The announced launch of the Consumer Preview or the public beta of Windows 8 is part of the lined-up activities before the actual release of Windows 8, which is expected this fall. The first activity was held last year (September) which was the release of the developer preview. After the release of the Public Beta, Microsoft is expected to release a “Release Candidate” and then the actual release of the operating system.

On the day of the launch, Microsoft will allow the beta version to be downloaded by consumers and installed on computers. Millions are expected to get a piece of the Consumer Preview considering the developer preview was widely downloaded by millions of consumers.

Many wonder why Microsoft has chosen the event to take place along the Mobile World Congress. Some thinks that the move may be to highlight the changes expected with the new Windows 8. It may be noted that consumers are going mobile these days, especially with the use of tablets, Android and iOS phones. While Windows 8 will still be a desktop and a laptop OS, the new OS will feature a lot of integration functions with mobile devices.

Windows fans, who are excited for the beta download, must prepare for the online traffic on February 29 to get Windows 8.

Microsoft said, via a blogpost, that next Office is the “most ambitious undertaking” and the direction is to make Office 15 mobile. Thus, Microsoft is expected to integrate Office 15 with its cloud services and other mobile apps.

Office 15 is said to feature new versions of its core programs of Word, Excel and PowerPoint. It will also showcase web-based tools via its Office 325. There will also be new versions of Exchange, SharePoint, the conference tool Lync, project-management program Project and Visio, a diagram editor.

There is no information on the official release date of Office 15, except that a public beta version will be available this summer. It is also expected that Microsoft will release Windows 8 first before Office 15.

The operating system is capable of running on a tablet, but the tablet must have passed all the tests by Windows, and have at least 5 touch points (digitizers). However, ARM-based tablet owners find themselves at a bit of a disadvantage when it comes to Windows 8, as they wont be able to deactivate secure booting and install a second OS into their tablets. This may be a source of frustration for users who use different platforms on one device.

Here’s the minimum requirements for upcoming Windows 8 tablets and convertible PCs.

• 5 hardware buttons (power, rotation lock, windows key, volume up, volume down)
• 10GB free storage space
• UEFI firmware
• minimum resolution display of 1366 x 768
• 720p camera
• Direct3D 10 graphics device with WDDM 1.2 driver
• WLAN
• Bluetooth 4.0
• Magnetometer
• 50Hz accelerometer with 3 axes
• Gyroscope
• Speakers
• 1-30k lux ambient light sensor

In addition, touch PCs and mobile devices that will sport the OS should include: NFC “touch marks” (for NFC-equipped slates) – that should be visible on the device allowing people to see where to “tap” their contraptions, “Windows Key + Power” to replace the good ‘ole CTRL + ALT + DEL combo and finally, Windows 8 PCs should support “no-reboot” upgrade for GPU card drivers.

So far, people are divided when it comes to opinions, but they can all agree on one thing: while Windows is a very good OS, some of the platform’s requirements are just a little too much to bear. Windows 8 is expected to come before the end of this year. Stay tuned.

Both Intel and Microsoft are not neophytes in the world of technology, and as far as consumers and manufacturers are concerned, both companies downright delivers contemporary devices, all with modern flair and technology. With their recent team up and their announcement of a ‘Wintel’ based tablet PC; things just went from bad to worse. The culprit: a price tag that could range anywhere from $599-$899.

We all want a Windows 8 tablet – there’s no doubt about that fact. And with Intel providing the Clover Trail hardware and Microsoft sharing the Windows 8 software, it’s something the world is waiting for. But with the said price tag, it seems to be way out of hand. An ipad will only cost a consumer around $499 – and comparing it to the initial cost of a ‘Wintel’ at $599, isn’t it a bit overpriced to say the least?

Should both companies decide not to cut their prices, manufacturers may result to finding less expensive ARM powered hardware to have a consumer friendly price range. But according to a report by Digitimes, Intel has no plans of cutting its Clover Trail based Atom Chips and Microsoft are doing the same with their Windows8 platform price.

This in turn will give Apple an upper hand. With the Windows 8 tablet being far too expensive, quad core ICS tablets from companies like Lenovo, Asus and Samsung are foreseen to be released on or after the rumoured launch of the iPad 3 this March.

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With the new Corel AfterShot Pro photo management software, doing the following things will be easier:

• organize your photos in folders or catalogs
• find images quickly through using camera settings, keywords, tags, etc,
• alter images with a non-destructive adjustment tools
• apply enhancements on images and photos

This software will definitely make your work of enhancing images and photos easily and with its RAW support, batch processing can be done at an incredible speed as well. This seems to be the perfect way to come up with the professional photos that you like.

As more people start to shift to DSLRs, the need for this type of software also increases as well. And it’s a good thing that Corel came out with this type of software, which is definitely more affordable than Adobe’s Lightroom. Installing this software is also fast and easy since it only requires a smaller download and doesn’t really require anything to be installed. Additionally, this photo management software also is easy to manage because it has only three panel interface- browse panel, main image or gallery view, and the adjustment tools panel.

