Windows COVERAGE FROM AROUND THE WEB
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Tobii peripheral adds an eye-tracking interface to any Windows 8 computer through a USB port, but the company's only offering 5,000 units before the end of the year.The accessory attaches to the base of your laptop screen or monitor, and tracks the movement of your eyes.Whatever you may feel about
Windows 8, it's sparked a number of interesting hybrid designs. Now you can count the Tobii Rex, an eye-controlled interface for Windows 8, as another innovation that works with Microsoft's latest operating system.
First seen at last year's
CES, the Rex is an eye-tracking peripheral that works with Tobii's proprietary Gaze interface to navigate around a Windows 8 computer. The stick-like device attaches to the base of your computer screen and connects via a USB port. Although the Rex enables users to perform tasks such as scrolling, Tobii says it's not meant to replace your keyboard or mouse. The company seems to be rolling out the Rex gradually; it's only offering 5,000 units before the end of the year. Tobii hasn't announced the price or availability for the device, though a special developer edition is now available at $995.
Summary: A driver fumble means that Santa won't be leaving many Windows 8 "Atom" tablets under the tree over the holidays.The holiday season is usually a great time for PC OEMs, and this one should be doubly so given that it comes hot on the heels of a new Windows release. But a fumble with driver certification means that Santa won't be leaving many Windows 8 "Atom" tablets under the tree.It seems that Dell and HP have both pushed back the launch of Windows 8 tablets running Intel's new power-efficient Atom Z2760 "Clover Trail" processor until January. According to InformationWeek, Dell's Latitude 10 and HP's Envy x2 convertible are affected.A search of online retails suggests that the only Atom Z2760-powered tablet you can buy right now is the Acer W510, which also appears to be in short supply.The Atom Z2760 is a 1.8GHz dual-core x86 CPU built using Intel's 32-nanometer high-k process. The primary feature that it brings to the table is better battery life.The problem appears to be down not to the hardware but to drivers. Back in early October it was reported that Intel had yet to deliver power management software for its "Clover Trail" processors to Microsoft for approval. This, according to sources, would likely delay the release of hardware, and according to supply chain sources, it is this delay in getting Windows Hardware Quality Labs (WHQL) certification for the drivers -- required before the hardware can go on sale -- which is behind this latest delay.
Fresh Paint, a complex finger-painting app that simulates oil on canvas, is Microsoft's coolest Windows 8 app.
A handful of small gems, though, have emerged from Microsoft's Windows Store store, includuding one particular standout: Fresh Paint.
On the surface, Fresh Paint is a straightforward finger-painting app that lets users "draw" on the screen with four different brushes and a color palette. Once you start to play around, though, it becomes clear that this is much more than an updated MSPaint. Fresh Paint actually makes your "brushstrokes" appear as though you're painting with oil on a textured canvas.
That level of detail took some serious feats of science and engineering.
Fresh Paint's origins are in Microsoft Research, where five computer scientists worked several years ago on giving PCs the ability to simulate complex brushstrokes. Painting involves a significant amount of physics: just imagine how thousands of bristles, liquid paint and a rough-surfaced canvas interact. The team needed to create complex algorithms to match each touch and gesture on the screen to real-life paint.
The results were stunning, but the research, dubbed "Project Gustav," was one of the many Microsoft Research ventures that sounds cool but has no clear real-world use case. By 2010, the project had run its course. The engineers filed it away in a virtual cabinet and moved onto the next project.
Summary: Microsoft and Intel are aiming to show Swedes the range of Windows 8 machines available with a surprising strategy. But the Surface remains elusive.Microsoft might be making its Surface tablet easier to buy in some parts of the world, but in Sweden, those wanting the latest Microsoft-powered hardware will have to be content with Windows 8 tablets from its partners. In order to draw attention to Windows 8 hardware, Microsoft and Intel are taking the unusual step of opening a physical showroom in the capital of one of Europe's key markets to display tablets running the OS.The showroom, located at 15 Birger Jarlsgatan in swanky downtown Stockholm, is a bid to fill Swedish stockings with Windows 8 this Christmas and showcase what many retailers in the country are not - the sheer variety of tablets running the operating system.The showroom, open for one month from this Friday, is a "natural step" in its Windows 8 campaign, according to Microsoft. So far, the campaign has involved a solid run of TV commercials, a reasonable supply of laptops at retailers, but a noticeable a lack of depth in tablet choices that lingers two months after Windows 8 launched. (The most noticeable omission in Sweden's choice of Windows 8 machines is Microsoft's own Surface tablets. While it's no surprise that the ARM-based Surface RT won't be making a showing at the Windows 8 Intel showroom, there's still no word yet the availability of either the RT or the Intel-based Surface Pro across the Nordics.)
