HTC India launches 8X and 8S smartphones with Windows Phone 8
KS Sandhya Iyer, November 02, 2012
HTC is treating Indian users to an early Diwali surprise. A day after we reported that the Taiwanese manufacturer might launch its Windows Phone next week, the company has already unveiled the HTC 8X and 8S Windows Phone 8 devices in the country. Both devices will be available this month at best buy prices of Rs. 35,023 for the HTC 8X and Rs. 19,260 for the HTC 8S.
Bothe devices sport a uni-body design and are based on the Windows Phone Live Tiles. The HTC 8X comes with 4.3-inch 720p Super LCD 2 display coated with Gorilla Glass. The device sports an 8MP CMOS sensor with backside-illumination (BSI) for improved low-light performance, along with an f/2.0 aperture, 28mm lens and a dedicated imaging chip. The front camera is a 2.1MP with f/2.0 aperture and 88 degree ultra-wide angle lens, which also allows for high-definition video capture.
8X is also the first Windows Phone with Beats Audio technology and an audio amplifier.There is no expandable storage on 8X but you will get 16GB of on-board storage, part of which will be used by the operating system itself.
The 8S comes with a 4-inch (800x480 pixels) super LCD display with Gorilla Glass, 1 GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor with 512MB RAM, 5MP auto focus camera with LED flash and 720p HD video recording, 4GB internal memory expandable memory with microSD and a 1,700 mAh battery.
Both smartphones feature the Windows Phone Store and Xbox Live catering to their entertainment and gaming needs. The Windows Phone 8X will come in a variety of colours including California Blue and Graphite Black while the HTC 8S will be available in Fiesta Red and Atlantic Blue.
Speaking at the launch of these devices, Faisal Siddqui, Country Head, HTC India said, "Windows Phone has clearly emerged as one of the top mobile ecosystems and is competitive against any other smartphone platform in the world. We are confident that the iconic design and incredible innovation of the Windows Phone 8X and Windows Phone 8S by HTC will help consumers fully realise the potential and lifestyle benefits offered by these smartphones."
Windows 8 brings significant advantages to those who are upgrading existing PCs or purchasing new ones, thanks to features that better take advantage of the new OS's capabilities. The operating system offers improvements in performance, existing capabilities, and is cheaper.
I should mention, however, that there are some cases in which you probably shouldn't make the move. The OS has a new look and requires some adjustment in the way you interact with your PC. If you don't like change or learning new ways of doing things—even if in the long run they turn out to be more efficient—you should probably stick with what you're using. Also, if your PC's specs are extremely outdated—less than 1GHz processor or less than 1GB RAM in particular—you won't be able to upgrade. And obviously, if your PC is for work use, your employer may not allow the upgrade. If these issue don't apply, read on.
Windows 8 : New Start Background
"Tattoos" let you customize your Windows 8 Start screen with artistic backgrounds.
Windows 8 - SkyDrive
SkyDrive is your Windows cloud storage. Apps can be programmed to access the online storage with your permission.
1. Faster startup. On my testscomparing Windows 8 performancewith that of Windows 7 on the same computer, Windows 8 started up more than twice as fast as Windows 7. In a comparison with Mac OS X Mountain Lion, running in Boot Camp on a MacBook, Windows 8 even started up faster than Apple's latest desktop operating system. And it's not just startup time: Windows 8 ran several benchmark performance tests quicker than either Windows 7 or Mountain Lion. Microsoft has clearly put work into improving performance in Windows 8.
Windows 8 - Store
The Windows Store now features apps for purchase, with prices ranging from $1.49 to $999. Like the Mac App Store, it lets you reinstall apps you've bought on any of your PCs and oversees app updating.
2.A whole new world of apps. Windows 8 gives PC users a whole new world of full-screen, touch-friendly, Web-connected apps to explore. And these new apps can even display relevant information on their Windows Start screen tiles, something impossible in Windows 7 or just about any other operating system around, save Windows Phone. The new Windows Store—analogous to Apple's iTunes App Store—makes discovering and installing these new-style apps a breeze. The update process is simple, and you can install purchased apps on multiple Windows 8 devices without paying again, provided you're signed in. Finally, uninstalling the apps is streamlined by the Store, with no Registry complications as in past Windows versions' apps.
