Windows 8 Release Expected in 2012 article says that Windows 8 will be with us in 2012. Windows 8 Features And Release Date article expect Windows 8 to be launched sometime in mid-late 2012. For details how Windows 8 looks take a look at Building “Windows 8″ – Video #1. For latest details check also Microsoft Newsroom on Windows 8 and Windows-ARM.Com.
The biggest changes in underlying technology is that Windows 8 is supposed to run on either the x86 or ARM architectures. Microsoft is in the process of rebuilding Windows for the post-PC era, by stepping back from its core roots (Intel processors) and embracing ARM. Windows-on-ARM Spells End of Wintel article tells that Brokerage house Nomura Equity Research forecasts that the emerging partnership between Microsoft and ARM will likely end the Windows-Intel duopoly. ARM-based chip vendors that Microsoft is working with (TI, Nvidia, Qualcomm) are now focused on mobile devices (smartphones, tablets, etc.).
Making the Windows to run other platforms than x86 seems to be a big change, but this is not the first time Microsoft has tried that (there has been once Windows NT for DEC Alpha and still Windows Server 2008 for Itanium). ARM is now hot and Microsoft is active pushing Windows 8 to use it. Sinofsky shows off Windows 8 on ARM and Office15 article tells that Windows boss Stephen Sinofsky has ended months of speculation with the first (fairly) detailed drilldown into Windows 8 on ARM (WOA) platform, and says it should be ready for a simultaneous launch with its x86/64 counterpart. WOA includes desktop versions of the new Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote. WOA is, as Sinofsky said, “a new member of the Windows family,” but it’s not Windows 8. It’s entirely new, and because it works only on ARM devices. Windows on ARM software will not be sold or distributed independent of a new WOA PC. In other words, WOA is to Windows as iOS is to Mac OS X.
Devices running WOA will come with both a Metro touch-based interface and the more traditional desktop, and will run Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote applications with full document compatibility with x86/64 systems. One thing was made crystal clear by Microsoft: Windows 8 on ARM will not be the same experience as Windows 8 on Intel-AMD.
How the two flavors of Windows 8 will be different article gives some details how Windows 8 on ARM is different from Windows 8 on X86. Windows 8 on ARM will not be the same experience as Windows 8 on Intel-AMD.
Building Windows for the ARM processor architecture article from Building Windows 8 blog is a goldmine to all you who are interested in more details on Windows 8 on ARM (WOA) platform. This post is about the technical foundation of what we call, for the purposes of this post, Windows on ARM, or WOA. WOA is a new member of the Windows family, much like Windows Server, Windows Embedded, or Windows Phone.
WOA builds on the foundation of Windows, has a very high degree of commonality and very significant shared code with Windows 8. Many low level details needed to be rewritten, but there is a significant portion of Windows that is generally built with code that can be made to work on ARM in a technically straightforward manner. These subsystems include the Windows desktop and applets and supporting APIs, though those needed to modified for better resource and power utilization. Enabling Windows to run well on the ARM architecture was a significant engineering task.
Here are my collection of the most important points I found from How the two flavors of Windows 8 will be different and Building Windows for the ARM processor architecture articles.
Windows 8 ARM devices will run on ARM processors from Texas Instruments, Qualcomm, and Nvidia, all running the same Windows OS binaries. WOA PCs use hardware support for offloading specific work from the main processor to integrated hardware subsystems to improve performance and battery life. ARM SoCs for WOA have DirectX capable GPUs (DX) for accelerated graphics in Internet Explorer 10, in the user interface of Windows, and in Metro style apps. WOA PCs are still under development, and thee goal is for PC makers to ship them the same time as PCs designed for Windows 8 on x86/64.
Windows 8 on ARM will not run traditional Windows 7 stuff (WIN32 x86 applications) because the processor is completely different and WOA will not support any type of virtualization or emulation. WOA does not support running, emulating, or porting existing x86/64 desktop apps.
Labeling to “avoid confusion”: When a consumer buys a Windows on ARM PC, it will be “clearly labeled and branded” so as to avoid potential confusion with Windows 8 on x86/64. Device makers work with ARM partners to create a device that is “strictly paired with a specific set of software (and sometimes vice versa), and consumers purchase this complete package, which is then serviced and updated through a single pipeline.”
Windows on ARM devices don’t turn off: You don’t turn off a WOA PC, according to Sinofsky. WOA PCs will not have the traditional hibernate and sleep options. Instead, WOA PCs always operate in the Connected Standby power mode, similar to the way you use a mobile phone today. Read Engineering Windows 8 for mobile networks for more details.
WOA supports the Windows desktop experience including File Explorer, Internet Explorer 10 for the desktop. Out of the box Windows on should ARM will feel like Windows 8 on x86/64. Sign in, app launching, Internet Explorer 10, peripherals, the Windows desktop and Windows Store access are the same. You will have access to the intrinsic capabilities of Windows desktop with tools like Windows File Explorer and desktop Internet Explorer if you want to use your mobile device in this way. Or you can use the Metro style desktop and Metro style apps (like what you see on Windows phone smartphones) if you like that more.
Metro style apps in the Windows Store can support both WOA and Windows 8 on x86/64. Developers wishing to target WOA do so by writing applications for the WinRT (Windows APIs for building Metro style apps) using the new Visual Studio 11 tools in a variety of languages, including C#/VB/XAML and Jscript/ HTML5.
Together talking on launching Windows 8 Microsoft also talks about new Windows Mobile Phone 8 and it’s integration with Windows 8. Windows Phone 8 Detailed article gives some details what integration with Windows 8 means. Windows Phone 8 won’t just share a UI with the next-generation desktop and tablet OS, apparently: it will use many of the same components as Windows 8, allowing developers to “reuse most of their code” when porting an app from desktop to phone. The kernel, networking stacks, security, and multimedia support as areas of heavy overlap.
Windows Phone 8 is the version of the platform currently being referred to by codename “Apollo” (the one scheduled for deployment after the upcoming Tango update). Microsoft insider Paul Thurrott has published a post confirming many of the details.
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Tomi Engdahl says:
Firefox Demos Prototype Metro Interface
http://news.slashdot.org/story/12/04/02/2146205/firefox-demos-prototype-metro-interface
In order to provide an alternative to IE on Windows 8, Firefox needs a Metro UI. Luckily, development of a Metro interface for Firefox is well underway. The current build reuses the Android interface XUL (by virtue of being based on Fennec). The latest test release features lots of platform integration support
Tomi Engdahl says:
A working Firefox Windows 8 Metro prototype, status update 3
http://www.brianbondy.com/blog/id/135/
The Firefox Roadmap lists a 2012 Q2 goal of providing a working Firefox prototype on Metro.
As of last week, we have a working browser in Metro. It currently looks and feels the same as the Android browser. You can navigate the web, create tabs, bookmark pages, build history, retain cache, adjust preferences, and more.
Since our prototype is based on Fennec we have a multi-process capable browser for free. Currently there is only one content process, but I believe the longer term plans are to increase that.
Tomi Engdahl says:
IE10 in Windows 8: Can pinned Web sites truly replace Favorites?
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-57409345-75/ie10-in-windows-8-can-pinned-web-sites-truly-replace-favorites/
The Windows 8 Metro flavor of IE10 jettisons Favorites, asking users instead to pin often-used Web sites. Is that a workable alternative?
The desktop flavor of IE10 still lets you create Favorites to manage your Web sites, but the Metro edition does away with such legacy options. Instead, you’re given the option of pinning often-used Web sites, as described in a new Microsoft blog. Pinning a site places a tile for it on both the Metro Start screen and in the browser when you click in the address bar.
I like many aspects of Metro IE. It’s clean and simple and removes all distractions, allowing the Web site to take center stage. Overall, I think that people who don’t maintain too many sites may find the Metro flavor a smooth ride.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Windows 8 will benefit from IE10 pinned web sites
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2166376/windows-benefit-ie10-pinned-web-sites
SOFTWARE REDEVELOPER Microsoft has said that its upcoming Windows 8 operating system will benefit from pinned web sites in the Internet Explorer 10 (IE10) start screen.
It claims that pinning will allow users to launch their favourite web sites and content easily.
He said, “Sites can integrate into the windows 8 start screen experience, with site-centric content and tile badge notifications to provide a richer site experience.”
