I read the article this morning with delight. Another enlightened soul, another pragmatic businessman who understands cost versus benefit.

I have never bought an Apple product even though they are generally quality devices.

Why?

Cost versus benefit.

They are overpriced.

They may have been more user friendly and less problem prone in the past, but I do not believe that to be true now.

I have encountered as many or more problems with Apple computers in my sphere of influence.

From Market Watch October 8, 2015.

“Why I dumped my Apple iPhone for a Microsoft phone

Oh, and I’m not comparing the latest, most high-end models either. I’m not talking about the iPhone 6s or 6s Plus, nor about the latest Windows alternative.

I wanted a solid smartphone for work, including email and various online, social media and professional applications, and a few other things.

At this point, the rate of evolution is such that even basic smartphones would be considered amazingly advanced pocket computers by the standards of a couple of years ago. I didn’t need the absolute latest so I went for the entry level.

I bought a brand-new iPhone 5c on eBay EBAY, +0.00% as soon as Apple discontinued their regular sales last month. The price dropped about 50% overnight. I chose the 5c because it basically does about the same as the 5s for about half the cost, and because the plastic body means it’ll cope better if I drop it. (The 5s looks really beautiful — until you enclose it one of those big, ugly plastic cases.)

Meanwhile, by happenstance I also found myself simultaneously the owner of a Nokia Lumia 635, which costs just $70, compared with around $250 for my discounted 5c, and $450 for a 5s from Apple.

And to my surprise, it’s the iPhone, not the Lumia, that I’m dumping.

The screen is much bigger. The phone is lighter. The keyboard works better for my fingers.

I can add all the memory I want through SD cards. The Windows Phone does absolutely everything I want, just as well as the iPhone or better — for a fraction of the cost. It also comes with Microsoft Office. And it will be updated to Windows Phone 10 later this year.

Oh, and it’s a minor point, but I don’t need to buy a special iPhone cable to charge it. The Nokia uses standard micro-USB. Apple must be the only phone company that still pulls that annoying proprietary-cable crap. Even Sony SNE, +1.63% has given in.”

Read more:

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/why-i-dumped-my-apple-iphone-for-a-microsoft-phone-2015-10-08?page=1

From the Internet Explorer Team Blog January 22, 2015.

“Project Spartan and the Windows 10 January Preview Build

Thursday, January 22, 2015 12:08 PM

Yesterday, we announced that Windows 10 will ship with a brand new browser, codenamed “Project Spartan.” Designed for Windows 10, Spartan provides a more interoperable, reliable, and discoverable experience with advanced features including the ability to annotate on web pages, a distraction-free reading experience, and integration of Cortana for finding and doing things online faster.

Spartan is a single browser designed to work great across the entire Windows 10 device family – from keyboard and mouse on the Windows 10 desktop to touch, gestures, voice, controllers and sensors.

Powered by a new rendering engine, Spartan is designed for interoperability with the modern web. We’ve deliberately moved away from the versioned document modes historically used in Internet Explorer, and now use the same markup as other modern browsers. Spartan’s new rendering engine is designed to work with the way the web is written today.

Like Windows 10 itself Spartan will remain up-to-date: as a service, both providing new platform capabilities, security and performance improvements, and ensuring web developers a consistent platform across Windows 10 devices. Spartan and the new rendering engine are truly evergreen.

Spartan provides compatibility with the millions of existing enterprise web sites designed for Internet Explorer. To achieve this, Spartan loads the IE11 engine for legacy enterprise web sites when needed, while using the new rendering engine for modern web sites. This approach provides both a strong compatibility guarantee for legacy enterprise web sites and a forward looking interoperable web standards promise.

We recognize some enterprises have legacy web sites that use older technologies designed only for Internet Explorer, such as custom ActiveX controls and Browser Helper Objects. For these users, Internet Explorer will also be available on Windows 10. Internet Explorer will use the same dual rendering engines as Spartan, ensuring web developers can consistently target the latest web standards.

What does this mean to web developers?

