Safari 6 brings improved performance and many new features to OS X, including offline reading lists, a unified search field and support for Do Not Track. What seems to be completely gone from Apple’s site now, though, is any mention of the Windows version of Safari. Indeed, it looks like Apple has removed all download links for Safari from its site for the time being. This could be because Apple… → Read More
A very smart project is underway by a 21-year-old design student in Los Angeles. The goal: update Microsoft’s branding and messaging in three days.
Judging by the reaction, Andrew Kim has hit a tap root of pent upfrustrated creative juice out there. So far, there are more than 188 comments on Hacker News about his speculative design project. → Read More
Isn’t Power Nap an awesome new feature of OS X In case you missed it earlier today, Power Nap allows your MacBook to keep up to date while in sleep mode. So emails are updated, things get synced to iCloud, system updates are pushed through and even TimeMachine backups are performed in a silent and power efficient manner. Sounds pretty great, right? It is if you’re a Mac user but to Windows users… → Read More
If you’re an Android and a PC, you should check out BlueStacks — before hackers catch on or Chrome sneaks in this functionality, take advantage. The startup’s software has been going like hotcakes over the last few months, as it’s offering a much-needed service for Android and PC users, having developed software that allows Android users to run their apps on all Windows PCs, tablets, and laptops… → Read More
Former Disrupt winners Soluto love them some Windows. It’s their OS of choice and their products aspire to make it work a little better. Needless to say, they’re pretty excited about Windows 8 and to celebrate their unbridled joy they created this cute little commercial lampooning Apple’s original 1984 bit. → Read More
If Windows Vista was Microsoft’s folly – a mish-mash of ideas not fully baked and aimed at multiple constituencies – Windows 8 is Microsoft’s rebirth. To get ecstatic about it isn’t quite the direction I’d like to take this mini-review, but let’s just say that Microsoft is on the cusp of getting things right.
As we said before, Windows 8 will ruffle a lot of feathers. The first and most obvious… → Read More
Tired of just hearing about Windows 8 all the time? Well then, you’re in luck — Microsoft has finally released the Windows 8 Consumer Preview to the public, so people outside of the tech bubble finally have the chance to take Redmond’s new OS for a spin. → Read More
Still using Windows Vista? XP? Why? Well, whatever the reason, Microsoft has clarified some of their end-of-life dates for older versions of Windows, including XP. This is mostly about support on the business side but it could be useful if you’ve got an old machine that’s acting up (or you refuse to upgrade). → Read More
The Windows release of Kinect is coming up in a couple days, but for most people that won’t be a major event: the Kinect they have is sitting on their TV or in a drawer, waiting to be taken out for an impromptu Dance Central 2 party. Of the 10 million Kinects out there, the only ones connected to computers are the ones being fiddled with by the various hackers and students making science projects… → Read More
Back in May, BlueStacks, the startup that has developed software to let Android users run their apps on all Windows PC, tablets, and laptops, raised a $7.6 million series A, pre-launch. In October, the startup followed up with a $6.4 million series B from AMD, Citrix Systems, with participation from existing investors like Andreessen Horowitz, Ignition Ventures, and more.
Its series B round… → Read More
Our own Josh Zelman grabbed some video of the new Windows Phones announced today, including the $50 Samsung Focus Flash. These are Microsoft’s initial stabs at attacking the mid-range market in advance of Nokia’s upcoming WinPho models. → Read More
Back in May, BlueStacks raised $7.5 million in series A financing from Andreessen Horowitz, Ignition Ventures, Radar Partners, Redpoint Ventures, and more. This was all pre-launch. Why that kind of money for a startup that hasn’t launched a product yet? Because approximately 630 million new Windows PCs will be shipped by the end of this year, and because BlueStacks has designed downloadable… → Read More
Remember Connectify? The downloadable software that turns PCs into Wi-Fi hotspots in just a few minutes? It looks like the company now has a new investor: In-Q-Tel (IQT), which just so happens to be the strategic investment firm that seeks out new technologies for the U.S. Intelligence Community, including the CIA. → Read More
The single most interesting thing I noted when watching Windows 8 at Build last night was the insistence that the Windows 8 devices were all PCs. Windows 8 on a desktop? PC. Windows 8 on a touchscreen laptop? PC. Windows 8 on an ARM slate? PC. Anything with Windows 8 code on it is a PC while anything that makes calls is a Windows Phone.
A decade ago, Microsoft was all about tablets. There was… → Read More
Today, Microsoft has announced quite the milestone for Windows 7: since its launch in October 2009, a full 450 million licenses have been sold. The numbers are somehow more impressive when broken down; just a hair over 650,000 licenses are sold each day.