Badge notifications are tiles that ‘come alive’ with up-to-date information, letting you know when new content is available.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Pinned Sites in Windows 8
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ie/archive/2012/04/03/pinned-sites-in-windows-8.aspx
Consumers on Windows spend most of their time on the Web and we know from Windows opt-in telemetry (officially, the Microsoft Customer Experience Improvement Program), that they go back to the same set of sites time and again. Pinned sites on Windows 8 make it fast and easy to immediately get to your sites. With badge notifications, site tiles come alive with up-to-date information and help you know when new content is available.
Developers can utilize pinned sites to better connect their site with their users and promote their site’s brand directly in the Windows start screen. We found that sites that used this feature with IE9 on Windows 7 see anywhere from a 15 percent to 50 percent increase in site visits. In Windows 8 the experience for consumers is even better with site tile updates, even when you don’t have the site open in the browser.
As a Web developer, you can provide a site icon (favicon) that IE10 uses throughout the browser to represent the site, in the address bar, on the new tab page, and on the Start screen. IE10 uses the large site icon (32 x 32 pixels) to identify the site when pinned to the Start screen the same way that IE9 used it for pinning to the task bar.
IE10 extracts the dominant color from the icon and automatically uses it as the background color for the Start screen tile.
One tool for creating icons is x-icon editor. Use it to create the 32×32 icon for your site. It can also convert an image to the icon file format (.ico). Then associate the .ico using traditional favicon markup:
Background notifications require site-provided components. These are: (1) Badge Notification XML, an XML response that describes the badge notification for Windows, and (2) Pinned Site Meta Tags, Web page markup that points to the location which Windows should poll for notifications and the frequency of polling.
Tomi Engdahl says:
This whole tile madness is driven by commercial reasons. Since MS can’t make a phone to be as capable as the desktop, they want to dumb the desktop down to the level of the phone. Then, they think, if everyone is trained to love the bomb ^W the Metro interface there will be more software for Windows phones, and more money for MS.
Source: http://slashdot.org/story/12/04/10/0212214/windows-8-metro-theme-created-for-rooted-android-tablets
Tomi Engdahl says:
Android is lagging behind for years to come iPad
118 900 000. So many flat-screen computers sold this year, if the research institute Gartner recent estimate is true.
Apple’s market share for table computers is 61.4 per cent, meaning almost 73 million iPad.
Android share this year, flat-screen computer sales is 31.9 percent. Android-board computers are sold nearly 38 million units.
Although the tablets suitable for Windows 8 has not even come on the market, Gartner estimates that nearly 5 million Windows-board computers will be sold. That would mean about four per cent market share.
According to Gartner, flat design PC sales does not change much over the coming years. The iPad will remain a favorite, but Android is catching up the neck up.
Next year estimates: nearly one hundred million iPads, 62 million Android devices
In 2016 the corresponding figures are 169.7 million IPad, 137.7 Android tablets and 43.7 million Windows flat-screen computers.
Source:
http://www.tietoviikko.fi/kaikki_uutiset/android+laahaa+ipadin+perassa+viela+vuosia/a798558?s=r&wtm=tietoviikko/-11042012&
Tomi Engdahl says:
Intel Working With 10 Vendors to Release Windows 8 Tablets by Year-end
http://www.pcworld.com/article/253565/intel_working_with_10_vendors_to_release_windows_8_tablets_by_yearend.html
Intel is working with 10 undisclosed Chinese and global vendors to design Windows 8 tablets using the company’s chips, a senior company executive said Wednesday.
“You’ll probably see many Intel-based tablets by the end of this year,” Intel China chairman Sean Maloney said while speaking at the Intel Developer Forum in Beijing.
Maloney made his comments as Intel has been working to expand its chip business into smartphones and tablets. The company’s newest Atom processor, the Z2460 and also code-named “Medfield”, is built for smartphones and tablets, and promises to give high computing performance while also offering long battery life.
The Medfield chip will be used in Chinese PC maker Lenovo’s K800 handset, the first smartphone to use an Intel processor.
Intel is also developing another mobile chip, code-named Clover Trail, which is designed for tablets and is scheduled to arrive this year. The chip features a 1.8 GHz processor, according to a slide shown during Maloney’s speech.
“Our strategy in China now is to win with smartphones and tablets. We are making progress on it!”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Microsoft roadmap leaks for Office 15, IE 10 and more key products
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/microsoft/microsoft-roadmap-leaks-for-office-15-ie-10-and-more-key-products/12417
Summary: Screen shots of a Microsoft product roadmap for partners have leaked to the Web. Here are the key take-aways.
The Windows piece of the roadmap is unsurprisingly vague about anything beyond the Developer Preview. Because the roadmaps were created in December last year, they don’t even mention the Consumer Preview, which Microsoft released on February 29. The roadmap specifies “Windows 8 information will be communicated via other channels.” (In other words, what happens in Windows client is only shared by Windows client.)
Internet Explorer 10 looks like it could be released any time now. Microsoft officials have never said when they planned to deliver IE 10 for Windows 7; in fact, they haven’t updated the preview build for Windows 7 since June 2011. But note that the symbol marking general availability (in terms of the color orange) for IE 10 is a bar instead of a square. The bar symbol, according to the key for the roadmap, indicates “historical cadence.” So all I can say for sure from this is if Microsoft follows its established release patterns, IE 10 could be out by mid-year — maybe around the time Microsoft delivers the Windows 8 Release Candidate.
Silverlight: The roadmap shows Silverlight 5’s December 2011 release to the Web. After that, there’s nothing on the roadmap indicating that future releases are in the pipeline.
Visual Studio: VS11, the coming release of Microsoft’s tool suite that will support Windows 8, is shown as being released to manufacturing in the latter part of 2012, as expected.
“We often provide forward-looking information to our partners and customers under our confidentially agreements with them. This information contains our best estimates and is, in no way, final or definitive.”
Critique says:
2.IT abilities: comprehension of what systems can and can not do.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Microsoft outs three flavors of Windows 8: Windows 8, Windows 8 Pro and Windows RT
http://www.engadget.com/2012/04/16/microsoft-outs-three-flavors-of-windows-8-windows-8-windows-8/
Now Microsoft’s ready to put a naming scheme on its much-anticipated menu for the operating system. According to a post on the Windows blog, ARM devices will get Windows RT, while x86 / 64 devices will run Windows 8 and Windows 8 Pro (also for x86 devices)
Announcing the Windows 8 Editions
http://windowsteamblog.com/windows/b/bloggingwindows/archive/2012/04/16/announcing-the-windows-8-editions.aspx
First, Windows 8 is the official product name for the next x86/64 editions of Windows.
For PCs and tablets powered by x86 processors (both 32 and 64 bit), we will have two editions: Windows 8 and Windows 8 Pro.
For many consumers, Windows 8 will be the right choice.
Windows 8 Pro is designed to help tech enthusiasts and business/technical professionals obtain a broader set of Windows 8 technologies. It includes all the features in Windows 8 plus features for encryption, virtualization, PC management and domain connectivity. Windows Media Center will be available as an economical “media pack” add-on to Windows 8 Pro. If you are an enthusiast or you want to use your PC in a business environment, you will want Windows 8 Pro.
Windows RT is the newest member of the Windows family – also known as Windows on ARM or WOA, as we’ve referred to it previously. This single edition will only be available pre-installed on PCs and tablets powered by ARM processors and will help enable new thin and lightweight form factors with impressive battery life. Windows RT will include touch-optimized desktop versions of the new Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote.
What Is Windows RT, And Where Did Microsoft Get That Cryptic Name?
http://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-windows-rt-and-where-did-microsoft-get-that-name-2012-4?op=1
Windows RT is the official name for what Microsoft had been calling Windows On ARM.
So what’s up with that name?
We asked Microsoft. It turns out that RT doesn’t stand for “Retweet” or “Radical Technology” or “Ridiculously Tangled.”
It stands for “Runtime.”
It refers to WinRT, the Windows Runtime Library.
It’s actually quite a tricky and important bit of technology, because it allows developers to write one app that runs on both Windows 8 (which uses Intel-type processors) and Windows RT (which uses ARM). Without it, developers would have to do extra work to get their apps to run on each platform.
But still — why didn’t Microsoft just call the operating system something like “Windows 8 ARM”? Why are they taking such pains to avoid the Windows 8 brand?
That’s not clear, but it could be for licensing purposes. Companies who covered Windows 7 on a long-term license agreement called an Enterprise Agreement automatically get upgrade rights when a new version comes out. But Microsoft might say that those upgrade rights only let them go to Windows 8, not Windows RT.
