Rumors of a massive reorg in Redmond have been floating around for awhile now. And the noise reached a fever pitch when Don Mattrick left Microsoft for Zygna’s (apparently) greener pastures — purportedly because he didn’t like the role he’d receive in the pending restructuring. Now, a mere ten days after the ex-Xbox chief’s departure, we know what the new Microsoft will look like.
As expected, the company has been bifurcated into services and devices divisions, with Julie Larson-Green getting the nod as hardware chief and Terry Myerson becoming the Grand Poobah of Windows. Of course, quite a few other execs have seen their roles shift as well, with Qi Lu managing productivity, communication and search apps and services, and Satya Nadella heading up the company’s cloud initiatives. Additionally, Skype president Tony Bates has been tapped to manage the Business Development and Evangelism group, where he’ll lead corporate strategy and developer outreach.
There are even more changes afoot. CTO Eric Rudder is now responsible for an Advanced Strategy and Research group and Tami Reller is the new US marketing chief. COO Kevin Turner, CFO Amy Hood, General Counsel Brad Smith and Chief People Officer Lisa Brummel will maintain their current positions. Finally, Office president Kurt DelBene will be retiring from Microsoft, according to the company-wide reorganization email published on the company’s site. So what this all this mean for MS? Hit up the source for a 2,700-word memo detailing Steve Ballmer’s vision.
Evernote has announced an update to its Windows Touch app, something that brings users a variety of new features, as well as newly added Evernote Business support. The changes are immediately notable due to a new hub page, which is designed to offer users the “core navigation items” and various content from their account that is most commonly needed.
The new hub page features a variety of options, among them being new note options: the ability to create a new text note, kick things off via a file attachment, or create a new snapshot. The hub will also make it easier to get to shortcuts by listing them together under the “Shortcuts” category, which you can see in the screenshot above. These shortcuts first have to be made in Evernote, whether it is the Windows Touch app or a different variety.
Recent activity is also displayed on the new hub page, which includes Business notebooks and updates that have been shared in recent times. Notes are displayed, with the order in which they show up depending on the users. Notes can be ordered so that the most recent appear, for example, allowing for customization based on personal needs and preferences.
And finally, as far as the hub page goes, there’s the ability to choose a tag in order to see the notes associated with it, as well as notebooks, with some of them being listed on the hub and users being able to go directly to them by tapping. This applies to Evernote Business notebooks as well, which leads to the last feature addition: support for Evernote Business.
With the new support, those who use Evernote Business can do so from the Windows Touch app, having access to their Business library. The content from the Business library is distinguished from regular notebooks using color codes. From there, the changes are more minor, such as the ability to convert a note into plain text by removing the formatting. Evernote doesn’t detail these smaller changes, but stresses that, overall, this update is a “major” one.
Couple of updates to Evernote for Windows Touch users: for starters, the app’s hub page has been redesigned for a better fingers-on experience, bringing handy columns for notes, shortcuts created across different platforms and Notebooks. The Windows Touch app now includes support for Evernote Business, as well — Notebooks created for that side of things will appear in blue, so you can tell them apart from the personal notebooks sitting in your hub. Also new is two-step verification for added security. A full list of updates to the pachyderm-friendly note-taking platform can be found in the source link below.
Dell isn’t new to struggles, and it seems the company is continuing its streak of poor sales. Dell’s only two Windows-based tablets, the XPS-10 and Latitude 10, have only combined for “hundreds of thousands” of units sold, according to Sam Burd, who is the company’s vice president of personal computing.
Obviously, those numbers aren’t what investors had in mind, but it goes along with overall expectations of Windows tablets in general, which haven’t been selling so well anyway, but Dell says that they’re really excited about the potential that Windows 8 has in the enterprise space, even though companies are wary of upgrading to new operating systems.
Still, Burd thinks that the future will bode well for Windows 8 tablets and the enterprise market, but he says that “it’s going to take some time, and the jury is still out.” He notes the strong competition with the iPad, but says that “in a few years when we get to Windows 8 tablets being a third or 40% of tablet volume, we can feel [the Windows tablet adoption] happening. Tablets are definitely an important piece of the computing business.”
