What I'm Looking Forward To In Windows Phone 8

Windows Phone 7 vs 8

We wouldn’t all be on this website if we weren’t fans of the Windows Phone philosophy. Having everything available and at your fingertips, right on your start screen, is a pretty special thing. Most of my friends will scoff at the idea of WP until I show them how it brings your information to you, instead of you going to your information. How I almost never actually look at Facebook itself, as it all comes to me on my start screen. It amazes me how much the ‘Pin-to-Start’ function available to almost everything in WP has become part of my work flow; I was genuinely shocked when I couldn’t pin a specific OneNote to the home screen of my tablet (it’s OK, Windows 8 will rid me of the ‘A’ word for good). The focus on a simple and beautiful user interface and seamless access to the information that matters to you is hard to beat.

But we all also know that this OS isn’t perfect. For all its plusses, WP is definitely still in its infancy. The comparatively small number of tiles that fit on the viewable start screen, lack of basic features like expandable memory and higher screen resolutions, and the perception of a lack of both quality and quantity of apps has held the otherwise fantastic OS from really joining the big leagues.

Until now.

The smart phone beta test might be over, but now the Windows Phone beta test is over too.

As anyone that hasn’t been hiding under a rock will now know, WP8 is going to be a powerhouse of features. Below are the 4 features we know about so far, that I believe will really rock WP8.

Start Screen

This one really goes without saying. It really is frustrating that each tile takes up so much room, and has limited customisation options. I want to know how many emails, phone calls and texts I’ve received; but I don’t want that to take up half my Start Screen. Well now it doesn’t have to.

The added news with the leaking of the WP8 SDK that double-span tiles will update in a ‘scrolling’ fashion a-la the Pictures tile in WP7 adds further dynamics and personality to our Start Screens.

There are some downsides however; some people like the black bar down the left hand side (I’m not one of them) and the larger tile sizes mean the ‘medium’ size tiles will now only fit 3 high on the viewable Start Screen, rather than the 4 we currently enjoy.

Expandable Storage

‘Nuff said. Zune is great (even if they are changing the name to Xbox Music) but that doesn’t help if I can hardly fit any music on the device I carry everywhere with me. The cloud storage it looks like we’ll get in the form of ‘Xbox Music Cloud’ could also be great, but it remains to be seen how that will function.

Lock Screen

This is really great stuff. Not only can developers open up lock screen notifications to their apps, they can change the background too. I love that my background changes when I’m playing music; my phone really does change behaviour when I’m using it as a music device, and now that will be open to all developers. The extra notification options really add to the ‘glance and go’ functionality, and the background changes will alter the feel of the phone depending on what I’m doing (think: ‘upload in progress’ background that disappears once the upload is finished).

Better apps, and more of them

What else is dropping at the same time as WP8? It’s PC/tablet counterpart. Windows 8 will introduce Metro to millions of consumers, and you can bet there’ll be a tonne of developers jumping on the band wagon. This will result in two things: first, more consumers will choose WP because they will be familiar with the UI and it will work in synergy with their computer; and second, it will be easy for developers to port their Windows 8 apps to WP, and use those apps to enhance engagement with their Windows 8 apps.

Bigger target market + lower barrier to entry + synergy of apps = more and better apps

So they’re the main features that I’m looking forward to in WP8. Other features I think will really round out the OS include higher screen resolution, the ‘Lenses’ feature and NFC (I’m really hoping and waiting for NFC to become huge). Have I missed your favourite? What are you most looking forward to in WP8?

Saijo George

I am looking FWD to wallet .. That sounds like a killer feature to have [Posted from the 1800PocketPC app]
Robert Wade

1. I couldn’t disagree more. I think the new start screen is completely ugly and simply adds more clutter and confusion to what is currently a clean and gorgeous screen. I think anyone is just stupid to look forward to this new screen.
2. I couldn’t AGREE more. I still like the Samsung Focus BECAUSE I have a 32GB card in it and am able to load considerable amounts of music and videos. Because OEMs STILL refuse to put any significant storage in devices, and access to ANY wireless, much less high-speed wireless, is STILL spotty at best when you live in places like west Texas, we simply cannot rely on the cloud fully–as much as I’m dying to already.
3. Expanding notification capability of the start is pretty much ‘meh’ with me. The only critical things I NEED to know before going further are texts and emails. That’s it. Anything else can wait for a deeper look.
4. I do think that moving to the WinRT kernel will get the phone about as close to the desktop as is reasonable—for now—and this SHOULD mean that a lot of apps get developed quicker because the potential user base will be much larger. However, the downside is that I think it’s still going to be a hard road to convince developers to develop for the METRO (see, I’m still calling it that—Metro AG in Germany can BITE ME) regardless of what platform it is—they’re just not that into it yet. I’m hoping, but not confident.

