Hasta La Gadget!

‘It’s playing’ will let you delete a handful of junker apps from your iPad

Move over CineXPlayer: There’s a new iPad video player in town. That should probably read “yet another new iPad video player,” but as most of those are junk, this new app really stands out.

It’s called “It’s playing 2.0,” and it’s another one of those video players which will take pretty much any file you can throw at it and play it without conversions to an iOS-friendly format first. My long-time favorite, thanks to ease of use and reliability, has been CineXPlayer, but it lacks crucial support for AC3 sound. It’s playing adds this and a lot more.

Files can be added via iTunes, or from any other app in iOS which supports the “Open In…” command (Mail and Dropbox are amongst these). Files in roughly one zillion* formats are supported, including FLV, AVI, MKV, OGG and WMV. Also supported are subtitles in separate files, and AC3 audio.

Tap the file in the source list to the left and you can either play it or tweak it. Pressing the info button lets you rename the file, choose a subtitle file (if the subtitle has the same filename as the movie, it will be added automatically). You can also pick subtitle font sizes, and adjust playback quality. “Automatic” is the default, and works fine. I tested it with a 720 x 416 AVI of a Sopranos episode and both the audio and video are smooth and clear.

It’s playing doesn’t use the standard Apple playback controls, and there’s no AirPlay support, but you can do variable-speed scrubbing on the timeline control. Move your finger further from the timeline as you scrub and the speed will slow, just like native iOS audio scrubbing. One and two-fingered swipes will skip forward and back by 30 seconds or five minutes.

But the biggest feature, and one which I haven’t seen elsewhere, is on-the-fly video adjustment and volume boost. You can adjust color, contrast and brightness using sliders in real time as the video plays. And even more important, you can boost the volume up to 200%, VLC-style. I could have done with this last week as the Lady and I struggled to hear the soundtrack of Deadwood as we recovered from food poisoning in a hotel room somewhere in Tunis, Tunisia.

Whether or not you prefer this app to others is down to choice. CineXPlayer’s subtitle selection is easier faster, for example, and Buzz player adds network streaming. But for smooth playback of high-def video, and the excellent picture and volume adjustments, It’s playing is the current champ. Bonus: it costs just $2. Available now.

It’s playing product page [It’s playing.app. Thanks, Diogo!]

* Full list of file formats and codecs below.

See Also:

• CineXPlayer Adds 3-D Conversion, Now 100% Less Ugly
• How To: Stream Video to iPad From Network Drive Without a …
• Hands-On With VLC Movie Player for iPad
• iPad Buzz Player Streams and Converts Movies From Network …

FILE EXTENSIONS
flv, gvp, xspf, xa, pls, m3u, m3u8, asx, b4s, ape, flac, wv, tta, mpc, ram, rm, rmvb, mod, xm, it, xm, aiff, aif, amr, aob, dts, spx, sdp, wav, vob, a52, ac3, aac, ogm, ogg, oga, ogv, ogx, oma, voc, vqf, anx, axa, axv, gxf, mxf, avi, mov, moov, qt, divx, dv, asf, wma, wmv, wm, mpg, mpeg, mpeg1, mpeg2, m1v, m2a, mp1, mp2, mp3, m2p, ps, ts, m2ts, mts, mt2s, m2v, mpv, mpa, mp4, mpeg4, m4v, m4a, 3gp, mid, mlp, mka, mkv, webm, rec, rmi, s3m, vro, tod, mks, nsv, nuv, ssa, ass, usf, utf, srt, rt, smi, aqt, jss, pjs, psb, sub, mpsub

