Windows 8: Built-in Apps & the Power of the Cloud
Find out why your Microsoft account is like a portable, personal PC as we explore the various cloud-connected, built-in Modern-style apps in Windows 8 (such as Mail, Calendar, People, and SkyDrive) in this fifth installment of our Windows 8 series of articles.
Cloud Services Re-imagined
Believe it or not, despite the apparent successes of the Hotmail web email service (350 million active users, 105 petabytes of storage), Messenger instant messaging (IM) service (300 million active users), and SkyDrive file hosting service (130 million users), Microsoft feels that its cloud services still fall short of providing users a truly connected experience. Chris Jones, VP of the Windows Live group, said it best when he reasoned that's because in the past "Windows Live services and apps were built on versions of Windows that were simply not designed to be connected to a cloud service for anything other than updates, and as a result, they felt “bolted on” to the experience."
With Windows 8, the Windows team took on the monumental task to revamp Windows Live. The goal is make services and software a seamless part of the Windows experience, accessible in both desktop and Modern-style apps, web browsers, and on mobile devices.
Microsoft Account
In Windows 8, you now have the ability to sign in to the OS with a Microsoft account. What's a Microsoft account? We've talked about it briefly in this previous article, but in a gist, it's a new name for what used to be called a 'Windows Live ID'. If you use Microsoft services like Hotmail, Xbox Live, SkyDrive, or have a Windows Phone, you already have a Microsoft account that you can use to sign in to Windows 8.
If you don't have a Microsoft account, you can sign up for one at signup.live.com. You're also prompted to do so when you first setup Windows 8.
Of course, the cloud enables way more than the mere syncing of device personalization settings. When you sign up for a Microsoft account, you're automatically provisioned with a set of Microsoft cloud services, including an inbox, IM, a calendar, contact list, and 7GB worth of SkyDrive cloud storage. And there's a corresponding Modern-style app for each of them in Windows 8, namely, Mail, Messaging, Calendar, People, and SkyDrive. In fact, when you sign in to your Windows 8 PC using your Microsoft account, you'll also be signed in automatically to these services. But what if you were to sign in using a local account? Well, you'd still need a Microsoft account to use the various cloud-connected, Modern-style apps.
In addition, these cloud services are shared between Microsoft products and services. For example, if you add an appointment into the Calendar app in Windows 8, it'll also show up in the Calendar app on your Windows Phone. Your contact list is also shared across devices (Windows 8 PCs, Windows Phones) and services (Outlook.com, Messenger, SkyDrive). Your shared photo albums also appear in SkyDrive, as well as in the Photos app. Now, don't be mistaken: it's okay too if you aren't a user of other Microsoft products. Because the cloud services have their own web component, you can still get to your content on other manufacturers' devices, usually via an app or through the Internet browser.
Without a doubt, Windows 8 is the most cloud-centric OS Microsoft has ever put out. And Microsoft's proposition is a compelling one: when your apps, games, music, photos, files, and settings are also stored in the cloud, you can access them from virtually anywhere.
So without further ado, let us take a look at some of these built-in, cloud-connected apps.
Mail, Messaging & Calendar Apps
To communicate with your family, friends, and co-workers, the two apps to use are Mail and Messaging. Now, it'll be foolhardy for Microsoft to allow integration with only its own services - thankfully, that's not the case. In Mail, besides Hotmail and Outlook (including Exchange, of course), you can also add Gmail, AOL, and Yahoo! Mail accounts. We like that messages from different parties in the same email thread are grouped together so that it's easy to follow the conversation. You can even pin email accounts to the Start screen so that you can see new mail on the live tile without opening the Mail app. You can also configure accounts from other email providers if you know things like the account type and incoming and outgoing email server settings.
On the other hand, Messaging supports Microsoft Messenger and Facebook. Sorely missing is support for Google Talk and Twitter, which is strange considering both Google and Twitter accounts are supported in the People app (more on that later).
