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Windows 8.1 (Formerly ‘Blue’) Confirmed Free By Microsoft

May 15, 2013 No comments

We’ve been talking a lot about Windows Blue lately, trying to figure out what kind of changes it would bring.  In the last few weeks the codename Windows Blue has fallen away in favor of Windows 8.1.  Microsoft has now come forward to confirm that Windows 8.1 will be the official designation of the upgrade pack and that it will be available completely free of charge to all users, despite some speculation to the contrary.

It is also confirmed that a preview release will be available to the public within the next 30 days.  Microsoft has already made it clear that developers will have access to the latest build as of the BUILD conference running June 26-28.  Tickets have already sold out to that event, though they found room to release a few more beginning at 9am PDT today if you’re interested in attending.

Windows 8.1 will bring in a number of changes intended to placate the OS’s more vocal detractors and turn around the slow sales trend.

Leaked builds that have surfaced lately offer plenty of hints.  Installing these, despite their being unfinished, allows access to a greatly expanded Start Screen personalization screen, improved Charms and Bing-powered searching, and a collection of new built-in apps.  People have also dredged up signs of a Boot to Desktop option, the return of the Start button, an upgrade to Internet Explorer 11, and more.

It will be interesting to see how this turns out.  Certain likely portions of the update, including the anticipated return of the Start button, will remove much of the room for complaints that have become common.  There is little chance that it will kick off a wave of consumer upgrades from Windows 7 without the added incentive of a sale, but adding more familiar interface elements back in will make selling to business clients far simpler.

The same blog that finally formally acknowledged that there have been some missteps.  Tami Reller, Windows CMO/CFO, came forward to talk about what they’ve done wrong and how things are getting fixed.  Microsoft is working more closely with hardware partners now to get touchscreen devices into circulation (a necessity to get the very most out of Windows 8).  They’re also trying to respond to a great deal of the customer feedback that has been generated since its launch back in October.

Reller said in a recent interview that “we don’t want customers to hesitate in any way.”  Hopefully by acknowledging more of the customer complaints they will be able to pull that off.  While 100 million licenses sold since October is a great start and puts things on par with the Windows 7 launch, it’s going to take a lot more for this to be recognized as a successful first year.

Microsoft News, Windows 8 UI, Windows 8.1 , , ,

Skype and the Xbox: Microsoft’s Set-top Future

May 14, 2013 No comments

skype logoWe have some time yet before Microsoft reveals the details of their new Xbox hardware, but the speculation already points to certain interesting applications. Chief among these is the possibilities presented by serious Skype integration.  Properly implemented, this could open up whole new markets and drastically expand the potential audience for the next generation of Xbox.

This all relies on efforts to redefine the Xbox as more than just a gaming device.  We have what seems to be solid information that it will be capable of HDMI passthrough as well as cable TV integration.  That fits in with the ongoing attempt to make Microsoft devices into a media center mainstay.  We’ve also heard a fair amount of speculation that the Kinect peripheral will be an integral part of the new console.

Put those things together and we have something really interesting.  If they were to push Skype as a major feature, it would have the potential to make every television into a telecommunication device.

That’s not exactly a surprising application given how much time and effort Microsoft has invested in developing Skype as a core part of their business, but it wouldn’t have been possible before now.  Because the Kinect was something that came post-launch for the Xbox 360 console it was impossible to make design choices that relied on the assumption of its presence.  This time around there will be more to work with.

The big sticking point will be how the console is priced.  There has been some interesting speculation surrounding that as well.

It is possible, though not quite as probably as the general Kinect integration, that a cut-down model of the next generation Xbox will be available solely as a passthrough device that improves the media center experience.  The rumors surrounding this model indicate that it would have minimal onboard storage and no optical drive, but that it would be able to handle most of the non-gaming tasks of the full-feature device.

If that were to be made available at a price around $100-150, it would open a lot of doors.  There is already a small market built up around names like Roku that provide living room access to Netflix and other media services for a minimal initial investment.  Bringing some form of the Windows 8 experience to a set-top device would provide a superior experience at a comparable price.

While speculative, there’s a lot of potential here.  If Microsoft is really looking to make the Modern UI a unified environment spanning pretty much everything with a screen, which seems to be the case, televisions won’t be overlooked.  Having Skype available on any screen at any time would certainly help with that and more.