FORMATS
3GP2 format, 3GP format, 4X Technologies format, IFF format, Funcom ISS format, MTV format, raw id RoQ format, a64 – video for Commodore 64, raw ADTS AAC, raw AC-3, ADTS AAC, MD STUDIO audio, Audio IFF, PCM A-law format, 3GPP AMR file format, Deluxe Paint Animation, CRYO APC format, Monkey’s Audio, Apple HTTP Live Streaming format, ASF format, ASF format, Advanced SubStation Alpha subtitle format, SUN AU format, AVI format, Flash 9 (AVM2) format, AVS format, Bethesda Softworks VID format, Brute Force & Ignorance, Bink, Interplay C93, Apple Core Audio Format, raw Chinese AVS video, CD Graphics Format, CRC testing format, D-Cinema audio format, Chronomaster DFA, raw Dirac, raw DNxHD (SMPTE VC-3), Delphine Software International CIN format, raw DTS, DV video format, MPEG-2 PS format (DVD VOB), DXA, Electronic Arts Multimedia Format, Electronic Arts cdata, raw E-AC-3, PCM 32 bit floating-point big-endian format, PCM 32 bit floating-point little-endian format, PCM 64 bit floating-point big-endian format, PCM 64 bit floating-point little-endian format, FFM (FFserver live feed) format, FFmpeg metadata in text format, Sega FILM/CPK format, Adobe Filmstrip, raw FLAC, FLI/FLC/FLX animation format, FLV format, framecrc testing format, Per-frame MD5 testing format, raw G.722, GIF Animation, raw GSM, GXF format, raw H.261, raw H.263, raw H.264 video format, id Cinematic format, image2 sequence, piped image2 sequence, raw Ingenient MJPEG, Interplay MVE format, iPod H.264 MP4 format, A format generated by IndigoVision 8000 video server, On2 IVF, Bitmap Brothers JV, lmlm4 raw format, VR native stream format (LXF), raw MPEG-4 video format, Matroska file format, Matroska/WebM file format, MD5 testing format, MicroDVD subtitle format, raw MJPEG video, raw MLP, American Laser Games MM format, Yamaha SMAF, MOV format, 3g2,mj2 QuickTime/MPEG-4/Motion JPEG 2000 format, MPEG audio layer 2, MPEG audio layer 3, MP4 format, Musepack, Musepack SV8, MPEG-1 System format, raw MPEG-1 video, raw MPEG-2 video, MPEG-2 transport stream format, MPEG-2 raw transport stream format, raw MPEG video, MIME multipart JPEG format, MSN TCP Webcam stream, PCM mu-law format, Motion Pixels MVI format, Material eXchange Format, Material eXchange Format, D-10 Mapping, MxPEG clip file format, NC camera feed format, Nullsoft Streaming Video, raw null video format, NUT format, NuppelVideo format, Ogg, Sony OpenMG audio, Playstation Portable PMP format, PSP MP4 format, Sony Playstation STR format, TechnoTrend PVA file and stream format, QCP format, REDCODE R3D format, raw video format, VC-1 test bitstream, RL2 format, RealMedia format, RPL/ARMovie format, Lego Mindstorms RSO format, RTP output format, RTSP output format, PCM signed 16 bit big-endian format, PCM signed 16 bit little-endian format, PCM signed 24 bit big-endian format, PCM signed 24 bit little-endian format, PCM signed 32 bit big-endian format, PCM signed 32 bit little-endian format, PCM signed 8 bit format, SAP output format, SDL output device, SDP, raw Shorten, Beam Software SIFF, Smacker video, Sierra SOL format, SoX native format, IEC 61937 (used on S/PDIF – IEC958), SubRip subtitle format, MPEG-2 PS format (VOB), Flash format, THP, Tiertex Limited SEQ format, 8088flex TMV, raw TrueHD, True Audio, Tele-typewriter, Renderware TeXture Dictionary, PCM unsigned 16 bit big-endian format, PCM unsigned 16 bit little-endian format, PCM unsigned 24 bit big-endian format, PCM unsigned 24 bit little-endian format, PCM unsigned 32 bit big-endian format, PCM unsigned 32 bit little-endian format, PCM unsigned 8 bit format, raw VC-1, VC-1 test bitstream format, MPEG-1 System format (VCD), Sierra VMD format, MPEG-2 PS format (VOB), Creative Voice file format, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT) TwinVQ, Sony Wave64 format, WAV format, Wing Commander III movie format, WebM file format, Westwood Studios audio format, Westwood Studios VQA format, Windows Television (WTV), WavPack, Maxis XA File Format, Microsoft xWMA, Psygnosis YOP Format, YUV4MPEG pipe format

