back to article Microsoft reveals Windows Phone 8 support for Mac

Microsoft has refreshed its Windows Phone application for Macs, which now enables data transfer between Apple computers and Redmond's latest mobile platform. The Windows Phone 3.0 update - previously dubbed Windows Phone 7 Connector for Mac - has seen a massive overhaul, with support for Retina Display Macs, iPhoto 9.3.2, …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The big improvement in WP8 compared to iOS is you can drag and drop media onto your device using USB mass storage.

    So you can actually dump iTunes at last.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Really? *Can* you use USB mass storage in WP8?

      I'm skeptical. If so, what is the point of an app like this?

      I use both IOS and Android devices with my MacBook, and I must say that Android is the most convenient. With it, I simply copy the files I want en masse, and I'm done. Sorry, Apple.

      With the iPhone, I've got to fiddle around with iTunes, which invariably takes a few minutes to search through the full directory tree, ask me to confirm what it thinks I should sync; and if I'm not careful, it'll try to copy my entire music collection onto the iPhone... And it's exceedingly difficult to copy documents or ebooks (for instance) that aren't managed by iTunes into it.

      I haven't plugged a WP8 phone into my computer; but from all reports, Microsoft is trying to emulate Apple's tight control over your device -- and if so, they're not going to allow unrestricted USB mass storage access.

      1. Observer1959

        Re: Really? *Can* you use USB mass storage in WP8?

        Why aren't you using iCloud to sync your music between your Mac and iPhone? All my music and playlist are avaliable on both. My music is in the cloud and available to play on my iPhone. If I need it on my iPhone I can touch the iCloud button and it downloaded on the phone. All purchases are immediately available on both. Nothing to drag or connect.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          "Sync"? Whatever for?

          I have 250GB of music on my Macbook. Why would I want to try to "sync" (whatever that means) my iPhone to that. What I want to do is to copy certain albums, or playlists, or genres over to the phone to match my mood of the week. And what about the ebooks and PDF documents I'm interested in reading on the train?

          Admittedly, sometimes I'll add a new contact to the address book on my iPhone, and I legitimately want to sync that with the address book on my Macbook. But most of the time, I just want to temporarily copy some selection of stuff over to the phone, and am rarely interested in copying anything the other way.

          iTunes just makes things more difficult, unless it's helping me to manage playlists to copy -- and I can just as easily drag-and-drop them out of iTunes into the Music folder on my Android tablet as I can "sync" them to my iPhone.

          And iCloud?? You're honestly suggesting that I take half an hour to copy 500MB of files to a server somewhere on the Internet, thence back down to the iPhone sitting next to my laptop, when I could do the same thing in a minute through a USB or Firewire cable? I'm not sure what you're smoking, although it seems to be the same thing that the Microsoft and Apple marketing departments have been sampling lately...

      2. uhuznaa

        Re: Really? *Can* you use USB mass storage in WP8?

        Since iOS 5 iTunes is purely optional.

        Ebooks: Just use Dropbox, if both devices are on the same network it syncs locally. You also can fill iBook via FTP or email attachments. Other readers usually support their own ways of slurping up epubs.

        I have both an iPhone and an Android tablet and automatic or rule-driven sync of photos and music is a huge advantage compared to manually dragging files around. The only advantage of doing it the old-fashioned way is when you want to initially dump lots of things onto the device, but after that all that file-dragging becomes very boring and tedious very fast. And of course if you want to be able to dump loads of music and ebooks from your mate's computer onto your phone.

        Anyway, if Google would bother to come with a similar software to manage your phone or tablet including backups and restoring I would very much like that.

  2. Michael Habel
    Coat

    Would an iTard actually be caught dead with something that wasn't an iThingy?

    I mean I hardly see the point of this...

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Drag & Drop

    I've never understood the desire for drag & drop, other than allowing for use of the OS's file browser rather than iTunes to manually copy files.

    On the flip-side, with file browser-based drag & drop, certain metadata in the files on your computer/phone (e.g., playcounts) won't be updated correctly (recent plays on one device will be "forgotten").

    I'm genuinely interested to find out why people like drag & drop, other than "iTunes sux ballz!!11!".

    1. Michael Habel

      Re: Drag & Drop

      iTunes has its place, you made a few valid points. Back in the Day when iTunes was just an intermediary between the PC/Mac iTMS and your iPod Music Player. This made sense. Even if it was long winded and more involved.

