While Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) already gave the world an official first look at its next operating system earlier this fall, the unveiling event in San Francisco was decidedly small and low key. According to a report, the operating system’s “real unveiling” — where consumer features will be revealed in full — will occur in late January.

A source within Microsoft that spoke with The Verge said that the company is planning a press event in January where executives will demonstrate a consumer preview of the new operating system.  Reportedly, Microsoft will also demonstrate the operating system on other platforms such as phones, tablets and the Xbox One. Microsoft will also demonstrate the operating system’s new touch platform called Continuum too.

The choice to put Windows 10 on stage at a press event in late January, and not at the Consumer Electronics Show, is an interesting yet understandable one. A trend over the past few years is for vendors to show off their big announcements for the year — and Windows 10 is certainly Microsoft’s — at press events outside of the big tent of CES. It’s far too noisy and chaotic for vendors to get adequate attention, which means that important launches are scheduled for press events outside of the time CES occupies.

The post Microsoft Said to Unveil Windows 10 Consumer Preview in January appeared first on VR World.

With the holidays approaching fast and the sales that come with it many people will be getting new notebooks this holiday season.  Researching what the best notebooks out there are takes time and we though we could help out by giving you our choices in five different categories of notebooks.  They are gaming, ultraportable, Chromebook, business, and Apple MacBook.  With the latest computer parts in these notebooks it will be certain that they will be able to earn there keep for quite some time.  There are many things to consider when looking for a notebook and budget is a big one.  Most of these choices are going to be in the higher end range since they perform better.

Gaming Notebook: MSI Computer GT72  Dominator Pro with GTX 980M – $2,299

This gaming notebook is the top of the line from MSI, and it does not disappoint.  Equipped with Intel i7-4710HQ, 16GB of DDR3-1600, a 128GB SSD, and a Nvidia GTX 980M 8GB, this will tear through any recent and upcoming game.  The best thing about the GT72 Dominator Pro is that MSI has taken steps to ensure that you can update the graphics down the line when new and better GPUs come out.  This means that the investment made in this computer will last a lot longer than comparable notebooks that are stuck with their graphics for the life of the product. If you are wanting some more speed from the notebook then throw in four identical M.2 SSDs inside and put them in RAID 0 for read/write speeds of up to 1600MB/s.  From experience with MSI’s SuperRAID as it is called I can attest to how massive of an improvement that speeds like this can be, it makes using the notebook just so much more enjoyable.  You can even attach three monitors to the notebook with two mini-displayport and one HDMI outputs.  The keyboard feels like no other notebook keyboard and is made by the gaming company SteelSeries. Bottom line is that if this is in your budget and you are a gamer or even a power user, I have little doubt that you will love this notebook.

Apple Notebook: 15″ 2.5GHz MacBook Pro with Retina display – $2,374.99

There is no denying it, Apple makes good notebooks and they are arguably the best notebooks for running Windows on as well.  The Retina display will allow for better multi-tasking with various windows as the resolution gives lots of screen real estate.  The Retina display will be great for those who edit photos or video as the display will reproduce colors very well. The construction of the MacBook Pro is amazing and the fit and finish are things that other companies could learn a thing or two from.  The choice with the 2.5GHz Intel i7 was made for what would be the most capable and powerful option with a reasonable price.  At Apple you can customize the MacBook Pro with up to a 1TB SSD and a 2.8GHz Intel i7.

Ultraportable Notebook: Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro – $1,382.99

The 2-in-1 Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro is the latest model in the Yoga line and features an amazing watchband style hinge.  The hinge is made up of hundreds of individual pieces that allows the notebook to flex like no other and fold to use it in different positions.  The screen is a high resolution (3200×1800) IPS touchscreen that will reproduce colors very well and look much better than lower quality panels.  If needing something very light, portable, and a long battery life then this notebook should be on your list of ones to check out.  The stylish Yoga 3 Pro is one of the most stunning designs out now and is powered by the brand new Intel Core M processor.

