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Pigs are flying in Redmond today following the announcement that Windows 8 will only have three SKUS: Windows 8, Windows 8 Pro and Windows RT (known as Windows on ARM). That’s right, Microsoft has finally decided to streamline it’s previously stupid offering and go straight to the point after many years of complains from users, OEMs and various other actors in the tech industry.
Windows 8 will be the basic version will include most of the essential features that 90% of the users will need while Windows 8 Pro will include all the features in Windows 8 plus features for encryption, virtualization, PC management and domain connectivity. Surprisingly Windows Media Center will apparently only be available as an economical “media pack” add-on to Windows 8 Pro.
Windows RT formerly known as Windows On ARM will only be come per-installed on devices/tablets equipped with ARM based SoC but will be the only Windows 8 SKU to have the Office suite included. This version will only be able to run applications build using the recently introduced WinRT runtime. Hit the break for the full list of features supported by each versions:
Continue reading Windows 8 to come in only three editions: Windows 8, Windows 8 Pro and Windows RT →
Nokia’s design chief Marko Ahtisaari today confirmed to the Finnish Magazine Kauppalehti Optiossa that a third of his time was spend working on the company’s upcoming tablet which is rumored to be a Snapdragon S4 powered 10inch Windows 8 ARM Slate and that work is also done on an mysterious UX breakthrough for their upcoming Windows Phones. I unfortunately don’t have access to the print version of the paper but if anyone can send me a scan of it or maybe highlights o the whole interview it would really be appreciated.
Continue reading Nokia design chief confirms Windows 8 tablet and next UX breakthrough in Phones →
If you have been paying close attention to Stephen Elop recent interviews there’s no doubt that Nokia will introduced a windows 8 tablet at some point in the future. This may very well at the end of the year to align with the OS launch (and probably also Windows Phone 8). According to the latest rumors the 10inch screen device will be powered by a Dual-Core Qualcomm SoC Which will probably be the Snapdragon S4 Pro (with the Adreno 320 GPU) and will ship in Q4 2012. Nokia is also said to have commissioned Compal again to built 200 000 of those devices (similar to how Compal help manufacture the Lumia 800).
Small question to all my readers: Are you ready to sacrifice backwards compatibility and choose a Windows On ARM Tablet or will you prefer a X86 Windows 8 powered Slate?
Update: Forgot to say that I curentlyown a SAmung Slate 7 with the W8 CP running on it. Best of both words (CoreI5, Wacom Pen digitizer etc..) but battery life is deffinitly far from iPad standards. On the plus side: it totaly destroys any competing IOS or Android tablet on the market (or even the Tegra3/SanpdragonS4 powered ones in terms of performance.
Continue reading Nokia Windows 8 tablet rumored to ship later this year powered by Qualcomm →
It’s finally here! The Windows 8 Consumer Preview is now available for download in English, French German Chinese and Japanese. The whole thing weights less that 4Gb for the ISO and around 1.9GB if you use the installer so hit the break and start downloading it and have some fun. Wanted to also let you know that I going to post more about it in the coming hours and days as I now own a Samsung Slate on which I’m installing the Consumer preview right now.
Continue reading Download the Windows 8 Consumer Preview now →
Let’s not act surprised here folks. It was no secret that Qualcomm would still be the preferred SoC provider for Windows Phone 8 so the latest rumors that Microsoft is currently testing Qualcomm’s Snapdragon S4 aka the MSM8960 SoC for a future Windows Phone 8 Apollo handset isn’t the least surprising. The MSM8960 is the Dual-Core Krait beast featuring the Adreno 225 GPU which will be shipping in the LTE version of the HTC One X Android handset and from the looks of it Microsoft my have rightfully decided to skip the S3 generation in favor of the S4 for WP8 in part because the later has built-in LTE radios and because this particular SoC will also be Qualcomm’s first Windows 8 certified platform (even though the Windows 8 version may be the Snapdragon S4 Pro with the Adreno 320 GPU).