      Now everything and so it would seem the proverbial Kitchen Sink has been chucked into iTunes it's a freaking mess involving complicated installs and registry hacks just to get something barely usable post iTunes 4. I didn't ask for Social Media in my Music Management Play Software the iTMS Arrows are a HUGE EYESORE AND EVEN BIGGER HEADACHE to remove. I never had, now do I care for the following.

      ATV............ Movies

      iPad.......... Crappy Apps

      iPhone...... Ditto

      iTouch....... Ditto

      Well I could go on.

      Thing is, the old 3G 40Gb iPod is just that it's old sitting in a corner just catching dust sadly I guess I partly blame iTunes for that. I could care less for Play Counts it's not like I need to track the Top 40 of the Week. And besides I use Google Music to stream my Music to my Phone slowly working my way up to 20,000 Songs FOR FREE!!

      Can your Jesus Phone do that. No I didn't think so...

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Drag & Drop

        I agree that iTunes has grown far beyond its original purpose. I'm also aware that Windows users have a much tougher deal with their version of iTunes than the OS X version.

        Now, if Apple were to create a device management/sync app(lication) that was merely a front-end that pulled media/contacts/mail accounts/etc from the back-end programs that you could choose (e.g., iTunes/WinAmp/etc for music, Outlook/Mail.app/Thunderbird/"the cloud"/etc for mail accounts) I - and I suspect many others - would be much happier.

        Of course, there's more chance of Tim Cook hiring Steve "Developers, Developers, Developers" Ballmer to replace Scott Forstall....

        1. Dave 126 Silver badge

          Re: Drag & Drop

          >I'm genuinely interested to find out why people like drag & drop

          Because it works across a range of OSs (depending on device connection mode) and I'm used to it. I appreciate that there are some advantages to using a music library if all the ID3 tags are in good order, but I'm not interested in knowing how many times I've played an individual track. Just dragging whole albums (folders) across at once has always served me well.

          My new Android phone doesn't support MSC ( MSC = 'looks like a memory stick') so it my mate's Mac requires Sony software to talk to it. Copying a film (a boot leg Pink Floyd concert) takes ages.

          I know that I haven't made the strongest case for drag 'n' drop, I just don't require the clever tricks that MTP 'media device mode' allows.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Huh? An Android phone that doesn't support USB MSC??

            I wonder how much effort it took the manufacturer to remove that from the standard Android build. I own six different Android devices from the five main manufacturers, and my Macbook happily auto-mounts all of them as ordinary mass storage drives. Sounds like the kind of brain-dead crippling Sony would build in...

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Drag & Drop

      Android users like drag and drop because they usually steal their music (and videos). Stolen music (and videos) are hard to get on to iOS devices because of iTunes. This is what they mean when they talk about an 'open' operating system.

      1. Chris Parsons

        Re: Drag & Drop

        I hate ad hominem comments, but nearly made an exception for you. Then I noticed, Anonymous Coward, so I guess that says what needs to be said anyway.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Yeah... ad hominem AC, and clueless too.

          Not sure what relevance iTunes has to the source of the music. I use iTunes to manage a mixture of tracks ripped from CD, purchased through Apple, purchased elsewhere, and downloaded from other sources. iTunes doesn't care where the tracks came from.

  4. Michael Habel
    FAIL

    And you still need iTunes to actually get the App... ROTFLMFAO!!!!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      I know...

      I mean look at Microsoft, allowing users to have a single point of contact to download apps for a platform from.

      You never see that on Linux or UNIX and you certainly never hear Linux users complaining that Windows allows you to install anything from anywhere.

      1. Michael Habel
        Happy

        Re: I know...

        Somehow I for One am greatfull

  5. Annihilator
    Coat

    Microsoft reveals Windows Phone 8 support for Mac

    Both users reported to be delighted.

    1. Paul Webb

      Re: Microsoft reveals Windows Phone 8 support for Mac

      Jeckyll AND Hyde??

  6. Chad H.

    I presume....

    That any simiarity between this app, and iTunes is purely coincidental...

    1. Annihilator
      Meh

      Re: I presume....

      No, MS have clearly followed the Apple style-guide for the app so it fits in with the OS. Unlike Apple who imposed their own style-guide on the Windows version of iTunes - although that's just one of many reasons Windows iTunes is abominable.

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