Hasta La Gadget!

With the official launch of Windows 8 comes the official support of premium cable content via one of the various CableCARD tuners originally designed for Windows 7 Media Center. Silicon Dust is at the front of the pack as Media Center on Windows 8 is already officially supported and the documentation is available for both the HDHomeRun Prime as well as the ATSC or QAM HDHomeRun. The only feature we noticed was not supported for now, is WMC Sync. Ceton is still working on the official driver for its InfiniTV 4, but reassures us that the Windows 7 driver “does work relatively well,” although, is unsupported — the real loss here is that there are no plans to bring the InfiniTV tuner sharing feature to Windows 8. Last up is Hauppauge, who doesn’t have a single mention of support of Windows 8 for the WinTV-DCR-2650 on its site (we reached out to them, will update once we hear back). Of course, support by Media Center and Windows 8 is one thing, but we’re really waiting for a mention that any “Windows Store Apps” that can play nicely with all this premium HD content.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD

The status of official CableCARD tuner support for Windows 8 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 31 Oct 2012 20:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It happens all the time — someone misspoke. During an address at Build yesterday, a Microsoft employee told a crowd that the company has taken to calling its apps “Windows 8 Store Applications.” Turns out that’s not quite right — the proper terminology is the slightly more elegant “Windows Store apps,” as per a note from a Redmond spokesperson. So there you go. No more Metro, no more “Windows 8 Store applications” — just plain, old “Windows Store apps.”

Filed under: Software, Microsoft

Microsoft: we misspoke, actually, they’re ‘Windows Store apps’ originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 31 Oct 2012 12:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ever since those bygone days of Metro, we’ve all been struggling to figure out precisely what to call the design language of Microsoft’s OS offerings. When the question was put to MS’s Will Tschumy, the user experience strategist told a crowd at Build that the company is calling Win 8 apps “Windows 8 Store Applications” — not exactly as elegant as the aesthetic the company is implementing across its products.

Update: Looks like Microsoft didn’t quite get it right yesterday. Redmond’s actually calling them “Windows Store apps.”

Filed under: Software, Microsoft

Microsoft: we’re calling our apps ‘Windows 8 Store Applications’ originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 30 Oct 2012 18:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There’s plenty of excitement surrounding the release of Windows 8 here at Build. The general consensus around the operating system, however, holds that the key to the OS’s success is all about the apps, and CEO Steve Ballmer had no shortage of news on that front. The green-polo-shirted exec made mention of an official tweet from Twitter, noting the service’s development plans for a Windows 8 app coming “in the months ahead.” Also on the slate is Dropbox — the popular storage service has an app “coming soon,” according to Microsoft’s own official blog. ESPN got a little face time at the event, showing off an app that’ll deliver news, scores and video to Windows 8 users. Paypal, meanwhile, took the opportunity to talk up an API that’ll bring its commerce services to Windows Store apps. More info on the new apps can be found in the source link below.

Filed under: Software, Microsoft

Microsoft talks up Dropbox, Twitter, ESPN and PayPal for Window 8 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 30 Oct 2012 13:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Although Microsoft’s Windows 8 launch will very likely go down in history as a positive turning point for the company, it wasn’t without it glitches. Specifically, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that Microsoft reps in Taipei found it difficult to navigate their own OS due to hardware issues with their demo devices — namely, new all-in-one PCs from Acer and ASUS. There were said to be issues with opening and closing apps, possibly due to the implementation of touch on such large screen sizes of 23-inches and over.

Well, we’ve just been fingers-on with both the 23-inch Acer Aspire 5600U and the 27-inch 7600U in London, and we can report that the touch interface was totally fluid. Moreover, the LCD displays maintained their natural colors very well when switching from an almost vertical 80-degree orientation to an almost-flat 30 degrees. These models come with Ultrabook innards starting with low-voltage versions of the Core i5 and the NVIDIA 630M, and they also come with HDMI-in and optional TV tuners so they can be used in a living room or kitchen situation. Pricing in Europe begins at 1,000 Euros for the 23-inch model, rising to 2,000 Euros for the full-spec 27-incher. Check out the video after the break and you’ll see that we asked our Acer rep for his view on what happened in Taiwan and, although he didn’t have first-hand knowledge of the event in question, he insisted that it was a storm in a teacup. Given our experience of the devices so far, we’re inclined to believe him.

Continue reading Acer’s Windows 8 all-in-ones cause big fuss in Taiwan, we go hands-on to find out why (video)

Filed under: Desktops, Acer

Acer’s Windows 8 all-in-ones cause big fuss in Taiwan, we go hands-on to find out why (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 30 Oct 2012 07:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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