MICROSOFT TO LAUNCH WINDOWS 8 APP STORE

Microsoft recently revealed a number of details on its Windows 8 Windows Store, an application storefront that will launch in February in tandem with Windows 8 Beta. Microsoft corporate vice president Antoine Leblond explained that developers will receive 80% of all revenues from applications sold after earning $25,000 in revenue, before which developers will receive a 70% cut. Apple, by contrast, offers developers 70% of app revenues. Microsoft is also taking a different approach to subscription models. The Daily Telegraph, for example, will offer a subscription option to its daily newspaper but will use its own existing authentication system to allow its users to log-in. Apple and Google typically force developers to use proprietary subscription systems.

“Lots of apps already have business models that depend on a particular transaction provider or that benefit from ties to other lines of business,” Ted Dworkin, partner program manager for Windows 8 Windows Store explained in a blog post. “Customers of those businesses want the trust and efficiency of a familiar, trusted transaction experience.” Developers can also choose “whatever ad platform they prefer, whether it’s from Microsoft or someone else.” Microsoft recently published its app certification policies and said that its goal is to be transparent by using “plain language” in its approval process and that it will provide feedback to developers whose apps are rejected.The Windows 8 Windows Store will have a global reach, allowing software companies to publish applications in 231 markets and in more than 100 languages.

RUMOR: WINDOWS 8 PUBLIC BETA TO LAUNCH LATE FEBRUARY

Sources close to Microsoft have revealed that the public Windows 8 beta will be released in late February of 2012.

The timing of the public beta launch has been the subject of much debate in the technology community. It is expected that Windows 8 will be released in 2012, but the exact expected date for the completion and shipping of the forthcoming operating system remains undisclosed. However, knowing the release time frame of the beta itself allows us to better project when the work should be done on the Windows 8 project.

Given the milestones for Windows 7 release to manufacturers, it is estimated that Microsoft will release Windows 8 to manufacturers around August, which give OEMs plenty of time to press DVDs and get the new OS onto hardware and in the supply pipe for the 2012 holiday shopping season.

RUMOR: SILVERLIGHT 5 MAY BE LAST AND ONLY WORK ON INTERNET EXPLORER

Could Microsoft's Silverlight soon be following in the footsteps of Adobe's Flash Player for mobile devices? That's still unconfirmed by Microsoft, but ZDNet's Mary-Jo Foley is reporting that she's heard from several sources who say that Silverlight 5 will be the last version of the rich media platform, and that it's not clear how long it will be supported after it's released later this month. What's more, another source tells Foley that the final version of Silverlight 5 itself might only work with Internet Explorer on Windows, as opposed to earlier versions that have also supported Chrome and Safari on both OS X and Windows. As ZDNet notes, however, the end of Silverlight wouldn't necessarily mean an end to all of the work Microsoft has done on Silverlight -- we've already heard about a Silverlight-like app framework that's coming in a future Xbox update, and many of the same principles can also be found in the Metro-style apps for Windows 8.

HP DIVING INTO WINDOWS 8 TABLET POOL

During the company’s third-quarter earnings call on Thursday, HP CEO Meg Whitman confirmed that her company will launch tablets powered by Microsoft’s Windows 8 operating system next year. “One of my observations is that HP tries to do a lot of things,” Whitman explained. “And I am a big believer in doing a small number of things really, really well — set them up, knock them down, set them up, knock them down.” Whitman’s comments are in-line with recent rumors that suggested that Dell and HP would both launch Windows 8 tablets during the third quarter next year.

WINDOWS 8 DITCHES BIOS BOOT FOR UEFI

Microsoft has decided to ditch the old BIOS boot by beautifying the whole experience with a graphical menu. Windows 8 will replace the standard fugly BIOS system with a Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) -- giving users a high resolution logo and a graphical menu to gaze upon while powering up their PC. Besides just looking better, the menu lets you boot to a different disc, OS or USB drive using pretty pictures and words as prompts.

MICROSOFT SCRAPS FLASH, WINDOWS 8 METRO IE10 TO BE "PLUG-IN FREE"

The tablet-optimized Metro version of Internet Explorer 10 in Microsoft's upcoming Windows 8 will be a "plug-in free experience," as the company follows Apple's lead in abandoning Adobe Flash in favor of HTML5 on tablets.

