Windows Phone 8 (codename Apollo)

Odaise Gaelach

I think this deserves a thread of its own, instead of posting about it in our beloved 2981-post Windows Phone 7 Launch Thread. So it looks like we're going to find out all about it tomorrow at 9am Pacific Time (that's 6pm here).

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57456171-94/microsoft-expected-to-announce-windows-phone-8-tomorrow/

And it's going to be broadcast on Channel 9 via http://aka.ms/wpsummit

So does anyone have any predictions for Windows Phone 8? It's rumoured to use bits of the Windows 8 kernel and support different resolutions, so I don't think our current phones will get Apollo, but we'll still be able to run all the current Windows Phone 7 apps on it. I doubt there'll be many new development APIs either, but we'll just have to wait and see. I'm looking forward to finding out though!

rolion

Thanks.

I love my HTC Windows Mobile phone,but as with all the Microsoft OSes...i'll wait for Windows Phone 8.1 !

evolutionqy7

Well I hope we will see some beta release

AntiVirus

Skype integration and skydrive music streaming and I'll be happy.

Oh and I'm pretty confindent we'll get our upgrades.

AntiVirus

Oh and also we might get to see whats going to replace our Zune music in the update with its built in Skydrive streaming.

Odaise Gaelach

AntiVirus wrote: »

Oh and also we might get to see whats going to replace our Zune music in the update with its built in Skydrive streaming.

Apparently it's being replaced with something codenamed Daphne, that's meant to be similar to ActiveSync. Apparently. Allegedly.

AngryLips

This is a minor detail but apparently you will be able to customise the size of the live tiles for each app, so instead of being stuck with only the pictures tile and the calendar tile taking up two squares you will be able to choose the size for each tile.

Also, you will be able to customise which live tile info you want displayed on the lock screen instead of just the calendar at the moment.

stevenmu

One rumour I saw was that existing phones wouldn't get WP8, but would get an update that would bring some of the features and possibly include WP8 app compatibility.

stevenmu

The Verge are doing a Live Blog for anyone who can't stream. They were pretty good for the Surface announcement, plenty of updates and pictures, so I'm hoping they'll be as good again.


(btw, the above link is working pretty well on WP7, it updates smoothly and quickly, even if you put the phone into standby and then go back)

Odaise Gaelach

Bugger, I got the times wrong. Instead of starting at 6 here, it's starting at 5. As in, one minute from now.

Still, no one noticed, eh?

stevenmu

I've seen a load of different times, I saw 5:30 somewhere else, at least you can claim DST through you off

Odaise Gaelach

To quote the great Homer Simpson: "Lousy farmers".

stevenmu

Seriously cool looking mixing board, what are the chances that'll be a built in WP8 app ?

Odaise Gaelach

It would be really nice!

AlmightyCushion

Multi-core support, micro sd support, 720p resolution support and a quicker web browser. Very nice, I may be moving from android.

Odaise Gaelach

Offline maps. Very nice.

AntiVirus

I like the new start screen tile size options

Oafley Jones

AntiVirus wrote: »

I like the new start screen tile size options

It definitely makes sense, but to my eye it's just ruined the look of the OS. I liked that WP7 had that negative space.

AlmightyCushion

LIGHTNING wrote: »

My current win phone is far quicker than any Android phone I have used. Unless the win 8 phones do something really awesome I`ll be sticking with my Win 7.5 phone.

I've no doubt a 7.5 device would be quicker than my android is now but I was considering an upgrade to an S2 which whenever I've played with one (which is quite a bit) was smooth as butter. I do prefer the look and feel of WP to android but there were a few things I was waiting on before making the leap. Do we have any idea of a release date for this?

Odaise Gaelach

Oafley Jones wrote: »

It definitely makes sense, but to my eye it's just ruined the look of the OS. I liked that WP7 had that negative space.

In all fairness their Start screens also look a bit disorganised and messy to me. I don't think it'll look so bad if the Start screen it a bit more organised.

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

I've no doubt a 7.5 device would be quicker than my android is now but I was considering an upgrade to an S2 which whenever I've played with one (which is quite a bit) was smooth as butter. I do prefer the look and feel of WP to android but there were a few things I was waiting on before making the leap. Do we have any idea of a release date for this?

Sometime between Autumn and the end of the year. I don't think we'll get anything more concrete before the end of the summit.

Oafley Jones

I'm wondering if i'm reading this correctly. With the ability for native development and ease of porting etc. does this leave current WP7 7.8 owners potentially ****ered with access to new apps?

AntiVirus

Oafley Jones wrote: »

It definitely makes sense, but to my eye it's just ruined the look of the OS. I liked that WP7 had that negative space.

It's up to you how you set it up. You can keep it exactly your current phone's home screen is. It's the choice that I like

Oafley Jones

AntiVirus wrote: »

It's up to you how you set it up. You can keep it exactly your current phone's home screen is. It's the choice that I like

I think the asymmetrical nature of it is gone - the black bar on the right - it really was a bold choice first day i.e. **** you we're not using this space in a conventional manner. It's weird to me how much an impact it makes in those pics.

