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Windows Phone 8 Detailed, Uses Windows 8 Kernel

MrSeb writes "Thanks to a leaked video — a video that Microsoft made for Nokia — we now have lots of details about Windows Phone 8 (WP8). From deep Windows 8, Skype, and SkyDrive integration, through to the addition of NFC 'wallet' payments and BitLocker encryption, it sounds like Windows Phone 8 will be close to iOS and Android in terms of features. The interesting stuff is under the hood, though: WP8 will have the Windows 8 kernel instead of the Windows CE kernel of its predecessors. Through the Win 8 kernel, WP8 will support native code and multi-core processors. It will also have the same network stack, security, and multimedia support as Windows 8. While Win 8 apps won't be directly compatible with Windows Phone 8, Windows Phone manager Joe Belfiore says developers will be able to 'reuse — by far — most of their code.'"

7 of 267 comments (clear)

  1. Scrolling by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    And it'll still scroll more smoothly than an Android.

  2. Multi-purpose phones. by SuricouRaven · · Score: 5, Funny

    Now with 'handwarmer' function!

  3. Same apps on smaller screen does not work. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    "While Win 8 apps won't be directly compatible with Windows Phone 8, Windows Phone manager Joe Belfiore says developers will be able to 'reuse — by far — most of their code."

    Good. I'll only need 8 handsets to display the ribbon in MS Office.

  4. Bizarro World by RazzleFrog · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I predict a world where Microsoft has the best mobile platform but can't break the stranglehold of Apple and Google.

  5. So much for backward compatibility, huh? by Shag · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Or forward. Or sideways. WP8 won't be binary compatible with WinCE-based WP7 (which itself wasn't compatible with WinCE-based WM6), nor with desktop Windows 8, nor with, apparently, any other OS that's ever existed. Sure hope they make it real easy for developers to build their existing code for WP8.

    Oh, and it'll also be real interesting to see whether any WP7 devices can be upgraded to WP8.

    --
    Village idiot in some extremely smart villages.
  6. Windows 8, C#, .NET by Dan+East · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Windows Phone 7 is C# only, which is why I don't support the platform with my games (99% of my C++ code is shared between the iOS and Android builds, which is how it should be). So if Windows 8 developers can "reuse — by far — most of their code" does that mean Windows 8 is C# only too, or that Windows Phone 8 will allow 3rd part apps to be written in C++?

    IMO, if Windows Phone 8 doesn't support C++, it is dead in the water from the perspective of 3rd party apps. Only the really big players have the resources to completely rewrite their iOS or Android apps (mainly games, which usually aren't intimately tied to the native GUI) in C#. That is one of the reasons there aren't many apps for Windows Mobile 7, and certainly why there isn't as much commonality as you see between iOS and Android apps. If MS had half a brain they would allow development in C++, and include APIs like OpenGL ES which is supported by both Android and iOS, which will make it very easy for developers like me to release my games for Windows Mobile 8.

    --
    Better known as 318230.
  7. Re:No Comments by Luckyo · · Score: 5, Informative

    Not to be a dick, but your argument comes about half a decade late. Microsoft really did everything right in terms of security since XP. They minimized the damage that the biggest issue, user, can cause to the system, hardened the system itself significantly, slapped a properly functional firewall into a default installation and so on.