2013年4月28日星期日

Smartphones Outpace Feature Phones, Samsung Leads

  With worldwide shipments of 216.2 million units during the first quarter, smartphones grabbed 51.6% of the total mobile phone market. According to IDC's data, this is the first time that hardware makers have shipped more smartphones than feature phones on a global basis. It's a significant milestone.
  Phone makers shipped 418.6 million devices during the quarter, which was up 4% compared to the year-ago quarter (402.4 million), but down compared to the previous quarter (483.2 million). The first quarter typically sees a downturn in sales following the holiday quarter, so these numbers follow the seasonal trends.
  The overall mobile market may have grown only 4%, but smartphone shipments improved 41.6% year-over-year, jumping from 152.7 million in 2012 to 216.2 million in 2013. Smartphone shipments dipped just 5.1% from the fourth quarter of 2012, which saw shipments of 227.8 million.
  [ Learn more about Samsung's flagship smartphone. Read Samsung Galaxy S4 Oozes Innovation. ]
  The worldwide transition from feature phones to smartphones has been a long time coming. Mature markets such as North America and Europe have shipped more smartphones than feature phones for a while now. It is emerging markets such as India and others in the Asia-Pacific Rim that are driving the push to smartphones.
  "Phone users want computers in their pockets," said Kevin Restivo, senior research analyst with IDC. "The days where phones are used primarily to make phone calls and send text messages are quickly fading away. As a result, the balance of smartphone power has shifted to phone makers that are most dependent on smartphones."
  That would be Samsung and Apple.
  Samsung shipped more smartphones -- 70.7 million devices -- than any other vendor during the first quarter. It increased shipments by 60.7% percent compared to the year-ago period, and grabbed 32.7% of the smartphone market. Samsung was also the world's largest supplier of all mobile phones, with shipments climbing 22.9% from 93.6 million last year to 115 million during the first quarter. Samsung commands 27.5% of the entire mobile phone market.
  When it comes to smartphones, Apple ranks a distant second to Samsung. The company shipped 37.4 million iPhones during the first quarter, giving it 17.3% of the smartphone market. Apple improved shipments only 6.6% year-over-year, and actually lost market share. Apple held 23% of the smartphone market during the first quarter of 2012.
  LG, Huawei and ZTE round out the top five smartphone makers during the first quarter, with shipments of 10.3 million, 9.9 million and 9.1 million, respectively. All three companies saw significant year-over-year growth. In fact, LG was the biggest mover in the entire smartphone market, increasing shipments 110.2%. Huawei's growth wasn't far behind, improving 94.1% year-over-year. ZTE saw about half as much growth, improving shipments 49.2% from the year-ago period.
  Looking at the entire cellphone market, Nokia ranked second after Samsung. According to IDC, Nokia shipped 61.9 million devices during the first quarter, representing a precipitous 25.1% drop in shipments from the year-ago period. Nokia managed to hold onto 14.8% of the mobile phone market during the first quarter.
  Apple followed in third place with its shipments of 37.4 million iPhones. Apple laid claim to 8.9% of the overall phone market.
  LG and ZTE round out the top five mobile phone makers, with shipments of 15.4 and 13.5 million, respectively. Those shipments gave LG and ZTE ownership of 3.7% and 3.2% of the cellphone market, respectively. Conspicuously absent from the top five phone makers are companies such as Motorola, Sony and BlackBerry.
  The broader battle between Samsung and Apple is only going to intensify. Samsung may well extend its lead over the next six months. The Galaxy S4, its flagship device for the year, reaches the U.S. and other markets this month. Apple is not expected to offer a new iPhone until the fall, giving Samsung four or five months to build its user base.
  The iPhone 5S, or iPhone 6, or whatever it's called, had better be an impressive device if Apple wants to hold onto its already-slipping market share.

SkyDrive Pro-see Business office 365 Tip

  This second look at configuring Business 365 for businesses on mobile equipment focuses on the new cell environment, earlier referred to as “Metro,” that is available in Home windows 8 and RT. But don’t stress, standard Computer buyers: I've a couple of tricks for these making use of additional traditional PCs as well as the desktop natural environment much too.
  Although yesterday’s discussion about configuring Office 365 on Home windows Cell phone 8 was fairly easy, Microsoft is in the center of remaking Windows into a system that should be as in your house on ultra-mobile and highly-connected units like tablets mainly because it is on common PCs. Therefore Home windows 8, and its ARM-based variant Windows RT, comes with equally a new cellular system, previously termed Metro, and also the standard desktop surroundings.
  While you may assume, Workplace 365 may be surfaced in both environments. And although this sequence is geared toward mobile usage, I’ll provide a fast overview in the desktop-based configurations you should think about here moreover to considering the Metro facet of your fence. Having said that, the vast majority of this text is about configuring Office 365 within the Metro ecosystem.
  From any with the apps, you'll be able to alter the account name and determine no matter if to sync e-mail (Mail), contacts (Folks), and calendar (Calendar). Notice which the Calendar application does not work with Office environment 365/Exchange-based responsibilities.
  Two with the apps also have a number of app-specific configurations you might want to examine. In Mail, for instance, two months of email are downloaded by default, and you can find an e-mail signature pre-configured. And in Calendar, you'll be able to pick which Office 365 calendars are exhibited, and what shade they use.
  If you’re using Windows RT, or Home windows 8 on a pill, you might unquestionably choose to seize the two now available “Metro” Business applications, Lync and OneNote. Quickly, much more are going to be obtainable, which include a SharePoint Newsfeed app.
  Let us check out Home windows RT first. When you could know, Home windows RT isn't appropriate with any Home windows desktop programs that really don't ship using the foundation OS. For Office 365, what this means is a handful of points. You cannot down load and put in SkyDrive Pro, such as, this means you will not have the option to immediately sync a SharePoint-based document library along with your gadget.
  Home windows RT does feature Place of work 2013, so that you could make your SkyDrive Pro storage the default open/save spot in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. To take action, open a kind of applications then tap the File menu button. Within the Open up check out that seems, tap “Add a place” after which you can Business 365 SharePoint. Signal into your Office environment 365 account as prompted, and Office environment 365 will likely be added to the listing of destinations that Workplace employs for paperwork. In truth, it will be the default. (SharePoint usually takes precedence around SkyDrive in Business 2013.)

