It's fair to say that syncing Windows Phones with a Mac has always been a little bit of an afterthought - understandable given Microsoft and Apple's rivalries. But things have improved a lot recently, with a dedicated SkyDrive sync system for Mac OS X, with a new version of both the Mac 'Windows Phone' sync utility and Nokia Photo Transfer. Yes, ok, that's three tools rather than one, but they do all now work, as evidenced by the glossy video ad embedded below.

I've been using all three on my (Mavericks-running) Mac Mini and Macbooks, with great success. I used to have to boot up my Windows 7 laptop every week or so just to sideload videos (in both directions) but this now sits idle and everything can be done from the Macs.

Here's the ad, maximise the window and increase the quality (as usual):

Hmm... that's the sort of job I need - wandering around a city looking for 'inspiration'! Nice video spot, anyway, and makes the point well that there's no reason whatsoever why a (Nokia) Windows Phone user shouldn't own a Macbook rather than (say) a Windows 8 laptop.

I would add the small caveat that the Gmail sync shown above isn't flawless - you'll remember the Calendar sync issue and my workaround from last week? Something for Microsoft to work on, methinks...

Whatever next? Windows Phone and Chromebooks? Watch this space....