Windows 8 - SkyDrive
SkyDrive is your Windows cloud storage. Apps can be programmed to access the online storage with your permission.
3. SkyDrive integration. Microsoft's cloud service has become way, way more than just online storage. Sure, it still lets you save and access files to an online space that's accessible from a Web browser or apps that run on not only Windows, but also Mac OS X, iOS, Android, and Windows Phone. But with Windows 8, SkyDrive is accessible to any app that wants to use it, just as though it were a local drive. It also backs up your PC's settings, letting you replicate your environment should you get a new PC.
4. Better Security, Less-intrusive updates. PC Magazine networking and security analyst Fahmida Rashid considers Windows 8 "the most secureversion of Windows yet." This stems from a couple of things, starting with Secure Boot. ExtremeTech's Sebastian Anthony explains secure bootsuccinctly as follows: "Windows 8 stops a computer from loading an operating system that hasn’t been signed by the publisher (in this case, Microsoft or an OEM)." Another security gain is that all apps in the Windows Store are scrutinized for security issues. Finally, Windows 8's default Web browser, Internet Explorer 10, was rated best in a recent test by NSS Labs, detecting and blocking over 99 percent of malicious downloads without any help from a third-party antivirus program. This compared with 70.4 percent for Google Chrome, which uses the same Safe Browsing API as Firefox. Opera and Safari only managed to block about 4 percent of the malicious downloads.
5. First-class touch input, but still fine with keyboard and mouse. In some ways, touch-screen input on Windows 8 is superior that of the Apple iPad. For example, you can do everything you need to by swiping with your thumbs, making a tablet easier to use by holding it by the sides. Also topping the iPad interface is Windows 8's ability to snap a sidebar to the side of the screen with a touch gesture, so that you can keep tabs on two apps at the same time.
But mouse and keyboard are hardly forgotten. The full complement of keyboard shortcuts still works, and navigating through the new interface with the mouse and mouse wheel is almost as intuitive as touch gesture input—though there are certainly some actions where touch is a better fit. Using the Windows Key becomes particularly important, as it summons the Start screen and offers key combinations that let you search, share, change settings, access devices, and more.
Is Windows 8 an existential threat to Android tablets?
Nagging questions shadow the impending launch of Windows 8, threatening to scuttle Microsoft's plans to reinvent itself for the age of mobility. Will desktop users graciously accept the redesigned Modern interface? Will the Windows Store have enough apps to entice would-be Surface RT buyers? Can Windows 8 breathe life into sagging PC sales?
Microsoft's future success depends on its ability to make serious, quantifiable, no-nonsense headway in the mobile market, but it’s not the only company with a massive stake in the ultimate fate of Windows 8. The new operating system will also have a major impact on Google. Just look at the list of Microsoft’s Windows 8 tablet and hybrid partners—Samsung, Asus, Toshiba, and the rest. They all make Android tablets, too.
Apple’s position in the tablet market is so dominant that it need not fear encroachment by Windows 8 devices. But most of Google’s hardware partners—especially the ones that make the larger, so-called productivity devices—need to ask themselves a tough question: Will Windows 8 obliterate consumer interest in Android tablets?
Early opportunity squandered
At least one expert thinks that this question isn't hard to answer. Forrester analyst Sarah Rotman Epps sees a bleak future for Android tablets.
The Kindle Fire HD, which emphasizes media consumption, is one of the few Android-based tablets that consumers want.
"No one's buying Android tablets other than Amazon or Barnes & Noble [models] anyway," she says. "If there’s a market for non-Apple tablets, it has been and will be Windows. It’s pretty clear that there just hasn't been any demand for Android tablets other than the niche earlier-adopter market, while Windows has mainstream consumer interest."
