Displaying items by tag: Microsoft

Yesterday the internet had an unexpected (by some) show of nVidia’s Mobile 28nm Kepler GPU. This was done through the review of an Acer Ultrabook. Although the desktop flavor is still some time away (maybe end of April or early May) we now can start to make guesses about how kepler might compare. Of course the real performance of Kepler is anyone’s guess. We decided to continue on with our coverage of Windows 8 x64. This time we dive into the nVidia side of gaming with an nVidia GTX 470 dropped into our testing rig. We used the same games and, of course, we shot some video of how well it worked out.

Although not incredibly big news it looks like Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 9 has fallen to exploits on Thursday during the Pwn2Own competition. Once again it was Vupen that managed the exploit. Interestingly enough as with Chrome it took two separate attacks to get past the security in place for IE 9. One is something that has been present in every version of Internet Explorer since IE6 and the other is a non-disclosed 0-day exploit to get past the protected mode available in IE.

In a recent article I published about Apple being nervous over Windows 8 I made the statement that Apple has never released a developer preview like this before and also that Apple does not do public Betas. Both of these statements were read incorrectly and the flood of comments from Apple fans came in. There were lists of the times that Apple has pushed out Developer Previews as well as a list of the times they have released betas to the public. It has been entertaining, but I think we need some clarification on these two items and also why Apple is nervous about Windows 8.

So after our look at the installation of Windows 8 on our Asus EEE Slate EP 121 we have gotten through the mess of installing drivers that are not meant for our device and getting some basic applications installed. We are now ready to take a look at the Metro UI and some of the features built into the Windows 8 platform. Let’s kick off with how fast this new OS starts up from a cold boot.

Today marked the day that Microsoft released Windows 8 to the general public. We have tinkered with several builds of Windows 8, but so far we have not been all that impressed with what the guys in Redmond have come up with. Our big issue has been the lack of functionality and usability in the new MetroUI. In our last public coverage we had to switch back to Windows 7 after only three days or testing. So now let’s take another stab at getting Windows 8 running on current hardware, namely our Asus EEE Slate EP121.

After our initial report of an Office suite from Microsoft developed for Apple’s iPad it seems the company is trying very hard to deny the rumors and speculation, while at the same time leaving their options open.  What is the real story? We are not entirely sure, but we are convinced that something is going on that will allow Office functionality on the iPad and other tablets in the works.

Microsoft is now joining the ranks of companies that are suing Motorola Mobility. This is not surprising and if you read between the lines of the complaints the filings you will see that these really have very little to do with Motorola at all (well ok, Motorola is not playing nice either). Unlike the complaints from Apple, Microsoft is claiming that Motorola (and hence Google) is trying to limit the use of the H.264 video standard.

When the iPad and indeed most tablets started to make an impact on the market there was one item that we talked about that was seriously overlooked and indeed is one of the things that is still lacking on in the ARM based tablet world. This is a productivity suite that is compatible with Microsoft’s Office (the unrecognized standard in productivity suites). Now some of you will argue about Open Office, Polaris office and the Apple fans will talk about Apple’s suite of products for the iPad (Pages, Numbers and Keynote which are currently the best out there). The problem is that no matter how much you dislike Microsoft it is a simple fact that it is the most commonly used office productivity suite out there.

When I first started working in technical journalism I wrote a short article about the psychology behind the need to hate Microsoft and other big companies. I talked about the need to assign personalities to them and to identify them with certain character traits. It actually was fun to write, but as you can imagine was not well received by many readers. Still it has become almost an ingrained part of the global psyche that Microsoft is bad and incompetent to boot. So much so that after months of Windows 8 blog entries the big news is not what Microsoft is screwing up technically, but the new Windows Logo… really guys, Is that all you have?

So Microsoft is on a push to get out as much information as they can about Windows 8. This new operating system represents a massive change for Microsoft and not just in the way the new OS will function, but also in the manner they are interacting with the public. This is evident in almost everything they are doing, from the building Windows 8 Blog to the public statements, demos and interviews that are happening frequently.