Windows Phone 8 Officially Unveiled

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Windows Phone 8 Officially Unveiled

Posted by Soulskill on Wednesday June 20, 2012 @06:03AM from the solid-color-rectangles dept.

BogenDorpher writes with news that Microsoft has officially introduced Windows Phone 8. The new version of their mobile operating system will bring support for processors with up to 64 cores, as well as resolutions higher than 800x480 — up to 1280x768. It will also include better support for NFC and microSD cards. One important thing to note is that Windows Phone 8 won't be coming to current Windows Phone devices.

21 of 414 comments (clear)

Min score:

Reason:

Sort:

64 cores by 0123456 · 2012-06-20 06:04 · Score: 5, Funny

Now I can buy a Windows Phone to warm my hands on in the winter.
1. Re:64 cores by kthreadd · 2012-06-20 06:28 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Or just Flash.
2. Re:64 cores by Quiet_Desperation · 2012-06-20 07:01 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Da fuck did I just read?
3. Re:64 cores by Guspaz · 2012-06-20 07:19 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  It's worth noting that the Lumia 900 came out five months ago... My response to people who complain about Apple dropping iOS support for old hardware is that Android has even shorter support periods, but this takes the cake. They didn't even make it half a year before announcing they're dropping support for it...
  On the one hand I wonder if Microsoft can afford to snub the few customers they have, what with WP7's tiny marketshare, but that got me thinking, maybe they see the tiny marketshare as the reason they can afford to snub the people: they don't have much to lose if they alienate existing customers if they can capture a respectable marketshare with WP8?
Why such a low maximum resolution? by h4rr4r · 2012-06-20 06:07 · Score: 5, Insightful

Why would you limit the max res like that?
Why not design it to scale from the very beginning so you don't have to hack it on later?
Why they could not support smp from the beginning had me wondering as well.
1. Re:Why such a low maximum resolution? by shutdown+-p+now · 2012-06-20 06:19 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  You're probably not a designer - these guys are crazy about things being pixel perfect, which can be hard to achieve with vector graphics. Apple does the same thing here.
  For Metro, though, it makes less sense due to its emphasis on simple flat shapes and typography over colorful icons. Yes, personally, I also don't see much point in not using vector graphics for a Metro app and having it scale seamlessly. And the UI framework already has flexible layouts and such, so really there's no excuse to not make it all scale nicely.
  Interestingly enough, there is no set of predefined resolutions for Win8 Metro. So there isn't much consistency here. I hope that WP would eventually follow the big brother, of course.
2. Re:Why such a low maximum resolution? by h4rr4r · 2012-06-20 06:21 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Pixel perfect positioning is brain dead. I regularly laugh at ones who attempt to do such things with webpages. PROTIP: YOUR FONTS MIGHT NOT BE MY FONTS!
  WP seems very well designed to not need it. The simple tiles would scale very well to any resolution. I would have thought this forward looking design was for that very purpose.
3. Re:Why such a low maximum resolution? by iamhassi · 2012-06-20 06:22 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  Why would you limit the max res like that?
  to make us buy windows phone 9 supporting HD in 2013/14... which probably won't work on current windows phone 8 devices.
  
  Sorry M$, everything was good until " Windows Phone 8 won't be coming to current Windows Phone devices". A 2009 iPhone runs 2012 iOS 5.1.1, and I have to tell you it's been pretty nice not having to throw away my phone every time a new OS comes out and being able to download the "latest and greatest" apps because everything new works on my old phone. After all, it's a phone first, not a PC, I don't like the idea of having to throw out my phone with all my contacts and info and all the cases and chargers and everything I've spent supporting it. I don't mind the constant upgrades on a PC, that's the nature of the beast, but I don't want to go through the same mess with my phone. Oh, and my 2009 iPhone will support 2013 iOS 6. Wow, say what you want about Apple, but sometimes they just get it.
  
