[theeboredone]

I'm a lover of all tech. I own a macbook pro, I plan on getting a Windows Phone 8, and for my tablet, I am looking at the Nexus 7. So yeah, while I will miss out on the whole "ecosystem", I just love playing with all three OS'.

My question is, I've always heard Windows Phone 7 never played nice with OSX. What I'm mainly concerned about is managing my music on my phone along with other forms of media. So if anyone has any experience or answers into how I can get around that, it'd be much appreciated.

[luiislp]

you can sync all your music from your mac using windows phone 7 connector, this is app is made by microsoft , and you will find it in the app store for free.....

Im not sure if you can sync your contacts so I cant answer that question :P sorry

[pavvento]

I'm a lover of all tech. I own a macbook pro, I plan on getting a Windows Phone 8, and for my tablet, I am looking at the Nexus 7. So yeah, while I will miss out on the whole "ecosystem", I just love playing with all three OS'.

My question is, I've always heard Windows Phone 7 never played nice with OSX. What I'm mainly concerned about is managing my music on my phone along with other forms of media. So if anyone has any experience or answers into how I can get around that, it'd be much appreciated.

I haven't had problems using the Windows Phone connector for my media. I use gmail for all contacts, calendar and mail so I haven't played with those settings. It's real easy to transfer music and photos as well as ringtones. I would imagine WP8 will work just as easily.

[socialcarpet]

I use Mac OS X as well on my primary computer and I've had no trouble. Windows Phone 7 Connector isn't super full-featured or anything, but its worked flawlessly for me so far. I have no complaints.

I'd expect the same with Windows Phone 8, though it is possible we may need to wait a bit for an updated client for OS X that will work with WP8...I hadn't thought of that....

Hopefully Microsoft doesn't take too long on that.

[graigsmith]

so i am wanting to get a windows phone. i noticed that there was a sync app for windows 7 mobile.. but i haven't seen a sync app for windows phone 8. is that because they haven't released one, or because windows phone 8 doesn't need a sync app?

that would be cool if i could just place music straight into the music folder and have it work.

[graigsmith]

and another question.... usually Microsoft tells you what the features are on new software before they release it. any speculation as to the reason? maybe there is way more features than people expect and they want it to be a big surprise? or maybe it's just because they don't know what's going to make it in and whats not?

[eric12341]

I'm sure a solution for Mac OS X will be released to coincide with the release of the devices if not shortly after. for contact synching i would recommend using an email that you would use as a primary email on all 3 of the devices.

[brmiller1976]

Microsoft will indeed offer software that runs on modern Macs for connection to your phone and the cloud. It is called Windows 8. :D

[brmiller1976]

No more need to run that woefully inadequate OS X shell for BSD! ;)

[socialcarpet]

Microsoft will indeed offer software that runs on modern Macs for connection to your phone and the cloud. It is called Windows 8. :D

No more need to run that woefully inadequate OS X shell for BSD! ;)

Yeah...no.

I use Windows 7 and I like it, and Windows 8 looks really cool, but I'm not walking away from OS X anytime soon. There are just too many things that it does better.

Maybe if Microsoft implements multiple desktops and gestures as good as Mac OS X, gets rid of the horrid registry system, develops a real file system like the stillborn WinFS that never saw the light of day, that would be a good start.

Microsoft is doing some amazing stuff lately though, I have to say. Before Windows 7 and Windows phone I never would have even considered a Microsoft product. I had one actually, a Thinkpad running Windows XP. The Thinkpad was a brilliant piece of hardware, but Windows XP was a piece of dog ****.

[brmiller1976]

"Registry" is as relevant for today's PCs as "Type 11 errors" are common problems on today's Macs.

[sheharyarali]

I'm a lover of all tech. I own a macbook pro, I plan on getting a Windows Phone 8, and for my tablet, I am looking at the Nexus 7. So yeah, while I will miss out on the whole "ecosystem", I just love playing with all three OS'.

My question is, I've always heard Windows Phone 7 never played nice with OSX. What I'm mainly concerned about is managing my music on my phone along with other forms of media. So if anyone has any experience or answers into how I can get around that, it'd be much appreciated.

