Steve Ballmer touts 500,000 Windows 8 downloads in less than 12 hours

We’ve already heard that quite a few of you have downloaded Windows 8 since the developer preview became available last night, and it looks like plenty of other folks have as well — about 500,000 in the first 12 hours, to be specific. That’s according to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer himself, who took to the stage at Build earlier today to dish that particular bit of news and recap the past two day’s events. Hit the source link below for a video of the full keynote if you missed it (Ballmer’s appearance is around the 2:32 mark).

Steve Ballmer touts 500,000 Windows 8 downloads in less than 12 hours originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 14 Sep 2011 16:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AMD Fusion tablets running Windows 8 at Build 2011: hands-on with video

You’ve already seen our in-depth hands-on with Samsung’s Series 7 Slate, boasting an Intel processor and running Windows 8, and now it’s time to give the other guys a little love. We got a chance to sit down with the folks at AMD, masters of the Fusion APU, before the Expo doors opened here at Build, and it would be an understatement to say that they’re excited about getting their x86 chipsets running on Windows 8 machines. As with Samsung’s Slate, AMD was showing off a pair of slates we’ve seen before, specifically the Acer Iconia Tab W500, running on the company’s C-50 APU, and MSI’s WinPad 110W, sporting the Z-01 APU. This is the first the company’s seen of the Metro UI running on its chipsets, and like them, we’re impressed with its performance. You’ll get the same speedy boot-up here, as well as fast and fluid touch navigation. Unfortunately, they aren’t giving up details on future devices, but we should see Brazos powering Windows 8 tablets, desktops , and notebooks in due time. For a look at AMD powering Windows 8, check out our video after break.

Continue reading AMD Fusion tablets running Windows 8 at Build 2011: hands-on with video

AMD Fusion tablets running Windows 8 at Build 2011: hands-on with video originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 14 Sep 2011 13:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Windows 8 BSoD ditches confusing error codes for uninformative frowny face

Windows 8 BSoD

As with any version of Windows, the Metro-slathered Win 8 has one of those oh so familiar Blue Screen of Death thingies. But, this time around, there’s a change. Gone are the confusing and uninformative error codes, and in its place you get an equally uninformative sad emoticon. OK, there’s also some text informing you that your PC is about to reboot, but it still doesn’t get you any closer to tracking down the root of the problem. Well, at least it’s little less cutesy than the Sad Mac (though, no less infuriating).

Windows 8 BSoD ditches confusing error codes for uninformative frowny face originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 14 Sep 2011 12:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Geek.com  |  sourceChip Hazard (Facebook), Mobility Digest  | Email this | Comments

Windows Server 8 and Azure platform introduced, Metro-style app building starts today

Server and Tools Business President Satya Nadella, amongst others, took the stage at Build today in order to showcase something a bit less consumer-facing: Windows Server 8 and the revised Windows Azure platform. Fret not, though — this all plays a vital role in how you’ll be enjoying Windows 8 in the months to come. A Visual Studio 11 Developer Preview will be made available to coders starting today, enabling devs to concoct Metro-style applications with HTML 5, JavaScript, C#, Visual Basic and C++. We’re told that the Visual Studio 11 Developer Preview is available today for Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) subscribers and will be made available to the public on Friday. Microsoft also announced that Server 8 would provide multi-tenant infrastructure for cloud services, while the Azure Marketplace would expand to 25 new nations in early October. Those hoping to dig deeper can head on past the break (and visit the source links below).

Continue reading Windows Server 8 and Azure platform introduced, Metro-style app building starts today

Windows Server 8 and Azure platform introduced, Metro-style app building starts today originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 14 Sep 2011 12:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Poll: Did you download Windows 8?

Downloads have barely been active for half a day, but for the night-owls who burned the midnight oil in order to take the developer preview of Windows 8 for a spin, this is for you. If you’re claiming to be one of the earliest of adopters of Windows 8, how have things gone? Are you waiting a few days to see the obvious issues crop up? Are you taking your remaining vacation days to have yourself slapped silly with “Metro-style” goodness? Let us know how the installation process went in comments below, and if you’ve got a newfound mancrush (or womancrush!) on Microsoft, here’s your opportunity to shamelessly gloat.

View Poll

Poll: Did you download Windows 8? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 14 Sep 2011 10:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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CyberNotes: iCal vs. Windows Calendar

This article was written on June 16, 2008 by CyberNet.

CyberNotes
Microsoft/Mac Monday

How many of you use a calendar on a regular basis to keep yourself organized? I’m sure many of you do because we all have hectic schedules with people to see and places to go. Everybody has a favorite solution whether it be a standard paper calendar or something like Google Calendar. Both Windows and Leopard come with a calendar for their users to use as well, and for being free, built-in solutions, they aren’t too bad. They actually have many similarities between them. Today we’ll be looking at iCal vs. Windows Calendar as part of our series on comparing Leopard and Vista features.