 Chromebook – Toshiba Chromebook 2 1080p $329.99

Chromebooks are a new breed of notebook, and people are really loving them.  Chromebooks generally are affordable, light, and have long battery life making it an easy choice for those who need something portable.  The best thing about this model is likely the 1080p IPS panel that will look much better than panels that are in other models.  Powering the notebook is an Intel Celeron processor, and while not very powerful it will get the job done and sip power giving longer battery life.  The battery should be good for up to 8 hours and 45 minutes.  The audio has been fine-tuned by Skullcandy meaning that it should deliver much nicer sound than the standard Chromebook.  This will be useful if you enjoy listening to streaming music while you surf the web or do work.  The 802.11ac Wi-Fi is blazing fast and will allow you to get better coverage over other Chromebooks.

Business Notebook: Lenovo X1 Carbon – $1,619

When looking for a business notebook it is wise to choose something that is portable and light so you can easily get work done no matter where you are working.  The X1 Carbon also offers great battery life allowing up to 9 hours from a single charge.  Lenovo is the the most used PC maker for businesses and they sure do know what they are doing with its lineup that is geared for productivity.  The keyboard is surprisingly good and has back-lighting making it easier to get work done while on that red-eye to an important meeting or at home in the evening.  The integrated fingerprint reader should help simplify secure login by allowing you to simply swipe a finger over it.  When it comes to a business notebook, choosing Lenovo is a wise choice that millions have made before.

The post Top Five Notebooks of 2014 appeared first on VR World.

Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) confirmed late last week in a blog post that Windows 10 will be shipping with the upcoming DirectX 12 API — and a technical preview is already available to developers via the early build of Windows 10 recently released.

“The final version of Windows 10 will ship with DirectX 12, and we think it’s going to be awesome,” Microsoft’s Brian Langley wrote in a blog post. “Game developers who are part of our DirectX 12 Early Access program have even more incentive to join the Windows Insider program.  These game developers will receive everything they need to kickstart their DX12 development.”

For now, Microsoft will have to work overtime to convince developers about the technical virtues of the new API and why it deserves their full support. In some ways Microsoft finds itself competing with AMD (NYSE: AMD) and its Mantle API as both promise close to the metal access for developers. Though Mantle isn’t close to mainstream, it does count more support from developers than DirectX 12; Unreal Engine 4 is the only game engine to support DirectX 12 while AMD can count a handful of AAA titles and developers that support its Mantle (though the comparison isn’t entirely fair as DirectX 12 isn’t officially out yet).

Microsoft says that it’s currently working with developers to build relationships and support for DirectX 12.

Windows 10 is expected to be released in 2015.

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Want to see what all the buzz was about yesterday? Well, Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) is giving you a chance to test out the Windows 10 Preview for free as long as you agree to become an ‘insider’ and help them improve it before it launches next year. All you need to do is head over to the Windows 10 Preview site and log in with your Microsoft account and then make sure your system meets the minimum specifications. If you’re already running Windows 8.1 you’re pretty much read to go and the OS will handle everything for you.

System requirements

Processor: 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster

RAM: 1 gigabyte (GB) (32-bit) or 2 GB (64-bit)

Free hard disk space: 16 GB

Graphics card: Microsoft DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM driver

A Microsoft account and Internet access

Precautions

Also, keep in mind that some processors and hardware configurations still are not supported by the Technical Preview, so if you have driver problems there’s a chance your hardware isn’t supported. You will also need to have a monitor capable of running a minimum of 1024 x 768 resolution in order to access the Windows Store to download apps. Also, after you install the preview you will no longer able able to play DVDs using Windows Media Player, which means that they are moving people over to the new Windows 8.1 video player which was problematic in Windows 8.1 because you had two video players for all video files. This is a clear indication that Windows 10 Preview gets rid of that and very likely that Windows 10 as a whole will do away with Windows Media Player. Windows 10 Preview will also remove Windows Media Center if you have Windows 8 Pro and install the preview.
If you have Windows RT 8.1 (ARM-based tablets) the Windows 10 Preview will not work for you either. Microsoft had already said that they will address the Windows 10 ARM situation at a later date (very likely in 2015) but that Windows RT will be folded into Windows as a whole and no longer operate as a separate OS. The same goes for Windows Phone, which will also carry the Windows 10 name scheme, but since it too is based on ARM we probably won’t see anything until 2015.