CODECS
4X Movie, QuickTime 8BPS video, 8SVX exponential, 8SVX fibonacci, 8SVX rawaudio, Multicolor charset for Commodore 64, Multicolor charset for Commodore 64, extended with 5th color (colram), Advanced Audio Coding, AAC LATM (Advanced Audio Codec LATM syntax), Autodesk RLE, ATSC A/52A (AC-3), ATSC A/52A (AC-3), ADPCM 4X Movie, SEGA CRI ADX ADPCM, ADPCM Creative Technology, ADPCM Electronic Arts, a ADPCM Electronic Arts Maxis CDROM XA, ADPCM Electronic Arts R1, ADPCM Electronic Arts R2, ADPCM Electronic Arts R3, ADPCM Electronic Arts XAS, ADPCM IMA AMV, ADPCM IMA Duck DK3, ADPCM IMA Duck DK4, s ADPCM IMA Electronic Arts EACS, d ADPCM IMA Electronic Arts SEAD, ADPCM IMA Funcom ISS, ADPCM IMA QuickTime, ADPCM IMA Loki SDL MJPEG, ADPCM IMA WAV, ADPCM IMA Westwood, ADPCM Microsoft, ADPCM Sound Blaster Pro 2-bit, ADPCM Sound Blaster Pro 2.6-bit, ADPCM Sound Blaster Pro 4-bit, ADPCM Shockwave Flash, ADPCM Nintendo Gamecube THP, ADPCM CDROM XA, ADPCM Yamaha, ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec), MPEG-4 Audio Lossless Coding (ALS), Adaptive Multi-Rate NarrowBand, Adaptive Multi-Rate WideBand, AMV Video, Deluxe Paint Animation, ASCII/ANSI art, Monkey’s Audio, Advanced SubStation Alpha subtitle, ASUS V1, ASUS V2, Atrac 1 (Adaptive TRansform Acoustic Coding), Atrac 3 (Adaptive TRansform Acoustic Coding 3), Auravision AURA, Auravision Aura 2, AVS (Audio Video Standard) video, Bethesda VID video, Brute Force & Ignorance, Bink Audio (DCT), Bink Audio (RDFT), Bink video, BMP image, Interplay C93, CamStudio, TechSmith Screen Capture Codec, Chinese AVS video (AVS1-P2, JiZhun profile), CD Graphics video, Cinepak, Cirrus Logic AccuPak, COOK, Creative YUV (CYUV), , Chronomaster DFA, VC3/DNxHD, DPX image, Delphine Software International CIN audio, Delphine Software International CIN video, DVB subtitles, DVD subtitles, DV (Digital Video), Feeble Files/ScummVM DXA, ATSC A/52 E-AC-3, Electronic Arts CMV video, Electronic Arts Madcow Video, Electronic Arts TGQ video, Electronic Arts TGV video, Electronic Arts TQI Video, Escape 124, FFmpeg video codec #1, Huffyuv FFmpeg variant, FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec), Flash Screen Video, Flash Screen Video Version 2, Autodesk Animator Flic video, Flash Video (FLV) / Sorenson Spark / Sorenson H.263, Fraps, Forward Uncompressed, G.722 ADPCM, G.726 ADPCM, GIF (Graphics Interchange Format), GSM, GSM Microsoft variant, H.261, H.263 / H.263-1996, Intel H.263, H.263+ / H.263-1998 / H.263 version 2, H.264 / AVC / MPEG-4 AVC / MPEG-4 part 10, Huffyuv / HuffYUV, id Quake II CIN video, IFF ByteRun1, IFF ILBM, IMC (Intel Music Coder), Intel Indeo 2, Intel Indeo 3, Intel Indeo Video Interactive 5, DPCM Interplay, Interplay MVE video, , JPEG-LS, Bitmap Brothers JV video, Kega Game Video, Karl Morton’s video codec, Lagarith lossless, libx264 H.264 / AVC / MPEG-4 AVC / MPEG-4 part 10, Lossless JPEG, LOCO, MACE (Macintosh Audio Compression/Expansion) 3:1, MACE (Macintosh Audio Compression/Expansion) 6:1, Sony PlayStation MDEC (Motion DECoder), Mimic, MJPEG (Motion JPEG), Apple MJPEG-B, MLP (Meridian Lossless Packing), American Laser Games MM Video, Motion Pixels video, MP1 (MPEG audio layer 1), MP1 (MPEG audio layer 1), MP2 (MPEG audio layer 2), MP2 (MPEG audio layer 2), MP3 (MPEG audio layer 3), ADU (Application Data Unit) MP3 (MPEG audio layer 3), ADU (Application Data Unit) MP3 (MPEG audio layer 3), MP3 (MPEG audio layer 3), MP3onMP4, MP3onMP4, Musepack SV7, Musepack SV8, MPEG-1 video, MPEG-2 video, MPEG-4 part 2, MPEG-1 video, MPEG-1/2 video XvMC (X-Video Motion Compensation), MPEG-4 part 2 Microsoft variant version 3, MPEG-4 part 2 Microsoft variant version 1, MPEG-4 part 2 Microsoft variant version 2, Microsoft RLE, Microsoft Video-1, LCL (LossLess Codec Library) MSZH, Mobotix MxPEG video, Nellymoser Asao, NuppelVideo/RTJPEG, PAM (Portable AnyMap) image, PBM (Portable BitMap) image, PCM A-law, PCM signed 16|20|24-bit big-endian for Blu-ray media, PCM signed 20|24-bit big-endian, PCM 32-bit floating point big-endian, PCM 32-bit floating point little-endian, PCM 64-bit floating point big-endian, PCM 64-bit floating point little-endian, PCM signed 20-bit little-endian planar, PCM mu-law, PCM signed 16-bit big-endian, PCM signed 16-bit little-endian, PCM 16-bit little-endian planar, PCM signed 24-bit big-endian, PCM D-Cinema audio signed 24-bit, PCM signed 24-bit little-endian, PCM signed 32-bit big-endian, PCM signed 32-bit little-endian, PCM signed 8-bit, PCM unsigned 16-bit big-endian, PCM unsigned 16-bit little-endian, PCM unsigned 24-bit big-endian, PCM unsigned 24-bit little-endian, PCM unsigned 32-bit big-endian, PCM unsigned 32-bit little-endian, PCM unsigned 8-bit, PCM Zork, PC Paintbrush PCX image, PGM (Portable GrayMap) image, PGMYUV (Portable GrayMap YUV) image, HDMV Presentation Graphic Stream subtitles, Pictor/PC Paint, PNG image, PPM (Portable PixelMap) image, V.Flash PTX image, QCELP / PureVoice, QDesign Music Codec 2, Apple QuickDraw, Q-team QPEG, QuickTime Animation (RLE) video, AJA Kona 10-bit RGB Codec, Uncompressed RGB 10-bit, raw video, RealAudio 1.0 (14.4K) encoder, RealAudio 2.0 (28.8K), RL2 video, id RoQ DPCM, id RoQ video, QuickTime video (RPZA), RealVideo 1.0, RealVideo 2.0, RealVideo 3.0, RealVideo 4.0, SMPTE 302M, SGI image, Shorten, RealAudio SIPR / ACELP.NET, Smacker audio, Smacker video, QuickTime Graphics (SMC), Snow, DPCM Sol, Sonic, Sonic lossless, Sunplus JPEG (SP5X), SubRip subtitle, Sun Rasterfile image, Sorenson Vector Quantizer 1 / Sorenson Video 1 / SVQ1, Sorenson Vector Quantizer 3 / Sorenson Video 3 / SVQ3, Truevision Targa image, Theora, Nintendo Gamecube THP video, Tiertex Limited SEQ video, TIFF image, 8088flex TMV, TrueHD, Duck TrueMotion 1.0, Duck TrueMotion 2.0, DSP Group TrueSpeech, True Audio (TTA), VQF TwinVQ, Renderware TXD (TeXture Dictionary) image, IBM UltiMotion, Uncompressed 4:2:2 10-bit, Uncompressed 4:2:2 10-bit, Beam Software VB, SMPTE VC-1, ATI VCR1, Sierra VMD audio, Sierra VMD video, VMware Screen Codec / VMware Video, Vorbis, On2 VP3, On2 VP5, On2 VP6, On2 VP6 (Flash version, with alpha channel), On2 VP6 (Flash version), On2 VP8, Westwood Studios VQA (Vector Quantized Animation) video, WavPack, Windows Media Audio 9 Professional, Windows Media Audio 1, Windows Media Audio 2, Windows Media Audio Voice, Windows Media Video 7, Windows Media Video 8, Windows Media Video 9, Winnov WNV1, Westwood Audio (SND1), DPCM Xan, Wing Commander III / Xan, Wing Commander IV / Xxan, Miro VideoXL, DivX subtitles (XSUB), Psygnosis YOP Video, LCL (LossLess Codec Library) ZLIB, Zip Motion Blocks Video

