Hasta La Gadget!

Microsoft’s Jensen Harris, who wears the hat of Director of Program Management for the Windows User Experience team, showed off some Windows 8 mockups minted in early 2010 during a talk at last summer’s UX Week 2012. Now, a video of the presentation has been posted online, giving us a look at the reference designs. Despite roughly two years separating mockup creation and the launch of Windows 8, the OS remained remarkably true to its conceptual roots. During the hour-long talk, Jensen covers the birth of Windows 8, its driving principles and even mentions some distaste for the faux leather aesthetics in some iOS apps, calling them “cheesy visual effects.” Hit the adjacent gallery to catch a peek of the early Start screen, on-screen keyboard, Charms Bar and lock screen. For a video of the hour-long talk covering the story of how Redmond’s operating system came to be, head past the jump.

Continue reading Microsoft trots out Windows 8 mockups circa 2010, details the OS design process (video)

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops, Tablets, Software, Microsoft

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Via: The Verge, istartedsomething

Source: UX Week

Remember all the hard work you put into sand castles as a little kid? Crouching, scooping and shaping. It was tough! And it was always for naught because the stupid ocean would eventually swallow your castles whole and wash it away. What if you could make sand castles live forever, though? Turns out you can. More »

If our memory serves us correctly, Microsoft has been in cahoots with a fair number of companies in the past few months in order to optimize websites so that they will be able to function with the touch screen features of Internet Explorer 10 in Windows 8. Well, it seems that the work has been expanded to include select HTML5-based sites function better not only on Internet Explorer 10, but on Windows Phone 8 as well

One of the new features is for the news site Pulse, where it was originally optimized for Internet Explorer 10 for Windows 8 earlier this year. Pulse had then decided to do away with its previously released Windows Phone app from the download store, but has finally released an update to the Windows Phone app where it will work flawlessly on the Windows Phone 8 platform. According to Microsoft, “The updated site is completely adaptive and built using responsive design best practices. As we updated the site, we also optimized for performance, so that difficult animations or transitions have been selectively disabled or swapped for mobile friendly equivalents.”

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Windows Phone 8 Does Not Jive With Xbox Video Purchases, YouSendit A Windows Phone 8 Exclusive,

Sony has made the turn – the PlayStation Mobile Developer Program is no longer in the woods of beta, and is officially launched as of today. This will include the launch of the official PlayStation Mobile SDK (software development kit), and if you think that you have what it takes to be a developer, why not register as a PSM Developer so that you can come up with your very own fair share of games or apps for PlayStation Mobile? All the content that you develop will be distributed via the PlayStation Store, and as long as you own a $99 PSM Publisher License, you are good to go. Who knows? You could very well end up with a sleeper hit on your hands and retire young.

This initiative bodes well for PlayStation Certified devices which frankly, until now, they have suffered from a dearth of decent apps and games. The Developer Program is currently open in Japan, United States, Canada, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Australia, where it will be followed by a phased roll out in Hong Kong and Taiwan shortly, and additional countries are also in tow.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: PlayStation 3 Sold 70M worldwide, Sony unveils PlayStation exclusive Assassin’s Creed 3 bonuses,

Intel has signed a $50 million deal with Creative Technology to acquire ZiiLabs, a UK-based subsidiary responsible for Android-optimized chip designs like the ZMS-40 and the ZMS-20. Of that $50 million, $30m will be for asset sales and engineering resources while the remainder will be for patent licensing in regards to ZiiLabs GPU technology, which might indicate a move away from PowerVR. We’re not sure if this means Creative will soldier on with OEM-focused devices like the HanZPad, but at least now it’ll have more money in the bank to explore alternative endeavors.

Filed under: Misc, Intel

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Source: The Inquirer, CNET Asia