Steve and I had stayed on with our cell phone service provider long beyond the three year contract we originally signed to get our old HTC Touch Pro phones.  Although we were given the option to upgrade repeatedly, we had done our research and were waiting for a specific model of phone to become available before we were willing to make a move.

Nearly a year later, our dream phones were still not available on our provider and the next model of it was already being rolled out.  Our HTC Touch Pro phones were starting to show their age, with Steve’s display turning strange colours when he touched it, and my audio jack sometimes giving up for no reason - not to mention the fact that we were getting sick of the clunky Windows Mobile 6.1 interface.

It took an amazing offer at Costco to finally convince us to switch providers so that we could get our dream phones last month.  We actually made money in gift cards from the deal, got some accessories for our phones thrown in for free, and on top of it all, we will be paying less on our monthly bills.  We couldn’t say no to that.

Steve and I roll our eyes every time mainstream media goes gaga over the merest fart that Apple makes, (and to a lesser degree, Android and Blackberry) while they remain sorely ignorant of amazing advancements and quality products like the Nokia Lumia 920.

One of the selling points that got our attention with this phone is the incredible built-in 8.7 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss lens.  It’s the only one currently on the market that has image stabilization technology like many standard digital cameras and camcorders, and it also dramatically outperforms any phone out there when it comes to low-lighting conditions.  Considering so many people use their phones to try taking pictures when they’re out at bars and clubs - and hoo-boy, I say "try" for a reason – this feature makes a huge amount of sense.  We’ve been able to take great pictures in low light with this phone that we can’t even manage with our full-fledged digital cameras and camcorders.  When taking videos, it even copes with loud music, applying volume leveling to prevent distortion and clipping.

Durability was another concern for us.  Unlike the iPhone that seems like it is purposely designed to shatter into pieces if you drop it (forcing you to shell out extra bucks buying covers or insurance plans for it, if not full-on replacements), the model of phone we chose is a veritable tank.  There are videos online of people trying to break it by throwing it against concrete walls and using the display to hammer nails into wood, even running it over with a bulldozer (albeit this cracked the display) – but it kept on ticking through all of that abuse!

Probably the most common complaint we’ve seen online about the Lumia 920 is that it is slightly larger and heavier than an iPhone.  I laugh at this because I regularly see people looking silly holding up their giant iPads, or even precariously balancing their iMac Laptops on their fingertips to take pictures and videos - devices much heavier and more awkward than the Lumia 920.  Our phones take better quality photos and video than any of those devices, iPhone included, and they still fit in our pockets when we want to put them away.  So what if they’re a few grams heavier if it means better features and battery life; so what if they’re a few centimeters larger - it comes with a bigger display!

The Lumia 920 is a (gasp) Windows 8 Phone, and I’m happy to say Microsoft has made gigantic strides in improving their mobile operating system from Windows Mobile 6.1 that we were using prior.  The whole stigma against Windows phones is no longer warranted.  After having these new phones for a month now, I daresay it is as user friendly if not more so than any iPhone I’ve played with.  But not surprisingly, much of mainstream media have all but overlooked it, or downplayed it compared to iOS, Android, and Blackberry.  This is disappointing, but we don’t mind having an edge – a secret weapon, as it were.

One thing I like about the Windows 8 operating system is that they have broken free of the long-standing icon metaphor that many operating systems use, replacing it with "Live Tiles".  Live tiles can be used to launch programs much like icons, but they can also display useful information even when the program isn’t running, at different levels of detail depending on the size you make the tile.

For instance, I found a free app to help me manage my diabetes that works as a logbook to record my bloodsugars, insulin doses, and physical activity level.  On my home screen, the live tile for this app displays my most recent bloodsugar reading, as well as my 7 day average so I know how I’m doing over all.  Likewise my phone tile can display missed calls, my calendar tile displays upcoming appointments, and the tiles for my Hotmail, Gmail, and work Email addresses show quantity and subject lines of unread messages.  I can pin apps, contacts, and documents to my home screen, and each one display its own relevant information at a glance.

The Bing search interface on the phone has built in capabilities for identifying music (much like Shazam) as well as scanning QR codes, Tags, and other visual artifacts - on other phones you would need separate apps to do each of these things.

The Windows Store has tons of free and useful apps you can download.  When Steve finds a cool app that I want to try (or a picture or document that he needs to transfer), he can send it to me just by tapping his phone to mine.  I never have to worry about backing up my phone either, because all of my photos, videos, and program settings are synched to Skydrive when my phone connects to a Wifi network.

In my opinion, one of the most powerful and useful features on the Windows 8 Phone is the way that it provides near-seamless integration with social media and other online services.  For the average person this is great, but for Steve and I who are on the go so much and use social media to communicate with our readers, it opens up fantastic new possibilities.  It pulls together all the contact information from Microsoft Outlook from home and work, Skype/Messenger contacts, Hotmail contacts and even Facebook friends, all into one massive People index that I can easily search.  It’s a breeze to tag on new contact information for anyone in that list, and even check out their latest updates on Facebook and Twitter.  Furthermore, when I update my own status, I can easily tag people in photos from that list of contacts, and post directly to Facebook and Twitter without needing to load an app for either one.

