A plethora of apps, programs and devices were showcased at this year's CES - many of which are unlikely to ever see the light of day in the actual consumer market.
There's a new Twitter app on the block, and it may be bringing a little spit and polish to the Windows app scene. Twitter may have its own apps across a range of platforms, from Windows Phone 7 to Google Android, but it is on the desktop operating systems that Twitter has struggled to put together a top class application.
TweetDeck, which initially plied its trade as a cross-platform Twitter app running on Adobe AIR, has grown in popularity since freeing itself from Adobe's debated platform, and today, the application for OS X, Windows, and Google's Chrome browser has received a very significant update.
Microsoft has begun to unveil plans of how its tiled Windows 8 operating system will be scaled to fit different tablet screens and resolutions across the board, revealing that there will be support for Retina-Like displays.
Once upon a time when discussing operating systems, Windows would have been at the top of every person’s list and while it is still the world’s most recognizable OS, it has suffered a fall from greatness in recent years. With the whirlwind resurgence of Apple over the last decade, the company’s products and software have become some of the most talked about in the technology world, with Mac OS X benefitting from a rise in popularity, stealing the thunder from Microsoft.
We're only three months into the year, but I can already tell that it's going to be exciting. And, contrary to what many PC hardware manufacturers wish to assert, this is not because of some gimmicky new PC form factor that nobody will care about in a few months; rather, it is because two of the major players in the tech space, Microsoft and Apple, are each doing awesome and unique things this year as far as their entire product ecosystems are concerned.
It's a natural trait within humanity that some people take better to change than others. As trivial as it may seem in the grand scheme of life's priorities, not everybody testing out Microsoft's Windows 8 Consumer Preview has managed to get past the lack of a Start button / Orb.
It wasn't that long ago when users had to wait an eternity for the developers over at Mozilla and Google to push out new versions of the popular Firefox and Chrome web browsers. In fact, pretty much every major browser version seemed to have an extremely long shelf life before the developers felt it needed an update and brought new and improved features to the public. Thankfully, it looks as though that trend of making users wait for improvements has been put to bed, with Mozilla pumping out the updates thick and fast for its Firefox browser.
OS X and Windows are two quite different operating systems with very opposite agendas. Similarly however, both are currently nearing a stage of mass transition, with elements and influences from mobile devices playing a key part in the respective futures of each.
Regardless of whether you are an Apple lover, Google guru or an old faithful Microsoft worshipper, the current technological climate represents an excellent time to be involved in, as a user of hardware and software. The majority of the major players in the tech business seem to have some exciting new pieces of kit about to hit the public eye, with Apple set to imminently launch the new iPad and possibly Apple TV, Google looking likely to seed their new Android Jelly Bean in the coming months and Microsoft finally releasing the Consumer Preview of their new Windows 8 operating system.