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How long before Microsoft moves entirely to subscriptions?

May 10, 2013 No comments

 

Adobe recently announced that they were eliminating their Creative Suite software in favor of a web-based service.  This once again introduces some speculation that Microsoft will follow a similar path by getting rid of its Office software, and possibly more, in favor of the Office 365 service.

For the moment that is not going to be an issue.  In a recent blog post from Office team spokesman Clint Patterson, we learned that the move has been considered already but has not been deemed wise for the moment.  Specifically, Patterson states that “we think people’s shift from packaged software to subscription services will take time.”

That does indicate a sense of inevitability about the whole transition.  While the time frame that Patterson presents is around a decade, which incidentally puts him right in line with other such estimates that have come out of the company before now, that only covers the Office side of business.  There is also the chance that other pieces of Microsoft software, up to and including Windows itself, could be brought to the same model.

The appeal of the subscription model is obvious.  It can interest more customers thanks to the lower initial adoption cost while providing a more reliable income stream as time goes on.  Customers also benefit in many ways thanks to the constantly updated nature of such services.  Microsoft gets a smaller fee each month that adds up to far more than a single purchase ever would as time goes on while the customer is assured of the very latest features, improvements, and compatibility.

It sounds great when you put it the right way, but it isn’t a model that will work for all users.  Many volume license accounts have no interest in updating to the latest version on a regular basis.  The emphasis is on stability rather than keeping current.  Software as a service doesn’t account for that approach nearly as well.  Rolling updates for something like Windows 8 would only introduce more such conflicts, given how even minor interface adjustments can have a significant short term impact on productivity.

As it stands, we can expect to see the subscription option become the standard on a number of products.  Office is pretty much inevitable.  The shift to Office 365 as the basic package has already been emphasized in marketing and development efforts and there’s no sign of that stopping.  It allows for a lot more flexibility on the personal level, opening up the software to far more people, and the web apps associated with it present a lot of opportunities.

Operating systems and other such basic functions will take a while longer.  It’s likely that there will be at least some attempt to run a subscription-based Windows environment at some point, but the resistance to that is likely to make the bad publicity Windows 8 has enjoyed look negligible.  We know it’s going to be attempted in some form and that efforts will certainly begin in the next few years, but success would be a long shot.

 

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Nook may become Microsoft’s iBooks competitor after $1 Billion purchase

May 9, 2013 No comments

 

Windows NookThe folks over at TechCrunch have acquired some internal Microsoft documents that detail a proposed purchase of Nook Media LLC, Barnes & Noble’s digital arm.  They are offering to pay $1 Billion for the eBook, eReader, and Tablet assets that the Nook brand represents.  Other portions of this fairly recent spinoff from Barnes & Noble, such as their college book division, would be left behind.

This follows rumors, seemingly confirmed by the same internal documents, that Nook Media plans to discontinue its Android tablet line.  We were hearing some talk back in February that indicated a move toward platform agnostic eBook sales, but this is the first solid evidence that has turned up. 

People who already own Nook Tablets were recently given open access to the Google Play store as Nook Media ended its attempts to run a closed app store of their own.  It was thought to be an attempt to lure in users who might otherwise be tempted by the competing Kindle Fire HD, but it’s entirely possible that they are already setting up to completely abandon the whole Android device market.

Instead of running on proprietary devices, the Nook digital product line will be served up through “third party partner” devices.  There is a very good chance that the partner being alluded to here was already Microsoft, given their early investment in the company and the level of integration we’ve seen from the Nook app currently available in the Windows Store.

If this sale were to take place, it could be the start of some interesting changes in the Windows 8 device selection.  While they have never managed to get on top for long, Barnes & Noble put together one of the most impressive eReader platforms in use.  Couple that with a popular, if not wildly successful, tablet line and there’s a lot of potential for Microsoft’s development.

The obvious prospect, a Windows 8-based eReader that carries an integrated Nook app but still allows access to other content providers, would only be the start of things.  It wouldn’t hurt either company at all to have a reliable brand showing off one of the first new 7” Windows RT tablets to hit the market toward the end of this year.  New Nook Tablets could only improve, seeing as their major shortcoming until recently has been the lack of an app selection comparable to Amazon’s/

Neither Microsoft nor Barnes & Noble has been willing to comment on these documents so far. 

