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 out the things.

But according to the Daily, Microsoft is hoping to remedy this particular situation by building Kinect sensors right into your laptops. TechCrunch alum Matt Hickey got to handle a pair of prototypes, which were confirmed to be official, not just one of the many experiments that hide within Microsoft’s various lairs.

Unfortunately the laptops were not ready for their debut and no pictures seem to have been permitted. But they are described as netbook-like, with a number of smaller sensors instead of a webcam, and what could be an IR LED at the bottom of the screen.

The inclusion of depth-sensing cameras on a laptop is an interesting idea, and if they can drive the price of the sensor array down, it might become a standard feature. Microsoft has clearly also been focusing on miniaturizing the Kinect hardware, as the bulky original would seem somewhat out of place on a petite netbook. Whether this smaller sensor set has the same capabilities as the larger isn’t clear and wasn’t discussed.

A smaller Kinect would also suggest that Microsoft’s next console, rumored to have Kinect built in, is nearing readiness. While many gaming industry insiders have discounted the idea that the next generation of consoles will be announced this year, the rumor mill says otherwise.

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 followed closely on the heels of the alpha launch of its App Player for Windows, which is basically a free software download that will give users one-click access to Android apps on any Windows PC, tablet, or laptop. (And the ability to view these apps in full-screen.) Complementing the App Player, BlueStacks also released “Cloud Connect”, a cloud-based service that allows PCs to become a veritable extension of any Android-based mobile device — and vice versa.

While $14 million in funding seemed a bit bubble-ish for a startup with an alpha product (especially considering half of the investment was raised prior to to launch), we’ve learned from BlueStacks that the early adoption has been significant. Since launching six weeks ago, the startup’s App Player has been downloaded over half a million times, 550K+, to be more precise.

Of course startups are happy for all of us to fawn over vanity metrics, but the BlueStacks team did admit that this early adoption caught it by surprise. Especially the extent to which downloads are taking place outside of the U.S. The Americas account for 32 percent of the App Player’s downloads, with Europe and Asia both seeing over 31 percent of downloads as well. The startup recently expanded to support XP and Vista a couple weeks ago, as many Chinese users are still using XP, for example.

The App Player launched in October with several “app partners” pre-loaded, including Bloomberg, LivingSocial and Drag Racing. And we here more are on their way. In conjunction, there are over 250,000 apps available on BlueStacks’ Cloud Connect mobile app, which allows users to push apps from their phone into the startup’s player.

The early signs show that this is definitely a startup to watch, but chime in to tell us what you think. Is this a valuable technology?

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.

The new phones include the Samsung Focus S and the HTC Radar HTC, priced at $199 and $99 respectively. These are clearly subsidized prices and an effort by Microsoft to grab a bit more than the current 2% market share they now control.

I honestly believe that things are going to look a lot different in the next year or so as these WinPhones slowly grab market share and Windows 8 makes the mobile OS much more compelling – presumably eroding (albeit slightly) the iOS and the Android markets. We live, as they say, in interesting mobile times.

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 software that will enable Android apps to run on (hopefully) all of them.

And today, to put that money where its mouth is, BlueStacks is announcing the release of the first products that will be a part of its ongoing quest to do just that. For starters, the company is making available the alpha version of its app player for Windows that is basically a free software download that will give users one-click access to Android apps on any Windows PC, tablet, or laptop. (And the ability to view these apps in full-screen.)

BlueStacks hopes that this will be a boon for Android (and Windows) developers, as the software will give them access to the some-billion-odd PC users worldwide without requiring them to modify their apps for those desktops, laptops, and tablets. The BlueStacks team also said today that PC manufacturers and OEMs have expressed interest in making the BlueStacks App Player native on their various devices, as it targets both consumers and enterprises, from children’s educational apps to enterprise-level workflow apps — everything in between.

Along with its app player, the company is also launching a product it calls “Cloud Connect”, which is, well, a cloud-based service that allows PCs to become a veritable extension of any Android-based mobile device — and vice versa. Essentially, after downloading the free app in the Android Market, users can sync the apps on their Android devices with their PCs in one click, with capacity of up to 35 apps ported over from their Android devices.

The app also offers a customer “Apps Channels” page where users can manage their apps in the cloud, viewing the apps that have been downloaded on their devices, including entries in the “Featured Apps Channel”, which offers direct access to the latest apps from developers.

