With the official Windows 8 release date looming closer, it looks like Microsoft is making some changes to the way digital media is purchased in the OS, a move that will likely appease a lot of potential customers and make acquiring additional content a lot easier to understand. In the past, Microsoft adopted a Points system as their preferred method of allowing users of their products to purchase additional content through their various stores, meaning that customers have to exchange cash for s bundles of points, which can then be used to grab things like movies and music. That is all set to change with Microsoft phasing the Points system out in Windows 8.
Users who want to complete their gadget collection with a tablet-type device will more than likely opt for the iPad, the fantastic Nexus 7 or choose to purchase one of the Amazon Kindle Fire offerings. The tablet space is packed with a whole range of devices but only a handful are really powerful and capable units, but if Microsoft has anything to do with it then their upcoming Surface tablet will break into that category fairly soon.
The launch of the Windows 8 operating system from Microsoft, along with all the associated devices, has always been at the back of the mind of the tech enthusiast. In the height of a summer which has seen the release of many fantastic products, October 26th has always seemed like such a long way away, but halfway through the first week of this monumentally-significant month for the software maker and tech as a whole, everything has started to become just that little bit more real.
Information concerning Xbox Music has been leaking continually over the past couple of weeks, and it has been unofficially confirmed that the Redmond company's streaming music service will be arriving on October 26th - the very same day when Windows 8 is made available to public.
Microsoft's Xbox 360 console has established itself as a gaming console, but in line with the changing face of technology, the Redmond company has been pushing it towards the all-round entertainment market. As well as the Kinect, which sold at the kind of speeds only Apple's iPhone can relate to, various Dashboard updates have seen the gamers' paradise morph into something of a set-top box.
Fans of Microsoft's Xbox Music Pass appear to be in luck, if they also plan on picking up one of the new Windows Phone 8 devices that will be hitting the streets shortly. The Windows Phone 8 hype is beginning to reach a whole new level of, well, hype. We're not too far away from new smartphones packing Windows Phone 8 reaching stores, and we're still learning new and somewhat interesting things about what features will and will not make their way into those handsets.
With many still savoring the announcements of the iPhone 5, it wasn't so long ago Apple announced another significant addition to its vast range of products - the MacBook Pro with Retina display. Having gone through a bunch of run-of-the-mill enhancements to the existing MacBook Air and Pro models, the Retinized notebook served as that exciting "one last thing" at WWDC '12, and although its sky-high price put quite a few consumers off, there was no shortage of consumers snapping up the sharpest-displaying notebook on the planet.
While the iPhone 5 remains one of the hottest news topic for almost the entirety of the technology blogosphere, Microsoft has silently sent out invites for the launch event of their upcoming desktop operating system Windows 8. As expected, the date is in the last few days of the month of October. Check out all the details after the jump.
If you happen to be a Windows user, then you will probably understand some of the issues that come attached with using the touch sensitive pads on laptops and notebooks. Instead of using a dedicated mouse, a lot of users rely solely on the embedded trackpads to navigate through their applications and the file system. In theory that's all well and good, but more often than not the reality of the situation is entirely different with hardware manufacturers doing a pretty poor job of bringing a decent feature set to their navigation pads.
Microsoft is about to release a groundbreaking version of its popular Windows operating system, although with the usual frenzy surrounding the iPhone 5, you certainly wouldn't know it. As well as releasing for desktop as per usual, Windows 8 will be available for tablets such as the Surface, and as well as Windows Phone 8 for - you've guessed it - smartphones, a special, tablet-friendly iteration will be released for Windows 8 RT.