If you’re running Windows 7, 8 or 8.1 and your default installed language isn’t English, Chinese or Portugese you will only be able to keep your personal files when you upgrade, you will lose all of your apps and Windows settings. Additionally, if you have a language pack or language interface pack, those will also be removed when you install the Windows 10 Preview

Also, some older 64-bit CPUs may be blocked from installing the preview (AMD 64-bit Athlons, perhaps?) but Microsoft gives no explanation why.

Last but not least, if you are running Windows 7 without Sp1 you can only upgrade to the preview by downloading an ISO file and not using Microsoft’s automated system or Windows Update.

The post Microsoft Windows 10 Preview Minimum Specs and Download Released appeared first on VR World.

While flying from Taipei to San Francisco for the usual September round of tech events, one story in this month’s MacWorld caught my attention: one of the editors was speculating how nice it would be to have a true full Mac in an iPhone size. Of course, Apple may be a little farther from merging the OS X and iOS than we thought earlier, but, what about looking at the same thing on the Wintel platform? Perhaps a Windows Phablet?

It could be argued that one big mistake Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) did with Windows Phone is to compete with Android and Apple (NASDAQ: APPL). Windows OS, as imperfect as it is, has one big advantage over both Android and iOS: it is a content creation-oriented environment, compared to content-playback environments on the other two. After all, Apple has OS X for content creation, while Google, well, searches for already made content, isn’t it?

Come back to the increasingly popular phablets, seemingly the smallest true computer format one can accept for everyday use. A 6-inch 2015 phablet, with a Bluetooth keyboard embedded inside its protective cover instead of wasting the screen space, can also have a say quad core 14-nm Atom processor, 4 GB RAM and 64 GB flash storage, not to mention FullHD or better screen resolution. Hmm, looks as good as today’s UltraBooks, doesn’t it? So technically it should be able to run a full version of Windows 8.1 or later, including Office and many other apps, without a hitch – something utterly impossible for any ARM-based phone, phablet or tablet, no matter how powerful it is.

Now, if I want to modify my Word document, Excel spreadsheet or PowerPoint presentation on the go, and I don’t want to open my PC for that, trying to do the job on those small Android ‘Office’ apps, including Microsoft’s own one, is either pain in the neck or just not doable. But, with true Office on true Windows, on an Intel (NASDAQ: INTC)-inside phable, the ultra-compact content creation and editing becomes possible.

Now, will Intel and Microsoft jump on this advantage while they have it, before the Android world catches up?

The post IDF 2014 Murmurings: A True Windows Phablet for Content Creationists? appeared first on VR World.

政府已經宣布另一件他們正在調查微軟的反競爭行為案件，對於微軟長期任職的執行官員來說，這似乎都太耳熟能詳了（Nasdaq：MSFT），這一次是遭殃的在中國。

中國國家工商行政管理總局和商務部負責人張茅(音譯)在公安人員的發布會上,公開聲明表示,關於捆綁瀏覽器和媒體播放器變成Windows的副本, 中國微軟正被調查中。

該聲明中說“微軟涉嫌不完整透露Windows和Office軟體的相關信息，以及在經銷和銷售其媒體播放器和瀏覽器的問題”。

距離微軟第一次因捆綁軟體而被政府嚴密監控已經為時已久了。微軟是美國反壟斷監管機構的焦點，在近世紀之交接時，“美國政府對微軟案“緣由於捆綁IE瀏覽器與Windows，檢察官稱微軟在瀏覽器大戰裡為”不公平的優勢“。類似的媒體播放器捆綁案件，在歐盟以及韓國都對微軟提出控告，導致該地區發展其特殊版本的作業系統，為那些前來SANS媒體播放器的地區正在制定.