While this photo management software seems to be a good one, it has also its flaws as well. Some say that the AfterShot Pro has a weak import feature, no dual monitor support, no red-eye correction feature, no web or e-mail sharing features and has also very limited camera and lens profiles. These important features were not considered may be because Corel wanted to make it more affordable.

If Corel really wants to be a serious contender in this area, then they must step up and address these issues. You can have this software for only $99.99.

As mentioned earlier, this software will enable users to enjoy more than 400,000 Android apps. They demonstrated this on its new Windows 8 Ultrabook at the CES event and also plans to bring a new App player as well this coming March. Apparently, this new player might be the solution to Microsoft’s biggest obstacles to its platform, which is the lack of available apps. The Bluestacks player will support both desktop and tablet interfaces. The launch of this Bluestacks player might end Microsoft’s quest to make thousands of apps for its new Windows 8 OS, which has been regarded to be lacking on this department.

Microsoft might be happy with this development, but for sure they will still exert their best effort to make sure that this will not cause other developers out there to create their own app. Bluestacks has also released a similar software for the Windows 7 last year, but it seems that Bluestacks is really after something bigger this time via this Windows 8 version.

In addition to the demo made by Bluestacks during the CES event, the company has also mentioned some discussions to have this new app player software preloaded on new PCs in addition to their agreements with some manufacturers to launch their devices preloaded with this new app player software.

Watch the video:

It seems that Bluestacks have a bigger mobile ambition for this year as evident by the launch of this new app player software. So let us wait and see where this new app player will be bringing Bluestacks to. What do you think about this new app player software?

Being a gesture-based system interface, Tobii Gaze hopes to enable users to navigate their devices (e.g. PCs, notebooks, tablets) by just merely looking at them (or staring that is!). The company combines the eye-tracking and touchpad functionality for user interface (UI) control. Tobii Gaze allows user to track around the interface using their eyes while doing control and activation commands with the use of trackpad. According to Tobii, this combo is way better compared to touchscreen-enabled displays because the user’s hands (including the fingers) don’t get in the way during device operation.

We are certainly starting to paint the future of device interaction as Tobii Gaze may kick-off hands free interaction. Those who are interested and curious about Tobii Gaze for Win8 can check its demonstration at the CES annual event by next week. Price hasn’t been confirmed yet although we do hope that once it’s integrated or embedded in the PC, prices should be reasonable enough (do note that Tobii’s PCEye USB retails for $7k). Watch the video below.

The “reset” feature will be a partner of the “refresh” feature when the final build of Windows 8 comes out. With the reset option, user has the ability to remove all personal data, applications as well as settings from the PC. Windows can also be reinstalled if the feature is enabled.

The refresh feature is the total opposite of reset as it allows user to keep all personal data, metro style applications and settings in the PC. Windows can also be reinstalled using such.

Win8 was designed to be like this because developers wanted users to have a single button that clearly “fixes” everything.

Before we forget, the third and last installment to the trio of new Win8 features is the storage spaces. This allows users to pool drives (both physical and virtual) in a number of ways in order for data to be safe as possible. Moreover, one can expand individual storage pools on a need basis and in numerous ways just to mirror user’s data. The so-called spaces act as regular disk.

No word yet on the release but we’d surely be excited to see this features once our desktops are on Windows 8.

Looking back, Windows 7 started or gained popularity as a beta OS. It was released eventually by Microsoft in October 2009. Noteworthy achievements of said OS include overtaking Apple’s Snow Leopard (in just two weeks folks in the market!) and its sibling Windows Vista (in July 2010 or ten months after its release). Moreover, in its first year, sales of Windows 7 licenses reached 240 million

Correspondingly, the chart provided clearly shows the popularity of Windows 7. From January 2010 to October 2011, it can be noticed that there was an increase thus the trend line is on an upward movement. The opposite however can be observed when looking at Windows XP as the OS had a downtrend from January 2010 to October 2011. Other OS’ trying to outshine Windows 7 and XP include Vista, OS X and Linux.

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The free alpha version is on a test-basis and freely downloadable with pre-loaded apps (see source link). The Cloud Connect app can also port third-party apps from a handset except for some games such as Fruit Ninja and Angry Birds which are believed to be included in the paid version to be outed sooner. The California-based company hasn’t indicated when the Mac version will be released though.

The app’s unique functionality will enable Android and Windows users to share the fun with their favorite Android apps through one-click access and synchronization. Taking the cue that 56% of smartphone customers use an Android device, Bluestacks has provided the proper solution to sharing the apps on the Android platform on non-Android devices with the assistance of Google.

In essence, it connects Android Phones with Windows PC and later on, the Mac. The company has outed its Cloud Connect service that serves as a portal for downloading free apps from the Android market and instant sync of mobile apps to any PC. A demo for BlueStacks’ App Player for PC can be seen below.

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