About Windows Calendar

Windows Calendar comes with Windows Vista and you access it by clicking on the Start menu and typing “Windows Calendar” into the search bar. It’s got a fairly simple interface that allows you to create appointments and manage tasks. For those families who share a computer, they can easily share their calendars as well.

windows calendar.png

About iCal

iCal is Apple’s version of a calendar that comes with Leopard. Like Windows Calendar, you can ad events (appointments) to the calendar and manage your tasks. It has a search bar in the upper right corner which is great for those times when you’re trying to find something you added to the calendar but you don’t remember where it was added.

iCal vs windows calendar.png

Likes/Dislikes about Windows Calendar

Microsoft Windows Vista.pngWindows Calendar first debuted in Windows Vista. Never before did Microsoft include a calendar with their operating system, so that itself is nice. It’s got a three-paned interface with the typical Windows menu bar at the top where you can click to add a new appointment or task, and then change the view (day, work week, week, and month views).

From that top menu bar you can also click to subscribe to a calendar. Windows Calendar is compatible with the iCalendar format which means that you can import and export calendar information from other sites and applications. You can also publish your Windows Calendar on the Internet very easily as well. If you want to share your calendar via email, that too is an option.

Overall, Windows Calendar is a nice simple solution, however there are a few things that it’s lacking. One thing is that their task system doesn’t offer the ease-of-use that iCal does. It offers you the same features, it’s just not as easy to use. With their task system, you click “new Task” at the top, and then if you have the Details Pane enabled, you’d see the option to enter in the details of the task including the option to prioritize it by clicking a drop-down menu. With iCal, the whole right side of the calendar is dedicated to “to-do” items, and all it takes is a double-click to get a new to-do item to appear. Another double-click will pull up a window where you can select the priority whether it’s low, medium, or high. iCal uses a three bar system to give you a visual idea of which items you have on your list that are high (3 bars), medium (2 bars), or low priority (1 bar).

iCal.png

Likes/Dislikes about iCal

One nice feature about iCal is that it is integrated with .Mac (now MobileMe) so that users can share their calendars over the Internet. iCal is also nice because they use a pop-up window instead of a details pane in Windows Calendar to edit events. As mentioned above, I really like their task system, but they’ve got some other great features as well.

I did mention that Windows Calendar has a fairly simple interface, but iCal is even simpler. It’s clean and the set-up makes it convenient to see what’s going on. When you want to add an event, you simply click on the starting time and drag your mouse to the ending time. You can also edit existing events this way as well. If the event will be starting or ending later than originally planned, just take your mouse and drag it to the new time. Another feature I just discovered that’s nice too is that you can drag and item from your to-do list right to your calendar and it will be an event.

Some of the options available in the preferences are nice as well. For example, you can choose to have your to-do items deleted a certain amount of days after they are completed. You can also delete events after they have passed as well.

Advanced ical preferences.png

Wrapping it up

At the end of the day, both iCal and Windows Calendar generally offer the same types of features. The difference between the two is in the ease-of-use, and in my opinion, iCal is more intuitive and easier to use. Of course Microsoft wants people using Outlook which has a calendar as well, so they may not be putting the effort in to making Windows Calendar perfect.

The fact of the matter is that it’s nice that both operating systems offer their users a basic calendar so that they don’t need to turn to other, perhaps more complex solutions if they don’t want to.

So far we’ve taken a look at the following Leopard vs. Vista Comparisons

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Windows Phone Apollo to feature speech-to-text for email, low-end Tango gets split in two

If this hodgepodge of sorta, kinda official confirmation is to be believed, Windows Phone users can look forward to deeper integration of voice command functionality built-in to the Apollo update. Nokia US’ CEO, Chris Weber, first spilled the speech recognition beans in an interview with VentureBeat back in early August, referring to the tech as a killer WP feature. Now, a report over on ZDNet backs up that leaked info with resume tidbits from former MS Windows Phone / Mobile Communications team members that had a hand in creating the so-called “Voice-Compose” and “Read-Aloud” features for native email clients– even tipping us off to a possible Windows 8 and WP 8 convergence. There’s also mention (gleaned from a company job listing) of MS’ lower-end mobile OS splitting into two separate versions — Tango1 and Tango2. We know what you’re thinking. It’s hard to get excited about far-off OS updates when we’re still waiting on Mango’s release. Still, it’s good to know Ballmer and co. aren’t just resting on their Windows laurels.

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Windows Phone Apollo to feature speech-to-text for email, low-end Tango gets split in two originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 13 Sep 2011 22:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Windows 8 developer preview: when and where to download (update: right now, here!)

