Microsoft prompted a few sighs of relief from would-be Windows Phone 7 owners using Macs rather than PCs, when the company confirmed earlier this month that it would be releasing a sync tool to easily transfer content between the two platforms. We've been using the Windows Phone 7 Connector for Mac for the past week; read on for all the details.
A while ago woot.com had a deal on refurbished Zunes. I got me a 30 GB white one and people were like 'What in the hells man? You have a Mac!' Right they were, I do have a mac. But it was 30Gbs of sweet mp3 storage for a hundred bucks! As a Mac user with a penchant for non-iPod MP3 players, I often feel left out in the cold, especially when I see shiny new devices like the Zune HD. Sure, I could always use Boot Camp, but I.
Zune HD finally comes to the Mac! ZuneBoards' nate8nate sniffed out a hidden setting in the Mac version of Windows Phone Connector that allows the ZuneHD to sync just like a Windows Phone device. Surprisingly, the hack is pretty simple (setting the boolean value ZuneEnabled to true), which also likely means there's a reason this was turned off. I am trying to connect my Nokia Lumia 610 to my Mac OS X Lion 10.7.4, however the mac is not recognising its plugged in, and the phone is not showing its connected either (charging but not recognised as media device). Zune Social Discover, share, and connect with the Zune Social, a free online community that lets you share your musical tastes with friends and millions others. Customize your Zune Card and Zune profile page with your favorite music and pictures. Then connect and share Zune Cards, music, and messages with friends and other members of the community.
Unlike the full Zune suite for PC, the Mac equivalent – currently in beta – is a far more low-key affair. In fact, it's more like ActiveSync from the Windows Mobile days, a simple bridge between local content and what's on your smartphone. Rather than taking responsibility for all your music, photos and video, it relies on iTunes and iPhoto.
Plug in a Windows Phone 7 device, and it automatically begins synchronising: photos and video taken with the smartphone's camera are imported into iPhoto. Meanwhile the Connector app ties into iTunes for music, photos, video, movies & TV shows, and podcasts. There's a fair degree of granularity in what you can select to sync, too; music, for instance, can be selected by playlist, genre or artist (or indeed all of your content, minus anything iTunes protected that Windows Phone 7 can't play, and which won't be listed). For photos & video, you can choose whether or not to pull video content down to the phone, and then select photos by event, album or iPhoto-recognized faces.
Zune Mac
Movies & TV shows – again, as long as they're not DRM protected – can be individually selected, as can podcasts. Alternatively syncing for each category can be turned off altogether. Finally there's the option to browse the Windows Phone 7 itself, though beyond deleting items from the list of photos and video, there's nothing you can actually do from here. There isn't even a way to preview content stored on the phone.
The UI of the Connector is very 'Apple', with an iTunes-like capacity bar running along the bottom of the display showing you how much space is left on your smartphone and how much is taken up by each category of content. Settings are minimal: you can rename the phone, choose whether to auto-sync on connection (a Connector icon is added to the menu bar at the top of the screen), whether to pull in content from the phone to the Mac, whether photos in iPhoto should be resized before they're transferred to the handset, and whether music information from the Zune service should be synced. There are also global content-delete and ignore-device options.
Zune Connector For Mac Catalina
It all works, and we're glad Microsoft resisted the urge to recreate the wheel and try to get Windows Phone 7 users to migrate from iTunes to an app of their own development, or indeed balance two media collections simultaneously. We'd like to see more content management control from within the phone browsing pane – it doesn't seem like too much to ask to be able to drag photos directly out and into a Finder window or an email – but otherwise there are reasonable options to choose how the non-expandable storage of your Windows Phone 7 device is used up. Mac users will be able to download Connector from October 24 2010.
Considering a Windows Phone 7 device? Check out our reviews of the HTC 7 Mozart, HTC Surround and Samsung Focus
If you've adopted a Windows Phone 7 device but still hang on to your Mac or your large iTunes collection, then you should be glad to know that Microsoft just released a new app to help you sync up everything. This app is called the Windows Phone 7 Connector and is available now for free download from the App Store.