Microsoft gave out Samsung Windows 8 tablets at its 2011 BUILD Conference. Image: VentureBeat

The future of Flash looks dimmer and dimmer as another major player in the mobile space shuns support of the platform.

Microsoft’s brand new Windows 8 Metro user interface will not support Adobe Flash or other plug-ins, instead embracing the HTML5 set of web standards, according to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer team leader Dean Hachamovitch. For users who access legacy ActiveX controls, they’ll have to jump out of the Metro UI and switch to the classic-styled desktop browser.

Hachamovitch explains that running IE without Flash or other plug-ins “improves battery life as well as security, reliability, and privacy for consumers.” These are pretty much the same reasons that Apple doesn’t support Flash on its devices.

“Providing compatibility with legacy plug-in technologies would detract from, rather than improve, the consumer experience of browsing in the Metro style UI,” Hachamovitch wrote in a blog post on Thursday.

Of course, Adobe immediately went on the defensive, shifting attention away from Microsoft’s mobile devices.

“We expect Windows desktop to continue to be extremely popular for years to come and that it will support Flash just fine, including rich web-based games and premium videos that require Flash,” Adobe told Wired.com in a statement.

Adobe’s Flash product has had a rough time as computing has shifted to a mobile environment. Apple has long banned Flash from its mobile devices, publicly announcing the reasons (which Adobe directly responded to). Recently, Apple stopped shipping Flash capability with products like the 2010 MacBook Air, which gave the 11-inch model a whopping two extra hours of battery life. Since Google released Android version 2.2 (Froyo), many Android-powered smartphones have supported Flash. But some say Android’s Flash-capabilities are wanting.

And Android isn’t the only OS running Flash poorly. The QNX-powered BlackBerry PlayBook operating system was hyped to boast the best Flash support before its release, but Wired.com found running Flash games and sites spotty at best on the PlayBook. Similarly, the Android-powered Motorola Xoom has struggled with Flash, debuting only with a beta version of Adobe’s product that was much maligned.

“I actually find Flash on Android to be quite cumbersome,” said Michael Novak, a developer for group messaging app GroupMe, in an interview. “I would like to see Android move away from Flash support and adopt more HTML5 video options. The large run-time required by Flash is disappointing.”

Novak feels it will be a hard battle to fight though, as much of the publishing interesting are very supportive of Adobe products.

HTML5 has come to be the de facto alternative for functions that previously required Adobe Flash. For instance with video, back-end system Brightcove now uses HTML5 to deliver streaming video to devices like the iPad. Many see the move of video services in particular toward HTML5 as the “kiss of death” for Flash. As of March, 63% of web video is now HTML 5 compatible, an indication of the growing shift away from Flash.

Although Flash is losing steam, Adobe is not, even with regards to its waning product. Adobe has outed its own Flash to HTML5 conversion tool, called Wallaby, which is a free AIR application¹. Adobe’s AIR platform allows developers to use Flash and other tools to develop standalone web apps for mobile devices.

Note 1. The original version of this story incorrectly stated that Edge was Adobe’s Flash to HTML5 conversion tool. Edge is an HTML5 web motion and interaction design tool. Updated 9/16/2011 at 11:59 AM PST.