Microsoft revealed Wednesday on its Building Windows 8 blog that the Metro version of IE10 will drop plug-ins because the experience that they provide is "not a good match with Metro style browsing and the modern HTML5 web." The company will, however, continue to support Adobe Flash and other plug-ins on the desktop version of Internet Explorer 10.

IE team lead Dean Hachamovitch wrote in the post that going plug-in free in for the Metro version of IE10 "improves battery life as well as security, reliability and privacy for consumers." Hachamovitch further stated "Plug-ins were important early on in the web’s history. But the web has come a long way since then with HTML5. Providing compatibility with legacy plug-in technologies would detract from, rather than improve, the consumer experience of browsing in the Metro style UI,.

MICROSOFT WINDOWS 8 LAUNCHING TO DEVELOPERS THIS WEEK

Microsoft announced that it is releasing a developer preview of its upcoming next-generation operating system, currently named “Windows 8,” during its BUILD conference in Los Angeles on Tuesday. President of Windows and Windows Live Division Steve Sinofsky took the stage during BUILD’s opening keynote and discussed several of the operating system’s new features. “We reimagined Windows,” he said. “From the chipset to the user experience, Windows 8 brings a new range of capabilities without compromise.” As Microsoft has already revealed, Windows 8 will offer a new “Metro style” user interface that is built to take advantage of touch input but works just as well with a keyboard and mouse. Internet Explorer 10 will also offer full support for touch browsing, and Sinofsky hinted that even desktop-sized Windows 8 computers will largely take advantage of touchscreen monitors. Developers will be able to create Metro style applications that will fill the entire screen, too. Microsoft said the next-generation of Windows 8 hardware will turn on instantly and will be capable of running all day on a single charge. The OS is designed to run on devices ranging from a 10-inch tablet to a large desktop, and developers will have access to Windows 8 later this week.

Demo of Windows 8 by WinRumors:



Full Press Release:

Microsoft Reimagines Windows, Presents Windows 8 Developer Preview

BUILD conference attendees and developers get first access to new operating system.

LOS ANGELES — Sept. 13, 2011 — Today at its developer-focused BUILD conference, Microsoft Corp. showcased a detailed preview of the next major release of Windows, code-named “Windows 8.” The company also detailed new tools for developers to help write applications for more than 1 billion people around the world who use Windows every day.

“We reimagined Windows,” said Steven Sinofsky, president of the Windows and Windows Live Division at Microsoft, in his keynote address to the thousands of developers in attendance. “From the chipset to the user experience, Windows 8 brings a new range of capabilities without compromise.”

The company also highlighted a variety of new features in Windows 8, including the following:

Touch-First User Interface

• Metro style. Windows 8 introduces a new Metro style interface built for touch, which shows information important to you, embodies simplicity and gives you control. The Metro style UI is equally at home with a mouse and keyboard as well.
• Touch-first browsing, not just browsing on a touch device. Providing a fast and fluid touch-browsing experience, Internet Explorer 10 puts sites at the center on new Windows 8 devices.
More Ways to Engage With Powerful, Connected Apps

• Powered by apps. Metro style apps built for Windows 8 are the focal point of your experience, filling your entire screen so there are no distractions.
• Apps can work together. Apps communicate with each other in Windows 8. For example, you can easily select and email photos from different places, such as Facebook, Flickr or on your hard drive.
• Your experience syncs across your devices. Live roams all the content from the cloud services you use most — photos, email, calendar and contacts — keeping them up-to-date on your devices. With SkyDrive, you can access your files, photos and documents from virtually anywhere with any browser or with Metro style apps in Windows 8.
Enhanced Fundamentals

• The best of Windows 7, only better. Windows 8 is built on the rock-solid foundation of Windows 7, delivering improvements in performance, security, privacy and system reliability. Windows 8 reduces the memory footprint needed — even on the lowest-end hardware — leaving more room for your apps.
• Preserving power-user favorites and making them better. For those who push the limits of their PC, Windows 8 features an enhanced Task Manager and Windows Explorer and new, flexible options for multimonitor setups.
New Developer Opportunities

