Windows Phone 7 Connector for Mac updated, includes custom ringtone support

By Tom Warren, on 27th Nov 11 4:57 pm with 59 Comments

Microsoft issued a new update to its Windows Phone 7 Connector for Mac this week.

The update includes support for custom ringtones and the ability to drag and drop files from the device onto a Mac. Microsoft has also issued some bug fixes as part of the update, including additional error codes, connectivity fixes for certain devices and album art display issues.

The Windows Phone 7 Connector for Mac, allows Mac users to sync their Windows Phone 7 devices with iTunes and iPhoto. Windows Phone 7 Mac users are able to sync Music, Videos and Photos to their phones. The Windows Phone Connector sits on top of Apple’s iTunes/iPhoto for Mac and interacts with both software programs using public APIs.

You can download the Windows Phone 7 Connector for Mac 2.01 update at Apple’s Mac App Store.

Features:

  • Full sync and import support for Apple Aperture software
  • Drag and drop import of files from Browse Device
  • Ringtone transfer support (for phones running Windows Phone 7.5 or later)
  • Improved video conversion process with user configuration options
  • Support for Windows Phone Marketplace (for phones running Windows Phone 7.5 or later)
  • Localization support for 13 additional languages
  • Improvements to backup and restore operations
  • Improved configuration for podcast sync and photo import
  • Improved iTunes import support in certain languages
  • Improved metadata support for videos

Fixes:

  • Added additional error codes and help references for device update
  • Resolved connectivity issues with certain devices
  • Resolved album art display issues for certain devices

Windows Phone 7 Connector for Mac 2.0

  • Anonymous

    Very cool.

  • Anonymous

    They still make Macs?

    • Anonymous

      That’s so funny, considering the increasing market share they enjoy at Windows’ expense.

    • Anonymous

      The few people I know who own a Mac also own a Windows PC. Feel free to come back to reality whenever you’re ready for it.

    • Anonymous

      W00t, I’m one of em.  Love em both!

    • Anonymous

      Oh, please, what a weak argument and silly person you are! You show great weakness when you attack the person, but you provide no arguments…

      The people you know? Wow, that is quite the *sample* of the world population! Do you even understand that your friends are probably as narrow minded as you?

      A lot of people own both PCs and Macs, that doesn’t stop the actual *sales trends* from reporting the fact that Apple is increasing their market share day by day. Why deny the facts, oh, **you** are the one out of touch with reality!

    • http://twitter.com/laserfloyd Lewis McCrary

      A lot of people even run Windows on their Macs.  Just sayin’!

    • Anonymous

      That’s hardly a claim supported by evidence.

    • GP007

      You should remember that while they’re selling more Macs, how many of those end up booting into windows as the default?   

    • Guest

      Very few that I know of. I’d guess less than 20%.

    • Anonymous

      A very, very small amount according to other measurements (such as visitor numbers on websites and ad companies).

      You have some strange reasoning, very few Mac users boot Windows by default. Quite a few however also run virtual machines with Windows now and then.

  • http://twitter.com/pierrerv Pierre Venescar

    haaah!!! can’t stand that mac user interface

    • Jl

      I must say it doesn’t appeal to me either.

    • Anonymous

      but why ? i have both PC and Mac gonna buy a new macbook air soon and dump PC, the Mac interface is super amazing while that of pc is not ?
      why doesnt it appeal to you ?

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Jairo-Luciano-Alves/100002545369889 Jairo Luciano Alves

      Maybe I’m not magic enough to grasp the greatness of the Mac design. :(  heheeh, just joking, ok :) .

      It’s just that I really feel more productive working with windows UI, although I think this is down to a personal preference, so everyone knows what fits better for oneself.

    • Gu

      Mac isn’t really user-friendly. I’ve been trying out mac for a couple of hours and never find anything too format an USB stick. Or even can’t find some decent control panel. Windows 7 is fully customizable while a Mac totally isn’t. Also the functionality that you find in Media Player you won’t find in iTunes.
      A lot of iPod, iPhone, iPad users are even frustrated by the interface of iTunes.
      I would really appreciate mac’s if they just sell Windows on it.

