5 features that make Windows 7 Phone an important competitor

windows7phone

The Windows Mobile 6.5 OS is a big disappointment for all the phone owners. A lot of otherwise great phones are made very slow, buggy and unresponsive by this old and ineffective operating system. It does not support a lot of good features like capacitive screens, multi-touch, touch typing and gestures either, as it was developed with the stylus in mind (and the funny thing is most newer WinMo 6.5 phones aren’t shipped with one in the package).

Microsoft has stated that their newest operating system for mobile devices, called Windows 7 Phone will be completely redesigned and built from scratch, but no one believed them, because we all know that big corporations make promises they can’t deliver, especially Microsoft and especially with their recent history of trying to replace the good Windows XP with the new, but slower and buggier Windows Vista.

Everybody expected that the same thing will happen to Windows 7 Phone. Add to that the fact that its release was delayed one too many times, and you think you’ve got a formula for disaster. But then, Microsoft released Windows 7 for the desktop and everybody started paying attention to them again. Windows 7 was what Vista was supposed to be: faster, lighter and packed with a lot of advanced features, worthy to be a successor to the aging Windows XP. Big and small businesses alike have accepted it and started switching, something they never did with Vista.

People started wondering if Windows 7 Phone will be like that, fast innovative and having support for a lot of great new features. Everybody’s interest rose, and when Microsoft finally announced and presented the new Windows OS for mobile devices everyone had no doubt that it really was one of the most innovative mobile OS to be released in years.

So, what is it about it that makes it great and a good OS for Microsoft to make their come back to the mobile operating systems market? Let’s see:

Hubs. Hubs are an important part of Windows 7 Phone, and they are essential in defining the OS itself. With these hubs, you can have every piece of content from a particular category in a single place, where it is easily accessible. To give you an example, there can be a hub for all of the music you bough on the marketplace AND have stored on your phone’s local memory as the Zune application. In Windows 7 Phone you are able to have all of your music in one central location plus access it from various 3rd party apps, whichever is more convenient for you. Hubs aren’t limited to music or entertainment, either. You could, for example, have every Excel, Word, PDF and other type of file that you typically associate with an office in a business hub. This can make it extremely easy to categorize your data and search through it.

Tiles. This is a very nice feature from Microsoft; tiles are a great substitute for your usual icons for applications. You might think, “So what, they just replaced those small icons with bigger ones?”. Nope, one of the best things about them is that they’re interactive and always present information about what’s going on inside the app, of that makes sense to you. For example, these tiles can show you that you have a new SMS or email, that someone has just logged into their Skype account, and other useful information, presented all in one place, on the same screen or hub. Yes, it’s basically a replacement for Push notification, which Windows 7 Phone still supports (just like Android and iPhone do), but it’s much more elegant and professional looking.

Apps. For any OS, whether it’s desktop or mobile oriented, applications and extensions created by third parties are ultimately what decide its fate. If there very few or no applications, users will not buy the operating system, no matter how good it is, because ultimately they can’t do anything valuable with it. The applications they demoed at the Windows 7 Phone launch event were all very good. They had style, were functional, and had no extra stuff that only gets in the user’s way. A lot of big software companies and developers said that they will release and support applications for Windows 7 Phone, which is a great step towards making sure that the users will have all of the application they need. The soon to be launched Marketplace has been designed with a “Try before you buy” model. This means users will get the full version of an app, test and play with it, then buy or delete it, depending on whether they liked it or not. This may seem like a bad model for some, but it is a very good choice for businesses and consumers that want a clear-defined business model on the marketplace.

Games. Developers have shown us something truly interesting in this area: a Xbox game that also ran on a Windows 7 desktop PC AND a Windows 7 Phone-powered device. Yep, all of your games can now be cross-platform compatible so you can play them anytime, anywhere, and also connect, record your stats and play with others on Live! This is exactly what Sony wanted to do using their Play Station Portable and Play Station 3 consoles. They sort of failed, but Microsoft’s developers say that they’ll be successful, and every avid gamer can only benefit from that.

Mesh. This is one of Microsoft’s (and many other companies’) plans to connect all of your hardware and information into one “data cloud” that could be accessed and used from any of those devices, whether it’s your notebook, MID, desktop PC, or phone. Of course, all of these services - Music, Email, Games, Movies, Maps, Search - all of them are provided to you by Microsoft. Exactly what Google wants to do with their Web Apps Suite (Search, Docs, Voice, Calendar, etc.). But Microsoft could actually succeed in this before the others using Windows 7 Phone as the missing link.

Microsoft certainly has been on a roll releasing one successful product after another for the past two years. Windows 7 Phone is worthy of continuing this movement. We can only hope that they continue coming up with good stuff in the future. Right now, everyone can say with ease that Windows 7 Phone will be a very serious competitor in the mobile operating systems industry, right up there with the iPhone and Android OS’es.

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Adding MP4 Videos to PSP

PSP

Spice up your PSP

Most people might be asking, what is an MP4? Last time you checked there were only MP3s and you considered them as the latest form of music technology. Well, for the people who are a tad bit behind with technology, an MP4 or MPEG 4 is a media format that was developed by Apple. Mp4 has the capacity to convert larger files into a smaller file size, which allows them to be transferred to several different devices. Some of those devices include mobile phones, psp, and even ipods (this list is not exhaustive). This conversion can take place whether you are dealing with still photos, audio, live t.v., videos and so forth.

It is simply remarkable how the technical world around us has changed and has now brought us a tool that can transform a large file into one that is so small, that you can take it anywhere with you. The best part is that you don’t need apple devices for anything to work. It is compatible with all sorts of contraptions.

Now, the purpose of this article is to learn how to transfer these files to your PSP. Although this might sound difficult initially, it can be easy if you pay attention and focus on the information at hand. If you mess up, just try it again, and you should be able to get it right the second time.

The first thing you need to do is ensure that you have enough memory to store your files. Many people give up trying when they can’t get anything to transfer, but they don’t realize you need sufficient memory to transfer your files. Unfortunately, Sony has not included a feature on the PSP that automatically deletes files for you, so you will have to undertake this task by yourself. So the first step is make some space available if need be.

The second thing is securely attach your PSP to your computer or laptop. This is achievable by utilizing your USB adaptor or memory stick.

After that is done, go ahead and make a brand new folder, label it “MP_ROOT.” In this folder create a sub folder named “100MNV01.″

Next you will need to copy the MP4 video inside the sup folder and name the MP4 file MP4V#####.mp4 (the “#” is any 5 digit number. an example could be <4V56789.MP4.

Once that is done, disconnect your PSP from the USB or memory stick. The video should now be on your PSP and ready to playback.

Well, there you go, that’s all of it. The fast, easy, and sufficient way to save and transfer your MP4 files to your PSP for easy and fast playback. If the video does not work, go online and look up .THM file. However, this should work out just fine for you. It does not take a computer genius to transfer the files, despite what anyone may say.

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