• Windows Store. The Windows Store will allow developers to sell their apps anywhere Windows is sold worldwide, whether they’re creating new games or familiar productivity tools.
• Build using more languages. Windows 8 lets you leverage your existing skills and code assets to create great experiences using the programming language you prefer.
• Rich hardware integration leads to richer experiences — particularly for games. DirectX 11 gaming power underlies Windows 8, allowing the easy creation of full-screen games with smooth, flicker-free action.
New Generation of Hardware

• One Windows — many shapes and sizes. Support for ARM-based chipsets, x86 (as well as x32 and x64) devices, touch and sensors means Windows 8 works beautifully across a spectrum of devices, from 10-inch tablets and laptops to all-in-ones with 27-inch high-definition screens.
• Always connected. With Windows 8, new ultrathin PCs and tablets turn on instantly, run all day on a single charge and stay connected to the Internet so your PC is ready when you are. Next-generation system on a chip (SoC) support will also enable greatly extended standby and low-power states.
• Tap the full power of your PC. Windows 8 runs on PCs and is compatible with the devices and programs you use today on Windows 7, without compromise, to deliver the performance you expect of a PC.
Developers will be able to download the Windows Developer Preview via the new Windows Dev Center later this week. Webcasts of sessions will be posted on the BUILD site as well.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Some information relates to a prerelease product, which may be substantially modified before it’s commercially released. Microsoft makes no warranties, express or implied, with respect to the information provided here.

MICROSOFT SHOWS OFF INCREDIBLE SHORT BOOT TIME IN WINDOWS 8

Microsoft's next-gen desktop OS will see a hugely improved boot time thanks to a clever technique. Rather than closing both the user session and the kernel session like in a traditional shutdown, Windows 8 will preserve the kernel session on the disk, thus creating a "hiberfile" that's much smaller than that of the usual Windows hibernation. The result is an amazingly fast system bootup, even with the battery removed as shown in the video, that claims to be 30 to 70 percent faster than most systems tested by Microsoft.

CONFIRMED, MEDIA CENTER WILL BE IN WINDOWS 8

Steven Sinofsky, the President of the Windows Division has confirmed in a blog post that Media Center will return for yet another go 'round in Windows 8. There's no word on any possible changes, only that the company has "work to do" concerning the quality and compatibility of add-ins. Wondering why it hasn't been in some pre-release builds? Between the potential for multiple SKUs (no details until closer to release, but it seems like you'll be looking for an Ultimate pack or something similar again to get everything) and simple engineering decisions as features are added and removed that's just the way it is. Another factor is that WMC isn't exactly mass market, as he cites stats indicating only 6 percent of Windows 7 users launched the app in July, with over half of those sessions lasting less than a couple of minutes. Meanwhile, IE apparently pops up on 88 percent of Windows 7 desktops.

RUMOR: WINDOWS 8 RTM SLATED FOR APRIL 2012

Earlier rumors placed the release to manufacturers (RTM) of Microsoft's Windows 8 OS as Q2/Q3 2012, but new sources are saying that timeline has moved up and the release will include Windows 8 x86, ARM/SoC and Server all at the same time.

Sources are saying Microsoft will release the RTM in April 2012 with a beta (not pre-beta) coming around the time of Build in mid-September. If this turns out to be true, expect the release candidate in early January.

We do know from various leaks the Windows 8 team has finished milestone 3 and is well on their way to the next one. We also know from previous Office and Windows disclosure patterns that if/when the team does offer a target delivery date, there will likely be several months of padding built in to make sure there will be no publicly measurable slippage. As a result, I’m betting that summer 2012 RTM target we originally heard about might have included that padding, giving more credence to a real internal April 2012 RTM date.

RUMOR: WINDOWS 8 RELEASE DATE AUTUMN 2012

Microsoft’s Windows 8 was just revealed recently with a demo of the tablet-friendly interface at the D9 conference and then some actual hardware prototypes shown at Computex 2011. Future Windows desktops, notebooks, and tablets will all be running Windows 8.

Microsoft VP, Dan’l Lewin, was speaking at the startup LAUNCH event at the Microsoft Silicon Valley campus when he hinted at the Windows 8 timeline. He suggested that Windows 8 will be in the market 12 months after the initial beta.

“We’ve made the point about having a developer conference later this year,” said Lewin. “Then typically we enter a beta phase, and then in 12 months we’re in the market, so let’s make that assumption.”

With this information, it appears Windows 8 will launch sometime in the fall of 2012.