Now this may sound worrying to current Windows Phone owners who have only Snapdragon S1 ans S2 powered devices but as far as we know those handset shouldn’t have any problem running Windows Phone 8 later this year.
Continue reading Microsoft certifying Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 SoC for Windows Phone 8 →
If you still had any doubt that Windows Phone 8 would be based on the Windows 8 kernel Microsoft just detailed the new desktop OS support for the ARM architecture in a lengthy posted today courtesy of the company’s Windows President Steven Sinofsky. Besides all the in-depth info provided in today post which I highly recommend you to read Steven also posted pictures of a rather old Asus Galaxy Windows Mobile 6.5 smartphone running a very early build of the ARM version of Windows 8 back when Microsoft didn’t have access to ARM based prototype tablets.
Other info included in today’s blog post is the claim that Windows 8 ARM tablets are still scheduled to start shipping during the same time frame as the first X86 tablets later this year. Windows 8 on ARM will also feature the desktop view contrary to what some rumors have claimed in the past few weeks and also offer regular Office software support. More importantly Windows on ARM aka WOA will not support any type of virtualization or emulation approach, and will not enable existing x86/64 applications to be ported or run. So if you want the best of both world and X86 based tablet will be your best option this fall. Anyway, head over past the break to see WOA in action and to the source link to read all about about it. If you are the proud owner of a Samsung Slate 7 BUILD Edition (the developer version) and want to sell it please contact me here as I’m really interested in getting one ASAP.
Continue reading Microsoft details Windows 8 on ARM: Shows Kernel running on years old Windows Phone →
The good folks at Pocketnow who apparently managed to get their eyes on an internal Microsoft/Nokia video hosted by Joe Belfiore (I say apparently because they haven’t posted the video and it isn’t clear if they actually saw it or if they are reporting what somebody saw in it) detailing most of the new features coming with Windows Phone 8.
First of all the OS will be, as we all have been expecting, based on the Windows 8 Kernel and share the same networking stack, multimedia and security support as its bigger brother. This means that most Metro applications developed for Windows 8 will be easily portable to Windows Phone 8. Once again nothing really surprising here. Native code development will also be part of the show this time around and finally enable developers to creating richer applications and games. Microsoft is also apparently going to ditch the Zune desktop software in favor of an ActiveSync like integration with Windows 8 while Xbox and Skydrive integration will finally be fully backed into both the desktop and mobile OS (Ie: Music on Skydrive will instantly be available on the phone etc..). Skype which has yet to be released on Windows Phone 7 will also be seamlessly integrated into Windows Phone 8 and the Dialer/Phone application. Third party app-to-app communication will also be supported now. On the business front Windows Phone 8 will support Microsoft’s BitLocker encryption (128bit) and finally enable businesses to easily deploy proprietary software on the fleet of Windows Phones.
Internet Explorer 10 will also include server side compression support (via a proxy server) to reduce page loading times by 30%. This shouldn’t come as a surprise knowing that Microsoft was actually the first company to introduce such feature in the short R&D browser project on Windows Mobile 5 code named DeepFish a few years ago. Hopefully this feature will be optional though. The OS will also include a DataSmart Live Tile Functionality which ill serve as a hub where users can easily track their data usage (a similar feature is present in Windows 8 ) and LocalScout will detect nearby WiFi hotspots too.
On the hardware front Windows Phone 8 will now support four different screen resolutions (not specified) compared to only one right now (WVGA) and also multi-core CPU configurations. Nothing really uprising here given that we all expected it. Micrdo-SD expansion cards support will also be official now and allow users to finally have Windows Phone devices with more than 16Gb of internal storage. WP8 will also have native NFC support and a new Camera API that will allow hardware partners to more deeply integrate their camera.
