Mar
7
2012
A lot of folks are giving glowing reviews to the new line of Windows Phone 7 devices on the market. Having had a chance to play with one of the Samsung Focus devices, I can see why. The big question for me was, can I sync it with my Mac?
Surprisingly, the answer is yes.
Being used to syncing my iPhone, I was skeptical, but not only does an official and supported way to sync exist, it works quite well on both Snow Leopard and Lion.
First, head to the Mac App Store (Apple Menu, App Store) and search for the Windows Phone 7 Connector app. That will get you set up with all the software you need. Run that app, and connect your phone to your Mac via the provided cable that came with your phone.
After the software recognizes your device, it will offer to sync data and media for you. Microsoft went out of their way to make the process simple and reliable. You can sync local files from your Mac to the phone, as well as syncing iTunes music and playlists.
There are a couple of things to note:
1 – I never got the over-the-air sync to work properly, but that might have just been a problem in my configuration.
2 – Only non-DRM media will play on the Windows Phone device. You’d expect that, and since most iTunes music files are non-DRM these days, it isn’t a problem for music. It *is* a problem for movies and TV shows, however.
3 – The sync did not seem to update play counts and other meta-information for media. Again, not unexpected, and usually not critical, but it hurts things like Last.FM scribbling.
Aside from those hiccups, the Connector app worked incredibly well, and allows you to play nice between Apple and Microsoft hardware.