Windows RT cannot be bought separately at all — it will only come preinstalled on ARM-based Windows tablets.
Or it might be to make sure consumers know the difference between the ARM-based Windows RT tablets, which won’t run old Windows apps, and the Intel-type Windows 8 tablets, which will run old apps.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Windows 8 diet exposes Microsoft’s weak ARM
Three boxes, two tablets, no clear choice
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/04/17/windows_8_package_confusion/
Microsoft has put Windows marketing on a diet, cutting the number of packaged editions from six under Windows 7 to just three main versions for its latest OS, which is due later this year.
“We have worked to make it easier for customers to know what edition will work best for them when they purchase a new Windows 8 PC or upgrade their existing PC,” communications manager Brandon LeBlanc wrote here.
Microsoft will deliver both Windows 8 for consumers and Windows 8 Pro for business users on the x86/64 architecture for tablets and PCs.
What had until now been called Windows on ARM (WOA) has been renamed Windows RT – which LeBlanc indicated stands for “runtime”.
There is a fourth edition called Enterprise that will be sold only to customers on Software Assurance while China and “a small set of select emerging markets” will get local-language-only editions of the client.
Whether a user should pick Windows 8 or Windows RT is less straightforward. When it comes to choosing either x86/64 or ARM tablets, the packages have a lot in common, while just three areas separate them. They are important areas nonetheless.
Windows RT users won’t have to buy most of Microsoft’s Office apps: Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote come as standard with the software. Buyers of x86/64 tablets must still shell out.
Windows RT comes with device encryption – which is missing on x86/64.
On the flip side, Windows RT lacks Windows Media Player that will come standard on x86/64.
customers won’t be able to install their existing PC apps on Windows RT tabs.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Intel/Microsoft aim to push down iPad global market share under 50% by mid-2013
http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20120417PD216.html
Intel and Microsoft have been keeping close cooperation with first-tier vendors developing new tablet PCs based on Windows 8, with a goal of decreasing the global market share for iPad from 70% currently to below 50% by the middle of 2013, according to Taiwan-based ODMs.
Microsoft will release Windows 8 for x86 platforms in September and Windows RT, a version specifically for ARM architecture, later, the sources noted.
Based on current progress of development, there will be 32 Windows 8 tablet PCs launched by Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Lenovo, Acer, Asustek Computer and Toshiba by the end of 2012, the sources indicated.
Lenovo and Acer plan to launch Windows 8 tablet PCs priced at US$300-1,000, with entry-level models to be sold at below US$300
Tomi Engdahl says:
Intel Shows Off Ultrabook-Tablet Hybrid Running Windows 8
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/04/intel-cove-point-ultrabook-tablet-hybrid-running-windows-8/
Super-thin, super-light and super-speedy, ultrabooks were designed to make us forget about traditional PC notebooks. They were all the rage at their big CES coming-out party in January, but now even “traditional” ultrabooks are passe.
At IDF 2012 in Beijing last week, Intel showed off a clever new take on the ultrabook platform when it demoed an ultrabook-tablet hybrid reference design dubbed Cove Point.
Intel’s Cove Point — aka Letexo, a former code name still used by some journalists — looks similar to two-in-one tablets like the Asus Transformer, which caters to consumers who can’t decide whether to buy a tablet or notebook.
Cove Point sports a touchscreen that can be used as a tablet when the device is closed. The keyboard rests flush against the back of the screen in this position, so the device more closely resembles a standard tablet than a clamshell notebook.
The hardware can be used as a full-fledged PC — Intel showed off the device running the Consumer Preview of Windows 8. At the demo, Cove Point also ran on an early sample of Intel’s upcoming Ivy Bridge CPU.
“Where we see the future of computing going, with tablets and Windows 8, is the importance of the touch experience,” Richman said.
Currently, no OEMs have made a Cove Point announcement
Cove Point device would probably cost around $1,000
Tomi Engdahl says:
Microsoft aims to make iPad an underdog with Windows 8
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-57415697-75/microsoft-aims-to-make-ipad-an-underdog-with-windows-8/
Supposedly, Redmond intends to push iPad market share below 50 percent, according to the often-wrong Digitimes. The same report says Microsoft expects 32 Windows 8-based tablets this year.
Microsoft reportedly hopes to push Apple’s worldwide iPad market share under 50 percent by the middle of 2013 with Windows 8-based tablets, Digitimes reports today, citing unnamed sources.
Apple has been the dominant force in the tablet market over the last couple of years. Even though it faces a host of Android-based devices, including the popular Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and Amazon Kindle Fire, Apple owns about 62 percent of the tablet space, according to a February report from TrendForce. A subsequent report from iSuppli said Apple should hold about 61 percent of the tablet space by the end of the year.
“We believe competitors (Android and Windows) will have trouble matching the price-performance specs of the current iPad product lineup and [Apple] should continue to dominate the category,” Whitmore told investors in March. “Windows 8 is receiving mixed reviews and Android (is) in disarray.”
Apple, of course, isn’t invincible. In late 2010, the company owned 87 percent of the tablet market, according to research firm IDC. That’s a good indication of how even middling competition can dilute its market share, even if those rivals can’t match the iPad’s sales. Whether Windows 8 can do the same, though, is far from clear.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Microsoft Uncloaks Windows 8 for ‘Consumerized’ Businesses
http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2012/04/windows-8-enterprise/
Microsoft has shared some added details about the makeup of Windows 8 Enterprise, the version of its upcoming new operating system designed specifically for large businesses.
On Tuesday, Microsoft briefly mentioned the enterprise version of Windows 8 in a blog post describing the consumer versions it will offer, but it did not provide additional details until Wednesday, when Microsoftee Erwin Visser blogged about Windows 8 Enterprise. “Windows 8 Enterprise features include all the capabilities that customers get with Windows 8 Pro … plus premium features designed to provide the mobile productivity, security, manageability and virtualization needs of today’s businesses, Visser wrote.
Among other things, the new business OS will attempt to harness the much-discussed BYOD phenomenon, where employees bring their own devices into the workplace.
Lending a helping hand to these IT folk, Windows 8 Enterprise will offer a tool called Windows To Go. This provides a portable version of the OS that can be booted from a USB stick, providing completely separate and ostensibly secure means of access a corporate network from personal devices. The company will also include a tool called DirectAccess, which provides remote access to a corporate network without launching a separate VPN, or virtual private network.
Other Windows 8 Enterprise tools include BranchCache, which lets PCs cache files, websites, and other content from central servers, so that they needn’t repeatedly download them, and AppLocker, which restricts the files and applications users are allowed to run.
Windows 8 Enterprise is available to customers who sign up for Microsoft’s Software Assurance agreement
Announcing the Windows 8 Editions
http://windowsteamblog.com/windows/b/bloggingwindows/archive/2012/04/16/announcing-the-windows-8-editions.aspx
Tomi says:
One of the Enterprise version of the feature is reserved for the “Windows to Go”, which, however, was unveiled in September last year. It allows the maintenance of a memory stick can make the disk image from your computer.
After this, your Windows may start on any Windows 8 with a qualifying machine, which allows the USB stick to be launched.
Another Windows 8 is updated for the Enterprise feature is Direct Access to telework will be able to gain access to firm resources without a VPN network.
Windows 8 Enterprise will be available only to those companies who have Microsoft Software Assurance support contract.
Source: http://www.tietoviikko.fi/msareena/msuutiset/kaikkiareenauutiset/nama+ovat+windows+8n+uutuuksia+yrityksille/a801899?s=r&wtm=tietoviikko/-21042012&
Tomi Engdahl says:
Intel’s Ivy Bridge waits on Windows 8
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-57418588-64/intels-ivy-bridge-waits-on-windows-8/?part=rss&subj=news&tag=title
Ivy Bridge will highlight Intel’s emphasis on power-efficiency and graphics performance, but one key ingredient will be missing — Windows 8.
Part and parcel of Intel’s 22-nanometer tech is the 3D “tri-gate” transistor (see image below). Intel claims tri-gate tech allows an “unprecedented” combination of power savings and performance gains that will allow the perpetuation of Moore’s law for “years to come,” according to a statement by the company.
Ivy Bridge will also be the biggest statement by Intel to date on the importance of graphics. “Graphics are the part where you’re going to see the most sizable gains [and] on the CPU [central processing unit] you’re going to see incremental benefits,” an industry source familiar with Ivy Bridge’s performance, told CNET earlier in the month. And this has been confirmed by early Ivy Bridge benchmarks.
“Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome. They’ve all been in a performance war. And one of the things that they use to improve performance is the graphics elements of HTML,” said Nathan Brookwood, principal analyst at Insight64, referring to Ivy Bridge’s graphics silicon support for OpenCL 1.1 — an Intel first. “So, if you look at IE9 versus IE8, one of the big improvements there was being able to use the GPU accelerate a lot of that kind of work.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Did Microsoft Simply Run Out of Time On Windows RT?
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/12/04/22/1832247/did-microsoft-simply-run-out-of-time-on-windows-rt
Microsoft may have simply run out of time with Windows RT, Directions on Microsoft analyst Michael Cherry said on Friday. Windows RT, the name Microsoft slapped on the OS earlier this week after calling it ‘Windows on ARM,’ or WOA, for months, is the forked version of Windows 8 designed to run on devices powered by ARM SoCs, or system-on-a-chip. Cherry was referring to gaps in Windows RT’s feature set
Did Microsoft run out of time with Windows RT?
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9226426/Did_Microsoft_run_out_of_time_with_Windows_RT_
Analyst argues that Windows RT is all Microsoft could create before it fell further behind in tablet race
Microsoft may have simply run out of time with Windows RT, an analyst said today.
Windows RT, the name Microsoft slapped on the OS earlier this week after calling it “Windows on ARM,” or WOA, for months, is the forked version of Windows 8 designed to run on devices powered by ARM SoCs, or system-on-a-chip.
“This is pure speculation on my part, but it seems like they had to make a trade-off with Windows RT,” said Michael Cherry, an analyst with Directions on Microsoft, a Kirkland, Wash.-based research firm that specializes in tracking Microsoft’s moves.
“They didn’t have to time to get everything in there,” Cherry said.
Cherry was referring to gaps in Windows RT’s feature set, particularly the lack of “domain joining,” the ability to connect to a corporate Windows network and the lack of support for Group Policies, one of the ways IT administrators use to manage Windows devices.
Windows RT differs in even bigger ways from Windows 8, which runs on x86/64 hardware powered by Intel and AMD processors: The OS cannot run existing Windows applications, and with the exception of some Microsoft-made components, lacks a “desktop” mode.
“Application compatibility is going to be an important consideration for enterprises considering [tablets] running Windows 8 and Windows RT,” said Al Gillen of IDC in an interview earlier this week.
Time was a factor because Microsoft has fallen seriously behind rivals Apple and Google, said Cherry, who noted that Apple’s iPad is already in its third-generation.
Another option for Microsoft would be to simply wait for the appearance of lower-powered Intel processors that can compete on battery longevity with ARM, then push Windows 8, not Windows RT, for tablets.
But that carries some risk, and not only in the delays that make Microsoft fall even further behind Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android.
Microsoft has not yet disclosed a release date for either Windows RT or Windows 8, or said when devices running the former will go on sale.
Skepticism mounts over Windows RT’s enterprise role
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9226379/Skepticism_mounts_over_Windows_RT_s_enterprise_role
Questions about IT’s ability to manage Windows RT tablets makes the new OS a weak business candidate, say experts
Earlier this week, Microsoft confirmed that Windows RT, the operating system designed to run on battery-saving devices powered by ARM system-on-a-chip (SoC) silicon, will not include a pair of features critical to enterprises: Connectivity to a company’s network, dubbed “domain joining,” and support for Group Policies, a mechanism that enterprise IT administrators use to micro-manage machines.
Microsoft had not given a clear answer on Windows RT’s fit within enterprises before Monday, said Al Gillen of IDC. “I asked them this question point blank,” he said, referring to face-to-face meetings between Microsoft and analysts earlier this year. “I never got an answer.”
“Based on what we know today, a Windows RT device will be no more manageable than an iPad,” said Michael Cherry, an analyst with Directions on Microsoft, which focuses on the Redmond, Wash. developer’s moves.
But Windows RT is increasingly seen by the experts as very similar to the iPad — a consumer-only play — and considering IT’s needs, offers little to businesses.
“This solidly positions WOA [Windows RT] as a consumer device,” argued Michael Silver, who covers Microsoft for Gartner. “As more information comes out, it looks like fewer and fewer organizations will be looking at WOA.”
“I’ve come to the conclusion that with no domain log-in, [companies] won’t be able to manage, won’t be able to provision Windows RT devices,” said Gillen.
“Windows 8 on tablets was expected to bring a more managed environment,”
“Despite Microsoft not wanting to create disappointment with Windows RT, I think there will be a lot of disappointment with version 1,” said Cherry.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Microsoft confirms the Release Preview of Windows 8 will arrive in June
http://thenextweb.com/microsoft/2012/04/24/microsoft-confirms-the-release-preview-of-windows-8-will-arrive-in-june/
Microsoft has confirmed that it will launch the Release Preview of Windows 8 in the first week of June, according to an announcement made at the Windows 8 Developer Days conference in Japan today, via Engadget.
This news comes fresh from the company revealing the Windows 8 catalogues last week, which will come in four different editions: Windows 8, Windows 8 Pro, Windows Enterprise and Windows RT.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Microsoft unveils Windows 8 ‘release preview’ for June
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/04/24/win_8_june_release_preview/
Windows 8 will be signed off and released to PC manufacturers in June, paving the way for a September or October launch.
Microsoft will deliver what it’s calling a “release preview” of Windows 8 in the first week of June, Windows chief Steven Sinofsky has revealed.
Image and appearance aside, the June date suggests we’re looking at an actual official launch of Windows 8 in either September or October. The latter has become traditional for Microsoft – with the exception of Windows Vista – in recent history. There’s usually a two- to three-month lag between RTM and launch
Tomi Engdahl says:
The hidden danger of Windows 8 Microsoft Accounts
http://www.infoworld.com/t/microsoft-windows/the-hidden-danger-of-windows-8-microsoft-accounts-191185
Microsoft goes to great lengths to convince Windows 8 users to log on with an email address, but if your account gets hijacked you could find yourself locked out
If you’ve been using the Windows 8 Consumer Preview, no doubt you’ve toyed with the idea of using a Microsoft Account log-in — most commonly a Hotmail or Windows Live email address.
If you log on to Windows 8 with a regular Local user ID and password, you’re a second-class citizen.
But have you stopped to consider what happens if your Hotmail account gets hijacked?
I get complaints almost every day from people who have been locked out of their Hotmail accounts. Nine times out of 10 they’ve been careless with the password
Hotmail accounts are quite attractive to scammers.
If you use a Hotmail ID for your Microsoft Account and your Hotmail account gets hijacked and the password changed, Windows 8 lets you log on to your PC, but when you do, you get the notice “You’re signed in to this PC with your old password. Sign in again with your current password, or reset it.” If you then try to reset your password, you can’t — clicking on the Reset link doesn’t do anything.
and it isn’t clear if there’s a time limit on how long you can continue to use the old password.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Windows 8 on the desktop—an awkward hybrid
http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2012/04/windows-8-on-the-desktopan-awkward-hybrid.ars
Windows 8′s new user interface has proven nothing short of polarizing. The hybrid operating system pairs a new GUI concept, the touch-friendly Metro interface, to the traditional windows, icons, menus, and pointer concept that Windows users have depended on for decades. In so doing, it removes Windows mainstays such as the Start button and Start menu.
While few are concerned about Windows 8′s usability as a tablet operating system, desktop users remain wary. Will the new operating system take a huge step back in terms of both productivity and usability? Specific concerns voiced in our forums have included the mandated fullscreen view and a lack of resizable windows, the tight restrictions on what applications are permitted to do, and the automatic termination of background applications.
The good news is that these specific criticisms are largely off-base. Windows 8 includes a full desktop with all the applications and behavior that you expect a Windows desktop to include. This means full multitasking (no background suspension or termination), full system access (to the extent that your user permissions allow), resizable non-maximized windows, Aero snap, pinned taskbar icons, alt-tab—it’s all still there and it all still works.
The bad news is that the various pieces of the operating system do not in fact mesh together smoothly; the seams, especially between the Metro and legacy interfaces, remain obvious and jarring. For desktop users, the experience remains decidedly mixed.
Almost great
The Windows 8 desktop experience is best summed up with one word: frustrating. It takes the already solid Windows 7 experience and makes some valuable, desirable improvements.
Metro apps themselves work well with the mouse and a keyboard: writing applications that are equally comfortable with touch and mouse seems possible. All the different pieces that you need for a good desktop operating system are there.