Like all other Modern-style apps, Mail takes up the whole screen when opened. Naturally, it supports more than just Microsoft email services.
In addition to Exchange ActiveSync, Mail also supports both IMAP and POP accounts.
Accessing options like adding an attachment, adjusting the font style, and changing the text color isn't obvious initially. What you need to do is to swipe down from the top edge of the screen to reveal them.
You can pin an email account to the Start screen. When a new email arrives, you can see it on the live tile.
For Messaging, there's no IM or chat support for other services beyond Messenger and Facebook.
Surprisingly, the Messaging app can't use the Share Charm. Hopefully this and support for more accounts will come in a future update.
The Calendar app supports Hotmail, Outlook, and Google accounts, and is able to combine information from multiple accounts, and present them in either a single day, week, or month view. It also supports live tile updates, so you can see upcoming events from the Start screen. You can even choose to see upcoming appointments on the lock screen.
Hotmail, Outlook, and Google accounts are supported in the Calendar app. Will there ever be support for Apple's iCloud?
By default, the Calendar app uses a month view. You choose also choose from a day or week view.
In PC Settings > Personalize, Lock screen, you can choose to have the Calendar app show quick or detailed status.
People App
The People app can be viewed as an aggregator for all your social networks, or as Microsoft puts it, a 'fully connected address book'. That's because when you connect your Microsoft account to services like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, your contacts from these networks will also show up in the People app. For the nerds among us, this is possible by way of standards and APIs such as Exchange ActiveSync (EAS), OAuth, and REST. Through the People app, you can quickly drop your contacts an email, see their status updates, and comment on their social activities and photos. Choose 'What's new' to see a summary of the latest happenings across your social networks. You can also drill down to a single contact, and see what he or she is up to lately. But what if you've the same person listed in two or more different networks? The People app will try to link them up, and present them in a single contact card.
Again, don't be mistaken that only the built-in apps like Mail and Messaging have access to the contact list. Other apps too can take advantage of it too. For example, since the People app supports the Share 'contract' (as a target), if you were to chance upon an interesting article in Internet Explorer, you can share it on Facebook or Twitter through this app that's listed in the Share Charm.
All in all, the People app is the best Modern-style app on Windows 8 by Microsoft so far.
Facebook, Hotmail, Twitter, Outlook, LinkedIn, and Google accounts are supported in the People app.
Under the People view, contacts are arranged alphabetically. For people you can care more about, you can 'favorite' them so that they appear at the front of the list. Or better yet, pin them to the Start screen!
Select a contact to bring the personal contact card. Here, you can see all the contact's contact information, and things that he or she has posted.
Choose 'What's new' to keep yourself up to date with the latest happenings across your social networks. You can 'like' and comment on a Facebook post, and retweet or reply to a tweet. To open a link, just tap on it. But like all Modern-style apps that present content, be prepared to keep scrolling horizontally.
The Me view lets you see and edit your own contact information. You can also see your own What's new feed, pending requests, and photos you've posted on configured accounts.
The People app works great as the secondary app in snap multi-tasking mode too: you can focus on your work, and keep track of the latest happenings on your social networks at the same time.
SkyDrive App
Another major component for getting you connected to your files is SkyDrive. It's a service that allows you to access documents, photos, and even music and videos as and when you need them, on any of your PCs or on the SkyDrive website. For road warriors, a SkyDrive app is also available for Android, iOS, and Windows Phone devices. Better yet, SkyDrive works with Office Web Apps, so that you can easily access, author, and share Office documents on any device that has a web browser.
Windows 8 comes pre-installed with a Modern-style SkyDrive app, and you'll see the tile on your Start screen. Run it, and you'll notice that it's already signed using your Microsoft account. As mentioned earlier, you're given 7GB of SkyDrive storage space for free (long-time users may have as much as 25GB), and if that isn't enough, you can pay Microsoft an annual fee to get more space (additional 20GB, 50GB, and 100GB plans are available).