4VBNRBDfsGvw~~_35.JPG?set_idu003d89040003C1 "Zune Connector For Mac")
Zune HD finally comes to the Mac! ZuneBoards' nate8nate sniffed out a hidden setting in the Mac version of Windows Phone Connector that allows the ZuneHD to sync just like a Windows Phone device. Surprisingly, the hack is pretty simple (setting the boolean value ZuneEnabled to true), which also likely means there's a reason this was turned off. I am trying to connect my Nokia Lumia 610 to my Mac OS X Lion 10.7.4, however the mac is not recognising its plugged in, and the phone is not showing its connected either (charging but not recognised as media device). Zune Social Discover, share, and connect with the Zune Social, a free online community that lets you share your musical tastes with friends and millions others. Customize your Zune Card and Zune profile page with your favorite music and pictures. Then connect and share Zune Cards, music, and messages with friends and other members of the community.
Unlike the full Zune suite for PC, the Mac equivalent – currently in beta – is a far more low-key affair. In fact, it's more like ActiveSync from the Windows Mobile days, a simple bridge between local content and what's on your smartphone. Rather than taking responsibility for all your music, photos and video, it relies on iTunes and iPhoto.
Plug in a Windows Phone 7 device, and it automatically begins synchronising: photos and video taken with the smartphone's camera are imported into iPhoto. Meanwhile the Connector app ties into iTunes for music, photos, video, movies & TV shows, and podcasts. There's a fair degree of granularity in what you can select to sync, too; music, for instance, can be selected by playlist, genre or artist (or indeed all of your content, minus anything iTunes protected that Windows Phone 7 can't play, and which won't be listed). For photos & video, you can choose whether or not to pull video content down to the phone, and then select photos by event, album or iPhoto-recognized faces.
Zune Mac
Movies & TV shows – again, as long as they're not DRM protected – can be individually selected, as can podcasts. Alternatively syncing for each category can be turned off altogether. Finally there's the option to browse the Windows Phone 7 itself, though beyond deleting items from the list of photos and video, there's nothing you can actually do from here. There isn't even a way to preview content stored on the phone.
The UI of the Connector is very 'Apple', with an iTunes-like capacity bar running along the bottom of the display showing you how much space is left on your smartphone and how much is taken up by each category of content. Settings are minimal: you can rename the phone, choose whether to auto-sync on connection (a Connector icon is added to the menu bar at the top of the screen), whether to pull in content from the phone to the Mac, whether photos in iPhoto should be resized before they're transferred to the handset, and whether music information from the Zune service should be synced. There are also global content-delete and ignore-device options.
Zune Connector For Mac Catalina
It all works, and we're glad Microsoft resisted the urge to recreate the wheel and try to get Windows Phone 7 users to migrate from iTunes to an app of their own development, or indeed balance two media collections simultaneously. We'd like to see more content management control from within the phone browsing pane – it doesn't seem like too much to ask to be able to drag photos directly out and into a Finder window or an email – but otherwise there are reasonable options to choose how the non-expandable storage of your Windows Phone 7 device is used up. Mac users will be able to download Connector from October 24 2010.
Considering a Windows Phone 7 device? Check out our reviews of the HTC 7 Mozart, HTC Surround and Samsung Focus
If you've adopted a Windows Phone 7 device but still hang on to your Mac or your large iTunes collection, then you should be glad to know that Microsoft just released a new app to help you sync up everything. This app is called the Windows Phone 7 Connector and is available now for free download from the App Store.
With the Windows Phone 7 Connector app, you can sync photos, music, and movies from your existing iTunes library. You can also sync photos and videos from your existing iPhoto library. The app also allows you to sync music and movies to a Zune HD.
System updates for your Windows Phone device can also be downloaded and installed from this app. However, the app doesn't seem to support syncing of iCal and Mail contact data.
[Via Business Insider]