Sales of Windows 7 have been on the upswing over the past two months to boot; it seems all that back-to-school prep has given Windows 7 a… → Read More
Over the past two days, I’ve been working with a prototype Windows 8 tablet – really a PC – and finding that instead of a disappointing mish-mash of Windows XP and some strange touch UI that the Windows Metro/desktop system is actually quite cool and quite intuitive. The next Windows 8 is, in one way, nothing like the Windows versions that came before and, in other ways, an iterative improvement… → Read More
On one hand, you have to give Windows chief Steven Sinofsky some credit, he’s being very open, proactive, and engaged leading up to Microsoft’s unveiling of Windows 8. And that’s great. But on the other hand, you have to wonder if he’s in the process of burying himself in a very big hole.
Over the past couple of days, the Internet has let out a collective “gasp” at the sight of the new Windows… → Read More
The Building Windows 8 development blog has been an interesting read for a while. Hearing straight from developers and then seeing unfiltered responses from users and secondary devs is refreshing, even if the topic isn’t particularly compelling or I don’t agree with their design choices. Today is perhaps the most extreme example of this so far. The discussion of their new Windows 8 file manager is… → Read More
Last month, Fujitsu in Japan unveiled the IS12T, announced as the world’s first cell phone running on Windows Phone 7.5 aka Mango. And the country’s second biggest mobile carrier (and exclusive provider of the handset) KDDI au, didn’t lose much time: the IS12T became available today over here (here‘s Fujitsu’s official press release in English from today).
As we reported previously, the Mango… → Read More
Is Silverlight really dead, or is it the future of Microsoft’s Windows 8 and Windows Phone? This is a question weighing on the minds of legions of Microsoft developers right now – developers who were once promised that Silverlight was the answer to their cross-platform, cross-browser compatibility woes, only to be later informed that JavaScript and HTML5 will be the tools used to build Windows 8… → Read More
Windows 7 is now the most prevalent – if not most popular – desktop OS with Gartner estimating that 42% of current PCs will run the OS while 94% of new machines will run Win7.
In comparison, OS X got 4% of the pie while Linux is firmly at 2%. Even IT departments are starting massive roll-outs of Win7 to their desktops, a move that has pushed the fairly new OS into the car bird seat. However… → Read More
Our sister blog Engadget is still doubting it, but it’s been confirmed officially: in May, Fujitsu announced the LIFEBOOK TH40/D, a convertible Windows 7 tablet for the Japanese market that was to be released in June. But that didn’t happen for reasons unknown, and Fujitsu pushed back the sales date of the device indefinitely. → Read More
As a non-ashamed Windows user and straight up Rdio fan, this makes me happy. Rdio has expanded its product suite with a native app for Windows XP, Vista, and 7.
To be fair, I’m likely not going to use the desktop app much, as I’m mostly using Rdio on my mobile phone and iPod touch, as well as via my Sonos system.
But it’s great to have options – I have always lamented Spotify for not having a… → Read More
Microsoft has chosen to take the semi-exclusive route when it comes to tablet software. While Google’s Android operating system is a free-for-all platform for OEMs, and Apple’s iOS is completely closed off to manufacturers, Microsoft has plans to fall somewhere in between open and closed. Specifically, the PC maker will limit the number of initial hardware makers that can employ the Windows OS… → Read More
If this doesn’t point to a coming refresh of Xbox 360 hardware I don’t know what does. Starting May 22, Microsoft is offering a free XBox 360 (with 4GB of storage) to folks who pay $699 or more for a Windows 7 PC – note they do not say “laptop,” which suggests that makers like HP and Dell are trying to boost their waning, post-PC sales.
Obviously this is a great deal students but it definitely… → Read More
A few details have emerged at MIX11 regarding Kinect for Windows—“few” being the operative word. For example, the beta SDK will include support for two-person skeletal tracking, making two-player games or Windows applications a distinct possibility. → Read More
With a tide rapidly shifting towards mobile and tablet devices, it should be no surprise that work is well already underway on Windows 8. An early build circulating apparently hints at a more unified OS to combat what Apple is doing with OS X/iOS and what HP is doing with Palm webOS. And some screenshots are starting to leak out. And a few appear to include, what else, an app store.
WinRumors … → Read More
There’s nothing new about virtualization software, per se, but BlueStacks might be worth checking out. It brings the Android operating system to Windows-based computers via a virtualization layer, much like how you can run Windows “inside” your Mac using Parallels. Why, exactly, you’d want to run Android “inside” your Windows PC, I’m not exactly sure, but there’s nothing inherently wrong… → Read More
Microsoft has officially released Internet Explorer 9. Not a beta, not a release candidate, but the real deal. You’ll recall that a Mozilla rep had already spoken out against it a few weeks ago, saying that it was not a “modern browser.” GPU acceleration and a fancy new user interface would suggest otherwise, but there’s no need to get into a browser fight. Use what you like, I say. → Read More
This charming lad has installed every version of Windows from 1.0 to Vista inside a VMWare instance, offering us a fascinating look at Windows versions since the early 1990s. → Read More
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