Consumer Reports calls Lumia 900 a top gift buy

Looking for a great gift for your dad or favorite grad? Consumer Reports’ electronics experts this week recommended Nokia’s Lumia 900 in its summer tech gift guide. Read the article. Last month the magazine called Nokia’s flagship model “the best Windows Phone so far”.

10 tips for taking better photos

Speaking of the Lumia 900, one of its standout features is the built-in 8-megapixel camera and Carl Zeiss lens. But as Nokia’s official blog noted this week, even killer camera specs aren’t always enough to achieve Annie Leibovitz-like results. So the Nokia Conversations crew phoned up noted Dutch photographer, author, and critic Haje Jam Kamps for some advice on taking better shots. See his top 10 tips. While his advice is tailored specifically for Lumia owners, many tips apply no matter what Windows Phone you’re pocketing.

What’s the best Windows Phone flight sim?

The Windows Phone Marketplace stocks several great flight simulators and games—which begs the question: If you only have time for one, which should you get? Well, the intrepid writers behind the Nokia Conversations blog selflessly volunteered to spend the week soaring the virtual skies to answer this age-old question. See which sims topped their list

5 apps for getting in shape

It’s Memorial Day weekend in the U.S.—the unofficial kick-off for summer. If your body isn’t quite bathing suit ready yet (or you’re just looking to save on pricey personal trainer sessions), you might want to check out these great fitness apps in Marketplace. Reviewer Jeppe promises these 5 apps will ensure “you’re striding across that beach looking photoshopped.” See the list

And finally….Flo Rida and his Lu-mia

Our eagle-eyed friends at WMPowerUser this week spotted popular rapper Flo Rida snapping pics and texting his posse on a Nokia Lumia 900 in the new video for “Whistle.” If Flo Rida looks comfortable, it’s probably because it’s not his first time on a Lumia: The 710 showed up in the video for his tune, “Wild Ones.” Watch the Whistle video

Here at Microsoft, we couldn’t agree more and also celebrate the important role that small businesses play in the U.S. and the global economy. Today, I want to recognize some of our small business customers who are using Windows 7 Professional to improve their business.

BrandMuscle, located in Cleveland, OH and works with brands to help strengthen their image through harnessing the power of technology. They were looking for a more responsive and longer lasting OS that would help their employees be more productive. The solution – they paired Windows 7 Professional with Dell Latitude E6400 PCs to give employees a more powerful, secure system that ultimately helped them be more efficient on a daily basis. Overall, the company saved 108 hours on restart time and 133 hours with desktop enhancements each month. Click here to view their full case study.

Borton Overseas, a travel company in Minneapolis, MN, provides custom travel packages for individual and corporate clients. They were looking for a more responsive OS so employees could get more done in less time, ultimately improving client satisfaction. The solution – by deploying Windows 7 Professional on new ThinkPad SL Series, Borton Overseas provided employees with a more powerful, responsive, and easy-to-use system that helped employees work more efficiently and effectively. Employees reported that they had faster network connections, enhanced efficiency, and improved communication across the board. Click here to view their full case study.

Deepwater Wind is an energy and environmental agency located in Providence, RI who develops wind farms in deep waters of the east coast. The company needed a faster, more intuitive, and energy-efficient system that would enhance productivity while aligning with its commitment to sustainability. The solution – they provided employees HP ProBook 5310ms loaded with Windows 7 Professional so that they had more mobile flexibility, easier ways to accomplish tasks, and more energy efficient systems that aligned with the company’s overall mission. Additionally, they saw faster network printer connections and enhanced security. Click here to view their full case study.

Hankins & Anderson is an engineering consultancy firm in Richmond, VA, who provides guidance in the areas of mechanical, electrical, life safety, structural, and civil engineering to federal, embassy, military, and government markets. They were looking for a way to improve productivity, enhance flexibility for mobile workers, and boost security while minimizing costs. The solution – investing in Dell Latitude E6400s with Windows 7 Professional gave their employees more intuitive, efficient ways to complete tasks, work on the go, and protect sensitive information. Employees also saw enhanced productivity and mobile performance, which boosted efficiency both in the office and on the go. Click here to view their full case study.

This National Small Business Week, we say thank you to all of our small business customers and wish you continued success! To learn more about how Windows 7 Professional can help your small business we encourage you to visit http://www.microsoft.com/windows/business/.

