The Future of Windows: Metro UI
Earlier today, Steven Sinofsky (the president of the Windows Division at Microsoft, as we all know by now) has posted another entry on the “Building Windows 8” blog, centered on the UI of Windows 8 and how the new Metro experience could affect consumers. An important goal for Windows 8
Windows 8: Landscape and Portrait Support
Windows 8 will be Microsoft’s complete reimagination of the PC, and Microsoft is hard at work optimizing it for full blown desktop business powerhouses to SoC devices. Microsoft has been especially focused on the immersive, Metro UI tablet experience it provides. An important part of that is how Windows 8 will react to portrait and landscape modes – we’ve never seen this functionality displayed before in a demo of Windows 8.
Steven Sinofsky has recently updated the “Building Windows 8″ blog with a new entry centered on designing Windows 8 around any way a person holds their tablet – vertically or horizontally. “One of the best things about a tablet is that you can hold it in your hands. It’s personal…so when planning Windows 8 we wanted to make sure that the experience could support any orientation that the device could be held in.” He writes. Sinofsky explains the four principles that the Windows 8 Division followed when optimizing for landscape and portrait modes:
- The experience tailors itself for all form factors: small screens, wide screens, laptops and desktops.
- The experience takes advantage of widescreen formats for multi-tasking and for full-screen video.
- The device can be held and interacted with in the way that is most comfortable.
- Developers have the opportunity to create one app that runs on all views and orientations across form factors with minimal effort.
After some research was done on the reasons people rotate their tablets at all, the team formed four goals for Windows 8:
- You can easily rotate your tablet to best suit your task or ergonomic posture.
- Rotation in Windows is fast and fluid.
- Windows rotates predictably across the system and apps – keeping the user in control.
- Developers can easily build high quality and intentional landscape and portrait layouts, depending on the experiences they want to enable.
Microsoft’s upcoming version of Windows the Windows 8 final release might take some time for release but the new Activation Process for the newly designed Opearting System is already creating panic situation for the ODM’s and OEM’s .
The new verification system for Windows 8 – OA 3.0 is incurring additional costs for ODMs and which would eventually result in ODM’s charging a heavy manufacturing charges to the Brand vendors for the same.
For the OA 3.0, Microsoft plans to pre-install the Windows 8 operating system into PC’s BIOS and will have consumers key-in the authorization key to activate the software through an Internet connection and will completely abandon its previous method of using a COA label,according to Digitimes sources Report.
This new method would require additional time for Windows 8 installation as compared to the previous method and would cost more since microsoft will charge fees as per number of installations and as the technicians would also require to undergo training.
Microsoft is taking these measures keeping in mind the crackers agenda towards cracking new upcoming operating systems,as the history of previous Windows releases suggests it was prone to the crackers attacks bypassing the Microsoft’s OEM activation certificates.
Windows 8 On Ultrabooks Will Reach Market Next Year: Intel
According to a statement given by an Intel executive earlier this week, Windows 8 will ship on Ultrabooks next year. Intel is apaprently looking at the upcoming OS to provide the necessary leverage for the devices to properly take off in the market.
Tom Kilroy, Senior vice president and general manager of worldwide sales for Intel touched on the issue on Tuesday during an interview held at the company’s third quarter earnings call. Kilroy said that there can be as many as 60 Ultrabook designs available in the market by next year. He also said that “11 or so” models will be available as early as this year. Those won’t have Windows 8 of course but Intel is probably looking at an upgrade deal once Windows 8 is officially out. According to Kilroy, Windows 8 could really ramp up sales for Ultrabooks next year during the back-to-school and holiday seasons. He said the excitement around Windows 8 justifies this kind of an expectation from the upcoming platform.
After the Developer Preview build released last month, the beta release is expected to come by the end of this month or early next month. Intel’s introduction of the Ultrabook brand was made in the middle of this year and it is geared towards regenerating interest in PC’s in the face of waning consumer interest. All attention is now leaking away in to the tablet category, which is one of the fastest growing and most happening segments in the industry.
Ultrabooks have already been announced by major market players such as Asus, Acer, Toshiba and Lenovo. These models are based on Intel’s core processors that are built on the Sandy Bridge architecture. These portable devices have a passing resemble Apple’s MacBook Air in many aspect but are actually thinner in most cases. However, the problem that keep major market adoption of the Air also plagues the Ultrabooks — price. The ultrabooks currently sell at a price point of about $1000, which is deemed as too expensive by most consumers who are in the market for something portable and sleek. Given the state of the global economies and the price-sensitive state of the consumers, Intel said that it is still developing the Ultrabook standard and the prices might go down by the time next year comes around.
Intel Chief Paul Otellini said at the earnings call that prices might go down to as low as $699 by the time the holiday season kicks in next year, exactly one year from now. The depreciation of SSD’s and touchscreens are going to be major contributing factors in this price drop, according to Otellini. He also said that Intel has traditionally benefitted from Windows releases and they are expecting the same to happen this time around. Additionally, Kilroy suggested that Intel’s enterprise business is still being helped by the continued adoption of Windows 7 in that segment and the resultant laptop sales.
Otellini also commented about competition from ARM, saying that Intel can differentiate itself by providing legacy support. Additionally, ARM will only be able to run the Metro side of Windows 8, whilst x86 gets the full benefit of Metro as well as traditional desktop where heavy professional applications like Photoshop, Avid and Cubase can run
Tom Kilroy, Senior vice president and general manager of worldwide sales for Intel touched on the issue on Tuesday during an interview held at the company’s third quarter earnings call. Kilroy said that there can be as many as 60 Ultrabook designs available in the market by next year. He also said that “11 or so” models will be available as early as this year. Those won’t have Windows 8 of course but Intel is probably looking at an upgrade deal once Windows 8 is officially out. According to Kilroy, Windows 8 could really ramp up sales for Ultrabooks next year during the back-to-school and holiday seasons. He said the excitement around Windows 8 justifies this kind of an expectation from the upcoming platform.
After the Developer Preview build released last month, the beta release is expected to come by the end of this month or early next month. Intel’s introduction of the Ultrabook brand was made in the middle of this year and it is geared towards regenerating interest in PC’s in the face of waning consumer interest. All attention is now leaking away in to the tablet category, which is one of the fastest growing and most happening segments in the industry.
Ultrabooks have already been announced by major market players such as Asus, Acer, Toshiba and Lenovo. These models are based on Intel’s core processors that are built on the Sandy Bridge architecture. These portable devices have a passing resemble Apple’s MacBook Air in many aspect but are actually thinner in most cases. However, the problem that keep major market adoption of the Air also plagues the Ultrabooks — price. The ultrabooks currently sell at a price point of about $1000, which is deemed as too expensive by most consumers who are in the market for something portable and sleek. Given the state of the global economies and the price-sensitive state of the consumers, Intel said that it is still developing the Ultrabook standard and the prices might go down by the time next year comes around.
Intel Chief Paul Otellini said at the earnings call that prices might go down to as low as $699 by the time the holiday season kicks in next year, exactly one year from now. The depreciation of SSD’s and touchscreens are going to be major contributing factors in this price drop, according to Otellini. He also said that Intel has traditionally benefitted from Windows releases and they are expecting the same to happen this time around. Additionally, Kilroy suggested that Intel’s enterprise business is still being helped by the continued adoption of Windows 7 in that segment and the resultant laptop sales.
Otellini also commented about competition from ARM, saying that Intel can differentiate itself by providing legacy support. Additionally, ARM will only be able to run the Metro side of Windows 8, whilst x86 gets the full benefit of Metro as well as traditional desktop where heavy professional applications like Photoshop, Avid and Cubase can run
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