"more of a sham than marketing would lead you to believe"
In what sense? Some very reliable reviewers (e.g. Brian Klug) say the camera truly is incredible...
In what sense? Some very reliable reviewers (e.g. Brian Klug) say the camera truly is incredible...
http://www.everyjoe.com/2013/07/13/technology/nokia-lumia-10...
"You might think that despite all of these negatives, at least the Lumia 1020 blows all other phones out of the water when it comes to the camera. You’d be wrong. There’s a noticeable lag when between taking a picture, saving it, and being able to take another picture. The Lumia 1020 comes with three different camera apps, each with their own function, so good luck figuring out what does what. Annoyingly, every photo you take has an on-screen caption that reminds you which app took the photo, but at least it doesn't show up in the picture itself"
Debian has fewer apps. Ubuntu has fewer apps. Does this mean anything? No.
I actually only use three "apps" that aren't built in on my WP8 device.
Everything that there isn't an app for you can do on the damn browser which is good as its the same as full desktop IE10.
This is a poor excuse and justification.
As for shoddy apps, Google Play has its fair share as well don't forget.
Embrace, extend, extingu..... Embraaaaaaaaaace!!!
It isn't Microsoft's job to write the damn apps, even though they did write a lot to start with themselves to get a good value proposition to start with.
And let's apply your flawed logic to other things:
"It's really ironic that Windows is being bailed out on its lack of apps by the web".
Doesn't work then does it?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embrace,_extend_and_extinguish
The irony I was pointing out is that while at one time, Microsoft's Windows ecosystem had a huge advantage in number and quality of apps, now they are the ones relying on the web to fill in gaps where 3rd party software exists on other platforms but has not been written for their minority OS.
Sorry to have offended you.
What I'm saying is that the web transcends all platforms so writing an app isn't necessary. Microsoft actually do get this hence the focus on IE and Windows Azure recently. They probably have the best web offering on the cloudy space as well.
Microsoft do everything literally.
as for embrace, extend, extinguish, what you say is true but they got stuffed by the EU so had to start making open specification documents which are now available on MSDN so they have been defanged there.
I travel without a smartphone. It's not hard and at least if you lose it (which has happened to me), you're not totally fucked. I really couldn't possibly depend on something like that for anything critical. So many horror stories from colleagues on that front as well. I carry a USB stick with truecrypt encrypted documents on it only.
As for conversion, it's not hard. Any old calculator app (even the s40 calculator) is usable for this. Even a pencil and paper is good enough. The base rate+commission is easy to calculate and is always available on hand. You don't need an app for that. Plus if you want to argue with them and barter which you can do in some places, it works better without a smartphone. In fact its fucking rude to whip one out on half of the planet.
It just sounds like you're justifying the use of a smartphone for these functions rather than specifying a platform advantage when the greatest advantage is gained from not using one.
That was just going through the main homescreens on my Android.
> I actually only use three "apps" that aren't built in on my WP8 device.
I'm not sure what you're trying to say here... You can't use apps that don't exist, so it's not surprising at all to me that you "only use three apps" that aren't built into the device...
None of those have any real value for me personally so I can understand where Android might be more suitable but I really don't need an app for any of those.
As for trip advisor city guides, Nokia Here Maps does the same stuff offline (and a load more!)
The only missing point from above is that YouTube works fine in the browser. The press are full of shit about interoperability there. Not only that there are a multitude of quality youtube apps but you don't need them.
Could you think of a less worthless feature to demonstrate with though? The YouTube app is getting so bad (certainly on iOS, I assume with Android too) that it's getting where the website will have a better UX than the native app shortly.
Then there are clone apps for allmost all the apps you mention (Instagram, Vine, Youtube, Dropbox, Starbucks, Hangouts). Probably not as good [1], but they work and often there's a native way to accomplish the same thing, making an app redundant (i.e. install Filters and share from the Pictures Hub instead of using Instagram).
[1] http://pocketnow.com/2013/08/14/missing-apps-on-windows-phon...
That's not how social networks work.
The 1020 uses silicon and software to compensate for the physical limitations of a short focal length and small aperture. Instead, a huge sensor captures many more pixels than you need, and then software algorithms distil this down to a five-megapixel image of great richness and detail.
The sensor is 41 megapixels, creating as a first step a 34 megapixel image; the other pixels being put to good use interpolating the image. For a technical explanation, see [1]. The phone actually keeps a master copy of the image at full resolution, and presents the five-megapixel image to you right away for editing and sharing.
[1] http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/07/15/nokia_lumia_1020_tec...
That first picture is showing it with the weird camera case accessory, you wouldn't normally carry the phone around with that attached. It looks just like it does in the ads in person. It fits my pocket fine (less awkward than the 'chin' on some Androids) and the weight and balance are comfortable for reading and making phone calls. I never got on the "shitty screens with crazy high DPI" bandwagon so I'm satisfied with 330ppi OLED. I'm not gonna give up OLED to get another 200ppi.
The slow cycle time is annoying but I've gotten used to it as a standard issue with cameraphones, it's not much worse than others I've used. There's a burst mode app so the lag doesn't affect your ability to do action photos. The 5MP downsample is a feature, you wouldn't normally use a photo bigger than that for small-screen display, and the non-downsampled image is still saved for printing or crops (there is a nice in-camera crop tool that adjusts the area the image is cropped from).
Honestly the biggest issue I had was that there isn't a light meter or exposure preview so it's hard to do manual exposure control when taking flash-less photos in very dark settings that have lights in the background. The multiple camera apps are an odd choice but not actually an issue in practice.