They just don’t fit together well. For tablet users, the whole is probably greater than the sum of the parts, and the individual decisions add up to a slick touch environment. But they’re problematic for dedicated desktop users, and mixed Metro/desktop usage looks like a real mess.
The only way to make the experience work smoothly is to ignore the Metro parts (aside from the Start screen). And if you’re going to do that, what’s the point of giving desktop users Metro apps at all?
Tomi Engdahl says:
Microsoft and the bookstore chain collaboration: Windows 8 Nook will be published
Microsoft invested $ 300 million joint venture of the U.S. largest bookstore chain, Barnes and Noble with.
The joint venture to develop a book store chain Nook reader 8-in Windows operating systems versions.
Source: http://www.tietoviikko.fi/msareena/msuutiset/microsoft+ja+kirjakauppaketju+yhteistyohon+nook+julkaistaan+windows+8lla/a804722?s=r&wtm=tietoviikko/-02052012&
Tomi Engdahl says:
Microsoft to Use Dolby Sound Tech in Windows 8
http://allthingsd.com/20120503/microsoft-to-use-dolby-sound-tech-in-windows-8/
Dolby Laboratories said on Thursday that Microsoft plans to incorporate its sound technology into Windows 8.
Under the deal, computer makers will be required to license directly from Dolby and pay a royalty to use the technologies.
“With the incredible growth of online download and streaming media, particularly for video content, this agreement ensures a great audio experience for those consumers who wish to download or stream TV and movies containing Dolby Digital Plus,” Microsoft Windows unit CFO Tami Reller said in a statement. “Additionally, all of their existing and future home videos recorded with Dolby Digital Plus audio will work great on Windows 8 right out of the box.”
“Dolby does not expect this agreement to affect its fiscal 2012 outlook because Windows 8 is not expected to ship until Dolby’s fiscal 2013,” the company said.
Though Microsoft hasn’t officially said when to expect Windows 8, it is widely expected to ship later this year. Dolby’s comments, though, suggest that Windows 8 won’t ship until at least October, the start of its fiscal first quarter.
In an interview, Dolby VP John Couling said that the deal covers Windows running on PCs and tablets and those running on both ARM and x86 processors.
Microsoft is already Dolby’s largest customer and was involved in Windows Vista and Windows 7, largely for DVD playback.
“The PC ecosystem is very important to us,” Couling said.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Microsoft: Media Center not part of ‘the future of entertainment’
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/bott/microsoft-media-center-not-part-of-the-future-of-entertainment/4944
Summary: A new blog post from Microsoft fills in details about how Media Center will fit in Windows 8, as an extra-cost option. And it’s pretty clear that Media Center is not part of “the future of entertainment in Windows.”
In a new post at the Building Windows 8 blog, Microsoft starts with this emphatic promise: “Windows 8 will deliver a world-class video and audio entertainment experience.”
The post concludes on a similarly upbeat note: “We are incredibly excited about the future of entertainment in Windows.”
If you’re running the base Windows 8 edition, you’ll need to upgrade the OS and install the Media Center Pack. Today’s post fills in a few more details:
Acquiring either the Windows 8 Media Center Pack or the Windows 8 Pro Pack gives you Media Center, including DVD playback (in Media Center, not in Media Player), broadcast TV recording and playback (DBV-T/S, ISDB-S/T, DMBH, and ATSC), and VOB file playback.
That parenthetical note about the absence of DVD playback in Media Player is not a mistake. DVD playback options will not be included with the new Windows Media Player, even if you install the Media Center Pack.
Windows Media Player will continue to be available in all editions, Microsoft says, but for DVD playback you’ll need to use Media Center or third-party software: “For optical discs playback on new Windows 8 devices, we are going to rely on the many quality solutions on the market, which provide great experiences for both DVD and Blu-ray.” the post says. Translation: You’ll need to buy your own DVD software, or count on your OEM to supply it.
Making Windows Media Center available in Windows 8
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2012/05/03/making-windows-media-center-available-in-windows-8.aspx
In this post we wanted to update you on Media Center and Windows 8, specifically how we will make sure Windows 8 fully supports the capabilities of Media Center as it is in Windows 7. We took the feedback about maintaining the functionality very seriously, and we clearly understood what we’ve heard many of you saying around the value of Media Center for movies, Internet TV, broadcast TV, optical media, music, photos, and all the other scenarios it covers today.
Metro style apps can use any of the decoders included in Windows. These decoders are optimized for system reliability, battery life, and performance, and cover all key playback scenarios for mainstream content such as YouTube video, Netflix video, Amazon audio/video, H.264 web browsing/streaming, Hulu video, MP4 video, AVCHD video from camcorders, Ultraviolet video, and the HTML5 video tag. Metro style apps can also include additional decoders (such as FLAC, MKV, OGG, etc.) in their apps package for use within the apps.
Tomi Engdahl says:
PC brand vendors moving R&D resources from Android to Windows 8
http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20120502PD213.html
PC brand vendors have already started moving their resources from R&D for Android to Windows 8 and are focusing more on developing Windows 8-based products, according to sources from the upstream supply chain.
Due to the weak demand for Android-based tablet PCs, PC brand vendors such as Hewlett-Packard (HP), Acer and Dell have already turned their focuses from Android to Windows 8 for their tablet PC products with their software development teams turning from developing Android to Windows 8 applications.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Windows 8 drops DVD playback, only available with paid Media Center upgrade
http://www.theverge.com/2012/5/4/2998106/windows-8-drops-dvd-playback-media-center-upgrade
You might have heard that Windows 8 won’t come with Media Center, but that’s not the only missing multimedia piece of the puzzle. This week, Microsoft revealed that the new operating system won’t have any kind of DVD playback, unless you specifically purchase Media Center or use third-party DVD software.
Microsoft says online media is the focus for Windows 8, and will include H.264, VC-1, MP4, AAC, WMA, MP3, PCM and (as announced earlier today) Dolby Digital Plus codecs, as well a variety of container formats to make that work, but oddly the primary use case for Dolby — those DVDs — won’t be supported out of the box.
How do you play DVDs on a Windows 8 PC, then? Actually, it probably won’t be very hard: if Windows 8 machines are anything like Windows 7 ones, every consumer PC that comes with an optical drive will probably have bundled DVD software.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Windows 8 drops DVD playback, only available with paid Media Center upgrade
http://www.theverge.com/2012/5/4/2998106/windows-8-drops-dvd-playback-media-center-upgrade
UPDATE: As some are pointing out in the comments, free third-party software for Windows DVD playback is exceptionally easy to come by. VLC and Media Player Classic rank among our favorites.
Tomi Engdahl says:
If VLC can ship a free DVD player, why can’t Microsoft?
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/bott/if-vlc-can-ship-a-free-dvd-player-why-cant-microsoft/4962
Summary: Microsoft’s decision to remove support for playing DVD movies in Windows 8 has caused some confusion. If the VLC media player can provide DVD support for free, why can’t Microsoft? For starters, Microsoft isn’t French.
Microsoft announced this week that Windows 8 will not support playback of DVD movies unless you explicitly add software that supports that feature.
The economic reasons for doing so are compelling (see Microsoft’s follow-up FAQ for details), but it’s also a potentially disruptive move for some Windows enthusiasts. So it’s not surprising that some of the initial reactions have been heated and even angry.
“Microsoft says the cost of DVD playback adds up to several dollars,” the argument goes. “But I can download the VLC player for Windows and get DVD playback for free. How come VLC can do it and Microsoft can’t?”
Welcome to the wonderful world of software licensing, where today we get to see a real-world example of the differences between commercial software and free software published under an open source license.
Any commercial product—hardware or software—that plays back DVDs has to have a license to a handful of software components that are protected by patents.
An MPEG-2 decoder. Those rights cost $2 per device. An OEM PC maker who licenses Windows from Microsoft must pay $2 in MPEG-2 licensing fees to enable DVD playback in every copy of Windows 7 Home Premium, Professional, and Ultimate.
Dolby Digital audio support. The licensing schedule isn’t public, but in its annual report for 2011 Dolby revealed that it collected $124 million in licensing fees from Microsoft for the year, with most of that revenue generated from Windows 7. My back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest that Dolby gets at least 50 cents and as much as a dollar for every Windows PC sold.
Microsoft, Apple, Panasonic, Sony, Samsung, and other companies that make DVD players (hardware and software) have to pay those license fees for every unit they deliver to a customer, which is why you don’t see very many free DVD players.