Additionally, if you’re interested in winning a new PC loaded with Windows 7 Professional we partnered with TechCocktail to host a PC giveaway in honor of National Small Business Week. Please click here to find out how you can be entered to win!

This week, we sponsored a whitepaper issued by analyst firm IDC that analyzes the risks, user productivity costs and IT labor costs associated with businesses running Windows XP versus Windows 7. The study interviewed nine large organizations that have deployed both Windows XP and Windows 7, and used the content of those interviews to quantify both the IT and end user costs of not migrating to Windows 7. The “productivity costs” were measured for end users on metrics of lost time due to virus or malware attacks, reimaging, rebooting, downtime, and help desk requests/needs. Cost components for IT included upgrading PCs, security-related activities, deploying apps, patch management, help desk service, and several other metrics. IDC’s conclusion: “Organizations that continue to retain a Windows XP environment not only are leaving themselves exposed to security risks and support challenges, but also are waiting budget dollars that would be better used in modernizing their IT investments.”

Many of the companies still running Windows XP contend that it’s a solution that still “works” in their environment. “Works” however, could mean these customers are missing out on the benefits of a more modern operating system including dramatic savings, higher user productivity and a more valued IT department.

Staying on Windows XP is an expensive investment when Windows 7 provides dramatic savings.

IDC found that the base IT and end user labor costs of continuing to support Windows XP is now approximately five times as much as the cost of running Windows 7. That’s a significant amount of money IT shops could put towards modernizing their departments and adding value to the businesses.

In addition, IDC found the longer you wait, the pricier supporting Windows XP gets: IT labor costs go up 25 percent in the fourth year of continuing to run Windows XP past deadline, and user productivity suffers as well, with an increased cost of 23 percent. In the fifth year, IT labor increases by an additional 29 percent, and user productivity costs jump up a staggering 40 percent.

A modern workspace means more productive users and a more valued IT department.

Organizations realized amazing productivity gains over the status quo when they first implemented Windows XP, but technology has advanced and Windows 7 can support much more, including integrated WiFi and Bluetooth, faster and better performing hardware and new improved UI. Additionally, IDC found that the single largest component in loss of productivity in downtime-related activities is the help desk operation, accounting for more than half of downtime-related time support. Not far behind is resolving downtime issues, which account for a little of a third of the total time spent by IT in supporting Windows XP. Those metrics can be reduced by up to 84 percent through a move to Windows 7.

An IT department that can stay ahead of modern technology developments immediately proves its value to business decision-makers and end users, as IDC notes: “By proactively encouraging the use of modern technology, the IT department is seen as being interested in improving the productivity of users. End users feel empowered to accomplish their jobs with modern tools that improve their productivity and eliminate wasted time resulting from poorly-performing old technology, unnecessary application crashes and operating system reboots.”

Windows 7 provides clear ROI and prepares businesses for the future.

The bottom line: IDC’s research finds businesses that migrate from Windows XP to Windows 7 will see significant return on investment over 130 percent over a three-year period. Moreover, Windows 7 gives businesses back hours of user productivity. Additionally, migrating now to Windows 7 will set businesses up well to embrace Windows 8 in the future, as IDC found that all indications at this time are that the move from Windows 7 to Windows 8 will be seamless for applications and non-impactful to existing hardware.

I hope that you found this information helpful and I invite you to take a look at full IDC White Paper results and methodology, so that you can use the findings to help make the business case to your organization to move to Windows 7. And when you are ready to move, remember that we offer you many tools and resources to help with a smooth migrate to Windows 7.

Tools and Resources to Help with Migration

• The Springboard Series on Technet includes a lot of great in-depth advice to help you with your deployments.
• Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) can be used to help accelerate your deployments.
• The Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP) products include Microsoft BitLocker Administration and Monitoring (MBAM) to simplify BitLocker Drive Encryption provisioning and provide compliance reporting that can help you quickly determine the status of the entire organization.
• Also consider Windows Intune, which offers PC management and security via the cloud, plus upgrade rights to the latest version of Windows – a great solution for companies that have groups of lightly managed or non-managed PCs.
• You can also make the move to Office 365 and get familiar Microsoft Office collaboration and productivity tools delivered through the cloud. Everyone can work together easily with anywhere access to email, web conferencing, documents and calendars.

