Microsofts hush hush on WP8... good or bad?

[Villain]

Does anyone expect any real big "WOWs" or do you think we pretty much know it all? and if we know the majority of WP8 do you think it will cause all this wait to turn into a negative?

 

[rockstarzzz]

They aren't ready. They will show a couple of lenses like stuff if that or may be 5 more accent colours or whatever. May be kids corner and family corner. Nothing game changing. This is purely to kill down iPhone sensation for now so that they can grab a little attention.

 

[oldpueblo]

If it's RTM then they should be ready. I think it's more around logistics or possibly they are close to shoehorning in one or two other things as a bonus so why not wait just a little bit longer. Still a month roughly until launch date. We've seen enough to generate hype, it's better to introduce new things than over-promise and under-deliver.

I honestly don't get what the big deal is on the SDK. Sure people are excited to start making apps for WP8, but they can still get started now and have it run in WP7 mode or whatever. People are acting like they can't develop at all for the new phones because they don't have the SDK instead of having an app ready to use right now and also out of the gate. If this were the WP7 launch with no SDK that would be a different story.

 

[GoodThings2Life]

I disagree that we know all there is to know. I think they are announcing things on a unified front... Windows 8, Windows Phone 8, and Xbox together... or at least in a series of announcements. And if nothing else of this post is taken seriously, trust me on one thing-- a unified launch is CRITICAL for Microsoft this time around. People WILL be impressed to see that Microsoft has a plan that brings so much together in such an impressive way.

Also, I do believe they have some features ... or rather, partnerships ... that they are going to announce at launch.

For example, I expect they are going to announce the new Xbox Music and Xbox Videos services and demonstrate how they work with SkyDrive across devices.

I also expect they will reveal some improvements to People Hub and Pictures Hub... specifically relating to new/different account options and features relating to the new Lenses functionality. For example, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if Lenses are part of a partnership with Instagram, and you'll be able to use the social aspects of Instagram in the People Hub.

Beyond all that, I don't know. I don't know what else to expect... lots of little things, certainly, and lots of improvements to existing features.

But getting to the heart of the question... no, I don't think the current SDK releases reveal everything there is to know.

Of course, I reserve the right to be wrong and/or say I told you so, lol.

 

[blehblehbleh]

I'm still holding out hope. There could be a later build they have under wraps. What's in the preview SDK seems like it is enough for developers to develop apps and depending on the nature of the framework, I don't think it's entirely impossible to have certain system only features that don't affect applications nor require developer interaction. I mean look at smart app integration. Unless I'm wrong I don't think that requires any programming from the developer.

So I could imagine there being the longed for notification center/hub that operates independent of any action from the developer or a multitude of other functionality like universal search.

 

[pjs37]

I think we seen pretty much all the major stuff.

 

[Villain]

just to add: Not saying WP8 will be a disappointment (own one of each OS platform and still would choose WP), just the "wait" can cause the public to build up a HUGE anticipation and then have a negative deflate effect.

 

[1jaxstate1]

I think we've seen the most important things. Some under the hood functions may have been left out. But I don't expect a big "One more thing".

 

[jabtano]

Even if there isn't any other big thing ,side from what we already know, good or bad there is a lot of discussion going on about WIN8-WP8 in a few weeks and perhaps all the tight lips isn't such a bad idea after all, look how the Nokia event went everyone new just about everything pretty much. Where as is good or bad we really don't know that much so it's about anticipation....

 

[Villain]

just seen this on the verge

Windows Phone 8: what's the big secret? | The Verge

 

[1jaxstate1]

Nice read. Seems like some devs are confused as to why.

If they do have "one more thing" it better be good

 

[Winterfang]

I don't expect anything new. I wish the Windows 8 tram where doing wp8, they where really open and they are so many hot devices.

 

[sinime]

just seen this on the verge

Windows Phone 8: what's the big secret? | The Verge

Interesting read. From the sound of it, there are some Easter eggs to be revealed.

Sent from my Lumia 900 using Board Express

 

[dogfish54]

I guess we'll know whether it was good or bad when we find out what they are hiding.

It all feels a bit awkward like a little kid keeping a secret about something they already told you about. I can't help but feel there is commercial reasons for the delays that consumers won't or should'nt have to care about.

