of processor time
    2. iOS 9 lower power mode (Ref: MacRumors)
    3. Microsoft Word, Excel, & PowerPoint for Android moves out of preview phase to full release (Ref: Venture Beat)
    4. Google free Wi-Fi in NYC (Ref: Bloomberg Business Week)
    5. Lenovo IdeaCenter Stick 300 – $130 PC on a stick runs Microsoft Windows (Ref: Neowin)
    6. Todd’s Google Photos adventure
    7. Selfie Sticks Banned at Disney Parks
    8. Swarm – Mayorships are back

  • MobileViews Podcast 114: Jon’s Apple Watch pre-order adventure

    In this podcast I (as someone who did NOT pre-order an Apple Watch) get the low-down on what the pre-order process was like from my co-host Jon Westfall.

  • Amazon Prime Music adds ad-free streams To iOS app

     

    Todays’s Amazon Music with Prime Music iOS app adds ad-free steaming stations with unlimited skips for Amazon Prime customers.

     

  • Apple Watch app appeared on my iPhone even though I don’t have an Apple Watch

    I was surprised to see the Apple Watch app on my iPhone 5 (which i use like an iPod touch these days). My understanding is that the app is only supposed to appear if the iPhone is paired with a watch. And yet, here it is.