Microsoft’s Windows 8 operating system has arrived to a very mixed reception: users are fundamentally split over whether they love it or loathe it. The new interface is heavily biased towards use on ‘touch-enabled’ tablets and laptops; so desktop users have found it to be a little cumbersome to use with some applications.
But there’s plenty to like in Windows 8 if you find the ‘swipe-able’ charms bar on the right of the screen to suit your preferred way of working. Here you can find the search and share function tool that will work inside some Windows 8 applications, the Windows 8 app store, plus also help you navigate around the operating system itself. Users without touchscreen devices can just hover their mouse icon into the top right hand corner of the screen until the same options appear.
A friendly swipe and search inside the Windows 8 store is where the real fun starts. Not only can you search for specific games or applications, you can also start to search through all the apps simply with a chosen keyword. Enter “Dubai” and the Windows 8 app store will throw up a list of over 10 apps tailored to the region.
You might like to sort out your household arrangements first. Download the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority’s own app. There are payment and customer service options here as well as a news feed to keep you up to date. You can even log customer complaints and watch videos to find out how Dewa operates.
Radios in Dubai
The Emirates has a great selection of radio channels and if you like to stay tuned in pretty much all the time, now you can stay with the vibes while you are using your Windows 8 machine. A selection of Arabic and English channels are available.
Dubai Cinemas
UAE residents love the cinema and there are more of them every year. Now you’ll be able to find which movies are playing where by downloading this free app to your Windows 8 device. The app lists every single movie playing along with its screen times. You can even get details on the cast with pictures. In some cases there are also trailers.
Dubai Airport and Hotels
The dedicated Dubai Airport Windows 8 app is a great way of finding out the status of your flight before you are due to depart, or checking arrivals as they line up to land in the Emirates. All flights are shown with colour logos belonging to the airline carrier operating the route. There’s also a travel planner. While you’re in travel mode you might like to check out Hotels Dubai with its promise to find you the best rooms, at the best prices, with a clickable map and lots of pictures.
DubaiPedia
The purple-logo behind the DubaiPedia (yes, that’s one word!) app is designed to get you to dive into this tourism guide and explore hotels, nightspots and the culture. It’s one of the new apps, but don’t let that put you off from having a quick browse — it’s free to look, as the shopkeepers would say.
Gulf News
The newspaper has its own built Windows 8 app. It lets you view news by section in much the same way as the website, but with the additional benefit of touch screen swipe-ability between sections and stories.
The list of apps here is growing all the time and it is worth coming back to Windows 8 app store searches and using Dubai, Emirates, Gulf and other related terms from time to time as the number of related apps continue to grow.
Adrian Bridgwater is a freelance journalist who specialises in software applications, gadgets and games.
2013年4月24日星期三
2013年4月11日星期四
Microsoft Blue to Help Merge Windows Phone and Windows 8
What is Microsoft’s Project Blue? The company recently confirmed that it’s working on a secret project under that name, and other reports suggest that it will eventually launch as Windows 8.1 and Windows 8.1 RT. We have also heard that Project Blue will involve Windows Phone in some fashion, and now DigiTimes said it has learned more details on that plan.
Apparently Microsoft is worried that Google’s Chrome OS and Android tie-in so nicely together that consumers will naturally gravitate towards a Chrome OS computer and an Android-powered smartphone. In an effort to compete, Microsoft wants Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone 8 to tie-in together better than they currently do.
Sync between Windows Phone and Windows right now is pretty seamless, but it’s mostly done through Microsoft SkyDrive, Music and Office 365. You can snap photos on a Windows Phone 8 device, for example, and quickly see them on any Windows 8 computer with access to the cloud. There’s certainly room for tighter integration, however. We would love to see Microsoft enable NFC support in Windows 8 for tap-and-go file transfers. That’s just one idea, but there could be several other options, especially when it comes to enterprise and device management capabilities.
Windows 8.1 is expected to launch in August, but it remains unclear how that will apply to existing Windows Phone devices.
Apparently Microsoft is worried that Google’s Chrome OS and Android tie-in so nicely together that consumers will naturally gravitate towards a Chrome OS computer and an Android-powered smartphone. In an effort to compete, Microsoft wants Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone 8 to tie-in together better than they currently do.
Sync between Windows Phone and Windows right now is pretty seamless, but it’s mostly done through Microsoft SkyDrive, Music and Office 365. You can snap photos on a Windows Phone 8 device, for example, and quickly see them on any Windows 8 computer with access to the cloud. There’s certainly room for tighter integration, however. We would love to see Microsoft enable NFC support in Windows 8 for tap-and-go file transfers. That’s just one idea, but there could be several other options, especially when it comes to enterprise and device management capabilities.