在Firefox和Chrome的時代裡，以及過盛的行動裝置都毅然決然的不使用微軟的情況下，瀏覽器的壟斷思維早就老掉牙了。然而，桌面上微軟的IE瀏覽器在中國仍具有相當程度的影響力，具有27.8％市場的占有率和12.5％Internet Explorer6 使用率。

將外國人一腳踢出

在過去的一年中，中國政府已經採取了積極的行動，讓外國消費品和高科技公司在中國市場裡難以生存，同時給予當地企業一臂之力。

端看微軟在中國的情形下，中國毫無疑問地想減少對外國產品的依賴。據《衛報》報導，中國正在尋求透過發展出自己的一套作業系統來達到目的。

“創造一種讓我們能夠與谷歌，蘋果和微軟競爭的環境，那就是成功的關鍵，”中國工程院院士倪光南（音譯）如是說，他也是此項目的鼻祖，他告訴《衛報》 “你一定要改變過去的方式，才能與國營統一的作業系統運作，而不是複製以前的模式，整合積累過去的做法.”

但對於中國消費者來說，品質和相容性就是一切。當一個未經證實，可能帶有問題，而且相容性有限的國家級的作業系統呈現眼前，卻不如真金不怕火煉的Microsoft Windows那般可靠，毋庸置疑地猜得出他們會選擇哪一個了。

The post 中國離“美國政府對微軟”這一刻的訴訟很近了 appeared first on VR World.

An official unveiling of Windows 9 might be closer than many expect, according to one report.

Sources that spoke to The Verge said that Microsoft is planning a press event on September 30 to fully detail the changes to “Threshhold.” The sources that spoke to The Verge also said that a release to developers would occur shortly thereafter, perhaps on even the same day.

While it’s unclear how much different Windows 9 will be from an architecture standpoint; improvements to the Windows kernel are not something users largely requested. This next version of Windows will largely be a refreshed user interface, with a new version of the Start Menu and the absence of the Charms bar.

For Microsoft, Windows 9 represents a great “step backwards” for the Windows ecosystem. Microsoft’s attempt to make a hardware agnostic operating system — to bring Windows to the growing economy of smartphones and tablets — represented a failure on two fronts: Microsoft could not get the big-name hardware wins it needed with mobile devices, and the Metro UI alienated many PC users. To quantify how much of a failure Windows 8 was, consider that Windows 7 still commands half of the total operating system market while the ancient Windows XP has 13.74% market share.

In the desktop world Microsoft has no threat to the hegemony of Windows. Despite all the gains Apple has made with the Mac platform in the last five years, the platform, quantitatively speaking, is still relatively niche. Apple wants to keep it that way and has no plans to alter its pricing structure. However, Microsoft still needs a solid revenue stream from the Windows division. Simply put: the company needs a way to convince users to pay for a new version of Windows twice a decade. Windows 8 wasn’t a compelling enough reason for many to upgrade from Windows XP or 7, which means that Microsoft needs to do its best to create a product that people not want, but need, to buy.

The post Microsoft Said to be Planning Windows 9 Launch in September appeared first on VR World.

Microsoft has clearly not stopped with their aspirations with the new Surface Pro 3 that they launched today. This is a follow up to their Surface Pro 2, which also featured an Intel ultra low voltage Core family CPU, except now you have a choice of a Core i3, Core i5 or Core i7 CPU as opposed to only being able to choose an i5. The CPU in the Surface Pro 3 is actually the same as it was in the 2, which is a little disappointing but Intel’s Broadwell won’t hit until much later this year. Once that new Intel chip starts to pick up steam, we’ll probably see a Surface Pro 4 (or whatever they decide to name it) that even further improves upon the Surface Pro 3.

