Windows Phone 8: what you need to know

Windows Phone 7.5 Mango may have only have appeared in October, with the smaller Windows Phone Tango update due soon.

But already rumours are flying about Windows Phone 8, Microsoft's next-gen phone OS, codenamed Apollo.

Here's everything we know about Windows Phone Apollo so far.

Windows Phone 8 release date

According to a roadmap leaked late last year, the Tango update for Windows phone will come out in Q2 this year and Apollo follows in Q4; probably late October like Mango.

Windows Phone 8 kernel

The biggest news revealed regarding Windows Phone 8 is how many components of the Windows 8 architecture it will include: networking, security, multimedia support – and at least part of the kernel.

Although Microsoft dismissed the details in the video as just "a wishlist" after the leak, a Microsoft job advert from last year suggests the situation may be more advanced, talking about system software that will run "in user-mode and kernel-mode".

That's not another way of saying native code and managed code (although there are changes there); user mode and kernel mode are two security levels in the Windows NT kernel in desktop versions of Windows, used to give programs different levels of access to the system. If they're coming to Windows Phone 8, it's a strong argument for the kernel now being based on Windows.

Windows Phone 8 for developers

There is more native code access in Apollo too. Developers can already write native code on Windows Phone today – but only if they're working for an OEM or directly with Microsoft.

Opening that up to more developers would let them create more powerful apps and would explain references in the video to making it easier to take apps designed for Windows 8 and bring them to the phone, especially as apps will now be able to pass information between each other using similar mechanisms to the 'contracts' for searching and sharing in Windows 8.

Perhaps that will finally allow you to take screenshots of your phone too…

Developers and phone makers – especially Nokia – will get much more control when they write software to work with the camera; these 'lenses' will let them add features or change the interface of what Windows Phone chief Joe Belfiore called the "basic" built-in camera app in the leaked video..

Windows Phone 8 SkyDrive

Windows Phone 8 will share data with PCs more seamlessly, via SkyDrive; accessing music from your PC and using a new sync tool instead of the Zune PC software. Another Windows Phone job advert talks about a "next generation architecture for backup and migration of settings and data on the phone".

That would be useful for switching to a new handset but it might also let you share bookmarks with a Windows 8 device using the same Windows Live account.

Apollo also gets a mobile version of the IE10 browser which will work with Microsoft proxy services that compress Web pages by up to 30% so they load faster and use less of your monthly data contract.

If you're on Wi-Fi, the phone will use that instead of 3G (Local Scout will include details of Wi-Fi hotspots nearby) and a DataSmart app, much like the mobile broadband features in Windows 8, will show you data usage stats on a live tile and let you manage how you use your data allowance.

Windows Phone 8 Skype

There are two things delaying Skype for Windows Phone. One is simply writing the code; Skype needs to be rewritten both for Windows 8 using the WinRT framework so it works in Metro-style applications and Windows Phone 8.

But with Windows Phone 8 getting more Windows 8 technologies, that means less work to redo. The other is architecting Skype so it's not a battery hog.

We're hearing conflicting reports on whether Skype will be fully integrated on Apollo, a separate app or – perhaps more likely – a component that carriers can choose to include or leave out.

The leaked video also promises another VoIP standard called RCSe which handset makers and carriers started talking up last year as something that would be included on many different handsets out of the box. Both options will be integrated into apps like the address book so you can directly, instead of going through a separate app.