It wasn’t too long ago that Windows 8 was released to the masses which resulted in 4 million upgrades in less than a week, which means logically we can expect to see manufacturers start updating their products with the latest Windows operating system, right? While that might hold true for some companies, a report from Digitimes has suggested that some notebook manufacturers (no names were mentioned) will continue hawking their Windows 7 products in hopes to finish off their current inventory for the remainder of the year.
In fact their source has revealed to them that some manufacturers are offering extremely low-priced notebooks around $359-399 in hopes that it will attract more customers. The report from Digitimes has also suggested that demand for Windows 8 notebooks will only take place in the first half of 2013. Digitimes might not be the most accurate when it comes to these sorts of insider information, but they have been right in the past so perhaps taking this with a grain of salt might be a good idea for now, but what do you guys think? Would you rather get a notebook with Windows 7 that’s priced really low, or would you rather spend a bit more and get one optimized for Windows 8?
Skitch, the popular screenshot and image-editing tool, has arrived for Windows 7 and Windows 8. The “Windows Desktop” version is essentially for Windows 7, but it also works on Windows 8 as a legacy app. The Windows 8 version, however, is fully compatible with Microsoft’s new operating system, so you’ll get a seamless Skitch experience in Windows 8 when using their native Windows 8 app.
Skitch for Windows 8 has a new interface that includes the familiar Windows 8-style tiles, and there’s also some new features that are included. There’s a Pixelate feature that allows you to quickly pixelate a section of an image out, whether it’d be personal information or even a funny NSFW photo where you might not want to reveal everything.
There’s also a highlighter tool that let’s you quickly highlight text in an image, and you can even change the styling of the highlighter such as color and thickness. And not surprisingly, since Skitch is owned by the popular note-taking application Evernote, the two apps are seamlessly integrated with one another.
Probably one of the biggest new features is the addition of map integration. If you want to tell someone where to meet you by using a map, simply click the Map icon, search for the location, and then just draw an arrow with some text. Then, all you have to do is save the image and send it to your friend.
Both Skitch apps are available now. The Windows 8 app can be found the Windows Store, and the Windows Desktop app can be downloaded directly from the Skitch website.
We’re live at Microsoft’s big Windows 8 event in New York City, with the big talking point being the launch of the brand new OS. Microsoft’s Steven Sinofaky is currently on stage, talking about the upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 8. The new OS goes live at 12:01 AM local time tomorrow morning around the world, and for consumers, the upgrade to the new version starts at $39.99.
That’s not a bad price, and copies of Windows 8 will be available as a download, in stores, and online, Sinofaky says. With the three different preview builds of Windows 8, Sinofaky says that the new OS has gone through a whopping 1.24 billion hours of testing, which should mean that Windows 8 is as bug-free as possible when it launches in just over 12 hours. Of course, as we covered in our review of Windows 8, there are a number of reasons to upgrade, including better performance over Windows 7.
Sinofaky touched on that during his presentation too, claiming that Windows 8 offers better battery life, faster boot times, and a “smaller memory footprint.” The big bonus is that most Windows 7 programs are compatible with Windows 8, which means that you spend less time looking for updates after your install of the new OS is complete. We’ll undoubtedly be hearing more about Windows 8, Surface, and Windows RT during this event, so keep it tuned to SlashGear and be sure to check out our Microsoft Portal for any news you might have missed!
Microsoft‘s Steven Sinofsky is on stage at the company’s Windows 8 event talking numbers and statistics of Microsoft’s various products. So far, a whopping 670 million licenses of Windows 7 have been sold worldwide. That’s a huge number considering the operating system came out only three years ago.
Sinofsky mentioned that Windows 7 is the” most widely used and widely praised OS ever,” and he was actually the person who came in to rescue Microsoft from Windows Vista, and took over Windows with the Windows 7 launch. He essentially cleaned up the mess that was Windows Vista. Sinofsky also mentioned that Windows 7 has seen the “fastest adoption by businesses ever.”
Sinofsky also discussed the company’s new SkyDrive cloud storage service. Its users are storing over 11 million photos on SkyDrive, and there’s a total of 14 petabytes of data currently in SkyDrive. Plus, users are adding more and more data at a rate of two petabytes per month. That’s a lot of photos, videos, and documents!