  --
  my karma will be here long after I'm gone
4. Re:Why such a low maximum resolution? by rtfa-troll · 2012-06-20 06:34 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  Why does M$ do any of the dumb shit they do?
  Because Balmer is fat and sweaty and touches himself at night. That's why.
  Partly; yes; it's because their managment are idiots. But there's a deeper reason, and it's the reason why IBM took so long to release a decent PC in the first place and ended up having to buy in a system from MS. The are afraid of cannibalizing their main market. They want to "differentiate" from market to market. That means that the x86 tablet gets a stylus whilst the ARM tablets don't get access to tradiitional apps. That means that you will get a "Windows XX - Pro" edition which costs $2000 but is the only way to get some of the "power user" features.
  When Apple came out with one phone which did everything for everybody, suddenly you could just add a rubber cover and use your business phone (which needed a calendar) for sport (where you need non-scratch glass). That destroyed a whole market which was used to providing separate phones for each different group of people. Microsoft wants to reinstate that kind of division. I expect the same success as IBM had in blocking the development of personal computers.
  
  --
  =~ s,(.*),<sarcasm>$1</sarcasm>,g if any_point_you_wish();
Won't work on current phones? by cpu6502 · 2012-06-20 06:08 · Score: 5, Insightful

QUOTE: "Microsoft tirelessly pushed the idea that its saving grace, the Nokia Lumia 900, was the next big thing in smartphones. However, the fact that the Lumia 900..... won't be able to update will undoubtedly leave some owners of these devices feeling hung out..... Without the software update, potential customers will basically have no reason to snag a Lumia 900, a Titan II, or any other Windows Phone device for that matter, until Windows Phone 8 is available."
This move reminds me of when Apple stopped supporting PPC devices. The article says WinPh8 won't support single-core devices. I wonder why? That would be equivalent to them releasing Windows 7 and saying, "Won't support Pentium 4 or other single-cores."

--
My AC stalker: " I personally agree with your posts most of the time, but that won't keep me from modding you troll"
1. Re:Won't work on current phones? by cpu6502 · 2012-06-20 07:59 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  >>>It worked very well for desktop Windows - Microsoft writes the minimum requirements in order to force hardware manufacturers/OEMs to actually make powerful devices,
  And this is what we call "spin". Also known as "false". With every WinOS released (except 7) Microsoft wrote the requirements to make it EASY for manufacturers to qualify with older hardware. Like when they claimed XP could run on 64 meg (but it ran like a snail). Or that Vista could run on 512 meg, but instead made my brother's new P4 PC randomly freeze for 2-3 minutes (while vista thrashed the HD swapfile). Microsoft has always *under* specced their OSes to try and boost sales for older computers that barely run the poorly-coded memory hog.
  Vice-versa Apple sells hardware, so they tend to over spec their OS requirements, in order to make older machines obsolete and force an upgrade if you want the new OS (or the latest Safari or latest iTunes). Example: When I tried to upgrade to 10.4 and discovered my 400 MHz Mac was blocked by Apple ("does not meet minimum specs"). I found an online hack to override Apple's block (an illegal act under DMCA) and discovered 10.4 worked just fine on my machine. Apple was just trying to force me and others to buy new machines.
  
  --
  My AC stalker: " I personally agree with your posts most of the time, but that won't keep me from modding you troll"
What a lame announcement... by Foxman98 · 2012-06-20 06:12 · Score: 5, Insightful

It seems they consistantly miss the mark in what consumers want to buy. OK great, 64-cores? who cares? What features does it offer the consumers who are supposed to purchase these to make their day to day lives more productive? Easier? More connected with friends / family?
None of my friends could tell you what WVGA or WXGA is, nor do they probably care.
I live in Boston and see hundreds of of people daily using a variety of phones. I have NEVER seen a Windows phone. not once. Why? Because it makes NO sense to buy one over Android/Iphone.
Microsoft needs to figure out quickly how to incorporate features, functions and uses that NO OTHER company has thought of. Until then, they will remain completely irrelevant and if I were a stock holder in their company, leave me questioning whether all that R&D money is being spent wisely.

