Windows Phone 8 OS video walkthrough via the finalized emulator and SDK

We managed to finally get our hands on the finalized (or very near finalized) software development kit (SDK) for Windows Phone 8--the one where only select developers were given access too. The SDK had surfaced on the internet a few days ago via WinUnleaked and has been floating around ever since.

After spending a few hours configuring our PC for the SDK (you need Windows 8 Pro RTM 64-bit, seriously), we fired up Windows Phone 8 OS...

Windows Phone 8 build 9900

The video above is just a quick tour of the things we noticed immediately though we dare say it does not cover everything. The other item to note is no, there are not any big "reveals" here. That can be because of a few reasons (1) there just isn't anymore or (2) Microsoft even has areas of the SDK locked down, meaning devs can't see all of the OS just yet.

Though that latter idea has no immediate evidence to back it up, we're actually leaning on that theory. Either way, grab some coffee and enjoy the 10-minute walkthrough. The video has some quiet audio, so make sure your speakers are turned up.

Edit: And yes, we'll do a follow up video soon with things we missed or items you requested that we look at. Stay tuned...

Daniel Rubino is the Executive Editor of Windows Central, head reviewer, podcast co-host, and analyst. He has been covering Microsoft here since 2007, back when this site was called WMExperts (and later Windows Phone Central). His interests include Windows, Microsoft Surface, laptops, next-gen computing, and arguing with people on the internet.

160 Comments

I noticed you skipped over the kid's corner. What's that all about?

EDIT: Nevermind I comment before I finished the video... shame on me.
Lol!
Speaking of skipping things, did he skip over the Office settings? That is one of the only things I and many other Windows and MS users are interested in. If I wanted games I'd go to a Sony Android.
Awesome. Bout 2 watch
Not much to see. This entire WP project is run by imbeciles for excluding the adults who want more than xbox or twitter. Without total interchagability(like in WM6) between Windows and WP8, there is no reason whatsoever for me or anyone who uses MS Office, to buy a WP phone. Same thing happened wiith the Commodore Amiga and the design engineers and mgmt only looking at Desktop Video and ignoring word processing, spreadsheets.and contact management.
Troll
Leaning on that theory or hoping that there is indeed more??
Some other folks in the field think the same thing...and hoping? Yeah, only because it *seems* like MS is holding back for some big reveal...but that could just be our misunderstanding. I'm actually okay with most of this feature set, though custom alerts, accent color picker and a few other "little" things would be nice...
Paul Thurrott says there are no new big features coming. He tweeted, yesterday I believe, basically on how there's no point for them to not announce Windows Phone 8 already.
Paul isn't always right but he IS writing a WP8 book. Then again he *could* be intentionally misleading his audience, hahaha!
He isn't right in this case, otherwise the new devices would have hit the shelves to combat record breaking iPhone sales. That would be common sense, they must have more in store
Just like 7.8 was supposed to have all these cool new features that they never announced and he said they were only doing the start screen and a lot of people here said he was wrong then and low and behold 7.8 has been leaked and....its just a new start screen and other minor features...

Sorry but I am going to trust Paul and his sources more often then people's guesses as to what common sense should be. He has more experience reading what MS will do then most people.
Before that Paul was ADAMANT that there wasn't even going to be a WP7.8 at all. He went so far as to ridicule those that said otherwise.
Not true. He was adamant that WP8 would not run on existing phones, then adamant (love that word :-)) that 7.8 would be only a new start screen. We still have to see about that, I guess.
That is quite the opposite of common sense. The best release date would be 3 months before the iphone 5, but since that isn't possible. Late October and early November is good since the iphone aura and possibly shipments would have slowed down by then.
This would be disappointing if true. WP7 has not had any significant enhancement for a year, and WP8 doesn't look like it addresses some of the bigger usability gaps (notification center, grouping of tiles).
A couple recent examples of the usability gaps:
I know a couple of people who like WhatsApp, but I don't use it myself. I missed some messages for a couple weeks because I did not have the app pinned (didn't want to waste space on it) and missed the toast. I would never dedicate one of the WP8 lockscreen slots to it either. A notification center would have let me know about the messages for lesser-used apps.
Another example was when a friend got the iPhone 5 and was showing of the speed with a speed test program. I wanted to see how fast my connection was, but didn't remember the name of the app. I had to scroll through the list of all apps to look for it. If there was tile grouping, I would have put it in a Network or Utility group and found it much faster.
That's what big tiles are for. If you miss a message I think it will cycle through your last 4 previous notifications in one tile.
it will have more, basic information from what we already know indicates that the feature set is larger than that sdk has.

