PORTLAND, OR, United States – There are certain qualities about the Windows Phone system that I’ve come to really enjoy, and most of them are built into the Nokia Lumia out of the box. Apps and capabilities such as People Hub, combined messaging and Live Tiles are unique factors that set Windows Phone apart.
However, what about folks who are photo junkies? You know, those who are constantly snapping photos of nature, children and any subject and then uploading them across the web? Windows Phone is appealing to this population, thanks to the capabilities of the camera on the Nokia Lumia 800 and the onboard photo distribution channels on Windows Phone.
Working with your snaps
Once you’ve captured your photo, Windows Phone allows you to do some cool things. To see these capabilities, take out your Lumia 800 and launch the Pictures application and navigate to one of your photos. Click the … in the lower right and the menu is revealed, showing your options.
AutoFix is a valuable little tool, because it takes a typical photo and balances out colors, brightness and contrast.
However, the real treat is when you want to share a photo. If you have Facebook enabled in Windows Phone, you can share directly to Facebook with one click by selecting “share on Facebook”. Once selected, you can add a description, tag a contact for easy discovery on Facebook and then upload the photo.
If your destination isn’t Facebook, click the “Share…” option and more destinations are revealed. The available options include: for every email account, you can email it from that account, you can sent it out via MMS message, to SkyDrive (Microsoft’s great cloud file storage service) and in my case, flickr.
Flickr is enabled on my phone because I have installed the free Flickr application from the Windows Marketplace, and Windows Phone added the option via the Share menu.
So, from the Share menu, I have more than five unique destinations to send my photos to, based on who I wish to share the image with and the use case I’m carrying out. This is a very clever feature perhaps because it makes the workflow so simple.
I really enjoy the Share options because in some cases, I want to email photos of my children to my parents and in others I like to share nature shots to the Flickr community. No matter how I want to share, the built-in options are there for me. This is powerful.
What is your favorite method for sharing and displaying photos online?