Getting back to the Surface Pro 3, it is actually a larger tablet than the Surface Pro 2 as it features a 12” ClearType Full HD Plus 2160 x 1440 resolution multi-touch display. This is in contrast to the Surface 2 Pro’s 10″ ClearType Full HD 1920 x 1080 resolution multi-touch display. This changes the aspect ratio of the display on the Surface Pro 3 to 3:2 as opposed to the standard 16:9 that most displays today currently have. This is a clear indication of Microsoft’s laser focus on this being a professional device. Storage capacity and RAM still have not changed, where the 64 and 128 GB models will come with 4GB of RAM and the 256GB and 512 GB versions will come with 8GB of RAM. It still has a full-size USB 3.0 port, miniDisplayPort connector and MicroSD card slot but does add new 802.11ac wireless connectivity. Microsoft also supposedly upgraded the cameras from being dual 720P on the Surface Pro 2 to being dual 1080P on the Surface Pro 3.

The Surface Pro 3 with Pen

One of the best things about this upgrade is that the Surface Pro 3 is going to benefit from overall better hardware while simultaneously getting lighter. The previous Surface Pro 2 weighed in at 2 lbs while this new, larger Surface Pro 3 actually comes in at 1.76 lbs all while still maintaining a magnesium body. Microsoft also made a few minute changes to the overall usability of the tablet by changing the pen technology that they were using (Wacom) in favor of (N-Trig) in order to get a more accurate and pressure sensitive pen functionality. They also added palm rejection (which should be a nobrainer) to the tablet so that you can write on the tablet without moving things around with the side of your hand or arm. They also added the ability to adjust the angle of the kickstand to virtually any angle that you want, as opposed to all of the previous Surface tablets which effectively had one angle or closed as options. This will make the Surface Pro 3 a lot more comfortable for users in general since people’s preferences for tablet angles vary greatly and so do their use case scenarios.

Last but not least, they’ve vastly improved the type cover (I haven’t tried it yet) and supposedly make it much more user friendly. I personally haven’t been sold on the Surface tablets primarily because of the keyboard, so if the new typecover is really a major improvement, there’s a good chance that a lot of people will go out and buy one after using it. Even so, Microsoft needs to ram the professional message home and make sure that people know that this tablet, which starts at $799, is going to be the tablet they want to get things done. We’ve also included a pricing table for all of the different models and accessories for the Surface Pro 3.

You can pre-order a Surface Pro 3 tonight at midnight EDT (9pm PDT) on Microsoft’s website (site isn’t live yet) and other select etailers. Starting June 20th, US and Canada customers can visit Microsoftstore.com, Microsoft retails stores and select third-party retailers (like Best Buy) to purchase Intel Core i5 Surface Pro 3 ($999 and up) and select accessories. Additional configurations will be made available during August and more accessories will come over the course of the following months.

By the end of August, Surface Pro 3 and select new accessories will become available for purchase in 26 additional markets, including Australia, Austria, Belgium, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Luxembourg, Malaysia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand and the United Kingdom.

The post Surface Pro 3 – Surface Gets Bigger and Better appeared first on VR World.

Microsoft has clearly not stopped with their aspirations with the new Surface Pro 3 that they launched today. This is a follow up to their Surface Pro 2, which also featured an Intel ultra low voltage Core family CPU, except now you have a choice of a Core i3, Core i5 or Core i7 CPU as opposed to only being able to choose an i5. The CPU in the Surface Pro 3 is actually the same as it was in the 2, which is a little disappointing but Intel’s Broadwell won’t hit until much later this year. Once that new Intel chip starts to pick up steam, we’ll probably see a Surface Pro 4 (or whatever they decide to name it) that even further improves upon the Surface Pro 3.

