Microsoft’s retail efforts continue to grow, with its first permanent international store opening in the Yorkdale Mall in Toronto in November, and now the company has also confirmed that temporary stores will be cropping up across the U.S. and Canada to try and capitalize on holiday demand. These stores will open on October 26, and will appear in 32 locations across both countries. → Read More
As anticipated in August, digital game seller Steam is now offering Windows non-game applications. It acts like a traditional app store. After the reviewing process, apps are available to purchase in a centralized store. Users can choose where to install their apps in the latest Steam beta. However, like Amazon’s Appstore for Android, Valve can discount apps if it thinks that it would benefit the… → Read More
A few days ago, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen quietly published an extensive review of Windows 8. In it, Allen – who resigned from the Microsoft board in 2000 but still consults for the company – calls Windows 8 “a significant evolutionary milestone in Windows development,” but his praise mostly focuses on the tablet experience. On the tablet, he says, Windows 8 is “bold and innovative” and… → Read More
SAP’s Sanjay Poonen said in a meeting of bloggers and analysts today that Windows 8 will rise to the No. 2 spot in the enterprise tablet market in part due to Samsung’s patent lawsuit loss to Apple last month. While it’s not the sole reason that CIOs cite, it certainly is the nail in the coffin for many.
The roots of the shift date back to January of 2011 when Microsoft introduced the concept… → Read More
Intel will not support Linux in its upcoming chip for laptops and tablets. That leaves Windows 8 as the only operating system that will run on the Clover Trail Atom chip.
To be clear, Linux can run on Clover Trail because it is an x86 chip. But it’s unlikely any device maker will want to go to the trouble to do it. → Read More
Microsoft just announced that the Windows Store, the app store for the company’s upcoming Windows 8 release, is now open for app submissions from all developers, including individuals. This marks the final step in Microsoft’s program to bring the Windows Store to as many developers around the world as possible. Microsoft also announced that it is now ready for submissions in 82 additional markets… → Read More
Love it or hate it, but Windows 8 will soon arrive on computers around you. While virtually all of your old programs will likely run without a hitch in desktop mode, it’s the Windows 8 Metro interface (or whatever Microsoft now wants to call it), that brings the biggest changes to the OS for users and developers alike. What Microsoft really needs right now more than anything else, though, is… → Read More
Earlier this year, Microsoft announced that it was bringing parts of the Xbox Live experience to Windows 8 and today, the company announced the first wave of Xbox games for its new desktop operating system. There aren’t too many surprises here and the focus is clearly on casual games. Among the 40 titles in this first wave are hits like Angry Birds, Angry Birds Space, Fruit Ninja, Reckless Racing… → Read More
Microsoft’s Windows 8-powered surface tablet may be nabbing all the headlines (at least partially because some of Microsoft’s myriad hardware partners were miffed by the company’s decision to make it in the first place), but a newly-revealed convertible device from Sony seems like it may be able to give the Surface a run for its money.
PocketNow managed to score some images of the… → Read More
It’s hard to blame Microsoft for making bold decisions with its upcoming desktop operating system. But the renamed Windows 8-style UI (or Modern UI) instead of Metro might be too great a departure from known and trusted interactions found in the previous versions of Windows.
According to Raluca Budiu, User Experience Specialist with Nielsen Norman Group, who gave an interview to Laptop… → Read More
As expected, Microsoft today announced that Windows 8 is now available for download for its paying MSDN and TechNet Professional subscribers. The company, however, is also making a 90-day evaluation version available to all developers (or anybody else who wants to give the Windows 8 RTM a try) without the need to pay for a subscription. There are some caveats, though: this version will expire in… → Read More
Microsoft is abandoning its “Metro” branding – the branding that refers to the clean, modern, tiled layout that defines many of its consumer-facing products including Windows 8, Windows Phone, Xbox 360, Office 2013 and more. For over a year, Microsoft has talked about “Metro” in press conferences, blog posts, tutorials, and guides. The reason for the change has to do with a dispute between… → Read More
Right on schedule, Microsoft has just announced on its Windows Team blog that Windows 8 has emerged from its long development and testing phase, and will soon be in the hands of manufacturers and OEMs for installation on new PCs and devices.
Among those on the list to receive the final build (build 9200, if you were curious) are Lenovo, Acer, ASUS and Toshiba, though that’s clearly just the tip… → Read More
Microsoft kicked off its Worldwide Partner Conference in Toronto with a bit of a bang earlier today — during the event’s keynote address, Microsoft VP and Windows CFO Tami Reller revealed when manufacturers and consumers would be able to get their hands on Windows 8.