Despite being the only major tablet alternative for people who don't want to bite into Apple, Android has clearly had little impact on the tablet market. IDC's second-quarter tablet report shows that more than two-thirds of all tablet shipments originated in Cupertino, and even those numbers don't tell the full story. IDC (which is owned by PCWorld’s parent company IDG) and other top research firms track tablet shipments to retailers, not tablet sales to customers. So when you take into account that some variable proportion of shipped Android tablets languish unsold on retailers' shelves, Android's situation may be even bleaker than IDC's numbers suggest.
In the recent Apple vs. Samsung case, for example, court filings showed that Samsung had managed to sell only 712,000 Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablets in the United States since the slate's launch. Those are sad numbers, given that many observers considered the Galaxy Tab 10.1 to be the perfect iPad alternative for much of 2011.
Also troubling for Google's operating system is the fact that the Kindle Fire—Android's brightest tablet star and best tablet seller—is not the droid you're looking for. It runs a proprietary, heavily skinned interface that renders it more of a content delivery system for Amazon than a proper Android tablet.
Ominously, the Kindle Fire accounts for the majority of Google tablet sales. IDC claims that Amazon is the world's third-most-prolific tablet manufacturer, even though Amazon sells its slate only in the United States. And reports from ComScore, Pew Research, and Amazon itself indicate that the Kindle Fire outsells all other Android tablets combined.
In other words, Android owes most of its slim slice of market share on an Android tablet that doesn't look or feel at all like a pure Android tablet. Google's baby is sucking wind, folks.
Cue the Windows 8 tablets.
Windows 8 and its direct Android prey
Finding agreement among tech industry analysts is always a challenge. Nonetheless, all the analysts I consulted agree that Windows 8 tablets will devastate the handful of productivity-focused Android tablets on the market, such as the Asus Eee Pad Slider and the Asus Eee Pad Transformer series. Whereas security concerns have prompted risk-averse corporations to shy away from Android tablets, Microsoft's operating systems sport deep, business-friendly features—including the all-important Microsoft Office.
IMAGE: LOYD CASEA Windows 8 productivity machine like the Asus Vivo Tab could threaten existing Asus products like the Eee Pad Slider and Transformer series.
"I think [productivity-focused Android tablets] are going to fade away," says Rob Enderle, the principal analyst of the Enderle Group, summing up the group consensus. "I think we'll see Windows convertibles and hybrids pick up that category. The keyboard really goes with Office."
The analysts I contacted also agree that Windows tablets will quickly gobble up Android's market share in the premium-priced tablet segment. Dropping $500 or more on a 10.1-inch Android tablet requires a lot more deliberation than spending $200 on a 7-inch Google Nexus 7. For this reason, analysts believe, consumers will flock toward the more seamless (and less glitchy) Windows experience when going for a big-screen (and non-iPad) tablet.
But will Android tablets vanish entirely? Most of the experts I spoke with don't think so. Excluding Forrester's Rotman Epps, most analysts expect Android tablets to be around for the long haul, albeit in a niche role that focuses on low prices and media playback.
A possible path for Android success
"I think there will be a market for 7- to 10-inch, very inexpensive Android tablets," says Patrick Moorhead, president and principal analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy. "Not from the major makers, but off-brand. Android tablets will be the budget option."
Google's Nexus 7 is squarely focused on consumption, not productivity.
"There’s a reason why Google came out with the Nexus 7," says Gartner's Carolina Milanesi. "It basically was a very loud message to the OEMs saying, 'Stop trying to be Apple, because you're not. And you're not going to be successful competing at that price point or that form factor. Go cheap. Go $199, so it becomes more of an impulse buy, and consumers will get them and watch videos, listen to music and play games.' All of which is very much media-centric and content-centric."
Enderle agrees, calling the Nexus 7 "the quintessential Android tablet, almost entirely focused on consumption, and that's probably where Android is going to continue to shine."
