is WP8 and Windows 8 interconnected?

[typu]

this is nagging in my head for a while now. i always wanted to buy a nokia device again and when i heard that they produce the lumia series i was truely excited. i was so close buying the first lumia device only held back by availability. during the wait i read lots of reviews and finally gave up my hopes due to lack of too many features, camery and display quality etc.

and then wp8 came and i had again big hopes for a lumia 920. i am using windows 8, not using the metro stuff tho, and i like the performance and stability a lot. so i asked myself, how did microsoft interconnect windows phone 8 with windows 8? one of the biggest advantages the platform has? connecting the mobile device with the desktop environment in a way hard only apple could do too.

then i read reviews, viewed videos and nowhere i could see stuff that makes the wp8 device truely shine due to a top integration with its desktop brother. how can microsoft miss that? is there really no demand for that?

seamless integration of the mobile device into the desktop environment? starting videos, music, work etc on the mobile and picking it up seamless at home on the desktop?

selecting files on one of the devices and pushing them without any effort from one or to the other?

anyways, to you experienced windows phone 8 and maybe windows 8 users: can you provide examples to me that microsoft really put some thought into connecting wp8 and win8? id love to get into the windows phone world at some day.

[George P Global Moderator]

WP8 is pretty desktop/PC independent, you don't need a PC to update the phone for example like you needed the Zune client before. Some would say that's a good thing since you're not forced to connect to get anything done outside of putting media on it but there's SkyDrive and that covers things for the most part though I haven't used it with music or videos for example only pictures and documents.

The only thing I want at this point is for my IE bookmarks to sync on the phone as well so hopefully that gets added. What else do you want to see really? I'd like them to bring back WiFi sync as well.

[Tigurinn]

As far as I know - no.

Sadly this interconnectedness is sadly missing, from all the YouTube videos I've seen and websites I've read.

I would love to have this interconnectedness; and SkyDrive will not do that for me.

Also, I would love to be able to stop using my Live-mail account and start using a mail account with @oulook.com at the end of my username, without losing my 25 gb of storage on SkyDrive which is linked to my Live-account ...but will not be transferred to Outlook, so basically I'm stuck with my Live mail and my occasional spam (occasional ..but I really, really hate spam)

[Yusuf M. Veteran]

Unfortunately, WP8 and Windows 8 aren't "connected". The platforms won't move closer together until the release of WP Blue. And that's after GDR2 and GDR3 so I doubt we'll see it this year.

[The Evil Overlord]

Darn it, I thought you spelled 'inbred' wrong :p

[sagum]

Also, I would love to be able to stop using my Live-mail account and start using a mail account with @oulook.com at the end of my username, without losing my 25 gb of storage on SkyDrive which is linked to my Live-account

Microsoft are prepping bringing back the email rename feature for live/outlook accounts. It was active for a little while then removed due to problems with the migration.

You'll rename your existing primary email@live.com to whatever@outlook.com and your old email@live.com will become an alias of your new primary whatever@outlook.com .. or at least that's how it supposed to work :)

[SionicIon]

Unfortunately, WP8 and Windows 8 aren't "connected". The platforms won't move closer together until the release of WP Blue. And that's after GDR2 and GDR3 so I doubt we'll see it this year.

This is what annoys me. We are always waiting for some big release with Microsoft and they always take forever to execute their launches.. The OP is right, Microsoft had talked all about the integration or the experience that is shared across W8 and WP8. Even Skype was supposed to have integration. But then we find out that what Skype uses for integration is just the basic SDK capabilities that any VOIP app can take advantage of.

There is no Skype integration in WP8, actually the Messaging app still connects to Messenger instead, and because Skype users can talk to Messenger users, your contacts fill up with tons of duplicate contacts because some contacts are just talking through their Skype instead of through their Messenger account. They left it this way in the Messaging app but discontinued Windows Live Messenger...

Plus I don't always receive calls for Skype when I'm not in the app... Sometimes it goes straight to my Skype voicemail. So that Skype integration was a big joke. And Microsoft isn't even updating the Skype app for WP7.8 so they can login with their Microsoft accounts like WP8 users can.

When I was expecting Microsoft to integrate WP8 and W8, I was expecting more along the lines of being integrated straight into the start screen on W8...like text messages coming through on both devices so you can just message back on a tablet to whoever is texting your phone. Maybe even phone settings or other things could've been integrated much better. But all we get is a Windows Phone app that is inferior to Zune in almost everyway.

And all the first-party apps for W8 suck, and they could have more functionality in the apps on WP8 by now too... If there waiting for **Windows Blue**, I might be getting a Nexus soon because I can't wait for Microsoft forever. We need updates like Mango every 3 to 6 months with more innovative major updates once a year. I still can't believe it took so many months for NoDo to bring copy and paste...

[greenwizard88]

They both run the same NT kernel, so there's probably a lot of shared code. Plus, developing for Windows 8 Metro and Windows Phone 8 is very similar.

Having said that, Microsoft forgot that sometimes users want to use their phone with their computer, and didn't really create anything at all that links your phone with your PC. From what I've read, WP8 "sync" worked better on a mac than a PC.

I gave my WP8 phone away and went back to using WP7. It's a much better platform, IMO. It doesn't force me to use 4G/LTE (it kills my battery, coverage in my area is terrible), and has wireless sync.

[Yusuf M. Veteran]

This is what annoys me. We are always waiting for some big release with Microsoft and they always take forever to execute their launches.. The OP is right, Microsoft had talked all about the integration or the experience that is shared across W8 and WP8. Even Skype was supposed to have integration. But then we find out that what Skype uses for integration is just the basic SDK capabilities that any VOIP app can take advantage of.

