Phone 7

New Feature Video for PhoneZune – Voice Recognition Lab

keyboardP — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 19:48:35 +0000

As promised, I’ve uploaded the video of the Voice Recognition Lab feature of PhoneZune. VRL makes it easier and more accurate to launch your song collection using your voice. It also enables the app to work with your voice by letting you decide how it should perform its recognition. The point of VRL is to give as much control to you, as the user, so that you can really tailor PhoneZune to suit you.

PhoneZune: New App Feature – “Your Voice, Your Rules”

keyboardP — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 02:10:41 +0000

I’ve just written a short post on an upcoming tool that will be included with PhoneZune. It’s aim to is to try and ensure that anyone can pick up PhoneZune and use it, regardless of what their accent, pronunciation or any other vocal idiosyncrasies. If development goes will this weekend, I’ll be releasing a video next week. You can read the post here.

Deadmau5 Live [Nokia show]

keyboardP — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 14:17:27 +0000

I don’t really think words are required here, but this is one amazing marketing performance. (It was performed at the London Milbank Tower)

Let your Friends Use WP on Their Android or iPhone

keyboardP — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 15:55:23 +0000

Explaining the Metro UI to someone, or showing them screenshots, just doesn’t give the full effect of how great it is. Microsoft have therefore solved this problem by introducing a browser based demo which lets non-WP users test-drive Windows Phone on their phone. Using HTML5, MS have really done a good job simulating what Windows Phone feels like. You (or whoever is using Android/iOS) can perform the test drive from their mobile by going here : (http://m.microsoft.com/windowsphone/en-us/demo/index.html) You can also use this shortened link: http://bit.ly/demowp.

Using Voice and WP7 to Control Zune!

keyboardP — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 14:27:20 +0000

Update – I’ve written a post outlining the plans for this project.

This is currently a proof of concept project I created and would love to get feedback. I love creating unique things and this is something that I’ve been using everyday. Simply say the name of the song and it will start playing. You can also watch the song’s music video simply by using your voice and WP7. Let me know what you think!

Slightly Off Topic – YTmulti Makes Watching Multiple YouTube Videos Easy

keyboardP — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 01:12:48 +0000

I’ve been working on various projects, hence the lack of updates (unless you’re following me on Twitter). However, I took the last fews days out to create a project to make watching multiple YouTube videos easier. (Started off a a personal project, but figured others may like it too).

YTmulti instantly creates a playlist of videos that have been split on YouTube. Usually, when one part finishes, you have to click on the next part. Instead, YTmulti brings back each part automatically and plays them back one after the other without you having to do anything. Simply paste the first part of a multiple-part video and it’ll do the rest. For example, this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ct2kbLBuSOg) has three parts, so the link can be pasted and the remaining two parts are brought back.

Alternatively, you can just add the word ‘multi’ after ‘YouTube’ in the url, like this:
http://www.youtubemulti.com/watch?v=ct2kbLBuSOg
This makes it easier when you’re watching the video on YouTube and you want to jump straight to YTmulti. You can also share the playlist easily with one link so other people can watch the entire thing in one go.

The main advantage to this is that you don’t have to sign-in to your YouTube account (if you have one) and you don’t have to manually find each part and add them to your playlist individually.

Feel free to leave any feedback!

Where have the posts gone?

keyboardP — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 19:01:07 +0000

It’s been quiet around here as I’ve got quite a lot of stuff going on. If you are on Twitter and want to keep up to date, I highly recommend you follow me (@keyboardP). I’m pretty active on Twitter and (re)tweet about the latest news since it’s a lot quicker than posting on the blog. That’s not to say the blog won’t be updated, just not as much whilst I have all this work sitting on my desk

Mango Update Being Delivered!

keyboardP — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 17:03:55 +0000

Mango updates have started rolling out to the public! As you can see from the update status pages (US, Worldwide), updates are now being delivered. It’s been some time coming, but this update is huge and I’m sure non-tech consumers will be pleasantly surprised with just how many new features there are.

WP 7.1 SDK Release Candidate Now Available

keyboardP — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 23:56:01 +0000

You can now download the latest RC version of the WP SDK which lets you create apps for 7.0 and 7.5 (Mango). It also includes the ‘Go Live’ license that lets your publish your Mango apps to the Marketplace. Click here to get to the download page for the SDK as well as the Release Notes.

Google Acquiring Motorola Mobility

keyboardP — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 13:48:33 +0000

With the the patent infringement cases coming against Android (from Apple and MS), Google have decided to buy Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion. It seems the main reason for this acquisition is to help Google protect themselves from further patent issues buy inheriting Motorola Mobility’s patent portfolio. Whether this helps or not remains to be seen as Motorola Mobility themselves have been subject to litigation. So what does this mean for Microsoft and Windows Phone?

Well, for Google, they now have hardware expertise on board, similar to Apple. MS have Nokia as their ‘hardware experts’, but Nokia are still free to create devices for other platforms. However, HTC Android devices sell more than Motorola Android devices so it will be interesting to see how much Motorola improves in sales. However, a key aspect to all of this is the fact that Android manufacturers are no longer on the same level as each other. HTC and Samsung are one rung below Motorola when it comes to the Android partnership. This could easily see these manufacturers shift their focus away from Android and towards rival platfoms such as Windows Phone. Naturally, this would mean a bigger range of devices that run Windows Phone and a greater price range. Couple this with Nokia’s set of devices and you can really see Windows Phone being put on the map. You can read more about the acquisition here. (Note: The acquisition is still not finalised and has to be approved by the antitrust regulators).