Watch Windows 8 being demonstrated now!

Get over to  this place  and watch the keynote for Windows 8 , what I need from Windows 8 is not just the innovative touch exploiting tile interface ,but a license that covers 4 to 5 machines , since being part of the Windows 7 Beta , I now have at least 5 Windows machines ,including 4 Windows 7 tablets so the major concern for me will be how I upgrade all these devices to the new OS without  facing bankruptcy ... and is it me or is all this green very Xbox Live?

looks just like my joojoo circa 2010 !

I have at least 4 Windows 7 tablets ready to test the Windows 8 Beta out on , from twin screen Libretto and Iconia , to the atom powered Joojoo and i7 powered X220T so come on Microsoft release that Beta already!

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Windows 8 heralding the Post Apple era !

  

Microsoft is back.. baby ... and with  new buzzwords " Metro Style " .. and introducing you to " the Cloud" 

And they have their own Steve  ...Sinofsky doing their keynote

But this is not a cult of personality Steve Jobs or Bill Gates style keynote ..no this has both style and substance

 and we just got to the meat and potatoes of it , and there also seems to be enough for seconds and lashings of gravy ..

A dude in black shows Windows 8  Boots faster than your monitor powers up, desktop, laptop, tablet all good to go.security, power management innovations, X86 and Arm support.

Storage of 256 terabytes is now possible or though not possible unless you have Steve Jobs bank balance

Hardware acceleration of all Apps from the base up means every App is sped up

Touch control: Pixel sensitivity : 1 pixel is reserved for the UI to initiate your Windows 8 Metro Apps Touch experience even on hi rese wide screen monitors and so the magic is  no longer confined to just your phone or tablet...
    
a res of 1024 by 768 is required to run Metro Style Apps
1366 by 768 is needed for side by side apps  so the Joojoo,  Lenovo X220T and my Grid 10 maybe will cope with that . And the dual screens of the Iconia...

Near Field sensors allow you to touch your frenemies tablets and errh share data ..

Funky Web Cam Apps let you mess or clean up your image

HP have an impressive App , note everything just became an App , or as they say a Metro style App ,

Remoting  lets you use a smaller  Windows 8 tablet  to remotely control your other Windows 8 devices using touch ...

Beneath the tile interface :

Hyper V runs on Windows 8 fine , run virtual machines to your hearts content

Iso mounting finally hits mainstream from the OS

Icons can be moved across ribbons , there is an Up button in explorer

Multi monitor spanning now has backgrounds that span both monitors with new keyboard shortcuts

The new Metro style Internet Explorer 10 has touch control icons , a chromeless experience ( very Fusion Garage but not as advanced !) full screen viewing  and up to 5 point multitouch , which is going to be cool to try out on the Iconia which is currently the only Windows 7 tablet with up to 10 point touch ...

Inking of course detects your palm as you rest it on the screen ( same as Windows 7 )

Syncing allows all your settings to roam without ever having to export data in the old way , sync your tablet with your desktop all through Windows live ...542 million people .. wow that

and now the important bit for me the cloud :

Windows 8 lives on Windows live , now this is significant , as Microsoft storing your data in the cloud , will eventually have the possibility to charge you to maintain and access that data , just like office live used to be free and now is replaced with office 365 subs , several years down the line you may be perfectly willing to pay to preserve your online life , this also challenges Google with its Apps model , finally Microsoft have something to challenge Google with. Good for us competition benefits consumers.

Connecting facebook and twitter to your live account allows you to access  your pictures across different services , and share between applications using skydrive and send with any mailing app.

As every Windows 8 user has a skydrive , free ( for now) , developers can also exploit this to deliver content and potentially offload storage from their own servers onto the skydrive  of potentially 549 million consumers ...

Access to any file can be made using this system

All of this of course also syncs to your Windows phone again through the same Windows Live account.

And there is more ... Steve says 100s more features ... Sensor based games , sample apps all built by college interns ...


Windows 8 is not just eye candy or a slick UI layer this seems to be revolutionary in terms of OS development for both consumers and the developers that can exploit app fever on a desktop platform with 549 million desktops to target , and Microsoft is delivering what millions have demanded , you see Apple boasted of a post PC experience on OSX , Lion and iOS , but developers have been confined by the iPAd and iPad 2 hardware and iTunes store . We finally have the cool of a tablet but with the power of a full os , no more gimped phone os jokes unless they are directed at Cupertino...

Now developers have 549 million PC customers , with hardware like the new ultrabook spec , and multiple form factors , this really is a post PC experience for everyone , it also just made the OS cool again , as cool as Apple made hardware , how many Macintels will be bootcamping Windows 8 ?

Everyone at the developers conference just got a free Samsung Windows preview PC
That can even run dual monitor setups , in an 11.6 inch tablet  with the developer preview

Windows 8 appears to have  all the features of iOS and tablets that you love , whilst finally leveraging the power and promise of new form factors and hardware

It also targets ARM and X86 way before Apple get on the ARM bandwagon  , have your cast off HP tablets ready people!