  If you’re working with a OneNote notebook in SharePoint On the internet in Office 365, navigate to that notebook within the website interface working with World wide web Explorer, open it in OneNote Website Application, and after that opt for Open in OneNote to get it into OneNote 2013 in your Personal computer. Any more, you could obtain it seamlessly in the application right.
  Windows 8 is effective in the same way to Home windows RT, but you get some added niceties. First, if the Business office 365 subscription supports it, you can install Office 2013 in excess of the web, which model of Business includes SkyDrive Pro-see Business office 365 Tip: Set up SkyDrive Professional on the Pc for additional specifics of acquiring that going-and numerous other programs. And it instantly configures the Place of work apps to use your SkyDrive Pro-based document library by default.
  If you already have Business 2013 installed, or have separately acquired it, use the instructions over for introducing SharePoint Online in Office 365 for your Place of work applications. And never ignore Outlook 2013, that is a more potent solution for controlling e-mail, contacts, calendar, and, yes, duties than are definitely the Metro-style mobile apps.
  When you are applying an more mature model of Office-Office 2007 and 2010 are supported-you can make use of a special utility downloaded with the Office 365 web page to automatically configure all those apps to work along with your account. This may be uncovered in Settings (gear icon), Place of work 365 Settings, Software package, Desktop Setup.
http://www.windows7mart.com/windows-7-enterprise-activation-key-p-3529.html

2013年4月20日星期六

PC Manufacturers Say Windows 8 Has Driven Millions To Become Apple Users

  With the exception of the Xbox, Microsoft has been on a string of high-profile failures like Zune, Windows Phone, and Surface tablets. But its latest cock-up, the much-reviled Windows 8 operating system may have been the final straw for lots of Windows-based PC users, at least according to those who make the computers.
  ZDnet’s Adrian Kingsley-Hughes writes today it’s been so bad that an upcoming Windows 8 update might actually be a U-turn to the interface that Windows users are accustomed to.
  He also says that original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) have been hurt by the drastic switch to Windows 8.
  Some manufacturers like Samsung and Lenovo have taken actions — such as adding a Start button replacement — that openly address complaints from consumers about Windows 8. While others, like the CEO of Asus, have been more open about their displeasure, publicly stating that “demand for Windows 8 is not that good right now.”
  But there are those with even harsher views of Windows 8. Kingsley-Hughes writes that “Privately, one OEM source told me that Microsoft is ‘destroying’ the PC industry, while another claimed that Windows 8 has ‘handed over millions of customers to Apple.’”
  This is a delicate time for Microsoft in the consumer world, as more people do their e-mailing and web-browsing from smartphones, tablets, or other connected devices that don’t use a Windows OS. Meanhile, both Google and Apple continue to dominate the mobile OS market — in addition to the hardware sold by both companies.
  “Windows 8 has done little to boost sales,” writes Kingsley-Hughes, “so OEMs will be pinning their hopes on the next big thing to come out of Redmond.”

 The Floor Professional is barely marginally lesser

  Microsoft has confirmed that more compact Windows 8 tablets will come to sector in the close to future. These will fill a gap in the Home windows ecosystem and increase desire for Windows 8 by addressing essential downsides into the early Area tablets.
  Windows tablet gross sales appeared to get started on off impressively, however the overall outcomes to this point are mediocre at most effective. Microsoft isn't sharing the numbers, but current experiences suggest that 1.five million Surface area tablets have bought, with four hundred,000 of these Area Professional. The Area Pro bought out pretty much immediately, but with out real product sales details, it’s challenging to know no matter whether that’s spectacular.
  If one particular point has hampered the achievement of Home windows 8 tablets, it really is price. The Surface RT is surely an amazing bit of components and also a deserving pill competitor, however it expenses a similar $500 as the entry-level design with the incredibly well known iPad-and just about double the cost of the Amazon Kindle Hearth 8.nine Hd. Starting at $900, the 10.6-inch Surface Pro is astronomical for your pill. Despite the fact that it is truly a tablet-ultrabook hybrid of types, it really is perceived for a tablet.
  A different connected handicap of Home windows eight tablets is size. Led from the initial Amazon Kindle Fireplace and followed by the Samsung Galaxy Tab, Google Nexus and iPad Mini, the 7-inch tablet sector has exploded. The very fact that more compact tablets are inclined to expense about 50 percent about their larger sized counterparts includes a great deal to complete with that.
  Windows 8 continues to be blamed for just a steep fall in Personal computer product sales, while using the key perpetrator being the lacking Begin button. Nonetheless, latest Computer income info does not contain tablets-not even these similar to the Area Pro, which is pretty much a Personal computer operating the entire Windows 8 OS. IDC's newest analysis did not count something with a entirely detachable keyboard as being a Laptop.
  The forthcoming Windows eight.1, codenamed “Windows Blue," will spark demand from customers for Windows. Several rumored, crucial updates and modifications are according to leaked builds. Such as, Home windows Blue may well boot straight to the additional common Windows 7-esque desktop method, and even return the beginning button.
  What will ignite gross sales of both of those Home windows 8.1 and Windows eight.1 tablets? Smaller sized, more cost-effective Windows 8 tablets.
  A Windows 8 Pro pill can change a standard desktop or laptop computer since it is actually, in fact, a complete Computer system. Tablets managing Windows RT, however, can arguably swap a conventional Computer system for several buyers, nonetheless they simply cannot operate legacy Windows software package. For those who aren’t planning to substitute their Computer system, even though, a smaller pill would make a lot extra sense.
  The Floor Professional is barely marginally lesser, thinner and lighter than most Windows notebooks as well as ultrabooks. Corporations and people who may have now invested in a very Home windows notebook attain little value from getting a Windows eight tablet.
  A 7-inch Windows eight tablet within the $200 value range would transform all the things, driving adoption of Windows eight. It could fill a spot concerning smartphone and laptop computer, and supply the regular Home windows knowledge together with applications like Microsoft Workplace. There is certainly the rumored profit that Home windows Blue will quickly sync apps and options among the desktop or laptop along with the tablet. A stylus or digitizer would sweeten the offer.
  "It's a (great) indicator that the new Microsoft is aggressively and proactively heading to enjoy in each individual new hardware section," says Onuora Amobi, chief editor of your WindowsBlue blog. "They'll prevent to determine if it is really a superb determination later. That's an excellent system."