Sinofsky then moved on to Windows 8, where he said that the company has seen 16 million installations of pre-release builds of Windows 8. He also mentions that Windows 8 was probably the most-tested beta ever, saying that 1.24 billion hours of extensive public testing was put in, and it spanned across 190 countries around the world.
European regulators have charged Microsoft for not giving Windows 7 users a choice of internet browsers when they install the OS. Although this is only an initial step towards a fine for the software maker, Microsoft agreed with the European Commission to offer browser choices to its Windows users over three years ago, avoiding a heavy antitrust penalty. Unfortunately, while Microsoft acknowledged the “technical error”, this wasn’t before the European Commission picked up the issue — the EU’s antitrust watchdog said in July that Microsoft had not complied with the order from February 2011. According to a Reuters report earlier this year, and echoed in the EU’s statement below, the fine could amount to as much as 10 percent of the Redmond company’s global turnover.
Update: Microsoft has issued a statement on the EU charge, received by The Verge.
“We take this matter very seriously and moved quickly to address this problem as soon as we became aware of it. Although this was the result of a technical error, we take responsibility for what happened, and we are strengthening our internal procedures to help ensure something like this cannot happen again. We sincerely apologize for this mistake and will continue to cooperate fully with the Commission.”
Windows 8 will be getting a completely-redesigned version of Internet Explorer when the new operating system releases on October 26, and Microsoft has mentioned in the past that it plans to bring the same version to Windows 7 at some point. The company announced today that Internet Explorer 10 will be hitting Windows 7 in mid-November.
While this may sound like good news for those that will be sticking with Windows 7 long after the launch of its successor, Microsoft is only releasing a preview version of the browser for Windows 7 for the time being. However, a final version will become available once Microsoft collects developer and customer feedback, but that timeline is yet to be determined.
Microsoft’s Rob Mauceri explains that “IE10 brings improved real-world site performance and additional standards support to Windows 7 that Web developers have been asking for.” Mauceri goes on by saying that “IE10 on Windows 7 has the same standards based platform for developers to target as IE10 on Windows 8.”
However, it seems that a lot of developers are not happy with the company, saying that they were expecting a final version to be released soon, not just a preview version. Many of the comments on the IE Blog post were negative, saying things like, “Why preview? We want to develop optimized sites now!”
For all of Microsoft’s talk of Internet Explorer 10 on Windows 8, we’ve heard precious little about the Windows 7 version beyond the certainty that it was coming. Eventually. Someday. The company is partly putting that anxiety to bed with word that IE 10 should be available for the Metrophobic in mid-November, but only in a preview version — a possible sign that Microsoft’s Windows 8 RTM deadline prevented the concurrent platform releases we’ve grown accustomed to in recent years. The team in Redmond is hinging its launch of a finished Windows 7 build on the feedback it gets, so we’d suggest that those willing to experiment with a new browser (but not a new OS) still give IE 10 a shot next month.
Microsoft’s Surface team has been busy wrapping the Windows RT tablet up for pre-orders opening this week, but it also found time to answer some user questions in a Reddit Ask Me Anything thread. In the sprawling conversation, team lead Panos Panay and his team confirmed that Xbox 360 controllers would work with the new slate – though that they hadn’t tried Kinect for Windows yet – as well as discussing just what “all day battery life” really means.
Microsoft is quoting eight hours of “mixed activity” from a full charge of Surface’s non-user-removable battery, or 7-15 days of idle. Asked what exactly comprises “mixed activity” the team confirmed it was more than just coaxing the longest – and probably misleading – runtime from the slate.
“We conducted testing across a variety of core scenarios such as local and streaming video playback (watching movies!), audio playback, wireless web browsing and productivity scenarios such as using Office and mail” hardware lead Pavan Davuluri wrote. “We tested using different Wi-Fi networks with pre-production hardware and software. Hence the battery life numbers started early in the program as a model with calculations and then get verified with actual device HW and SW.”