But what I need to know is how the license model works............though first I am going to go ape messing with installing this on 4 tablets and and a desktop... at around 3 am gmt which is PREVIEW DOWNLOAD TIME

No activation just download it and also no support ! 

Welcome to the revolution  ....

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Download Windows 8 preview release today

The Building Windows 8  blog currently states you should be able to download Windows 8 preview ISOs from   http://dev.windows.com/  with your Windows Live ID , sometime today , note I said sometime , or I would already be too busy messing with it to blog this ! Note you will need to do a fresh install  as this preview is not a Beta , this would be an awesome time to invest in a mSata hdd,install Windows 8 later and  you can then pop it in your laptop or Windows 7 tablets as needed  , which will also allow you to avoid destroying your Windows 7 install ... as well as compare and contrast Windows 7 and 8 by dual booting!  Videos to follow as soon as  I get it installed and running!

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Running Windows 8 Pro on dual screen tablets: Toshiba Libretto W100 and Acer Iconia 6120

Looks cool no ? This the view of my Toshiba Libretto W100 running Windows 8 Pro and full metro Apps in it's perfectly lit dual 7 inch touch screens ...

As the Jan 31 deadline for upgrading to Windows 8 Pro for what used to be the price of a Commodore Amiga game back in the day approached.. I rushed to upgrade 3 of my Windows 8 RP running tablet PCs ... would it be worth it ...or would I mourn the loss of my Crysis 3 , Aliens Colonial Marines and MetalGear Rising Revengance money that I had just used to buy 3 licenses of Microsoft's OS?

I have had Windows 8 ( Preview ,CP and RP ) installed and running on tablets ever since the old Sinofsky keynote back in 2011, installing it on Atom powered tablets,Pentium, i5,i7 single and dual screened ones too. The thing about Windows 8 is it may be murdering your desktop or rig at the moment, with features your mouse hand finds alien and updates that can and will often lead to infinite reboot loops but Windows 8 Pro has it where it counts when it comes to tablets and cute monkeys: 

I find when throwing innovative or obscure hardware at it brings the finest out of Windows 8 Pro. This is a full touch based, true multi tasking OS, optimised for all types of X86 CPUS and non dedicated gpus too.

So let's see how Windows 8 Pro works on a 7 inch dual screen tablet the Toshiba Libretto W100 one that has a native res of 1024 by  600, but one we are going to set to run at 1024 by 768 to enable Metro Apps to function:

Result! Windows 8 Pro runs without issue on the little Libretto W100, the i3/Pentium powered dual touch screen device is an excellent show case for Windows 8 Pro, you know that eventually  we will have the successors to Haswell powering dual screen hand held tablets , but right now owners of the Toshiba Libretto can run Win 8 Pro with relative ease ..  And moving from Windows 8 RP to Pro has eliminated the shrunken screen issue on one of the screens.

My addiction to dual screening also led to me get hold of the Acer 6120 some time ago now , as you can see from my adventures with it here : Installation of Windows 8 requires no reg hacks on this device, it's native resolution easily handles Windows 8 Metro ( you know what  I mean) apps . 

Unlike those fancy yet to be released Win Pro ultrabooks with touch screens , 
The Acer 6120 allows you to take the back off, allowing for a full hdd. This a significant complaint I have against surface pros and other Win 8 tablets, what is the use of having those fancy fast cpus and gpus with only 64 to 128 gb of space ? And then not allow anyone to just open the back up boost the RAM, hdd, or install/upgrade a msata device? Yes there are going to be 20 inch all in one surface type computers but the problem there is again a sealed back, one screen which you cannot carry around. The 6120 folds up just like a laptop, folds open into a dual screen surface computer .. give me one with a Haswell and 2560 by 1600 twin touch screens ( the kind you have on some Android tablets these days) and I would buy that for $1700 ...and with Windows 8 such a machine is possible...

   

 Back to reality: currently the Acer 6120  is the only dual screen 10 point touch per screen   Windows 8 tablet you could put a 2 TB 2.5 inch drive into, upgrade the ram, wifi ,etc. Which means for me I can use it as a dual screened desktop replacement with added Windows 8 touch features . Really my desktop dual 30 inch  screens sit gathering dust as I mess with this device which easily replaces my dual screen desktop but in a form factor the size of a 14 inch laptop ... I use it in portrait in anticipation for the day I have my paper thin graphene touch screen displays and in landscape to work as I am doing now, with youtube etc editing videos in the lower screen whilst I work in the screen above. 

I have had over a year and half of use out of this device and I would say that for Windows 8 touch features, 14 inches is the minimum size devices should use . Below that and then you will need a digitizer pen like on the Lenovo X220T, X230T and soon the Helix. 