Oafley Jones

I hope this news about upgradability drives the price of the Lumia 800 into the ground. I really want a cyan one.

Odaise Gaelach

Integrated VoIP and video chat.

(Replace "VoIP and video chat" with "Skype" or "Tango" or your own custom-made VoIP software.)

_Kaiser_

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

I've no doubt a 7.5 device would be quicker than my android is now but I was considering an upgrade to an S2 which whenever I've played with one (which is quite a bit) was smooth as butter. I do prefer the look and feel of WP to android but there were a few things I was waiting on before making the leap. Do we have any idea of a release date for this?

Launcher 7 (donate version also available as well as a replacement taskbar app)

Same look at WP7 but with the benefit of having a much more mature marketplace and apps behind it that don't cost a fortune either.

Works for me - and I have a WP7 for work as well that yes I like the front-end on but ultimately it's the apps and functionality that make or break an OS and WP7 still isn't there yet IMO.

AlmightyCushion

Kaiser2000 wrote: »

Launcher 7 (donate version also available as well as a replacement taskbar app)

Same look at WP7 but with the benefit of having a much more mature marketplace and apps behind it that don't cost a fortune either.

Works for me - and I have a WP7 for work as well that yes I like the front-end on but ultimately it's the apps and functionality that make or break an OS and WP7 still isn't there yet IMO.

Used it before but it's a poor substitute. Sure the launcher looks metro but that's it. I don't really use many apps. Internet, email, music and videos, cabbage (or something similar) for webtexts and that is me more or less sorted.

Oafley Jones

Horrible. Again, it makes it more practical, but it just ruins what was an elegant UI with tons of clutter.

shuyin1

Oafley Jones wrote: »

I hope this news about upgradability drives the price of the Lumia 800 into the ground. I really want a cyan one.

I like this idea, i'd bite for a cyan one if the price was right

Oafley Jones

shuyin1 wrote: »

I like this idea, i'd bite for a cyan one if the price was right

They're already cheap enough, but for 250 unlocked I'd buy one immediately and never upgrade past Tango.

gman2k

While Microsoft was keen to announce that 7.x apps will run on Windows Phone 8, ZDNet has just confirmed, via a statement from Redmond, that apps built for the new platform won't be backwards compatible:

"New applications compiled specifically for Windows Phone 8 will not be made available for Windows Phone 7.x devices."

From here

AntiVirus

gman2k wrote: »

While Microsoft was keen to announce that 7.x apps will run on Windows Phone 8, ZDNet has just confirmed, via a statement from Redmond, that apps built for the new platform won't be backwards compatible:

"New applications compiled specifically for Windows Phone 8 will not be made available for Windows Phone 7.x devices."

From here

If an app is compiled specifically for Windows Phone 8 it won't work on Windows Phone 7.8 but a developer can select to compile it for Windows Phone 7.8. They can also compile a Windows Phone 8 version and a Windows Phone 7.9 version.

It's very unlikely that you will have to worry for the moment as most developers will still be building there apps to support Windows Phone 7.8. Windows Phone 7.8 has around 15 million user and Windows Phone 8 has 0 users.

They just better include the skype and voip in Windows Phone 7.8!!!

AlmightyCushion

AntiVirus wrote: »

If an app is compiled specifically for Windows Phone 8 it won't work on Windows Phone 7.8 but a developer can select to compile it for Windows Phone 7.8. They can also compile a Windows Phone 8 version and a Windows Phone 7.9 version.

It's very unlikely that you will have to worry for the moment as most developers will still be building there apps to support Windows Phone 7.8. Windows Phone 7.8 has around 15 million user and Windows Phone 8 has 0 users.

WP7 and WP7.5 apps will still work on WP8 so you don't even need to compile for again for WP8. So normal apps will work fine I'd guess. The only thing WP7.8 users will miss out on will be games made using C/C++.

AntiVirus wrote: »

They just better include the skype and voip in Windows Phone 7.8!!!

They'd bloody well want to. I'd be pretty pissed if I had a WP7 device and it didn't support this.

evolutionqy7

So I presume we don't have an app list anymore? Just a screen with all your apps like in W8?

Looks a lot more practical and I can see all my live tiles fitting into one screen rather than having to go up and down, but it ruins the clean look though, as above I liked the negative space.

Mixed bag of emotions so far after reading through the Live Blog, still going through my tweets and reading the rest of small bits and bobs.

So the way I get it existing user will get WP7.8, which is pretty much the same thing, makes the phone look and feel like WP8.

Where new phones will run on better hardware which allows a couple of new features.

micko2009

After this announcement I am done with the windows platform and more so Nokia. Have had so many issues with my Lumia 800 spanning back 6 months at this stage..

Grand so, back to IOS for me. Gave it a shot but I don't want a half arsed apollo upgrade. Btw the new layout is horrible.

evolutionqy7

micko2009 wrote: »

Grand so, back to IOS for me. Gave it a shot but I don't want a half arsed apollo upgrade. Btw the new layout is horrible.

Lol wait your going back because Microsoft puts it out like it is?

