Minor Irritants in Lumia 620

This is the third in the series of the Lumia 620 Articles, and after the first two, I think, I now need to chart out a few shortcomings, too, in an, otherwise, a wonderful product.  Yes, of course, as with any product.. that too, one that is built around an evolving eco-system, there will be minor irritants too.  I wouldn't rather call them as shortcomings, for I believe, Microsoft will address these issues in the coming updates to the software. 

One such goof-up is the inability of this Smartphone to attach multiple documents and pdfs while e-mailing.  Right now, I can only attach multiple photos and there is no way I can attach a document.  All I can do is to share a particular document through SkyDrive, but that limits the number to just one.  Maybe, Microsoft has brought this product out keeping the Young Generation in mind, and basically as a gadget with augments your Social Networking and not typically as a Business Phone.  May be that is the reason why Lumia Phones are not competing itself with Blackberries.   

Another issue that puzzled related to Storage.  When I check the amount of memory that the phone has used up, I am bewildered by a category called ‘Other’ apart from the usual ‘Photos’, Apps, System etc.  So Typically, out of the 7.2 Gb of Phone Storage that youget, 1.9 Gb is taken up by the System itself, and after ‘Photos’, ‘Apps’ etc, one finds this ‘Other’ takes up around 1 Gb typically.  A little research, told me that this 'Other' storage could be anything like your Temporary Internet Files, your cache data, the data related to to profile pics, the updates etc, considering that the People, Photo and Office Hub is constantly looking for and fetching data from Social Networking Sites.  This could also be the app data that the app store for you.  So the more the number of apps you have on your Phone, the more this ‘Other’ Storage is. 

To my horror, I found out that this ‘Other’ storage keeps on building itself up as you install more and more apps and the major irritant has been that there is no way to manage this ‘other’ storage, like to delete these and free up this space. 

Why this will become such a big Irritant is because, sooner or later, this storage will inflate itself up to a point wherein I won’t be able to install any apps or run any games as the Phone will start saying ‘no more space’.

Lack of FM Radio can be called as a shortcoming, though; it is not of much concern to me.                I, personally, don't follow FM Music, and the phone gives you the flexibility to have expandable storage upto 64 Gb, so you call fill your memory card with all sort of songs and videos and reduces your dependence to FM Radio Stations.

Yes, these are minor glitches and I have already wrote to Microsoft, along with many other users about these issues and I have been promised that the future updates of the WP 8 OS will take care of them.  Infact, this is how a new product evolves and develops and let us give the benefit of doubt to Microsoft here.  

More to the Lumia 620

After a short hibernation, I am back, and I am tempted to write again on my Lumia.  Not because I am advocating the product, but rather, after reading what I wrote in my earlier post, many of my friends have been asking me as to what keeps this phone apart from the Androids and iOS (You may read the complete Review of the Nokia Lumia 620 here). 

The ‘Live Tiles’
Many of my friends who are using Androids and iOS have been asking me as to what exactly these ‘Live Tiles’ do and how they are ‘Live’.  I would put it this way, the Live Tiles keep on updating info specific to the app and serve you notifications.  So this practically eliminates the need to have a Notification Bar like you have in Androids for which you need to swipe the screen down and bring in the notification screen.

To illustrate it further, lets take the 'People Tile' for example.  Now, People (or the Address Book) is the hub where you find all your contacts.  When connected, the People Hub collates your FaceBook, Google, LinkedIn,  Twitter and of course your Outlook (Microsoft) Contacts.  So this People ‘Live’ Tile on your Windows Phone Start Screen will randomise your contacts and shows the profile pics of your friends in a 3x3 Grid.  To take it further, lets assume, you have pinned a certain contact onto your start screen as a tile. Now, this tile goes 'live' whenever the contact leave a call or a message by flashing it.

Or lets take another example with the Live ‘Calender’ Tile.  This is another dynamic tile, which shows the upcoming events on your calendar (against synced with Facebook, Google, and Outlook Calendars).  So here also, you get all the information in a small tile, rather than a separate notification bar.
  
The Music ‘Live Tile’ shows the current music that is played on, including the name of the Artist/Album. 

Even amazingly, it means, if you have a ‘Times of India’ of a ‘The Hindu’ app installed on your phone, the respective Live Tiles would show a glimpse of the latest Breaking News, including Pics on your Start Screen.  Way too a Creative and Innovative Design with a Notification Bar and a RSS Feed reader built into one, that too, without making the Start Screen look messy and full. 

The ‘Sandboxing’ and the non-Requirement of an Antivirus

Many of my android friends are quite frustrated with the number of virus/malware that affects their hand-held systems.  The problem becomes particular because, Android devices have become quite popular now, and the eco-system is so open now.  Anyone who is anybody has an android and is developing apps for it. 

So, all these android friends of mine were quick to ask me as to what precautions do I take against Viruses? They are pretty mindful of the fact that the Windows Xp and other versions of Windows they were using in their Office and Home are pretty vulnerable to virus attacks.  But here, Microsoft has pulled a rabbit out of a hat.  In Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8, they have incorporated a technology called ‘Sandboxing’. 

 In strict security parlance, a sandbox method whereby the running programmes are sandboxed or ‘Isolated’.  Sandboxing is basically used to execute untested code, or untrusted programs from the main environment, protecting them from code changes.  They provide a different set of resources for guest programs to run in, such as disk space and memory. Applications developed for for iOS are sandboxed and so are the apps developed for Windows Phone.  So when an app is executed, they run within the 'container' and is unable to make system changes.

Additionally, these apps are also uploaded to the respective app store after thorough Certification and Security Check.  The ’Sandboxing’ thus facilitates the apps to be able to access the files inside their own respective storage/memory areas, and cannot change system settings. 

Photo Beamer, A Killer App
Finally, a Killer app, which when flaunted, would make everyone say Wow!

As simple as it sounds, PhotoBeamer allows one to Beam a Photo on a Desktop in front of you, just by swiping the photos on your Lumia Phone.  Well, in the background, the Phone uses the 3G or the Wi-Fi Connection.  Here is how it works :- 

Download PhotoBeamer on to your phone and once downloaded, open PhotoBeamer.  Now, Open a browser on your Desktop or a laptop, and go to photobeamer.com.  The page opens on your browser with just a big Random QR Code (I said Random, because every time you visit photobeamer.com, the QR Code that you get will be different). 

Now, using your Phone’s Bing Lens, Scan the QR Code.  Once the QR Code is scanned, a connection is established between the Lumia and the PC, having the QR Code.  Now, as you browse your photos in your Lumia, they are transmitted and is beamed real-time on your Desktop Monitor.  Amazing isn’t it??