If you are building a public consumer-facing web site here’s what you need to know:

Our new rendering engine will be the default engine for Windows 10, Spartan, and Internet Explorer. This engine has interoperability at its core and consumes the same markup you send other modern browsers. Our standards support and roadmap can be found at http://status.modern.ie.

Public Internet web sites will be rendered using the new engine and modern standards, and legacy Internet Explorer behaviors including document modes are not supported in the new engine. If your web sites depends on legacy Internet Explorer behaviors we encourage you to update to modern standards.

Our goal is interoperability with the modern web and we need your help! You can test the new engine via the Windows Insider Program or using http://remote.modern.ie.

Please let us know (via Connect or Twitter) when you find interoperability problems so we can work with the W3C and other browser manufacturers to ensure great interoperability.”
Read more

Microsoft just announced the release of Windows 10 which will be a free upgrade for PC Windows 7 and 8.1 users and Windows 8.1 phone users. There will be no cost to keep it current going forward.

One of the new features, Cortina, is on my Windows Nokia Lumia 630 phone that I have been using for about 6 months. So far this has been one of my favorite cell phones in over 20 years.

From To Market News January 21, 2015.

“What’s new in Windows 10 for PCs? A lot.”

“Coming into today’s Windows 10 event, we already knew a lot about Microsoft’s latest and greatest. The company explained the thinking behind its new OS back in September, and the Technical Preview has been available for months. The core change comes in the form of a revitalized desktop experience — one that puts the best of Windows 7 and 8 into a single package. Windows will also now better match the convertible devices Microsoft is pushing, with a consistent UI across all platforms, but there’s a whole lot more to explore here, including some features detailed today for the first time. Let’s take a closer look.”

“If you’ve been following Windows Phone at all, you’ll know what Cortana is: Microsoft’s take on a personal digital assistant. The mobile version offers features that are a mix between Siri and Google Now, but the PC version has a few added benefits. Cortana plugs into Windows search, meaning if you ask for “PowerPoint slides about the charity account,” it’ll search your computer and OneDrive accounts for relevant files.”

“Perhaps the biggest news, though, even if it doesn’t benefit the majority of Windows users — is that Windows apps will now be universal and run across PC, tablet, phone and even Xbox One. That doesn’t mean PC users won’t be getting new apps as well. Microsoft blazed through a load of new apps for Windows.”

“As early reports suggested, Project Spartan is a new browser for Windows 10, entirely separate from Internet Explorer. Sure there’s a very clean, almost Chrome-like design, and a brand-new rendering engine, but the focus here is on social sharing. You can highlight and annotate websites before sharing them with friends, kind of like having Skitch built right into your browser. There’s also Cortana integration and a reading view that, much like Pocket, lets you read pages offline.”
Read more

From the Microsoft Windows Blog January 21, 2015.

“Today I had the honor of sharing new information about Windows 10, the new generation of Windows.

Our team shared more Windows 10 experiences and how Windows 10 will inspire new scenarios across the broadest range of devices, from big screens to small screens to no screens at all. You can catch the video on-demand presentation here.

Windows 10 is the first step to an era of more personal computing. This vision framed our work on Windows 10, where we are moving Windows from its heritage of enabling a single device – the PC – to a world that is more mobile, natural and grounded in trust. We believe your experiences should be mobile – not just your devices. Technology should be out of the way and your apps, services and content should move with you across devices, seamlessly and easily. In our connected and transparent world, we know that people care deeply about privacy – and so do we. That’s why everything we do puts you in control – because you are our customer, not our product. We also believe that interacting with technology should be as natural as interacting with people – using voice, pen, gestures and even gaze for the right interaction, in the right way, at the right time. These concepts led our development and you saw them come to life today.