Continue reading Windows Phone 8 features detailed →
Just in case you where still putting any faith in that crazy Russian guy named Eldar…here’s another major blow to his latest FUD against Microsoft and Nokia:
Crazy Russian guy: WP8 os isnt compatible with wp7 on app level (u need to rewrite all apps). Thats another os core with metro ui…
Microsoft: Rewatch Mix11 keynote. We were pretty clear on this. Any app built today will run on next major Windows Phone version.
Windows Phone 7 apps will run on Windows Phone 8. Case closed.
Continue reading Windows Phone 7 apps will run on Windows Phone 8 →
My man OIAQ sent me a tweet yesterday about a post on 4PDA.RU which seems to contain inside information about the upcoming Windows Phone 8 OS release (Apollo). The info falls in line with what most of us have been expecting. I just got the chance to check it out and decided to post it just as a heads up (and so that some folks will not say that I’m now completely out of the loop..) so here’s the low down:
- “WOA platforms will require that all desktop binary images be signed with a trusted Microsoft certificate. Any unsigned code will fail to load … This … does not cover Metro Style applications for which there is a separately documented signing requirement and developer licensing”
- “Windows Phone “Apollo” brings together platform parity with Windows 8, experience parity with Windows Phone “Mango”, and a set of new features and functionality developed for Windows Phone “Apollo”.”
- “Platform parity means that the phone OS is now based on the Windows NT kernel instead of the Windows CE kernel. Windows Phone “Apollo” uses the Core System from Windows 8, which is a minimal Windows system that boots, manages its hardware and resources, authenticates and communicates on a network, and can be managed at a basic level.”
-”The final significant changes of note are the adoption of ESENT, also known as Jet, for the database engine, and the managed-code runtime. Rather than using the .NET Compact Framework from Windows Phone 7, Windows Phone ”Apollo” uses the Core CLR produced by the Developer Division at Microsoft.”
-”Only SDHC cards formatted as FAT or exFAT are supported. If the card is unformatted or contains an unsupported format, such as NTFS, the SD card will be formatted according to the SD specification if the user accepts the format prompt. This means that SDHC cards (cards less than or equal to 32GB) will be formatted as FAT”
- “The internal user store will not have this limitation since it is formatted as NTFS”.
-”Texus Shell (TShell) is a tool that allows you to interact with Windows Phone “Apollo” phones via a Windows PowerShell command prompt. You can copy files to the phone, execute processes, attach a debugger, run commands using the phone’s command interpreter, and run test content stored on WTT test servers”
-”The Windows Phone “Apollo” release ports the ambient light, proximity, magnetometer, compass, and gyroscope sensors from Windows Phone “Mango”. It also incorporates the accelerometer, which was a standalone implementation in the previous OS version”,
- “You can use Hyper-V to test x86 builds of the phone OS”
So there you have it folks. Seems highly accurate but treat this a a rumor until the official announcement later this year.
Continue reading Windows Phone 8 specifications rumor: Windows 8 kernel and more →
AT&T’s 2012 developer summit which is taking place in Las Vegas right before CES is full of interesting session this year. One in particular session caught my attention because it is related to Windows 8 and Qualcomm’s SoCs.
A Metro Style Hemi™ – Windows 8 tablets super charged with 4G LTE – 3:30 – 4:15
Attend this session and see how to transform the higher speed and lower latency of LTE into an amazing user experience. First, learn from Qualcomm about the power of their Snapdragon chip, and how developers can tap into the Snapdragon Developer Program to create rich Windows 8 apps that help deliver differentiated consumer experiences that capitalize on LTE’s potential. Then see how the intuitive elegance of Windows 8′s Metro-style application design has been layered over this horsepower. Finally, hear how standalone applications can be transformed on this powerful platform, converting independent programs into streamlined, integrated live tiles. Opportunities abound in this session for developers of connected apps; discover how AT&T and Microsoft are working to make developing connected applications easier.