--
S.t.e.v.e.
1. Re:What a lame announcement... by Haxagon · 2012-06-20 06:19 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  The conference was for developers, mostly. They said they weren't gonna unveil the end-user featureset that they have until closer to launch, probably to avoid what happened last time: all of the Mango features they unveiled were promptly implemented by Apple.
2. Re:What a lame announcement... by jimicus · 2012-06-20 07:00 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why the iPhone is selling as quick as they can build them and Nokia's Windows phones... aren't. Apple introduce a feature and immediately figure out a way to tell the world how that feature is useful; Microsoft introduce a feature so they can tick a box.
How to kill a nonexistant marketshare.... by JImbob0i0 · 2012-06-20 06:13 · Score: 5, Interesting

FTA:

... Microsoft announced the successor to its popular Windows Phone 7 platform ... Windows Phone 8 is expected this Fall.
And FTS plus the other article there:

... Microsoft revealed that existing Windows Phone 7.5 users will receive an upgrade to Windows Phone 7.8, and not Windows Phone 8 ...
So windows phone 7 is not selling... solution! Reveal windows phone 8 due in a few months which won't run on any phone bought now.... so better not buy now!
I'm sure this is *really* going to help them sell those phones and gain some marketshare to improve on the nonexistant one they have now... but good news though! The hundreds of thousands of excellent windows phone 7.5 apps will work on windows phone 8 ....
64 cores... by Junta · 2012-06-20 06:21 · Score: 5, Funny

64 cores should be enough for anyone!

--
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
Re:What's the advantage of so many OSs for Phones? by busyqth · 2012-06-20 06:21 · Score: 5, Funny

I'm wondering what the advantage of so many different - and incompatible - OSs on Phones is. iOS, Android, Blackberry, now Windows Phone, et cetera. Each with different APP stores, different SDKs and Apps... What's the point of it all? What does it matter where a Smart Phone with hardware specs XX runs Android, iOS or Windows Phone. ---------- The whole things seems like a waste of software developers' finite resources to me...
Hey! I think you're right, and you've just given me a great idea.

As a society, we can have some sort of planning organization that decides what the specs will be, then to avoid duplication of effort in manufacturing, the planning board can arrange for the production too. With advanced scientific, statistical analysis, it shouldn't be any problem to figure out exactly how many devices need to be produced, so that we don't waste raw materials by making too many.

In fact, it seems to me like we could take this sort of centralized planning approach with pretty much any industrial product. It's really just a matter of applying scientific principles to industry for the good of society. It would eliminate waste and duplication of effort and make sure that all necessary industrial products are designed and manufactured with optimal efficiency.
Re:it's called hype/fud by Foxman98 · 2012-06-20 06:24 · Score: 5, Insightful

There really isn't even any FUD in this lol - They haven't announced anything that's even remotely interesting.
Oh and it's not compatible with any current phones. brilliant.

--
S.t.e.v.e.
Re:microSD cards by Microlith · 2012-06-20 06:29 · Score: 5, Informative

No, they leveraged the "Secure" part of "Secure Digital" cards and had issues with some cards that weren't fully compliant since no one else really implemented the secure half. They need it for DRM, after all, and have probably come up with a workaround for it.
Re:microSD cards by Anonymous Coward · 2012-06-20 07:41 · Score: 5, Informative

What does "better support for microSD cards" mean? Were they having problems with reliable reads/writes?
Not quite - they were having problems using them in a way that's sensible:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2450831
In short, once you put an SD card into a WP7 phone you can't take it out (or the phone won't boot) and you can't read it on any other devices. Each card model also needed to be "certified" before use.
Popular? by joek1010 · 2012-06-20 08:35 · Score: 5, Funny

Microsoft announced the successor to its popular Windows Phone 7 platform
Wait, what?