Hasta La Gadget!

While Microsoft is busy readying the much talked about Windows 8 for release, a new patent application has popped up that could reveal even bigger — or at least faster — things to come. According to the filing for “Fast Machine Booting Through Streaming Storage,” which was submitted in February of last year and released last week, Redmond is looking at creating a system that could stream an entire OS to just about anything with a screen. The proposed setup would enlist a series of storage devices, both remote and local, to act as a virtual hard disk, allowing anything from a set top box to a tablet to boot almost instantaneously. We don’t know about you, but we’ve already started a list of ways to spend the extra seconds.

[Thanks, Bogen]

Microsoft patent application points to fast-booting streaming OS originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 18 Aug 2011 06:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple clearly considers its new App Store-based distribution model one of the biggest advances in Lion, and to the company’s credit, we found the whole thing to be quite painless. But physical media devotees needn’t worry too much — the company quietly announced at launch that the latest version of OS X will also be available on a USB key, for the lofty price of $69 — which, incidentally, still requires Snow Leopard, unlike what has been previously reported. Word hit today that the company has finally issued the flash drive version of the software, information gleaned from an internal document reportedly leaked by AppleCare. We have it on good authority, however, that the drives mentioned in the document are not, in fact, the aforementioned sticks. Rather, the “recovery media” discussed is actually a restoration tool for AppleCare employees, used to fix faulty systems. We hate to be the burster of bubbles, but it seems that the App Store-impaired will still have to wait until later this month to get their hands on the $70 Apple dongle.

Debunk: Lion USB sticks are not yet available originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Aug 2011 15:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.

Last week’s Switched On discussed how Lion’s feature set could be perceived differently by new users or those coming from an iPad versus those who have used Macs for some time, while a previous Switched On discussed how Microsoft is preparing for a similar transition in Windows 8. Both OS X Lion and Windows 8 seek to mix elements of a tablet UI with elements of a desktop UI or — putting it another way — a finger-friendly touch interface with a mouse-driven interface. If Apple and Microsoft could wave a wand and magially have all apps adopt overnight so they could leave a keyboard and mouse behind, they probably would. Since they can’t, though, inconsistency prevails.

Yet, while the OS X-iOS mashup that is Lion exhibits is share of growing pains, the fall-off effect isn’t as pronounced as it appears it will be for Windows 8. The main reasons for this are, in order of increasing importance, legacy, hardware, and Metro.

Continue reading Switched On: Desktop divergence

Switched On: Desktop divergence originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 31 Jul 2011 18:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We know what you’re thinking: Mac OS X Lion (10.7) has been out for nearly a week, so why have we yet to hear anything about Snow Lion? Patience friends, Apple will roar soon enough — but for now, 10.7.2 will have to do. Apple released the beta update to developers over the weekend, eschewing any acknowledgment of 10.7.1, or correcting any of the bugs that have popped up over the last week. Instead, Lion’s pending second update (build 11C26) is required for testing the operating system with iCloud — a feature notably absent in the public version of the OS released last week. The new System Preferences iCloud module enables granular management of select features, letting you choose which accounts and services to sync. Full iCloud support is coming in the fall with the release of iOS 5, so it’s probably safe to assume that Apple plans to patch some of those bugs in the meantime — any day now, we hope.

Mac OS X Lion 10.7.2 beta brings iCloud support, no bug fixes originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 25 Jul 2011 08:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple confirmed Lion’s big day during the company’s Q3 earnings call this week, and Mac OS 10.7 hit the App Store right on schedule yesterday morning, allowing us to give Snow Leopard the boot and make room for the king of the jungle. We’ve already installed Lion on a half-dozen of our own systems, testing the new operating system with a variety of configurations for our review. But we want to know about your experience. Did you pull an all-nighter on Tuesday, backing up files, reformatting drives, and updating to 10.6.8? Are you still rockin’ dial-up and waiting for the $69 flash drive version to ship next month? Or perhaps you’re a PC user, holding out for Windows 8? Let us know in the poll below, and feel free to expand on your decision in the comments as well.

View Poll

Poll: Did you download Mac OS X Lion (10.7)? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 21 Jul 2011 14:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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