Displaying items by tag: Windows 8

Recently there was a report that Microsoft might sell the Surface RT for $199. This report raised even more ire from long-time partner Acer who basically begged Microsoft not to sell Surface at anywhere near that price. The question on everyone’s mind of course is, are these reports are true. We took a look at the reports and then compared it to what we know about Microsoft’s MO and found a rather interesting connection that could indicate the reports are almost correct.

Within the last few years more and more developers have been turning to digital sales as a means to sell their games. In fact, many companies can base nearly their entire success on digital sales. Companies such as Steam and Origin are some of the first that come to mind when consumers think of buying games online. Major companies such as EA and Activision Blizzard are expecting digital sales to exceed physical media sales within the next few years.

Remember how we told you that Microsoft was going to pull out all of the PR and marketing tricks they can muster to try and convince people that Windows 8 is a good thing? Well now they are trying to counter the effects of the recent comments by top names in gaming; most notably Gabe Newell of Valve and John Carmack of id. If you do not remember what these two said we will boil it down here. Gabe Newell stated that Windows 8 was a “catastrophe” which John Carmack stated there was “no reason to upgrade”.

A few days ago Lenovo released some information of their upcoming windows 8 based tablet, the ThinkPad Tablet 2. Lenovo shared a little about the device, including the fact(s) that it will feature a 10.1 inch screen, digitizer pen, 4G models, and a pay as you go plan. However, Lenovo didn’t say too much regarding what the hardware specs of the tablet will be. Thankfully, after a little browsing on the internet some leaked info can be found.

With all of the news around Windows 8 and Microsoft’s Surface tablet many might have missed out on a small report that went around. In this report it was revealed that manufacturers like Qualcomm Texas Instrument, Samsung and more were having issues getting drivers working for Windows RT. We covered it and found that in more than a few cases the information was pretty spot on. We know that Acer decided to focus on x86 based products instead of opting for ARM due to technical difficulties. The issue which has slowed some OEM’s Windows RT progress was also used in the many reports that Microsoft was showing OEMs how it’s done.

Microsoft is no stranger to controversy and throughout its history has made some pretty bad decisions that still come back to haunt them. Now, it seems that Microsoft might be getting ready to make an error that will trump all of the others in its past. We are talking about Windows 8 and the say that Microsoft appears to be closing in its ecosystem and also the platform as a whole. This move to a closed system has not only raised concerns with end users, but also with developers who see the move as a serious issue.

With all of the focus on the Samsung V Apple case recently there have been some interesting happenings in the Microsoft house that many of you might find interesting. It seems that Microsoft has made a few interesting moves lately; at least one that they obviously regret and a couple that they hope will help their position with their partners and their upcoming release of Windows 8. As most of you already know Windows 8 is set for release in October of this year and should hit the market with a healthy selection of products which are designed just for the new cloud based and touch centric OS.

Russian leaker WZOR confirmed yesterday that he is in possesion of both x86 and x 64 Windows 8 Enterprise RTM. He stated that they will leak these to the web anytime and that the "Pro" versions (both x64 and x86) can also be expected in near future. This version differs from the earlier "N" editions by not having Windows Media Player stripped out. Windows Server 2012 was also leaked yesterday via the same source, and will probably be available together with Windows 8 RTM leaked versions on popular torrent sites, and similar sources.

Microsoft has announced that they are getting rid of the Metro name for the Windows 8 “start screen”.  The sudden shift on the eve of the launch (the final version has been released to OEM partners and other manufacturers) is unusual and Microsoft’s answers for this change are not adding up. The original term Metro can be dated back to the UI used for the Zune players and in particular the ZuneHD. This style of slimmed down icon-free user interface that many people liked about the now discarded media player. After receiving good feedback on the Zune (and with many comments asking for a “Zune Phone”) Microsoft pushed some elements of the Zune UI into their Windows Phone product.

So Windows 8 has gone gold and has been shipped to all of Microsoft’s OEM partners so that they all can make the October 26th release date. This is supposed to be a good thing for Microsoft and their partners, but for some reason we just are not hearing the same type of excitement we did with Windows 7 or even Windows Vista. Before the Windows 7 launch we heard from many OEMs and vendors who were excited about the launch of the new OS, it fixed many issues that Vista had and was much faster to boot. This time we are getting responses like “we are not commenting on our Windows 8 plans” or another very generic statement.