Surprising choice
I would have assumed that any Mac owner would have wanted a phone by Apple
Microsoft has updated its Mac OS X mobile software so that owners of new Windows Phone 8 handsets can synchronise music and photos with their Apple computers consistently. An update for the Windows Phone client for Macs appeared on the Apple App Store on 31 October, but while Windows Phone 7.5 devices continued to sync up just …
I am writing this on a MacBook Pro; which is my main computer.
I have a HP ML115 running FreeNas, another HP ML115 running Windows 7, and a Dell PowerEdge 2900 which I plan to set up as another FreeNas Server.
A computer is a tool; and I try to use the "right" tool for the job.
Does this make me a Mac owner who is not a fanboy?
Not really - I would actually consider a new windows phone because I quite like the look of the interface, and I don't have much use for apps over and above core functionality. But the overriding criteria is that I must be able to easily and quickly back it up, and sync it with the data I want. Naturally the iPhone is best for this. We all have them at home, because going all-Apple has cut my home IT support duties down from dozens if not hundreds of hours a year to a handful - especially when things go wrong and a file goes missing or a phone appears to lose something. The worst that seems to happen these days is iOS losing appointments out of the calendar. This is actually pretty serious, but it's the only negative that seems to be affecting us right now.
I like the Mac OS. When I got my Mac the Windows world was still on Vista. Windows 7 is good and I'd consider using it on a laptop. But with Windows 8 I'm firmly back on the OSX wagon for future purchases.
As for the WP8 connector, it isn't Microsoft's fault when it comes to drag n drop or mounting of the phone. Apple doesn't support MTP which is a media device filesystem abstraction protocol to allow OSes to mount media players without needing to support the underlying filesystem.
MTP is a USB standard, so why they don't support I don't know.
Android uses it too.
What a strange assumption. Phones cater to very individual needs. I for one have been using Macs since the late 90s, both privately and professionally, and have always been served well by Nokia, was disappointed by SonyEricsson and somewhat bewildered by Motorola. Up until now, Apple never managed to come out with a phone that was even remotely interesting to me.
More widely, it's irritating to have to use software on any host computer in order to talk to a device, at least for the basic 'storage' tasks. I've had to download some Sony software (though there's probably an alternative) to transfer files from my mate's Mac to my Android Xperia phone - which then works but slowly.
One reason why I have never considered owning an iPod is because I like MSC.
And now we have this SDXC cards with exFAT- camera likes it, newer Windows likes it, other systems needsome persuasion... some systems insist on 'safe removal', others get upset if the card ISN'T just yanked out and requiring a trip to device manager to uninstall then reinstall to get it working again... It's all doable, but not as smooth as it should be.
It's actually quite difficult to imagine that anyone would own a Mac and a Windows Moble Phone...
I don't own an iPhone so I can't answer the following question.
Is there something that can be done on a WM8 or WM9 that can't be done on an iPhone ? I am thinking along the lines of MS Exchange/Outlook or MS Office ?
[ It's a serious question ]
"Is there something that can be done on a WM8 or WM9 that can't be done on an iPhone ?"
I don't know what you mean with 'WM8' and 'WM9' (As you're probably not talking about Windows Media 8 and 9 formats I guess you mean 'Windows Mobile' but the last version of that one is 6.5). I assume you really meant to say 'Windows Phone' (which is what has replaced WM several years ago) but there is only WP 7 (which includes 7.5 and 7.8) and WP 8.
As to your question: WP8 is supposed to have very good integration into corporate AD (Active Directory) infrastructures. This aside, they all come with Nokia Maps which is better than Google Maps and beats the crap out of Apple's mapping solution, and at least with Nokia you get better cameras.
>>It's actually quite difficult to imagine that anyone would own a Mac and a Windows Moble Phone...
Not really, it's pretty easy to imagine. Hard to believe maybe is what you meant.
Although I own a Mac and a Windows phone. And an iPad and a Windows desktop with Cygwin installed. And a Kindle.
I hope that didn't stretch your imagination too far.
MTP has advantages. You can design an MP3 player that uses EXT3 for its filesystem but since it supports MTP it will mount on any OS that supports MTP. The OS wouldn't need to know anything about EXT3.
Sadly, since OSX doesn't support it the usefulness is severely limited.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_Transfer_Protocol
I don't like MTP at all (stuff like copying multiple files at once is limited or absent), but I suspect it's used to abstract away the device's storage format from the view of it that you see in a computer. So the tablet may be formatted with ext4 yet it still works with Windows.
Alas, Android phones don't work as Mass Storage Class devices anymore.
They do if you have root and make a quick change in a terminal emulator. Most people would prefer MTP instead though. I do think it should be an option that doesn't require root access, but that would probably confuse most people. Then again, they could always just throw that in an "Advanced" section.
It's pretty clear that the only people who really know anything about macs are those people who actually owned or owned one. Is this stating the obvious? Because an awful lot of people who have clearly never even considered buying one have some pretty weird ideas about what they can do and how they work. All I can say is - YOU WEREN'T THERE, MAN. You don't KNOW!
"On PCs, Microsoft's new phone OS shows up as a mounted device, allowing the user to manipulate files directly. But on Macs, no such file system support was provided.".
With "PCs" I assume the author meant "PCs running Windows" ?
I wonder if this is a fail on the part of Microsoft. If the phone supports the USB mass storage protocol then surely it would be possible for a Mac user to hook it up and gain access to it as well? Especially when you consider that this protocol is supported on all other major OS's ((Windows, Linux, BSD... ) so I think the fail is on Microsoft here.
Short answer - "No, it doesn't."
Long answer - It doesn't support USB mass storage. It supports MTP, Apple do NOT support MTP (although there are very effective linux implementations out there).
But it doesn't violate any standards because it's not following the one you think it's following.