 

[pjs37]

just to add: Not saying WP8 will be a disappointment (own one of each OS platform and still would choose WP), just the "wait" can cause the public to build up a HUGE anticipation and then have a negative deflate effect.

Basically what my fear is their are being so secretive that if they basically re-announce what they have said I think a lot of people are going to be disappointed especially since the press wasn't even allowed to use the phones at the press events because MS supposedly was keeping it secret, and developers are being locked out of development because of all this secrecy, basically they are going to end up pissing off all the important people.

 

[SnailUK]

As with everything, its simple.

Microsoft have known when Windows 8, Xbox update, Windows 8 tablet, are coming out, the tech press has known its around the beginning of november for a year or more. As they are doing loads to unify the platform, it makes very little sense to release WP8 months before all the rest of the Windows products, especially if they are all optimised to work best together.

Microsoft could have kept completely quiet about WP8 until mid october. Then released everything in a huge fanfare, with release dates, prices, carriers, etc.

The problem is the mobile market is soo big and fast moving, and has the huge enitity that is the iPhone, that keeping quiet would just have lost Microsoft tons of sales.

Microsoft could have told the world everything about WP8 back in June, where we found out most of the features. But if they had told us everything, what would we have to talk about? Add to that Android then has 6 months to copy any interesting features, meaning all the new stuff for WP8 is already available elsewhere.

I don't see that Microsoft have any choice, but to keep trickling out information, keep the press and fans talking about WP8, then at the last minute, do a HUGE presentation for Windows 8, Windows 8 Tablet, Xbox update, Windows Phone 8, and any other products they have.

I'm only expecting new features to be Windows 8 eco-system related, so not anything earth shattering for a phone, but when all the Windows stuff is put together it works better than the iOS system.

 

[SoloXCRacer]

I honestly don't get what the big deal is on the SDK. Sure people are excited to start making apps for WP8, but they can still get started now and have it run in WP7 mode or whatever. People are acting like they can't develop at all for the new phones because they don't have the SDK instead of having an app ready to use right now and also out of the gate. If this were the WP7 launch with no SDK that would be a different story.

I can tell you've never coded anything in your life. And I'm not talking about the toy stuff like VBScript or MATLAB. I'm talking about actually designing and writing an application that runs on a device. The API is crucial for the new features and devs need a head start to start implementing new features introduced in WP8. Also, writing apps for Windows Phone 7 you use Silverlight or XNA based projects. Even though those apps will run on WP8, to you cannot use either of those to write a WP8 specific app. To write a WP8 specific app, you have to code it in either WinPRT (replaces the Silverlight based apps) or use native C++. Porting over your code to run specifically for WP8 and to take advantage of the new features may or may not be a easy, depending how good of a job you did designing the app the first time. Get it now?? No? Then don't worry about it. Devs have a right to be anxious as the release date comes closer, yet only the "preferred" developers have access to the SDK.

 

[SnailUK]

Devs have a right to be anxious as the release date comes closer, yet only the "preferred" developers have access to the SDK.

But by the same measure, if Microsoft vet their initial SDK recepients, they can guarantee the first batch of WP8 apps are quality apps, rather than 1000 WP8 optimised fart apps (*).

*Not saying all early apps will be rubbish, but you get the idea.

 

[mparker]

My suspicion is that they've had a heck of a time just getting this OS working reliably, with acceptable power consumption, on these phones. Microsoft's approach serves to minimise the chances of bad press leaking out during those early, rough patches. This has forced the SDK to slide as well because the dev team has spent so much time fighting fires instead of working on features.

Hopefully it's reliable, but I expect it'll be pretty rough until the first service pack next June.

 

[squire777]

OK so I have been getting a little anxious with the waiting and decided to dig up some old contacts. I have been in touch with some dev friends of mine that work for companies that have traditionally done work for mainly iOS and Android but now are also going towards WP8. I have asked if they know anything about WP8 that they are willing to share.

At the moment they haven't been able to tell me anything since they said only a handful of people are working on WP8 apps and even within the companies they can't say much. They also have not got many developer devices as they have got with past OS releases/updates. Even if they did know anything I doubt they would tell me anyway.

However, one thing they told me is that the OS is fully functioning and such so there should be no worry that it's not ready or anything of that manner.