Windows 8.1 is expected to launch in August, but it remains unclear how that will apply to existing Windows Phone devices.
WINDOWS BLUE RUMORED TO MERGE WINDOWS PHONE AND WINDOWS 8 INTO ONE PRODUCT
Microsoft’s (MSFT) next version of the Windows operating system, codenamed Windows Blue, will reportedly help merge its PC and mobile platforms, according to Digitimes. Windows Blue is said to currently be in development separate from the Windows 8 and Windows Phone units. Microsoft’s overall goal is said to have the operating system compete with Google’s (GOOG) Android and Chrome platforms.
The company is reportedly worried about its manufacturing partners cooperating with Google on Chromebooks and rumored Android-based laptops. It won’t be that simple to merge the two platforms, however. Microsoft is expected to run into problems, like Google has, because of the time it takes to properly integrate many related technologies into one product.
The latest rumors suggest that Windows Blue will be announced in June for an October launch.
The company is reportedly worried about its manufacturing partners cooperating with Google on Chromebooks and rumored Android-based laptops. It won’t be that simple to merge the two platforms, however. Microsoft is expected to run into problems, like Google has, because of the time it takes to properly integrate many related technologies into one product.
The latest rumors suggest that Windows Blue will be announced in June for an October launch.
Product snapshot: ASUS Transformer AiO PC blends Windows 8 and Android
ASUS has released a triple threat of a machine that should do well to confuse lots of non-technical people (and even many techies). Its Transformer AiO (all-in-one) desktop product looks like a regular all-in-one PC, but there is something special about it: its 18.4in monitor is actually an 18.4in Android tablet that can be used independently of the system (and Windows 8). You can pull it out of the base and take it with you to use on the couch, at the dinner table or anywhere else around your home. But the big question is, who wants to use an 18.4in tablet?
Let's explain the product a bit more: when the screen is docked to the PC on the desktop, it acts as a monitor so that you can run Windows 8 normally as you would on any other computer. As soon as you pull the screen off the dock, the screen automatically turns into a tablet that runs the Android 4.1 operating system rather than Windows 8. It's this bit that has the potential to be confusing, but what you need to know is that you are essentially getting two products in one: a desktop PC and an 18in tablet that doubles as the 18in monitor for that desktop PC (so three products if you want to count the monitor).
Here's the 18.4in tablet being held out of its PC base.
The Transformer All-in-one has two CPUs to facilitate this design: an Intel Core i5 CPU is what runs in the desktop base (or a Core i7 depending on the model), while an NVIDIA Tegra 3 processor is what runs in the tablet itself.
The reason for this double operating system solution is basically to make the tablet as portable as possible. If the tablet were to run Windows 8 natively, then all the processing power of the base would need to be in the tablet instead, and the tablet would only be docked just to access more ports, the optical drive and to charge up. By using the Tegra 3 processor to run Android 4.1 on the tablet, you get a thin, passively-cooled product that still runs a feature-rich operating system — and it won't need as much battery power to do so. (ASUS claims the battery in the tablet can last up to five hours).
Because the tablet can't run Windows 8 natively, ASUS has installed a 'mode' app that allows you to connect to the desktop PC wirelessly so that you can control it remotely. What you'll see on the screen is a stream of your desktop and you'll be able to use Windows 8 as if it were installed on the tablet (it will be good for most things, including accessing documents and media files, or browsing the Web).
Here's the 18.4in tablet in action. You can see that through the Android app, the Windows 8 desktop doesn't respond to portrait orientation.
For the most part though, you can use the tablet's Android operating system for Web browsing, streaming video and anything else you might normally use Android for (as long as there is a tablet app for what you want to do). When you dock the tablet back to the desktop, there is a little blue button on the tablet that you'll need to press in order to get it back in to plain monitor mode.
The hardware design seems to be good. The base with the Core i5 CPU in it sits on the table heavily and its stand allows for some tilting when the tablet is docked. The tablet screen can be easily lifted out of it with one hand (there is a flap handle on the rear) and it's just as easy to place it back into the dock once you're done.
At 18-inches, the screen is large and it feels substantial to carry around or sit in your lap. Luckily, it has a stand on it similar to a photo frame, so you can just plonk it on a table in an upright position if you want to view photos or videos. It has a typical, 10-finger capacitive touch interface, so if the tablet is resting on your lap you can type easily with both hands on the touchscreen.
