Windows 8 Desktop

Windows 8 Review

And unto the negative.  Yes, Windows 8 apps or metro apps.  For starters, the Windows Store has only about 600 apps.  Compare that to iPad with 100,000+.  Microsoft also follows Apple in that the Windows Store will be the only way to get new Windows 8 apps.

The second is the quality of apps and their features.  The photo app refuses to play nice with network locations.  The music and video apps were fixed but still don’t have the features needed or library management when it comes to editing metadata and organizing.  To make matters worse, they don’t appear to use the same metadata that Windows Media Player (available on the desktop) and Zune use.  (Update 16.11.12:  Apps have been updated.  Photo works with network locations and Music metadata is improved.)

That being said, does iOS and Android allow on device metadata editing and do they even play with the network that way I expect a traditional Windows PC to?  And the plus with apps is that they can be updated, and are being updated frequently.  No waiting till Windows 9 or a service pack.  And Android doesn’t have 600 tablet apps, they just want do it all apps that are actually just glorified phones apps with even less features.

Windows 8 Video App

Windows 8 does have its redeeming apps.  For one even the video app I spoke negatively of is beautiful and has a powerful Play To feature that lets me send any video on my device to be played on my Xbox 360.  Xbox SmartGlass is another such app that lets me communicate with my Xbox and further my experience.  Wither Netflix is telling me about the movie I’m watching or future Xbox games becoming more interactive.  In fact the Apps I like are more than the ones I don’t.  And even the flaws in music, videos, and photos won’t be noticeable to most.  Yes, most people don’t have a home server.  Most people don’t have terabytes of video and gigabytes of music from various sources.

I absolutely love the Mail, People, and Messaging apps.  The synergy of having all your accounts come together.  Facebook, Twitter, Exchange, and more.

The available Xbox Windows Games are promising, especially the idea of resuming games on your phone or other devices is promising.  The whole idea of sync is integral to Windows 8.  If you use a Microsoft Account to sign in, your settings sync.  You can have your favourites sync, and the passwords to those sites.  My one complaint would be to have app data sync, so that my favourite cocktails in the free Cocktail Flow app sync from device to device.

Xbox on Windows 8

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