Other elements of hardware came in for questioning too, such as the internal storage supplied. Microsoft opted not to make a 16GB entry-level model – the $499 that gets you a 16GB new iPad could buy you a 32GB Surface instead, albeit without one of the Touch Covers – instead choosing 32GB and 64GB tiers complete with a microSDXC card slot for adding to that. “After the OS, Office RT and a bunch of apps, you will still have more [than] 20GB” on a 32GB Surface, one team member confirmed, while memory cards are hot-swappable.
Peripherals like the Xbox 360 USB controllers have been tested, “and they work great” the Surface team insists, but some types of traditional Windows PC connectivity won’t be an option. “We are not offering an ethernet to USB bridge solution for wired scenarios” Davuluri confirmed, though the USB 2.0 port will support “millions of devices.”
It’s over, folks. Or at least nearly over. Write it down — time of death: 12:01AM ET, October 16. That’s when the Zune brand is officially no more, and “Xbox Music/Video” and its store replace the Zune Marketplace; the final, quiet end of a brand that’s been waning for years. “Yes, the Zune brand is gone, and the Zune products are gone,” Xbox Music GM Jerry Johnson told us in a meeting last week. While Zune devices will still work with Windows 7, and the Zune Pass simply becomes the Xbox Music Pass, the brand is effectively no more, joining the Kin and Microsoft Bob in the annals of MS history.
Bizarrely, the branding will continue on for Windows 7 and Windows Phone 7 users, with the Zune Marketplace mirroring Xbox Music’s content. That’s likely due to Xbox Music being exclusive to Windows 8 devices (which includes the Xbox 360, despite its age, and Windows Phone 8) — Microsoft promises a continued focus on Xbox Music going forward, while Zune support drops out. In the end, though Zune was a failure for Microsoft, Johnson said it was a worthwhile learning experience for the company. “The Zune brand got associated with a device, and what we did with Xbox Music is actually turn around and say, ‘Let’s build something from the ground up, leveraging what we’ve learned from a lot of these different things.’ But it’s not gonna be device-centric, it’s gonna be service-centric,” he explained.
In Johnson’s eyes, the failure of Zune as a brand is directly tied to the failure of Zune as a device — and having the highly successful Xbox brand tied to its media offerings, he’s hoping to skirt previous negative perceptions and relaunch Microsoft’s place in media delivery. Whether that’ll happen remains to be seen, but either way, this is the final nail in the Zune’s coffin — not just as a device, but as a thing in the world.
Update: Looks like Microsoft hasn’t forgotten the loyalty of the diehards who stayed with Zune until the end, as Zune Music Pass users are getting 1,000 Microsoft Points for free along with the switch to Xbox Music.
Ultrabooks, whether you like them or not, are here in full force. Manufacturers left and right are releasing ultrabook after ultrabook, so now the question isn’t “who can make the fastest ultrabook?” but rather “who can make the best looking ultrabook?” Ultrabooks invite style – the entire idea behind them is to give consumers an incredibly portable and speedy laptop, after all. You don’t want your super fast ultrabook to looking boring and plain, right? Of course you don’t. You want your ultrabook to be sleek and well-designed. HP knows this, introducing us to ENVY Spectre XT, and it’s certainly easy on the eyes. But does the Spectre XT have what’s required on the inside, or will it be doomed to using its good looks to get by? Read on to find out.
Design
It has to be said right off the bat: the HP ENVY Spectre XT is a sexy machine, and a far cry from HP laptops of the past. Whereas old HP laptops had a tendency to look cheaply made, the Spectre XP looks like a higher-end piece of equipment. The brushed metal chassis looks great, as do the ports on the side and the speaker grill that has taken up residence above the keyboard. This ultrabook will definitely turn some heads, so if you’re in the market for a machine that will get some attention, you need look no further than the Spectre XT.
On the outside, we have a pretty minimalistic look. On the right side of the device, the power jack, a USB 3.0 port, an SD card slot, and a headphone jack have taken up residence, while the Ethernet port, full-sized HDMI port, and another USB 3.0 port are found on the left side. The Ethernet port features a hinge that keeps the port flush with the rest of the machine when there isn’t a cable attached, which is a really nice touch – too often, we have the look of these sleek ultrabooks ruined by an ugly square Ethernet port that doesn’t really fit with the overall design. There isn’t anything really noteworthy on the bottom of the machine aside from a pair of speakers (more on those later) and grills for air intake and cooling.