it was stated that the os has a way to make custom "app like tiles" for corperations (and i would asume consumers) that have the ability to group apps and information from diferent sources. there are references in the wallet and other places to a media store from MS presumably like the xbox version. smart glass is also going to be a important aplication, skype and other data providers can add there services to your adress books and message center.

becouse apps can link so close (like with calls, source grouping, and general data delivery) with the OS the actually potential of features is only limited by what developers make a app for. and its secure as hell with a chip needed to decode the os which has the unique number on that chip.
I think that expecting more features than there are currently in this sdk wouldn't be too far fetched. I mean this sdk is part of the "preview" program and to me a preview is not the full product.
Yup.
Well if this is it in WP8 im really disappointed.
I mean, not even custom sounds for messages?! What the hell?!
I was expecting all the basic stuff like this to be covered in WP8, they should fix stuff like this before looking at new homescreens etc.
And why is the settings still not sorted by letter? I have had WP7 since release and I still think its a pain in the ass to look for stuff on the settings-page.
I hope there is more than this or I will start to lose hope.
I was hoping they would fix getting kicked out of the app store when downloading a app and have the option to leave the battery and signal indicator on the screen.
That is not a fix, that was an intentional change. In the original WP7 it stayed in the marketplace and you watched your app download and install. Due to feedback (or something) with Mango they changed it so it went to the app list when downloading. I doubt they will change it back.
If you notice in the video you can see that there is a section for custom sounds for messages [way on top there is an (X none), which is where the custom sounds will populate] so I do not think WP8 will be lacking in this feature.
An x none does not mean anything. There is an "x none" at the top of the list for message sounds on the HD7 I am holding right now.
What are you talking about custom alerts is supported.
Daniel is there anyway we can find out if WP8 supports sending and receiving of vCards and vCalendar? This is a must feature for me. I was hoping he would cover that but he completely skipped over the contacts and calendar features.
I'm looking for vCard and vCalendar support, too. In fact, I'm more interested in whether the calendar has improved as a whole. looking at an ugly, largely useless month calendar on a nice high-res display seems like an obvious oversight to me. I'm a little worried that the things I'm most looking for, like a more functional calendar, a vastly improved Office, custom ringtones, local scout in Canada, etc. are being skipped, in lieu of new "features" like NFC, wallets, and other things that I don't really need (at least not right now).
His mouse kept passing over the Office tile. I was trying to mentally urge him to click it, but it didn't work. I'm also hoping for a vastly improved office. MS dumbed it down so much in the switch from WM to WP.
Will the keyboard suggest new words before you start typing? We saw some hints about that on the Nokia keynote.
I'll be doing a follow up video for "things I missed" and will add that.
That would be nice. And maybe you can look what changed for landscape support.

