"LOVE IS LIFE": Hardware certification requirements for Windows ta...

"LOVE IS LIFE": Hardware certification requirements for Windows ta...: Hardware certification requirements for Windows tablets Graphics Card DirectX 10 graphics device with WDDM 1.2 or higher driver Storage...

"LOVE IS LIFE": Windows 8 Market performance

"LOVE IS LIFE": Windows 8 Market performance: Microsoft says that 4 million users upgraded to Windows 8 over the weekend after its release, which CNET says was well below Microsoft's ...

"LOVE IS LIFE": Windows 8 Market performance

"LOVE IS LIFE": Windows 8 Market performance: Microsoft says that 4 million users upgraded to Windows 8 over the weekend after its release, which CNET says was well below Microsoft's ...

Thousands of Developers Achieve Guinness World Record at Windows AppFest

Thousands of Developers Achieve Guinness World Record at Windows AppFest Microsoft creates history; makes Official Guinness World Record by bringing together 2567 developers at a single location to compete in Windows AppFest—a non-stop 18 hours coding marathon for developing Windows 8 applications.

List of features removed in Windows 8

Aside from the removal of the Start menu, several notable features have been removed in Windows 8. Support for playing DVDs has been removed from Windows Media Player due to the cost of licensing the necessary decoders (especially for devices which do not include optical disc drives at all) and the prevalence of streaming services such as Netflix. For the same reasons, Windows Media Center will no longer be included by default on Windows 8 as well, but the software (which also includes support for DVD playback) can be added back through the paid "Pro Pack" (for the base version of Windows 8, which also upgrades the system to Windows 8 Pro) or "Media Center Pack" (for Windows 8 Pro) add-ons. Windows 8 will still support third-party DVD playback software. File History, the new backup feature of Windows 8 described above, replaces Backup and Restore, the former backup app, and Previous Versions, a component of Windows Explorer that saves previous versions of changed files. Backup and Restore is deprecated but will continue to work on preset schedule on computers that upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 8. Previous Versions no longer protects local files, although it is still available to access previous versions of shared files stored on a Windows Server computer. Shadow Copy, the subsystem component based on which these worked, however, is still available for other software to use.

Hardware certification requirements for Windows tablets

Hardware certification requirements for Windows tablets
Graphics Card	DirectX 10 graphics device with WDDM 1.2 or higher driver
Storage	10 GB free space, after the out-of-box experience completes
Standard buttons	'Power', 'Rotation lock', 'Windows Key', 'Volume-up', 'Volume-down'
Screen	Touch screen supporting a minimum of 5-point digitizers and resolution of at least 1366x768. The physical dimensions of the display panel must match the aspect ratio of the native resolution. The native resolution of the panel can be greater than 1366 (horizontally) and 768 (vertically). Minimum native color depth is 32-bits.
Camera	Minimum 720p
Ambient light sensor	1–30k lux capable with dynamic range of 5–60k
Accelerometer	3 axes with data rates at or above 50 Hz
USB 2.0	At least one controller and exposed port.
Connect	Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 + LE (low energy)
Other	Speaker, microphone, magnetometer and gyroscope. If a mobile broadband device is integrated into a tablet or convertible system, then an assisted GPS radio is required. Devices supporting near field communication need to have visual marks to help users locate and use the proximity technology. The new button combination for Ctrl + Alt + Del is Windows Key + Power.

Windows Store and Apps

Windows 8 introduces a new style of application, Windows Store apps; according to Microsoft developer Jensen Harris, these apps are to be optimized for touchscreen environments and have smaller scope in relation to desktop applications. Apps can run either in a full-screen mode, or be docked directly to the side of a screen. They can provide notifications and a "live tile" on the Start screen for dynamic content. Apps can use "contracts"; a collection of hooks to provide common functionality that can integrate with other apps, such as search and sharing. Apps can also provide integration with other services; for example, the People app can connect to a variety of different social networks and services (such as Facebook), while the Photos app can aggregate photos from services such as Facebook and Flickr. Windows Store apps run within a new set of APIs known as the Windows Runtime, which supports programming languages such as C, C++, VB.NET, C#, along with HTML5 and JavaScript. Depending on the language used, apps written for Windows Runtime can be cross-compatible with both Intel and ARM versions of Windows. To ensure stability and security, apps run within a sandboxed environment, and require permissions to access certain functionality, such as accessing the Internet or a camera. Retail versions of Windows 8 will only be able to install these apps through the Windows Store—a namesake distribution platform which offers both apps and certified desktop applications. Sideloading, or the facility for loading Windows Store apps from outside Windows Store, is provisioned in Windows 8 Enterprise, Windows 8 Pro and Windows RT, albeit in a very limited fashion: Out-of-box sideloading support is only available for Windows 8 Enterprise computers that have joined a Windows domain. Sideloading on Windows RT and Windows 8 Pro computers as well as Windows 8 Enterprise computers without a domain affiliation requires purchase of additional licenses through Microsoft volume licensing outlet. Windows Store apps were originally known as "Metro-style apps" during the development of Windows 8, referring to the Metro design language. The term was reportedly phased out in August 2012; a Microsoft spokesperson denied rumors that the change was related to a potential trademark issue, and stated that "Metro" was only a codename that would be phased out prior to Windows 8's release. Following these reports, the terms "Modern UI-style apps", "Windows 8-style apps"[74] and "Windows Store apps" began to be used by various Microsoft documents and material to refer to the new apps. In an interview on September 12, 2012, Soma Somasegar (vice president of Microsoft's development software division) officially confirmed that "Windows Store apps" would be the official term for the apps.