Nokia has trumpeted the ability of its Nokia Lumia 920's 8.7-megapixel camera with image stabilization, low-light enhancements, and PureView algorithms. Photo quality was strong and fairly consistent, though photos had a blue cast to them and the Lumia 920 had problems with contrast and absolute sharpness compared with the others.

In the meantime, HTC's 8-megapixel Windows Phone 8X took some pretty nice photos as well, though there was more swing between the highs and lows. For its part, the 8-megapixel iPhone 5 won some and lost some, but retained the most consistent.

Don't just take my … Read more

Mac owners who use a Windows Phone device now have a new and improved app for syncing their information.

Released yesterday in the Mac App store, the Windows Phone 3.0 app lets users sync movies, videos, documents, and other files between their Macs and Windows Phone handsets. The latest version now supports Windows Phone 8.

Users can drag and drop files between their Windows Phone 8 devices and the Mac desktop or the Finder file manager. They can see the state of the phone's battery charge and take advantage of better support for ringtones. The new app also … Read more

Skype's VoIP app is "coming soon" for Windows Phone 8, but when it arrives, it'll be outfitted with more options than its Skype sibling for Windows Phone 7.5.

Written in native code, the app integrates into your address book and partially into the dialer, so you can receive incoming Skype calls the same way you would receive a cellular call. You'll be able to answer with a video chat in addition to voice. Skype contacts also integrate into your address book, so you can find your buddies from your contacts screen, not solely from … Read more

Four months after Microsoft previewed its new Windows Phone 8 operating system for mobile phones, the Redmond crew returned to San Francisco today to reveal even more details.

Windows Phone 8, which is characterized by its newly expanded Start screen, maintains the distinctive design that first set it apart from iOS and Android. Hardware features like support for NFC, multiple processing cores, and expandable memory will help bring Windows phones up to speed against the competition, along with in-app purchases, integrated Skype, and the shared Internet Explorer 10 code that Redmond also revealed months ago.

With Windows 8 launched and the holiday shopping season upon us, the time has come for Microsoft to show the world all that Windows Phone 8 can do.

Back in June, Microsoft previewed a handful of Windows Phone 8 capabilities. Some were hardware-related, like NFC, multicore processing support, and the addition of HD screen resolutions.

Others were software-based: a new home-screen look with resizable widgets and much more space for all those live tiles, plus … Read more

I've known for months that today could be filled with regret. When faced with a desperately needed new Windows laptop purchase seven months ago, I agonized over whether to delay my big system purchase until Windows 8 was finally released.

Needless to say, in the rapidly moving tech world, waiting seems to be one of the hardest things to do. So, not surprisingly, today I'm perusing all our great CNET content on new Windows 8 laptops from my 7-month-old 17-inch Windows 7 system and longing to be fingering live tiles.

The problem, of course, is that Windows 8 is the rare operating system upgrade that also requires a hardware upgrade to live up to its full potential -- namely a touch screen. So if I want to have the latest and greatest from Washington state, I need to set aside my relatively recent laptop purchase and invest in a whole new Windows system.… Read more

Microsoft and Nokia may have vowed to support one another through thick and thin, but Redmond's newfound vocal support of HTC's Windows Phone 8X device means Microsoft isn't relying on one partner to see its platform through.

Our invitation to Microsoft' official launch of the Windows Phone 8 operating system cleverly wraps event details into HTC's premier Windows Phone. It turns out that this design is one of four depicting key Windows phones that Microsoft sent to journalists inviting them to the event. Two show off HTC handsets and two depict the Nokia Lumia phones.

Microsoft … Read more

Digital music fans have never had more options, but the experience is more fragmented than ever. iTunes rules digital downloads, Spotify is the subscription music leader, and a slew of other services (Rhapsody, Pandora, Rdio, Amazon Cloud Player, Google Music, etc.) fill in the variety of remaining niches.

Xbox Music is Microsoft's latest entry in this space and while it's easy to write it off as another "me too" digital music platform, it's surprisingly comprehensive. Like Spotify, Xbox Music offers free ad-supported streaming of its subscription music library, plus Pandora-like artist-based Internet radio and a … Read more

Mark your calendars for Microsoft's official launch of the Windows Phone 8 smartphone OS. We have.

CNET will be there, fingers flexed and laptops raring to go, to cover the San Francisco launch of Microsoft's latest and most important chance yet to put Windows Phone on the map.

We'll update with more details as we have them. Until then, get ready.