2013年4月16日星期二

Apple manufacturer Foxconn adds workers to make iPhones, report says

  Apple may be preparing to start production on its next iPhone.
  According to the Wall Street Journal, Foxconn has added about 10,000 workers per week since the last week of March to its factory in Zhengzhou, which is a major producer of iPhones.
  Citing executives familiar with the matter, the Journal reports that the Zhengzhou factory is adding employees to work on the next iPhone. No other details of when the smartphone might be announced or technical specifications were revealed.
  Apple and Foxconn did not immediately respond to CBSNews.com's request for comment.
  Foxconn manufactures over half of the world's electronics. The factory's client list includes corporations like Apple, Microsoft and Samsung. The Taiwan-based company is one of the world's largest employers.
  Several reports suggest that Apple's next smartphone, dubbed the iPhone 5S, will launch in June. Previously, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster said that the next iPhone will come out in late June, with a cheaper version released in September. According to CNET, Jaffray speculates that the iPhone 5S will only have incremental upgrades - faster processor, better software and better camera.
  Jaffray also suggested that the iPhone 6 may include NFC technology or some type of biometric security feature.
  A recent report on Mashable suggests that the next two iPhones were designed under the watch of then CEO Jobs. Citing San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon, the blog says that the next two iPhones were designed before CEO Tim Cook took charge of the tech giant, following Jobs' death.
  Other rumors have similar timelines for Apple's next smartphone. KGI securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo also says the next iPhone will be announced in June. According to CNET, Kuo believes the iPhone 5S will have a new A7 chip, better camera and LED technology called "Smart Flash."
  According to Japanese fan site MacFan.jp, the next iPhone will be announced on June 20, with a low-cost iPhone coming in August.
  Apple's Phone 5 was announced on Sept. 12, 2012. It joins the iPhone 4S in terms of fall releases. All previous iPhones were announced in the summer.

The Weather application also obtained a number

  Microsoft now released updates for 5 away from its six Bing Apps for Home windows eight. With this particular update, the Information, Finance, Sporting activities, Travel and Maps applications - all of that are put in by default on Home windows 8 techniques - now all activity a variety of new options and improvements that, as Microsoft places it, “make it a lot easier to customise and personalize them to best fit your wants.” The business also declared an update for the Bing Weather conditions App, but this new edition just isn't accessible still.
  Not one of the updates will rock your environment, but all of these are welcome additions, in particular simply because they generally felt to some degree confined in their early iterations.

  Individuals of you who are nevertheless coming to grips together with the forthcoming demise of Google Reader, one example is, will appreciate the truth that the Bing Information application now supports RSS feeds and offline reading. On top of that, the app now also features additional customization selections so that you could “keep tabs on precise tale types, subject areas, or information resources that issue to you personally.”
  The Maps app now contains website traffic incident notifications and improved driving, transit and going for walks directions. Users also can now bookmark areas they stop by often to their commence monitor.
  The Finance application now incorporates an updates watch record and real-time U.S. inventory updates, as well as Sports activities app adds 29 new leagues. The Journey app now features articles from Lonely Earth and Frodor’s, also as Frommer’s, which the first entrepreneurs just acquired back again from Google.
  The Weather application also obtained a number of appealing new applications, which includes the flexibility to get weather conditions at ski resorts in 24 countries within the planet (just in time to the finish from the ski year), too as far better moving weather conditions maps.

2013年4月12日星期五

Google Inactive Account Manager: Decide What Happens to Your Account After You Die

  What happens to your e-mail, Facebook, Twitter and other digital accounts after you die has long been a question in the tech world. Some have even started to create a digital estates to pass on the keys to their digital lives to an executor or trustee.
  But Google is now thinking ahead and making it easier for people to plan what happens to that digital data after you pass. The company has announced its Inactive Account Manager.
  The tool allows users to decide what happens to their data on Google's services -- Gmail, Blogger, Google Drive, Google+, Picasa Web Albums, Google Voice and YouTube -- after they pass. You can decide to share access to those accounts with friends or family members or have the account deleted.
  "You can tell us what to do with your Gmail messages and data from several other Google services if your account becomes inactive for any reason," Andreas Tuerk, the product manager of the service, wrote on Google's blog today.
  Instead of someone informing Google of your death, the service uses inactivity as a barometer. You set the time of inactivity -- three, six, nine or 12 months -- and if you don't log into your account after that period Google will do one of two things. You can have it alert up to 10 trusted friends or contacts and choose to share your data with them or you can also just have it set to delete your entire account.
  Before the systems take any of those actions though, it will warn you via a text message or an email to a secondary address. Of course, if you have died you won't get that alert and it will then take action.
  It might sound like a somber tool, but Google is now making it easier than many other services when it comes to planning for your death in the digital domain.
  New Hampshire State Rep. Peter Sullivan introduced legislation in February to allow the executor of an estate control over the social networking pages of the dead. Five other states, including Oklahoma, Idaho, Rhode Island, Indiana and Connecticut, have established legislation regulating one's digital presence after death. Rhode Island and Connecticut were first, but their bills were limited to email accounts, excluding social networking sites. With other services, such as iTunes, some have started to set up digital trusts.
  Beyond ownership, many services have popped up over the last couple of months that address the issue of sending messages via social media services after death. A Facebook app called "Ifidie" lets you set up a way to send out Facebook messages to friends after you pass.
  You identify a trustee who will confirm that you have died, and the messages will be sent. _LivesOn is a Twitter service that will analyze your tweets, allow you to train it, and will tweet for you after you are gone.

The drop could be the worst that IDC has ever witnessed

  Computer system sales are plummeting simply because people are perplexed and sad with Windows 8, and there is no finish in sight. So concludes an IDC report, which suggests the sinking income are the worst it's ever observed.
  The IDC report identified that around the world Laptop shipments ended up 76.three million units in 2013's initial quarter, down thirteen.9% from the calendar year preceding, and also even worse compared to the seven.7% decline that IDC had forecast. The drop could be the worst that IDC has ever witnessed as it commenced monitoring the Computer system industry every single quarter in 1995. It can be also the fourth straight quarter that Personal computer product sales have declined year-on-year.
  Which is only the commence from the lousy news for Microsoft. IDC concludes that that decline is fueled by the inadequate layout and failure of Home windows 8, not simply through the rising recognition of tablets. Bob O'Donnell, IDC Program Vp, Clientele and Displays had these harsh text for Windows eight and Microsoft:
  "At this issue, regretably, it seems obvious which the Windows 8 launch not only unsuccessful to deliver a favourable enhance for the Computer industry, but appears to have slowed the marketplace. Though some consumers take pleasure in the new kind factors and contact abilities of Home windows eight, the radical variations for the UI, removal in the acquainted Get started button, along with the expenses affiliated with touch have designed PCs a a lot less interesting option to devoted tablets along with other competitive products. Microsoft will have to make some pretty hard decisions shifting ahead if it wants to assistance reinvigorate the Computer system market place."
  "While persons such as standard appear and truly feel with the tiles, they?ˉre also very confused and discouraged through the deficiency of start menu and spend loads of their time in (traditional) desktop mode. Hence the base line is I believe they've got designed a condition in which it?ˉs quite challenging for folks and other people who definitely office 2011 mac product key have a Pc that works just fine are indicating it?ˉs confusing, it prices far more income and i don?ˉt truly need to have it."
  O'Donnell and other individuals at IDC believe that unless of course Microsoft helps make critical improvements to Home windows eight to help make it a lot more common and consumer-friendly, points will only get worse. Jay Chou, senior investigation analyst on IDC?ˉs quarterly Pc tracking assistance, explained:
  "Although IDC had not expected Home windows eight being a significant driver to help stem the tide of Computer system quantity drop, it now appears that with no training course correction from Microsoft, the Pc sector is headed towards an even even worse contraction for 2013 than formerly thought."
  O'Donnell is true. Microsoft produced a major gamble in designing Windows eight as an working process built much more for tablets and contact than for traditional PCs, and in offering it dueling and puzzling interfaces. Microsoft hoped that familiarizing folks together with the touch interface would spur people to acquire Windows eight and Home windows Rt tablets, but that hasn't occurred. Now it appears that Windows eight is helping to considerably depress gross sales of conventional PCs as well.

