Here's a rather interesting idea, and one that we honestly can't decide whether we would say is a good one, or a bad one. We'll take the length of this post to decide. Microsoft has today shown off a handy little USB stick which could potentially make itself indispensable to businesses and home computer owners alike, especially if they use more than one Windows machine on a daily basis.
The last horse looks to be crossing the finishing line in the run-up to the release of Microsoft's Windows 8 operating system. The metro-laden eight edition of the market leading OS will Release to Manufacturing (otherwise known as RTM) in the first week of August, with the retail edition following in late October.
The war of the operating systems has almost reached a boiling point, with Microsoft all but ready to push out the final build of Windows 8 and Apple looking likely to release OS X Mountain Lion later on this month, it represents nothing but a winning situation for the consumer. Windows 8 has been receiving some fantastic reviews from people who feel Microsoft have really stepped up with this version, with the only real contentious point being the price of the OS in comparison to Apple's $19.99 Mountain Lion offering.
Remember last month's comparison between mobile OSes, where we compared iOS 6 with the existing Android 4.x ICS and Windows Phone 7.5 Mango platforms? Well, in the time that has passed since then, we've since learned some newer official information about iOS 6, along with the upcoming versions of the other two mobile OSes. So now, a new chart has been concocted which compares and contrasts iOS 6 with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and Windows Phone 8.
Although nothing is confirmed, moves made by Redmond-based Microsoft could offer a hint as to the name of the next generation Xbox console, which, as yet, has oft only been referred to as the Xbox 720 by those putting two and two together.
With Microsoft's Surface tablet not yet even slated for a release date or given a public price, one of the company's co-founders has claimed that the upcoming tablet may lead Microsoft to re-think its tablet strategy. In fact, the one and only Bill Gates believes that Apple may even need to make its own Surface in order to compete.
With Apple's OS X Lion retailing at a very reasonable $29.99 last summer, Microsoft has re-thought the pricing structure for its upcoming Windows 8 operating system. Hitherto, upgrading to the "Pro" variant of any Windows version has been a costly affair, but it will not be the case this time around for existing users.
Now that Google has unveiled its proper entry into the living room entertainment space, the Nexus Q, is it worth considering against the already established products in the market from Microsoft and Google? Short answer: Unless you want to pay more for less, no. Here's the longer answer.
As of right now, the existing consumer tablet market is dominated and was essentially created by Apple when it released the first iPad. Since then, Microsoft and Google have been working to catch up and get their foot in the door of this Apple-dominated market. Google's Android tablet OS has managed to gain some ground, and we can expect Windows 8 tablets to hit the shelves later this year. However, in the past two weeks, both Microsoft and Google have announced special tablet hardware devices that they hope will help them gain even more ground in this market.
Microsoft recently announced Windows Phone 8 with a bunch of important new features that put it but in the three-horse mobile OS race. Features included support for multiple cores, HD displays, Near Field Communication (NFC), a shared core with Windows 8, use of Nokia’s mapping technology for turn-by-turn navigation, Skype integration and a much more customizable start-screen. We’ve discussed these features in detail here.