Got a brain full of Windows 8? Can’t stop obsessing about it? Fret not — as of 8PM PT this evening (just under eight hours from now), you’ll be able to download a copy of the Windows Developer Preview to your 32- or 64-bit x86 machine (no activation required) from dev.windows.com. Sorry, ARM hopefuls! Per usual, we’d recommend doing so on a separate partition (or a spare machine altogether) in order to prevent unforeseen conflicts, and we’d also suggest having a stiff glass of patience waiting nearby. Something tells us Redmond’s servers are going to be hammered.

Update: The download is live! Click here to try it out yourself, while the slightly less daring can hang on for our first impressions of Microsoft’s latest and greatest once we’ve installed and given it a try.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Windows 8 developer preview: when and where to download (update: right now, here!) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 13 Sep 2011 20:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Xbox Live functionality confirmed for Windows 8

Microsoft today re-confirmed that it will be bringing Xbox Live functionality to PCs — a move that will come courtesy of the newly showcased Windows 8. The integration — titled, simply enough, Xbox Live on Windows — will bring the service’s gaming, music, movie and TV content to Win 8 devices. The software giant promises to shed more light on the move later in the week, with a Build 2011 session for app developers interested in harnessing the service’s features.

Xbox Live functionality confirmed for Windows 8 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 13 Sep 2011 19:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceMajor Nelson, Channel9  | Email this | Comments

Windows 8 Re-Imagines the Windows Experience

A screenshot of Internet Explorer 10 on Windows 8 at Microsoft’s 2011 BUILD Conference. Image: Microsoft

We’ve been hearing about Windows 8 for months, and today we can finally tell you it’s got a smart tile-based user interface, robust developer options and what is essentially a complete revamp of Windows 7 to bring Microsoft’s new OS into the mobile era.

Microsoft unveiled Windows 8 during the keynote at its BUILD developer conference Tuesday morning. Executives showed off the operating system’s versatility on a variety of mobile and desktop platforms, pointing out features like cloud-based photo sharing, streamlined contact management and the Metro UI overhaul. The OS is Microsoft’s first earnest push into the tablet space and it looks, at first glance, anyway, like it’s a true competitor to mobile operating systems like Android and iOS.

We got an early preview of Windows 8 earlier this summer. The OS is designed for PCs and tablets and uses a live tile-based touch UI with multitasking capabilities. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer hinted that we’d be getting Windows 8 tablets next year. As promised, everyone attending BUILD got a free tablet.

Microsoft has until recently been tentative about entering the mobile space, and not without warrant — Microsoft’s legacy is software built specifically for the PC. Whereas iOS burst on the scene in 2007, followed a short time later by Android, Windows Phone 7 arrived in late 2010. Microsoft’s last OS, Windows 7, was clearly designed for the PC experience rather than the tablet experience.

So far, it looks like Windows 8 is making a big splash, particularly with developers. Here’s a rundown of what we’ve learned Windows 8 offers.

Overview and Hardware

Two major changes have been made to Windows 8: it improves on Windows 7 directly (which means that anything that runs on Windows 7 will be compatible with Windows 8), and the company has rethought what Windows can be.

One of the central themes of today’s keynote announcements was Windows 8 is a reimagining of Windows, from the user experience all the way down to the chipset.

Developers at the conference received one of 5,000 Samsung Windows 8 tablets. The tablet includes an accelerometer, gyroscope and magnetometer, as well as NFC and built-in AT&T 3G. It’s also got a tool that shows you how much data your using, which is pretty cool. The slate pairs with a docking station and a wireless keyboard. From close-ups and screenshots during the presentation, it appears to have a 120 gig Intel G2 solid state drive. (Also noteworthy is that the developer tablet is basically a Windows 7 slate skinned to run Windows 8 — it’s not actually the first ‘Windows 8 device.’)

Windows 8 can run on ARM or x86 architecture, and Microsoft showed off its OS running on multiple devices including ASUS and Acer ultrabooks, an Intel tablet and a Toshiba all-in-one setup. It’s interesting that Microsoft would choose to allow its OS to port to so many different devices, on different chipsets, with different screen sizes, particularly when we’ve watched Google struggle with Android’s ability to do that. But it looks like its user interface may be better suited to that task than Android’s.

Mark Rendle, principal software architect at Dot Net Solutions, really likes Microsoft’s Metro UI.

“It looks like they’ve scaled it up really well, and I like the way it fits to different screen sizes,” he said.

A suite of Windows 8 running tablets appear onstage at the BUILD Conference. Image: This Is My Next

For Developers

“I’m excited that I can leverage all of the existing skills that I already have and choose what is best for writing a new Win8 app,” said Ed Blankenship, a .NET developer and technical lead at Imaginet.