The noteworthy exception is the VLC media player
Well, on its “Legal concerns” page the makers of VLC open with a proud declaration: “VideoLAN is an organization based in France,” and “French law … is the only one to be applicable.”
Patents and codec licenses
Neither French law nor European conventions recognize software as patentable (see French section below).
Therefore, software patents licenses do not apply on VideoLAN software.
The two software libraries that enable DVD and Blu-ray playback in VLC are libdvdcss and libaacs, both of which get their own legal justifications
I’m sure if one were to ask a lawyer for one of the patent holders in the MPEG-2 or AACS pools, one would get a very spirited argument about the validity of those arguments.
But VLC can get away with it primarily because it is a nonprofit organization based outside the reach of the United States legal system and not worth pursuing.
Any OEM that includes a DVD player in a new Windows 8 PC will undoubtedly include a licensed DVD Player, such as the Metro version of PowerDVD that CyberLink announced at CES earlier this year. (If PowerDVD is smart, they’ll include both the Metro and desktop versions with Windows 8.) You’ll also have an assortment of commercial programs to choose from.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Media Center for Windows 8: An Add-on At A Nominal Price
http://www.anandtech.com/show/5813/media-center-for-windows-8-an-addon-at-a-nominal-price
AnandTech has been covering the Home Theater PC space since those halcyon days when Windows XP Media Center was rolling out, and the era of dual-core Pentiums promised tolerable playback of DVD-quality AVI files. Despite our, and your, enthusiasm, Microsoft dropped hints throughout the product’s various iterations that Media Center’s role in Windows 8 was minimal.
Yeah. We know. The new Media Center is the old Media Center, wholesale. In the post regarding SKUs, the Windows 8 team announced that Media Center would not be included in any of the Windows 8 releases, but would be available for Windows 8 Pro users as an add-on. The add-on will be the same experience found in Windows 7, with no apparent additions. Why take such an apathetic approach to Media Center? Usage.
In data Microsoft published last year, Media Center was launched by 6% of Windows 7 users. For a feature to have such low usage, 10 years after it was first introduced, means that whatever efforts to gain traction have failed, and further efforts are unlikely to have great success. So, deprecating Media Center to the level of a near-orphaned feature is not surprising in the slightest. What was unexpected was the deprecation of audio codecs and DVD playback to the Media Center Pack as well. Codec licensure is something the public can generally ignore, but it’s the reason DVD players will never cost a penny, and why the original Xbox required a dongle for playback. Since Windows XP Media Center, users have been paying for MPEG-2 and Dolby Digital decode support. With Vista, the audio side was bolstered with Dolby Digital Plus, and this was maintained in Windows 7. Windows 8 will not have DVD playback out of the box, though with the addition of the Media Center Pack will gain the appropriate licensure.
News isn’t all bad on the media front for Windows 8, though MPEG-2 for the DVD containers is omitted, it is included for H.264 decoding, alongside Dolby Digital Plus support; all this intended to extend video streaming support.
We had been considering doing a quick “State of the HTPC”-style piece, with a focus on the state of MCE and what changes to expect in Windows 8. Now we know, there’s not much to expect.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Making Windows Media Center available in Windows 8
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2012/05/03/making-windows-media-center-available-in-windows-8.aspx
Acquiring either the Windows 8 Media Center Pack or the Windows 8 Pro Pack gives you Media Center, including DVD playback (in Media Center, not in Media Player), broadcast TV recording and playback (DBV-T/S, ISDB-S/T, DMBH, and ATSC), and VOB file playback. Pricing for these Packs, as well as retail versions of Windows 8, will be announced closer to the release date. To give you some indication of Media Center Pack pricing, it will be in line with marginal costs.
Tomi Engdahl says:
AMD’s Hondo APUs ready for Windows 8 Q4 launch – report
Chip giant’s tablet-friendly silicon on the way
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/05/09/amd_hondo_tablet_windows8/
Chip giant AMD is set to debut its 32nm Trinity APUs in notebooks later this month, while the firm’s tablet-friendly Hondo chips will hit the streets in the fourth quarter to coincide with the much-anticipated launch of Windows 8, Digitimes has learnt.
Citing “sources from notebook players”, the Taiwan-based tech title said that AMD would delay a version of the A-Series Trinity APUs for desktops until August, with prices expected to come in under those of Intel’s Ivy Bridge processors.
Among the desktop models will be the A10-5800K, A10-5700, A8-5600K and A8-5500 models, all made by former foundry GlobalFoundries.
Trinity will be based on the Piledriver architecture, boosting overall performance by 25 per cent and graphics performance by an impressive 50 per cent over AMD’s current Llano chips, the sources blabbed to Digitimes.
More interesting for many will be AMD’s play in the burgeoning tablet market, with the firm’s ultra low power (ULP) 40nm Hondo APUs slated for launch in Q4.
The firm has high hopes for the tablet and ‘ultrathin’ market and it will be interesting to see whether its 4.5-watt Hondos can rise to the twin challenge of unsettling undisputed mobile chip champ ARM and edging out arch-rival Intel.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Microsoft Accused of Hindering Firefox Browser
http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424052702304070304577394760696347108-lMyQjAxMTAyMDAwOTEwNDkyWj.html
Mozilla Corp.’s contention focuses on future tablets and personal computers that exploit chip designs licensed from ARM Holdings
Microsoft encourages companies to create apps designed for a new interface it has developed for the operating system, which supports touch-based gestures. But the company doesn’t allow developers to also make programs designed to work in a more conventional “desktop” mode for Windows on ARM-based devices, where Microsoft’s Internet Explorer is the only browser that will work, Mozilla says.
Harvey Anderson, Mozilla’s general counsel, compared the situation to Microsoft actions against browser maker Netscape Communications that helped prompt the U.S. government’s antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft in 1998.
“We think it’s a dangerous precedent,” Mr. Anderson said in a phone interview.
The dispute with Mozilla seems linked to Microsoft’s decision to emulate the software-distribution scheme that became popular with Apple’s iPhone and iPad.
Apple established its online store as the sole distribution vehicle for apps for those devices, which are sold along with its Safari browser and other Apple software. By contrast, some Windows-based PCs are sold with programs from multiple vendors, and users can go to a variety of retail stores or online distributors to obtain additional software.
For future machines based on x86 chips, users who favor the desktop mode will still have that option as well as to use Microsoft’s online store to download apps designed for the Metro interface. For ARM-based devices, however, the only non-Microsoft software will be apps for Metro downloaded from Microsoft’s store.
Microsoft, based in Redmond, Wash., plans to offer desktop versions of its Office applications—including Word and Excel as well as Internet Explorer—on ARM-based machines. Windows RT “will be a no-compromise product for people who want to have the full benefits of familiar Office productivity software and compatibility,” wrote Steven Sinofsky, president of the Windows division, in a blog post in February.
“They have a legacy” Mr. Anderson said. “It’s different than what Apple has to deal with.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mozilla and Google blast IE-only Windows on ARM
Microsoft throws browsers back to ‘Dark Ages’
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/05/10/mozilla_google_win8_arm_browser_dark_ages/
Mozilla and Google are crying foul over Microsoft restrictions blocking rivals from Windows 8 on ARM, due later this year.
Firefox-shop Mozilla has branded Microsoft’s restrictions a return to the digital dark ages “where users and developers didn’t have browser choices”.
Harvey Anderson, Mozilla general counsel, accused Microsoft of restricting user choice, reducing competition and chilling innovation by only allowing Internet Explorer to run on Windows RT – unveiled last month by Microsoft as the new name for Windows on ARM (WOA). He said:
Only Internet Explorer will be able to perform many of the advanced computing functions vital to modern browsers in terms of speed, stability, and security to which users have grown accustomed. Given that IE can run in Windows on ARM, there is no technical reason to conclude other browsers can’t do the same.
Mozilla Firefox director Asa Dotzler has weighed in with the technical argument:
On ARM chips, Microsoft gives IE access special APIs absolutely necessary for building a modern browser that it won’t give to other browsers so there’s no way another browser can possibly compete with IE in terms of features or performance.
Anderson and Dotzler said this violated a 2006 statement of principles (PDF) by Microsoft on choice, opportunity and interoperability, and are calling on Microsoft to live up to these principles.
Google’s spokesperson said:
We’ve always welcomed innovation in the browser space across all platforms and strongly believe that having great competitors makes us all work harder. In the end, consumers and developers benefit the most from robust competition.