If Microsoft does manage to make this deal, they would be getting away with a fairly cheap purchase, all things considered.  Nook Media was valued at over $1.7 Billion when it was created back in October and even impressively bad sales on the hardware side of things have not been sufficient to tank the company’s value that much. 

Either way Microsoft will continue to have a close relationship with Nook Media.  This purchase may be the only way we’ll see a Windows 8 branded Nook Tablet in the future, though.

 

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Windows 8.1 Preview Confirmed for June Release by Microsoft

May 8, 2013 No comments

 

In a recent Q&A session over at the Blogging Windows site, Tami Reller gave some information about the current situation and near future of Windows 8.  While there were a number of things touched on, the most interesting is probably the confirmation of Windows Blue.  It’s not news in itself, but Microsoft has largely been quiet about things so far.  Later, at the Wired Business Conference, Julie Larson-Green not only confirmed this but set a release time for the public preview.

As many have suspected before now, Microsoft will be releasing Windows Blue to developers at the Build conference.  That means we’ll have access to functioning previews before the end of June.  The leaked builds are handy, but it’s fair to say that this will be a far more informative release.

The Reller interview emphasized that Microsoft is interested in responding to customer feedback as much as possible in this update.  That explains things like the Boot to Desktop feature that’s been rumored as well as the greatly improved multitasking capability that we can already see at work in leaked builds.

Obviously the majority of the changes that we’re expecting will focus on improving the “Metro” experience for desktop users.  Everything from a new personalization interface to an expanded Microsoft app selection has been observed.  That doesn’t mean no other needs will be addressed, though.

Battery life improvements are likely to be the most appreciated tweak for a lot of people, but things like broader support for currently unsupported resolutions will be more than welcome as well.  The Windows 8.1 release toward the end of this year will certainly bring with it any number of smaller devices ready to take advantage of every new niche that Microsoft opens up.  If there’s one thing the Windows tablet market could use right now, it’s affordable smaller devices with decent battery life and backward compatibility.

The rest of what we’ve seen so far has been an emphasis on the successes that have been managed despite the questionable consumer reviews.

The Windows Store now contains six times the number of apps that it did at launch, for example.  According to Reller, that puts them ahead of where the iOS app store was in their first year, even if it’s fairly unimpressive compared to the present state of other ecosystems.  Another cited stat indicates that over 250 million apps have been downloaded, which includes over 90% of the catalog being downloaded every month.  Admittedly that’s got to be seen as fairly good news.

 

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Hotmail is over, welcome to Outlook.com

May 3, 2013 No comments

Outlook.comIt’s official, Microsoft has made the complete transition to Outlook.com.  Hotmail is no longer active and all former Hotmail users have been moved over to the new service.  It’s a huge accomplishment, a major rebranding, and an opportunity to finally begin introducing new features rather than devote every resource to the transfer.  Also, nobody is likely to open a new *@hotmail.com account from this point on, to the relief of us all.

The bit announcement contained some details about the transfer as well as the amusing infographic below.

Apparently over 400 million accounts are now active on Outlook.com.  Of these, around 300 million seem to have been transferred from the Hotmail service.  A sharp increase from the 60 million active accounts that we heard about in February.

Outlook infographicIn the past six weeks, Microsoft moved over 150 petabytes of data.  That’s an absurd amount of email, in case anybody wasn’t sure.

All told, it’s definitely something to brag about on Microsoft’s end.  Fortunately they’re using the opportunity to do more than make a PR move.  A couple new features have already been introduced.

Outlook.com users can now take advantage of SMTP Send, for example, which makes life much easier for people working through multiple email addresses.  It’s being rolled out worldwide at this point, but should be available to most of the US right away.

SkyDrive integration has also been drastically expanded.  Rather than simply uploading attachments, it’s now possible to select items from your SkyDrive and add them.  They will be included with thumbnail links that already have the proper permissions to share with the recipient.  Pictures shared in this way will automatically generate photo mail.

Perhaps most importantly, Skype is being built directly into the Outlook interface.  It’s a beta feature at the moment, but first the UK and then the US and Germany will be getting audio and video calling right in their inboxes.  If you consider the other new feature testing at Skype right now, video messaging, it makes even more sense.  Complete integration could eventually make Outlook.com into a far more functional substitute for the now defunct MSN Messenger service.

