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Microsoft Previews Windows 8 with Cues from iPad and App Store

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At AllThingsD, Microsoft previewed Windows 8 for the first time. The early look at the upcoming operating system shows some drastic changes.
At the heart of the new interface is a new start screen that draws heavily on the tile-based interface that Microsoft has used with Windows Phone 7. All of a user’s programs can be viewed as tiles and clicked on with a touch of a finger.
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The shown Windows 8 screenshot carries over the tile-based appearance of the Windows Mobile phone, but the new operating system is said to support two types of applications. One is the classic Windows application which will run in the familiar desktop interface, while the second type are HTML5/Javascript applications that look more like a full screen mobile application.

Windows 8 is said to have been influenced by the iPad and is meant to scale from touch screen devices to desktop. The prominent "Store" link seems to suggest that Microsoft will be offering a Windows App Store, much like Apple's Mac App Store. Microsoft promises that while the interface is optimized for touch, it should also work equally well with a mouse and keyboard.

Microsoft details many of the changes they demoed:
• Fast launching of apps from a tile-based Start screen, which replaces the Windows Start menu with a customizable, scalable full-screen view of apps.
• Live tiles with notifications, showing always up-to-date information from your apps.
• Fluid, natural switching between running apps.
• Convenient ability to snap and resize an app to the side of the screen, so you can really multitask using the capabilities of Windows.
• Web-connected and Web-powered apps built using HTML5 and JavaScript that have access to the full power of the PC.
• Fully touch-optimized browsing, with all the power of hardware-accelerated Internet Explorer 10.
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Microsoft has not yet announced a timeframe for Windows 8's launch.

Apple, of course, is also reintegrating iOS mobile inspired changes into their next major operating system. Mac OS X Lion has been billed as taking "our best thinking from iPad" and bringing it all to the Mac. These features include full screen apps, the Mac App Store, and more. Apple will be presenting more on Mac OS X Lion at next week's WWDC.


Article Link: Microsoft Previews Windows 8 with Cues from iPad and App Store
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2011/06/01/microsoft-previews-windows-8-with-cues-from-ipad-and-app-store/
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Seems cluttered (judging from the screen capture) for my own taste. I'm sure it is a work in progress.

On a side note: it seems like people might have to upgrade to 'touch'-enabled PC's; it looks as though Windows 8 seems to be pushing a 'touch-centric' interface with those interactive tiles. Pretty much a paradigm shift away from icons.

Can't wait to see Lion next week!
 
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Windows is at it again, stealing ideas from Apple. :rolleyes:
 
Too me, it looks like a children's game, not a robust operating system. Sometimes eye candy gets in the way of getting things done.
 
Slix said:
Windows is at it again, stealing ideas from Apple. :rolleyes:
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This looks nothing like iOS. It makes iOS4 look like a child's toy OS. Apple better bring some heat next week or they're about to be leapfrogged in terms of software.
 
its pretty ironic that Microsoft is turning to ipad and its flawless touch screen interface, I guess they are very envious about the tablet they could had it. Since i left windows from vista I have never used windows 7 and I doubt i will taint my macbook and imac with windows 8, looking forward to the new os x though.
 
It's a good solid effort for making Windows more tablet/finger friendly.

But 90% of Windows systems will be desktops/laptops with keyboards/mice... running "normal" Windows software.

The touch interface is great... until you launch a regular windows program. Then it turns into the same ol' Windows.
 
Bat6111 said:
up there at the article "influences by the iPad :apple:
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Sorry if I'm being dumb here... but that to me looks nothing like iOS. It looks like WP7, which works in a much different way (and what looks like a more innovative way might I add) than iOS.
 
this is pretty cool, but lets hope for people who use windows its all its cracked up to be. i mean it was all supposed be nice and fluid and applications were supposed to open up quick in every other version of windows, and look how that turned out lol. but it does look pretty cool lets just hope it works.
 
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I applaud Microsoft! it's a good effort. Sure there are improvements to be made but this is a huge change to the ui
 
I think the UI is great. The multi colors help a user read instantly that each part does and creates color memory.

However, i was disgusted when they went to the regular Windows 7 UI, it feels like Windows 8 is merely another layer on top of an already ridiculously overweight OS. THey need to lightening it a little bit or at least make the UI feel similar

All in all the touch based UI is great, the mouse based UI is ridiculously old.
 
Windows just jumped the shark. Can't wait for ChromeOS to eat into its marketshare.
 
Dr Kevorkian94 said:
this is pretty cool, but lets hope for people who use windows its all its cracked up to be. i mean it was all supposed be nice and fluid and applications were supposed to open up quick in every other version of windows, and look how that turned out lol. but it does look pretty cool lets just hope it works.
Click to expand...

You clearly haven't used Windows Phone 7. It's at least as fast as shown in this video on a weak mobile phone processor. A full desktop processor will have no problems doing what is shown here.
 
Well not that we didn't already know this but jeez,

The rise of the tablet is sooner than I thought,

full-screen apps, multi-touch, app-store, html5, onscreen keyboards!

This also means that this will prolly be able to be hacked onto the ipad once its launched

This will prolly kill android tablets
 
Much as I love OSX and will be using Lion, I think that looks pretty good. Microsoft have made some pretty brave design choices in the past year!
 
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Interesting.

I'd like to hear more of under the hood changes. Take some more bloat out of Windows.
 
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