Microsoft’s decision to lock down Win RT is not news
The reason for this was simple and came down to chipset and interface: ARM doesn’t support native x86 apps while Windows 8 introduces the tiled and touch-based Metro UI.
For this reason, Microsoft has three development scenarios for Windows 8:
Classic – Windows 7-style 32-bit APIs that won’t work with Metro;
Metro that lives in a sandboxed environment; and
“Metro-style enabled” desktop apps that straddle Classic and Metro and call both sets of APIs.
Back in March, Mozilla said it would build a version of Firefox in this third category, with the same system-level parity as IE10, built using traditional Win32 calls and the Windows Runtime WinRT framework that Microsoft has devised for building Windows 8 Metro apps
Dotzler, who had been upbeat in March, now says:
Microsoft has made it clear that the third category won’t exist on Windows for ARM (unless you’re Microsoft) and that neither will the first category (unless you’re Microsoft.) That means that IE on ARM has access to win32 APIs – even when it’s running in Metro mode, but no other Metro browser has that same access. Without that access, no other browser has a prayer of being competitive with IE.
Microsoft supporters might dismiss Mozilla and Google.
Mozilla, however, feels frustrated because it sees a potential market slipping away by not getting Firefox on Windows RT.
That said, Windows RT is unproven and little known commodity, so there’s no telling how successful it will actually be beyond Microsoft’s own infectious predictions – that Windows on ARM is its riskiest bet and biggest change in 30 years.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Windows on ARM Users Need Browser Choice Too
http://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2012/05/09/windows-on-arm-users-need-browser-choice-too/
For the past eight years, users and developers have enjoyed a Windows platform environment that offered users a choice of browsers to navigate their digital lives. It wasn’t always that way. Prior to the launch of Firefox in 2004, there was really only one browser for Windows – Internet Explorer. Only IE and Firefox had meaningful market share on the Windows platform from 2005-2009. The choices further increased with the introduction of Chrome, and today users can choose from a wide range of browsers. It’s hard to imagine what it used to be like. Unfortunately, the upcoming release of Windows for the ARM processor architecture and Microsoft’s browser practices regarding Windows 8 Metro signal an unwelcome return to the digital dark ages where users and developers didn’t have browser choices.
It’s reported that Windows RT (the name Microsoft has given to Windows running on the ARM processor) will have two environments, a Windows Classic environment and a Metro environment for apps. However, Windows on ARM prohibits any browser except for Internet Explorer from running in the privileged “Windows Classic” environment.
Given that IE can run in Windows on ARM, there is no technical reason to conclude other browsers can’t do the same.
The prospect that the next generation of Windows on ARM devices would limit users to one browser is untenable and represents a first step toward a new platform lock-in. It doesn’t have to be this way.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Intel CEO says Windows on ARM will struggle without legacy support
http://www.theverge.com/2012/5/10/3012216/intel-ceo-arm-windows-legacy-support
During Intel’s annual investor meeting today, CEO Paul Otellini wasted no time in emphasizing the major advantage x86 architecture support will offer when it comes to choosing between Windows 8 hardware powered by Intel chipsets or Windows RT devices featuring ARM processors. “I think they have a big uphill fight,” said Otellini of the competition. “We have the advantage of the incumbency, advantage of the legacy support. Not just in terms of applications but devices.”
Otellini paid particular focus to the enterprise market, boasting that business customers won’t have to worry about investing in new software when Microsoft’s upcoming OS ships, and that “tens of millions” of existing apps will be right at home on Intel-based machines. Combined with ARM’s lack of enterprise manageability options, Otellini raises some valid points that are likely to weigh on the minds of those shopping for hardware in the coming months.
Tomi Engdahl says:
30 best features of Windows 8
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/features/374587/30-best-features-of-windows-8
We reveal the pick of the hundreds of new features in the Windows 8 Consumer Preview, and a guide to the controversial new Metro UI
Tomi Engdahl says:
Windows RT Browser Restrictions Draw Antitrust Attention
http://news.slashdot.org/story/12/05/14/1810213/windows-rt-browser-restrictions-draw-antitrust-attention
Last week we heard complaints from Mozilla that Windows RT would restrict users’ choice in web browsers, unfairly favoring Internet Explorer over alternatives like Firefox and Chrome. Unfortunately for Microsoft, the situation is now on the Senate Judiciary Committee’s radar, and they will look into claims that Microsoft is engaging in anti-competitive behavior.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Windows 8 Pro PC Upgrade Cost is Just $15
http://www.winsupersite.com/blog/supersite-blog-39/windows8/windows-8-pro-pc-upgrade-cost-15-143077
A coming Microsoft promotion will provide Windows 8 Pro to buyers of Windows 7-based PCs for just $14.99, according to my sources. The promotion begins June 2
As Mary Jo notes in her original article, Microsoft has always provided a promotion to PC buyers in the months before a new Windows version hits the street. The reasoning is simple: With a new version about to arrive, consumers might otherwise hold off on new PC purchase, scuttling sales for 3 to 6 months.
This time around, Microsoft is only offering two mainstream versions of the product to consumers: Windows 8 and Windows 8 Pro.
The timing of the offer coincides roughly with the release of the final Windows 8 pre-release milestone, the so-called Release Preview, which Microsoft previously said was due in the first week of June. The software giant is now expected to make Windows 8 broadly available sometime in the second half of 2012.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Creating the Windows 8 user experience
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2012/05/18/creating-the-windows-8-user-experience.aspx
As we started planning the user experience of Windows 8 in mid-2009, just around the time of Windows 7 RTM, we looked around and took note of some of the trends playing out around us.
Which brings us to the current day. In Windows 7, we introduced multitouch support into the base OS. Touch is an incredibly important long-term bet for us. For an increasingly large number of people over time, it will be the primary way they interact with Windows. And for the vast majority of users, it will eventually be used alongside mouse and keyboard to complete their experience.
While much of the Metro style UI uses white text on a colorful saturated background, the desktop in Windows 8 will continue to use black text on light-colored chrome, as in Windows 7.
But at the same time, we want desktop windows to continue to feel light and airy, and we want a chrome style that doesn’t distract from the content of the app. We talk about Metro style apps as being “chromeless,” (that is, no title bar, borders, or Windows UI surrounding them.) Desktop apps, on the other hand, have a lot of chrome.
When you add up the cacophony of a bunch of these windows floating on the screen, suddenly you have a lot of chrome pleading for your attention. Aero was designed to help the app’s content to be the center of attention, and for the Windows system UI to recede into the background. This is still relevant today, and while we are moving beyond Aero, we don’t want to lose sight of these goals.
Windows 7 is the most popular and widely-used version of Windows so far.
We applied the principles of “clean and crisp” when updating window and taskbar chrome. Gone are the glass and reflections. We squared off the edges of windows and the taskbar. We removed all the glows and gradients found on buttons within the chrome. We made the appearance of windows crisper by removing unnecessary shadows and transparency. The default window chrome is white, creating an airy and premium look. The taskbar continues to blend into the desktop wallpaper, but appears less complicated overall.
To complete the story, we updated the appearance of most common controls, such as buttons, check boxes, sliders, and the Ribbon. We squared off the rounded edges, cleaned away gradients, and flattened the control backgrounds to align with our chrome changes. We also tweaked the colors to make them feel more modern and neutral.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Firefox on Windows Metro on ARM
http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/asa/archives/2012/05/firefox-on-windows-m.html
Windows 8 Metro is a beautiful computing environment. Unfortunately, it’s very limited when it comes to certain kinds of raw power that we’re all used from the last couple of decades of Windows operating systems. Metro and the WinRT APIs that power it are great for games and simple apps, and they provide developers with the tools to make those apps stunningly beautiful, but they lack the kind of power needed to drive sophisticated programs like Web browsers and office productivity applications.
Now, we know that Microsoft is shipping a powerful browser on Metro. Metro would be dead in the water without a really capable Microsoft browser. So how does Internet Explorer 10 provide a beautiful and powerful experience in the Metro environment? It’s easy. IE 10 cheats.
Internet Explorer 10 on Metro has special access to some very powerful APIs from over in Win32 land. Those APIs allow for IE to have modern capabilities like a Just In Time compiler (JIT). JITs make JavaScript really fast and without them, modern Web sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Gmail would be painfully slow for users, *unusably* slow.
There’s no problem for Windows 8 on Intel chips, where Microsoft lets other browsers do the same thing IE is doing. The problem is with Windows for ARM processors. Browsers on Windows for ARM chips do not get to do what IE is doing. Microsoft is giving its own Internet Explorer special privileges that no other Metro app, including other Metro browsers, are allowed.
