For the summer I’m doing this “Microsoft All-In“, which makes Windows Phone my mobile platform. The app ecosystem improves, but the gaps range from disappointing to perplexing. Choices often aren’t as good as Android or iOS. Windows Phone is the third world of operating systems. You live in envy and make do with less.
There are ridiculous gems, some of which I look and wonder: “Why is that one available?” There are no official BBC or NPR apps, but RT.com—known during another era as Russia Today—is there. The app is pretty good, too. But given Windows Phone’s low global sales share, I wonder why the news service would even bother. Not that I mind.
RT is also available as a channel on Roku, and I confess to watching the news broadcasts. RT broadcasts are punchy, aggressive, and even provocative. Intensity measures in innovation and rapid talking. The Windows Phone app is a great compliment to the news broadcasts.
I find them refreshing, even if an undercurrent of propaganda flows with them. Different is what appeals, and any pro-Russian slant makes me painfully aware how tilted is American news—if for no other reason than ethnocentrism and cultural bias.