Windows Phone 8 - Use methods and related software

[HarryN]

Hi,

I recently purchased a Nokia Lumina 1520 phone running Windows 8 Phone software.

The goal of this thread is to post "helpful" and "potentially helpful" ways to use / improve the experience.

I am hoping that we can avoid the "why did you do that you crazy person?" and "android / apple are better" conversations. Those can be fun, but I am more interested in a beneficial / I found this cool way to solve a problem type of thread, if possible.

Thanks

Harry

 

[HarryN]

I would like to start off with a conversation about moving contacts from:
- Nokia E7 running Symbian Belle and its related desktop application, Nokia Suite, which acted as a sync / backup of the PIM information
- Contacts in various software programs on my older Windows Vista laptop, including the Nokia suite, card scan, (older version) of Opera email client, and ACT.
- Newer Windows 7 laptop with still an open mind about which email client / pim to use, but I really do use my card scanner a lot, so I am planning to move this to the win 7 computer
- I am currently primarily using an ISP that supports IMAP in web mail mode (due to an opera crash) and quite a number of "partial" email addresses and contact info are on this server. It isn't ideal, but sort of works, but import / export is not as clean as I would like.

There are some methods to do this, but it isn't quite so simple as it first appears, especially if you don't want to use cloud services.

For better or worse, MS has now narrowed the methods down for synchronizing between desktop and phone software. Their approach is:

Enterprise Approach
- Put everything into the outlook email client
- Use exchange active server to sync between phone and computer

Free Version
- If you don't have exchange active server + Outlook client, then load everything into Hotmail and use that to synch to your phone

(similar to the gmail concept for android)

The challenges for me, are that my small business setup is:
- Outsource email to a professional host who runs IMAP at a reasonable price, but exchange active server support is 3X the price
- I do have a Hotmail account, but I don't really use it professionally, mostly as an emergency backup
- I would just as soon not do the synch over the internet for my contacts for security reasons
- Bringing EAS service in-house is not a viable proposition for a small business. (really requires an IT pro to make that work)
- I purposely don't use outlook, but am considering it as a last option.

 

[HarryN]

Here are some associated software programs that I am looking at related to this phone software:

Outlook 2013
- I almost bought this, and just before I did, I read some reviews from existing 2010 users.
- I was kind of surprised at just how many existing outlook 2010 and 2007 users really slammed the 2013 version and some of the lost features, reduced IMAP support, and interface
- Since I use IMAP email every day, this is kind of a big deal
- I expect to read a mixture of reviews about any product, but I was taken off-guard at just how many existing users were unhappy, and not just a little, but really for solid technical reasons unhappy.

- Personally, I don't like the office "ribbon feature", which is what drove me to open office and libre office in the first place, but I am trying to move past that personal mental block

Zarafa
- A Linux based email server software offering that is working hard on full EAS equivalency
- One idea is to load this software on a dedicated computer, not on the internet, and use it just to synch contacts / calendar

EMClient
- An outlook-like email client for windows 7
- Claims to support EAS functions

Thunderbird email client
- Works across Linux / mac / Windows, which is really great
- Appears to be 32 bit only AFAIK
- It isn't entirely clear if this will be enough to synch contacts and calendar with windows phone or not

Kmail / Kontact email client
- This is part of the whole Linux email client from the "K" family where everything starts with a "K"
- I have no idea why they do this, but I guess it is for marketing reasons or maybe it started as a joke and stuck
- It appears to be Linux only, which is potentially viable if I can get my card scanner software or equivalent to work in Linux
- I am guessing that most Linux users would cringe at buying a windows 8 phone, but maybe someone has experience in this area.

Akruto
- It looks like it is a desktop software program that sits on your PC
- It somehow fools the Outlook email client and windows phone to think they are synchronizing contact and calendar information via exchange server, without actually using one
- It uses your wifi router to do the information exchange, which is about the only way to do this data transfer
- This actually looks pretty interesting and there is even a youtube how-to video, but the web site hides all information about the people behind the company, management, etc, which I view as a danger sign. If a company is proud of its work and actions, it should have a "who we are" page at least outlining who is the President, CFO, etc. or it looks kind of fishy to me.