For as good as it looks, there is one aspect of its design that leaves me feeling a little bit nervous. The screen is attached to the rest of the unit through two hinges, which gives me the feeling that it wouldn’t take much to snap the Spectre XT in half. I’m not willing to test that feeling, of course, but its lightweight and thin design adds to the idea that this is a delicate machine. If you pick one up, be prepared to treat it gently – this definitely is not an ultrabook that you can be rough with. Then again, most ultrabooks these days have a tendency to be a little on the delicate side, so I’m not sure that the Spectre XT’s fragile design should be a hit against it.
In short, the Spectre XT probably isn’t the best machine for those who are clumsy or don’t think much about the abuse they put their devices through. Though it’s one awesome looking machine, you’ll have to take care to treat it well, because after all, sexy looks won’t mean much if you destroy your Spectre XT, whether that’s an accident or a case of negligence.
Hardware
The Spectre XT looks excellent – there’s no question about that, but depending on how much you crave power, its internals may disappoint some. That isn’t much of surprise, considering that most ultrabooks try to strike a balance between speedy internals and reasonable prices, and the Spectre XT is no different. Let’s start things off with the processor. The Spectre XT has an Intel Core i5 processor with Ivy Bridge microarchitecture, which is about as middle-of-the-road as you can get when it comes to Intel hardware. That’s not to say that the processor is terrible, as its 1.7GHz clock speed should keep things moving pretty quickly.
The Spectre XT also comes equipped with Intel’s rapid start technology, which means that both boot and resume-from-sleep times will be pretty short. The fact that the Spectre XT uses a 128GB SSD for storage helps with that too, as does the 4GB of DDR3 RAM. 128GB is a little on the light side, especially when around 30GB will be used for system recovery. That leaves you with just under 100GB of available storage space to use, but to take full advantage of that, you’re going to need to delete the software that comes pre-installed on the Spectre XT.
Luckily, you can choose to upgrade to a 256GB SSD when you purchase the Spectre XT, but at the end of the day, that still isn’t much. Everything is moving toward digital these days, and even though you’ll probably want to play your movies and games on another machine, it might not be long before you find yourself making room on your SSD, especially if you go with the 128GB XT variant. The speedier SSD is definitely nice, but the lack of significant internal storage space makes someone like me, who embraces the digital age with open arms, cringe.
The screen is nice, but it isn’t anything we haven’t seen before on other ultrabooks. You’ve got 13.3-inches of real estate to work with, running at a maximum of 1366×768 resolution. That means no 1080p HD, but we can’t really expect that from an ultrabook that is supposed to be lightweight and easy to transport. Still, even though there isn’t any 1080p HD, it would have been nice to see the Spectre XT running at a resolution other than 1366×768, especially since the look of this ultrabook screams “high-end.” The screen has a glossy finish, which means that glare will inevitably be a problem at least once in a while. Viewing angles are also quite touchy – for the most vibrant visuals, you’ll likely have to do some adjusting, otherwise you might be dealing with washed out images on-screen. Despite this, the screen does manage to look really good when you get the perfect viewing angle down, and I’m pleased to report that the screen is plenty bright to boot.
The Spectre XT makes use of Intel 4000 integrated graphics, which is disappointing by not unexpected. Integrated graphics will be enough for the mainstream consumer, but don’t expect to do much gaming on this guy. Indie games and other programs that aren’t too graphics-intensive will run just fine, but if you have need of a computer that provides solid graphics power, you’ll probably want to look elsewhere.
If there’s one thing I have the overwhelming urge to rave about, it’s the keyboard. You’ve got the same chiclet style keys that are found on most notebooks these days, but they offer a satisfying sound when you’re typing up a storm. If I had an HP representative next to me right now, I’d kiss them for not skimping on the size of the keys either. One thing that drives me nuts with a lot of ultrabook keyboards is that the enter, shift, and backspace keys are usually reduced in size. Not this time around – you’ve got a full-sized enter key, so you don’t have to look at the keyboard every time you want to hit it. It may seem like a small feature, but to those who use a computer all day, it will be a big plus.