;)
Wasn't there already some sort of mention about custom alerts?
Did anyone else get the feeling that this is the final feature set, but Microsoft is essentially going to launch WP8 with more features promised for a big update? After the unofficial WPCentral feature set poll that took place after the WP8 SDK originally leaked, I kept thinking Microsoft is about to ship this, why do they want to know what we think is still missing? They can't squeeze features in before launch but they can start making promises for the next big "mango" style update.
What like when WP7 came out and there was no C&P? I hope they learned from that
If that's the case, it's being rushed (probably to coincide with Windows 8). Sounds like WP7 all over again. An incomplete launch will not be well-received. I hope it will at least be stable and polished.
I'm planning on buying a 920 at full price, but if I don't get custom alerts then I'll get an iPhone 5.
Awfully large sacrifice for custom alerts...
Yes and it breaks my heart. I hate apple. But I was sold on this OS based on Xbox connectivity features. Then I got home and realized it was pointless. Then I started figuring out all the things my BB curve did that my day old Focus S doesn't do. Then I found out that when they finally do beef up the Xbox features, ios will get them too(if not first, amirite?). We will see.
You do know that WP7 already does custom ringtones, right?
They just have to follow some guidelines.
WMA or MP3. The ringtone can be either Windows Media Audio or MP3 format.
Unprotected. The ringtone must be free of DRM (digital rights management), so Zune Music Pass music will not work.
Length. The ringtone must be less than 40 seconds long.
Size. The ringtone must be smaller than 1 MB (megabyte).
[source: winsupersite.com]
He is talking about e-mails and SMS etc.
And I agree, this needs to be added because frankly the sounds in the OS pretty much sucks.
I disagree. I think the WP stock alert sounds are really pleasant, especially compared to iPhone's hideous stock alert tones that you are forced to hear everywhere you go.
They didn't show up if he didnt' sync up any music or sounds that would be classified properly. Right now, ringtones appear when music is tagged as RINGTONE genre. I would suspect there's a similar approach with notifications/alerts. I'm glad that you have such low standards on "must have" features.....
Like I said in a reply above, this feature is coming if you notice when Daniel opens the sounds list for IM the very top is (x none) which is where the custom message sounds will populate [this was the case when custom ringtones where customizable, if no custom sound was found it will display (x none)] so if that's your only concern then I guess you will be getting the Lumia 920 :-D
In the sounds list on the HD7 I have in my hands, in the section for message sounds, I also see an "x none". As much as I would like to see custom message sounds, seeing an "x none" in the video doesn't mean anything - not if I can see it on a current device! Well, unless HTC released a silent update for their current windows phones to enable custom message alerts.
the (x none) is not for custom alerts. that is the option you press if you dont want there to be any alert played at all when you get a new whatever. for example if you go into email no doubt (x none) is selected so a sound doesnt play everytime you get an email
Yes, I'd like to see if you can assign a custom-sound for a text or email to an individual contact and change it for others (not a global one like now). Daniel, can you check the settings for a single contact to see if there's an option for text-tone or email-tone in addition to a custom ringtone? :)
Watched the whole thing. Thanks for posting, Daniel.
You missed new "Bing" & "Rooms" feature :)
Yeah, video was already 10 mins...so we'll add it to a 2nd video soon ;-)
Nice .. Thanks for the post :)
Daniel, can you go into settings under the cellular menu and check what more can be done in there for apn settings? Purrtty please?
Will look and if there's anything new, will add to a 2nd video.
That would be awesome. I'm a prepaid plan user and I would love to have a broader selection of WP phones instead of depending on HTC's connection setup app.
Can you also look at the phone app and office apps?
Can you save videos from email yet? Can you adjust ringtone and music volume separately? Has the music player been revamped? On the go play lists the right way?
Daniel, I'm going to ask for something simple can you check the phone hub for a Favorites? Would be nice to have more that just call history & voicemail. Please and thank you!!
Also, does the OS (Office and IE) FINALLY support text reflow? That is a hyper critical feature for anyone trying to use the phone for productivity (as in business type use). WinMobile 6 had it then 7 lost it. For me it is a deal breaker.
VPN?
There seems to be separate OneNote icon. How is that different from previous version? I use OneNote lot in my studies and all so it would be nice to know.
Please
If someone finds out if OneNote can finally display inked notes, that'd be awesome.
(1) onenote mx for w8 DOES indeed show ink
(2) lumia 920 has a accurate detection of touch input
(1+2) .... sssswwwweeeetttt xmas present :)
-
but for real: would you PLEASE show in depth, what onenote can do?
Yes, but Windows 8 apps and Windows Phone 8 apps are not the same thing. I HOPE that the WP8 version can as well, but it's not safe to just assume that.
yeah. Assuming that microsoft does what i hope they do results often in disappointment :/
Hi Daniel, first thx for the video. I noticed the new office icon anything new in there?
Keep up the good work!
One feature I was hoping you'd show is the "Current Open Apps" window (not really sure what it's called) and seeing if that's any different or not (possibly a little 'x' finally?).
Agreed, although I'm looking for sort of the inverse of that. In other words, I'd like a way to "pin" the apps I want to keep open, while letting the OS close non-pinned apps as it needs.
I wouldn't hold my breath on that one.
Daniel, can we get a walkthrough of Office? I'm really hopeful that their feature sets have been expanded a bit - I find the current version in WP7 to be pretty limited. Thanks!
Have to say with all thats been leaked already, though it looks good as a current WP user I'm not seeing any killer feature that will make WP8 attractive to users on other platforms or new smartphone users vs what other platforms provide.
Right .. Current users will be more than happy with 7.8 upgrade.
The OS is exciting for sure but what is more exciting is what it has already done for the hardware being made available for Windows Phone 8.
Hi Daniel, are there any of the rumoured accessibility features (screenreader/magnifier/font-size) included in this build? That would be great ;) They should be in Settings > Ease of Use.
Thanks!
+1000000
Please check for the ability to change fonts or magnify. My wife and I both hate that the phone number for a contact is small. I can see that the number is for WORK because it is in a big font but the number is small.
Honestly this is a bit underwhelming. I'm starting to really lean towards skipping this first wave of phones since wp8 isn't much more than Wp7. What's another 6 months?
im starting to feel the same. im worried the nex genertion of hardware will come out soon after christmas and ill just end up disappointed i didnt wait. the lumia 920 looks amazing from a hardware stand point but in all honesty my focus gets me through the day just fine for now and wp8 isnt looking to be the huge step up i wanted.
Kids corner is genius. Look forward to it
I cringe at the thought of someone letting their kid play with their new Lumia 920.
Every now and then, keeping my kids calm/distracted is far more important than my lumia.
It's called a Nintendo DS and it's much cheaper than a smartphone.
The DS is dead, The 3DS is what is current... (after using a 3DS, I'm not sure I would go back to DS games)...
Fair enough. I'd still never hand a kid my smartphone. I'd hand him/her an original, spinach-green gameboy first.
Would like to see multitasking if there are any changes there.
YES!!! Me too!!! I would love to see see the following in your next video:
1. App Switching
2. The Calendar Functions
3. Messaging (Can we use avatars or profile phots in our messaging , ala webOS homebrew?)
4. How the notifications work on the lock screen and if they are persistent if you do not address them immediately (i.e., you see 1 message, 1 email and 2 missed call notifications so you unlock your phone. and look at the email and text message, then power off the screen, then check the lock screen again to see if the missed call was cleared by the OS)
5. Any app grouping present at all, anywhere? Can apps be found with a category search, as opposed to just the program name? For example, I have an app called "All Charts Pro" but it has electrical calculators in it so can I search with "calc" or "calculator", or "electrical"
6. Is there any kind of Universal Search Function? Is the search button configurable?
7. Voice Functions