The long-awaited operating system is on track to be released to manufacturers in the first week of August, with a consumer… → Read More
Up until today, Microsoft hasn’t publicly acknowledged the existence of Windows Phone 8 (codename Apollo). After an unfortunate leak last week and a video meant for hardware partners prior to that, a handful of new features in the next build have already been outed. But like most leaks, it doesn’t quite paint the whole picture. They rarely do.
Microsoft is shifting the core kernel of Windows… → Read More
Windows 8 is, without doubt, Microsoft’s most ambitious release in recent memory. It does away with a lot of what users have come to expect from Windows over the years. The iconic Start button is gone, for example. Instead, we now get an operating system that has a bit of a split personality, with Metro replacing the Start menu and offering full-screen apps and a legacy desktop with its usual… → Read More
At what point did Bloomberg start writing ridiculously sensationalistic and misleading headlines? It apparently started last night with the following: HTC Said To Be Shut Out Of Next Version Of Windows.
Last I checked, HTC is in the business of making smartphones, not tablets. The four previous tablets built by HTC were likely built to appease the carriers. Regardless of whether or not HTC is… → Read More
As the release of Windows 8 draws closer, all of the major browser vendors are also preparing to launching their applications for the touch-centric Metro UI that will prominently feature in next version of Microsoft’s flagship operating system. Today, Google announced that – assuming you are running the Release Preview of Windows 8 – you’ll soon be able to test Chrome in Windows 8′s Metro mode. → Read More
Barnes & Noble has found a new, major partner in its fight to get an edge over Amazon and Apple in the market for e-books and the devices being used to consume them: it is teaming up with Microsoft in what the two are calling a strategic partnership, name yet to be determined.
It will come in the form of a new subsidiary of B&N that will include all of its Nook business as well as its… → Read More
With Windows 8 getting ever closer to its release date, Microsoft today announced that it is looking for volunteers to join its invite-only feedback program for active Windows 7 and Windows 8 Consumer Preview users in the U.S. In return for providing feedback to Microsoft – both by sending the company data or by filling out surveys – participants who stay in the program for more than four months… → Read More
All the talk these days is of the new iPad and its magical screen. Apple isn’t the only one who can do that, you know. In fact, most display makers are looking forward to post-HD resolutions as one of the big selling points of the next generation of displays. Other tablets are already approaching iPad levels of pixel density and it would be foolish of the likes of Google and Microsoft not to be… → Read More
Microsoft has just posted an overview of the Windows 8 version of Internet Explorer 10, which shows off the features you’d expect from a modern touch-based browser: navigation gestures, full-screen content, and the expected Metro-style multitasking.
The one feature that caught my eye, however, was the “share charm.” Charms are, as you must surely know, the little contextual items that appear… → Read More
For better or worse, it seems as if Windows 8 will be available in nine separate editions. That’s up three flavors from Windows 7. The unofficial news comes from a registry key found within the Windows 8 Consumer Preview. If this key is to be believed, Windows 8 will be available in the six editions of Windows 7 with the addition of Windows 8 Professional Plus, Enterprise Evaluation, and ARM… → 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
Microsoft’s official Win8 Twitter feed has confirmed the inevitable: Win8′s Consumer Preview, a beta version of the new operating system, was downloaded 1 million times since launch. To put this into perspective, Microsoft sold seven copies of the software a second in 2010, and, yesterday, gave away 11 copies a second. → Read More
If you were only allowed to read one piece of tech news today, I’d bet you’d read up on the Windows 8 Consumer Preview. The beta became available today, though we were lucky enough to go hands-on with the OS for the past week or so, and people can’t stop talking about it.
Windows 8 is a merging of old with new. A Metro UI offers up live tiles much like Windows Phone, but there are still some… → 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
Wallpapers! Microsoft is holding a big Windows 8 event today at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona where it’s expected to announce (release?) the final Windows 8 beta. Plus, as if that isn’t enough, the Windows 8 wallpapers and lockscreens are supposed to be unveiled. I know, right? Wallpapers! Lockscreens!
But alas. The wallpapers from the Consumer Preview release leaked early. Win8China got… → Read More
The long-running “Live” name Microsoft has placed on its many connected services (Mail, messenger, photos, etc) is coming to an end in Windows 8, as part of their ongoing, major brand rehaul. Zune, of course, has been on its way out for some time, but will receive the coup de grace in Windows 8.
Their main services are being rolled into bundled applications with a native Metro look and simpler… → Read More
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