Getting back to the Surface Pro 3, it is actually a larger tablet than the Surface Pro 2 as it features a 12” ClearType Full HD Plus 2160 x 1440 resolution multi-touch display. This is in contrast to the Surface 2 Pro’s 10″ ClearType Full HD 1920 x 1080 resolution multi-touch display. This changes the aspect ratio of the display on the Surface Pro 3 to 3:2 as opposed to the standard 16:9 that most displays today currently have. This is a clear indication of Microsoft’s laser focus on this being a professional device. Storage capacity and RAM still have not changed, where the 64 and 128 GB models will come with 4GB of RAM and the 256GB and 512 GB versions will come with 8GB of RAM. It still has a full-size USB 3.0 port, miniDisplayPort connector and MicroSD card slot but does add new 802.11ac wireless connectivity. Microsoft also supposedly upgraded the cameras from being dual 720P on the Surface Pro 2 to being dual 1080P on the Surface Pro 3.

The Surface Pro 3 with Pen

One of the best things about this upgrade is that the Surface Pro 3 is going to benefit from overall better hardware while simultaneously getting lighter. The previous Surface Pro 2 weighed in at 2 lbs while this new, larger Surface Pro 3 actually comes in at 1.76 lbs all while still maintaining a magnesium body. Microsoft also made a few minute changes to the overall usability of the tablet by changing the pen technology that they were using (Wacom) in favor of (N-Trig) in order to get a more accurate and pressure sensitive pen functionality. They also added palm rejection (which should be a nobrainer) to the tablet so that you can write on the tablet without moving things around with the side of your hand or arm. They also added the ability to adjust the angle of the kickstand to virtually any angle that you want, as opposed to all of the previous Surface tablets which effectively had one angle or closed as options. This will make the Surface Pro 3 a lot more comfortable for users in general since people’s preferences for tablet angles vary greatly and so do their use case scenarios.

Last but not least, they’ve vastly improved the type cover (I haven’t tried it yet) and supposedly make it much more user friendly. I personally haven’t been sold on the Surface tablets primarily because of the keyboard, so if the new typecover is really a major improvement, there’s a good chance that a lot of people will go out and buy one after using it. Even so, Microsoft needs to ram the professional message home and make sure that people know that this tablet, which starts at $799, is going to be the tablet they want to get things done. We’ve also included a pricing table for all of the different models and accessories for the Surface Pro 3.

You can pre-order a Surface Pro 3 tonight at midnight EDT (9pm PDT) on Microsoft’s website (site isn’t live yet) and other select etailers. Starting June 20th, US and Canada customers can visit Microsoftstore.com, Microsoft retails stores and select third-party retailers (like Best Buy) to purchase Intel Core i5 Surface Pro 3 ($999 and up) and select accessories. Additional configurations will be made available during August and more accessories will come over the course of the following months.

By the end of August, Surface Pro 3 and select new accessories will become available for purchase in 26 additional markets, including Australia, Austria, Belgium, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Luxembourg, Malaysia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand and the United Kingdom.

The post Surface Pro 3 – Surface Gets Bigger and Better appeared first on VR World.

For those of you that missed Microsoft’s announcement of the Windows Phone 8.1 update, they said that the update would be rolling out over the course of the next few months across the world. However, the developer preview (basically accessible to anyone that’s interested) is available today. That includes a whole host of small improvements across the OS as well as the addition of Cortana. Windows Phone Central actually has a quick guide of what you actually need to do in order to get your hands on Windows Phone 8.1. The one important thing to note, however, is that only users with Windows Phone 8 and up devices will be able to upgrade to 8.1 and anyone with a Windows Phone 7.x version will not be able to upgrade and gain the new features of 8.1. Some of those features include the Cortana personal voice assistant, VPN connectivity, notification center, more user customization of the interface and an overall better-class OS.

Like we’ve written before, Microsoft certainly has gotten their act together and they appear to be working very hard to make sure that users are getting what they want from their smartphone while at the same time enticing users to switch to Windows Phone from Android or iOS. Currently, Microsoft is still struggling to bring over users that are already part of the Android and iOS ecosystem as most of their users are coming from their low-end devices which are usually people coming to Windows Phone from a ‘dumb phone’.