With such a huge market in play, Cloud Connect and the App Player can certainly have global implications; according to BlueStacks President and CEO of BlueStacks Rosen Sharma: “The openness of Android is enabling innovation around the world. We are grateful to Google and others for their contributions. This is also a social equalizer in the US and countries like Brazil, India and China, where a large percentage of the population who can only afford smartphones can now enjoy and benefit from the ubiquity of apps on the Android platform“, he said.

For more, check out BlueStacks and the App PLayer here, or peep the video below:

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.

The new funding will help Connectify move beyond simple Wi-Fi hotspot creation, a decidedly consumer-facing service, in order to focus on VPNs (virtual private networks). Using similar easy-to-install software, Connectify will soon enable users to spontaneously create self-forming VPNs without dialing into a central location. The VPNs will also leverage the combined throughput and reliability of all the available Internet connections, the company says.

The additional security and feature set will be integrated into both Connectify’s current product line-up as well as into its upcoming and yet-to-announced products.

Connectify informs us that it can’t disclose the amount of funding IQT provided due to the organization’s sensitive mission involving bringing technology to the U.S. intelligence community.

Still, it’s easy to envision potential use cases for the technology, especially in situations where authoritarian government regimes watch over their citizens’ Internet communications far too closely. But the enhanced security will benefit stateside consumers too, by offering a safer way to share your Internet access with those around you.

And here we were thinking Windows PC software was boring…consider our interest piqued.

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 a period of a few years where Microsoft was trying to sell tablets to users and, after failing miserably, they gave up. Why? Because they kept shoe-horning Windows onto a slate and called it a tablet while the nascent smartphone and declining PDA market ran circles around those ridiculous technological chimeras that Microsoft gave up flogging years ago.

But, in a very roundabout way, Microsoft has gone out of the tablet business. There are no more Windows tablets, just Windows PCs. Let the rest of the world duke it out over form factors: Microsoft is taking their ball and going home.

To be clear, the “tablet” I tested runs Windows and Metro is, at this point, bolted onto the top of it (Gruber says it reminds him of this.) But I think their positioning is both fascinating and bold. For the past two years or so people have been clamoring for a Windows “tablet.” Well now they’re getting a Windows PC.

What they’re saying is that hardware doesn’t matter. I hope this will expand into their sales channels and we won’t have Windows 8 Professional, Windows 8 Gamer, Windows 8 Home, and Windows 8 Drunkard versions in stores (but I’m not holding my breath.) However, I doubt there will be something called Windows 8 Tablet Edition.

In the end, this is all marketing. But, in a massive departure, they’re not calling this the “Windows Horizontal Slate Experience 2012″ and instead they’re holding on to the concept of the PC for all its worth. Why? Well, Apple paved the way with their “I’m a Mac/I’m a PC” ads and then Microsoft further explored this territory with their “I’m a PC” spots. Now that they actually have a competitor, they need to own their own part of the computing space. This is how they’re pulling it off.

It’s far to early to see how this marketing plan will pan out but Microsoft made it abundantly clear that they don’t want the “post-PC era” to mean this is a post-Microsoft era. What better way to to it by co-opting the terminology people use to describe their products?

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 kick in the pants. The folks in Redmond are fond of calling Windows 7 “the fastest selling version of Windows ever,” and it turns out the claim may not just be a load of marketing fluff.

Microsoft tends to keep unit sales figures quiet, save for big announcements and financial statements, but let’s try and put Microsoft’s achievement in a bit of perspective here. They announced in their Q4 2008 revenue report that they sold 180 million Vista licenses since launch. At this point in Vista’s life (just over a year and half after launch), that averages out to about 335,195 licenses per day. Seems respectable without context, but after the same amount of time, Windows 7 nearly doubles that figure with 632,911 licenses/day.

Vista, to be fair, was a bit of a flop, but 7 compares to its grandfather XP rather nicely too: Microsoft announced that they had sold 210 million copies of XP in May 2004, a window of just about two and a half years since launch. Meanwhile, Windows 7 managed to move 240 million licenses by the time it was a year old.

What does this mean? First, there’s a massive install base of Win7 machines out there and, more important, those same machines should be powerful enough to run Windows 8 when it arrives in the next year or so. In addition it means that more users are connecting to Windows live for SkyDrive sharing and other features – 542,000,000 people to be exact. These are wildly large and impressive numbers and it’s clear that Microsoft has a hit on its hands.

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 over what we know as the Windows Desktop.

