Wow. That was unexpected. In an interesting development today, Microsoft today announced that President of Windows and Windows Live division Steven Sinofsky is leaving the company with immediate effect. Julie Larson-Green is said to be taking over his place at Microsoft.
Windows 8 has now been out for a couple of weeks, and although many Metro-fied apps were ready for the big launch on the 26th of last month, the big applications from the biggest names are still being released by the hour. Video streaming outlet Vimeo is the latest to join the likes of Skype and The Weather Channel for Windows 8, and the new app allows users to carry out a range of functions with apparent ease.
Getting apps onto an Android device just got a little easier, with a free Windows app being released that makes installing APKs as easy as dragging and dropping them.
When Microsoft first inducted itself into the tablet market by announcing the Surface earlier this year, many were torn about which configuration they'd be going for. The Redmond company revealed the Surface RT - powered by an ARM processor - would be releasing first along with the big Windows 8 launch, and so has been the case, and while many have already snapped up their Microsoft tablet and are already familiarizing themselves with Windows RT, others have held their ground, waiting for the fully-powered Surface Pro running Windows 8 and powered by Intel's Ivy Bridge chips.
What's better than Windows 8 running on a touch-enabled computer? Well, Windows 8 running on a touch-enabled computer that's big enough to sleep on, of course!
With Windows 8 now out and selling in volume, Microsoft has somewhat turned its attentions to other important software implementations. As well as beginning to sell prepaid Skype credit in outlets across Mexico and the United Kingdom, it looks as though Skype will become the Redmond outfit's primary instant messaging service, retiring the long-standing Windows Live Messenger.
After the success of software distribution platforms like Software Center and App Store, Microsoft has followed suit by introducing Windows Store on Windows 8. Like the App Store, it has its fair share of limitations over which apps go in and which don’t and, like the Software Center, it charges a fee per download of a paid app, but what’s different about it is that, by design, apps on the Windows Store (generally) run both on desktops running Windows 8 and tablets running Windows RT.
As mentioned in my detailed review of Windows 8 Pro, there are significant visual changes in Microsoft’s new desktop operating system. Nearly every UI element has seen some sort of brush-up based on Microsoft’s Metro design language that focuses on content over chrome.
Whenever you make the switch - from iOS to Android, or Windows to Mac, for example, things can seem a little daunting at first, and although elements may look rather similar in places, they don't always function in the manner in which you are used to. While the changes in Windows 8 aren't necessarily as different from previous versions of Windows than they are to, say, OS X, current Windows XP / Vista / Windows 7 users still might feel as though they've been dropped into unchartered territory, and might find Windows 8 a little tricky to get to grips with.
Windows 8, along with Surface RT, is the biggest, most riskiest product Microsoft has worked on since the original Xbox over ten years ago. On the face of it, the company has significantly changed the way users use Windows , with a user-interface that is targeted more towards touch input on tablets rather than your traditional mouse and touchpad, but I’m here to tell you, in a good amount of detail, that that would be insult to folks who have been working on Windows 8 for the past 3-4 years.
