Home / Lifestyle / Mobile / Windows Phone 8: What We Missed Yesterday

Windows Phone 8: What We Missed Yesterday

If you missed our Windows Phone coverage from yesterday we highly suggest you read up on those before venturing onwards – articles are found here, here and here. We also warned you that we were bound to miss something from yesterday and here is the article that will redeem ourselves.

What KitGuru missed yesterday:

  • There will be a “cross-screen shared experience” between Windows 8 devices of any kind and the Xbox 360. What makes this interesting is that users will be able to manage their phone from a new desktop syncing app (the death of Zune!?) or log in to a cloud-based service.
  • ‘Data Smart' will help users manage their mobile data and Wi-Fi consumption. It is similar to the one present in Android 4.0 but it appears to have a few extra functions such as customisable live tiles.
  • Internet Explorer 10 will have a cloud based proxy service to reduce data consumption. This will be similar in nature to Amazon's Silk browser on the Kindle Fire.
  • A Local Scout feature will help users find nearby Wi-Fi hotspots. Also, if a carrier provides their own Wi-Fi networks in the area, then the phone will automatically switch over to that.
  • SkyDrive integration will run deep – the Xbox Music and Movie apps will be able to grab and stream media directly from SkyDrive. SkyDrive will also be able to freely grab content from the phone such as pictures.
  • Some camera APIs will be left open that will allow third party applications to tap into the camera button. This means that apps like Instagram can be launched instead of the standard camera application.
  • We mentioned yesterday that Windows Phone 8 shares the same RT kernel base as Windows 8. What we forget to mention is that this will allow developers to quickly port applications and games to run on Windows Phone 8. Apparently porting apps between iOS and Android will be made simpler as well.
  • The developers' SDK will be available “later this summer”.
  • There will also be DirectX support and Direct3D hardware acceleration.
  • Gaming ‘middleware' engine partners will include Havok, Audiokinectic and Autodesk. Will allow for true high quality games on the platform. N.O.V.A. 3 will be destined for release on the platform.
  • Microsoft will try to reach out to the business and enterprise market as well. Device encryption, secure boot, Office 2013 based applications, device manageability capabilities and side loading of business apps are all features that Microsoft hope will push Windows Phone into businesses.

KitGuru says: Right now, it looks as if Windows Phone 8 will significantly close the gap between itself and iOS and Android.

Become a Patron!

Check Also

Disco Elysium Android

Disco Elysium is getting a pseudo-reimagining for Android

Disco Elysium is being reimagined for Android. Coming this Summer, the much-loved RPG is taking the original game’s story while shaking up the gameplay formula.

We've noticed that you are using an ad blocker.

Thank you for visiting KitGuru. Our news and reviews teams work hard to bring you the latest stories and finest, in-depth analysis.

We want to be as informative as possible – and to help our readers make the best buying decisions. The mechanism we use to run our business and pay some of the best journalists in the world, is advertising.

If you want to support KitGuru, then please add www.kitguru.net to your ad blocking whitelist or disable your adblocking software. It really makes a difference and allows us to continue creating the kind of content you really want to read.

It is important you know that we don’t run pop ups, pop unders, audio ads, code tracking ads or anything else that would interfere with the KitGuru experience. Adblockers can actually block some of our free content, such as galleries!