So, of all the things we know right now, the ONLY thing that I really give a flip about is storage. Outside of that, I’m quite happy with the Lumia 900 and I don’t see myself upgrading to WP7.8 (specifically because I HATE the new start screen) and I don’t see myself running out to buy the first gen Windows Phone devices (because, let’s face it, this is a completely new line of devices, sharing almost no kinship with what we currently call Windows Phone). I think the first ones will be as buggy as Windows Phone The Original Series was at launch. So, I’d rather focus on getting the Microsoft Surface and focus on dealing with the bugs of THAT new device. iPad, you can suck air.
- Jamieson Dean
  
  Agree on the iPad comment! I’m hoping that by waiting for the Surface Pro some of the bugs will be ironed out.
  
  So you really hate the new start screen… fair enough I can understand that. I have my own concerns in that regard and in designing my screen there’ll be a definite balance of usability and appearance.
  
  Is it the lack of the black bar? Obviously you can stick with the large size tiles on the new start screen if small ones aren’t your thing (although as noted above; you now get less screen-to-tile height ratio).
  - Jamie
    
    Love the new start screen, mostly because it offers much more customisation.
    
    Those who say its ugly – remember, you can change it to look however you like, and the new colour selections look a lot better. It doesn’t have to be bright pink with 100 tiles on screen if you don’t want it that way.
    
    (disclaimer) I am judging the colour selection by my experience with the W Phone 8 app that does a great job of introducing the WP8 layout. Give it a go.
- Mark Richey
  
  I am getting tired of the missing of the Start Screen. All the gnashing of teeth regarding the lack of customization, then those who criticize those of us who are excited to have the options.
  
  I have my Start Screen quite we’ll organized, with label tiles and groupings. However, I don’t like having to scroll so much and there are many tiles that are not live that don’t need to take up all that valuable real estate. Using the demo WP8 I can see that I will likely have from 12-15 tiles I can access very quick, from the top of the screen even with a couple wide tiles.
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nlm

Metro, metro, metro! I love the metro design! I hate Metro AG. See I can distinguish between the two and I live on the other side of the world. Metro AG you can bite me too! In fact we should start an online petition to boycott Metro AG just for being a general pain in the ass.
- glim12808
  
  LOL! I’m with you!
joe_easton3

I agree that the start screen is a huge upgrade. IMO for two reasons, first this is key because I thought the black bar and arrow was always a waste of space. Especially considering that this Metro UI is all about functionality meeting design. Empty space can be used to better design but in this case it was a miss because the average consumer didn’t understand it. Second, the new start screen allows people to get an android / iOS feel to their home screen but with more functionality. Consumers didn’t like that they had to choose just specific apps to put on their screen. Now they can load it up with the small icons until their heart is content.

I know I am focusing on consumer and not fan boys so that may offend some people but the reality is WP must focus on the average consumer to succeed.

I am still waiting to hear about an universal/merged notification history screen. This is truly an oversight in 7.5 and it must be fixed in 8.
Me

Keep in mind that MS hasnt announced the new features for customers yet, I wouldnt be surprised if there are a tonne more goodies in the bag that we dont know of yet.
jabtano

I rather like the new start screen, also I like being able to re-size my tiles to fit the way I want it. I can get more info at a glance by having a set of smaller size tiles 4 across. I’ll move over to WP8 but I’m not going to run right out and buy one like I did when WP7 came out. Being on US. T-MO leaves few choices all on the lower end spectrum. I currently sport 2 HTC HD7 and three Nokia 710. the 710 is much better than the HD7 but for me the screen size is important.