2013年4月10日星期三

Production of new iPad starts this summer

While chatter on the next iPhone continues to grow following the arrivals of several high-profile smartphones, consumers might see the refresh of another popular Apple device in stores soon.

According to Digitimes, production on a fifth-generation iPad will begin as early as July. The report cites "sources with Taiwan-based supply chain makers."
The report says that the new iPad will windows key shop be thinner and lighter than the current model, and include a slim bezel similar to the iPad Mini.

Speculation into the launch of a new iPad kicked off last week, after Fortune reported last week retailers such as Best Buy and Walmart were slashing prices on iPads and iPad Minis, suggesting Apple is poised to launch a new model.

The potential arrival of a new iPad shouldn't come as much of a surprise. Apple has released one every year since the original made its debut in 2010.

Apple continues to dominate the tablet market with the iPad, selling nearly 23 million during the 2012 holiday quarter, up from 15.4 million the same time the previous year. However, competitors appear to be catching up. According to IDC, Apple's tablet market share dropped from 52% in the fourth quarter of 2011 to 44% last year.

Windows eight is actually a very good running

  Another person needs to refer to the Mayan calendar, a Sumerian pill, or perhaps the Oracle of Algernon, due to the fact I am really on the very same aspect as Ed Bott in this particular week's argument, "Windows 8: Can this OS be saved?" Nicely, except for one thing: I don't believe Windows 8 requires conserving. So to me, the debate's premise is kind of moot. It'll be fascinating to discover the arguments on this 1, but severely, Windows 8 will not need preserving. Maintain off on reducing the lifeboats.
  Every time Microsoft releases a new variation of its running system, you will find a tad of controversy and preventing that takes position. And that i comprehend your like for Windows XP or your attachment to Windows 7, but it is time to embrace the long run.
  In my mind's eye, I think about two nerds getting into the argument about whether Home windows eight is often saved and ending up within a slap fight that at some point is broken up by one of their moms. Situations like this just make me cling my head in shame. But that is the character of IT folks. It truly is variety of like arguing Windows vs. Linux, or Laptop vs. Mac.
  Religion is belief-based. Know-how is observation-based. Study the difference before getting a aspect.
  Now obtaining reported that, I'll notify you that in my humble impression, Windows Vista and Windows Me were being totally bogus and fully pointless initiatives. Sorry, I know which i claimed in a former publish that I might hardly ever puppy Vista once more, but it can be these types of a simple target that i won't be able to resist. The mere point out of it can be like Kryptonite to me. And i'm constructive that also a lot exposure to Vista would ultimately get rid of me. I digress.
  I have been to numerous retail suppliers and a person discounted keep all over city, and i've noticed Home windows 8 on many systems. New laptops with touchscreens, desktops, netbooks, and, of course, the Area pill line.
  I put in it over a notebook and also have yet to check out everything incorrect with it. Admittedly, I would appreciate it more if I'd one of many new touchscreen, products but you will find absolutely nothing erroneous with Windows 8. And i've put it via its paces. I have not been good to Home windows 8. I hated it at the beginning, but I pressured myself to change with all the moments and perform with it. The Windows eight Metro-style interface may be the potential of computing.
  The mouse will likely be a issue of the past very before long inside our post-PC period that one of the debaters writes about so often. For those who, and he, definitely imagine that we're now to the post-PC period, why the heck would you would like to avoid wasting Home windows eight?
  Home windows eight can be a whole working system that could run serious applications. You will find no need to apologize for it. It truly is a great running procedure - each little bit pretty much as good as Home windows XP, and in numerous ways, a lot better than Home windows seven. One of my most loved options of Home windows 8 is its spectacular boot time. 30 seconds from electricity on, I am opening applications. Windows seven, conversely, requires a number of minutes about the very same components.
  Home windows eight doesn't want preserving any more than Windows ninety five did. People are scared of a thing new, but in windows 7 home premium product key cases like this, they shouldn't be. And neither should really you. Windows eight is actually a very good running technique that warrants a respected area in historical past alongside other ground breaking technologies developments
  You wished an working system that could run on the hardware that you simply have now simply because you will not desire to expend the cash to update. Accomplished. You required an functioning system that operates on the assortment of components making sure that your consumer encounter is similar on all equipment. Finished. You required an functioning system that is straightforward to use. Completed. You desired an Apple-like working experience with swipey icons and an application retailer. Done. You needed an working procedure that does not choose quite a while as well up - hence most of the geeky tales of "going to get a cup of coffee though it boots". Done.

