Windows 8: First impressions

Windows 8 Screenshot

Hooray for Microsoft. Their view of a Windows 7 tablet world nearly had me worried. However, coming from the labs for a surprising public demo this week was a pre-release of Windows 8. Apparently, Ballmer wasn’t lying when he gave some precursory remarks about upcoming Windows releases last week.

Albeit an interesting new release, my take from the demo is nothing short of Microsoft's attempt to embrace the tablet world without forsaking the traditional, legacy operating environment and applications we’ve been used to for some twenty-five years now. Does it pull it off? Meaning, is it just regular-old Windows with a sketchy touch skin on top? And does it make more sense to combine the flexibility of the desktop into a tablet device rather than build a completely separate tablet OS altogether? We can only know when the final build is released, but for the time being, let’s explore this a little more.



Before today, we all knew that Microsoft was working to make Windows support ARM-based processors. With that only foreshadowing what was to come, it seemed that they still had not learned their lesson that desktop operating systems do not fit on small, touch-based devices. Windows, as it is today, is simply too clunky and cannot compete on a functional level with touch-based products like the iPad or any recent Android tablet.

However, it looks as if they are trying their damnedest to get the best of both worlds for future Windows products. That’s right. We can assume there will be no separate operating environment called the Windows Tab for the tablet, as Windows Phone is to the phone.

In the demos, however, Windows 8 does act like like Windows Phone—live tiles and all—but it may not necessarily be based on the same code. Instead, it seems to be a layered system, where Windows still runs underneath (hopefully with some much needed tweaking and slimming down), but in the forefront you see a “Start” screen like never before. While looking a little like Windows Media Center, tiles are scattered across the screen, just as in Windows Phone. In this UI, you can have news and social media tiles, widgets and other apps all displaying information so you don’t have to fire up each particular application to get what you want—a design feature touted heavily by Windows Phone marketing campaigns.

Again, the system does run a traditional Windows desktop underneath, but the entire OS is said to be completely redesigned for touch input. If you have used a HP TouchSmart PC with Windows 7, then you know exactly how important this is.

Other things of note is a completely new soft keyboard, which seems to work quite well, and also the ability to run touch apps right next to mouse and keyboard apps. It’s hard to tell without using the product whether or not this has any realistic use. But from a technology-advocate's standpoint, it's good to see that Microsoft isn't afraid to try something new, and I think this is a step in the right direction. Only time and money will tell if this is the answer consumers and professionals are looking for.

Good times with the iPad 2

Continuing to explore the awesomeness that is the iPad, here's a video I shot a couple days ago using the new HD camera on the iPad 2. Then I edited, created transitions, added music, and exported the clip entirely in the new iMovie app:



I'm super impressed with iMovie's fluid and fast functionality. I'll post a video shortly to demo it's interface and speed. To give you an idea of how well it works: I own a 17" MacBook Pro with an 2.53 Intel i7 processor. The iMovie software on the iPad feels faster than that laptop when working with the same resolution and bit-rate video. That's saying a lot; it's a freaking tiny tablet.

All eyes on Apple... the iPad 2 [u]

Here we go, just ten minutes before the iPad 2 announcement and whatever else might be in store for us tech-hungry savages.

My predictions, if I must guess, will be a revamped, slightly redesigned iPad with a thinner body and at least a front facing camera for FaceTime. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that there won't be a back camera—for reasons I'm not quite sure of. I only suggest that because it seems odd to hold up a large tablet device to take pictures with. And I'm not sure Apple thinks that would be so user-friendly.

For the internals, I'm guess a faster processor, updated graphics performance—what chip they'll use for graphics is beyond my ability to even guess—but I'm sure we'll see something like the "A5" somewhere in the presentation. And there will most definitely be more RAM—512MB at least.

As for the display, I doubt a retina display will be any part of the new iPad. That's just way too many pixels for such tiny hardware and battery to be able to support well—at least for the time being.

My next guess is that it will surely be sporting some new version of iOS, though I doubt iOS 5 will be ready just yet. If so they do show iOS 5, it will be a preview of the OS and only available on new iPads once they're release a month or so from now, which leads me to my next prediction:

The updated iPad won't be immediately available for purchase, rather that Apple will allow pre-orders starting today on their website for shipment later this month or sometime in April.