    • Anonymous

      @0657eef968e884accc64b954b266e761:disqus ”I’ve been trying out mac for a couple of hours and never find anything too format an USB stick.”: Disk Utility, It’s a one stop shop for everything storage related.
      “Or even can’t find some decent control panel.”: System preferences, same as control panel in the category view.
      “Windows 7 is fully customizable while a Mac totally isn’t”: Neither Windows or Mac are “fully customizable”, both are a little customizable out of the box for person preferences in a select few aspects.  Add-ons and other programs are available for both to do more in depth changes.  
      “Also the functionality that you find in Media Player you won’t find in iTunes.”: Like what?  I’ve found WMP to be less feature filled (to it’s advantage, ITunes is a fat POS)

    • Guest

      @39556a12d8fdd3fbbaede66ca24e9fae:disqus 
       I’m primarily a Windows user and prefer it overall, but I can’t agree that Mac is less user friendly. It’s a subjective discussion but I’d actually give OS X a small edge in that department, mostly because by definition it’s pretty locked down compared to Windows, so there’s less choices to confuse a novice. And certainly apps like iLife are easier to use. They’re integrated and have entire videos for new users. 
       
      You can format a USB the same way you would a hard drive: Disk Utility. It’s pretty straightforward. Actually OS X exposes some disk management capabilities that I’d like in Windows. The equivalent OS X control panel is more limited than Windows, but that’s what many like about a Mac. Media Player’s equivalent is iTunes. Maybe you meant Media Center? I’m not a huge fan of the iTunes UI, so I can’t accept that others don’t like it much either.

    • Anonymous

      but why ? i have both PC and Mac gonna buy a new macbook air soon and dump PC, the Mac interface is super amazing while that of pc is not ?
      clearly different people like different things

    • Anonymous

      He is talking about the WP connector application, which is kinda meh looking.  Too bad they didn’t port the full Zune player over.  

    • Anonymous

      You are describing one of the reasons I hate iTunes on Windows – they tried to make it look like a mac application. That just seems so inefficient to me – surely using the GUI built into the OS is better for the end user and also more efficient for resources on the machine?

    • Anonymous

      @mgk1969:disqus Hmm that is a good point. Maybe it is a good think they didn’t try to replace iTunes, but just supplemented it to bring WP compatibility.  

    • Guest

      Yeah, it looks exactly like iTunes: Meh. But I guess that unlike Apple, they strive to give users of a platform something familiar.

    • Guest

      Funny, your activity stream says you already bought the MBA. Which is it? And why do you clowns feel the need to convert others? If he prefers Windows that’s his choice.

  • Zikalify

    Love snow leopard hate lion. But Linux is greatest

    • http://twitter.com/OldCongress Gamer

      4 colour flag owns penguin !

    • Guest

      Yea, Linux is the greatest for wasting my spare time

    • Anonymous

      i agree i use mac,windows 7 and linux (ubuntu) and  ubuntu is the best then mac then finally shitty and ugly windows

    • Seth_p

      Uhm, okay? How do you define “greatest” – I use Linux day in and day out so I’m just curious. Are you talking about in IT infrastructure? Avg Consumers? Tech-enthusiests? Academic learners? IT Pro’s (engineers(soft/hard))?

      Not being an arse, but I’m just curious in what regards because Linux has it’s advantages/disadvantages in large polarity.

      Oh and what’s wrong with OS X Lion? They finally added resizing windows on all edges, that’s like magic! /s

    • Guest

      “Oh and what’s wrong with OS X Lion?”

      Buggy and bloated. Read the forums. One well known Mac fanboy even tweeted that he was really stoked that he spent $1500 on an MBA so that he could be a beta tester for Apple.

    • Seth_p

      /s is my sarcasm flag ;) 

  • Lists

    Great stuff only thing missing now is wireless sync

  • http://twitter.com/Pieter_Kroon Pieter Kroon

    Custom ringtone feature was already there in version 2.0….

    • Andrewbware

      for windows….not mac

    • Pieter Kroon

      Well, it was available for Mac. Since we’re talking about the Windows Phone connector for Mac. And somehow there’s no Windows Phone connector for Mac on Windows.. I wonder why that is? Oh, maybe because they have the Zune software. Windows Phone connector for Mac is better than the Zune Software because it would look ugly on a Mac, and iTunes looks ugly on Windows. Luckily this connector syncs with iPhoto en iTunes :)

  • Anonymous

    Mac OS has the ugliest interface I have ever seen on a computer. I’d rather use Windows 95.