Rotman Epps doesn't buy this analysis, though: "Other than Amazon, [OEMs] just aren't selling any Android tablets. The iPad mini, if that comes out as we expect it to, will be the final nail in the coffin for Android tablets."
The other analysts think that if Android tablets do die off, it will be due to other causes entirely: lawsuits and Google's lackluster OEM support.
Manufacturers fear the reaper
Even if customers suddenly decide to support Android tablets, OEMs may not stay in Google's camp now that Microsoft has joined the fray. The analysts we contacted say Google's reputation for dealing with manufacturers is spotty at best; in contrast, OEMs generally enjoy working with Microsoft, occasional Surface tablet tensions aside.
IMAGE: LOYD CASEAfter suffering considerable grief over its Android devices, will Samsung give preferential treatment to its Windows 8 tablets, like this ATIV SmartPC?
Hardware manufacturers jumped on the Android bandwagon primarily because it was the only way for them to join the tablet revolution. In that sense, Apple helped spawn Android tablets, but now Apple might be the hammer that drives manufacturers away from Android for good.
"What really triggered the trend [of manufacturers hedging their bets with Android devices by also developing Windows devices] isn't so much customer satisfaction issues as much as that $1 billion judgment against Samsung," Enderle says, pointing to the sudden ramp-up of Windows Phone development by HTC and Samsung as examples.
"A lot of the OEMs really sweat bullets about being next on that particular list. Apple's actually doing Microsoft one hell of a favor here. That $1 billion judgment made 'free' not so free,” Enderle notes, referring to the ostensible price that Google charges OEMs for Android.
Gartner's Milanesi agrees that the risk of litigation from Apple encourages OEMs to see the value in adopting a Microsoft OS that costs money up-front. When you're in the Microsoft fold, she says, you're protected against Apple lawsuits, and Redmond also chips in with marketing costs and support for the developer community.
Where do manufacturers stand?
What do the companies that have skin in the game think about Android tablets' prospects for long-term survival? On the record, they're decidedly less pessimistic than the analysts are, which should come as no surprise, as they have to be cautious when making comments that might reflect on their roadmaps. Nonetheless, the OEMs do acknowledge the altered role that is likely to define Android's future.
Jay Parker, Lenovo's head of consumer/SMB operations for North America, recently told AllThingsD that the company plans to offer Android tablets "for the foreseeable future," but that it will offer only Android slates built in the Kindle Fire mold: small, cheap, and designed for playing around.
"We see them as pure media-based devices, where people are going to be surfing the Internet, reading books, or watching a movie, and really not a heck of a lot else," Parker said.
Acer makes the W510 Windows 8 tablet, but says that it's definitely not abandoning Android.
When asked whether Acer plans to support both Android and Windows 8 tablets, Paul Tayar, Acer America's director of product marketing for connected devices, unequivocally says "yes."
"The more ecosystems that we can play with and have available, the better we, as OEMs, can come up with developing the right hardware for the right consumer,” Tayar says. “Having options available to us lets us bring fresh solutions, and fresh designs, and fresh technology to the table."
Tayar feels there's enough consumer interest to support “even more than three” distinct operating systems, largely because of the very different user experiences offered by Windows 8 and Android. Windows tablets are more focused on productivity and might be more suitable for stationary office settings, whereas Android tablets tie deeply into Google's cloud-connected vision, and might appeal to people interested in everyday, on-the-run use, thanks to their smaller sizes.
Acer plans to tailor its hardware to take advantage of the specific ecosystem advantages of Windows 8 and Android. "You will not see a Windows 8 tablet, and then see the same tablet two days later with Android," Tayar says. He doesn't think Android will disappear any time soon.
"The Android market space, in both tablets and smartphones, is pretty much vindicated by the number of applications that are out there," he says. "That market has been validated. It's the real thing. It's not something that you're wondering 'Is this space going to exist or not?'"
You thought the Windows Store lacked tablet apps?