2013年4月7日星期日

T-Mobile, Audi Announce In-Car WiFi for $15 a Month

  Audi says its T-Mobile–powered Connect service turns a car into the "ultimate mobile device." It can be purchased month-to-month or in a 30-month, $450 chunk.
  Audi and T-Mobile are rolling out a new in-vehicle plan that will give drivers WiFi Internet access in their cars.
  Through the Audi Connect plan, Audi drivers will be able to access real-time news, weather, fuel prices and locations, Google Earth, Google Voice and Local Search over WiFi for $15 month.
  That price is with a 30-month contract for $450 total. Drivers wanting to test out the service can try a six-month free trial, or pay $30 a month on a month-to-month plan.
  "The T-Mobile-powered Audi connect service delivers unmatched connectivity to our customers at a rate that will turn their Audi into the ultimate mobile device," Anupam Malhotra, senior manager of connected vehicle at Audi of America, said in an April 4 statement. "This plan will help move us toward the goal of one million connected Audi vehicles on the road worldwide by 2015."
  Connect and solutions like it offer wireless carriers a new avenue for revenue as the smartphone market nears saturation. Research firm Visiongain expects 2013 revenues for the connected car market to reach $21.82 billion.
  To give drivers a sense for what they might gain with Connect, Audi has put together two commercials. In one, a woman is getting into her car when her overly concerned mother calls. The call is transferred to the in-dash Connect, and the daughter, using Connect's tools, has literally at her fingertips the answers to her mother's questions: whether she has enough gas, where she will eat and what the weather will be, for example.
  It's a less annoying ad than the second, which portrays a trying-to-be-cute-while-frantic woman scrambling to set up last-minute birthday festivities for her boyfriend—searching for a dinner reservation, ordering a cake, locating a scenic overlook.
  Importantly, in the second ad, the woman is shown pulling over before beginning her searches. For automakers, selling drivers on connected cars comes with the need to balance the growing issue of distracted driving.
  Ford Chief Marketing Officer Jim Farley, speaking at the New York International Auto Show this month, said that Ford is trying to figure out how to make the car "almost a destination in itself" and that "distracted driving is a big piece of that."
  According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, commercial drivers who text while driving are 23 percent more likely to be involved in a "safety-critical event." In a March poll commissioned by AT&T, 49 percent of commuters admitted to texting while driving—despite 98 percent saying that sending an email or text while driving isn't safe.
  At an April 4 Innovations Showcase, AT&T researchers showed off an in-development app that could show employers when employees are using the phone while driving, or could even make certain apps inaccessible while a vehicle is in motion.
  Whether transferring the things drivers do on their phones to hands-free dash consoles will solve the hazards associated with paying attention to things other than driving remains to be seen.
  Also uncertain is how the various automakers will team up with carriers or solutions providers. An option of Ford's Sync solution is to use one's phone as the data connection.
  "Since the connection is through your phone, it's whatever plan you have worked out with your carrier," a Ford spokesperson told eWEEK.
  General Motors, by contrast, has a deal with AT&T that will put Long Term Evolution (LTE) access into its vehicles beginning in 2014—at a cost of $299 a year for consumers.
  Mary Chan, president of GM's Global Connected Consumer division, has said that putting LTE into cars will enhance "virtually every aspect of the driving and riding experience."

Microsoft's virtual challenging disk

  Home windows 8's to start with major update is about the way, providing additional power to customise touch-enabled Get started screens on Windows eight machines with unique sized live tiles.
  The update, codenamed Windows Blue, which in prior variations of Windows would have been regarded as being a Services Pack, has leaked into the world wide web.
  It appears from Warren's movie that Microsoft will more closely align the user interface of Home windows eight with that of its Home windows Cellphone eight smartphone platform. A fresh Customise button on the Start out display screen stops the accidental movement in the are living tiles.
  New gestures increase added features windows 7 home premium product key. A swipe up in the bottom from the display offers a listing of all installed apps when a swipe down provides a power off alternative.
  The Configurations Allure provides a new Personalise button, for additional honing of private choices, and there are various additional selections for qualifications colors and designs.
  Microsoft's virtual challenging disk travel presenting SkyDrive already arrives set up with Windows eight, but Windows Blue consists of the option to back again up documents to SkyDrive from in Home windows 8's Configurations webpage, signalling a closer website link concerning computer software and files mounted over the laptop and those stored on the internet during the cloud.
  A different Tranquil Hours perform lets you silence apps in the course of pre-set periods this means you might get some snooze devoid of email messages and Facebook notifications waking you that has a ping.
  A few new purposes feature Home windows Blue - an alarm clock, calculator, sound recorder and film maker - though the most significant is a new edition of its Web Explorer world-wide-web browser IE11. This includes the power to synchronise favourite web-sites and searching heritage among Windows eight products.