Microsoft is looking to ramp up Windows 8, though, with a Windows 8.1 update that brings a lot of new features, as well as performance improvements. We ended getting our hands on the new update and very much happy with it for the most part, but Dell and Microsoft both believe that the improvements will help Windows 8 device sales over the next year or so.
However, bringing Windows 8 into the corporate and enterprise world is proving to be a tough task. Many companies have only recently upgraded to Windows 7, so another upgrade to Windows 8 would be a bad move time-wise, but companies are turning Windows 8 away for general computer use, mostly just because of the revamped touch-optimized user interface that really doesn’t work well on devices without a touchscreen. Here’s only hoping that more and more businesses adopt tablets.
Kim Dotcom launched his Mega cloud storage platform with much fanfare, but few ways to use it. That’s finally improving now that the Mega Android app is here. The release won’t shock anyone who has used established rivals like Dropbox and Google Drive, but it is reasonably complete with two-way transfers, image previews and automatic camera syncing. It won’t be alone for long, either. Mega says that both iOS and Windows apps are in the last stages of testing, which could give us more of an incentive to try what’s still a very young service.
With the Acer Iconia W3 you’ve got Acer’s first 8.1-inch Windows 8 effort on the market – and the first Windows 8 tablet on the market with an 8.1-inch display in any case. Acer’s previous efforts with Android tablets have been decent – we’ve seen the group go all the way back to 2011 with the Acer Iconia Tab A500 and A501 for some of the first Honeycomb efforts on the market – and the Iconia W3 is no move to scoff at. Will this humble-looking handheld be the slate you’ll want to rock for the dawn of Windows next-wave touch software?
Hardware
Acer is no stranger to firsts, that’s for certain. Even the Acer Iconia Tab A100 took a unique chip at the Android tablet block, making way with the first 7-incher to tote Android 3.2 Honeycomb (back when that iteration of Android was first made for smaller-sized tablets).
With the Iconia W3 you’re rolling out with an Intel Atom 1.5GHz Z2760 processor and 2GB of memory, enough to keep Windows 8 rolling relatively hard at this size a display. You’ve also got a collection of wireless connectivity options including WiFi a/b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.0+EDR and you’ll be able to push video mirroring out with this tablet’s built-in micro HDMI port.
The 8.1-inch panel up front works with 1200 x 800 pixel resolution that’s well-to-do at first, but isn’t exactly perfect when it comes to wide viewing angles. That said, you’re probably not going to be aiming this machine at the faces of multiple partners anyway, so you get what you pay for – a single-user viewing experience.
You’ve got a microUSB port as well as a power port on this machine, this being one of the bigger (or smaller, however you want to look at it) differentiators between the Android and Windows tablet universes. While it’s nice to be able to charge the machine up at what seems to be a slightly swifter time than any microUSB connection allows, it’d be nice to only have to rely on a single cord.
Battery life does indeed, believe it or not, live up to the hype – we’ve kicked out 7+ hours of regular use (without turning the machine off) with ease, while standby time hasn’t yet reached its end after several days without being switched off. It would appear that Intel’s processor here makes good on efforts to keep low-powered tasks in the low-powered class.
Up front and on back of this machine you’ve got 2 megapixel cameras able to take relatively decent one-time shots worthy of basic shares. There’s a microSD memory card slight able to carry up to 32GB cards, and you’ve got 32GB of storage inside as well. And believe it or not, you get a WHOPPING 31GB of that space to use on your own – he largest app size in the whole machine is Microsoft’s own “Travel” app at 375MB.
Market Competition
This machine’s biggest competitor may be Samsung’s recently revealed ATIV Tab 3, bringing on a “Galaxy” sort of theme in its hardware made ready for Windows 8.
It too brings on a near-8-inch display size (8.2-inches in that case), with an Intel Atom Z2760 processor and 2GB of RAM to kick out the jams. We’ll see soon how it measures up in real life to the Acer machine here – for now we’re feeling like the two are rather similar (save their obvious brand-specific aesthetic choices). Oh, and the S-Pen included with the Samsung machine – there’s that, too. We’ll see how big a difference that makes in swaying our decision soon.