There is no post-PC world. Everything that runs Windows 8 is a PC. That’s right – this tablet is a PC. In one way, this nomenclature allows Microsoft to avoid the “better than iPad” argument entirely and, on the other hand, it’s an ingenious way for the company to invigorate the faltering desktop market.

The cloud is serious. Microsoft has invested quite a bit of time and effort into their cloud systems. For example, chats held in Microsoft Messenger will be persistent from computer to computer. Profile pictures on your login screen will appear on every machine you log into. Security is granular – your data is safe on the machine or can appear in the cloud. It’s your – or your IT department’s – choice.

Anyone can be a programmer. You can build a usable app in HTML5 and Javscript that will run on Windows 8 and, presumably, Windows Phone. Like iOS, Windows is the DNA of a new breed of device, one that uses the core code that we’re used to and expands – or contracts – it as usual.

Windows isn’t huge anymore. Because of the cloud, Windows can actually boot off of a USB key. Obviously there are some very specific reasons to boot off of a USB drive, but it’s cool because it can. Windows now exposes different APIs based on the hardware on which it’s running which makes it work on ARM machines as well as the fastest x86 processor on the market.

There are other ways to work. Windows 8 supports pens, handwriting, touch and, presumably, voice, dance, and song as inputs. You can, for example, add a mouse and keyboard and have a great PC or you can carry the device around for Windows on the go. The device we tested, obviously, has a huge, weirdly-sized screen but otherwise it is a perfectly serviceable workhorse.

Like it or not, Microsoft owns a massive part of the PC business. Is Windows 8 perfect (at least in this early incarnation?) absolutely not. But this version is very… interesting. I love Metro. It’s a fascinating rethinking of the Windows Phone interface and is very similar to Lion’s LaunchPad and Mission Control views. It’s jarring to see the device dump back into standard Windows mode – all of the windows, icons, and buttons look sad and forlorn next to Metro.

This is Windows 8. There’s nothing we can do about it. It’s aimed at consumers, it’s touch-enabled from the ground up, and its an exciting departure from the old. The compromises made by Microsoft in this release – the reliance on old windowing methods is the most glaring – but it’s clear that the cloud access, the new touch interface including handwriting and finger-based UI handling, and all of the improvements, including the slow destruction of the legacy Registry – are all the right way to go.

Plenty of people will be quite comfortable and excited about this OS. Plenty of IT guys face push-back, exasperation, and clamoring to return to the original way of doing things. In the end, Microsoft will win. It’s hard to maneuver a juggernaut, but when its moving don’t stand in its way.

Switching between Windows 8 and… Windows 8 “original flavor” feels a little weird, though it’s very snappy and will likely become second nature. I really hope that Microsoft’s developers can make it worthwhile to use both modes, otherwise people will end up spending 80% of their time in the part they like, and resent the 20% of time they have to spend in the other.

Quality control in the visual and UX departments is going to be more key in Windows 8 than ever before in Microsoft’s history since Windows 95. This is a major change and if they half-ass it or have lax standards, they’re going to lose control from the start.

The keyboard and dock are pretty anonymous, but worked fine. I had to go into old-school control panel to find the Bluetooth panel, but that’s just an implementation thing that’s not quite there. The control panel panel felt nice: settings you care about, presented cleanly and attractively. Compared to the iPad’s control panel, this one feels more powerful and easier to use.

The hardware is workmanlike. As a tablet it felt too big, the aspect ratio off by a bit. 16:9 at that size feels somewhat unbalanced. As a small display it felt just fine, though.

Handwriting recognition is great, and the touchscreen was responsive to both pen and touch. If both are going to be primary modes of input, though, it should really be more intuitive switching between writing and the regular keyboard.

I’m going to try to work from this thing for a while and see how I feel about it. This is early hardware and early software, so I don’t want to be too harsh or commit to recommending something that may change significantly later.

Take a look at the shots below to see some of the UI elements and features I thought were interesting on first inspection. We’ll follow up later with more in-depth impressions and some video.

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 Explorer. So today, Sinofsky has responded with his own thoughts about the design of Windows 8. The theme he wants his post to have is very clear: “no compromise” — he says it four separate times. Unfortunately, the theme that actually comes across is the exact opposite.

Writes Sinofsky:

We started planning Windows 8 during the summer of 2009 (before Windows 7 shipped). From the start, our approach has been to reimagine Windows, and to be open to revisiting even the most basic elements of the user model, the platform and APIs, and the architectures we support.  Our goal was a no compromise design.

