If you want to buy a new PC, just wait until the end of the year - Windows 8 is coming!
Windows 8 tablets and PCs to arrive for holiday season; Microsoft will ditch the Aero glass look in favor of Metro interface and a minimalist design.
A Microsoft official has confirmed that numerous hardware makers will bring Windows 8 PCs and tablets to market by year's end, meaning they should be on store shelves in time to go head to head with Apple iPads and Google Android-powered slates during the 2012 holiday season.
Speculation has been building for weeks, if not months, that Windows 8 systems would be available this year. And some PC builders, including Hewlett-Packard, have publicly talked about plans for Windows 8 machines in the fourth quarter. But Harris' remarks may be the first time a Microsoft exec has actually confirmed a 2012 launch window in an officially sanctioned communication. (A Microsoft representative would not confirm this, but was unable to point to any previous instances.) Big questions still remain, however, about the styles, brand names, and prices that the first Windows 8 systems will carry.
"Windows 8 imagines the convergence of two kinds of devices: a laptop and a tablet," said Jensen Harris, director of program management for Microsoft's user experience team, in a blog post. "Great hardware like this doesn't quite exist yet, but it will be commonly available later this year."
Speculation has been building for weeks, if not months, that Windows 8 systems would be available this year. And some PC builders, including Hewlett-Packard, have publicly talked about plans for Windows 8 machines in the fourth quarter. But Harris' remarks may be the first time a Microsoft exec has actually confirmed a 2012 launch window in an officially sanctioned communication. (A Microsoft representative would not confirm this, but was unable to point to any previous instances.) Big questions still remain, however, about the styles, brand names, and prices that the first Windows 8 systems will carry.
One
thing is for certain--they will be far different from anything anyone has
previously seen from Microsoft. In his lengthy blog post, Harris noted that
Windows 8 is designed from the ground up for a computing world that would be
unrecognizable to early PC users schooled on Windows 3.0 and earlier versions.
[
Get expert guidance on Microsoft Windows 8. InformationWeek's Windows 8 Super Guide rounds up the key
news, analysis, and reviews that you need. ]
By the
time Microsoft started to design Windows 8 in 2009, "people increasingly
were doing different kinds of things with the time they spent on their PCs. And
they had started to expect PCs to behave more like their phones: connected,
mobile, long battery life, centered on people and activities, and keeping up
with what's going on," said Harris.
That
implied a number of changes for Windows 8. The most obvious is that all Windows
8 systems, whether desktops, laptops, or tablets, will by default feature a
Start screen borrowed from the Windows Phone 7 interface.
The Start screen features Live Tiles that correspond to and display real-time
information from, apps. "Your Start screen will become a personalized
dashboard of everything you care about," said Harris. "Tiles are the
future and fit the way people look for fresh content in apps and websites ...
Icons are yesterday's way of representing apps."
Windows
8 systems that run Intel or AMD processors, as opposed to ARM-based Windows 8 RT tablets,
will give users the option to work in the classic Windows desktop environment,
but it too has undergone some significant tweaks. The Aero glass interface,
which debuted with Windows Vista and featured a 3-D look and feel, is gone.
"This style of simulating faux-realistic materials (such as glass or
aluminum) on the screen looks dated and cheesy now," said Harris.
Instead,
the Windows desktop will get a minimalist treatment. Application and file
windows will show less chrome, and will display white borders by default.
Numerous other changes are also on tap.
No comments:
Post a Comment