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So, the REAL issue here is the weakness of WinRT APIs. We should be calling for Microsoft to improve these APIs so that full-featured browsers can be implemented in Metro. “Cheating” or “Hacking” with legacy Win32 APIs is not a good long term option at all.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Enhancing Windows 8 for multiple monitors
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2012/05/21/enhancing-windows-8-for-multiple-monitors.aspx
Connecting multiple monitors to a PC is one of the easiest ways to enhance your Windows experience. Plug in a second monitor and you instantly double your working surface. I’ve had a multi-monitor setup for the past 10 years; once you start using multiple monitors, you’ll never want to go back to your old setup. A multi-monitor setup allows you to be more productive by having more windows across multiple screens. We’re very excited about the ease at which tablets in Windows 8 will be able to support large screen and high resolution monitors (often through HDMI connectors), as this opens up a broad range of exciting new scenarios.
When we embarked on planning Windows 8, enhancing multi-monitor functionality was an important area to improve. A multiple monitor setup is certainly more common today than they used to be, and many technical professionals (developers, graphics professionals, architects, etc.) have started using it. Today, support for multiple monitors is standard on virtually all PC hardware, and monitor prices are at an all-time low
We recognize that a key value of using multiple monitors lies in the desire to increase multitasking. This is especially true of those of you who spend time arranging your desktop windows to maximize the available real estate across multiple displays. Speaking firsthand, most developers and testers at Microsoft have a multi-monitor setup in their offices, walking through the hallways one sees a wide range of monitor configurations from 2 to 4 or more monitors among the engineering team. This affords two important scenarios. First, developers can use a tool like Visual Studio on one screen and have the running/debugged program on another, or they can add an additional monitor and reserve it for side tasks such as email or web browsing.
Customizing the desktop background is a very popular feature in Windows 7. In fact, telemetry shows that more than 75% of users customized the desktop background. A limitation in Windows 7 is that in a multi-monitor configuration, you can only select a single background image that is duplicated across your monitors.
In Windows 8, we made the background customization feature customizable on each monitor you use, and for mainstream customers, we’ve provided solutions to the common desktop personalization problems encountered with Windows 7:
Show a different desktop background on each monitor.
Multi-monitor slide show.
Span desktop background across all monitors.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Developing Windows 8 Metro style apps with C++ sessions now online
http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/Developing-Windows-8-Metro-style-apps-with-C-Live-Streaming-at-0900-PDT-May-18
Whether you are a new C++ developer ready to learn about writing Metro style apps, an intermediate developer who wants to hone your code and skills, or an experienced C++ developer eager to squeeze every ounce of performance out of your Metro style app, this event is for you. We present pragmatic advice for every developer writing Metro style apps and games with C++, XAML and DirectX. Talks contain VC++ compiler extensions and ISO C++. The Windows Runtime Library is introduced, demoed and explained.
All sessions are available for on demand viewing.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Up to 500 million Windows 8 users by end of 2013, says Ballmer
http://www.neowin.net/news/up-to-500-million-windows-8-users-by-end-of-2013-says-ballmer
Earlier today, we reported that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said that 350 million devices with Windows 7 would be sold in 2012. Now a new report from AFP claims that Ballmer has made yet another prediction, this time on the sales of Windows 8.
In a speech to the Seoul Digital Forum in South Korea today, Ballmer said that up to 500 million users will be using a Windows 8 device by the end of 2013. Microsoft is expected to launch Windows 8 officially sometime before the end of 2012. Ballmer added, “It’s really, in some senses, a dawning of the rebirth of MS Windows… It’s certainly the most important piece of work we’ve done.”
Ballmer also said that Microsoft will “soon” launch a version of Skype for Windows 8.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Designing for PCs that boot faster than ever before
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2012/05/22/designing-for-pcs-that-boot-faster-than-ever-before.aspx
Windows 8 has a problem – it really can boot up too quickly.
So quickly, in fact, that there is no longer time for anything to interrupt boot. When you turn on a Windows 8 PC, there’s no longer long enough to detect keystrokes like F2 or F8, much less time to read a message such as “Press F2 for Setup.” For the first time in decades, you will no longer be able to interrupt boot and tell your PC to do anything different than what it was already expecting to do.
Fast booting is something we definitely want to preserve. Certainly no one would imagine intentionally slowing down boot to allow these functions to work as they did in the past. In this blog I’ll walk through how we’re addressing this “problem” with new solutions that will keep your PC booting as quickly as possible, while still letting you do all the things you expect.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Bunch of Windows 8 devices coming from Dell
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-57439741-92/bunch-of-windows-8-devices-coming-from-dell/
You’ll need a new ultrabook, tablet, or hybrid to take advantage of Windows 8, says Michael Dell.
Dell is preparing a raft of tablets, hybrids, and ultrabooks for the Windows 8 launch later this year.
“The addition of capacitive touch capability into Windows 8, we think, will be a welcome addition…and will have a full complement of products at time of launch,” Michael Dell said today during the company’s first-quarter 2013 earnings conference call, in response to an analyst’s question.
“We’re totally lined up with Windows 8. You’ll see us introduce tablets,” he added.
“This is a transition where you generally are going to need a new PC, whether it’s a tablet or an ultrabook with touch or a notebook with touch or a PC with touch or some derivative hybrid of all of the above type of products,” he said.
And touch won’t be cheap, echoing sentiment that Intel has also expressed. “But what I can tell you is that we think that the touchscreen products will certainly cost more. They’re more in the price points and price bands that we tend to operate in,” Dell said.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Is it a problem if Windows 8 boots too quickly?
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-57439688-92/is-it-a-problem-if-windows-8-boots-too-quickly/
Microsoft’s forthcoming operating system boots so quickly that you will miss those familiar prompts.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Windows 8 Secrets: Internet Explorer 10 will Ship with Adobe Flash
http://www.withinwindows.com/2012/05/23/windows-8-secrets-internet-explorer-10-will-ship-with-adobe-flash/
Two years ago, Microsoft declared that the future of video on the web would be powered by HTML 5. Today, however, a lot of web video content is still delivered via Adobe Flash technology. So, in a somewhat surprising move, Microsoft is integrating Flash directly into Internet Explorer 10 on Windows 8 and doing so in a way that does not undermine the safety and reliability of the Metro environment.
Before this, the general assumption was that Microsoft would pursue only web-standard technologies in IE 10. But with the Metro version of IE 10 not offering users the ability to extend the capabilities of the browser with add-ons, the software giant realized this may be too restrictive for consumers. So how could it meet the needs of consumers by providing Flash in a way that didn’t subvert Metro?
Interestingly, they were able to do so without contradicting any of the earlier statements the company made about web standards and Flash in IE.
As Mr. Hachamovitch noted, Microsoft does work closely with Adobe, closely enough that Adobe actually provided Microsoft with source code access to Flash, allowing them to seamlessly integrate the technology into IE 10.
Tomi Engdahl says:
No-cost desktop software development is dead on Windows 8
You won’t be able to use the free Visual Studio Express to develop desktop apps.
http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/05/no-cost-desktop-software-development-is-dead-on-windows-8/
Microsoft wants Windows developers to write Windows 8-specific, Metro-style, touch-friendly applications, and to make sure that they crank these apps out, the company has decided that Visual Studio 11 Express, the free-to-use version of its integrated development environment, can produce nothing else.
If you want to develop desktop applications—anything that runs at the command line or on the conventional Windows desktop that remains a fully supported, integral, essential part of Windows 8—you’ll have two options: stick with the current Visual C++ 2010 Express and Visual C# 2010 Express products, or pay about $400-500 for Visual Studio 11 Professional. A second version, Visual Studio 11 Express for Web, will be able to produce HTML and JavaScript websites, and nothing more.
Visual Studio 11 is an improvement in many ways over Visual Studio 2010. Its C++ compiler, for example, is a great deal more standards-compliant, especially with the new C++ 11 specification. It has powerful new optimization features, such as the ability to automatically use CPU features like SSE2 to accelerate mathematically intensive programs, and new language features to allow programs to be executed on the GPU.
Taken together, there are many new features in Visual Studio 11 that are relevant, interesting, and useful for desktop developers.
But Microsoft has decided that if you want to use these things to write desktop apps, you have to pay. The free Express tools will produce only two things: Metro-style applications for Windows 8, and websites. Eventually, the company will also release a third version that can produce applications for Windows Phone, and nothing more.