And:

Why not just start over from scratch? Why not just remove all of the desktop features and only ship the Metro experience? Why not “convert” everything to Metro?  The arguments for a “clean slate” are well known, both for and against. We chose to take the approach of building a design without compromise.

And:

Windows 8 brings together all the power and flexibility you have in your PC today with the ability to immerse yourself in a Metro style experience. You don’t have to compromise!

And:

Our design goal was clear: no compromises. If you want to, you can seamlessly switch between Metro style apps and the improved Windows desktop.

I’m really not sure that Sinofsky understands the definition of “compromise”. Several of his own commenters wonder the same thing. As a refresher:

Compromise, noun: a middle state between conflicting opinions or actions reached by mutual concession or modification

Um, that’s precisely what Windows 8 sounds like.

As Sinofsky describes it, Windows 8 offers both the traditional Windows experience as well as the new Metro-based one because they saw the arguments for doing it both ways. So they… wait for it… compromised!

This is important because rarely do such compromises work. Yes, everyone wants to keep their cake and eat it too. But sometimes when you force this indecisiveness in the faces of users, you run the risk of them making a third choice: neither.

As Frederic Lardinois notes:

The question, of course, is if Microsoft’s somewhat odd approach to the Windows 8 user interface will really offer the best of both worlds or if it will just offer two completely disconnected experiences. Microsoft argues that “Windows 8 brings together all the power and flexibility you have in your PC today with the ability to immerse yourself in a Metro style experience.” Both Microsoft and Apple, though, have tried this same approach with their media-focused Media Center and Front Row experiences in the past and both didn’t succeed in convincing users to switch between these two interfaces.

Apple, of course, also has a two-pronged approach with OS X Lion and iOS. But they’re totally separate operating systems that don’t co-exist on any one device. Sure, OS X Lion is moving more in the direction of iOS, but that’s a transition towards what Apple clearly sees as the future of computing. They’re not sticking iOS on their machines as a sub-operating layer. And the most iOS-like element of OS X Lion, Launchpad, is the one element that seems to draw the most complaints.

As I’ve written before, I actually quite like Microsoft’s Metro approach. But I like it in the context of smartphones (and possibly tablets). I’m not sure how much I like it as a alternative to Windows itself. But it’s impossible to know that right now without using it, I’ll have to wait and see.

I simply think going with a single approach to the future of Windows makes more sense. Microsoft, understandably, is terrified of this. To me, Sinofsky’s entire post reads as an apology of sorts. Microsoft knows that they need to re-think and revamp Windows, but they can’t fully commit to it because they run the risk of alienating hundreds of millions of existing users.

But eventually, Microsoft will have to choose. They can’t be indecisive forever. They’ll have to “compromise”, to use what Sinofsky clearly thinks is the definition of the word

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 worth reading — but is the file manager worth using?

The new ribbon UI for the explorer window is so cluttered with different-sized buttons, labels, multi-part icons, and tabs that I can barely parse it. It’s more like a hall of mirrors than a task-oriented workspace. Is this really the new, streamlined Windows?

Microsoft appears to be going in two directions at once. With the sleek Metro interface demoed earlier this year, they are pushing towards the full-screen, super-natural, gesture-based navigation that people have come to expect to some degree in tablets. But under the hood, it looks like Windows is only getting more and more Windows-esque. I wrote some time back that Windows is the Cadillac of operating systems, and this seems to support that.

At the same time, Apple is comfortably moving in one direction, not that this is better. The UI changes in Lion are questionably efficient and powerful file management is simply not a priority. I don’t want to inject my personal preferences into it too much, but I think it’s beyond dispute that for some users, this is good, while for others it is frustrating and counter-intuitive.

But is there anyone who thinks that this wilderness of buttons is an effective way to communicate options and present actions to inexperienced users? The debate about the ribbon has gone on for a while, and again, it really seems like for some it’s a good idea, for others not so much. But this one in particular seems rather overpopulated. This is mainly because of the way Microsoft has designed the ribbon — it’s not a limitation of the grouped-buttons idea itself, which is something I see implemented well elsewhere every day. Look at the sheer number of arrows! Just in the top part of the window I count three up, ten down, one up and down, four right, and two left. With different contexts, weights, graphics, colors, and purposes.

I should add, in fairness, that there are other real improvements being made, some of which are detailed in the blog post. Do give it a read so you have some context for the parts I am criticizing.

Two paths

The research they did on user actions presents a sort of fundamental choice, which is illustrative of the difference between Microsoft and Apple. Microsoft found that more than 85% of users perform the most common actions (cut, paste, rename) with the context menu and keyboard shortcuts. Only around 10% used the command bar, and hardly any used the top menus.