RUMOR: MICROSOFT TO LAUNCH OWN TABLET NEXT YEAR

According to a report on Wednesday from DigiTimes, Microsoft is hard at work on a tablet. The Redmond-based software company is said to be cooperating with Texas Instruments and multiple Taiwan-based manufacturers in an attempt to push a Microsoft-branded Windows 8 tablet out to market by the end of 2012.

Outside of the Xbox gaming console, Microsoft has not had much luck with consumer hardware in recent years. The company’s line of Zune media players were never widely adopted and its KIN line of messaging phones were cancelled shortly after their release before later returning to Verizon shelves with barely any fanfare. DigiTimes’ sources suggest those failures won’t stop the company from trying, however, and the buzzing tablet space is an obvious next point of attack.

BALLMER'S WINDOWS 8 RELEASE DATE INCORRECT SAYS MICROSOFT

During a press event in Japan recently, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said that Windows 8 would would launch sometime next year. His firm says otherwise. “It appears there was a misstatement,” a Microsoft spokesperson recently said in a statement. “We are eagerly awaiting the next generation of Windows 7 hardware that will be available in the coming fiscal year. To date, we have yet to formally announce any timing or naming for the next version of Windows.”

Despite Microsoft’s statement, we could still hear more about Windows 8 much sooner — even if it doesn’t actually launch in the coming fiscal year. “As we progress through the year, you ought to expect to hear a lot about Windows 8,” Ballmer said in his speech. “Windows 8 slates, tablets, PCs, a variety of different form factors.’ According to ZDNet, we could see an early build of the operating system as soon as the D9 conference, which begins on June 31st.

BALLMER OUTS WINDOWS 8, SAYS COMING NEXT YEAR

During remarks at a developers conference in Japan on May 23, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer referred to the next version of Windows as “Windows 8.” He also said the next generation of Windows systems will be out next year.

According to Microsoft's transcripts of the conference:

“We’re obviously hard at work on the next version of Windows. Windows 7 PCs will sell over 350 million units this year. We’ve done a lot in Windows 7 to improve customer satisfaction. We have a brand new user interface. We’ve added touch, and ink, and speech. And yet, as we look forward to the next generation of Windows systems, which will come out next year, there’s a whole lot more coming. As we progress through the year, you ought to expect to hear a lot about Windows 8. Windows 8 slates, tablets, PCs, a variety of different form factors.”

To those not following Microsoft’s Windows saga closely, this may seem like a “so what” moment. But Microsoft execs have been studiously avoiding any references to the timing or naming of the next version of Windows to try to keep the specifics of the product as quiet as possible. Microsoft’s top brass has been avoiding calling the next version of Windows “Windows 8″ publicly, preferring instead to call it “Windows Next.” (Internally, a number of Microsoft job postings and leaked slides have referenced “Windows 8,” however.”

WINDOWS 8 TO FEATURE USB PORTABLE WORKSPACES

There are endless flavors of "Linux on a stick," tasty downloadable versions of that OS which run from removable storage and let you trial the OS without dedicating any of your partitions to the cause. There have been ways of making this work with Windows, too, but now Microsoft is getting into the game properly. A leaked version of Windows 8 contains a feature called Portable Workspaces, which enables you to take a 16GB (or greater) external storage device and dump a bootable, runnable copy of Win 8 on there. It remains to be seen just how many copies one could create, and whether they ever expire or, indeed, whether they can themselves be copied onto an HDD like a ghost image, but it's easy to see this as a boon for support personnel.

LEAKED: WINDOWS 8 SCREENSHOTS SHOW RIBBON INTERFACE

As expected, now that a preview build of Windows 8 is available to a privileged few, so there is an opportunity for someone to leak a few screenshots of what the next Windows operating system looks like.

It didn’t take long, as a couple of screenshots have already appeared on the web. And we already can see a surprise addition to the interface. Remember the ribbon user interface that appeared in Microsoft Office that users either loved or hated? Well, it seems as though Microsoft has integrated the same ribbon interface directly into Windows 8.

We only have a single screenshot and some ribbon menu captures to base this on at the moment, but it looks as though any menu on a system window, e.g. Windows Explorer, will use the ribbon instead of the more typical drop-down menu system of old. As with Microsoft Office, and WordPad and Paint in Windows 7, you are either going to see this as a plus or minus.

