Here's Everything You Need To Know About Microsoft's Big Windows 8 Announcements This Week

Business Insider ^ | 06/18/2012 | Steve Kovach

[SeekAndFind]

This is going to be a huge week for Microsoft. Today, the company is expected to announce its first tablet, which will be designed to compete with the iPad.

On Wednesday, we're expecting Microsoft to give us details on the next major version of its Windows Phone operating, which will likely be very similar to Windows 8.

Here's you need to know:

* Microsoft will announce its own tablet. This will be the first time Microsoft builds the hardware and software for a tablet.

* The tablet will run a special version of Windows 8 called "Windows RT." Windows RT is designed to run on devices with ARM processors. Those are the same types of processors found in smartphone and tablets (like the iPad) today. Windows RT won't be able today's traditional Windows apps, only apps from the Windows 8 app store.

* Microsoft may also announce a tablet that runs the full version of Windows 8. According to All Things D, there's a possibility Microsoft will announce a tablet powered by processors that allow it to run the full version of Windows 8. That means you'll be able to access the Windows 7-like desktop mode and run older Windows apps.

* There's a rumor Barnes & Noble will be involved (but don't believe it). According to TechCrunch, Microsoft's tablet announcement will be for a Nook-branded device made by Barnes & Noble. Microsoft recently invested $300 million in Barnes & Noble, so it's possible. However, Barnes & Noble shot down the Nook rumor.

* Microsoft may show off the next version of Windows Phone on Wednesday.

[arasina]

Nook e-readers

LOL...sorry...can't help myself...but Nook e-readers is somewhat of a double entendre.

[mkleesma]

Although I detest the Metro color scheme (hope they allow it to be customized), I am SLOWLY warming to the Metro App screen...but it’s been long coming - many a night spent cursing at the screen, trying to figure out how to open and close apps.
They really should place a tile on the Metro screen with a how-to video entitled WATCHMEFIRST, or something like that.

[EyeGuy]

Any predictions, based on past tech timelines, when Windows Phone 8 will be available at the consumer level?

I’m limping by with the electronic equivalent of two tin cans and a string right now....

[martin_fierro]

Here's Everything You Need To Know About Microsoft's Big Windows 8 Announcements This Week

[martin_fierro]

Think of it as just one great, big blue tile.

[Buckeye McFrog]

Message to Microsoft: 80% of us are NOT habitual upgraders (witness the 19 inch TV with the rotary tuning dials which sat in my living room until guys like you forced my hand by taking television digital).

I would add “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it”, except this IS Microsoft we’re talking about.

[Blueflag]

SO, if the content on the tiles is dynamic, that means CONSTANT data traffic, LOTS of apps running: short battery life and a heavy duty data plan commitment/WiFi discipline.

AND, it’s MS.

Gotta love my Samsung Android devices.

[Secret Agent Man]

Start Barfing.

Bye Windows. I’ll stay with everything up to 7. That, and I don’t want to be forced to log in to email just to use an operating system. Screw that.

[econjack]

Intel makes chipsets and processors - yet will NEVER put them in a box and sell that box to the consumer.

If I were them, I wouldn't either because they would likely come close to the 2/3 market share. I think things get a little fuzzy when one of their chips is second-sourced, like AMD has with many of the Intel chips. While AMD licenses the microcode from Intel, Justice might argue that Intel still benefits from AMD's sales and, therefore, AMD's market share should be counted in some way as part of Intel's, too. Also, Intel's strength is in chip development and likely doesn't want the thin margins found in the box maker's market.

[kidd]

iZune

[Noumenon]

I think Windows 8 is going to be train wreck. I can’t see business adopting this without undergoing some painful reworking of procedures and training.

This. Win 8 is cartoonish crap. In a word: "non-professional"

[adorno]

This. Win 8 is cartoonish crap. In a word: "non-professional"

Disagree. And, I'm a tech professional.

Win 8 is different, but, not drastically different. It just "looks different", with the underlying code, and most of the applications remaining intact.

It just takes a little getting used to, but, once you do, it'll be hard going back to the older UI for Windows. Windows 8 actually simplifies things, believe it or not.

[cardinal4]

I have 7 on my laptop and hate it. It is a resource hog that uses twice what XP used. Having said that, there was room for improvement, but overall XP has been the least trouble for me.

And I agree with the other poster who said this is the nudge to tablets..

[steve86]

You sound like a “progressive”. A Microsoft-funded progressive.

[Still Thinking]

Lame on a tablet, even lamer on a desktop. Apparently they’ve run fresh out of good ideas and this is the crap we’re stuck with. Sorry, if that’s the best you can do, I ain’t buying it. Do they hand you a $50 check with every copy, uh, “sold”?

[JOAT]

From the look of it, I’m assuming ‘Metro’ refers to the metro-sexuals who will adopt this?

[Mr Rogers]

If Microsoft would release an updated OP, “XP 2012”, and it was Windows XP with updates to drivers and any security holes, I’d bet on HUGE sales.

I know I’d buy it in a heartbeat. I’d pay well over the Windows 7 or 8 price...

[adorno]

You sound like a “progressive”. A Microsoft-funded progressive.

So, what system or OS should I be supporting or liking, in order to sound like a conservative or a republican?

You don't sound like a conservative. You sound like an idiot.

I had no idea that, having a preference for an OS or a tech option, that one could determine the political leaning of a person. When it comes to technical matters, and as a professional, I tend to go with what works, and that includes many different companies and software.

If I liked any automobile from GM, would that make me a communist?

I'd be willing to bet that, I'm a lot more conservative than you, and a lot smarter too, as witnessed by your post above.

[adorno]

From the look of it, I’m assuming ‘Metro’ refers to the metro-sexuals who will adopt this?

I suppose that, anybody that lives in a "metro"polis, is also a metrosexual, by your extended definition?

In due time, perhaps 2 or 3 years, the 600 million people that will have moved on to the "metro" interface, will also have become metrosexuals. Is that about right?

Some FR members, such as you, aren't really using their heads. You're probably a regular on the DU, and Huffpo, and MoveOn, with that kind of logic, which is no logic at all.

[zeugma]

You sound like a “progressive”. A Microsoft-funded progressive.

---

So, what system or OS should I be supporting or liking, in order to sound like a conservative or a republican?

You don't sound like a conservative. You sound like an idiot.

This is why we should all strive to keep the name-calling out of these tech threads. Once it starts, it rarely gets better.

We need to remember that it is always better to comment on the tech itself, rather than make generalizations about the users of said tech.

I could say that the new interface appears to me to be rather infantile. I wouldn't say that only infantile people would use it. Flame the tech, not the user.