Thank you!!!
Just FYI, MSLibrary is a Microsoft-internal library (digital and physical resources). Not sure why it was in the wallet list.
Questions for a follow up video
1) Can we see new calendar features? Weekly view? Can we see appt details from monthly view? Create a new appt, are there any more features? 2) Facebook and twitter Are there any of the oft-requested features baked into the OS such as liking pictures and threaded twitter conversations? 3) Basic OS Is multitasking beefed up? Can we swipe to close? Does holding the search button produce a result? It is the only one of the front buttons that has no secondary function. Are people's contact cards changed at all? is the history feature improved to not take so long to search? Any new features with the double-wide live tiles for any apps such as phone or IE? Any improved voice functionality? Can you talk casually like with siri? Any hint of an explorer-style file management system? 4) Office / Outlook Any new features in the Outlook email settings? Locations > SkyDrive. Any new features here?
+1
Yea...how about IE10's back button. Does it move the page back to the prevous spot or always to the top of page which makes shopping on ebay, amazon or anywhere difficult.
Well, I was impressed, but then, I'm easy. Along with all the suggestions above, a good look at IE would be nice. Keep the vids coming guys... show and tell us how to use whatever new you find. Thanks.
Pretty underwhelmed. It looks like an iOS update (very few new features).
I'm sincerely hoping that they fixed Exchange sync. The current state of exchange sync is pathetic. You get e-mail notifications immediately, but any changes (mark as read, delete, etc.) take FOREVER to sync back to the server. This, on a Microsoft device. That alone is nearly a deal-breaker for me.
I suspect there are more features we'll learn about. Of course, the entire kernel switch and other underlying architecture changes are pretty huge, so much of what's different likely isn't on the surface.

