There has been a lot of talk about how Microsoft and retailers would actually deliver the final Windows 8 product to the users, and just to our liking; Amazon has shed a little light on the subject and revealed the official Windows 8 packaging in the process.
Microsoft is going through an extremely busy schedule at the minute with their next major release of Windows about to hit the marketplace on October 26th, as well as their much-anticipated Surface tablet slated for a first public outing on the same day. The old saying of there's no rest for the wicked definitely applies here, as it turns out that the Redmond-based software giants are also hard at work on producing mobile versions of the Office suite for iOS and Android users.
Fresh reports from this morning are suggesting that consumers in the United States may not need to wait that long to get their hands on a fabulous new Windows Phone 8 powered smartphone, with pre-orders for the first wave of handsets looking likely to begin in the next couple of weeks starting on October 21st.
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.
Announced back in mid 2011 and publicly previewed earlier this year, Windows Phone 8 is the next major release of Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform. We’ve seen a smorgasbord of new features demoed and exciting new smartphones announced from companies like Nokia, Samsung, and HTC, but until now we didn’t have a confirmed release date for the OS or the new phones that come based on it.
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.
Windows Phone 8, which will be released later this month along with the various other editions of Microsoft's new-look operating system, is highly anticipated in the mobile industry, and there are a variety of reasons behind this. Although it's a promising platform in itself, the initial devices - notably Nokia's Lumia 920 - have a lot of prospective smartphone purchasers salivating, and to add to that, it looks as though Microsoft will indeed be releasing its own brand of smartphone for its fledgling ecosystem.
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.
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.
According to multiple publications, Microsoft has internally signed off Windows Phone 8 as “code complete” or, in more formal terms, released to manufacturing (RTM). Check out the details after the jump.