While the iPhone may have a head start when it comes to their selection in the iStore, app developers are making haste to release their popular apps for Windows 8 Phone too.  For instance, SCRUFF released their app for our phones just this past month, and although in beta it seems better in many ways to what I’ve seen of the iPhone app.  As a programmer myself, I can’t wait to experiment with app creation on this platform.

Microsoft definitely put a lot of thought into their Windows 8 Phone operating system, and finally got it right.  Nokia built a durable, feature-rich phone that blows most other phones (and some cameras) out of the water.  These technologies together, as far as I’m concerned, trump any comparable device that Apple, Android, and Blackberry have released to date.  So if mainstream media won’t say there are better things than the iPhone, the Blackberry Z10, or Samsung S4 out there, we don’t mind being the ones to go against the grain...as an LGBT publication, we’re sort of used to doing that.

We’ve been trying out a new procedure as we covered events over the past month.  As usual, I have been taking photos with our digital camera to use in the magazine, but now in addition to that, Steve is also taking pictures with his new phone to post instantly to Facebook and Twitter.  This gets people interested and talking about events happening in the community at a time when they can still decide to go out and participate.  We’ve also found some situations where the cameras on our phones can nail certain shots than our digital cameras can’t.

This month started out with the Coming Out Monologues, which ran for three days with different monologues each day.  All three shows sold out, much to their delight.  We were only able to attend the final night, and greatly enjoyed the new monologues that were performed.

The Gender Bender, also on the U of C campus, was likewise very well attended.  There were some great costumes, and the show put on by Fake Mustache and other guests was fantastic, although a little long.

The Backlot to Boyztown reunion and kick-off party for Apollo Western cup was awesome and difficult at the same time: awesome in that the newly renovated Vinyl space was packed, everyone had a great time, and the hot bartenders were convinced to strip down to their undies by the end of the night; difficult in that our late friend Don, who was an owner of the Rekroom downstairs, and a DJ at Boyztown, was not able to be there with us.  Despite the sad undertones, I just about keeled over laughing when Mark from the Backlot was doing the prize draw and nonchalantly threw an envelope meant for the audience over his shoulder.  The envelope proceeded to get sucked upward and stuck to the large air intake vent above the dance floor, where it stayed for several minutes until some determined patrons found a way to get it back down again.

The sporting events during Apollo Western Cup presented new challenges for Steve to tackle with our phones.  Once again, we were able to get some action shots with the Lumia 920 that came out blurry when we tried with our digital cameras.

The Western Cup Dance, held at Hotel Arts, was another sold-out event.  From the DJ booth we took photos and a video out across the sea of people dancing to International DJ/Producer Hector Fonseca, who was flown out from New York.  Considering the dance was still going strong when we left at 1:30am, I think it’s safe to say this event was a great success.

April is going to be anything but a quiet month, considering something major is happening just about every weekend until May.

The weekend of the 13th is the much anticipated Bearacchus, brought to you by the Fellowship of Alberta Bears (FAB) in association with ARGRA.  More than just a big Bear dance on Saturday night, there are events happening Friday evening and during the day Saturday and Sunday (see the ad in this edition for details).  As bear aficionados, and Steve being a bear himself, both him and I have been waiting with baited breath since we first heard the news this was in the works.  Granted, we were torn considering Jasper Pride is happening the same weekend, and we are a sponsor of both events.  We wanted to go and experience it ourselves this year, but alas, the promise of drunken shenanigans in a room full of furry men drew us to it like the siren’s song. At the very least, Jasper Pride offers an excellent alternative to those who might feel out of place at Bearacchus; or simply to those who are equally drawn to the promise of a weekend of skiing and drunken shenanigans in scenic Jasper.

(For the women who may feel left-out by this all male event, there’s no reason to fret because Les Girls is putting on another all women’s dance on May 3rd at Vinyl.)

The following weekend of the 20th is Coronation 37, with lead-up events throughout the week.  Empress 36 Ruby Harte and Emperor 36 Bull Dozr will be stepping down to make way for the newly elected candidates.  Voting day is noon until midnight on Saturday, April 13th.  With only one candidate for Emperor (Dennis Storm) and Empress (Argintina Hailey-Dior), both will be Yes/No votes on the ballot.  For those who really like drag - and I mean really like drag, enough to endure a 6+ hour drag show albeit with a fancy dinner - the Coronation can be a magical night of performance and costumes.

Following that is another weekend of costumes at the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo.  It’s amazing how well GayCalgary Magazine fits in as a sponsor of this, even though it’s not a "gay" event.  Open-mindedness seems to be a common virtue among most sci-fi and fantasy fans.  If you’re willing to love and accept mutants and aliens, ghosts and the undead - even embrace them for their differences - then being accepting of gay people isn’t such a stretch.  Even at the Taboo show we’ve not seen so many well-adjusted adults; many being straight couples who are secure enough in their sexuality that they don’t even bat an eyelash about picking up a magazine, or being seen by others taking an interest and talking to us at our booth - kids in tow!  If all of humanity could be this evolved, the world would be a better place.

There is a good deal of big name celebrities attending this year’s expo, and we have done our best to get GayCalgary Magazine in on the action.  We delayed our press deadline for April by a few days to fit in some last minute interviews, so we’ve got a very packed edition this month.  Many more interviews are lined up, leading up to and during the expo, which will end up in the May edition and online.