In a nutshell, the Transformer All-in-one is an all-in-one desktop PC that uses an Android tablet as its monitor. You can use it as a regular desktop computer (it has four USB ports, three of which are USB 3.0, as well as a built-in optical drive, SD card slot, audio ports and HDMI) or you can rip off its monitor and use that as a stand-alone, 18.4in tablet.
Let's explain the product a bit more: when the screen is docked to the PC on the desktop, it acts as a monitor so that you can run Windows 8 normally as you would on any other computer. As soon as you pull the screen off the dock, the screen automatically turns into a tablet that runs the Android 4.1 operating system rather than Windows 8. It's this bit that has the potential to be confusing, but what you need to know is that you are essentially getting two products in one: a desktop PC and an 18in tablet that doubles as the 18in monitor for that desktop PC (so three products if you want to count the monitor).
The Transformer All-in-one has two CPUs to facilitate this design: an Intel Core i5 CPU is what runs in the desktop base (or a Core i7 depending on the model), while an NVIDIA Tegra 3 processor is what runs in the tablet itself.
The reason for this double operating system solution is basically to make the tablet as portable as possible. If the tablet were to run Windows 8 natively, then all the processing power of the base would need to be in the tablet instead, and the tablet would only be docked just to access more ports, the optical drive and to charge up. By using the Tegra 3 processor to run Android 4.1 on the tablet, you get a thin, passively-cooled product that still runs a feature-rich operating system — and it won't need as much battery power to do so. (ASUS claims the battery in the tablet can last up to five hours).
Because the tablet can't run Windows 8 natively, ASUS has installed a 'mode' app that allows you to connect to the desktop PC wirelessly so that you can control it remotely. What you'll see on the screen is a stream of your desktop and you'll be able to use Windows 8 as if it were installed on the tablet (it will be good for most things, including accessing documents and media files, or browsing the Web).
Here's the 18.4in tablet in action. You can see that through the Android app, the Windows 8 desktop doesn't respond to portrait orientation.
For the most part though, you can use the tablet's Android operating system for Web browsing, streaming video and anything else you might normally use Android for (as long as there is a tablet app for what you want to do). When you dock the tablet back to the desktop, there is a little blue button on the tablet that you'll need to press in order to get it back in to plain monitor mode.
The hardware design seems to be good. The base with the Core i5 CPU in it sits on the table heavily and its stand allows for some tilting when the tablet is docked. The tablet screen can be easily lifted out of it with one hand (there is a flap handle on the rear) and it's just as easy to place it back into the dock once you're done.
At 18-inches, the screen is large and it feels substantial to carry around or sit in your lap. Luckily, it has a stand on it similar to a photo frame, so you can just plonk it on a table in an upright position if you want to view photos or videos. It has a typical, 10-finger capacitive touch interface, so if the tablet is resting on your lap you can type easily with both hands on the touchscreen.
In a nutshell, the Transformer All-in-one is an all-in-one desktop PC that uses an Android tablet as its monitor. You can use it as a regular desktop computer (it has four USB ports, three of which are USB 3.0, as well as a built-in optical drive, SD card slot, audio ports and HDMI) or you can rip off its monitor and use that as a stand-alone, 18.4in tablet.
2013年4月10日星期三
Acer Aspire P3 Windows 8 tablet with keyboard on the way?
Acer has a handful of Windows 8 tablets on the market, including the Iconia W510 tablet with an Intel Atom Clover Trail chip and a higher-end Iconia W700 with a Core i5 chip and 1080p display.
Now Hungarian site Tech2.hu reports that Acer is preparing to launch a next-gen tablet called the Acer Aspire P3. As the move from the Iconia name to the Aspire brand suggests, this model will blur the lines between a tablet and a notebook, thanks to an optional keyboard dock.
The Acer Aspire P3 is expected to have an 11.6 inch, 1600 x 900 pixel display, an Intel Ivy Bridge processor (with options ranging from a Celeron chip to an Intel Core i5), and from 32GB to 128GB of storage.
According to Tech2.hu, Acer will market the Aspire P3 as an ultrabook. But it looks more like a tablet with a keyboard that doubles as a carrying case.
Now Hungarian site Tech2.hu reports that Acer is preparing to launch a next-gen tablet called the Acer Aspire P3. As the move from the Iconia name to the Aspire brand suggests, this model will blur the lines between a tablet and a notebook, thanks to an optional keyboard dock.
According to Tech2.hu, Acer will market the Aspire P3 as an ultrabook. But it looks more like a tablet with a keyboard that doubles as a carrying case.
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