Anyone else have suggestions on moving large numbers of contacts from older setups to a new phone / computer ?

Thanks

 

[mcnair55]

Sounds a good idea for a post as i may buy a W8 one day but last week bought another android.

 

[HarryN]

Thanks for the reply.

Maybe I should start with a more simplistic question - does anyone have experience with Outlook 2013 + IMAP email or Hotmail ? The reason I ask, is that it looks like MS offers an add-on "connector" to make it work. This seems strange to me, as I am used to email clients working out of the box with IMAP.

 

[HarryN]

DNLA Aspects

Well, I will post a bit more on my experience with the 1520 in case anyone finds it interesting. Of course, I am comparing it to my old Nokia E7 experience, not to the other phones on the market.

The E7 has a mini HDMI out port that I used to connect to customer's conference room flat screen TVs. With this, I could give a short presentation using PDFs right to the customer's conference room TV, no matter which TV or projector they had.

Windows phones are very "wireless" oriented, maybe to a fault. There is no HDMI out port, but instead it assumes that the screen or device will be DNLA enabled, and I would have access to the customer's server.

I didn't know what DNLA this, but apparently the TV and entertainment industry came up with a method to force people into using paid services, or at least an internet connection to help us all "manage" our entertainment uses. The idea is that it all goes back through either a router or internet connection to the final screen, rather than directly.

I suppose this is ok for non business items, but it seems to fail the security concept of showing private business information to your customers, but maybe I am wrong.

Anyone else with DNLA experience in a business setting ?

If my interpretation is correct, at a minimum, I still have to drag a laptop to every customer meeting to show a presentation, or maybe find a router with DNLA and an HDMI out port. Is there such a beast on the market ?

Harry

Added - There are rumors that the windows phone 8.1 update will support miracast. (which I am also just learning about today. This appears to be a wifi to hdmi adapter, such as the netgear PTV3000 product. Anyone used something like this ?

 

[gadget_lover]

I've used Chromecast, which is similar to the miracast in concept. I watch HBO videos on it frequently. It streams content from the internet directly to the chromecast dongle.

I've also used the Samsung Allshare Cast which is an implementation of miracast. You can mirror your phone screen to an HDMI enabled device with it. I've used it to display a slideshow on my brother in law's TV for her birthday celebration. All I needed to carry was the dongle which is half the size of a deck of cards. The Galaxy S4 phone was the video source. While it is quite good, I notice a barely perceptible lag between audio and video. It's enough to spoil the TV watching experience sometimes.

Dan

 

[HarryN]

Thanks for the reply Dan.

My needs (so far) are much easier than live streaming video, as I am just showing static PDF slides, but that is good to know about the lag - it is amazing how sensitive we are to that aspect.

None of my TVs are DNLA enabled, and new ones are not on my list of "needs" this year (or next), so I am seeking adapters to go from phone PDF to "dumb" HDTVs.

Assuming that MS implements miracast in the next release, the options look pretty straightforward, as that can duplicate the screen via a small router like box - example netgear.

The trickier situation is if I have to stay with DNLA - so far there is not an obvious "external box that duplicates my phone screen via HDMI to the TV" using wifi".

Of course, if people had spent an extra $ 5 per (name your favorite brand) phone, then it would have a mini HDMI output, and save us all from dragging around an extra box.

 

[gadget_lover]

Many of them did spend the $5. My Galaxy S3 and S4 both have mini HDMI.

The mini-HDMI works well, but you are tethered with a stiff wire plus power supply. Most mini-HDMI cords I've seen call for a mini-USB power supply if the TV does not supply the power. There are also some apps (in the android world) that don't want to use the HDMI, allegedly because it's hard to implement DRM.



Check out the VMD-EZ152, "EZCast Dongle-Univeral WiFi Display Adapter" which looks like it will do the job of wireless DLNA to HDMI TV.


Daniel