What would you say the important lesson is here regarding future development? There are two very different interpretations of the data.

Microsoft concluded that the command bar is underused because it’s not robust enough, and upon further investigation found that few of the common actions were even to be found there. They are looking for what they need to add. The solution, obviously, is to pump up the command bar until it becomes equally usable. This means putting every popular command in there, sorting and labeling them, filling up the empty space with stuff they think might be useful, and isolating less-common options in other tabs. The result is what you see: button salad, with every item at your fingertips, a great number of which millions of users will never touch.

Apple would have concluded that the command bar is underused because it’s not effective. They are looking for what they need to subtract. Whether the items necessary are in it or not, the user preference towards context menus and keyboard shortcuts seems clear. The solution is to eliminate the command bar altogether and find a way to make the more popular access methods even more accessible. The result is a simplified interface with fewer options, and users are forever doomed to follow the road Apple has chosen.

Which is the correct lesson? Clearly neither. That’s why we have two warring OS styles, both successful, both powerful, with serious differences between them. But one thing that Apple has on Microsoft is that it commits to the ideas it forces on its users, and usually carries them out with style and taste (in the Strunk style of mispronouncing words loudly). You can’t finish a project faster with style and taste, but you can make it intelligible to grandparents who can’t wrap their minds around a double click or ctrl-drag.

The Metro UI is a breath of fresh air for Microsoft because, and this is not a superficial compliment, it looks good. It doesn’t look “impressive” or “powerful,” it looks good. It looks like something people can use. It’s going to be an awkward time for Microsoft as this new UI competes with the old (and despite what you say, I guarantee they are competing), but they need to start making real design decisions that advance the usability of Windows. This explorer interface, which will be among the most commonly used on all Windows 8 PCs, will be terrifying to new users and ignores many subtle and not-so-subtle design guidelines. It’s possible that this UI could be made successful with better art and execution, but it’s just not compatible with high-level decisions being made regarding the direction of Windows altogether. These engineers shouldn’t be having to worry about which never-used button should accompany “new folder.” It’s a waste of their time and Microsoft’s money.

Microsoft needs to commit the way Apple commits. Sometimes that means leaving things behind, which has never been Windows’ strong suit. If they hope to retain their existing users and maybe even gain a few back from Apple, they need to do more than keep adding lacquer to their existing methods. That doesn’t mean just imitate Apple and make the same mistakes they do, but they need to fight on new grounds and make hard decisions. ARM, Metro, and WP7 were good but difficult decisions because they questioned previous decisions deemed successful — things which for many were useful! But when they let things like this cling like barnacles to their fresh new OS, they’re allowing their legacy to interfere with what needs to be done.

Update: Sinofsky has posted a follow-up describing their approach to fusing the Metro and traditional UIs as being “without compromise.” Depending on how you define it, he is either right and the approach they’re taking is indeed without compromise… or it is entirely compromise.

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 handset comes with a 3.7-inch LCD with 800×480 resolution, a 13.2MP CMOS camera, a water- and shock-proof body, 32GB internal memory, a microUSB port, IEEE 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi (no tethering), DLNA support, GSM/CDMA, etc.

There are nine languages for the UI, and the IS12T is available in three “neon” colors (citrus, black, magenta).

I went to the only cell phone store in my neighborhood to have a look at the handset today, but unfortunately, I got to take just a few pictures (see above) and play around with it for a few minutes before I had to leave (no pictures-no videos policy).

My initial impression was that the phone itself felt light and thin, but also extremely cheap and plasticky (I couldn’t give Xbox Live, the Internet Explorer and other apps a spin because Wi-Fi and 3G were turned off – in the few minutes I played with it, the UI felt great).

Price-wise, the IS12T is positioned on the higher end of the spectrum for phones in Japan: the store (and every other retailer, for that matter) sells the phone for up to $955 (but with drastic discounts under certain circumstances). So if Fujitsu really starts selling the handset outside Japan (they do have international plans), don’t expect this to be a budget model.

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 applications. HTML5 is also supported in the IE9 browser, coming soon to Windows Phone “Mango,” due out this fall.

Does that mean HTML5, then, is the future of the Microsoft platform? Maybe not. A new, unannounced platform called “Jupiter” may soon have Microsoft developers leveraging their existing skills to write applications for both Windows 8 and Windows Phone. Which means, of course, apps that run on all platforms – not just PCs, but tablets and phones, too…and even the TV (via Xbox).