Tayar's last comment raises an interesting point: None of the analysts I spoke with think Android as a whole is in danger of dying, as the phone platform remains quite strong. Google Play features an abundance of Android apps—more than 675,000 by Google's last count—and the overwhelming majority of them are designed for smartphones, not tablets.
But that situation, too, is a double-edged sword for Google, as Android phone apps tend to translate poorly to the tablet experience.
IMAGE: ROBERT CARDINIronically, for all its inventory problems, the Windows Store may quickly eclipse Google Play in terms of pure tablet apps.
"Microsoft hasn't even launched the Windows Store yet, and it probably has five times more tablet applications than Android does," Moorhead says. For context, consider that the original 7-inch Samsung Galaxy Tab kicked off the Android tablet effort nearly two years back.
Incentives are crucial because Microsoft is gunning for those same developers, with an extensive support system that draws raves from developers. If Google wants an Android future on anything other than smartphones and embedded systems like Google Glass, it must convince some of those developers to create tablet-specific apps for its OS.
Yea or nay: Will Windows 8 tablets kill off Android?
Android tablets won't burst into flames on October 26 in some kind of self-destructive conflagration. Manufacturers won't pack up and leave Google holding the bag just because Microsoft is selling tablets—at least not initially. But serious questions loom over the launch of Microsoft's next-gen operating system, and until the company can allay some of those concerns, partners like Acer, Asus, and Lenovo will probably ride the fence until a clear market winner emerges.
But Microsoft isn't afraid to play the long game or to toss billions of dollars at marketers and manufacturers to ensure that its tablet initiative ultimately pays off. When—not if—Microsoft clears the initial hurdles, Google will have to step up its own game to ensure that Android tablets have a fighting chance, even as budget options.
Sure, Android might be the best choice for inexpensive media slates. But Google needs to get busy to bolster even that path to success, especially if Apple releases a miniature iPad. Google must do more to stimulate app development. It must work more amicably with OEMs. And it must step up to the plate, and protect its partners from Apple's litigious wrath.
If Google doesn’t do all of these things, manufacturers could very well throw up their hands and join the Windows team for good. Then we'd see the classic Apple/Microsoft duopoly all over again, this time in the mobile arena instead of on the desktop.
Will Windows 8 tablets kill Android tablets? Only Google can answer that question
Some Windows 8 laptops and PCs could
end up running more Android apps than ones written for Microsoft's software.
Gadgets built around chips made by AMD will come optimised to run the Android
apps.
A collaboration between AMD and software firm Bluestacks lets the devices run
the 500,000 apps more usually found on Android phones.
By contrast, Microsoft reportedly only has a few thousand apps written
specifically for Windows 8 at launch.
The Android apps will be available on Windows 8 devices via AMD's AppZone
player. Inside this is code from Bluestacks that acts as a wrapper around the
mobile phone programs so they can run on desktops, laptops and tablets.
AMD has made changes to the core code that runs its processors and graphics
cards to ensure apps built for the small screens on mobile phones look good and
run well on larger displays. Store war
The deal means future AMD-based gadgets will ship with the AppZone player
installed, letting users get at apps such as Fruit Ninja and Flipboard that they
know from their phone.
The player also lets users synchronise their apps across both a PC and an
Android phone or tablet. AMD has about a 25% share of the market for desktop
computers.
As Windows 8 has been developed to work well with portable devices such as
tablets, Microsoft has been working to create an ecosystem of apps for the
operating system. However, some
reports suggest that a month prior to the launch of Windows 8 there are only
about 2,000 apps available for it in Microsoft's Windows Store.
Bluestacks' Android-running software also works on Intel-powered devices,
including Macs, but typically has to be installed after a gadget has been bought
and booted up.
Bluestacks is also talking to other PC makers to get its software installed
as PCs are put together in a factory.
It's official: Microsoft's mobile operating system Windows Phone 8 has officially gone gold.
So what does that mean to you?
If you're a developer, the on-time "release to manufacturing" date is just one more piece of the puzzle between you and a general launch of Microsoft's Windows Phone 8 Software Development Kit, or SDK.