Based on this description it’s safe to assume that AT&T and Qualcomm are going to showcase a working Windows 8 tablet powered by a Snapdragon S4 Krait SoC next week and I would assume that we are also going to hear some things related to Win8 tablets out of CES in the following days. The wording of this description also confirms that AT&T is going to be a windows 8 launch partner in the US same as for Windows Phone (there’s also a Nokia dev session on the same day..but we already knew that the AT&T version of the Lumia 800 is a go).
Continue reading AT&T to showcase Qualcomm powered Windows 8 4G LTE tablet next week →
Time for me to share with you my 2012 Windows Phone predictions and wishes now that you are all probably enjoying your new Mango handsets (or 1st Gen phones running Mango..). Keep in mind that what I’m going to post bellow is nothing more than speculations on my part so don’t quote me on that (well unless it turns out to be true later down the road…). So let’s start with what I wish Microsoft fixes, adds in the coming months in Tango:
- Universal search (this one is most probably coming..)
- Fix the frame dropping video playback issue that I seem to be the only person on earth who has noticed it (was present on my HTC Titan sample and both my Lumia 800 which makes me believe that’s it’s a OS issue with the MSM8255)
- Release Skype and Photosynth for Windows Phone: The silence surrounding both apps is intriguing. I wouldn’t be surprised if both where directly integrated into the OS instead of released as third-party apps (wishful thinking..I know).
- Ability to delete more than one picture or video at a time in the pictures hub
- Basic photo editing (crop, rotate, re-size)
- Basic video editing functionality (this one will have to wait for Windows Phone 8 I guess)
- SMS / MMS Backup (looks like this one is in the works: “Come join the Windows Phone Backup, Migrate, and Restore team. Our goal is to ensure that no matter if someone loses their phone, drops their phone in a lake, buys a new windows phone, or just has their toddler wipe their phone by entering the wrong PIN over and over, a user can quickly and seamlessly get their phone back to a good state. The features we are producing will be new for the next version of Windows Phone and will help ensure Microsoft stays ahead of the competition when it comes to disaster recovery.” )
- MMS videos!
- Ability to assign different ring tones to groups or individual contacts Totally forgot that this was already made available in Mango. sorry for that.
Now let’s talk about Windows Phone 8. It will be announced in 2012 but I’m not really confident that MWC is going to be the venue used by Microsoft to unveil it. As you have probably already heard Microsoft is no longer going to keynote at CES after 2012 and will instead have it’s own events to unveiled announce new products similar to what Apple has been doing lately after it dropped from the MacWorld Expo. This is why I’m thinking that Microsoft may only announce Tango during MWC this February and simple tease WP8 for a further announcement closer to the middle of the year. Here’s what I’m hoping for Windows Phone 8 aka Apollo:
Continue reading Windows Phone in 2012: Predictions and wishes →
As you may have noticed interesting news stories have been non existent lately in the windows Phone world and given that I have less time to post I won’t bother posting about every single rumored sales statistics or other meaningless stuff. Unfortunately there’s isn’t much left to talk about now that we are nearing Christmas and the end of the year.
If you are a Nokia Lumia 800 owner I’m sure that you are eagerly waiting to the promised January Firmware update that should fix the battery issues (and hopefully this one included!) alongside other bugs and camera improvements. Speaking of the camera, Nokia’s Digital Imaging Guru Damian Dinning has once again tweeted that “improvements” are coming to the Lumia 800′s camera and noted that even though the hardware is the same as the Nokia N9 the “image processing is completely different”. Obvious given that the two handset have different OS’s and SoCs. It should also be noted the Lumia 800 (and 710) is Nokia’s first Qualcomm powered device so it’s normal that everything isn’t yet fully functional and bug free.