That “Jupiter” exists is not new information. There have been a number of leaks about the forthcoming platform in blogs, forum posts and some folks have even reversed-engineered leaked code to learn more.

Above: C# being used to invoke a Jupiter-based app. Looks like Silverlight animation!

For those not closely tracking Microsoft’s news, here’s what (we think) we know about Jupiter, based on the information out there:

• It is a new user interface library for Windows. (source)
• It is an XAML-based framework. (source)
• It is not Silverlight or WPF, but will be compatible with that code. (source)
• Developers will write immersive applications in XAML/C#/VB/C++ (source, source, source, source)
• It will use IE 10′s rendering engine. (source)
• DirectUI (which draws the visual elements on the screen, arrived in Windows Vista) is being overhauled to support the XAML applications. (source, source)
• It will provide access to Windows 8 elements (sensors, networking, etc.) via a managed XAML library. (source)
• Jupiter apps will be packaged as AppX application types that could be common to both Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8. (source, source, source, source)
• The AppX format is universal, and can used to deploy native Win32 apps, framework-based apps (Silverlight, WPF), Web apps, and games (source)
• Jupiter is supposed to make all the developers happy, whether .NET (i.e., re-use XAML skills), VB, old-school C++ or Silverlight/WPF. (Source? See all the above!)

That last item is especially important, since to date, Microsoft’s only public comment about Window’s 8′s development platform is that it’s “based on HTML5 and JavaScript.” As Peter Bright of Ars Technica pointed out, Microsoft developers were “horrified” by this news.

Before you throw Microsoft developers under the bus for failing to jump on the HTML5 bandwagon, you have to understand that they’ve invested a lot of time and money over the course of many years to learn all the technologies Microsoft has pushed, including Win32, COM, MFC, ATL, Visual Basic 6, .NET, WinForms, Silverlight and WPF, explained Bright. It sounded like Microsoft was asking them to throw away decades of experience and switch to HTML5.

While obviously, HTML5 has come a long way in recent months, it’s arguably not quite ready to drive the entire Microsoft platform just yet. It’s an option, of course, as it is on iOS, Android and other modern operating systems with modern Web browsers.

But it’s not going to be Microsoft developers’ only option, it seems.

At the BUILD conference next month, it’s expected that Microsoft will reveal Jupiter to its developer community and the public, at long last.

Why does Jupiter matter so much? If it’s not clear from the technical details above, it’s because Jupiter may end up being the “one framework” to rule them all. That means it might be possible to port the thousands of Windows Phone apps already written with Silverlight to Windows 8 simply by reusing existing code and making small tweaks. Or maybe even no tweaks. (That part is still unclear). If so, this would be a technical advantage for developers building for Windows Phone 8 (code-named “Apollo” by the way, the son of “Jupiter”) or Windows 8.

Post-PC World: Microsoft vs. Apple vs. Google

Imagine if Apple was to announce something similar – an easy way to port iOS applications to the Mac, for example. Right now, there’s no simple method for this. While there are third-party tools that help, Apple developers still have to do quite a lot of work to get a mobile iOS app running on the Mac OS X desktop. That said, we imagine Apple is secretly hard at work on solving this dilemma as we speak. After all, you can clearly see iOS’s influence on Mac OS X with the latest release, Lion: there’s a iOS-like “LaunchPad” with rows of apps, support for apps that work in “full screen” mode, disappearing scroll bars, and more.

Meanwhile, at Google, there’s currently a lack of vision about how to merge desktop and mobile. Chairman Eric Schmidt has made vague statements about how, at some point in the future, Chrome OS and Android will merge. But it seems like Google has no clear idea as to how it will go about doing so.

That Microsoft is thinking about the merging of desktop and mobile is no small matter. It’s a post-PC world, as they say, and for now, Apple is the only company that seems to be able to compete here. Android is struggling in the tablet market. HP just killed its barely-launched webOS. With Windows 8, Windows Phone 8 and Jupiter, Microsoft, at least, seems to have a vision.

Developer Discontent Grows, Microsoft Stays Mum

But with Apple so far ahead at this point, the timing of that vision’s reveal may be key to Microsoft’s future. The fact that Microsoft has allowed discontent to grow in its developer community for the entirety of the year, just so it could have a splashy announcement at BUILD may be looked back on as a strategic mistake that contributed to Microsoft’s eventual downfall. Microsoft wants to be Apple, full of secrets and surprises, but it doesn’t have the culture to support it. With Jupiter, the news should have been officially announced months ago, as a tease, with a full reveal at BUILD.