There’s still room to grow and a number of new features to look forward to that haven’t been discussed yet, but this is progress.  It’s completely fair to say that Microsoft has come up with a reliable alternative to Gmail for the average user.  At this point, given the antagonism between the two companies, they couldn’t really afford to do anything less.

Microsoft News ,

Microsoft’s tablet business is just barely holding its own

May 2, 2013 No comments

While there is no indication that Microsoft plans to release sales numbers in the near future, we have reports from various research firms willing to speculate on how well their sales have been doing lately.  The most recent numbers are looking ok for the new platform.  Not great, by any means, but the Windows 8 tablet is far from dead on arrival and has seen some modest gains lately.

IDC estimates that Microsoft sold about 900,000 Surface units, probably mostly the Surface Pro model, during the first quarter of this year.  That accounts for 1.8% of the overall tablet market, but definitely represents more success than their Q4 2012 numbers were able to provide.  Even though the Q4 numbers coming out of Bloomberg were higher, taking the holiday sales trends into account makes the early 2013 results more impressive by comparison.  That doesn’t

Strategy Analytics looked beyond the Surface line to check out the whole Windows 8 tablet market.  They determined that there were likely 3 million sold during this past quarter.  That includes the Surface line as well as a number of other devices from Microsoft’s hardware partners.

That would seem to indicate more success among the non-Surface tablets than many had expected.  While there is a selection to work with at this point, it is hardly a large one.  We’re still waiting on some of the more impressive designs that have only been hinted at as well as the promised smaller versions that will compete in terms of size and price against popular Android tablets like the Nexus 7 and the Kindle Fire HD.

All of this puts Microsoft in the position of holding around 3% of the tablet market globally.

That comes at a time when there is a lot of transition going in throughout this area.  Android has finally surpassed iOS as the operating system of choice among tablet owners.  27.8 million Android tablets were shipped last quarter compared to 19.5 million iPads.  Everybody is experiencing fairly steady growth and the market as a whole continues to expand as adoption increases.

While they don’t really have the standing to compete with either Apple or Google head to head with their current products, the outlook could be good for Microsoft.

They are almost ready to expand Surface availability beyond the US and Canada (and China, though apparently it’s not particularly easy to come by there at the moment for various reasons).  This will open up a lot of potential sales.

The introduction of smaller Surface tablets has a good chance of bringing the numbers up as well.  Even the iPad Mini is selling well despite mediocre performance and poor system specs compared to its competition.  A similarly priced tablet in the same bracket could have a huge impact in Windows 8 device sales if Microsoft keeps their product standards as high as we’ve seen so far.

Right now they can be said to have a foot in the door.  It remains to be seen how far they will go to make this work.  Microsoft has the potential to do something big here, but that doesn’t mean it’s a sure thing.

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Microsoft plans to pass the buck on new Xbox DRM decisions

May 1, 2013 No comments

The biggest problem that Microsoft has with the upcoming release of their new Xbox console is that of how to properly sell its new DRM capabilities.  The recent uproar over Twitter comments asking why it could possibly be such a big deal has already led to the resignation of Adam Orth.  It’s pretty clear that this is not something people will just let go.

Xbox 720?Microsoft’s solution is something of a cop-out.  They plan to make the always-on DRM scheme available for any publisher that wants to make use of it, but it will not be forced on anybody.  This means that they can claim to have no fault in the end when customers are upset over the problems arising from this sort of highly restrictive setup.

The alternative that publishers can choose to go with is a one-time validation of the game.  There will be no truly offline console experience anymore from the sound of it, though hopefully in this situation it will be possible to play offline once the validation has been processed.  That would be handy for people wanting to use their console in internet-free situations or even in the entirely unprecedented event of an internet outage.

After the issues that EA has been dealing with regarding SimCity’s always-on problems, we have to imagine that a lot of well-intentioned attempts to curb piracy will end up causing headaches for everybody involved.  We also have to assume that the chances of major game publishers realizing this and choosing not to go with the more restrictive option are slim at best.  It will be a very long time before the biggest names in the field acknowledge that piracy doesn’t have much of an effect on the grand scheme of things.

