Microsoft Offers First Look at Windows Phone 8

[JMcEntegart]

Microsoft offers a little peek at what it's got planned for Windows Phone.

Microsoft Offers First Look at Windows Phone 8 : Read more

 

[eddieroolz]

Microsoft has already cut off support for WinMo users with WP7, and WP7 support was cut off in favor of WP7.5, and now they are cutting off complete support for WP7 devices to WP8? Thats an awful lot like the Intel's socket-a-day strategy. Not good.

 

[SchizoFrog]

I am not that fussed about the issue of OS updates. Most people update their phone between 18 and 30 months and would then get the latest OS available at the time. The main reason I haven't got an WP7.5 is because I read the details about WP8 and I was willing to wait for the support of multi-core processors, displays up to 1280x768 and external SD storage.

I am really looking for to this OS and the full backing of new devices from WP supporting hardware manufacturers.

One question I have, recently HTC was kicked out of W8 development for putting sense on a W8 based tablet. Have they also been denied development access for WP8?
With the current range of phones on the market across different platforms I am only really interested in Samsung, Nokia and HTC products (Subject to HTC's involvement).

 

[lpedraja2002]

I hope they fix the little things before jumping to another upgrade for the OS. We still can't backup through Zune manually! Wtf is up with that!? You would think that Microsoft having so much experience with OS's would have the brains to think up of the most basic uses for an OS.

 

[captaincharisma]

they announce windows phone 8 and give a big "screw you" to the windows phone 7 userbase. still thinking of getting a windows phone?

 

[g00fysmiley]

this reminds me of why i stayed with palm and my old pre for so many years.. at least i kept the latest webos along with the pre 2 and pre 3 ... i eventually gave up on a new webos device and in may 12 got a samsung galaxy nexus. what kept me away from android so long was that android phones don't seem to get many if any updates its liek the phone's hardware can handle it but the phone makers decide that they make mroe money sellign new devices so just never upgrade em... guess m$ likes that plan. i hop emy nexus does what it was advertised though and keep getting updates as soon as they come out

 

[wlachan]

Let me guess... it will fail.

People are stuck with PC Windows, but no sane people would buy Windows phone when there are better alternatives. When will you die MS? Plzzzz......

 

[Osmin]

I don't know why those simple square or rectangular tiles with active content just don't get me excited about a phone OS. I guess I must keep on trying to love that interface that will be forced on my desktop. Keep on scrolling!

 

[nebun]

ugly

 

[hannibal]

There is very little reason to upgrade old windows phones. You only would get multicore support to your phone that only have single core. You would get support to higher resolution and your phones resolution would be the same as last week. So win 7.5 users are just fine, and if there is coming win 7.8 upgrade to them, even better.
Bigger problem are those older multicore Android phones that don't get upgraded...

The big question is, how win8 (apollo) works. We know that win7.5 is very good. It is fast and works very well, can win 8 do the same? That remains to be seing!

 

[Guest]

I'm curious to see if Windows 8 will behave similar to the Apple products ie., take a picture on the Windows 8 phone and it becomes available on the Windows 8 tablet, laptop, and desktop. Has anyone heard if that type of collaboration will be available?

 

[sykozis]

[citation][nom]wlachan[/nom]Let me guess... it will fail. People are stuck with PC Windows, but no sane people would buy Windows phone when there are better alternatives. When will you die MS? Plzzzz......[/citation]
Yep....why buy a Windows Phone when you can buy an iPhone? Android, from my experience, is vastly inferior. Sure, you can root the phone....but that doesn't fix the stability issues. My Android phone freezes regularly, it's slower than hell and half the time it can't even find the internet (even sitting next to my wireless router). When Windows Phone 8 gets released, my Android phone will get released....right into the trash can where it belongs.

 

[tmax]

I have a Nokia 900 and love it. Upgraded from the original Samsung Galaxy S. I am sure Microsoft will post what 7.8 includes at some point. I am also sure someone smarter than me will find a way to hack Win 8 onto the Nokia 900.

 

[msgun98]

Looks like they want a more seemless integration between their phone, tablet, laptop and desktop OS. I'm all for this change and will most likely replace my Android device with a Win 8 phone when it comes out to go with a nice Win 8 Slate that has pen input and x86 support for REAL applications.

 

[silver565]

bear in mind WP7 users will be upgraded to WP7.8, they aren't cut off just yet.

I'm looking forward to WP8 though, it looks quite nice. Plus if it's anything like WP7, it'll be good. Hopefully VPN functionality comes in though... that was the one thing I wanted from WP7 that I couldn't get

 

[dameon51]

[citation][nom]utvballman[/nom]I'm curious to see if Windows 8 will behave similar to the Apple products ie., take a picture on the Windows 8 phone and it becomes available on the Windows 8 tablet, laptop, and desktop. Has anyone heard if that type of collaboration will be available?[/citation]
Windows skydrive, released 2007.

 

[livebriand]

[citation][nom]sykozis[/nom]Yep....why buy a Windows Phone when you can buy an iPhone? Android, from my experience, is vastly inferior. Sure, you can root the phone....but that doesn't fix the stability issues. My Android phone freezes regularly, it's slower than hell and half the time it can't even find the internet (even sitting next to my wireless router). When Windows Phone 8 gets released, my Android phone will get released....right into the trash can where it belongs.[/citation]
Strange - mine doesn't freeze, it feels nice and fast, and I haven't had any connectivity issues with it. (Galaxy Nexus) Now if you bought a low-end one (~$100-150 off contract), then yeah, you can't expect much.

 

[livebriand]

[citation][nom]tmax[/nom]I am also sure someone smarter than me will find a way to hack Win 8 onto the Nokia 900.[/citation]
Yep, that always seems to happen. (and even if there is an official update, with Android, it seems that unofficial ROMs always come out sooner)

 

[CaedenV]

[citation][nom]utvballman[/nom]I'm curious to see if Windows 8 will behave similar to the Apple products ie., take a picture on the Windows 8 phone and it becomes available on the Windows 8 tablet, laptop, and desktop. Has anyone heard if that type of collaboration will be available?[/citation]
It is called skydrive, and while it had a rough start, it now works very well. I have my desktop and documents on 3 machines linked to skydrive, so anything I put on the desktop, or documents automatically gets put on all 3 machines, which is SUPER handy for me as I often forget what machine I did what project on. I have yet to use it on Windows Phone, but I understand that you can share files that way, and they pushed it so hard that it is the main reason SD card support was cut from the devices.

 

[CaedenV]

[citation][nom]eddieroolz[/nom]Microsoft has already cut off support for WinMo users with WP7, and WP7 support was cut off in favor of WP7.5, and now they are cutting off complete support for WP7 devices to WP8? Thats an awful lot like the Intel's socket-a-day strategy. Not good.[/citation]
Many WinMo phones can be hacked to put WP7 (and Android) on them. I know it is not the same as having real support, but it is an option. Most WP7 phones run WP7.5 just fine, and if your phone does not get the update then it has more to do with the phone manufacturer than it does with MS. All WP7.5 devices can run WP7.8, which has most of the applicable updates to the phone (ie, higher res support, multi core support, SD card support, and NFC support really don't apply to your phone as they simply do not have the physical features), so you still get the new Metro interface (that works sideways now ), as well as many of the other behind the scenes changes that went on. About the only thing that you will miss out on are the higher end DirectX games, and other WP8 specific software, but even then "most" software should still run on both platforms.