And lastly, I doubt Apple will rename the iPad as "iPad 2." Instead, they'll opt for "the new iPad" to label their tablet product.

We'll see how all this turns out in just a few minutes...

Update:

Well, it looks like I was right on a few things and wrong on a few things...

The iPad 2 is redesigned with a thinner body, it does have a FaceTime camera, the A5 chip with faster graphics and CPU performance, no retina display, no iOS 5, and it won't ship immediately.

However, I was wrong, first and foremost, on the name. It is called "iPad 2," and not "the new iPad." Although it's worth noting only the word "iPad" is etched into the back of the iPad 2, much like how the word "iPhone" has remained the only label on the back of each iPhone iteration. And though I had not thought about it, there will also be a white version available for launch along with the black version.

Next, there is a camera on the front as well as the back unlike I had predicted. And apparently the back camera is capable of HD video of 720p.

Some of the biggest improvements to the iPad that nobody had been aware of was the addition of iMovie and Garageband for iPad. Both multimedia software suites are incredibly advanced—and not just for a small tablet device. Both new Apple-developed apps rival high-dollar desktop apps in capability and diversity of available effects and software instruments. I'm extremely excited to try them out, being a musician and occasional film editor. To top it all off, each of these apps are to be available with the release of iPad 2, both for an incredible price of $4.99 each.

With software advances like these, Motorola and Android tablet competitors have to be shaking in their cubicles.

Other things of note are the PhotoBooth software, the new case/cover design, the HDMI output (which is freaking awesome), more AirPlay support in other video apps, HomeSharing of iTunes material over WiFi for iPad, and 17K new book titles available on the iBookStore thanks to a deal with Random House Publishing, Inc.

Looks like they're not allowing pre-orders yet. All the fun begins all at once next Friday, March 11. Sales of the iPad start at 5 p.m.

Any let downs?

I personally don't like the look of the device from the back. That also might be a reason they didn't quite reveal the back too often during the presentation. There seem too many switches and holes scattering the super-flat, bland looking back. The fact that it's thinner is kinda lost on me. Seems like just getting the thinnest it can possibly be doesn't make much sense when that new available space could be used for a bigger battery for an ungodly amount of battery life.

And I think that will do it. You'll see me in line this go-around at an Atlanta Apple store.

What will Apple name the forthcoming iPad?

What will apple name the next iPad? That might seem like a moot question, but it's worth asking. Let me explain.

Take a look at the recent MacBook Pro refresh. The new models weren't renamed "MacBook Pro 16," rather keeping the "MacBook" label and sticking "new" in the front. And as for the different iPod lines, renaming occurs here and there, but Apple had never used numbers to any of those updates: iPod, iPod Mini, iPod Shuffle, iPod nano, iPod Touch, and remained so through each product's life-cycle. Also, the current and completely redesigned Apple TV is still called the "Apple TV."

The iPhone, however, proves a deviation to that rule. The first iteration was called "iPhone," then "iPhone 3G," then "iPhone 3GS." Only now have they resorted to numbers with the naming of the iPhone 4.

So, is Apple already in the position of numbering of iPad refreshes? Or will they stick to appending the word "new" in front of the next update?

One hint that Apple might choose "iPad 2" lies in the invitations they sent out this past week, which show an iOS calendar app icon with the date March 2. From the corner, the page is peeled back to show an iPad, foreshadowing the now-obvious next-gen iPad announcement.

At a quick glance, the graphic even looks like it says "iPad 2."

It might be worth looking at whether or not Apple chooses to adopt the names the public already dubs their unreleased products. Though in no way a science, it might make sense from a marketing standpoint to keep the name people have already chosen for the next iPad—not to mention to differentiate the new product from the older one, especially if it's redesigned in any way.

All I know is that I've been waiting too long to buy one; I was late to the game in deciding if I had use for one. But after I had enough time to play with a few and realized that carrying around my 17" MacBook Pro was more of a hassle than I anticipated, the lust for that 64GB 3G iPad crept up not too long ago—when it would make no sense to buy one in the face of a forthcoming new iPad. Or iPad 2. Or whatever.

New tablets play "Me Too!" to the iPad

A recent look at the TouchPad, HP's new long-needed foray into the tablet market and HP Slate replacement, had me marveling at how similar every new tablet is, copying and switching each other's ideas to the point of indistinguishability.