There is no Skype integration in WP8, actually the Messaging app still connects to Messenger instead, and because Skype users can talk to Messenger users, your contacts fill up with tons of duplicate contacts because some contacts are just talking through their Skype instead of through their Messenger account. They left it this way in the Messaging app but discontinued Windows Live Messenger...

Plus I don't always receive calls for Skype when I'm not in the app... Sometimes it goes straight to my Skype voicemail. So that Skype integration was a big joke. And Microsoft isn't even updating the Skype app for WP7.8 so they can login with their Microsoft accounts like WP8 users can.

When I was expecting Microsoft to integrate WP8 and W8, I was expecting more along the lines of being integrated straight into the start screen on W8...like text messages coming through on both devices so you can just message back on a tablet to whoever is texting your phone. Maybe even phone settings or other things could've been integrated much better. But all we get is a Windows Phone app that is inferior to Zune in almost everyway.

And all the first-party apps for W8 suck, and they could have more functionality in the apps on WP8 by now too... If there waiting for **Windows Blue**, I might be getting a Nexus soon because I can't wait for Microsoft forever. We need updates like Mango every 3 to 6 months with more innovative major updates once a year. I still can't believe it took so many months for NoDo to bring copy and paste...

I admit, Microsoft dropped the ball with integrating WP8 and Windows 8. They truly bit off more than they could chew. Personally, I'm fine with the lack of inter-OS integration; however, I'm still disappointed by Microsoft's slow "reaction time". They take their sweet time with updates and that has to change.

I'd love to see Skype integrated even more with WP8, at least on a very basic level (e.g. Skype messaging through WP8 messaging). It's great that Skype calls use the native phone UI. Also, Skype is supposed to be always on so you shouldn't be missing any calls. You should reinstall the app because that usually fixes an issue.

As for apps, Microsoft has already got the ball rolling: Redesigned Twitter, updated Skype, and Pandora. What's left is an updated Facebook app, Instagram, and Facebook Messenger. Once all the popular apps are on WP8, other developers may be interested in updating their WP7 apps to take advantage of WP8's features.

[George P Global Moderator]

I think WP Blue will come before the end of the year unless something goes wrong or they get held up by the Windows Blue release in some way. Skype integration into the messaging app should also come soon since MS is closing WLM and moving users over to Skype. We could see that in one of the GDR updates really.

One big upgrade a year is pretty good though but I'd be just as happy with a new smaller update every 4 months for example.

[MorganX]

WP8 is pretty desktop/PC independent, you don't need a PC to update the phone for example like you needed the Zune client before. Some would say that's a good thing since you're not forced to connect to get anything done outside of putting media on it but there's SkyDrive and that covers things for the most part though I haven't used it with music or videos for example only pictures and documents.

The only thing I want at this point is for my IE bookmarks to sync on the phone as well so hopefully that gets added. What else do you want to see really? I'd like them to bring back WiFi sync as well.

Interesting spin GP "WP8 is pretty desktop/PC independent" - That means no, they're not connected in any meaningful way. We know what this guy is asking. MS dropped the ball here big time and needs to fix it. Hopefully the revamped Core Music app will work with WP8 like Zune did. Zune also provided the wifi sync.

I admit, Microsoft dropped the ball with integrating WP8 and Windows 8. They truly bit off more than they could chew. Personally, I'm fine with the lack of inter-OS integration; however, I'm still disappointed by Microsoft's slow "reaction time". They take their sweet time with updates and that has to change.

I'd love to see Skype integrated even more with WP8, at least on a very basic level (e.g. Skype messaging through WP8 messaging). It's great that Skype calls use the native phone UI. Also, Skype is supposed to be always on so you shouldn't be missing any calls. You should reinstall the app because that usually fixes an issue.

As for apps, Microsoft has already got the ball rolling: Redesigned Twitter, updated Skype, and Pandora. What's left is an updated Facebook app, Instagram, and Facebook Messenger. Once all the popular apps are on WP8, other developers may be interested in updating their WP7 apps to take advantage of WP8's features.

Thanks for that. As badly as MS executed this, they need brutal honesty and a someone to light a fire under them. I agree it does appear they've bitten off more than they could chew. How that happened to them, I'm not sure. It's the OS' fault Surfaces don't have cellular data access right now. Blue is supposed to fix that. I just don't know how Android can support all the current and trending technologies and Microsoft is so far behind, and they're still recruiting devs to work on these things. Did Google lock-up all the talent?

[George P Global Moderator]

Interesting spin GP "WP8 is pretty desktop/PC independent" - That means no, they're not connected in any meaningful way. We know what this guy is asking. MS dropped the ball here big time and needs to fix it. Hopefully the revamped Core Music app will work with WP8 like Zune did. Zune also provided the wifi sync.

I wasn't aiming for spin just calling it how it is. Having OTA for all OS updates for example just pushes that bit more. You don't really need a PC to start using your phone even more so if you have one with a microSD slot that can have media on it that you just pop in. Could they do more? No doubt they can and bringing things back like WiFi sync would be great. The tutu is though that now lots of lower end and cheaper WP can be sold, 520/620 for example into markets where people who don't have a PC can get and use them just as well because they don't need to use apps like Zune or iTunes etc.

[MorganX]

I wasn't aiming for spin just calling it how it is. Having OTA for all OS updates for example just pushes that bit more. You don't really need a PC to start using your phone even more so if you have one with a microSD slot that can have media on it that you just pop in. Could they do more? No doubt they can and bringing things back like WiFi sync would be great. The tutu is though that now lots of lower end and cheaper WP can be sold, 520/620 for example into markets where people who don't have a PC can get and use them just as well because they don't need to use apps like Zune or iTunes etc.

OK, OK. :)