    • Guest

      Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and obviously a lot of people disagree with you since it continues to grow share quarter in and quarter out.

    • Anonymous

      Either you are lying or you have really poor taste

    • Seth_p

      He’s not lying nor does he have poor taste; it’s being subjective – although, in my opinion I’m no where in favor of it. Why? Who the hell knows, I’m not a designer. I just don’t like it ;)

    • Anonymous

      You may no like the MacOS interface but it beats that of windows everyday.. The current chrome vista/Win7 is borrowed heavily on macOS interface and I don’t even like Macsbut the truth is the truth. 

    • Guest

      @jrtorrents:disqus 

      “You may no like the MacOS interface but it beats that of windows everyday..”

      Opinion. I, and the majority of people based on sales, disagree.

    • http://twitter.com/mrpakiman adam

      95 for evar

    • Anonymous

      The Mac interface is like a circus. In some ways, it is extremely bizarre and unintuitive. I think the only reason why a few people like it is because it is different from mainstream. I really don’t know why people bother buying a Mac though. You can easily achieve the same effect by changing the theme in Windows.

    • http://twitter.com/eddielee6 Eddie Lee

      lmao…lmao…..

      Are you serious? I use windows more than I do mac because of work. So you can’t say I’m bias.
      I enjoy using my mac much much more than any windows PC I’ve ever used. It’s got next to nothing to do with the look of the UI. The whole experience is so much better.

    • Anonymous

      lmao…lmao…..Are you serious? I use iPhone more than I do Windows Phone because of work. So you can’t say I’m bias.I enjoy using my Windows Phone much much more than any iPhone I’ve ever used. It’s got next to nothing to do with the look of the UI. The whole experience is so much better.

      Fixed that for you.

  • http://twitter.com/cris178 Cristian

    they should really consider porting zune to mac. Microsoft, zune is a marketplace its not like xbox that you should keep exclusive to yourselfs. it will be alot better if zune had an app for ios and android that had the full zune hd interface but only worked if you had a zune pass. that way microsoft is happy.

    • Seth_p

      Don’t think it’s worth the cost – I have a feeling Zune will be consolidated of WMP and Media Center. There’s too much overlap. If they’re going as far as incorporating Xbox into Windows 8, why not Zune… right?

      Could all be wishful thinking though :)

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002077682817 Matt Valentine

    What’s a Mac?

    Posted from Windows 7 PC

    • Seth_p

      Media Access Control probably :P

      Posted from Windows 3.1 Tandy i386DX

  • juvenile

    Mac actually looks better than win 7 but it just cant compete with the metro interface of windows 8…most ppl only run Linux in a virtual machine so wont even waste my time commenting on  that

  • Grannyville7989

    I don’t understand how an article about Windows Phone 7 Connector for Mac has turned into a sniping war between the Windows, Mac and Linux users in the comments section.

    But hooray for the update :)

    • Guest

      Because anything even vaguely related to Apple brings out all the immature itards that are always lurking around every MS-focused news site.

  • Mr Lefleur

    apple makes some good looking h/ware but their user interface is hideous. looks like ubuntu but ubuntu is better

  • Anonymous

    Wake me up when a Windows laptop has a trackpad that’s anywhere near as good as a mac’s. That, coming from someone who owns 2 windows laptops and a macbook pro.

    • Anonymous

      BTW, have an HTC Titan on order – can’t wait to see how this connector works for me. I hope my experience as a (currently) mac-centric user is smooth. Also, hope they update the software a lot henceforth. Better yet, merge it with a Zune for Mac implementation, and give us the best of both worlds. 

  • http://www.gamerelatedblog.com/ StriderNo9

    Any update for my Mac Connector is a good thing. I would love to real Zune software solution one day though.

    • Guest

      Parallels is your friend.

  • Guest

    Still does not syncronizes contacts.
    Makes it useless for Mac users who wants to jump to Windows Phone.

  • Sales Manager

    The thing about mac vs windows is going to go on forever and
    probably no one will change anyone elses mind lol it is kinda like chevy and
    ford

     

    What is good though is mac is spurring MS on to be better and
    MS is spurring mac on to be better.

     

    Im not sure if that is in the mobile array but probably
    android and iOS is doing that for MS and 
    everyone is getting better from each other. In the end regardless of
    which OS you choose your experience will be better and that is good for
    everyone.