Obviously, Apple hit it big with the iPad. And regardless of how "underwhelming" and "just-a-big-iPod-touchy" it seemed, it's now what every other company strives to be in this new, very competitive market. Sure, the TouchPad is different, and it still keeps its Palm underpinnings and UI cues that make it beautiful, polished and compelling, but a closer look at it reminds me so much of Android reminds me so much of Win7 tablets reminds me so much of everything else in the market since CES 2011. In essence, Apple is playing a big "I told you so" game as the rest of the world tries to keep up. Oh, the beauties of competition bring us the fruits of technological innovation, which are more or less nothing more than expensive grown-up toys, but I digress...

You always wonder what they will come up with next. Remember when you looked at the Motorola Razr and wondered just how cell phones could possibly get any smaller or better? Well, that's what tech companies do too. except that they make money and pay engineers to do it. Sooner or later someone will totally rethink something that will and should redefine the market, but as of late, that company is Apple. And it's not because they simply have better teams behind them and better marketing, it's just that have taken much bigger risks and put a hell of a lot of effort into market-altering products. Don't think that just because HP bought Palm and are now using their webOS platform that some brilliant engineers had not designed some amazing concept products that would, however, never see the light of day. Just look at the Courier concept that supposedly came from the Microsoft labs. In those situations, companies just didn't take the massive risk to put their resources into something that their market research told them nobody would buy.

Which brings us back to the iPad. It was a product announced to a world that knew of it's existence for nearly a decade. However, the loudest voices in the media said it wasn't good enough. There were no iPad focus groups. Apple developed the product blindly for years, as they so with nearly everything they make. That's a risk only few are willing to take.

Then what does everyone else still do? Well, just sit back, wait and watch a burgeoning new market explode and Apple again dominate a new arena. What and then after the wait-and-see approach to product development, it takes a year for anyone to come up with anything remotely compelling. Well, it's about damn time.

The HP TouchPad. The Motorola Xoom. The BlackBerry PlayBook. And, God-willing, a Microsoft product that doesn't use Windows 7 (Windows Tab 7, maybe?). These are the devices that may finally help us breathe in an Apple-drowned world. I don't care what it is, I just want it to be good and innovative.

Just have the balls, tech companies, to do something great and quit following in Apple's shoes.

Tablet Fever

Apparently at CES this year, some 100 or more tablets were announced or introduced.

That's crazy.

Just one year ago, right before the iPad was announced, Steve Ballmer got up on stage to announce a few tablets, highlighting one -- the HP Slate -- that wouldn't even go into production. Why? Because once again, the ideas and concept products from manufacturers all had to be re-thought and redesigned in order to compete.

The iPad. When it was announced January 2010, most tech journalists screamed disappointment, their favorite word to describe it being "underwhelming." Oh, it was "just a big iPod Touch." And most people wrote it off as unimportant nearly instantaneously. The problem wasn't with the device at all. The problem was with people's expectations. If the iPad cured cancer, it still wouldn't have satisfied those people. What, with all the hype and speculation the Apple Tablet had garnered for more than a decade?

But it turns out that being just a big iPod Touch is freaking awesome. As soon as I saw the iPad and then heard its "big iPod Touch" description, I thought, "Alright! A big iPod Touch! That's great!" What else could it have been? It seems that being just a larger iPod is still better than what any manufacturer could come up with for the past year and possibly even another year.

So the tablet hype is in full swing, and opinions about the iPad have come full circle. As soon as a few other manufacturers started seriously trying to ship Windows 7 tablets, we then had a more telling look at the devices when we could see them in action side-by-side. And the iPad won, over and over again.

Since then, Samsung recently has been the most direct competition for Apple with the release of the Samsung Galaxy Tab. It is built by using the phone Android OS, with Samsung doing what it can to make it more tablet-y. But after having high hopes for what it was and what it could do, after using it I was sadly disappointed. Samsung seemed to rush this thing into market, as it lacked real polish (as does most Android phones). And in many instances across the OS, there were too many references to the "phone" the OS thought is was running on. Looks like they forgot to erase the term "phone" and switch it to "tablet" or "tab." As an example, using a demo model, the Galaxy Tab told me that the phone was missing its card-storage.

