Happy Monday, everyone. It's time to kick off another week with your daily dose of tech news, and there was no shortage of it today. Perhaps most noteworthy, though, at least for the business-minded folks out there, is that Google's deal to acquire Motorola's presence in the mobile market has been approved by both the European Union and the US Department of Justics (you know, the same people who probably would have never let AT&T buy T-Mobile). Now it's just a matter of paperwork before Motorola and Google become one.
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- Motorola DROID 4 vs DROID RAZR MAXX vs entire Verizon Android lineup
- HP Z1 Workstation hands-on
- Join in on SlashGear’s WIMM Spring Developers Project!
- The PS Vita Will Be Sony’s Last Portable
- Why I Don’t Want to Imagine A World Without A DVR
- SlashGear 101: Windows 8 on ARM
- SlashGear 101: Android@Home
- Motorola DROID 4 Hands-On and Unboxing
‘Windows 8’ Stories
SlashGear Evening Wrap-Up: February 13, 2012
Windows 8 Firefox getting Metro-Style makeover
This week the folks at Mozilla have revealed that they'll be making their biggest interface makeover ever with the launch of their Windows 8 inspired version of Firefox. This version will have a Windows 8 "Metro" styling and will provide and "entirely new" Firefox environment made specifically for the new Microsoft operating system. Mozilla has released a product vision and roadmap update today which noted that "the feature goal here is a new Gecko based browser built for an integrated with the Metro environment."
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SlashGear 101: Windows 8 on ARM
So, fellow Windows users, who among you can’t wait to run to your local electronics store this fall and install Windows 8 – on your three-year-old home built benchmark buster? As exciting as a new version of Windows can be, this time the excitement’s all about the ARM-based opportunities that an entirely new hardware and software platform can provide. Microsoft’s been a little squirrely on Windows 8 for ARM hardware (Which they’re referring to as “WOA” for short), but Steven Sinofsky, President of the Windows division broke it all down in a massive article at MSDN. If you’re a Windows developer it’s required reading, but we’re breaking it down here for the consumer side of things.
Microsoft confirms Windows 8 ARM desktop support, previews Metro-styled Office 15
Microsoft has confirmed that Windows 8 for ARM-based devices will support full desktop applications following concerns that only Metro apps would be supported. Via the Buildings Windows 8 blog, Microsoft's Steven Sinofsky further detailed Windows 8 for ARM and previewed a Metro-styled Office 15.
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SlashGear Evening Wrap-Up: February 8, 2012
Zdravstvuj everyone! Especially our Russian friends. Yes, that weird word at the beginning of this post is "hello" in Russian, and is the perfect segue into our first story on today's evening wrap-up: Siri may get Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, and Russian language support in March. As we all know, Siri won't rest until she's taken over the entire world. That's something to worry about, but luckily the privacy issues people had with the iPhone's Path won't be. A Path update went live today to try to resolve the problem.
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Microsoft Windows 8 Consumer Preview announced for MWC 2012
The consumer version of Microsoft's newest hero system Windows 8 will be previewed this year in Spain at Mobile World Congress 2012. We've been invited to the event, it taking place on the 29th of February at 3PM local time and will be bringing you all the action we can capture as it happens. This Consumer preview will likely let us know exactly what we'll be looking at in the release for Windows 8 to the broader market early this year, hopefully inside the end of February or soon after.
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Windows 8 ARM version may still include a desktop mode
Excitement over the news that Windows 8 will be coming in an ARM-powered version for tablets and other low-power devices has been somewhat tempered by the idea that it will be hobbled, restricted to the pretty yet less powerful Metro user interface. Today Microsoft laid those fears to rest somewhat, implying via its MSDN blog that both the X86/x64 and ARM versions would get the old-school desktop mode, familiar to any heavy Windows user. That's great news for anyone who wants a full computing environment in a small package, not the mobile-style interface of the iPad and Android tablets.
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Windows 8 gaming line-up revealed
Microsoft's Windows 8 gaming drive has been previewed ahead of the next-gen OS' release, with details on the initial line-up of titles being leaked as the company readies a cross-platform attack. Eleven launch games have been confirmed to The Verge, along with the promise of Pinball and Solitaire being preloaded in the Windows 8 Consumer Preview; the bulk of the titles will be distributed via the Windows Store, however.
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Microsoft kills the Start button in latest Windows 8 build
Microsoft hasn't been shy about the radical direction it's taking with the user interface design on Windows 8, but it looks like their latest change may be a big one. PCBeta reports that the latest build of Microsoft's next operating system does away with the ubiquitous "Start" button, which has graced Windows for almost twenty years. The functionality of the Start button remains, but as a limited "hotspot" in the lower-left corner by default, not unlike the Aero Peek feature in Windows 7. Even that functionality is only present in the classic or desktop mode, which drops the shiny new Metro tile interface for a more traditional windowed UI.
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Why Microsoft’s Kinect Is the Next Big Thing In Gaming
As I’ve said numerous times on these pages before, I’m deeply concerned by motion gaming. I think it’s holding the gaming business back and helps to make the space seem “gimmicky” — something I thought we were trying to move away from.
My issues with motion gaming have prompted me to turn my back on the Wii. In fact, I haven’t even seen my Wii in well over a year, since it’s been sitting in my closet with the rest of the obsolete and boring consoles I’ve bought over the years.
Windows Phone 8: Win8 Kernel and deep-hook Skype confirmed
Spilled details on Windows Phone 8 "Apollo" have opened the floodgates on Microsoft's next significant update to its smartphone software, with more tidbits on the Windows 8 kernel based platform slipping out. Paul Thurrott confirms the shared kernel, along with the multi-core processor support, sensor fusion, security model, network, and video and graphics technologies from Windows 8, though says Skype will remain a separate app rather than baked in at the OS level.
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Windows 8 has tablet advantage over Android says ARM chief
ARM processors and Microsoft's Windows may not be commonly found cohabiting the same device, but ARM CEO Warren East reckons Windows 8 could have the edge over Android in tablets thanks to the platform's brand recognition. "Consumers are familiar with Microsoft and very familiar with Windows and they're less familiar with an Android environment" East said during the company's financial results call this week, CNET reports. "Microsoft has an awareness advantage with consumers that the Android folks didn't have."
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