Obviously there is the chance that some of this could change in the time leading up to the big reveal of the Xbox 360’s successor.  We still don’t even know the name of the console, let alone many of the details about it.  Since the DRM situation will obviously be handled by the software wide of things it should be possible for Microsoft to keep things in limbo up until we actually see units hit the shelves.  Theoretically they could even choose to change or remove options well after the eventual release date, though that becomes less likely as time goes on.

We do know of a couple other improvements that should be helpful to the overall experience.

The limited space on the Xbox Live friends list has been eliminated, which will come as a relief to many people.  You can sign up everybody you know and play with without trouble now.

The achievement system has also been revamped slightly to allow publishers to dynamically manipulate what is available.  Previously the only way to add achievements to a game after it was launched was to package them inside some sort of downloadable content pack.

We’ll know more for sure after the preview event on June 10th!

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Latest Windows 8.1 build features IE11 Dev Tools, Lock Screen alarms, and more

May 1, 2013 No comments

This latest release has apparently not made it to many of the file sharing sites just yet, so it’s hard to even snag an illicit copy, but there have been some interesting screenshots surfacing from the most recent build of Windows 8.1. The selection follows the trend of adding in smaller refinements that make the new Modern UI more functional without drastically changing anything about the core experience.

Lock Screen AlarmThe most apparent addition in build 9385 is the introduction of Lock Screen alarms.  We’ve already had the option to show notifications for a chosen selection of apps as well as a single detailed status, but now you’ll get to pick out an app that is allowed to create alarms that will show up even if your system is locked.

Obviously it’s going to take some time for that to be implemented in many apps, given that third party developers will have to throw in the proper hooks, but it’s good to have.  The built in Windows 8 clock might be able to handle the most basic functions you’re looking for, but that’s hard to find details about at the moment since the leaked build is hard to find.  Some of the screenshots indicate it could be very useful indeed.

IE11 Dev ToolsOn the development side of things, they have added in some new tools for working on Internet Explorer 11 (IE11). The new interface makes it easy to work on debugging and other such tasks in a simple manner, making life easier all around.  There looks like a lot of room is left to grow on that, however, so we will have to look at it more thoroughly in a future release.

Other than that there are just a couple small changes.  The “Kiosk Mode” that we commented on previously was worked on a bit more.  It is now called “Assigned Access”, for whatever reason.  Maybe using the word “kiosk” was seen as limiting the potential usefulness?  It still accomplishes the same thing: locking a user’s account down to a specific Modern UI app immediately after they log in.

The Boot to Desktop option is still in limbo and there is no Start button to be seen.  Neither of these features is exactly a sure thing, but a number of disparate sources have pointed to the Boot to Desktop control as a sure thing for the final release.  It will certainly be available in time for the upcoming Preview release if that ends up being the case.

Overall it’s been a fairly slow week for Windows 8.1 news, but changes are still coming through.  If rumors hold true and the Preview takes place in early June then there are just a few short weeks to get the major features ready for user testing.  That means it’s going to be a rush of tweaks and additions in the meantime as things are made functional.  We’ll be keeping an eye on it.

Windows 8 Apps, Windows 8 Features, Windows 8.1 , , ,

Skype for Windows is getting Video Messaging in the new beta

May 1, 2013 No comments

Skype Video Messaging

The latest addition to the Skype platform is Video Messaging.  This allows you to send clips to your contacts when it’s not possible to set up an actual call.  It definitely adds more potential depth than you can get with the usual old text messages.  After a bit of a wait, they’re bringing the new feature to Windows.

Video Messaging has actually been in testing for Android, iOS, and Macs since back in February.  The current setup allows users to send up to 20 video notes for free every month before they are asked to sign up for Skype Premium.  Even then, should the ability to send these messages be really useful it’s hard to argue with $4.99 a month.

Skype Beta Client

 

Users of Windows 8 and the Windows Phone client are going to be able to receive

 

If you’re interested in joining the test group, you can pick up the beta client by clicking here.video messages but not send their own.  The beta clients for Windows 7 and the Windows 8 desktop, however, will be able to join in on the fun.  Supposedly the Windows Store app will be updated to take advantage of this in the near future, but “shortly” could really mean a lot of things.

 

 

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