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More details on Windows 8 Release Preview bundled apps revealed

May 17, 2012 6:35 am by damaster | 8 comments

After we uncovered the first screenshots of the updated Mail and Photos apps in the upcoming Windows 8 Release Preview, more details has leaked regarding the changes and improvements coming to the bundled apps – including Mail, Calendar, People and Messaging, Photos, and Reader. Today Paul Thurrott from WinSupersite revealed some additional information regarding these improvements, which we have summarised below:

Photos – Besides the new home screen, the updated version will also allow you to access photos and videos stored PCs that you’ve connected through the SkyDrive app. In addition, the app will also allow you to quickly import photos and videos from a camera.
Mail – As revealed previously, the new Mail app will feature a new teal accent color (instead of green). Attachments can also now be added to new messages without selecting the body of the message first. The Mail app will also support notifications, much like how the Messaging app’s notification works in the Consumer Preview.
Calendar – The Calendar also gets a new purple accent color (instead of green). The new Calendar app will also now allow the ability to turn on or off individual calendars, as well as customise a specific color for each calendar, much like it’s Windows Phone counterpart. The Calendar will also support Windows 8’s notification system.
People – The People app retains its orange accent color from Consumer Preview, however as mentioned previously, its Live Tile is actually “live” now showing a grid of contact’s display pictures much like its Windows Phone counterpart.Perhaps one of the most-improved app out of the ones listed here, the updated People app’s What’s New module will also feature an improved layout for easier navigation. A highly requested feature – Contact linking – will also be available, allowing you to link contacts if they are not already automatically de-duplicated (possibly due to having different names on different social networks). Furthermore, the People app also now supports the Share contract, allowing you to share information through supported social networking services.
Messaging – The Messaging also gets a new magenta accent color (instead of purple). Not much is revealed, except the fact that the app now supports offline messages to both Facebook Chat and Messenger contacts. There’s no mention of file transfer support, or audio/video conversations.

We expect changes coming to other bundled apps too, such as Music, Video, Xbox LIVE Games, and more. Paul Thurrott also mentioned that there will be new bundled Metro-style apps coming in the Release Preview too, in addition to Weather, Finance, and Maps. We understand one of these will be the News app as revealed in previous screenshots. With only 3 weeks to go, we can’t wait to see what else is in store. What other improvements would you like to see before the final version ships? Let us know in the comments below.

This entry was posted in Featured, News and tagged Calendar, Mail, Messaging, People, Photos, Windows 8. Bookmark the permalink.

http://doctorwhofan98.wordpress.com/ doctorwhofan98
The Messaging app needs to integrate with Skype, and offer HD video calling via Messenger, Skype or Facebook (as that’s powered by Skype). Also file sharing.
- cmwind
  messaging should integrate Skype chat. There should be a Phone or Call app that integrates voice and video calls.
  Xbox 360 needs to kill its proprietary messaging service and just use messenger… but also facebook chat and Skype chat would work with it as well. Xbox profiles need to integrate into the people hub the same way 3rd party services like fb, twitter, and linked in do… basically contact linking
  - Calum James
    Great ideas, especially the one about the Xbox profiles integrating with the People app!
tN0
I still haven’t seen one feature of those basic apps that is cool, new or even innovative. Yeah the Metro design is nice and support for the apps contracts can be useful, but beyond that? These apps should be the reason for people to switch to Windows 8 but they feel like they provide the same basic functionality of known websites or mobile apps.
Just some examples what I mean: Skype should be integrated into the Messaging app from version 1.0.0.0! There is no reason that we have to wait even longer for this to happen.
The Photos app should provide the same functionality of Windows Live Photo Gallery and even more. Tagging people, enhancing photos…
If Metro is the future of the PC, I don’t want less functionality and I don’t want to wait for Windows 9 or something. Microsoft has to prove that they can create powerful but simple to use Metro styled apps that can compete with desktop apps. At this point, I’m very skeptical that they can provide this.
- Calum James
  I agree with this. Further, I think that one of the great innovative features Microsoft could have added is support for the Facebook Open Graph API in as many apps as possible. Apple haven’t yet done this with iTunes or any of their apps, but such social networking integration is very important to some of us.
  When listening to music in the Music app or watching video in the Video app, I’d like that activity automatically shared to Facebook, via the Open Graph API; the same is the case when reading news articles in the News app. There are more scenarios when such integration would be very useful to some of us; those are just three examples.
  I switched from using the Zune software to Spotify back in September, and this was the sole reason. I loved Zune’s design and I miss it greatly.
  I do hope Microsoft have already added support for the Open Graph in at least some of their apps, but I doubt they have.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000601206321 Chinfung Kwong
Photos also provided to connect your other PCs.(According to photos app’s webpage)
Calum James
I hope the People app will use Windows 8′s Notifications API to display a toast notification from any of our social networks whenever we receive a new notification or message from that network (that’s if the Messaging app doesn’t support notifications of offline Facebook messages, Twitter DMs, and LinkedIn messages). I do doubt this will be implemented, but if Microsoft have added this (or they add it), I will probably not switch to Mac OS X (which is something I’m pretty much set on, at the moment). I love Windows 8, but there are reasons I might be switching to Apple products. Social networking integration is one of the most important sections of functionality, to me, though, so Microsoft can stop me from switching if they finally get that right (it’s looking very unlikely that they will, so far, especially as it’s probable that none of the Windows 8 apps will use Facebook’s Open Graph API, apart from the Music).
frankwick
They need to borrow VERY HEAVILY from Windows Phone on these app. The WP apps are FANTASTIC but the Win8 preview apps were horrid.