If you're a smartphone enthusiast and already planning to pick up a Windows Phone 8 device at some point in the future, then the gold status gives even more credibility to the rumors that an official Windows Phone 8 announcement will take place on October 29. It's also rumored that actual Windows Phone 8 smartphones will go on sale right after Microsoft's official reveal — according to ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley, some manufacturers might even put up some smartphones for preorder before then.
Now that Windows Phone 8 is gold, the Windows NT-based OS heads on out to manufacturers so they can customize and tweak their devices to ensure final compatibility.
Although a number of Windows Phone 8 features have already been revealed — including support for multi-core CPUs and 64-bit processors, additional screen resolutions (1280-by-720 and 1280-by-768), near-field communications, and more customizable live tiles (previously known as the Metro UI) — part of the reason why developers still don't have access to a general Windows Phone 8 SDK is that Microsoft doesn't want to tip the rest of what's inside Windows Phone 8 too early.
"The reason is that not all Windows Phone 8 features have been announced and our SDK includes comprehensive emulators that allow developers to test apps against a wide range of Windows Phone features," wrote Microsoft's Todd Brix in a post on the Windows Developer Blog Thursday.
"We recognize that this is a different approach to delivering tools than we've taken in the past. Our goal is to generate as much Windows Phone 8 excitement as possible to attract new customers when phones go on sale. This is one of many steps we're taking to help give you what you (and we) want most."
Microsoft is currently allowing developers of "most-downloaded apps" apply for access to the Windows Phone SDK 8.0 Developer Preview — sign-ups run until Monday at 5 p.m. PDT.
Judging by some of the comments to Brix's post, however, not all developers are thrilled by Microsoft's decision to play Windows Phone 8 so close to the vest.
"I understand that there are unannounced features that you want to keep hidden from people until you are ready to detail them. But it is a shame that this is holding devs back from testing the more basic features," wrote one commenter, Martin Anderson. "In the past you have had locked down emulator images, could this not be done at least before the full announcements are made?"
It's surprising when you consider that Apple has released two new versions of its operating system versions in the time since Microsoft let the world know that Windows 8 was baking. The Redmond software giant first announced plans for its upcoming desktop and tablet operating system in January 2011 at CES. Meanwhile, Apple released Lion, a major update, in July of that same year, and then Mountain Lion, a more incremental update, this past July.
In some ways, however, it's not so surprising: Windows 8 is a drastic re-imagining of the operating system, combining a touch-centric tablet OS with the traditional Windows desktop environment. Apple's strategy has been to more cautiously insert features from its mobile operating system, iOS, into the Mac's. It's also added multitouch gesture input support that assumes a touchpad for laptops or desktops. The result is ever-closer integration, with a minimum of dislocation to users—but no evolutionary leaps, either.
Microsoft has taken a far more drastic approach. It's designed Windows 8 to actually run on mobile tablets. Apple's wildly popular iPad by contrast runs its own version of iOS. While many old-timers have railed against the emphasis on touch input, it's easy to see why Microsoft took this approach: The company wants to leverage its massive 80 percent market share in desktop operating systems, while simultaneously familiarizing people with the new tile-based interface (formerly known as "Metro") first used in Windows Phone. But desktop users get benefits from Windows 8, too, including much faster startup and better boot security.
While Lion and Mountain Lion have been at large in the wild for months, we've also gotten a pretty good look at Windows 8, thanks to three pre-release publicly available versions: Developer Preview, Consumer Preview, and Release Preview. There's little mystery at this point about Windows 8's final shape when it's finally released on October 26, and developers and journalists have even already reviewed the RTM—release to manufacturing—version. So how do these two new operating systems' stack up? I'll take a look in some key areas. If there are important contrasts you'd like to point out, please do so in the comments; this list is by no means exhaustive!