Please continue to check back for the latest Windows news as well as deployment guidance.

Well, the wait is over: The update—version 2.5, officially—just showed up in Marketplace and carries some tasty additions. Most of you probably already have this app in your arsenal. If not, what better time to grab it. Here’s some of what’s new or improved:

• Threaded messaging: Full Facebook threaded messaging, including group messaging.
• Better tagging: Now you can tag friends and locations in your posts in the “with” and “at” format.
• Wall cleanup: Use tap and hold to delete posts and comments from your Wall.
• Hot links: Links in posts are now tappable.
• More to “Like”: You can now Like comments,

Download Facebook 2.5

P.S. If you’re unable to download the new app or update the one on your phone, make sure your phone has Windows Phone 7.5 installed, See this post for more details or Update Central for installation instructions.

You can submit a cake and vote for your favorite on our Cake Contest Facebook page. So pre-heat your oven or call the bakery, because the top 3 cakes with the most likes will win a brand new Windows Phone.      

Here’s how to enter:

1. Create a Windows Phone-inspired cake.
2. Submit a photo of your cake on our Cake Contest Facebook page. (You can also submit a photo of a cake you made in the past, as long as you’re the baker.)

Entries must be received by Wednesday, May 30. Voting ends June 6. Our lawyers pinned the contest’s official rules here on SkyDrive, if you want to check them out. (Click View Folder if you don’t see them immediately.)

We can’t wait to see your creations. Good luck!

Most phones are already running Windows Phone 7.5, which was released last fall, and so you won’t notice anything different about how the Marketplace works. However, if your phone has an earlier version of our software installed, you’ll soon start seeing an error message when you try to download a new app, or update one you already own. (I say “soon" because it will take a day or two for the changes we made today to take effect.)

If you do get the error, all you need to do is install the free Windows Phone 7.5 update. You’ll find all the information you need to do that, including an update checklist and easy step-by-step instructions, on Update Central. (Not sure if you have Windows Phone 7.5 installed? Here’s how to check.)

By the way, even if you don’t use Marketplace, there are still lots of great reasons to update. We made hundreds of improvements, big and small, in Windows Phone 7.5. Here’s just a sampling of what I mean. So I’d encourage you to set aside time to update your phone for that reason alone.

We thought it was a cool little incentive. You guys did too, given the number of new signups we saw, and apparently others agreed – it showed up on a variety of sites.

Then, someone abused the system, and ended up reserving all of the remaining codes for themselves so that actual users were left in the dust and when some people tried to get their avatar gear, it was already taken. We even saw the codes show up on ebay.

We are flattered that our avatar prop is so popular, but frustrated that someone abused the system to reserve a bunch of codes for themselves and shut out legitimate users in the process. We’ve now ended the promotion for the skateboard. If you signed up for the newsletter (thanks, BTW!), got the invite for the gear and weren’t able to redeem your code, we will be making it right: we will send you a code in the next few days for a different prop (a Windows Phone foam finger):

I can’t really reminisce about 1982. I was born in 1983. But I can talk about how much Microsoft Hardware is integrated into how I use my PCs today! Especially their mice and webcams.

Every single mouse, keyboard or webcam I own is from Microsoft Hardware. But things really kicked into high gear (my obsession with Microsoft Hardware that is…) for me however in September of 2010. That’s when we announced the Arc Touch Mouse. The Arc Touch Mouse was the first Microsoft mouse to use the touch scroll strip for easy navigation with haptic feedback (vibration technology that simulates the feel of a traditional scroll wheel). It uses BlueTrack Technology that allows it to be used on virtually any surface. The best part about the Arc Touch Mouse is that you can flatten it to turn the mouse off and slide it in your pocket or messenger bag to take with you on the run.

As of today, I pretty much own every Arc Touch Mouse ever made. Almost.

My collection includes:

• The Sangria Red and Cement Gray editions of the Arc Touch Mouse announced at CES earlier this year.
• The prototype Arc Touch Mouse that is clear.
• An unreleased black Arc Touch Mouse with the same checkered texture seen on the Sangria Red edition Arc Touch Mouse.
• The Limited Edition Artist Series Arc Touch Mouse with a white floral design by the artist Oh Joy.
• The Limited Edition Artist Series Arc Touch Mouse celebrating the Year of the Dragon featuring a design from Shenzhen, China-based artist Paco.
• An unreleased “grey” Arc Touch Mouse.

