On Wednesday, Microsoft officially released the Windows 8 Consumer Preview (which is essentially a fancy term for 'public beta'). If you're eager to dabble around with the build in a virtual machine - perhaps due to the lack of a non-production machine, a spare partition, the fear of using it in a production environment, or, well, if you just want to install it in a virtual machine - then you're in luck.
Originally released on November 22nd, 2005, the Xbox 360 has been around for just over six years now. Sure, there have been multiple variations of the 360 that have been launched during that six year period - such as the Elite, Arcade, and the sleek, thinner S - but there is yet to be a major revision to its hardware. That being said, Microsoft's huge focus as of late with the Xbox 360 has been software. At E3 of last year, several major updates to the 360's software were announced and subsequently released, such as Live TV, a redesigned, Metro-inspired dashboard, voice commands, and improvements pertaining to the Kinect.
It was only yesterday morning that the Microsoft team held an event at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona and announced that the Windows 8 Consumer Preview, essentially a prerelease version of Windows 8, would be made available immediately for public download. Windows 8 was described by Microsoft was "Windows reimagined", which sounds awfully familiar to the "Inspired by iPad, reimagined for Mac" tagline that Apple are muttering with their Mountain Lion OS.
Whether you're eager to get the freshly released Windows 8 Consumer Preview installed but don't have DVDs at hand, or if you'd prefer to not use such an outdated method of installation, we'd recommend that you install by creating a bootable USB stick with the ISO. When the Windows 8 Developer Preview was released, we wrote an extensive guide covering just how to do this by using the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool. So, to go about preparing the bootable USB step, follow the steps in the guide with the Consumer Preview ISO of your choice.
Here's a tidbit of news that's been lurking behind the shadows of today's Windows 8 Consumer Preview, Windows Server 8, and Visual Studio 11 announcements: Microsoft has just made Microsoft Flight available for download.
To pile on to today's barrage of news and beta software releases - in case you've been living under a rock, I'm referring to the release of the Windows 8 Consumer Preview and Windows Server 8 beta - Microsoft has also released the Visual Studio 11 Beta with .NET 4.5 Beta for download.
All eyes have been firmly fixed on the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona over the last few days as consumers watch eagerly to see what technology-related goodness is set to hit the shelves in the coming weeks and months. So far we have seen Symbian smartphones with whopping 41-megapixel cameras, a tablet device which comes equipped with a stylus, and a Samsung Beam smartphone which has the ability to project images, videos and presentations onto any surface. Exciting stuff.
Today is the big day for those of you who have been anticipating some fresh new Windows 8 bits to toy with: Following an official debut right next door to the Mobile World Congress - not specifically at it, it's a little side event at the Hotel Miramar in Barcelona - Microsoft has just officially released the Windows 8 Consumer Preview.
The Xbox 360 may now be over six years old, but Microsoft is showing that there is plenty of life in the old dog yet, with a new console bundle being released across multiple markets.
As I noted in my editorial about what Microsoft should do next with SkyDrive, something that the Windows Live set of services are in dire need of is a redesign. I never was a fan of the current design that they have adopted: With design, it's often the details that make a world of difference - padding, margins, text - and all of these things are off, resulting in a set of products that lack finesse. So, what can Microsoft do to solve this problem?