As far as Exchange sync, there's a reason it works that way. When you use "as they arrive", the Exchange server sends a notificatication to your device when a new e-mail arrives, at which point your phone initiates a sync. When you read or delete an item, that doesn't make it back to the server until the next sync (i.e., when you get another e-mail). If the phone synchronized with the server every time you read or deleted an item, you'd have a lot more data and battery cost. While it's annoying if you're frequently bouncing back and forth between your phone and your regular Outlook client, it's just not that big of a deal. And it's still FAR better than you'll get on any other device.
How do you figure it's "better than you'll get on any other device"? Both my iPhone 4s and Galaxy S3 notify me of new exchange email immediately, sync all changes back immediately, and still last just as long as any Windows phone in the battery life department.
I fail to see your logic. Changes SHOULD sync back immediately. That's the whole point of exchange and activesync, otherwise, you might as well be using imap.
Microsoft's implementation of their own product is fail on thier own mobile product. It's my one major complaint with WP7 and the thing that keeps driving me back to my other devices. If they really intend it to work that way and haven't change it in WP8, I'll be passing this generation of Windows devices up.
It's more than annoying to an IT professional who is accessing his mail on multiple devices within a short period of time. No one could possibly prefer it to work that way.
The biggest change will be native code support. And that is huge! Will make it much easier to port apps to Windows Phone. Just think of all the libraries that can be reused and all shared app cores. Many windows libraries just needs a recompile. But overall, I don't think there will be any big secret feature announced. What you see is what you get. HOWEVER, there could be some big third party app announcements made as they introduce it to the world. For them to not release the SDK publically at this stage is just crazy. Because even if there are secret features coming, they are not in this SDK, meaning that they could have just released it to everyone. Which on the other hand could indicate they have something more coming. Gaaaah! This is killing me. Brain meltdown. :)
+1
So far it is all very underwhelming on features. Though for the average user the change benifits them by switching to native code for more apps...on another note, I'm still on build 8400 on W8. How do I get 9200?
Download the Windows 8 Enterprise evaluation. It's good for 90 days. Here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/jj554510.aspx
I'd really like to use the photo backup, but I've always wanted it to wait until I got back to WiFi. Will it do this? Currently, if you aren't on WiFi when the picture is taken it won't ever backup. I'd like to spend the day taking pictures and then when I get home (or to another WiFi location) it will trigger the pics to be sent off to SkyDrive.
I'd really like to see the Mail and Calendar apps along with Messaging and People hub.
Wondering if Office 2013 on WP8 can open/create more files... Hoping too
I'm gonna lose my mind if there's no granular brightness controls and advanced APN/mms settings! Currently most if not ALL Windows Phones can't receive MMS messages if used with a different provider, drives me crazy!
From leaks I've seen around, MMS settings are there, brightness isn't.
how did this get leaked? i mean if this is the final version then it's kinda a deal breaker for me. I think MS knows that if they give the SDK to devs this will somehow happen but are they that STUPID? I really have to wonder
If this is all there is, I am probably going back to the iPhone or get an ugly GS3.
Are there any improvements to the integrated Twitter and Facebook functionality (People Hub and Messaging)?
Any improvements on Bluetooth supporting SPP profiles?
Reading the average response here makes me understand why MSFT has been so quiet on WP8. It seems that even here people do not seem to be able to grasp the huge change from WP7.x to 8.. It's not just the new, extended or improved featureset, it's the whole package.