Microsoft is expanding their hardware partners and they’ve already shown that they’re spending lots of money on their software partners. Now, for them, it will merely be a matter of time until Windows 9 brings all of their platforms together under a single UI and ultimately allow for amazing cross-platform functionalities that utilize their OS’ strength and cloud platforms. Until then, it will be a game of catch up from Microsoft, a game that they’re currently working very hard to push for and honestly they’re making more progress in a much shorter period of time than Apple or Google did with their operating systems. I guess it is easier to make progress once your competitors have paved the way for you, but quality change isn’t easy no matter what what stage.

The post Windows Phone 8.1 Update Preview Live Today appeared first on VR World.

If you haven’t been following Microsoft lately, then you’re missing out on what could be one of the most significant changes of strategy I’ve seen in a long time. They have slowly been making baby steps towards reorganizing and reconsidering how they address mobile. I have been following Microsoft’s attitudes towards mobile since Windows Mobile 5.0 and even owned a fair amount of Windows-based devices over the course of that time. However, Microsoft made a lot of mistakes along the way and is finally making major changes to remedy them. And with the smartphone market being a virtual duopoly between Android and iOS it comes as no surprise that people are looking for something different.

At the same time, Microsoft is struggling to retain users in Windows while people start to move towards Android, iOS and ChromeOS-based devices. With their release of Windows 8, Microsoft actually alienated a lot of users because they ruined a fairly well received operating system in Windows 7 and tried to modernize it for touch, but made an insane amount of mistakes. Since then, Microsoft has released Windows 8.1 which has made some significant improvements and is continuing to do so by bringing back the start menu in the Windows 8.1 update which will also bring a bunch of other tweaks that will make Windows 8 more usable for users without touch. One of Microsoft’s biggest mistakes with Windows 8 was to assume that everyone would have touch and that application developers would immediately switch to the ‘Modern’ Metro UI that Windows 8 employs with tiles, many of these tweaks fix those mistakes. Some of those fixes include allowing boot to desktop, a start menu, Metro apps on the desktop taskbar, a persistent taskbar, mouse friendly menus, reduced system requirements and much more. Sure, its a bit late when you consider that Windows 9 is likely due next year, but that’s an entirely different conversation. Right now they need to focus on keeping people happy in the now and preparing for the future, which is exactly what they appear to be doing.

Microsoft’s purchase of Nokia also signifies Microsoft’s renewed focus on hardware as did their announcement about their expansion of hardware partners for Windows Phone, which was necessary to show that they wanted to enable more than just Nokia. Clearly Microsoft can sell their own branded devices as Google does successfully with Nexus and Android. One way that Microsoft followed up on their hardware commitments was by announcing that they would be making Windows free on any device that is 9″ or less, which means we could actually see a lot of 8.9″ Windows tablets relatively soon. But what this enables is Microsoft’s operating system to become a considered option for OEMs when building tablets and smartphones.

Microsoft’s new strategy is to monetize on their cloud software like Office, One Drive and One Note and to utilize their strengths in cloud computing to make their operating systems more attractive. If they continue on this trajectory, they could have a fully unified operating system across all platforms. Eventually, with Windows 9 we can expect to see essentially the same OS plus or minus a few features (based on platform) on Desktop, Tablet and Smartphone. Which is reinforced by Microsoft’s move to make app purchases in their store universally applicable across Windows Phone, Windows 8 and Xbox. This will not only encourage people to use Microsoft’s platform for the flexibility and cross-platform nature, but it will also encourage application developers to make applications that think in a cross-platform manner. That is in combination with their announcement of Cortana, which I would expect to see intelligently integrated into all of Microsoft’s operating systems and eventually into Windows 9. Cortana is going to be Microsoft’s next weapon to fight against Google and Apple to help create differentiation.