The ribbon interface does present the options per menu item in a very clear way and can be dynamic. However, it also takes up a lot of screen space and arguably makes sub-options less clear or more difficult to implement well with structure.

As this is only a beta it could just be an experiment and the ribbon may get pulled before release. But Microsoft has a lot of experience with this system from using it in Office, so it seems unlikely they’d need to experiment with it further before making a final decision on its use. This may well be a final feature we need to get used to when upgrading to Windows 8.

WINDOWS 8 PREVIEW RELEASED TO MANUFACTURERS

According to several forum posters over at mydigitallife, Microsoft has started issuing Windows 8 to computer manufacturers via its Connect internal testing system — also known as the “Windows 8 and Server vNext Pre-Release Program.” Reportedly, Windows 8 sports a “fully dynamic” 3D user interface, which allows the operating system to adapt to user habits and make OS interactions more efficient. A rumored “fast hibernation” feature will put the system in a saved-state in 3 to 6 seconds, and Windows 8 may also include a new “Mosh” tile-based user interface (no doubt inspired by the MetroUI found on Windows Phone handsets).

Windows 8 beta could land as soon as next September, but rumors from earlier this month suggest that Microsoft could start showing off a Windows 8 tablet as early as June. Business Insider reports that the Redmond company is taking a “more Apple-like approach to interface design” with this iteration of Windows. Microsoft has yet to publicly announce when it will demo all of the new features of Windows 8.

RUMOR: MICROSOFT TO DEMO WINDOWS 8 TABLET IN JUNE

According to an unconfirmed report on Monday, Microsoft has plans to give the world its first glimpse of Windows 8 for tablets this summer. Citing an unnamed source at Microsoft,Business Insider claims the company hopes to at least show off the new operating system’s design by the end of its fiscal year in June.

The report says Microsoft will be “taking a more Apple-like approach to interface deign this time around,” and will also use concepts from Windows Phone 7′s Metro UI. Generally, the Metro UI design couldn’t be any further from Apple’s approach with iOS or OS X, so it will be interesting to see which elements of each philosophy make it to Windows 8 if this report is accurate. Microsoft has not given any specific timeline as far as when it might publicly demo Windows 8.

MICROSOFT ON VERGE OF WINDOWS 8 MILESTONE 2 BUILD

Microsoft is on the verge of finishing its second Milestone build of Windows 8, WinRumorshas learned. The software giant has compiled a number of Milestone 2 builds recently ready for the final M2 build that will be distributed internally and externally to the company’s closest partners for testing.

The software giant finalized the M1 build in early December after four months of development. M2 builds began in early December and are expected to be finalized in the next two weeks. Milestone 3 development is expected to last until early June. The current schedule could mean we’ll see a Windows 8 beta in the Summer.

Microsoft has so far been extremely quiet on the Windows 8 front. Windows Chief, Steven Sinofsky, took to the stage at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January to introduce a technology preview of Microsoft’s Windows ARM support and show off an early build of Windows 8. Microsoft is partnering with ARM-based manufactures NVIDIA, Qualcomm and Texas Instruments to produce new Tablet devices. Rumors suggest that Microsoft will create a dual-UI for Windows 8. A tile-based user interface codenamed “Mosh” will reportedly be included.

Steve Ballmer has described the next release of Windows as the company’s “riskiest product bet”. It is understood that Microsoft will feature deep cloud integration into the future OS to realise its vision of “three screens and a cloud”.

RUMOR: WINDOWS 8 PEEK AT CES

WinRumors is reporting that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer will reveal parts of Windows 8 during tomorrow night's CES keynote, mainly related to future slates they have planned. In addition, there should be new Windows Phone and Xbox announcements.

According to WinRumors, their strategy for revealing Windows 8 will probably be similar to what they did for Windows 7, where they revealed a few UI elements at All Things D, then unveiled everything months later. And further proving that Microsoft is interested in ARM-based processors, Nvidia, Qualcomm and Texas Instruments are all on board for Windows 8-optimized products. This also seems to be a concession of sorts by Microsoft: they're admitting that a full-blown, current-generation operating system isn't meant to run on a tablet/slate. Not yet, at least. The ARM-based version of Windows will likely be stripped down to its most elemental functions—whether that be for the living room or touch screen—and will be a very different experience from the desktop iterations. [Gizmodo]