2013年4月6日星期六

Why Facebook Home will blow Android into smithereens

  Yesterday, Facebook announced its Home for Android, their next-generation client software for Google's mobile OS, which will be avaliable for download shortly on a select number of devices using Google Play on April 12.
  It was originally anticipated that Facebook was going to announce an Android phone of its own design or a device partnership. But what the company really wants to do is make all Android phones a Facebook phone.
  This is certainly an ambitious plan for The Social Network. Android is the most popular mobile operating system, and it makes sense for the company to try to grab as much land and end-user mindshare for itself using existing devices as much as possible.
  While it may not have been Facebook's actual intention, Home for Android is really just a fragmentation grenade.
  The Android operating system has been plagued with fragmentation ever since the 2.x branch of the mobile OS was released on multiple carrier devices.
  The transition from 2.0 "Eclair" to 2.x "Froyo", to 3.x Honeycomb" and 4.0 "Ice Cream Sandwich", and most recently, both iterations of 4.x "Jelly Bean", as well as all patch iterations and dot versions in between, has left a scattered landscape of devices among many carriers and OEMs in various states of OS upgrade version malaise.
  This has created problems for Android developers when coding applications, and when they test against different versions of the OS and different target devices.
  The introduction of multiple versions of Amazon's Kindle Fire, as well as the Android Dalvik 2.3.3 port running in BlackBerry OS 10 has further complicated this situation by creating additional "Forks" of the Android OS, which have their own unique application issues that developers need to address.
  Taken at face value, Facebook Home is not a fork of Android. In many ways it is no different from the overlays that Motorola has used in their Motoblur Android phones, that Samsung has done with their customized TouchWiz Nature UX on the Galaxy S phones, and even what Amazon has done with their own custom UX overlay on top of standard Android.
  There are dozens of such 3rd-party overlays or launchers, which you can purchase from the Google Play store today, that end-users can use to customize their device, and give it a completely different look and feel from stock Android. So in that same sense, Facebook Home is harmless.
  But I don't expect Facebook Home to stay harmless for very long. A fragmentation grenade is also harmless as long as the arming pin stays put. Pull it out, different story.
  To get value out of Facebook Home, the company is almost certainly going to want to monetize it, and that means processing payments for in-app purchases outside of Google Play or introducing their own app store.
  If that happens, Google will throw Facebook Home off the Play Store as either one of those actions will violate the terms of their Developer Distribution Agreement.
  Additionally, should Facebook choose to monetize Home for Android with advertisements, there are any number of land mines the company can step on under Google's Developer Program Policy that will get them thrown off Google Play as well.
  If Facebook Home for Android gets thrown off Google Play — a fate which I believe to be inevitable — then Facebook will do precisely what Amazon does with their own Appstore for Android today, which is to allow end-users to sideload it.
  I believe it is highly unlikely that Google will prohibit sideloading of all apps. But Google's OEM partners, particularly Samsung, who is evolving on a divergent path from vanilla Android to begin with by having all of their own value-added apps that replace core functionality in the Google version, will not want Facebook to override the default user experience.
  As a result of this, I expect Samsung at some point in the future to rely entirely on its own app store for Android, and will diverge from Google's OS and become a legitimate fork. We might even see Samsung use Android Dalvik for application compatability in Tizen and become a hybrid OS, like BlackBerry 10.
  Amazon will also almost certainly go beyond overlays and become a legitimate fork with its products because it's obvious that they have airs for the smartphone market as well, now that they have hired former Windows Phone executive Charlie Kindel.
  Samsung and Amazon will almost certainly introduce new libraries and new APIs in order for developers to take advantage of the distinct features of their respective Androids. And Facebook Home, as it evolves, will also extend its tendrils into the OS in the very same way.
  This is how the road to fragmentation hell is paved.
  LG will not want to anger Google, and will not preload or enter any sort of partnership with Facebook or a wireless carrier that wants it.
  Because it is the least influential of the Android OEMs and will want to maintain its position as the premier Nexus handset OEM, LG may also enact policies on its software that prevent Facebook Home from being installed.
  In fact, it would not surprise me for Google to regard Facebook Home as malware and prevent it from being sideloaded on all Nexus-branded products as well.
  And if Google and Samsung both end up in a full-out war with Facebook over APIs and OS extensions and such, you can expect that Facebook will retaliate by turning off access or restricting the way its Graph API can be used by non-Facebook mobile software. We saw these API restrictions happen with 3rd-party Twitter clients; for Facebook to do this as well sometime in the future is not a huge stretch of the imagination.
  This leaves us with the other fish, such as HTC, ZTE, Lenovo, and Huawei.
  HTC, which is undergoing tremendous financial stress at the moment, will probably do anything to distinguish itself and pull away from the precipice, so carrier preloads of Facebook Home, such as on the recently anncounced AT&T "HTC First" device, are going to be its standard operating practice going forward.
  It would also not surprise me to see Facebook take a future stake in the beleagurered smartphone maker in order to preseve a place for their software on a flagship device, much like Google now does with LG on the Nexus 4 and Asus on the Nexus 7 tablet.
  ZTE, Lenovo, and Huawei service primarily a domentic market in China, and will run their own weird domestic builds of Android with state-approved social networking software to keep the Chinese government happy. It's unlikely Facebook Home will see much traction there at all.
  This leaves us with no less than four, five, or six distinct forks of Android. Google as represented on Nexuses or Google Experience devices, Amazon, Samsung, HTC/Facebook, and whatever weird beast ends up running for domestic Chinese use. And BlackBerry 10's Dalvik implementation.
  The future of the Android developer ecosystem is fiefdoms controlled by powerful warlords.
  If you thought Android was fragmented now, you ain't seen nuthin' yet.
  Is Facebook Home for Android a potential fragmentation grenade for the popular mobile OS? Talk back and let me know.

That has a achievable components refresh in sight

  A lot of the Windows 7 laptops nevertheless readily available are priced greater than their Windows eight equivalents, an examination of numerous on the net shops reveals. On the 10-month mark within their lifecycle, Windows 7 laptops with Core i5 Sandy Bridge processors and 15-inch displays were offering for around $400, a 34 percent drop from their introductory cost, DealNews stories. By comparison, the value of in the same way configured Home windows eight programs have dropped a whopping forty six % at their 10-month mark.
  Many of the Windows seven laptops nonetheless accessible are priced better than their Home windows 8 equivalents, a look at several on line shops reveals.
  Some purchasers are seeking older units in order to stop Home windows eight, which sports a new consumer interface that individuals consumers don't desire being compelled to discover. "This hesitation to adopt?aand adapt?ato the touchscreen-happy UI of Home windows 8 could also clarify why we are viewing these kinds of steep discount rates on Home windows 8-equipped Ivy Bridge laptops," DealNews asserted.
  Special discounts on Windows RT and hybrid-style units have also been noticed at Microsoft's on the web store, but individuals bargains are not in the serious ranges spotted by DealNews.
  Introducing to the woes of Home windows 8 would be the news that a different version with the working process, code identify Home windows Blue, will likely be arriving this summer in time for back-to-school getting sprees. That would ignite even further more offers on Windows eight devices.
  That has a achievable components refresh in sight, it isn't astonishing to discover discounts showing for Home windows 8 units, according to Rob Enderle, president and principal analyst with all the Enderle Group in San Jose, Calif.
  As for tales of Home windows 7 components providing at a high quality around newer Home windows 8 techniques, that's a simple scenario of provide and need. "There's a huge shortage of Home windows 7 hardware as the OEMs had been asked to prevent which makes it very last calendar year," Enderle spelled out to PCWorld.
  Windows Blue is just not increasing issues, either. "Whether Home windows Blue are going to be an update or new release has not been plainly articulated by Microsoft and that confusion would not help matters," Enderle pointed out.
  He predicted that the following technology of Windows eight hardware are going to be quite a bit better than the very first systems jogging the OS. The processors might be more successful as well as devices will be lighter and less costly.
http://www.windowsanyway.com/microsoft-office-for-mac-home-and-business-2011-product-key-p-3551.html

2013年4月5日星期五

iPhone5 VRS Samsung Galaxy S4?

