Items tagged with Windows
ThinkPad historians may recall Lenovo's X220 (laptop) and X220T (convertible tablet / notebook) from last year. Both were formidable machines, but Intel's 3rd-gen series of Core processors weren't out yet. Turns out, that kind of horsepower was missing in certain models. Now, however, the company's dual-core Ivy Bridge CPUs are out in full...
Read more...
These days, it seems we're hearing more and more about tablets eating away at market share that was once ruled by netbooks and notebooks. Netbooks we can believe -- we haven't seen a compelling wave of new netbooks in months -- but are people really choosing tablets with limited functionality over full-scale laptops? That argument is expected...
Read more...
This is pretty crazy. But it's so crazy, that it just might work. While Apple shirts from the opening of new Apple Stores are tough to come by (and in turn, nice to have for an eBay turnaround), Microsoft really hasn't gone down that same path. But why not now? Metro's user interface is just gorgeous, so why not showcase some of Windows' newness...
Read more...
Microsoft is getting ready to launch Windows 8, the company's next generation operating system that's been built from the ground up to play nice with today's touch-computing landscape, but what about Windows 7? In case anyone has forgotten, Windows 7 is a perfectly serviceable OS, just ask the millions of people using it. In a blog post today,...
Read more...
Hope you're ready for a swarm of new notebooks, because that's what's happening this week. Lenovo is joining Acer and Asus (amongst others) by revealed two new machines, the IdeaPad U310 and U410. These guys use Intel's new 3rd-gen Core processors, and the company's investing quite a bit in advertising to make sure people know about it. The...
Read more...
Ah, the wide world of Windows 8 is opening up even further this week, and in a major way. Computex is the launching ground for quite a few new Win8-based devices, with Asus in particular introducing the Windows RT Tablet. It's a 10.1" convertible device with an optional keyboard dock, using NVIDIA's Tegra 3 quad-core...
Read more...
If Acer's dishing out Windows 8-equipped desktops and Ultrabooks, might as well throw out a few tablets, too. That's the goal, right? Right! Over at Computex, Acer has just introduced the ICONIA W510 and ICONIA W700, two Win8 slates that are engineered to handle Metro. According to Acer, the most unique part of the...
Read more...
Who would've known that Computex would be the official coming-out party for what's likely the final build of Windows 8? It sure looks that way, with Acer introducing new Windows 8 all-in-one PCs today. The new U Series is being announced alongside new Aspire S7 Ultrabooks by Acer, with the Aspire 7600U (27-inch) and...
Read more...
If you had any doubts about Windows 8 being en route, let this squash 'em. Acer has just introduced their latest Ultrabooks, and both of them sport touch panels. That's right: laptops with touchscreens. It's real, and while it never really made sense in the past, Windows 8 (and the Metro user interface) changes that paradigm. The new Aspire...
Read more...
Metro has become quite the buzzword these days, but what does it mean for developers? Microsoft, with only months to go before Windows 8 is released, is taking the chance to address that head-on. In a new post over at the MSDN Blogs, the company has stated that porting apps to Metro will be fairly easy, and the "hardest part is coming up with...
Read more...
To date, we haven't heard a lot about Android 5.0 in terms of features, but Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0) has had a lot of time to mature. Particularly on the Galaxy Nexus, the pure version of ICS is one of the most fluid, visually appealing mobile OSes -- but is it still the best alternative for those who are shying away from the iPhone...
Read more...
2012 is shaping up to be a major year for mobile operating systems. For those fortunate enough to own a smartphone, these are exciting times. Competition is fierce, and the winner is you. Regardless of which platform you're keen on, you can bet that each of the major players are pushing the others to innovate and improve. In just a few...
Read more...
Windows 8 is coming this year. At this point, it's accepted. It's almost taken for granted. But building an entire operating system is an insane job, and doing it time and time again is even crazier. Microsoft has been pounding away at desktop OSes for years, and with Win8 on the horizon, the company recently took a...
Read more...
Worried about little Timmy's jaunt across the Web when you're not around to actively monitor his behavior by peering over his shoulder? Microsoft hears you loud and clear is and is working hard to keep kids relatively safe online by baking 'Family Safety' features into Windows 8. A recent blog post on Microsoft's MSDN...
Read more...
People have a tendency to resist change, that's just the way it is. Underscoring this point is the fact that Windows XP is still the most dominant operating system on the desktop despite being released more than a decade ago. Maybe that wouldn't be the case if Microsoft jumped straight to Windows 7 instead of Vista, or perhaps human nature...
Read more...
Well, you can safely say that we're on the home stretch now. Microsoft has already released the Consumer Preview of Windows 8 into the world, and as the company gets closer and closer to the anticipated fall / winter launch of their next major desktop operating system, the next major step in that process is upon us...
Read more...
You can probably chalk this one up to the dramatic change Microsoft introduced with its Metro user interface, but for what it's worth, the Windows 8 Consumer Preview has attracted twice the number of users as the Windows 7 Beta did after the same amount of time went by. Microsoft made the statement on its...
Read more...
Despite Apple's iPad trying to steal Microsoft's thunder and in spite of increasing competition from ARM in the mobile space, Microsoft still managed to drive its quarterly revenue up 6 percent year-over-year to $17.41 billion for the company's third fiscal quarter ended March 31, 2012. Net income topped $5.1 billion, resulting in $0.60 diluted...
Read more...
What's in a name? A lot. Qwikster didn't go over so well for Netflix, and iPhone was so important to Apple that it purchased the rights to use it from Cisco. And instead of rolling with Windows Server 8, Microsoft has decided to go with Windows Server 2012 for its upcoming server operating system. At the Microsoft...
Read more...
Windows 8? On an iPad? It might sound bogus at first -- perhaps even dirty -- but it's going to happen, come heck or high water. Splashtop is known for bringing operating systems to places they weren't designed to go, and now they're turning an iPad into a Windows 8 tablet with native Metro UI touch gestures for Win8 app developers. All you...
Read more...
It may seem silly to start the countdown to the end of support for Windows XP (and Office 2003) a full two years in advance, but given that there are still home consumers and businesses still clinging to the decade old OS, perhaps the early warning is entirely appropriate. Particularly for IT departments, starting the...
Read more...
Windows Phone is only about a year and a half old in the market at this point but Nokia has a much longer lineage. In the past 12 months though, their two worlds have collided in a fashion that will have repercussions for quite some time to come, with Nokia CEO Stephen Elop firmly committed to focusing his company's turnaround on what Microsoft...
Read more...