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.

Carousel brings an optimized version of the Camera RAW rendering engine to iOS

Oh man. Apple’s PhotoStream can suck it. Adobe has just announced Carousel, an app which puts the Lightroom/Camera RAW rendering engine on the iPad and iPhone, and also lets you edit your photos and sync those edits between all your devices,
automatically.

Carousel doesn’t sync with your existing Lightroom library. Instead, you install the free Carousel app on your iOS devices and your Mac (Android and Windows versions are in the works) and the software syncs all photos and edits between devices, as well as storing a full-resolution copy on Adobe’s servers.

Here’s another shot of the interface, because I know you want to see it

You don’t get the full range of Lightroom’s power, either. Edits are limited to a variety of presets as well as basic image adjustments like saturation, exposure and cropping. But the exciting part is that it uses the same RAW rendering engine as Lightroom and Adobe Camera RAW. This makes great-looking photos with low, low noise. It should also mean (although Adobe hasn’t said so) that you can import these images, with their non-destructive edits, into Lightroom.

The apps are all free, and the service is subscription-based, which makes sense as Adobe is storing your photos for you. Subs will be $10 per month or $100 per year, with an introductory price of $6/$60. The apps should be out any time now.

Adobe Carousel [Adobe]

See Also:

• Photosmith Syncs iPad with Lightroom
• LRPAD, an iPad Multi-Touch Controller for Lightroom
• 5 Apps We Can't Wait to See on the iPad
• Photogene 2.0 for iPad: A Desktop Photo Editor on a Tablet

Updated below at 4 p.m. EDT with additional information

The wait for an Apple-centric solution to cloud-based music streaming is almost over.

Apple has released iTunes Match to those enrolled in its developer program. Tuesday’s announcement included a short video tour of the service, which is available only to those who are running iOS 10.5 Beta 6.1 and were quick enough to grab one of few beta subscriptions Apple offered.

Match works in conjunction with Apple iCloud, which allows users to store iTunes playlists remotely. With iTunes Match, you don’t have to store music files on your iDevice: They’re simply streamed from the cloud. You do have the option to download tracks, as the video shows.

We haven’t heard much about iTunes Match since it was revealed at WWDC 2011. The service costs $25 a year and allows a maximum of 25,000 songs or as much as 250 gigs of space, assuming songs are four minutes long and compressed at 320 kbps.

Of course, iTunes Match isn’t the first streaming-music option. Ten bucks a month gets you a subscription to Rdio, which offers an iPhone and iPad app. Rdio also features a great playlist collaborating-and-sharing feature. Spotify, also available for $10 a month for the premium version, offers convenient offline syncing in its iOS and Android apps.

At $25 a year, iTunes Match is a significantly cheaper option, though.

Unfortunately, one of the biggest problems with iTunes Match and similar services is that the demise of unlimited data plans means streaming your tunes takes a big bite out of monthly data usage. If you want to stream freely, make sure you’re connected to a good Wi-Fi connection.

If you’re hoping to score a beta version of iTunes Match, keep checking back over the next few days, as Apple will continue to expand its beta-testing pool.

Update:

According to AllThingsD, Apple’s iTunes Match service does not stream from iCloud, it requires you to download songs from your virtual, cloud-based “locker” onto whatever device you are listening on. This applies to any music title, whether it was purchased from iTunes or acquired from another source.

The “stream” in the video below is actually a simultaneous download and listen. This means Apple’s service is probably not technically a true streaming platform, since a copy of the song is needed on your iDevice in order to play. However, iTunes Match would still provide on-demand access to the music in your locker, so if you switch devices, you still have immediate access to all of your music.

Wired has asked Apple to comment.

via Insanely Great Mac

Image: Jim Merithew/Wired

See Also:

• Apple Snips the Cord on iTunes, Reveals iCloud Strategy
• iCloud’s the Limit: How iOS 5, Lion Push Apple’s Lock-In Strategy
• Apple’s Music iCloud Is Nice, Not Revolutionary
• Hack Allows iTunes Music Streaming to Any Device
• Stream Your Music From the Cloud

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