Hasta La Gadget!

Still settling into Windows 8? Well, it appears that Microsoft’s preparing for a sea change, codenamed “Blue,” that will alter how it approaches cross-platform updates. According to ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley, an inside source at Redmond has indicated the company’s desire to house all Windows Phone, Windows Services, Windows 8 and Windows RT updates under the Blue umbrella, though that won’t necessarily indicate simultaneous releases. Far from it, actually, as the current plan is simply to schedule these updates on a yearly basis. Foley also goes on to note that for Win8, MS could ditch RTM releases altogether, in favor of feeding updates direct to the Windows Store and mentions that Windows 9 is still on track. What’s not yet known is precisely what features this Blue crush of updates will entail. We’ll keep you updated should this rumor prove to hold its water.

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

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Source: ZDNet

Now that the Surface Pro is a fait accompli, there’s more than a few questions circulating from prospective buyers. The project’s Panos Panay and his team have stepped up to answer them on Reddit, and they’ve shed some light on just about everything, including later plans. The Pro-specific connectors at the bottom? They’re for “future peripherals” that may require more power than the pogo pins do. The short battery life and limited free storage were also purposeful (if difficult) choices, Microsoft says. The company wanted to maximize performance while keeping the tablet reasonably slim, so it couldn’t rely on a big battery; it included the space-chewing recovery partition as it wanted to offer the “confidence” of a failsafe rather than leave customers to fend for themselves. While the answers won’t appease everyone, they at least put the design decisions in context. Hit the source link to sate your curiosity in full, or at least as far as an Ask Me Anything session allows.

Filed under: Tablets, Microsoft

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Via: The Verge (1), (2)

Source: Reddit

It’s tough to forget the ASUS TAICHI: out of all the Windows 8 convertibles we’ve seen (and we’ve seen a lot) this is the only one with two screens on board. In particular, it’s got one on the inside, which you’d use in regular notebook mode, along with a touchscreen on the outside that allows you to use the PC as a tablet. If you like, you can shut the lid completely and turn the machine into a slate-type of device, but you can also leave the lid open so that you’re mirroring your desktop, or displaying something different on each one (imagine the possibilities for presenters!). As an added trick, that outer screen also accepts pen input, though you’ll have to splurge on the highest-end configuration to get it with a stylus.

For now, ASUS is selling the 11.6-inch TAICHI 21 ($1,299 and up), though a 13-inch version is going to start shipping later this month. Hopefully, though, our review after the break answers questions you’d have about either model. Namely, what’s it like to use a machine with two screens, anyway?

Filed under: Laptops, ASUS

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Cross-platform game compatibility and syncing aren’t anything new, but there have been few if any games that truly make us feel at home when we switch devices. Developer 17-Bit’s just-launched Skulls of the Shogun bucks that trend in style as the first game with a unified experience across every one of Microsoft’s platforms. Start a game on a Windows 8 or RT PC, Windows Phone or Xbox 360, and cloud saves will carry over with nary a hitch in sight. Turn-based multiplayer works the same way: anyone involved in a match can play from whichever device is convenient, rather than give up a big screen or mobility. We just wish the undead strategy game’s prices enjoyed the same level of consistency — Skulls costs $5 on Windows Phone, $10 on Windows PCs and 1,200 points on the Xbox. Still, we’ll bite if it means squeezing in one more round on our Surface.

Filed under: Cellphones, Gaming, Tablets, Software, Microsoft

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Via: Windows Phone Blog

Source: Microsoft (1), (2), (3)

There have already been a few 15-inch Ultrabooks that have pushed the very limits of the thin-and-light category. Still, LG wants its turn at bending the rules. Its new U560 packs a 15.6-inch display and an optical drive that, together, contribute to the PC’s 4.3-pound weight and 0.82-inch thickness — really, it’s a traditional laptop in a slimmer than usual package. Not that we’ll complain too much when it involves an IPS-based LCD, a 1.8GHz Core i5, dedicated graphics (a support page suggests NVIDIA) and both a spinning hard disk as well as solid-state storage. The U560’s launch is limited to South Korea so far, although we wouldn’t be surprised to see Europe and other territories get their turn.

Filed under: Laptops, LG

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Source: LG (translated)