Continue reading Windows Phone in 2012: What are you expecting ? →
File this under the: Strange but possible tag. Buried in Imagination Technologies interim financial results today is the following information:
Licensing
Strong licensing activities
- Addition of several new key partners including MStar, Ricoh, Qualcomm, Rockchip
- Many new and extended agreements with existing partners including Sony, Intel, Mediatek, Renesas, Samsung, Sigma, Realtek
This is as far I know the first mention of Qualcomm as a PowerVR IP licensee ever and really interesting given that the San Diego chip manufacturer currently develops its own GPU and graphics IP after its acquisition of ATI’s mobile division a few years ago. The timing would suggest that Qualcomm may have licensed the Rogue GPU IP but until we have more detail we can only speculate at this point. If that was the case then I wouldn’t expect to see any PowerVR tech in QC’s SoC until after the Krait generation of chips (unless the licensing deal is nothing more that patents stuff after all).
Continue reading Qualcomm licenses Imagination Technologies PowerVR IP →
Steve Ballmer took the time today to announce to its troops that current Windows Phone Division president Andy Less will now have a new role at Microsoft and will be replaced by Terry Myerson who was already heading the divisions engineering team. I personally think that this is the right thing to do as I have always felt that Lees wasn’t really the guy for this division and more a Ballmer buddy who was put there back when Windows Mobile was on the brink of death. Now that Windows Phone 7 is out and well (sales will come later..well, unless Nokia continues to ship buggy devices worldwide) it was time to put somebody who knows what he’s talking about in charge what is seen as one of the company’s most critical asset. As a matter of fact Andy has now a new undisclosed role at Microsoft (reporting directly to Ballmer as usual) which will be a “time-critical opportunity focused on driving maximum impact in 2012 with Windows Phone and Windows 8″ Whatever that means it sure looks like what I’ve been speculating all along and here (Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8 sharing the same kernel) may be close to the reality.
Check out Steve Ballmer’s full email after the break:
Continue reading Microsoft shakes up Windows Phone division →
Remember all the Nokia Windows 8 tablet headlines earlier this week ? The claim that the company will have one ready in Juin 2012 ? You may have noticed that I didn’t post about it simply because I don’t put too much faith into what local directors claims especially when it comes to such matters (unannounced products. Unsurprisingly the same Paul Amsellem backtracked on his previous claim in a newer interview this time with French newspaper 20 Minutes (check their Windows Phone 7 app in action here):
Les Echos écrivaient mardi, en vous citant, Paul Amsellem, que vous préparez une tablette sous Windows 8 pour l’année prochaine. Pouvez-vous nous en dire plus?
Paul Amsellem : Je n’ai pas de confirmation, donc pas de commentaires.
Translation:
Q: Your were quoted by Les Echos on Tuesday saying that Nokia would have a Windows 8 tablet ready next year. Can you tell us more?
A: I don’t have any confirmation, so no comment.
So, he can’t confirm something he stated as a fact earlier and doesn’t have any comment. Sounds like he was originally make things up… Nice PR there. There you have thought….nothing new under the sun.
Continue reading Nokia Backtracks on Windows 8 tablet comment →
Samsung’s jump to ARM’s Mali GPUs didn’t last long and will surely make some people (at ARM) a wee bit disappointed. Imagination Technologies have just announced that the Korean mobile giant has licensed their PowerVR SGX MP GPU IP for integration in upcoming mobile and consumer products. As you probably already know Samsung’s latest SoC (Exynos 42XX) used in its high-end smartphones uses a Mali 400 GPU unlike its previous once (the Hummingbird for example) that packed the venerable Power VR SGX540. The MP core IP licensed today is similar to what the PlayStation Vita will have and what Apple is also using in the iPad 2 and iPhone 4S.
This move may be related to Samsung wish to be a Windows 8 SoC provider because as of right now ARM’s current crop of GPUs (Mali) aren’t DirectX 9.3 compliant and lack support for DXTC texture compression (their upcoming T604 core should fix that but its debut is still unknown). full press release after the break:
Continue reading Samsung licenses Imagination Technologies PowerVR SGX MP GPU for future Mobile SoC →
Grab some tissues and a pinch of salt! According to a Nokia VP Michael Halbherr, Executive VP present at Nokia World in London Windows Phone 8 aka Apollo will launch in mid- 2012. That’s nearly 6 months earlier than what everybody else was expecting. Nokia is rightfully pushing Microsoft to include NFC support in it and full integration of Nokia’s Navteq mapping assets. Once again, treat this as a rumor but things may be getting a little more interesting than expected in the coming months unless this VP is confusing Tango with Apollo.