Apple iPhone5 and Samsung S IV, both are hugely in demand. It’s very difficult to select the better one, but both the devices have qualities with a can of worms too. After having a very close study on the devices, it became easy to identify which one is better than the other.
1.  Design: Apple, the biggest smartphone company in market pays a big attention on the design of its handsets. iPhone5 is very sleek, compact and premium with an expensive look. It is one of the most sophisticated looking phones in the market.
On the other hand, Samsung S IV is made up of thin plastic which doesn’t look that expensive and sophisticated but it has a very nice trendy, compact design with its 5” screen. It is very easy to hold because of its rounded edges with very smooth body.
But if the designs of both the devices are compared, iPhone5 will be much better than S IV.
2.  Display: Both the are having a great display quality but if the user is interested in watching videos and gaming, S IV will be a better option for him because S IV is having 5” display which is greater than iPhone5 (4” display), even though iPhone 5 is having a great display quality with natural looking graphics and better pixel density.
3.  User interface and functionality: S IV and iPhone5, both have different operating systems. iPhone has latest iOS6 operating system which provides an ease of understanding and more user friendly.
On the other hand, S IV is having Latest android operating system, Jelly Bean (Android version 4.2.2). It is very good operating system, blessed with amazing applications. It runs in very smooth and customized way to keep its users satisfied.
4.
 Processing speed and memory: Samsung Galaxy S IV comes with Quad-Core 1.9 GHz Cortex-A15 and Quad-Core 1.2 GHz Cortex-A7, 600 Exynos 5 Octa Chipset processor with 2GB RAM, which is very useful to run this kind of specs-focused operating system.
iPhone 5 is having Dual-Core 1.2 GHz A6 processor with 1GB RAM, which is more than enough to run iOS6 operating System. iOS6 runs very smoothly with breath taking processing speed in this configuration.
5.  Camera: iPhone5 has 8MP, autofocus camera with geo-tagging, face detection, touch focus, panorama and a powerful LED flash.
Samsung Galaxy S IV is having 13MP, autofocus camera with dual shot, geo-tagging, face detection, smile detection, touch focus and image stabilization. Though iPhone has less MP camera, it is still quite similar to Samsung S IV camera quality.
6.  Cell quality: Samsung SIV can never beat iPhone5 in terms of cell quality because it is having a very clear earpiece, deeper tones and stronger microphone for transmitting voice to the other end than the Samsung Galaxy S IV.
Both the devices have distinct quality and different features but all in all Apple iPhone5 is the best smartphone in every single feature. It is made for the simple sophisticated users who live technology with simplicity.
http://www.windowsanyway.com/microsoft-office-for-mac-home-and-business-2011-product-key-p-3551.html

There is no mention of Windows 8

  There are only five Home windows RT tablets or hybrids on store cabinets and they are not selling well, as one analyst has pointed out this week.
  There’s lots of explanations products including the Asus VivoTab RT TF600T and Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga eleven have not challenged the iPad’s dominance - high charges, poor availability, failure to invest in advertising, dislike of Windows RT, exceptionally silly names - but I'm able to include one particular additional excuse to your list: confusion among vendors
  This distinct device, regardless of the title on that page, doesn’t run Home windows eight. It runs Windows RT. There is no clarification inside the specs listing. The only real mention of running units within the site is from the Issue and Reply device, wherever shoppers have had to check with if it runs Windows RT or Home windows 8; an Argos “Helper” promised to change the page, but which was again in mid-February plus the mistake continues to be.
  Couple of with the normal retailers I have visited present any explanation with the variances amongst Home windows eight and Windows RT to buyers. John Lewis will be the exception that proves the rule, supplying no less than two lines of explanation: “Windows RT is actually a new edition of Microsoft Home windows that’s crafted to operate on ARM-based tablets and PCs. It works solely with applications obtainable during the Home windows Store.”
  Much more usually than not, on line merchants simply use duplicate supplied because of the suppliers - if you have ever compensated close notice while purchasing a specific merchandise throughout numerous retailers, you’ll have found there seems to be a lot of cutting and pasting likely on. Get Asus. Here’s the duplicate it evidently supplied to Debenhams (which apparently sells tablets as of late - who knew?):
  “Asus VivoTab RT, Asus’ 1st Home windows RT tablet that offers people the new Home windows working experience inside a portable, however highly effective gadget. Showcasing the award successful Transformer Pad style from windows 7 product key, the VivoTab delivers the popular Windows platform on the pill earth that transforms to complete notebook productivity when attached to the Cell Dock.” There is no mention of Windows 8, but it really barely explains what RT is and is not, either.
  Computer system Earth is small superior. Its Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 11 website page suggests: “The new program will allow you to customise the start display screen, create your important apps for your liking. You'll be able to swipe, pinch and touch your way although the new features and amazing interface. Created all around applications the Home windows RT working technique will make function and enjoy much easier, productive, social and completely reliable.” You’d have thought Pc Globe may possibly at the least mention that the current Home windows application won’t operate with it.
  Even so, Samsung and various producers might have aided their own personal trigger by evidently describing what Windows RT is and is not to vendors and would-be consumers. Surely, anybody who bought the “Samsung Ativ Windows 8″ from Argos is in for just a little bit of a surprise.

2013年4月4日星期四

Cisco to Buy Ubiquisys to Grow Wireless Network Portfolio

  The deal will give the networking giant greater capabilities in small cells, which helps mobile carriers improve service to smartphones and tablets.
  Cisco Systems is continuing to build its offerings for mobile carriers, the latest move being the upcoming acquisition of small-cell manufacturer Ubiquisys. Cisco officials announced the deal April 3, saying they will pay $310 million in cash and employee-retention incentives for the British-based company. The purchases of Ubiquisys will complement other recent acquisitions the networking giant has made in its efforts to boost what it can offer mobile carriers. The deal comes on the heels of Cisco's acquisitions of BroadHop in 2012 and Intucell earlier this year. "These technologies will tie together the mobility architecture that leverages the intelligence of the network from the wireless edge of the network into the wired core," Hilton Romanski, vice president and head of corporate business development at Cisco, said in an April 3 post on the company's blog. "As carriers around the world increase cellular data capacity to serve the rapidly growing population of smartphone and tablet users, adding small cells is one of the most cost-effective ways to multiply data capacity and make better use of scarce spectrum assets."
  The booming popularity of such mobile devices as smartphones and tablets—combined with other such trends as increased consumer and business mobility, bring your own device (BYOD) and video—are putting greater pressure on mobile carriers and their
  wireless broadband networks. WiFi networks and small cells—essentially small cellular base stations—can be used to offload some of the traffic running over broadband networks and ease some of that pressure.
  Ubiquisys makes WiFi, 3G and Long Term Evolution (LTE) small cells, and offers related software and services. Cisco officials said the combination of their mobility offerings and WiFi expertise and Ubiquisys' small-cell products and services will give mobile carriers a more complete wireless solution that will mean a better experience for end users.
  "Cisco is 'doubling down' on its small-cell business to accelerate strong momentum and growth in the mobility market," Kelly Ahuja, senior vice president and general manager for Cisco's Mobility Business Group, said in a statement. "By acquiring Ubiquisys, we are expanding on our current mobility leadership and our end-to-end product portfolio, which includes integrated, licensed and unlicensed small-cell solutions that are tightly coupled with SON [self-optimizing networks], backhaul and the mobile packet core. For service providers, Ubiquisys supports cost-effective coverage and capacity that delivers a differentiated customer experience." Ubiquisys' offerings and employees will be folded into Cisco's Small Cell Technology Group, which is headed by Partho Mishra. The acquisition of BroadHop, announced in December 2012, brought policy control and service management capabilities to Cisco.
  BroadHop offered a number of products under its Quantum Network Suite, ranging from policy management to provisioning to analytics. That deal was followed by the $475 million acquisition of Intucell and its SON software, which helps carriers plan, configure, manage and optimize their cellular networks. The fruits of the BroadHop deal started appearing in February at the Mobile World Congress 2013 show, when Cisco introduced new intelligent software—under the umbrella name Quantum—that enables wireless service providers to better analyze and monetize the growing amount of data running across their WiFi, 3G and 4G networks. At the same time, Cisco unveiled its 3G Small Cell Module that can be attached to its Aironet WiFi access points, creating an integrated 3G and WiFi wireless environment.
http://www.windowsanyway.com/microsoft-office-professional-plus-2010-product-key-p-3547.html

