Microsoft showcases the Photos app for Windows 8

Microsoft’s upcoming Windows 8 operating system is going to be a giant shift in terms of design and interface. The company recently mentioned on the MSDN blog that Windows 8 was going to support HD video calling, 3D video and adaptive bitrate streaming and now they’ve updated the blog to introduce the new Photos app. With the new Photos app, users can connect their Microsoft account to services like Facebook and Flickr to get all the photos and all those memories by simply signing in to Windows 8. There is seamless integration with Windows Phone as well, so you can simply sync all your photos using SkyDrive. This makes the Photos app in Windows 8 a great way to show off your photos without having to huddle around a phone. Even though you took your photos on your phone, you can view them on your PC, just about as fast as you can take them.

Looks beautiful

Because Windows 8 is optimized for a landscape orientation, the Photos app works in the same way. The view shows a photo just big enough to enjoy, but small enough to see more than one at a time. If you want to see more of your pictures at once, you can simply pinch to zoom out, and you’ll see a thumbnail view of your collection. Besides that, you can also view a photo in full size, allowing you to view a single photo at a time. Another feature that they’ve spoken about on the blog is the SkyDrive Desktop App. If you install the SkyDrive desktop app, you can choose to have all of your photos automatically sent and saved to SkyDrive. Any PC with the SkyDrive desktop app installed will show up in the Photos app. So by simply running SkyDrive desktop app on the PC(s) where all your photos reside, the Photos app will reach back to that PC, so that you can look at your old photos, alongside your recent ones. You’ll soon be revisiting photos you forgot you had.

New features added

Importing has been taken care of, as well. When you plug your camera in to your PC, all you have to do is pick the Photos app as your importer. After you import your photos, if you don’t have time to organize them, all of your photos can always be viewed by date, so it’s easy to browse through large collections of photos. Other features include a new homescreen and a picker feature that lets you grab photos from sites and PCs. Using SkyDrive allows you to send a lot of photos without having to worry about file size limitations, either. A couple of new additions there, but the most important part is that the user interface looks simply beautiful and it seems that Microsoft has taken great care in the overall feel. The entire post on the new Photos app and its features can be read here.