UPDATE: As I expcted that Nokia VP was on something nasty…the original story was updated with a note saying that the “timing was inaccurate”..no sh@t Sherlock? Back to our regular news/rumors/nonsense schedule… Apollo = Late 2012 Tango = mid 2012. Mark my words…
Continue reading Windows Phone 8 Apollo coming mid 2012 ? →
Those of you following closely the SoC market will be happy to learn that Qualcomm has finally unveiled technical details of its much anticipated SnapDragon S4 Krait based SoC yesterday in a relatively in-depth white paper that everyone can download. Krait based SoC are in track to hit the market in the first half of 2012 with the first MSM8960 dual 1.5Ghz core SoC later followed by the MSM8930, MSM8228 and MSM8974. I posted the full specifications back in July here but Qualcomm’s legal department laid the ban hammer on me and asked me to take down the full pdf. Anyway, here’s what you can expect from the first 28nm mobile SoC (using TSMC’s 28nm LP process) to hit the market which will also so be Windows 8 compliant thanks to it’s DirectX 9.3 support:
• Dual 1.5-1.7 GHz Krait/ L2 1MB
• 2x500MHz LPDDR2
• LTE FDD/TDD cat3(8960); DC-HSPA(8270) 21HSPA+(8260A) TD-SCDMA (8960, 8260A)
• 1080p HD Video@30fps; 3D 20Mpix
• Adreno 225 3D/2D 125M tri./sec (DX9.3)
The Krait CPU architecture is Qualcomm’s own variant of the AMR Cortex A8 but so heavily tweaked and changed that it can’t really be comparable to other competing Cortex A9 or future A15 CPUs. In terms of raw performances it’s will most probably be competitive with the A9 chipsets (if not better) but may lag a bit behind the upcoming higher clocked Cortex A15 SoCs which will come out in late 2012. Krait’s powers efficiency will probably help it in this case but this has yet to be seen. The big advantage that Qualcomm has is its time to market compared to all the new generation chipsets for its competitors which for the most part will all be using bigger processes (40nm or 35nm, only the the TI OMAP will be on 28nm). Because of this, we may have another QSD8250 situation next year where most of the Android handsets will be based on this chipset simply because it will be out at the right time (more than 6 months ahead of its most direct competition).
Continue reading Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Krait based SoC details unveiled →
Just a little heads up in case you are an XNA developer dreaming of developing multiplatform games for Windows Phone, Windows 8 and / or Xbox: XNA is not supported for developing Metro style applications in Windows 8. XNA applications will be treated as classic desktop applications in the new OS but XNA is still the recommend route for developing Xbox Live Arcade and Windows Phone games. Here are Microsoft’s recommendations for developing games targeting Windows 8′s Metro:
Graphics
DirectX gaming power underlies Windows 8, so you have several options when creating Metro style game
apps. You can write full-screen, chrome-free games with smooth, flicker-free action using HTML5, JavaScript,
and CSS3. Or, write impressive 2D and lightweight 3D games using XAML with managed C# or Visual Basic.
You can also use the full processing abilities of modern graphics hardware using native C++ and HLSL
with DirectX 11.1.
Create immersive games using the power of DirectX
The new Windows 8 graphics stack is better integrated, making Direct2D, Direct3D, and DirectCompute
components easier to use together and requiring fewer duplicated resources than before. Capabilities
previously available only in XNA, such as DirectXMath, XAudio2, and XInput, are now available. For the
ultimate experience in gaming and video, use DirectX 11.1 to bring stereoscopic 3D to your apps.
Continue reading No XNA support for Metro applications in Windows 8 →
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