When you first run the SkyDrive app, you're given the option to watch a short promo video of the service. By default, you've three folders in your SkyDrive storage: Documents, Photos, and Public.
Swipe down from the top edge of the screen to reveal more commands. For example, you can create a new folder or select files to upload to SkyDrive.
By default, folders and content are presented in the 'Details' view: you see details like the name, creation date, and size beside a small thumbnail.
The other view is the 'Thumbnails' view, which basically presents your files in giant thumbnails (for documents, file names will be shown as well).
You'll be asked to select files to upload when you click on 'Upload' in the commands bar. To move up the files hierarchy, you can press 'Go up'. The Documents, Music, Pictures, and Videos libraries here correspond to the libraries you see in File Explorer on the desktop.
Alternatively, you can press the downward-pointing arrow at the top to reveal a list of locations, including from other apps.
To download a file, select it first then reveal the app commands to get to the Download option. You can also rename, delete, or move the file, or choose a different app to open it.
Searching the SkyDrive app is also possible.
Of course, you can also use the Share Charm to mail or share a file with other people. You can't share more than one item at a time though.
For the most part, the Modern-style SkyDrive app is best used for uploading files to and downloading existing files from SkyDrive. For more granular control such as configuring Windows 8 libraries with SkyDrive folders, you'd be better served with the desktop SkyDrive app. You can get it here, or as part of the Windows Essentials 2012 suite of apps. This app will create a SkyDrive folder on your PC, and everything you put in it (and any changes thereafter) will be synced between all your PCs and SkyDrive in the cloud. Especially for those who prefer working with directories and folders, the File Explorer UI provides a more familiar user experience. For Mac users, there’s also a desktop SkyDrive app for OS X.
This is how the online version of SkyDrive looks like. Notice the Modern UI similarities?
Prefer to access your SkyDrive right from File Explorer on the traditional desktop? Well, there's an app for that.
Apps, Apps & More Apps
Besides Mail, Messaging, Calendar, People, and SkyDrive, Microsoft has also created a few more Modern-style apps for Windows 8. Here's a summary of some of the more prominent ones.
- Photos
As the name suggests, the Photos app is where you see all your photos. It pulls images from your Pictures library, SkyDrive, Facebook, as well as Filckr accounts. It can also show photos from other devices, such as a network share. It supports searching, sharing, and printing. Except for cropping and rotating, there's not a lot of editing you can do with your photos in this app.
- Xbox Music, Xbox Video & Xbox Games
Announced very recently, Xbox Music (via the Music app) is an all-in-one music service with millions of songs which users can stream, download, and own. If you've an Xbox Music Pass, you get unlimited access to songs on your Windows 8 or Windows RT devices, Windows Phone 8 devices, and Xbox 360. Without a paid subscription, free streaming is limited to 10 hours per month after the first six months. Support for Android and iOS devices will come next year. You can also add and playback locally stored music in the Music app.
Similarly, movies you buy in Xbox Video (via the Video app) are available for playback both on Windows 8 and on your Xbox 360. You can also add and playback locally stored videos in the Video app.
Besides discovering and buying games, the Xbox Live Games (via the Games app) allows you to connect and play with friends. You can also create your own gamer avatar.
- Bing Maps & Bing Search
Bing Maps (via the Maps app) provides location and direction services so that you can find and get to places faster. You can pinpoint locations, get directions, check traffic conditions, and more.
For Web search, you can try the Bing app. A beautifully designed app (apparent when you're searching for images), it supports the Search Charm so that you can initiate a Bing search from anywhere in Windows 8. It works great in snap multi-tasking mode too: with search results displayed in a list on one side and Internet Explorer on the other, you can go through webpages without ever leaving search.
- Reader
With the Reader app, you can read PDF, XPS, or OXPS documents. You can even highlight and add text annotations on your PDFs. Printing and sharing are also supported. In a nutshell, it's a simple but effective PDF reader for those who don't want to use Adobe Reader.
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