The keyboard also looks great in the dark. The backlighting is vibrant, due to the fact that each key is individually lit. This means that you won’t have to worry about areas that are more illuminated than others, and every key is very easy to see in the dark. Workaholics, take note – you’ll be able to use this ultrabook anywhere, at any time of day, thanks to the perfectly backlit keyboard.
The trackpad is quite good too, offering the perfect amount of resistance in my opinion. Two-finger scrolling is spot on, and double tapping the icon in the upper left hand corner will turn off the trackpad’s functionality, meaning that a quick double tap is all you need to make sure that you don’t actually brush the keypad and screw up everything in the blink of an eye (trust me, it happens all the time, especially with overly sensitive trackpads).
Press anywhere on the trackpad and it will respond with a very satisfying click, leaving no question as to whether or not your click actually registered. The trackpad is nearly perfect, but there is one problem I have with it: the whole thing is one unit. The lack of actual, separate left and right mouse buttons means that sometimes you’ll left click when you mean to right click and vice versa. The trackpad is a little on the tiny side too, which compounds this problem. It isn’t the biggest issue, but I’m sucker for real buttons, or at least some indication of where I’m pressing.
System – Hewlett-Packard HP ENVY Spectre XT Ultrabook PC
Manufacturer
Hewlett Packard
Product Type
Notebook
Operating System
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
Motherboard
Hewlett-Packard 1888
Processor
Intel Core i5-3317U
Processor ID
GenuineIntel Family 6 Model 58 Stepping 9
Processor Frequency
1.70 GHz
Processors
1
Threads
4
Cores
2
L1 Instruction Cache
32.0 KB
L1 Data Cache
32.0 KB
L2 Cache
256 KB
L3 Cache
3.00 MB
Memory
3.94 GB DDR3 SDRAM 799MHz
FSB
99.9 MHz
BIOS
Insyde F.06
Positioned above the keyboard is a grill for the speakers. There are four internal speakers in all, complete with Beats Audio branding. Sadly, the speakers were a little on the disappointing side. They’re certainly better than the speakers on most laptops and ultrabooks, but even Beats Audio couldn’t stop these from sounding tinny when the volume is cranked up. Bass also isn’t what it should be, so if you value bumping lows when you listen to songs, you should probably consider something different. Keep in mind that they’re not terrible; they’re just not excellent. They can definitely get loud though, but I’m not sure that should be big plus. After all, what good are loud speakers if the sound quality is off?
The speakers will serve their purpose though, and they manage to do their job decently. However, if you take your music quality seriously, you probably already have a pair of really good headphones that you can use instead, so it’s best to go with those.
Software
The model we were given to review came running Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit, but users can upgrade that to either Professional 64-bit or Ultimate 64-bit. For most, Home Premium will be sufficient, but it is nice to have the option to upgrade if you choose.
Some of what’s installed on the Spectre XT is stuff you might actually use, including a free two-year subscription to Norton AntiVirus. The only downside to having Norton along for the ride is that it will annoy you with pop-ups every time you turn the computer on or wake it up from sleep, so activate it as soon as you get your Spectre XT out of the box to save yourself some headaches.
The Spectre XT also comes equipped with full versions of Adobe Photoshop Elements 10 and Adobe Premiere Elements 10, which are very nice to see. HP gets big kudos for including those. The free subscription to Norton and Adobe Elements are the most notable pre-installed programs, but other than those, there’s still a fair amount of unnecessary software you’ll have to wade through. CyberLink YouCam is there if you want to use it with the HP TrueVision HD webcam, but it certainly isn’t needed, making it a good candidate for deletion. You’ve also got Internet Explorer on board, which is expected but still as lame as ever – ditch it and go for a different browser like Chrome, Firefox, or Opera instead.
Of course, Microsoft programs are there in full force, including Microsoft Office Starter 2010, which you’ll probably want to keep around. Others, like Windows Live Movie Maker and and Windows Live Messenger will likely be left untouched by the majority of consumers, so don’t feel too bad if you want to lose those when you get your Spectre XT booted up and ready to go – remember, storage space is at a premium, so if you see programs that you aren’t going to use, it’s a better idea to delete them instead of letting them hang around.