Iterations and Accessories
There are two different versions of the Acer Iconia W3 coming to the market, that being the standard 32GB version at $379.99 USD, then the $429.99 version with 64GB of storage space. Either way you’ve got a value proposition that can’t be matched on a Windows machine as such – specifically because of the size, at first (there is no other machine like this, so to speak), but then because Acer’s created a solid, reliable machine where no real competition has stepped up to the plate in this sort of package thus far. As Acer paves the way at this compact size (with Windows 8), we’ll soon see this battle rage.
We’ve had the opportunity to have a look at this device’s standard Acer-made Bluetooth Keyboard as well as its standard Protective Case, both of them ready to work with this machine specifically – and no other. The Protective Case is just about as standard as they come, connecting to the tablet with a plastic snap and keeping the unit safe with faux-leather in white.
The Bluetooth Keyboard, on the other hand, is unique. Here you’ve got a tablet, on one hand, that’s sold on its own and can stand on its own as a separate product. But then there’s the keyboard which, on its bottom, has a set of three clips that hold the tablet in place.
You might not notice it at first, but the tablet has a set of intends on its left and right (landscape-wise) that work with the keyboard to keep it in place when you’re not using the tablet or the keyboard. Combined, these machines can be stored with the display protected and the keyboard revealed.
In use you’ll be connecting with Bluetooth only, wirelessly only, with the machine held up with the keyboard’s rubberized grip that’ll allow both landscape and portrait views. Connectivity is simple, and the keyboard is powered by several AA batteries under the hood.
Wrap-up
It’s difficult to judge this tablet as a competitor with any other similar solution since it basically stands alone in the field right this minute. While Acer has brought forth a relatively decent effort in the 10.1-inch space for tablets with the transforming Acer Iconia W510, it’s here that the company goes all-in with a stand-alone mini-tablet effort for Windows 8 at last.
While we’ve yet to see any company bring the full-powered mini-tablet with high-definition display to Windows 8 that we desire – or at least desire to see – Acer currently leads the pack with this machine.
Wearable technology is all theragethese days, and Dell isn’t immune to the peer pressure: its global VP of personal computing, Sam Burd, tells the Guardian that his company is “exploring ideas” in the field. While it’s not clear just how serious plans would be at this stage, Burd notes that the idea of a Dell smartwatch is alluring. He can’t champion his firm’s tablet sales, however. Dell has reportedly sold just “hundreds of thousands” of Windows 8 and RT slates like the Latitude 10 and XPS 10. The executive predicts a sales boost as corporate customers adapt to Windows’ new interface, but he’s cautious — he believes that the young platform has to grow before clients (and rivals) take notice.
Former Xbox chief Don Mattrick left his post at Microsoft and joined Zynga as the company’s new CEO. This left a vacant hole over at Microsoft, for which CEO Steve Ballmer is currently stepping in for the time being. However, it’s been reported that current Windows head Julie Larson-Green could be the successor to Mattrick and take over the Xbox division as well.
According to Bloomberg, Microsoft is said to be in the planning stages of reorganizing the company’s execs, and Mattrick is believed to have left Microsoft because of that. As for who will do what, it’s said that Skype president Tony Bates will be put in charge of acquisitions and relationships with software developers for Microsoft, and Larson-Green will oversee all hardware engineering for the company.
This means that Larson-Green would oversee hardware engineering for all devices, including Xbox consoles and Surface tablets. Furthermore, Windows Phone software chief Terry Myerson would be given more responsibility, and will oversee Windows operating system engineering.
Sources say that these shuffling moves aren’t finalized, and it’s possible that Ballmer will make changes before Microsoft officially announces the reorganization. This means that it’s possible that Larson-Green won’t end up getting the Xbox division under her authority, but seeing as how the Xbox One is merging ever so closer to the Windows platform, it makes sense to put the two together under the same boss.
As for Mattrick, it’s said that he was a contender for the hardware chief position before he left Microsoft, but knowing that the company would be going through a reshuffling, Mattrick probably didn’t want to get caught up in the changes. Of course, Mattrick isn’t heading to any steadier waters, as he’ll be responsible for picking up the broken pieces of Zynga and trying to put them back together.
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