Daniel has been writing about smartphones, tablets and apps since 2008, and he enjoys pitting gadgets against each other.More by Daniel Ionescu
The Verge’s Tom Warren thinks that it’s time for Microsoft to drop the most famous brand name it’s ever created: Windows. At least that’s what the headline to his story says. He’s actually in favor of the company doing away with the Windows name for its mobile products — Windows Phone, presumably, and maybe Windows RT — and is okay with it being done gradually rather than in one immediate big bang.What’s wrong with the Windows moniker? Warren says that it carries too many longstanding associations with security hassles and other unappealing aspects of computing’s PC-centric past, rendering it a poor fit for the more mobile, post-PC era ahead.His story is good fodder for thought. But it didn’t convince me that Microsoft should be forming a strategy for retiring the Windows brand. For better or worse, it remains synonymous with “Microsoft operating system.” And there are hardly any examples, in the tech world or anywhere else, of a company boosting a product’s fortunes by changing its name.There was one moment when it might have made sense for Microsoft to move away from Windows branding: When it replaced Windows Mobile 6.5 with the product it decided to call Windows Phone 7. The new software was still based on Windows CE’s plumbing. But unlike Windows Mobile, it retained no elements of the classic Windows look and feel; it had a radically new interface Microsoft called Metro.
I'd done my research, having investigated major Windows 8 convertible laptops on the market. The one I'd settled on, the Lenovo Yoga 13, had arrived. So last week, I went cold turkey with it on a business trip, abandoning my
MacBook Air to see if
Windows 8 could deliver a product that was both
tablet and laptop in one.
As I explained in my last column, I've long wished for a device with the "instant-on" ability of my MacBook Air but also one that could transform into a tablet, for those times when a keyboard is unnecessary. I'd been waiting for Windows 8 convertible laptops to arrive, to see if they could make my wish come true.Last week, the Lenovo Yoga I ordered through Best Buy arrived just before a day-long business trip I had. I figured there would be no better way for me to get to know the device, and explore Windows 8 more, than to take it out for a spin.
The good news is how remarkably easy it has become to get moving on a new computer these days thanks to cloud-based services. Windows 8 pulled in my calendar and email with no trouble from my Google account. Data stored on both Microsoft's SkyDrive and Google Drive also synced in.
"Touch machines are actually selling above expectations," said Bob O'Donnell, a program vice president at IDC. And that means supply shortages. "Some vendors are actually facing shortages because touch panels are in limited supply. Vendors are saying they can't get as many touch-based machines as they would like to meet the demand that they're seeing." Rhoda Alexander, an analyst at IHS iSuppli, echoed O'Donnell's comments. "We've talked to a number of PC makers that are having trouble obtaining touch panels and some of the vendors I've talked to said they can't keep them on the shelf," she said. And Microsoft has said as much. Tami Reller, chief marketing and financial officer for Windows, said last week that there are "not enough" touch devices on store shelves. Touch PCs include standard clamshell laptops with touch screens, hybrid laptop-tablets, and stand-alone
tablets. Generally, touch-screen PCs are more expensive than standard non-touch laptops. Microsoft's online store lists a number of tablets and hybrids (so-called convertibles) for sale, including
the $499 Acer Iconia W510, $799 Asus VivoTab, and $849
HP Envy x2. Touch-screen laptops include the $699 Asus VivoBook, $1,299 Acer Aspire S7, $899 Sony Vaio T13, and $1,349 HP Spectre XT TouchSmart. IDC's O'Donnell added, however, that non-touch Windows 8 PCs are not doing so well. "The non-touch machines are selling below expectations," he said. "If high-end machines are selling better than expected. Great. But that doesn't make up for low-end volume machines."
Summary: If there's something that puzzles or irritates you about Windows RT and you wonder why it's done that way, the answer is almost certainly battery life (or viruses).Why can't you run desktop applications on Windows RT? If you look back at the picture of Windows running on an ARM smartphone, way back when Microsoft began experimenting with moving the Windows code to the ARM chip, you don't see a WinRT app. You see Solitaire — a familiar desktop app. If the desktop, a Windows application, can run and if Office, a (significantly rewritten) desktop app, can run, then why not other desktop apps?Because they'd ruin your battery life — not to
With all the bad news about Windows 8 these days, this should help put things in perspective: After just four weeks in the market, there are already more people on the popular Steam video game service using Windows 8 than Mac OS X. What’s interesting to me is how differently Steam’s Gabe Newell has treated Mac OS X and Windows 8, both of which offered closed app store platforms that ostensibly compete with his own service. Back in 2010, when Valve launched Steam for OS X, Newell noted that Steam was “transitioning from entertainment as a product to entertainment as a service” and that “customers and developers need open, high-quality Internet clients.” But when Microsoft aped Apple’s app store strategy, Newell went apoplectic, describing Windows 8 as a “catastrophe.” According to Steam’s usage statistics, Windows 8 is already in use by almost 5 percent of Steam users. Mac OS X, meanwhile, despite the two and a half year head start, is in use by only about 3.3 percent of users. (Windows 7 is of course number one with about 77 percent usage.) Two questions arise from this data. One, why would Steam even bother supporting the Mac, which is clearly even more of an also-ran when it comes to games. Even Linux could garner that kind of usage share. But don’t believe me: Even Steam thinks so, as it’s porting Steam to Linux!
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