I wrote about this EXACTLY for my blog. Will be publishing it tomorrow but I'm pasting it here for you before hand. Hope it helps.
Main Screen
I recently gave up my Iphone and shifted to Windows Phone 8 only because I wanted a change from the usual OS. I picked up the Lumia 920 a few days back and havent really looked back because its a refreshing change.
My Iphone and Itunes were a perfect match. I had all my videos, playlists and photos neatly organized and flawlessly synced. Shifting to Windows Phone 8 I knew syncing was going to be an issue. To my surprise all was not lost.
The Windows Phone app for Mac is a great utility. I am using a MBP running OSX 10.8.2 on a 2.3 GHz Core i7, 8GB 1600 MHz DDR3, Lumia 920 running Windows Phone 8 and Windows Phone 3.0 app to sync all my media. Lets get to the App itself.
Music:

The only option is to sync from the itunes library. The user can sync by playlists, artists and genres or sync all the music in the library.
Photos:

Photos

Iphoto is what is used here. Just like in music, you have the option of selective sync by events, faces, albums or sync everything.
Videos:

Videos

Although the option of syncing the complete library and/or individual videos are both here, whats missing is the playlist option. I liked having my video playlists.
Podcasts:

Podcasts

You can sync all or selective ones from the Itunes library.
Ringtone:

Ringtone

This is a neat option. It displays all the ringtone compatible tracks and you can send it to your phone as a ringtone.
Browse Device:

Browse Device

With the Lumia 920 not having any expandable memory this part is needed. As the name suggests, this lets you browse your device so you can delete files such as pictures, videos etc to increase storage.
Overall:
All in all it syncs your smart phone to your itunes pretty well. Now comes the sad part. Speed.....or in this case a lack of it. Its actually painful. Just to give you an example. For a 3.8 MB picture it took in excess of 30 seconds. Im guessing its the conversion/compression which is taking so long. Also I should mention here that the pictures synced are compressed. A typical 3.5 MB(4000x3000 pixels) was compressed to a little under 1MB(2560 x 1920 pixels). This is great since a lot of Windows Phones wont have expandable memory but I dont know how many of you will like to have your photos scaled down. The same is for video. My 357 MB file was compressed to 158MB. Since I have a lot of media, I like this auto compression(hate the slow speed) because otherwise Id run out of disk space.
Unlike Android where you can download many types of file browsers and share files in different ways, WP8 doesn't seem to have any so the easiest way to share a pictures is to email them and once again when you email them, they are compressed. If you have a Mac do keep in mind that even though you might have the original resolution pictures on your phone, sending them to someone in all its glory would be a challenge.
There is however a way to get the media on your phone in a snap. Its fast and no compression/conversion takes place. You can install a virtual machine on your mac(Ive tested this with virtual windows 8 running on Parallel Desktop 8). The phone shows up as a drive and you can just drag and drop your files from there. It is actually the easiest thing to do.
I hope an update comes around to speed things up and give the user the option to sync the resolution they want but till then, this would have to do.

[sheharyarali]

and my blog is Tech, Gadgets And News if anyone wants to visit :)

[Alberto Fernandez]

This app doesn't work anymore after the first sync. I'm so irritated by it because I just switched from iPhone 5 and am very happy with my Lumia 920. Microsoft doesn't seem to care to fix the app right away...
I don't want to switch back to the iPhone but if the syncing issue is not solved soon I'll have no choice but to go back to iPhone. I need to be able to sync at least music and photos!!!
Anyone has any words of encouragement?

Thanks

[dainla]

This app doesn't work anymore after the first sync. I'm so irritated by it because I just switched from iPhone 5 and am very happy with my Lumia 920. Microsoft doesn't seem to care to fix the app right away...
I don't want to switch back to the iPhone but if the syncing issue is not solved soon I'll have no choice but to go back to iPhone. I need to be able to sync at least music and photos!!!
Anyone has any words of encouragement?

Thanks

Ah, that's what is going on. And my first sync was a disaster because of a bad sd card. So, I have very little music on my phone.

At this point, I'm getting very irritated Microsoft has not fixed this issue, as it's a huge one.

[Troyseph]

One of the issues with the windows connector on my MacBook pro had something to do with authorizing a file to be read.

. You need to make sure that you click file in the connector menu and then I think it was authorize folder. You then select the folder that your music is in, ie: iTunes. Then sync and it will work.

[dainla]

One of the issues with the windows connector on my MacBook pro had something to do with authorizing a file to be read.

. You need to make sure that you click file in the connector menu and then I think it was authorize folder. You then select the folder that your music is in, ie: iTunes. Then sync and it will work.

yeah, I stated I did that in my original post. I do it everytime. Does not matter