Sure the deep VoIP integration seems invisible from the surface, but for developers it will be so much easier to have their app blend into the OS as if it is a native app.

Kids Corner is so clever, so is rooms. There no built in equivalent on any other platform.

Right now when I am abroad all Ineed to do it pop in a new SIm and run the Network Setup app (on Lumia) and I have Internet and MMS setup, that won't get any harder on 8. You can sync your Camra roll in full size to SkyDrive now through an ap in Marketplace.

Love the remark on how there's very few new features on a completely new OS,

The only thing I am hoping for personally is gapless audio as that annoys the h*ll out of me and I will probably get a cheap android device to run Rockbox for a music player if it don't.
The problem is, it's not good enough to do things that are completely different. You STILL have to be able to do the basic things that the competition does. We saw this with WP7, which just was missing way too much. WP8 doesn't just need to come up with new unique features, but it has to catch up on a ton of basic functionality.
Exaclty, the flow of WP7 is great but there are so many little things that are half-baked.
I agree completely with this post.What about offline maps (and the ability to do full searches on them)? NFC and the ability to tap+send? Bluetooth file transfer? The screenshot feature that everyone was raising a stink over? A built-in, integrated "groupon" like service? The ability to display any current "deals" happening at locations via Local Scout? (Remember what they showed at the WP8 summit with local scout? I think one of the nearby bars had a drink special - I forget what it was - and it mentioned sales at other places)) Voice via TellMe being able to control apps now? Improved (true?) multitasking.. yadda yadda. There is a lot to be excited about.
The internal changes have to translate to external improvements that an ordinary consumer can see & touch. No normal person cares about the NT kernel, but what does this phone do that an iPhone or Android cannot?
Can we see the Bluetooth settings?
Thanks and God bless
Andrew
I'm not sure what people are expecting from WP8, or from a 10 minute video from an SDK version, made, although certainly with the best intentions but not very thorough.
Back to iPhone, et cetera.
Its currently showing that they took WP7.x, ripped out Windows CE, and put Windows 8 Core inside at centre but changed very little about the user experience.

From a usability perspective, we've yet to see any more features.
The emulator might have had those things in it. Maybe not.
Basically, as many others have said, WP8 needs to really iron out all those small things.
For me, one would be like the new Do Not Disturb feature in iOS.
(The kind of thing Blackberry has had for years, with profiles and emerfency numbers)
Otherwise it will be seen as "behind", less sales, less apps development and support.
And as I user I will be dissapointed. I'm hoping MS prove our worst fears wrong.
The automatic syncing of settings, photos and videos, and SMS is awesome. Really like the cloud storage for Xbox Music as well and the automatic Bing wallpaper. The wallet features look really nice as well and putting Bing Vision in the camera is super useful. Now when I'm in a store and I want to comparison shop I just have to press the camera button on the phone and select Bing Vision. Don't even have to unlock the phone to do an in-store price check. Also should be useful for a quick language translation when I'm visiting other countries.
I liked the backup options, and I really want to know about vpn support, but it obvious WPC couldn't focus on every detail (or lack of it).
What about "Tell me " feature, holding start ??
I really hope that they made TellMe service advanced like iPhone, I really love it if they did..
I won't compare it to the iPhone, but they did talk about tell me getting more features
Oh ok cool thanks!
I'm married so I hope they add a pocket psychologist (AKA a shrink !) that cant be held up in court !

JK :)
Built in maps Daniel. If you can check that out in the next video that would be awesome. I didn't see it in the apps list tho...
I keep hearing that Nokia Drive will also be included in Windows 8. I love this feature on my gf's Lumia 710, and it would be awesome if it was in every Windows 8 phone.
Could we see the maps?