Windows 8 allows developers to use a number of tools to create “Metro style” (that’s the name for their user interface) apps: HTML5/JavaScript, C/C++, and/or C#/XAML. Windows president Steven Sinofsky said that there are 1800 APIs and objects built into the system you can use to help build Windows apps. In Visual Studio 11 Express, there are also a variety of preset templates.

From what we can see, the app-making and uploading process looks pretty streamlined.

When an app is completed, Windows has a few super-convenient built-in tools to port it over to the Windows App Store. You can select a price, a trial period length and choose the appropriate app categories it belongs in from a drop down menu. Windows’ app store will be “transparent” about its approval and certification process, showing users what stage of approval they’re in with its web interface. The app store itself has the features you’d come to expect: price listing, ratings, an option to buy or try, screenshots, details and reviews.

“I love that Windows 8 will run anywhere and any app that can run on Windows 8 will run on any device. That’s really key – I can develop & debug on a tablet running Windows 8,” said Blankenship.

You can’t do that with other platforms available today. Developers normally have to build that infrastructure themselves, often a huge time sink. But now, devs can easily get apps into the Windows Store.

“Microsoft really knows how to leverage its ecosystem and keep [developers] happy,” Blankenship said. “I know that’s what will be a driving factor for success with Windows 8.”

A look at Samsung’s Windows 8 tablet that developers received at BUILD. Image: Slashgear

A Few Apps

Like Windows Phone 7, Windows 8 has a large social aspect built-in. In a departure from the desktop-oriented OS’s of the past, Microsoft has redesigned or reskinned a number of services. Windows 8 also takes advantage of the growing cloud-based storage movement.

“The interaction between apps on and between devices is really exciting,” Rendle said of Windows 8, citing the Contracts API as one he was particularly excited about using.

For instance, the new email client looks pretty slick: It’s a two panel setup that meshes with the Metro look and feel, with an optional third panel that comes up when you’re going through email folders. A contacts app neatly arranges your friends and acquaintances as a grid of square photos, which you can click to get more information. The email client and contacts app won’t be shipping with the developer release of Windows 8.

The photos app can pull images from services like Flickr, Facebook and SkyDrive after you’ve connected with your accounts. The app treats remote storage and SkyDrive’s cloud storage as if data is stored locally. Email and SkyDrive can sync with Windows Phone 7.5 (Mango) devices.

As far as entertainment on Windows 8 goes, it looks like Xbox Live will be ported over to the OS.

“Applications are really powering the system with new capabilities, and as you get more applications, the experience gets richer and richer,” Julie Larson-Green, a Microsoft vp, said about Windows 8 and its app environment.

In the demos, there were a few features, such as photo sharing across SkyDrive, which bugged out in the keynote demonstration but worked fine in earlier press meetings.

Other Features

It’s got boot protection, so when Michael Angiulo, CVP of Windows Planning and Ecosystem, tried to launch a Samsung tablet with an infected USB key, the booting process stopped before the system could fully launch.

A few keyboard shortcuts were introduced: Windows – C opens up the Charm menu (a cross application searching and sharing toolbar with an option for switching between desktop and Metro views), Windows – Z opens the app bar and Windows – F does searches. Traditional Internet Explorer shortcuts still work.

A redesigned task manager also made its debut; it can be viewed as a straightforward list of apps and an end button or as a full view with usage statistics of each of the processes.

Multi-monitor and remote log-in features are made easy, with the ability to swap between a desktop view and Metro view with a simple keyboard shortcut. VHDs and ISO images are also treated like local drives.

Many feared that traditional Windows problems, like the need for drivers, would plague Windows 8, but from the demonstrations at BUILD, everything seemed to run very smoothly. Accessories like a webcam worked instantly after being plugged in. Windows 8 takes mouse, keyboard or touch inputs, and there’s also a digital pad you can use a stylus with for drawing or writing.

Getting Windows 8

You can get access to a developer preview release of Windows 8, with or without development tools, beginning at 8 p.m. PST. The Windows app store will not be active in the preview release (which is not to be confused with a beta release of Windows 8), but the release does include a number of sample/SDK applications.

“I think Microsoft will really need to find a way to drive adoption of Win8 as fast as possible to
encourage the developer community to create these new-style apps,” Rendle said. The fact that the software is available as a public preview should help with that fact.

No date for a Beta launch of Windows 8 has been announced.

“We’re going to be driven by the quality, not by a date,” Sinofsky said.

Why code for Windows 8? Besides the robust developing options, Microsoft estimates that 400 million people will eventually adopt the Windows 8 ecosystem.

“Microsoft has made a significant investment to entice existing developers to build for the Windows 8 platform,” Blankenship said. “I can’t wait to get my hands on the Developer Preview build tonight!”

Videos and livestreams of Microsoft’s conference are available at buildwindows website.