So, have you been reading the reviews for the HTC 8X, Lumia 920 any of the several other Windows Phone 8 devices? Maybe you stopped reading them because you don’t believe that Windows phone is a mature platform and trails iPhone and Android? There are no apps for Windows Phone – hogwash! Are there apps which are “missing” from the Windows Phone Store, yes. But are these the apps you will be installing? Hardly. Perhaps the only app missing from the Windows Phone Store that the average user will be wanting to use is Instagram, and not that Instagram has been acquired by Facebook, it shouldn’t be long before Microsoft makes arrangements to bring Instagram to Windows Phone. You will be able to find many, many apps of all sorts on Windows Phone.
Well, then you haven’t heard the entire story and you might be interested in some very real ways where Windows Phone 8 can school the iPhone and Android phones on some very real ways.
1. Child Safety:
IPhone: The Apple iPhone allows you to block users from running certain programs, using the phone’s camera, iOS can even limit iTunes purchases to those without parental advisories.
But all these “restrictions” have to be set on the phone and each restriction must be set individually.
Android: Google’s efforts to protect children is nearly nonexistent and if you want to set anything other than restrict the purchasing of apps in the Play Store you are out of luck because Google doesn’t have any way to protect your children and leaves that up to app developers.
Windows Phone 8: Microsoft’s latest Windows Phone 8 operating system has a cloud based approach to child safety and is fully integrated into the Windows Phone 8 and the settings you create on the cloud permeate to their Windows 8/RT user profiles as well as Xbox 360.
Microsoft also makes it super simple, select from Child, Teen, Adult or Custom. The settings you choose for the Xbox 360 overlap to the settings your choose for Windows Phone 8, Windows 8/RT.
As a parent, it always seems like our children learn how to bypass every measure we put in place so that they can be free from restrictions. One of the benefits of this cloud based parental controls system is that you, as their parent, can always check the settings of your child’s account online and not have to go through each setting on their phone to see if they are all set appropriately,
2. Share your phone with your children, or protect your personal data from others
iPhone: n/a
Android: n/a
Windows Phone 8: Windows Phone 8 has a special mode which creates a “phone within a phone” on your Windows Phone 8 device. This mode is called, Kid’s Corner. Kid’s Corner can be used with your toddler or pre-teen who doesn’t yet possess their own phone. Kids corner lets you select the apps which can be used in Kid’s Corner, the music they can play, the games you deem appropriate as well as the videos they can watch. All this protected by your phones password.
No longer can your kids pick up your phone and drain the battery when your not watching it. This same Kid’s Corner prevents expensive app and music purchases as well as the embarrassing emails and phone calls made to your boss or co-workers or a costly international call.
Do not confuse Kid’s Corner with Parental Controls. Parental controls are set on a phone which you give to your child as their phone. Kid’s Corner is a secondary user account created on your personal phone and it limited to running only the apps you allow.
3. Camera – Simple to use and Keeps your Phone Secure!
Each Windows Phone has a dedicated camera button. that’s why when you look at a Windows Phone device you will likely never see the camera app set as a Live Tile. Whether the phone is off, on, password protected or in Kid’s Corner mode, all you have to do is press the dedicated camera button on the phone an the camera activates.
When your phone is unlocked, any photo you take can be instantly tagged and shared on Facebook, sent via mms/text message email, etc. When your phone is locked, the camera still functions as above, but with one important difference. The camera operates, but you can only view the photos you just took. You can’t share them, go into other menu’s on the phone and the only photos you can view are the ones you just took. To gain access to the other features again, enter your phone’s password.
Another thing you may read about in a basic review of Windows Phone is that photos taken with the phone are taken just like a ‘real camera’ press the camera button on the top right of the phone – viola, no teaching Aunt Mary or your Mother on how to take a picture with your phone. No taking 3 minutes to teach someone to us your phone as a camera in stead of taking your photo.
These are some of the things you will not hear much about because they cant be compared to the competition, because the competitions offerings aren’t as sound, as mature or as easy to use. It may not be because the reviewer is trying to hide these features from you, it’s more likely that they don’t have children and don’t care about those things.
Why does this happen, why don’t these reviewers talk about these features which will make any parent’s job a little easier and children a lot safer? Because they know how to use iPhone, or they know how to use Android, both of those operating system operate very similarly to one another. Windows Phone and Windows Phone 8 doesn’t work like the others. this is by design.
Microsoft could not place these child modes or child and teen safety features in their phones if they did not create a new platform. A new platform which puts emphasis into safety; Safety from intruders, from thief’s, hackers as well as keeping your children safe.
So, as a parent, you should be looking for a phone which you and your family can use and one in which the phone manufacture puts as much emphasis on designing a fresh and easy to use phone as well as a company which has designed their platform for every user in the home, even if they are too young to have there own phone.
Keep a lookout for the next edition of Features you wont hear about on Windows Phone soon.
John Freiman's Tech Opinions 