Benchmarks
It’s time to turn to our old friend Geekbench, which tells us what we already knew: with the Spectre XT, you’re not getting a powerhouse. The computer’s specs are merely average, but it’s important to keep in mind that this is aimed at the mainstream crowd, which isn’t exactly power hungry. People who take tech very seriously will want to skip the Spectre XT, but rest assured, this is one speedy computer.
Benchmark Score – Hewlett-Packard HP ENVY Spectre XT Ultrabook PC
Section
Description
Score
Total Score
Windows x86 (64-bit) – Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
Integer
Processor integer performance
5352
7292
Floating Point
Processor floating point performance
9698
Memory
Memory performance
6679
Stream
Memory bandwidth performance
6890
In that respect, the Geekbench results can be a little deceiving. For things like browsing, the Spectre XT will be plenty fast. As stated above, integrated graphics and a middle-of-the-line processor mean that there isn’t much in the way of sheer power to work with, but the RAM, SSD, and CPU ensure that you’ll be able to do basic tasks quickly. If that’s what you’re looking for in an ultrabook (as you should be) then the Spectre XT is worthy of your attention.
Battery
Sadly, the 4-cell lithium-ion battery on the Spectre XT isn’t all it should be. HP says that we can expect 8 hours of power, but in my own tests, I didn’t get nearly that much life out of the XT.
To test the Spectre XT, I started at 100% (obviously), turned the screen brightness down to 50%, kept WiFi on, and proceeded to play games (Plants vs. Zombies and Wizorb, if you’re wondering), browse the web, and watch some videos. The computer powered down to prevent any data loss right around the 4 hour and 30 minute mark, so that was the end of the test.
Of course, battery life is going to vary depending on what you’re doing, but for those who travel and need to work on battery frequently, there are other ultrabook choices that come with a longer lasting battery. For everyone else, the battery will probably still be sufficient provided you don’t spend too terribly long away from the charger, but there are still better choices out there when it comes to battery life.
Wrap-Up
I know that some of things in this review sound pretty negative, but the HP ENVY Spectre XT is actually a pretty solid ultrabook. The battery is disappointing and the speakers, despite sporting Beats Audio branding, aren’t anything to write home about, but other than that, the Spectre XT is capable of running with the best of them (ultrabooks, that is).
Of course, when it comes to ultrabooks, all of them strive for the same thing: portability and speed. The Spectre XT is lightweight and small enough that I can’t imagine portability ever being an issue. Likewise, it’s a fast little machine, and if that’s your primary concern when it comes to picking out a new computer, then you won’t be disappointed with the Spectre XT.
It’s one sexy ultrabook too. There are others that look similar to the Spectre XT, but the brushed metal gets me every time. The keyboard is really something great, and the trackpad is just a couple missing features away from perfection. Since you’ll get to know the keyboard and trackpad quite well over the course of your time with the Spectre XT, that is only a good thing.
However, all of that sexiness comes with a price, both figuratively and literally. The Spectre XT definitely feels a bit fragile, and I still can’t get over the idea that it would be ridiculously easy to accidentally snap this thing in half. The literal price for this good looking machine is $1,000, and that certainly isn’t cheap. I feel like that’s going to prove to be a pretty big barrier for the Spectre XT’s target audience, especially when the mainstream cares less about good specs and more about getting a reliable computer that’s at least relatively inexpensive.
Don’t get me wrong here – I wasn’t expecting the Spectre XT to be a $400 piece of equipment, but I feel that $800 or $850 would have been a better asking price for this ultrabook. Still, if you need a good ultrabook and don’t care much about the $1,000 price tag, go for it. The Spectre XT really is a good computer, and I think if you can get past the price (and have a good pair of headphones lying around), you’ll have no problem loving the Spectre XT.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
It wasn’t too long ago that Windows 8 was released to the masses which resulted in 4 million upgrades in less than a week, which means logically we can expect to see manufacturers start updating their products with the latest Windows operating system, right? While that might hold true for some companies, a report from Digitimes has suggested that some notebook manufacturers (no names were mentioned) will continue hawking their Windows 7 products in hopes to finish off their current inventory for the remainder of the year.