Windows 8's Mobile-like User Interface
Windows 8's new interface shows more influence from Windows Phone than OS X Mountain Lion does from iOS. Window 8's large, touchable "live tiles" give quick access to and display info from your apps. Swiping gestures actually do a better job of letting you do everything using your thumbs than iOS does—which makes sense, since you mostly hold a tablet from both sides. The legacy "desktop interface," looks a lot like Windows 7, though gone is the eye candy of the latter's translucent Aero Glass effects. Also gone is the Start button, replaced by the tiled Start page.
Mountain Lion's Mobile-Inspired Elements
With a couple of important exceptions, most of Mountain Lion's inherited traits from iOS arrived with Lion or before. These include the App Store and Launchpad, which duplicates iOS's app icons, even letting you group them just as you would on an iPhone. Unfortunately, most of the Mac users I talk to never use Launchpad, preferring the traditional dock icons.
New for Mountain Lion is iMessage—iOS's messaging service that can take the place of SMS text messaging. It's pretty cool to be able to simulate an SMS text chat with one person on an iPhone and the other at her Mac desktop.
Another gift from iOS is Notification Center, which acts just like the mobile OS's notifications, which you see when you swipe down from the top of the screen. In Mountain Lion, you can swipe in from the left on a touchpad, and it shows an entry for each new email, message, software update, or calendar alert.
Mountain Lion's Cloud Service: iCloud
With Mountain Lion, iCloud becomes more important for Apple's desktop operating system. When you sign into your Apple account on a Mountain Lion Mac, all your mail settings, contacts, Safari bookmarks, messages, iTunes backups and other features will be synced via iCloud. And when you launch the App Store, all the apps you purchased earlier through the App Store are available for downloading and installation. Mountain Lion also builds cloud-based file storage into TextEdit, Pages, Numbers, and Keynote. Microsoft makes SkyDrive simply available to any app developer, and many Windows 8 apps already take advantage of this.
Windows 8's Cloud Service: SkyDrive
I covered Microsoft's SkyDrive service extensively in Windows 8 and the Cloud: SkyDrive. Like iCloud, SkyDrive can sync all your devices' settings; in fact, Microsoft likes referring to SkyDrive as a "device cloud." In addition to this function, the service can serve as simple online storage, and actually works with Macs and iOS devices as well as Windows, Android, and Windows Phone. Just as with iCloud, SkyDrive remembers which apps you've purchased and lets you download and install them on another machine you sign in to your Microsoft Account.
A big difference between SkyDrive and iCloud is that it offers Web access to any files you've stored on it. But SkyDrive becomes more than just a service for Microsoft products: Any Windows 8 third-party apps can make use of it as well, storing files to the cloud and retrieving them back. Another cool capability of SkyDrive is Fetch, which lets you grab a file from a PC running the SkyDrive software even if the desired file hasn't been uploaded to the online storage.
The Mac App Store
Apple's mobile OS showed the value to a platform maker of offering an app store: The store owner can control which apps are offered, and more importantly, collect a premium from the software maker. But the user gets something out of this setup, too: You can install purchased apps on any of your other Macs, and updates are handled uniformly, with notifications when they're available. The Mac App Store launched with about a thousand apps, but some estimate there are now about 10,000.
Windows 8's App Store: The Windows Store
Microsoft finally got hip to the app store concept and decided to build it into its hybrid tablet/desktop OS. In many respects, the Windows Store works nearly identically to Apple's: It lets you install apps you've purchased on multiple machines you sign into, and handles updating in a unified manner. The terms for developers get to letting them keep a bit more of the proceeds. Store isn't as rich in browsing options as Mac App Store, since you have to page through the categories. The Windows Store is estimated to launch with about a thousand apps, and there are millions of legacy Windows apps that will still run on Intel-based Windows 8 machines.
Windows 8's Browser: Internet Explorer 10
IE10 comes in two flavors—new and desktop. The new (formerly known as "Metro") IE10 is full screen and touch-friendly, while the desktop IE10 uses an interface identical to its IE9 predecessor. Both guises use the same underlying webpage rendering engine, which is faster and more compliant with new standards than IE9. Internet Explorer 10 not only takes hardware acceleration using a PC's graphics processor up a notch, but implements far more HTML5. These are important factors, since many new Windows 8 apps will use IE as their own rendering engine. Like Apple's Safari, IE10 under Windows 8 will allow syncing of favorites and history.