Delivering Windows as a Service and a Free Upgrade to Windows 10

Today was a monumental day for us on the Windows team because we shared our desire to redefine the relationship we have with you – our customers. We announced that a free upgrade for Windows 10 will be made available to customers running Windows 7, Windows 8.1, and Windows Phone 8.1 who upgrade in the first year after launch.*

This is more than a one-time upgrade: once a Windows device is upgraded to Windows 10, we will continue to keep it current for the supported lifetime of the device – at no cost. With Windows 10, the experience will evolve and get even better over time. We’ll deliver new features when they’re ready, not waiting for the next major release. We think of Windows as a Service – in fact, one could reasonably think of Windows in the next couple of years as one of the largest Internet services on the planet.

And just like any Internet service, the idea of asking “What version are you on?” will cease to make sense – which is great news for our Windows developers. With universal Windows apps that work across the entire device family, developers can build one app that targets the broadest range of devices – including the PC, tablet, phone, Xbox, the Internet of Things, and more.

For our enterprise customers, we’ll continue to support the way many of them work today, with long-term servicing for their mission critical environments. With Windows 10, a best practice we recommend for many enterprise devices is to connect to Windows Update and be kept up-to-date with the latest security and productivity improvements as soon as they are available. You can learn more about our commitment to enterprises here, with much more to come in the following months.”
Read more

After using cell phones for over 20 years and almost every carrier, experiencing each version of cell phone provider hell along the way, I decided to give Cricket a
chance about a year ago.

One reason I decided to try Cricket was my ongoing disatisfaction with Tmobile and the satisfaction I observed from someone close to me using Cricket.

I purchased a HTC phone for a small amount and have been happy with the Cricket plan. I was especially pleased with the hotspot feature and used it a few times when
Time Warner was down in 2 major cities in NC.

I am not a big fan of the Android operating system and when my HTC phone battery began showing signs of degradation, I decided to purchase the Nokia Lumia 630 for
basically free after a $ 50 rebate. This gave me an easy way to check out the Windows 8.1 phone operating system and comply with the NewCricket 4G requirements coming
next year.

One disappointment, not the fault of the phone, but of Cricket, is no hot spot capability. This was probably a knee jerk reaction by management by the few abusing the feature.

I thought it was a great selling feature to be used for emergencies.

Other problems included too much time for phone setup to allow incoming calls and having to set up a new online account.

However, though I have a love hate realationship with Windows, I much prefer the new phone and operating system.

This phone beats the pants off of the HTC phone that I had.

I still believe that Cricket blew it by not offering a hotspot option but perhaps their other features will compensate.

Time will tell.

And so will I

Wells

New Cricket announcement May 18, 2014.

“AT&T relaunches Cricket as nationwide brand with new smartphones, plans, and LTE”

“New Cricket Wireless Answers Nationwide Call for Network Quality, Value Prices, Great Service and No Annual Contract

Launches service with reliable 4G LTE network, unlimited plans starting at $35 month after $5 Auto Pay credit, and loyalty program, all with no annual contract

Alpharetta, Ga., May 18, 2014 – – Consumers seeking a better wireless experience with no annual contract have a new choice. Today, the new Cricket Wireless launches wireless service on a reliable, nationwide 4G LTE network covering more than 280 million Americans; with easy and affordable unlimited plans starting at $35 a month after a $5 credit for using Auto Pay; a great line-up of phones; a loyalty rewards program; and a fresh, friendly experience in stores and online.

“We kept the Cricket brand name, but one thing is certain, we are stepping up our game. We are giving no-contract consumers the value they have been waiting for,” said Jennifer Van Buskirk, president of Cricket Wireless. “Now new Cricket customers can enjoy great prices, popular phones, loyalty rewards, and friendly service on a reliable nationwide 4G LTE network. The new Cricket has more 4G LTE coverage than Sprint, T-Mobile, and Metro PCS, period.”

The reinvented wireless experience emerges as a winning combination of Cricket Wireless and Aio Wireless just two months after AT&T (NYSE:T) closed its acquisition of Leap Wireless International, which had operated the Cricket brand. Aio, AT&T’s wholly owned subsidiary and no-annual-contract brand, will now be known as Cricket Wireless.”

Read more:

http://www.androidcentral.com/att-relaunches-cricket-nationwide-brand-new-smartphones-plans-and-lte