However, now Android is finally out to compete is better products, and with the Android 3.0 "Honeycomb" OS coming on a bunch of new devices, we might finally see some actual competition for another market that Apple has once again dramatically influenced and/or dominated.

And as for Windows tablets? God, if they don't soon make the Windows Phone 7 OS over to a tablet form and call it Windows Tab 7 -- or something -- then they have no hope in this catagory. Somebody over there has got to get it together and realize that Windows 7 wont make it in the current market landscape. At CES, Microsoft announced that Windows will make it over to support an ARM-based infrastructure, which just means that they plan on making their desktop OS more fit for tablets. Get you heads out of your ass, Microsoft. Put all your resources in to Windows Phone 7 OS on tablets. It's good. You did great on that software. As soon as you join the pack with a real offering -- an OS with real simplicity, tight underpinnings, and a re-worked UI that's as fluid and seamless as your great new phone OS, then you might have a chance.

Here's just a sample of the tablets that were announced at CES, with more on the way.

How to touch a Lion: OS X

To be quite honest, I'm a little worried about Apple's position on touch in their desktop platform, OS X.

Currently, touch on OS X is employed using Apple's proprietary blend of gesture-based devices: the Magic TrackPad, Magic Mouse, and of course the MacBook trackpad. That's all great, but, looking toward the future, the point-and-click method of input, while effective at its job, is beginning to look a little antiquated in the face of touch-based devices like the iPad. I'd only hope that when the next thing comes around -- when we do figure out what the paradigm shift would be in desktop computing -- that Apple will be on top of it.

In the October 2010 keynote, Steve Jobs spoke a little about Apple's position on touch interfaces in the desktop/notebook category. He said basically that those vertical display orientations don't work well with extended use. "It gives great demo," Jobs claimed. But he then went on to describe the problems concerning arm fatigue and extended use problems associated with that design. "It's ergonomically terrible," he said.

That all makes sense, and I admire Apple's ability to deny the status-quo in desktop touch interfaces, and that's not what worries me. Instead, I'm curious about the integrity of their current interfaces for touch on OS X. The MacBook trackpad, Magic TrackPad and Magic Mouse are great devices, but they are in no way comparable to interacting with the touchscreen on the iPhone or iPad. Apple says the best way they've found to get touch on the Mac is not through the display, all which orient vertically, but rather through those horizontal devices they already ship.

I wanna touch me some OS X

While the trackpads and the Magic Mouse that Apple ship do make use of "gestures," they are not "touch" interfaces like touchscreen displays. The software in OS X is still based on a point-and-click mechanism of interaction. So, I guess the argument should be whether Apple should rewrite the desktop OS for fingers. Well, if you look at the recently previewed OS X Lion, they are already taking steps in that direction. With the LaunchPad, which uses the entire screen to display app icons, its use of folders like iOS 4, and also the introduction of more intuitive fullscreen apps (doing away with windows and the tiny toolbar controls), the desktop OS is gradually gaining the user interface necessary for finger-to-display interaction.

I wonder if the desktop OS, in its current form, will ever use touch as efficiently as any of the iOS or Android handsets on the market now. For example, straight from the horses mouth, check out this patent from Apple describing an iMac that has the capability to flip down horizontally, presumably to solve the whole "vertical orientation" problem.

My, how we've grown

Also, while always pondering the next best thing, I simply wonder when the traditional point-and-click style of desktop navigation will eventually go away. First there was command-line interfaces which included nothing but a black screen and a prompt. You would then enter commands to navigate and launch programs. From there, the paradigm shift in computing came with graphical user interfaces, or GUI. Xerox had initially invented GUI, but it wasn't until the Apple Lisa computer was released that it had made its way to the mass-market. From there, the Macintosh perfected the modern desktop operating system, and every other OS and software manufacturer, like Microsoft, jumped on the bandwagon.

More than thirty years later, we've since grown into our modern OS's and coincidentally seemingly grown too used to the same interfaces we use to interact with our data. It didn't take long to realize that command prompts were antiquated, but now we're slowly realizing that touch, along with wireless mobility, is the way of the future.

And in that aspect, the future is already here. With the introduction of the iPhone, we witnessed touch, wireless and mobile culminate with a product that not only revolutionized the cellular industry, but also energized new ideas and catalyzed a new category of mobile devices like the iPad. Tablet computing is the new rage, and we may see that form-factor take as the reigning personal device after the PC.