But instead, Microsoft set aside developers and their concerns, in order to win the hearts of consumers, technologists and the media with promises of “big announcements” at BUILD regarding the future of Windows. Oh, Microsoft. Whatever happened to “developers, developers, developers”? Make them happy and the rest of us will come.

Image credits: Microsoft, David Burela

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 catbird seat. However, Gartner expects this to be the last time a standalone OS image is installed on business PCs as IT departments move towards hosted computing and virtualization.

Not everything is sunshine and roses, however:

“Steady improvements in IT budgets in 2010 and 2011 are helping to accelerate the deployment of Windows 7 in enterprise markets in the U.S. and Asia/Pacific, where Windows 7 migrations started in large volume from 4Q10,” said Annette Jump, research director at Gartner. “However, the economic uncertainties in Western Europe, political instability in selected Middle East and Africa (MEA) countries and the economic slowdown in Japan after the earthquake and tsunami in March 2011 will likely lead to slightly late and slow deployment for Windows 7 across those regions.”

You can check out the report here if you’re a subscriber but generally Windows is still strong even in the face of OS X and mobile popularity.

The most interesting statistic I think will be how fast Chrome OS overtakes Windows in the low end of the PC/laptop world. I also wonder how much WinXP is still floating around out there, let alone how many WinCE and NT implementations still exist.

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.

But now big F has finally announced [JP] it has fixed the release in Japan: it will hit stores over here next Friday (July 22).

Everything else remains unchanged: the tablet will still cost $1,012 and have the following main specs: a 10.1-inch LCD screen with 1,024×600 resolution, 1GB RAM, an Atom Z670 (1.50GHz) CPU, a 120GB HDD, IEEE 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0, 2 USB slots, and an HDMI port.

Fujitsu is yet to say whether their device will hit international markets as well.

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 browser-based application, for one, since I like to keep the number of desktop apps I run to an absolute minimum. And the iTunes desktop application (at least the one for Windows) is practically unusable, at least in my experience.

Before I digress too much: there’s now a native Rdio app for Windows.

It’s a little buggy (the volume slider doesn’t function properly, for example) and according to my CrunchGear colleague Matt Burns tends to slow down your computer to a crawl – though I’m personally not experiencing any performance issues when running the software – but overall it’s a welcome addition to the Rdio app line-up.

You can use the software to listen to music and manage your Rdio MP3 downloads, use your keyboard’s media keys to control your music player, discover music via ‘New Releases’, ‘Top Charts’ and ‘Recommendations’ and match your existing music collection to see which music from your iTunes or Windows Media Player library is in the music startup’s catalog.

And yes, Mac users, there’s a native app for you too, since March 2011 actually.

Spotify, meanwhile, is gearing up for a U.S. launch, though admittedly it has been gearing up for that for the past few decades (ok, years). Rumor on the street is it will debut mid-July.

Rdio just gave you one more reason to try them out while you wait for that to happen.

The lucky chip makers chosen by Microsoft include Intel, Advanced Micro Devices, Nvidia, Qualcomm, and Texas Instruments. Each will have to choose one hardware developer to create clamshell and tablet devices that run Microsoft’s mobile OS, said the sources. After that, the chip makers will be able to use other manufacturers to build Windows Tablets. One person familiar with the situation said that Microsoft sees this strategy as a way to get products to market more quickly, and to ensure that the software performs well with the forthcoming tablets.

While that sounds like a pretty good plan, it also means that only a select few companies will be able to launch Windows tablets, which may not only upset other manufacturers, but could also limit the number of Windows tablets to enter the market. Plus, it’s too soon to tell which hardware makers will be paired with the chosen chip makers, though WSJ’s sources claim that most of the Taiwan-based companies have already been taken out of the mix.

One company to already voice its disapproval with Microsoft’s Windows OS restrictions is Acer. “The industry does not belong to Microsoft, and it does not belong to Intel,” said Acer president Jim Wong, at the Computex trade show on Wednesday. “It belongs to all participants. They cannot make the decision for all of us. That is the problem.”

[via WSJ]

Obviously this is a great deal students but it definitely points to a bit of a fire sale when it comes to the smaller, less memory-studded Xboxen along with the PCs that are currently mouldering on shelves thanks to the relative success of tablets. While I believe that the belief that tablets are eating into PC sales is correlation without causation, I do think that the race to the bottom in PC prices and netbook sales has negatively effected PC makers who are now facing a customer – of their own making – who expects more for considerably less. As a result, sales and profits are down catastrophically.

