The Glade 4.0

http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/13/wind ... n-preview/

It's not worth quoting because there are images and videos embedded in the article. It's interesting how they neglected to mention battery life. I wonder if it can hold up at all to the iPad's 10 hours. Also, it might be too complex how it allows for desktop apps (like Excel) to run with full-screen apps. I can also imagine some performance (or battery life) issues from accidentally having apps run in the background. The iPad only allows one at a time and shuts off apps when you transition to a different one.

One appeal here is that you don't *need* to have a computer if you buy a tablet with Windows 8, unlike an iPad which doesn't cover everything a more traditional computer can do.

edit: grammar

They won't focus on battery life until they start tweaking it for final release.

Not to mention the tablet they used wasn't even an official Windows 8 tablet, they just put the OS on it.

I think your comparisons to the iPad are unnecessary. The iPad doesn't run OSX. These are going to be fully-capable PC machines (minus heavy gaming, I'm sure), so you shouldn't be comparing it to a consumption-focused mobile OS.

If the typical person bought an iPad, they would not also spend on a Windows 8 tablet, and vice versa.

You're right, people likely wouldn't own both devices. However, that's mostly due to form factor and not system capabilities.

MS gave away 5,000 of them at Build conference.



Doesn't sound like an iPad competitor to me AT ALL. These are going to be computers, through and through.

Wow.... that sounds impressive. I wonder what the dock's capabilities are?

Sexy.

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I prefer to think of them as "Fighting evil in another dimension"

I'm downloading the developer preview of Windows 8 right now. Hopefully it'll run nicely in a VM, not sure I wanna give that a partition just yet.

Is that something anyone can do, or do you have to have connections?

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I prefer to think of them as "Fighting evil in another dimension"

Anyone can.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/apps/br229516

Windows 8 to include anti-virus. Cue the anti-trust hullabaloo.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Well, I got it running on my laptop and I have to be honest, I **** love the interface. If I can get my Boot Camp drivers to install correctly and support some of the multitouch on my trackpad, I might just fall in love.

Very snappy.

...

Can I ask why we're excited about GUI features I've been playing with for a decade?

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Because they're finally built into the OS and not some stupid shell on top of it?

Internet Explorer 10 is pretty awesome. Everything is. Even with mouse/kb.

Hm. Maybe i should give this a try.

Sent from my iPad

I wonder if it could be loaded on an iPad...

I might actually get one if you could

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Holy shitsnacks!

All I have to say is, I dislike having touch-interfaces foisted onto my mouse. Playing with it in person a bit today didn't change my mind about it.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Found some pics of the Windows 8 tablet passed out at //Build, looks pretty sweet. I dig the dock.

http://www.pcmag.com/slideshow_viewer/0 ... 00.asp?p=n

They aren't built into the OS. These features may be more tightly integrated with the window manager (and each other), but the GUI level of an operating environment several layers removed from the actual operating system (just a quibble).

In any case, if Microsoft is finally putting some integrating features into the shell and window manager, then that's good news on a ... thought level, but I'm still not a fan of Windows 8.

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I just meant that this isn't exactly a case of running something like WindowBlinds on top of Explorer.

I figured as much, hence me mentioning my quibble with the clarity of terms.

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Looks interesting. Any hints on possible release dates?

Ballmer has already gone on stage and said that they obviously have a "lot of work [on Windows 8] to do". He went on to say that they don't even have a private timeline for it yet, but that one would probably be in place by the time the first beta hits.

I'm thinking it's going to need to land around this time in 2012 unless they want OSX stealing ideas.

My only real complaints right now are:

1) No way to exit apps. Alt-f4 no longer exists, and this is intentional on Microsoft's part. When leaving applications, they're now suspended and hidden, but kept in memory. The way it works doesn't bother me, but I wish I could 'end task' without needing the task manager right now.
2) Explorer functionality is not yet built into the Metro interface. Exploring your file system still has to be done through Explorer on the desktop side.

Other than that, even in a pre-beta I'm still happy after using it for a couple of days now. You can still completely use the computer as you would today. Alt-tab works just fine, plus now you have gorgeous full-screen applications that are easy to make and support. I maintain that Windows 8 is going to be a huge win for MS.

It's amusing how the browser in Windows 8 won't support Flash unless you are in desktop mode.