Microsoft has had a huge news week, with Microsoft Surface and announcing the new Windows Phone 8 Phone Operating System, they’ve just been about everywhere on the news.
But, let’s jump over Microsoft Surface, and talk about the new Windows Phone 8, and what’s different from Windows Phone 7.
Well, you may be laughing, but Windows Phone 7 is a revolutionary Phone OS, and beautiful as well. The Metro interface is genius. WIth WIndows Phone 8, they’ve put even more work into the Start Screen, which you can see below.
The new Windows Phone 8 (Image via The Verge)
The biggest and most obvious difference is the fact that now the tiles are in various sizes.
“We’re going to have three sizes of live tiles, small, medium, and large,”
-Greg Sullivan; Microsoft
The new Wallet for Windows Phone 8 (Image via The Verge)
Microsoft also announced NFC support today. Simply put, NFC allows you to simply tap a surface with your phone, and the phone will do an action. The most frequent use will be for Wallet, similar to Google Wallet, which allows you to tap your phone in a retail environment, and pay for products, instead of using a Credit Card.
For the new Wallet app, Microsoft has partnered with Chase Bank, and Orange France.
Microsoft has also announced Skype Integration as well, including a Skype app (finally).
Nokia Maps, which is arguably better than the existing Bing Maps, will also be included in the OS.
Microsoft has not yet announced availability, but is guessing Fall 2012 for new phones running Windows Phone 8.
Below, you can see a great video introducing the new Start Screen.
