A catalog with applications Microsoft for Android, an unusual lock screen and finding your place in the sun …
Foreword
When considering a device or application, you should never transfer your attitude towards the development company to it. Children should not be responsible for the sins of their parents, and the unfortunate smartphone is absolutely not to blame for the fact that one of the managers of the company that released it managed to annoy you with something.
But at the same time, it is foolish to deny that every company has its own handwriting and its own face. Of course, a company can decide to radically change its image or start living from scratch, but this is not always possible. As, in fact, we are with you. Even a change of top managers or the choice of a new development strategy rarely lead to any really significant changes, usually it all ends with another song with the same tune. So, in most cases, you don't need to be Sherlock Holmes to roughly predict what the company's new device will look like looking at the past lineup.
Although in the case of Microsoft it is difficult to guess what the company will throw out. Sometimes there is a persistent feeling that for the MS employees themselves it is a secret, because any of their undertakings immediately turns into a kind of Brownian movement. While some are coming up with slogans about harm Android, others are launching some kind of Nokia X on the market, and still others are already figuring out how to bury this surprisingly good project more effectively. At the same time, the end result is almost always known in advance, so don't go to a fortuneteller – the company has had very few really successful endeavors in recent years, it mainly lived on the merits of past years.
Microsoft Apps
The company's plans to seriously engage in the market Android applications have been rumored for a long time. There is no clarity, however, again – either Windows Phone predict long and happy years of life, then unofficially announce her sudden death, then scold crooked crafts from Google Play, then they are going to persuade developers to transfer them en masse to WP, and in the meantime they are also releasing a launcher for Android … It was interesting to watch these throwing for a while, then it was just funny, and in the end it was frankly boring. I practically had no faith that something worthwhile would come out of all this fuss. And what MS turned into under the thumb Skype did not add optimism.
Meanwhile, I must admit that the project Microsoft Garage turned out to be a very successful thing. If only because the developers finally got the opportunity to calmly do what they love without looking back at the constantly changing general line of the party. At some point, the company even decided to move all branded applications for Android into a separate directory called Microsoft Apps.
There you can find a bunch of everything, from the famous MS Office to completely unknown niche applications. And many of them turned out to be really interesting. Take the same Microsoft Arrow Launcher about which there was a separate article on MR.
Or the lock screen, which I will briefly discuss below.
Next Lock Screen
The app is called Next Lock Screen and is a further development of the Arrow Launcher. The main principle is somewhat similar to Google Now – the right things at the right time and without any effort on the part of users. Only if in the case of Google Assistant it was about information, then we are talking about applications.
Although the installation of the program itself, on the contrary, requires surprisingly a lot of body movements from the user.
The lock screen design is the exact opposite of the traditional Windows – style. Everything is beautiful, neat, without any unnecessary tiles and huge inscriptions that do not fit on the screen. However, the appearance of this 'blocker' is completely different from the design of the standard Android. There are also no cards and an abundance of bright colors, in this regard, Next Lock Screen resembles not a children's application in the style of material design, but a beautiful watercolor landscape.
You don't have to think about where to get wallpapers for the lock screen, just make a short tap on the bing icon, and the best photos of famous photographers will be at your service.
One of the 'tricks' of the lock screen is the automatic selection of apps, which will differ for home and work. Moreover, you can manually switch between different sets. The icons are small, but they are just right for modern 'shovels'.
However, all the 'smart' functions can always be disabled in the settings, and then set the icons manually. If you had a password on unlocking the screen, then it makes sense to disable it in the standard screen and activate it in Next Lock Screen, you can also do this in the settings.
Outcome
I do not know where the initiative of one particular developer ends and the company's policy begins. But looking at some of the Apps apps lost in the depths of the catalog Microsoft Apps, I involuntarily catch myself thinking that they are much more interesting than the 'officially approved' mobile software Microsoft. If this is not just a funny curiosity, but the first steps along the chosen path, then I will only be glad of MS's attempts to break into the market Android. Regardless of whether we are talking about programs or devices.
Who knows, maybe Nokia's heroic death and hopeless attempts to resurrect Windows Mobile (Phone) won't go to waste in the end?