Bring it 'Back to the Mac'

I have to agree with Jobs on the iPad. There is something "magical" about it. The iPad brings a degree of intimacy with the internet and your digital content that other devices simply don't quite offer yet, all of which is because of the touch interface, its simplicity, design and ease of use. So, how do you bring some of that intimacy to the Mac? Laptops, in their current form, definitely don't work for vertical touch, because the displays are too flimsy and have no support for the pressure required someone to press against it. Hmmmm...

However, with the new MacBook Air, they've taken design cues from the iPad hardware, so I guess that's a good first step. It's easier to, say, just throw in flash storage rather than a hard drive, giving your laptop a new "instant on" feature resembling the iPad. But it's much more to try and reinvent the OS. Although OS X Lion seems to promote a more app-friendly, iPad-like experience with the new Mac App Store, the LaunchPad and fullscreen apps, in the meantime we're stuck with the Magic Mouse to provide our desktop "touch" experience.

We'll have to wait and see what the industry will make of this, because I certainly don't have the answers.

Samsung Galaxy Tab looks really good.

While we have been waiting on viable alternatives to the Apple iPad, as the newly announced Blackberry PlayBook has yet to reach market, the Samsung Galaxy Tab may have the ability to grab consumer attention and pull in some market share.

There are quite a few people out there that simply do not want to give in to Apple, the iPad, or even acknowledge that a device similar to the iPad, i.e. tablet devices, can be considered viable alternatives to traditional laptops. To those people, I say wake up and smell the greenbacks, because this new tablet market is thriving.

So what if Apple is the leader in all this again? Because they do so well and because they are, by some people, hated so much, that means demand is high and the market ready for other companies to step up their game and make something just as "magical." That's how technology gets better and how capitalism works. And it's all for you.

For example, Samsung's new tablet looks really good. I haven't used it yet, but this video shows just how usable and iPad-like the Galaxy Tab is:



The Galaxy Tab is supposed to be released over the course of next week from Sprint, Verizon and T-Mobile, all with their own separate data and pricing plans. It's confusing, so if you plan on getting one, make sure you do the math and figure out what works best for you before signing the contract for one of these things.

Blackberry Playbook - here's hoping

I pray to all things good in the universe that this Blackberry Playbook tablet is in the least bit competitive against the iPad. I'm sick of Apple being the only company able to pull much of anything off correctly. I want an iPad, but I tired of only wanting Apple stuff; I have too much Apple stuff! Please, please, please, wont there be another company to make something as cool as or better than Apple's offerings?

To be fair, I love the Palm Pre and WebOS design. And I hope (again, hoping) that HP will make something great out of the investment (the purchase of Palm). But I'm tired of companies taking the "wait and see" approach to new markets and/or to revolutionize/reinvent markets. Apple does that; they did it with the iPod, iPhone, and now the iPad. They have a philosophy, advanced by Steve Jobs, that says, make something great, know it's great, know it works great, and know it looks great, and spend as much time as it takes to accomplish that, and screw everybody else that gets in the way.

That's right! These tech companies need to grow some!

Microsoft, in its horrible marketing and management disarray, having already failed with the Kin One and Kin Two, is finally set to release Windows Phone 7 upon the world next week -- their new, supreme touchscreen and modern mobile OS competitor to the iPhone. But the iPhone was released July 2007! It's October 2010! This is how long it takes for somebody to do anything to keep up with Apple and the Jobs-man.

Research In Motion (RIM), in the case of the PlayBook, isn't too far behind the iPad; its been only a few months now since the iPad's release. So, I'm sure RIM has been working on some type of tablet offering for a while now, possibly even a few years as far as the operating system infrastructure goes. I'm willing to bet, however, that as soon as the iPad was announced back in January, they went full-steam ahead to ramp up development for what we've seen introduced last week.

They claim this tablet computer is for the "professional" -- like businessmen. But if you think like me, when something now is claimed for the "professional," I'm thinking that it's more along the lines of "hard to use" and "not streamlined for smooth user experience." So, regardless of how great their promotional videos are on this tablet, I'm not getting my hopes too far up, though I sure would like for it to work just as smooth and seamless as they make it seem: