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Upcoming Microsoft App for iPhone Aims to Make Photo Transfers to Windows 10 Easier

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macrumors bot
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Apr 12, 2001
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Microsoft looks set to release a new iOS app for Windows 10 users in the coming months that lets them transfer photos from their Apple devices to their PCs more easily.

Companion-App.jpg

First discovered by Italian blog Aggiornamenti Lumia, the companion app is said to support the fast transfer of photos and videos from Apple smartphones to PCs provided they're connected to the same Wi-Fi network. The app appeared briefly as an update on the Windows Insider "Fast Channel" and should become available to all Windows 10 testers soon.

The app seems to be for people who don't use Microsoft's OneDrive cloud backup service, as it replicates some features already available in the OneDrive app, which lets users upload pictures from an iPhone and import them directly into the Windows 10 Photos application.

The new software is part of Microsoft's wider mobile strategy to improve its iOS offerings, now that Windows 10 Mobile hardware is no longer a focus for the company. Microsoft officially ended support for Windows Phone back in July, and is no longer developing new features or hardware for Windows 10 Mobile.

(Via The Verge.)

Article Link: Upcoming Microsoft App for iPhone Aims to Make Photo Transfers to Windows 10 Easier
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2017/11/29/new-microsoft-ios-photos-app-windows-10/
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pika2000

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Jun 22, 2007
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OneDrive already has a feature that automatically upload photos to the cloud, and a correctly configured Windows PC should see the photos on their PCs automagically.
I am guessing:
1. Nobody is using OneDrive
2. Even those who does, MS is incompetent in integrating OneDrive and Windows in terms of photos, thus making this shortcut bypassing their services entirely.

I wonder if it is more reliable to just use iCloud for Windows.
 
G

gaanee

macrumors 65816
Dec 8, 2011
1,433
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With this app, Microsoft is trying to keep Desktop Windows relevant by playing nice with iOS on mobile. More compelling reason for using MS app on iOS would be offering unlimited photo storage on OneDrive like what Google does with Google Photos. Apple doesn't have much incentive by offering free storage but MS and Google do.
 
Stella

Stella

macrumors G3
Apr 21, 2003
8,838
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Canada
gaanee said:
With this app, Microsoft is trying to keep Desktop Windows relevant by playing nice with iOS on mobile. More compelling reason for using MS app on iOS would be offering unlimited photo storage on OneDrive like what Google does with Google Photos. Apple doesn't have much incentive by offering free storage but MS and Google do.
Click to expand...

Windows is still extremely relevant. It is by far the most used operating system world wide.

Come out of your apple shell and into the real world.

Apple don't do unlimited free storage because it knows it can sell it for $. Google have their own business model for generating revenue by offering free storage.
 
Menel

Menel

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Aug 4, 2011
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Wonder how well itll work. I dont use OneDrive only because it doesnt maintain authentication day tomday. Gets weary having to go through the authentication over and over. Gave up.
 
gim

gim

macrumors 6502
Jul 27, 2014
441
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Stella said:
Windows is still extremely relevant. It is by far the most used operating system world wide.

Come out of your apple shell and into the real world.
Click to expand...

I’m a big MSFT fan, but I’m afraid this is not true anymore. Android is the most used OS in the world, there have been dozens of articles about that earlier this year.

Of course Windows is still very relevant, but it’s a fact that it’s continuously losing its relevance as mobile operating systems gain importance.

Regarding the topic, I’d really love to see Live Photo and native support for the new high-efficiency photo and video formats in Windows 10.
 
T

Tgrey

macrumors regular
Nov 4, 2013
154
27
is copy/paste easier? copy photos from pc to iPhone is more difficult to achieve...
 
G

gaanee

macrumors 65816
Dec 8, 2011
1,433
244
Yes, Windows is very much relevant on PC, the point is MS having given up on mobile platform is now developing these apps for linking iOS to Windows.
Stella said:
Windows is still extremely relevant. It is by far the most used operating system world wide.

Come out of your apple shell and into the real world.

Apple don't do unlimited free storage because it knows it can sell it for $. Google have their own business model for generating revenue by offering free storage.
Click to expand...
 
E

EatinPonies

macrumors regular
Feb 15, 2016
143
240
This will be VERY welcome. You guys are all talking about how easy it is to use iCloud or OneDrive or whatever, but those solutions all cost more money. I have about 1TB of photos over a couple decades, and they're all stored on my home file server running Windows 10. They all get uploaded to Google Photos and backed up to the cloud with BackBlaze. I shouldn't need to pay more money to somehow get the photos from my phone to my PC.

Windows 7 had a fantastic photo import tool built-in. Then, they stripped out features and expected you to use Windows Photo Gallery as part of the Windows Essentials bundle, and then they crippled everything and it's all terrible now. If Microsoft gets this right, it will bring back features that Windows 7 had built-in... And with the mention that it may also be wireless transfer? Pair that with HEIF/HEIC support and we will have a winner on our hands, people.
 
G

gaanee

macrumors 65816
Dec 8, 2011
1,433
244
gaanee said:
Yes, Windows is very much relevant on PC, not arguing about that. The point is MS having given up on mobile platform is now developing these apps for linking iOS to Windows, so that you can bring your data (photos, videos, notes, docs...) to the PC.
Click to expand...
 
ksnell

ksnell

macrumors 6502a
Aug 26, 2012
721
1,222
QuarterSwede said:
I just use iCloud on Windows. It’s all sync’d and ready to browse as soon as the picture is taken. I don’t see this as an issue that MS needed to solve.
Click to expand...

It probably offers a good solution to those with Windows 10 who do not want to subscribe to an iCloud plan, which I am sure Microsoft fully supports.

If Microsoft isn't getting the cloud service revenue, they don't want anyone to.
 
convergent

convergent

macrumors 68040
May 6, 2008
3,034
3,082
dino12 said:
You and me both. I have been trying to get it working for two months and all i get is this.
View attachment 739070
Click to expand...

When I tried to setup this on my Surface Pro, I let it stay there about 5 minutes before removing it. It was a pretty antiquated and seemingly outdated installation process that didn't leave me confident. Maybe I gave up on it too quickly, but doesn't matter now because I moved away from the iPhone.

There are a lot of solutions out there, as others have said, but I welcome anything that is believed to make it simpler. Options are a good thing. One problem Microsoft does have is that they tend to put out a lot of overlapping things, and this may be one of them.
 
C

cameronjpu

macrumors 65816
Aug 24, 2007
1,367
78
szw-mapple fan said:
iCloud photos comes with installations of iCloud on windows.
Click to expand...

But there is no synchronization. All it does is download all pictures in your library. And yes you can manually upload pictures as well. But the synchronization of pictures, edits, albums and the like is impossible. And there’s just no reason for that. Apple doesn’t seem to realize that selling iPhones is where it makes money. So making the iPhone experience worse for the 90% of the world who uses a PC instead of a Mac is a stupid, stupid business decision
 
J

Juiceboy

macrumors regular
Mar 10, 2011
181
103
If it makes exporting huge video files easier i'm all for it. I'm so bummed that even the iPhone X doesn't support USB 3 transfer speeds :(
 
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