There is one Arc Touch Mouse I won’t be adding to my collection - an exclusive commemorative special edition Arc Touch Mouse was created specifically to celebrate the 30^th anniversary of Microsoft Hardware.

And this Arc Touch Mouse will be one Arc Touch Mouse I won’t be adding to my collection because we’re giving it away on Twitter! The giveaway for this commemorative mouse is dedicated to celebrating the decade in which Microsoft Hardware started – the 1980’s. All you need to do is tweet something you loved about the 80’s with the hashtag #MSHWturns30 to enter in to the contest. The full contest rules can be found here. Good luck! The commemorative 30th Anniversary Arc Touch Mouse comes with a special certificate signed by Young Kim, Senior User Experience Lead for Microsoft Hardware and Brett Kelleran, General Manager for Microsoft Hardware.

There’s nothing like having a flock of mice on your desk, right?

I also make it a point to own Microsoft Hardware’s latest and greatest HD webcam. Today that’s the LifeCam Studio. However, Microsoft Hardware has a fleet of HD webcams from the high-end (LifeCam Studio) to the reasonably priced. Back in March, we announced that all of the currently available HD webcams and headsets from Microsoft Hardware are now Skype Certified. Over the weekend, my dad did a video call from his brand new Nokia Lumia 900 Windows Phone using the Skype app to me on my PC with Skype for Windows and my LifeCam Studio. Video calls are how I stay in touch with my family.

Happy anniversary Microsoft Hardware!

Performance

Similar to past reviews, my test of a PC is not around specific benchmarks, but personal experience in using the device as my daily work machine for a period of a few weeks and seeing how it copes with a professional workload. Additionally, my performance characteristics will vary slightly as Microsoft’s security policies require different default programs – like antivirus – compared to the programs shipped in HP’s image.

One very nice aspect of the HP Folio for customers who do not use a custom image is that the default HP image is very lightweight. By that I mean that there are very few applications pre-loaded by default or that run automatically. The unit I tested came through HP’s business channels, which comes with a different default image than Folios sold through consumer channels. If your experience differs from what I had, you probably bought the computer through a different channel partner.

During a two-week period, the HP Folio performed nimbly and stably, using the set of applications I typically use for work, including Microsoft Office applications such as Outlook, PowerPoint, Lync, Excel, and standards such as Internet Explorer 9. The Windows Experience Index below is a rough indicator of the performance of the HP Folio.

One of the key indicators that many PC buyers look to is startup/shutdown/restart times, and the Ultrabook performed in-line with my expectations. A cold boot startup took roughly 20 seconds, doing well compared to other Ultrabooks. I recommend users to sleep/resume in Windows 7 rather than shutdown, but if you choose to power down, that process takes roughly 10 seconds. Like newer PCs equipped with SSDs, resuming from and going to sleep take less than two seconds. (As usual, I don’t typically cite times below two seconds because I don’t trust my precision with a stopwatch with such short times.)

Where the HP Folio truly shines is in its battery life. With an eight hour workday, some users may not need to plug the device into A/C power. For me, with 15-30 minutes back in my office in the middle of the day, I was able to use the HP Folio during a typical workday without needing a charger. For one working weekend, I was able to work from cafes for several hours, despite forgetting the charger at the office. HP advertises a nine hour battery life, which you might achieve by optimizing power settings. Regardless, PC buyers looking for the most battery life in a small package should investigate the Folio.

Look, Feel and Features

From the outside, the HP Folio is unmistakably an HP business PC. The brushed metal casing is shared with the EliteBook line, providing a more classic appearance. The rubberized bottom of the PC felt nice in the hand when toting around the notebook, and also clung well to most surfaces, including the glass table you see in some of the pictures I took.

The HP Folio weighs in at 3.3 pounds, which is light for a 13” notebook PC, but on the heavier end of the Ultrabook spectrum. The Folio is also a little thicker (0.7”) than some of the thinner Ultrabooks on the market. But, this form factor allows for a large battery and a robust build quality; this is a PC that feels like it will last. The hinges are sturdy and opening/closing the lid is a solid movement, and the chassis exhibits very few signs of flex.

