I am actually dying to get my hands on a Windows Phone 7 (WP7) phone to try it out. Especially with the update to Mango and Nokia launching the Lumia range; WP7 looks like a viable OS. I would even go as far as to say if I didn’t have an iPhone I would choose it over Android.

Android is suffering from fragmentation, where each handset maker has a variation of the OS; So when Google update you have to wait for the manufacture to modify it and then hope that your woefully under powered cheap handset will run it. Google are combating this with making the ‘Holo’ theme used in Ice Cream Sandwich mandatory, but they are not going all they way.

It looks like Microsoft has learnt from their previous experience in this market and by watching others namely Palm’s WebOS and Google’s Android go up against the iPhone. People want their phone to stay simple but be smart at the same time. They seem to have found a balance between Google’s open to everyone and Apple’s full control approaches to offer real an alternative. This combined with the eye watering aesthetic that Nokia have been using since the N8 it makes it a real pleasing offer.

The titled interface is a refreshing way of looking at a phone compared to Android and iOS’s very similar UI’s. Microsoft seem to have realised that the key to getting a phone OS to stick is to get apps, something WebOS failed at. I hope this could be another XBOX for Microsoft.

Hopefully this year yields the death of IE. When I say death of IE I mean anyone who is using a version of the browser that is not IE9 or above. Almost all previous versions lack any kind of web standards compliancy. Even Microsoft has ploughed money into ridding the world of their own creation, they baked a cake to celebrate its imminent death.

Now they are forcing people to upgrade to the latest version their computer can use. The only issue there being that some people still use XP! An OS that is nearly 10 years old and can only run IE8. Windows 7 is actually quite a respectable OS to use, and even has some features I would like to see on my Mac. Microsoft needs to get users used to the idea of updating.

I fear Firefox is likely to fall into the same trap Microsoft did with IE; people getting left behind on old outdated versions. This is a real issue with the web moving so fast and new standards being created daily. Only the Webkit browsers seem to be any good at staying up to date. Chrome Automatically updates and Safari updates are pushed by Apple through the OS regularly.

I thought I would change it up a bit and do a post about some things I am excited to see develop in 2012.

Fibre

Fibre optic broadband is sorely needed in the UK; the problem with what is currently being done is BT is rolling it out to all the big cities and to the houses at already get +4Mb/sec, what they see as the profitable market. Where if you take my dad’s home connection for example we are lucky if we get 1Mb/sec.The house in question is in a small village of 250 homes with 550+ people. This is the kind of place where FTTC is needed, this is where the investment is needed; communities that lie out side the 2 miles range recommended for optimum performance.

The Sorry state of the UK’s broadband and BT’s monopoly is summed up by this heroic project, B4RN. The fact that a project like this is being so successful shows that there is demand and it is economically viable to supply broadband to these areas. This project is an amazing example of what can be done and I would love to see more of this in 2012. I like the government I just feel they need to be putting more into building an infrastructure if they want to reach their goal of having the best broadband network in Europe by 2015.

4G

With the US and many other countries readying for 4G, where are we? We are stuck behind waiting for the auction of the spectrum to take place. Ofcom recently postponed the auction, but even then the spectrum used still isn’t free till 2013. This disappoints me because it provides such a convenient solution to extending broadband in rural areas. The speeds it offers rival that of FTTC and for rural areas where there are many dwellings isolated from the main road it offers an ideal solution that doesn’t suffer so badly from the last mile syndrome we see in copper. I would love to see a company that uses the 4G spectrum to provide solely internet. In all this doom and gloom however O2 and EverythingEverywhere are doing trials of 4G in London and Cornwall respectively.

Links

I am quite passionate about broadband and connectivity and if you are here are some links that you might find interesting.

SamKnows – Best way to check what is currently available in your area and any changes. Also tells you the distance from the exchange as the crow flies.

Gigaom – They have a lovely little section on broadband that covers anything to do with connecting to the internet

thinkbroadband – Great for news on developments and current coverage.

BT Infinity checker - Check to see when BT’s Infinity service will be available in your area or not as the case maybe.

Speedtest.net – Great way to check your performance

Christmas will be upon us shortly so I thought I would share some Christmasy photos to get us in the mood.

iTunes Match has been available in the U.S. for a few months now, but it just went live in the U.K. and about 14 other countries (If you don’t know what it is just google it). For £22 you get your music backup for a year and can upgrade all those CD’s you imported when the standard iTunes import was the 128kb to the better quality 256kb of iTunes plus.

When I subscribed I was expecting for it to match half of my iTunes library; however I have been mightily impressed with it not matching just under 30 songs out of 3000. Interesting enough it matched most of the songs from an album but not 2 from the same album, peculiar? And then it found another 3 songs that had too lower Bit Rate for it to match.

Thanks to the wonders of having unlimited broadband I promptly downloaded almost 2000 songs to improve the quality. It is a great service at a nice price, but I am not sure if it is one I would re-subscribe to; simple because the biggest benefit to me is one off upgrading of my music. My iPhone is large enough to hold all my music so the idea of not having to worry if something is on my iPod is not their. As a backup solution I have too many photos to not backup my computer over the internet anyway.