Mountain Lion's Browser: Safari 6
One of the major new pieces of Mountain Lion was Safari 6. Notably, the Windows version of Safari hasn't come along for this update, so Apple's browser is starting to look like the Mac and iOS exclusive that IE is on Windows and Windows Phone. With version 6, Safari has joined most new browsers' design choice of using a single box for address entry and search. Safari’s Cloud Tab feature shows you the tabs that are open on your other devices, so you can resume browsing after moving from one device to another. The updated browser also has a new tab view that lets you swipe through large thumbnails.
Sharing from Mountain Lion
Apps in Mountain Lion get a new Sharing arrow button that lets them post whatever current item you're on by posting directly to email, iMessage, Twitter, Flickr, or Vimeo. Coming in the Fall will be the one place we all really want to share digital stuff to—Facebook. This sharing tool will not only let you post photos and links, but you'll be able to add comments and location info.
Sharing from Windows 8
Windows 8 has a built in Sharing button that's always available from the "charms" toolbar. You can call this up at any time by moving the mouse to the upper or lower-right corner of the screen or by swiping in from the right on a touchscreen. The Share charm taps in to email, SkyDrive, and any social network you've connected to the built-in Windows 8 People app.
Extra Goodies in Windows 8
Microsoft has built several useful and fun new-style apps that ship with Windows 8, including Mail, Photos, People, Messaging, Weather, Finance, Calendar, Maps, News, Sports, Music, and Video. Many of these display live updated info on their Start page tiles—something not possible on the Mac OS X desktop or even in iOS. Windows 8's Metro Snap feature lets you get a peek at a second app while running your primary app in full screen. A final new pair of goodies in Windows 8 will be the ability to "Refresh" or "Reset" the system. With the first, you keep all your apps but clean out all the operating system gunk files, and with the second, you get a completely new Windows installation—perfect for gifting an older machine to a relative.
And speaking of older machines, perhaps the biggest "extra" for Windows 8 is that its desktop mode can run every Windows legacy app. Not only has it been updated with a more-modern, flat window border look, but Windows Explorer and Task Manger have been updated with new looks and capabilities. Drastically faster startup than previous versions of Windows could also be considered an extra, though it's also become an essential for any platform with mobile aspirations, given the iPad's fast startup.
Extra Goodies in Mountain Lion
Mac OS X's AirDrop feature stands out among its extra goodies: It lets you transfer files to any nearby Mac without disks, USB keys, or even a WiFi connection. Other nifty capabilities outlined are Auto Save and Versions, which mean you never have to worry about losing a document because you forgot to hit Save. The problem is: Software vendors aside from Apple itself have been slow to implement support for Lion's built-in Versions and AutoSave. Find My Mac does for your laptop what's been possible on the iPhone for years. Longtime goodies for Mac users include Preview and QuickTime, which let you view most of the media and document file types you're likely to download.
New for Mountain Lion is Dictation, which lets you talk whenever you'd normally have to type. This is something that's been in iOS 5.1, and I find it incredibly useful. New, too, is Game Center—also with iOS roots—which lets you manage all your gaming apps and activities. It also connects you to a gaming network, with leaderboards, achievements, in-game chat, and notifications. Speaking of notifications, don't forget the goodies coming from iOS mentioned earlier, including the Notification Center and iMessage.
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Authors Akhil Omanakuttan - zon1c.m.w@gmail.com Billy Blue - kevinkurianmathew@gmail.com Raven Leon - shankar.sreek@gmail.com Kevin - kevinphilip97@gmail.com Cybertron Legacy - kanchanagjohn@gmail.com Archie Thomas - archiethomas007@gmail.com
IMAGE: LOYD CASE
IMAGE: LOYD CASE
IMAGE: ROBERT CARDIN