The HP Folio provides a nice array and selection of ports given its small size. The Folio is one of the few Ultrabooks with an Ethernet port (another reason for its thickness versus other models). A multi-format memory card reader is a nice expansion option (visible to the right of the USB port). Other ports include: HDMI, USB 2.0, USB 3.0 and a combined headphone/mic jack. Some users may miss an onboard VGA port; however, even on business PCs, this is increasingly unavailable.

Opening the HP Folio portrays some of the consumer personality of the PC. One of the first visible items is the long speaker bar between the hinges – certainly not a common feature for a business machine. The smooth metal surface, chiclet-style keyboard and clickpad-style trackpad are closer to HP’s ENVY PCs than to the company’s EliteBook business PCs. But that’s the point with the HP Folio, a PC that works for both business and the user.

First, a word on that speaker bar. The speaker bar advertises Dolby Advanced Audio. While I’m not sure how that differs from the Beats Audio found on other HP PCs, the HP Folio has loud sound and great quality for an Ultrabook – certainly a best-in-class for a business PC. Audio/video conferencing sounded great as well, and I can imagine the HP Folio being used for the occasional movie or album in a hotel room. While the HP Folio won’t replace my external speakers, there were a few times that I didn’t feel the need to plug in speakers or headphones.

The keyboard and trackpad were very nice to use on the HP Folio. I found the keyboard to be a delight to use. The keyboard is roomy, with plenty of travel in the keys to register feedback. Touch typists should have no trouble adapting to the HP Folio keyboard. In the picture above you can see the strong backlighting available via a hotkey (F5 or FN+F5 depending on how you set the HP to use the function keys). The trackpad is a clickpad-style, meaning that it has no physical buttons. After adjusting the default settings to become less sensitive to the touch I found that I had little trouble with registering unintended touches. There are also some handy multi-finger gestures available in the trackpad settings for scrolling, window management and other features.

The display of the HP Folio is closer to the consumer-personality of this machine. The glossy display adds to richness, but at first it can take a little fiddling to find the right angle to maximize image quality and also avoid viewing yourself in the screen reflection. Like most PCs, the screen will also pick up some impressions from the keyboard. The glossy screen can accentuate that issue. Overall the display is not remarkable, but certainly serviceable.

Fan noise is sometimes a concern on smaller units. I’m happy to say that while the Folio does have an audible noise it’s not too distracting and will blend in with any background noise. This did require some modification on my part. I’m not sure why, but the BIOS setting defaults to “Fan Always On”. After adjusting this setting, the fan cycled on far less often.

Final Thoughts

The HP Folio is a great choice for someone looking for the feel of a full notebook in a thin and light package. HP has combined a solid build with a very usable keyboard, great battery life and affordable price to deliver an experience that should satisfy most users.

But if you’re looking for something with a little more power, HP recently released three new Ultrabook options for business users: the HP EliteBook Folio 9470m, the HP Spectre^XT Pro and the HP ENVY Pro. The HP EliteBook Folio is only a fraction heavier and thicker, but packs a bigger punch with 16 GB RAM, up to 256 GB SSD, and even comes with the VGA port the HP Folio is missing. If you are a small business professional, Leigha’s blog post describes the new HP ProBook S-series and EliteBook 2170p that are designed to help small businesses become more efficient, tech savvy, and successful.

In the coming months I’ll continue testing some of the business-focused Ultrabooks available on the market. Ask me questions and request reviews here in the comments or on Twitter @Sabowtage13.

Visit Levi’s site to grab the entire set of eight for your lock screen. You can see a few of my favorites below.

To use the ones Levi created, you’ll first need to save his photos to your phone. If you’re reading his post on your PC, use your phone to scan the QR code for the wallpaper you want, tap and hold the image, then tap Save Picture. If you’re reading his blog on your phone, just tap the QR code image, then tap and hold the wallpaper and save it to your phone. Finally, this how-to article shows you how to change wallpapers on your lock screen.

Turns out there’s also an interesting backstory to the wallpapers. Besides being a Windows Phone fan, Levi, 25, is a recent graduate of the University of Arts London, one of Europe’s largest art and design schools. Last year his work caught the eye of Albert Shum, who runs the Windows Phone design studio. The two arranged to meet briefly while Albert was in London for Nokia World last October.

I’ll let Levi pick up the story from here. Visit his site to read more about him and what happened next. On his blog you can find also out more about the inspiration and locations for each shot. Let us know what you think. Which one is your favorite?