The Consumer Electronics Show, or CES as it is most often referred to, is without a doubt one of the biggest date in the tech calendar. While there are plenty of rumored and confirmed announcements to look forward to, Samsung has been working tirelessly to ramp up momentum in anticipation for the event. Having made a solid foundation in the touch-based market with a fleet of Android smartphones and tablets, Sammy is hedging its bets with a couple of Windows 8 hybrids, named Chronos and Ultra.
Do you remember when using multiple touches on a display was defined as the future of navigating around our tablets and computers? Or when Apple launched Siri, followed by a wave of voice-based copycats, only to be told that it was actually audible commands that would prove to be the future of device interaction? Well, it seems that both of those methods could be old news fairly soon, with attention now being lavished onto controlling our computers using nothing but our eyes thanks to the world’s first eye-tracking peripheral; the Tobii REX.
We are expecting a great range of tech to be released this year, but it seems that Samsung has taken the first step by announcing a couple of new Series 7 monitors, one of which will support different orientations, with the other being specifically optimized to work flawlessly with Microsoft's Windows 8 operating system.
They do always say that no press is bad press and considering all of the internet chatter that has surrounded Instagram recently over their flip-flopping terms of service, it would seem that there is no better time to discuss the new Piktr Instagram client that has just landed on the Windows Store. Piktr is obviously a third-party development project and although it doesn't come from Instagram or Facebook themselves, it is a fairly comprehensive and modern offering that should fill the void that exists for those mostly happy and content Windows 8 / RT users out there.
Windows has evolved into a pretty stable operating system with time, especially when Windows 7 had entered the arena. Then, even with Windows 8, although I did run into a lot of issues with the release and consumer previews, I haven’t regretted making the switch once I installed the retail version. It was pretty necessary, too, that Microsoft made Windows stable the way it has become now, considering that the operating system is the most used in the world for desktop computers and notebook PCs.
Ever since the introduction of iPad to the market, tablets have become something really mainstream. It’s not like the world was devoid of this genre of gadget earlier, but the Cupertino giant’s rendition of the device made it a worldwide phenomenon, making it lucrative to even those people who’d have otherwise not found any use for a tablet PC. Jumping onto the bandwagon, Android entered the arena too, and today, there are more Android tablets available on the market than you’d care to count. BlackBerry also tried its hand at this category in the form of PlayBook, but that failed rather miserably. The last to enter the tablet PC market was Microsoft with its Surface tablet, a device truly remarkable in its elegance, beauty and hardware. Now, Nokia is aiming to dethrone Surface as the top Windows RT tablet, coming up with its own Windows-based tablet that comes with a battery powered keyboard cover.
The open source nature of Android gives it one particular edge over other smartphone and tablet platforms, in being available for a lot more development – both on the app side and modifications – and thus, having loads more to offer than other tablet OS. However, that doesn’t mean it will remain exclusive in all areas where open source matters. Windows is the most favored operating system for desktops, and with the introduction of Windows RT and the Surface tablet, Microsoft, it seems, is looking to gear things up a bit. The recently released SNES emulator for Microsoft Surface, Snes8x, which works with Windows RT, does well to prove that point, and does it really well.
I find almost everything involved in day-to-day usage to be pretty easy on Windows 8, and in some instances, even easier than its more-favored predecessor, Windows 7. The search function in the latter iteration of Windows is definitely much improved, and the aesthetics of the new Modern UI are simply beautiful. Add to it the fact that there are quite a few new features, and the operating system is a rather solid winner, in my opinion. That, however, doesn’t imply that it doesn't come with its own shortcomings. One very obvious one, which even I find annoying and bad design choice all the time, is how you turn off your PC. Unfortunately, the Redmond giant decided to hide away one of the most accessed features of the operating system rather obscurely.
Bradley Mauk, the guy that created the remote control app for the Windows Phone 7 Media Center, has come through with yet another useful remote control app for those on Windows 8 and Windows RT devices. As was the case with the Windows Phone 7 edition, you can easily and conveniently control Windows Media Center right from your Windows 8 / RT device.
Windows has been the most popular desktop operating system for years, and by the looks of it, will continue to be so, despite the fact that Windows 8 had raised a lot of eyebrows over its rather bizarre feature set. I have expressed my liking for the Redmond giant’s latest iteration of the operating system, but even someone like me can’t help but question some of the obscure choices that Microsoft made while designing Windows 8.