Also, remember that E3 is coming up and there could be new hardware coming from Microsoft in at least the next few years. While Kinect shot the aging XBox with a dose of adrenaline, everyone is thinking about next-gen this year.

In related news, an update to the 360 is rolling out now that will add Paypal support to the box along with a special “idle” mode that will reduce power consumption when the console is left on and unused for too long a time. Major Nelson aka Larry Hryb writes that the update will appear “throughout the next couple weeks.”

Students who buy select Windows 7-based PCs will get a free Xbox 360 console with purchase.

REDMOND, Wash., May 19, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Microsoft Corp. today announced a new offer for students who purchase a new Windows 7-based PC. Starting May 22, students buying a new Windows 7-based PC priced at $699 (U.S.) or more will also get a free Xbox 360 4GB console. Students will be able to choose from the wide range of stylish, powerful and innovative Windows 7-based PCs to find the one that’s right for them based on the features, color, size and price they want. The offer is available at participating retailers for current students in the U.S. while supplies last. Similar student-focused offers will be coming soon in Canada and France.

“A hot new Windows 7-based PC with a free Xbox 360 is the ultimate productivity, social and entertainment package for students,” said Kathleen Hall, general manager of Windows Marketing at Microsoft. “In one shot, with this great offer, Microsoft is giving students everything they need for a successful new school year.”
Today’s Windows 7-based PCs come in a wide variety of styles, sizes and colors, and many new PCs boast built-in Blu-ray drives, 3G connections and leading-edge technologies, such as 3-D displays and multitouch-capable screens. With more than 1 million devices and apps that work with a Windows 7-based PC, students’ smartphones, printers, digital music players and cameras will work with their PCs with ease right out of the box. With the addition of Microsoft Office 2010 for Home and Student with OneNote, students can create presentations for class, take and organize digital notes, manage group projects and assignments, and easily stay on top of class schedules. And with an Xbox 360, students can not only have fun gaming but also can enjoy a range of entertainment options, including streaming videos, sports, music and more.
To take advantage of this offer, students or parents must provide valid student identification as defined by the participating retailer. More information about this offer can be found at .

Product Page

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.

What else? Microsoft says the beta SDK will support “advanced audio capabilities.” Echo cancellation and support for Windows speech recognition. Oh, and support for XYZ depth perception.

All of this is leading toward Windows applications that “use” like you’d use a Kinect game. Maybe a version of Internet Explorer that works with the flick of a finger. Flailing about with Microsoft Virtual Earth, that kind of thing. I know it’s trite at this point, but a Minority Report-like interface, but for genuine applications that you’d use on a daily basis.

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 posted the shots this morning while noting that they’re unverified. But actually, the shots in English were previously out there, what’s new are the ones in Chinese that Cnbeta found that seem to verify the design. And what a design it is — I swear this looks familiar…

Last year, we ripped Google for ripping off the design of Apple’s App Store for their Chrome Web Store. This actually might be worse. It looks almost as if Microsoft is ripping off Google ripping off Apple. Again, allegedly — the shots aren’t confirmed.

Let’s hope Microsoft isn’t actually doing such a lame copy job with their actual store. Rushing to release a store baked into the OS months after a competitor is bad enough. At least nail the design or bring something new to the table.

Stop me when these look familiar.

Windows App Store:

Mac App Store:

iOS App Store:

Chrome Web Store:

Android Market:

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 with giving it a go.

Like I said, it’s not too hard to understand what’s going on here. BlueStacks gives you the ability to launch Android like you’d launch any other Windows application; it’s not a dual-boot solution. Once it’s up and running, your BlueStack’d Android behaves just another other Android experience.

The idea, I suppose, is to give you the ability to run Android apps on your Windows PC without having to have an Android mobile device (or tablet). Exactly what those apps would be is my question: what’s available on Android that you can’t a Windows equivalent? I’m all ears here.

But again, it sounds like a fun little thing you’d do to play with on the weekends.

Let’s not forget that there’s also the Android-x86 project, but that’s probably not as easy to get up and running.

If there’s a problem with BlueStacks, nearest I can tell, is that their Web site seems to be all wonk’d out right now. The little Flash animation&mdas;I’d like to reiterate how much of a pain in the neck Flash is—doesn’t respond properly when you click the download link. It’s kinda hard to give this thing a whirl if you can’t download it.