Video: Flickr coming to Windows Phone 7, Windows 7 tablets

Flickr has released a preview video of its upcoming app for Windows Phone 7 and Windows 7 tablet devices. Features include photo viewing, uploading, and sharing. The Windows Phone 7 experience is the usual Metro user interface with sideway scrolling panes while the Windows 7 tablet experience has sliding panes and images that expand when tapped. The Flickr app will be available on January 31, 2011.

The app leverages Microsoft's Azure cloud platform; it connects Flickr data with Windows Azure via an API. Using Windows Azure, Yahoo is able to optimize the images for Windows Phone 7 devices and Windows 7 environments. Azure computes the context for how the image should be viewed on the device. Flickr has also built syncing into the app, which lets users seamlessly move back and forth from their WP7 device and their Windows 7 tablet; the app remember which photos you were viewing.

"The Flickr Applications for Windows 7 and Windows Phone 7 will feature embedded connected-device synchronization for sharing content between the two device types - built by leveraging RSS feeds as well as the Windows Azure platform," a Microsoft spokesperson said in a statement. "The state of the application will be stored in the cloud, facilitating a seamless consumer experience across Windows Phone 7 and Slate devices. Regardless of the device the consumer is using to access Flickr content, the consumer will see the same context, the same photo and same state of the application."