Every time there a new iOS upgrade Apple goes oh its available for old hardware, oh wait your old phone wont get this, this and that feature, so its not really a full update. Basic functions are carried over while most important ones stay with the new hardware. So by going back to iOS, wait till apple does the same and sprays some nice deodorant on the same thing MS just did.

The only difference is that Microsoft rather than imprinting that its a full update gave it a distinction between two. Its not a complete update but we will bring WP8 features. Obvious reason why, hardware cant support it.

I wouldn't blame you with Nokia, they did have way to many problems at launch, even though the 800 I gave to my mum had no issues what so ever, even the camera performance is good.

AngryLips

I hope the new update doesn't result in screen-size inflation for the platform. I can't be dealing with Android-sized handsets when iPhone/Lumia 800 size is perfectly adequate for me.

Diddy Kong

I don't get all of the complaints regarding the new Start Screen, at the end of the day its customizable, so you can have it the same way as you do now!

I do like the ability to expand the messages tile to the full width and it shows partial messages.

All I can hope now is HTC have a Titan 3 in the wings as I don't think I can go back to a smaller screen phone.

Edit: one thing I did miss was lack of actual phones, like for WP7 announcement they had a line up of phones, now it was just the names of the partners, would have liked to see whats planned.

stevenmu

There's plenty of positives in there.

- I like the customisable start screen, from a graphic design point of view, it's not as nice looking, but the flexibility and practicality is great. I can see myself having my main apps at the top as full size tiles or possibly double width for one or two, so my initial view will be very similar. And then when I scroll down a few rows of the quarter size tiles for less commonly used app, or toggles for wifi/bluetooth etc. I can see it being very functional.

- The business/enterprise stuff sounds fantastic. This was the biggest omission imho in WP7. And if they can get this message out quickly it could be a huge boost to the platform. With RIM on the way out, many organisations have an eye out to see what to replace their blackberrys with. WP8 sounds like it has exactly what they will be looking for.

One extra interesting thing about it is the ability to load corporate apps to devices, I wonder if this could become a way for consumers to sideload homebrew apps as well.

- It seems like the shared core, new APIs and native code will bring a lot of functionality that devs have been waiting for. There were some glaring omissions in WP7, a bluetooth API being one of the big ones, and a few game developers have bemoaned the lack of native code. They haven't gone into huge detail yet, but the hints are strong that it will have everything needed.

- Removable SD Cards at last! I know they're slow and crap, but for music, movies, documents and mass storage they're perfectly fine, delighted with this.

stevenmu

Diddy Kong wrote: »

Edit: one thing I did miss was lack of actual phones, like for WP7 announcement they had a line up of phones, now it was just the names of the partners, would have liked to see whats planned.

I presume they didn't want to completely kill the sales of current phones, although they've come pretty close already by not allowing WP8 on them. It'll be interesting to watch the Lumia 900 sales figures over the next few weeks as news gets out.

Odaise Gaelach

stevenmu wrote: »

- Removable SD Cards at last! I know they're slow and crap, but for music, movies, documents and mass storage they're perfectly fine, delighted with this.

Joe Belfiore said that they were going to make it easy to use SD cards on Windows Phone 8, I wonder what they've got up their sleeves...

stevenmu

Odaise Gaelach wrote: »

Joe Belfiore said that they were going to make it easy to use SD cards on Windows Phone 8, I wonder what they've got up their sleeves...

I'm hoping it'll show up as a USB mass storage device if you connect the phone to a PC, and it'll use a standard file system if you use a card reader.

And on the phone it'll just show up as something you can browse to to play music/movies etc.

That'd be easiest for power users anyway. I'm hoping they won't try too hard to make it transparent and automatic, but I won't mind too much if they do.

Diddy Kong

Odaise Gaelach wrote: »

Joe Belfiore said that they were going to make it easy to use SD cards on Windows Phone 8, I wonder what they've got up their sleeves...

Would be nice if you could use these for user data and make backup/restore of app settings/save games/general settings possible between phones/resets.

gman2k

I presume you good folks have seen this re Surface launch....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1zxDa3t0fg

evolutionqy7

gman2k wrote: »

I presume you good folks have seen this re Surface launch....

and??

gman2k

evolutionqy7 wrote: »

and??

And it is rather embarrassing for the presenter, he handled it rather well however!

And??

gman2k

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKHrUH5ziQ4

mad muffin

I liked his little run to the desk...teehee...:pac:

AngryLips

evolutionqy7 wrote: »

and??

Angry much?

evolutionqy7

AngryLips wrote: »

Angry much?

LOL like I care a few trolls come on trying to stir a fire, forgetting that every tech company in the world had a screw up in some presentation.

Who cares

gman2k

evolutionqy7 wrote: »

AngryLips wrote: »

Angry much?

LOL like I care a few trolls come on trying to stir a fire, forgetting that every tech company in the world had a screw up in some presentation.

Who cares

Don't call me a troll, I'm a Windows Phone owner, but slightly annoyed by MS and all their talk about Apollo, which will not be available to any existing owner.
An equally disparaging term is fanboy.