11.6 inch and below devices are going to be  hard to use with Windows 8, anything above that an you are golden . This is because a Win 8 Pro device is a full desktop or laptop replacement and the  OS itself is something which you will use as you did  Windows 7 more than you will use Windows 8 Metro style . All those tiny little mouse clicking boxes are still as tiny on Windows 8 and require a mouse click or pen touch to get right . So a larger touch screen will just make it easier to operate all those legacy Windows 7 chrome features . Want to test out the theory .. try closing a browser or explorer window or pecking at a desktop icon on a Sony VAIO duo ... Eventually Windows 8 Metro Apps will replace the old legacy OS apps altogether...don't worry though you will still be able to run a cmd prompt ... this is Windows and Microsoft after all! 

Let's see how the full Windows 8 Pro OS runs on the Acer 6120 ...

You get  the most out of Windows 8  using dual screen tablets, the hardware and software  really shine when it comes to replacing Windows 7 with 8 , I am using one now to type this in one screen  whilst editing my youtube videos in the second on one machine, the size of a laptop. In olden times I would do this on my desktop with dual LCDs heating my room. It would take around 2 minutes for all the fans, the Boreas TEC chiller, the POST routine and the RAID array spindle drives to spin up and take me to the Windows 7 log on screen and beyond to open a browser and type this , whilst a further 12 fans kicked in my Lian LI and that familiar jet engine taking off under my desk noise kicked in too, admittedly with gorgeous blue neon LEDS and I began to type into blogger...  Overkill... Now I just open a dual screen Windows 8 tablet onto a desk or in my hands , like a magazine or a book ..wait 8 seconds for the machine to boot up and work ..if I need the grunt of my desktop I can stream it using Splashtop on my iPad or Nexus 7 whilst I work on my other Windows 8 machines  .

Working this way with around 3 to 4 devices with Windows 8 ,iOS and Android actually gives me more computing power than a single expensive desktop (currently in mothballs) , access to 6 touch screens . And as we work in the cloud one machine is uploading video to youtube to use in this blog, a Nexus 7 is keeping up with my email ,and providing me a way of checking old blog posts which I need to refer to in this post, two dual screen tablets are in front of me that I am filming and working on too , with the iPad . Trying to do all this on a single desktop even with my 60 inch 5120 by 1600 2*30 Inch LCDS ..from one OS is ...like old dude ! So 2008... when they say the desktop is dead ... I have to say great ...I have done my share of 13 years of building rigs , that was cool in 1998 , now it is 2013 and I expect graphene paper thin tablets with 0 effort required on my part ...Are we there yet ? No? But PC users have started to turn away from the desktop form factor ..today I expect a gaming laptop to approach the level of last years best gaming desktop ..and the gap is closing.. Intel is stopping making Desktop boards after Haswell to concentrate on tablet hardware...and if that is not a sign of drastic changes, then consider Apple is on a vector to replace OSX with iOS and Ubuntu phones want to replace your entire computer set up altogether ..the old Rig of old is doomed ... 

Alongside the arrival and maturation of Windows 8 many technologies have emerged that change the way we compute these days, you have the coolest storage in postage stamp sizes msata ssds which are now up to 480 gigs and with excellent read write speeds, high res touch screens of all sizes, mobile cpus and gpu innovation is outsripping the old desktop cpu and uber expensive dedicated gpu model ( quad sli .. come one show me the drivers !). Throw all this together and we have a very healthy model of competition and innovation as well as increasing functionality for decreasing ,not increasing costs... Cloud based streaming through GAIKAI and yes ONLIVE as well as Core Online eliminates the hardware upgrade problem. When your gaming rigs value halves by the time you install your OS, remember it is not just the hardware inside that just became obsolete it is the whole form factor and the endless upgrade loop that manufacturers have had some of us on for 13 years that is doomed.. 

Thus Windows 8 with iOS and Android have  liberated me from what is really just a server of a desktop PC ... I love the idea that I have 3 different OS running machines that can still send data via the cloud to one application like this blogger post, without slowing down or grinding to a halt as even the most well endowed desktop rigs tend to do when you run two flash videos... or browsers ...

So was it worth it allocating my Crysis 3, Aliens Colonial Marines and Metal Gear Rising money towards 3 copies of Windows 8... hell yes.. if I had waited longer than the 31st it would have cost me £600!


To install Windows 8 Pro on your Toshiba Libretto W100 or W105 follow the procedure in my previous post  here to allow Metro Apps to work at 1024 by 768 on the 1024 by 600 screens. 

When installing Windows 8 on a dual screen you need to orient the screens and calibrate touch for both screens which is explained in my post here ( use the same procedure for any Dual Touch screen tablet ) 

this content is © and originated from thegameveda http://the-games-veda.blogspot.com/  if you are reading it from any other site that has not provided a link back it has been leached