Alienware, the American computer hardware outfit owned by Dell Inc., has announced that its first Steam Machine will be available for the public to get its hands on in November. The Alienware Alpha looks likely to be the first commercially available Steam Machine when it launches, but rather than being built on top of Valve's SteamOS, the Alpha hardware will be reliant on Microsoft's Windows 8.1 operating system. The curiosities doesn’t stop there either as Alienware looks to penetrate the PC gaming market with a Steam Machine that is likely to differ vastly from the initial crop that hit the market.
Microsoft's Windows update schedule has been much more frequent over the past few years, with the software giant looking to maintain a solid experience for users while the plans for significant feature implementations are made. Today, as a part of a move to bring monthly house-keeping improvements, the 'August Update' for Windows 8.1 has been rolled out. Naturally, the tweaks are relatively minor, and below, we'll run through everything that Microsoft has bundled into this release.
Microsoft's Windows 8.1 release has been held in much higher regard than the preceding Windows 8, largely due to the fact that it plays more nicely with those rocking a more traditional keyboard-and-mouse rig. Despite the reservations that some users have in relation to functionality and ease-of-use, though, the user interface has seldom offended, and today, the software giant has added 11 new themes to its flagship OS.
Following the BUILD developers conference a few months back, Microsoft subsequently rolled out the minor-yet-eagerly-awaited Windows 8.1 Update 1. Therein, we found quite a few tweaks and performance enhancements as a part of the software giant’s mission to appease those running traditional PC rigs, and according to a new report, Update 2 is almost ready, and will arrive in three weeks' time.
Apple finally unveiled OS X 10.10 Yosemite earlier on this week at its Worldwide Developers Conference keynote speech, and although we knew the UI would be overhauled in-keeping with the look of iOS 7, it was nice to check out the upcoming software in all of its glory. If you're on a Mac, there's a good chance you've already grabbed the Developer Preview for a first-hand look at what's new, but if you're on Windows, things are a great deal trickier. There are numerous ways to install OS X on a PC, of course, but if you're merely a fan of the aesthetics, then you might want to check the just-released OS X 10.10 Yosemite Transformation Pack for Windows 7/8.x.
The blogs and various social media channels have been speculating for quite some time about what Microsoft's special Surface event in New York City would reveal this morning, and now, we finally have the details. The Surface Pro 3 is its name, and Microsoft is touting its thinner, faster and more powerful slate as the "tablet that can replace your laptop." For a full run-through of the hardware, display and accessories, join us after the fold!
Windows operating systems have seen additions of several highly useful features throughout the evolution cycle of the OS. From Windows XP to Windows 7 was the most major leap that the Redmond company ever made, both in aesthetics and in the feature set that the operating system had to offer. Jump lists, aero Snap and dynamic search are just some examples that one can quote in this context. However, that doesn’t mean that highly revered features didn’t exist prior to that. Windows XP was the first operating system to introduce Hibernation, and beyond doubt, that was one of the most useful power features that the operating system came with, allowing the user to save the state of the whole machine when powering it down, and consequently resuming work much faster than a cold start.
Whether you use a Mac or a PC is obviously a matter of preference, but it's not unheard of for some people to want to use one platform but have the interface look like the other. Skinning Windows to look more like a Mac is something that has been done for years, and with each new version of both OS X and Windows, these tools have had to adapt.
Last week at the BUILD developers conference, Microsoft unveiled its latest changes to the Windows operating system with Windows 8.1 Update 1. Designed with the desktop user in mind, the release offers a bunch of optimization features for those using the traditional keyboard-and-mouse set-up, and on a day that has seen official support cease for the 12-year-old Windows XP, the newly-updated edition of Windows 8.1 is now available to download.
Thanks to extensions, browsers like Firefox and Chrome can be tailored to suit the needs of the individual users. Once a mere component of the wider computing experience, our browsers are like an OS unto themselves, and every element – irrespective of whether it may be aesthetic or function-related – can be adjusted by means of the many thousands of extensions available.