TMCnet News
Microsoft Windows 8 Developer Preview shows off Windows 'reimagined'(Connected Planet Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Microsoft kicked off its Build developer conference Sept. 13 in Anaheim with the introduction of its Windows 8 Developer Preview, a "reimagined" version of Windows that the company promised is as at home on a PC as on a tablet. "Reimagined," said Steven Sinofsky, president of Microsoft's Windows and Windows Live divisions, was a word attendees would hear a lot throughout the event, and certainly they did through Sinofsky's keynote. "Windows 7 reimagines what Windows can be," Sinofsky told the full house, explaining that, nonetheless, everything that runs on Windows 7 will work on Windows 8. He continued: What we really want to talk about today is how from the chipset and we mean the work that we've done on Windows for ARM all the way up through a brand new user experience that's touch first but equally at home with a mouse and keyboard we have a new range of capabilities, scenarios and form factors, all enabled by this bold reimagining of Windows. Highlights of the OS include a touch-centric interface, a Windows Store where developers can sell apps, a user experience that's driven by applications, a strong memory for user favorites and preferences, and new hardware features such as support for ARM-based chipsets and system on a chip (SoC) support. Build attendees were given a prototype Samsung laptop (not available for sale) on which to try out the OS, and Sinofsky promised their displays would be covered in fingerprints by the event's end such is the touch-inclined nature of Windows 8. But first, attendees were presented with four overviews: of the Windows 8 experience, and how Microsoft has "reimagined the way you can interact with a PC," said Sinofsky; of Windows 8's Metro style applications (MDP: Windows 8 Features and Terminology), which it describes as "full screen, immersive and touch-centric"; of the hardware platform it all runs on the tools available to developers; and how everything connects up in the cloud, via Windows Live. In an interesting re-appropriation of the word, Microsoft refers to the ability to access user data and their designed desktop experience via the cloud as "roaming." In a blog post on the event, Sinofsky reiterated that while everything demonstrated at the event runs on ARM-based Windows PCs, Metro style applications will also run on x86 (both 32 and 64 bit) architectures. Adding that what Microsoft launched yesterday was not a product, and certainly not a new device (the Samsung tablet that had folks buzzing), but rather "the launch of the developer opportunity for Windows," Sinofsky pointed the curious to a preview of the release that can be downloaded from the Windows Dev Center. Note that it doesn't work as an update to Windows 7 but must be installed fresh, and there's also a new forum for discussion here. © 2011 Penton Media |