I really feel like Microsoft really has it together more than they ever have in their history since Bill Gates left his position as CEO. And to be honest, considering that Bill Gates left Microsoft as CEO when I was 10, it seems pretty fair to say that this is the best I’ve seen them since he stepped down as CEO. They finally understand what they need to do in order to be successful in competing with Google and Apple, and their strategies are solid. Only time will tell how quickly they will start to erode Apple and Google, especially when you consider they’ve successfully helped erode Blackberry’s share.

The post Microsoft's New Strategy – Clean Up Windows, Become Strong 3rd Competitor appeared first on VR World.

Order clockwise: Windows 1.0, 3.0, 95, NT 4.0, XP, Vista, 2000 and NT 3.1

Windows 1.0 finally entered production in September of 1985, and first system came from NEC, shipped right in November 1985. So, Windows is either 23 or 25 years old, but anyways, I wish to congratulate Microsoft on 25th birthday of the software platform that changed the world.

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Nvidia's Quadro CX is getting a twin brother...

This is also the reason why Quadro CX and the upcoming 4800/5800 line-up feature a model geared to 32-bit and a model geared towards 64-bit users. If you want all the latest and greatest that 64-bit world can offer you, you will go for the Quadro FX 5800. If you need broadest compatibility, you will go with the CX/4800, and the problem is solved.

Thus, CX/4800 will be nothing else but a souped up GTX260 cards with 1536 MB of memory, while the FX5800 will be that monster with 4GB of memory.

All in all, I have to agree with Tim Sweeney when he announced his disappointment with Microsoft Vista – we had the ideal chance to bring 64-bit operating system to life and get rid of this duality that only drives application engineers to the ground. I guess we’ll have to wait for Windows 7 to finally wave goodbye to graphics cards that can’t have 2GB of memory or more…

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Can this device put Blu-ray on a map as viable backup solution?

OWC Mercury Pro is external Blu-ray burner, but it features e-SATA port. Yep, you’ve read it correctly – it does come with FireWire 400 and 800, USB 2.0, but it also comes with e-SATA port, meaning you can burn 50GB of data at a speed of 1GB/min, instead of almost two hours of dwelling through USB connector. I own Sony’s BWU-100A in internal IDE and external USB version, and it is a drag burning 50GB for more than an hour. E-SATA enables burning at the maximum speed of SATA 1.0 spec, which is 150MB/s, so no more 40 MB/s through USB 2.0 (USB 2.0 can do 60MB/s? Yeah, right.), or FireWires which aren’t exactly… fiery.

E-SATA is the way to go, and these guys are offering this piece of hardware for 500 bucks. Given that my Sony cost over a grand a while ago, this is a fair value. And yes, this finally brings decent Blu-ray drive to Mac systems, which are traditionally lagging behind PC in terms of hardware connectivity. Since St. Jobs finally added e-SATA connector on latest series of MacBooks, you can get this device and have decent storage capabilities.

The device supports reading HD-DVD media as well… so time to back up my 100+ HD DVD movies is here. And with a help of Badaboom Pro beta, I might even put the GTX280 to a good use, instead of waiting for weeks on a CPU.There are two models available (http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/optical-drives/), one without Roxio Toast 9 Titanium (MacOS X), and one with. The difference is 80 bucks, so have phun.

If OWC dares to send the device for a review, they can be sure I’ll check their claims of 1GB/min write speed.

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imageSynth 2 inside Photoshop (Mac version)

Maker claims that imageSynth brings 10x speed increase over previous version, but we wonder how that could be if the company is not supporting GPU acceleration. Well…the secret lies in the fact that Luxology works hard on optimizing threading on all the CPUs, so a quad-core can be brought to perform four times faster than a single core one. Luxology was always known for great scaling (see Modo), and it is good to see imageSynth receiving the same linear scalability as Modo.
This is “the” utility to create textures. Did I mention that this application works on both Mac OS X and Windows?

Nuff’ said.

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