Dell vice-president Steve Lalla did point

  Even though Computer system maker Dell is now from the middle of the program that may direct to taking alone back to the personal business, it's even now producing new Personal computer goods windows 7 professional key according to Home windows 8. This week, an govt at Dell indicated the company strategies to refresh its Windows eight lineup of PCs later on this calendar year.
  Which is not shocking whatsoever; the truth is it is anticipated. Having said that, as PCWorld.com reviews, Dell vice-president Steve Lalla did point out that the enterprise is discovering designs for potential Home windows 8 tablets which can be larger when compared to the 10 inch products which might be now available from Dell, like the Home windows 8-based Latitude 10 plus the Windows RT-based XPS ten.
  It's actually not nonetheless known if these larger sized tablets might be a part of Dell's 2013 Personal computer item plans. Lalla did point out that Dell will supply some new Windows 8 notebooks and convertibles that could be thinner and lighter than their existing solutions. Lalla also claimed the company continues to be functioning on Windows RT-based solutions, jogging on ARM processors, but wouldn't go into particulars.
  It truly is very likely that Laptop makers are ready until finally the Computex trade event in Taiwan to expose additional information with regards to their 2013 Windows eight launch plans. The trade event will likely be held this 12 months from June 4-8.

2013年4月1日星期一

No Windows desktop mode!? No!

  It comes as no surprise to anyone who reads my stories that I hate Windows 8's Metro interface. I'm not alone. Lots of people hate it. But instead of switching back to an Aero-style interface, perhaps the most respected technical Windows writer out there, blogger Paul Thurrott, looked at the leaked Windows Blue release and thinks Microsoft is planning on dumping Windows Desktop mode entirely. No!
  I've thought all along that one way Microsoft could save Windows 8 from its current market malaise if it would make its desktop mode the primary interface instead of Metro.
  That isn't what Thurrott sees happening though. In fact, he sees the exact opposite.
  Thurrott wrote, "All the action in this build is in PC settings, and if you were looking for any further proof the desktop being eased out going forward, look no further than this. As noted in the previous report, there are a ton of new settings in there now, including many items that were previously only available in the desktop-based Control Panel interface. This is clearly an indication of how we get from here (Windows 8) to there (Windows 9, with potentially no desktop)." As further proof, he observed, "The default apps interface has been completely Metro-ized in this release."
  Some observers, like ComputerWorld's Preston Gralla, agree with him: "There's a reasonable chance that Microsoft will finally get around to killing the Desktop in Windows 9," Gralla writes. "With Windows 8, Microsoft did its best to make the Desktop at best an afterthought, relegating it to a tile on the Start screen. Windows 8 has been built for touch and the horizontal orientation of a tablet, and the Desktop has no place in that world."
  Others, such as Byte's Larry Seltzer, disagree: "Can anyone actually believe this? Earth to Paul: The Windows desktop is a major strength of the operating system, 'especially' as compared to the competition. There is an ocean of expertise and customized software out there on the Windows desktop, and Microsoft would never alienate these people."
  I'd agree with Seltzer, except... well, Microsoft is already alienating those users. I know some Windows 8 PC users. The majority of them zoom past Metro and get to a normal Windows Desktop as fast as possible. If Thurrott is right, Windows users will be locked into Metro once and for all. That will fly as well as a lead brick.
  One source close to Microsoft told me he can't see Microsoft dumping the desktop anytime soon. "There's the little, itty-bitty problem of hundreds of thousands of desktop applications that will take years, if not longer, to migrate to WinRT API-based apps. Just bringing Office alone to WinRT will be a Manhattan Project."
  Of course, Microsoft does have one way around this problem: Move all its business apps to the cloud and make them software as a service (SaaS) apps. This fits in nicely with Ed Bott's vision of Microsoft's future as a cloud-based service provider with its own hardware line, Surface.
  If moving its business applications to the cloud really is the plan, then Microsoft could indeed leave Windows 8's desktop mode behind. I wouldn't be happy about it, and I don't see that I'd ever like Metro, but a combination of cloud services and Windows-based devices with Metro interfaces could win for Microsoft.
  It's beginning to look more and more like if you want a traditional desktop, you're going to need to use Linux. Who'd thought it?
  As a long-time desktop Linux user, that's fine by me, but I wonder if Windows users really want to follow me to Linux, or if they'd rather just have a working, Aero-style desktop instead of a cloud-based Metro device? I'd bet they'd really rather have their fine old desktop anyday.
http://www.windowsanyway.com/windows-7-anytime-upgrade-c-630.html

There’s no doubt that Home windows eight provides

  Windows eight could be one of the most polarizing solution that Microsoft has ever launched.

  In actual fact, it'd be among the most polarizing tech products and solutions to at any time begin to see the mild of working day.
  There’s no doubt that Home windows eight provides a substantial amount of outright haters. It’s even motivated comparisons together with the much-loathed Windows Vista.
  But it’s difficult to notify irrespective of whether that outpouring of anger is simply the echo chamber amplifying a vocal minority or no matter if it certainly signifies a widespread unfavorable view.
  Home windows eight is in fact fewer well-liked than Windows seven, which has quite higher acceptance ratings. But it is much extra well known than Windows Vista, which was well and actually hated.
  In my expertise, a 4- or 5-star score is a solid thumbs-up. A ranking of two or 3 stars means “Meh.” Plus a 1-star ranking could be the equivalent of the elevated center finger. For those who go through the evaluations that accompany 1-star scores, you’ll obtain equivalent parts rage and buyer’s regret.
  By that normal, Windows Vista is a world-class villain, an item of scorn and mock, with forty two per cent of all reviewers giving it the lowest doable rating.
  In contrast, a mere 17 per cent of Home windows seven reviewers hated it enough to award it a one-finger salute. And Windows 8 was appropriate smack within the center of these two, with 29 % of reviewers providing it just one star.
  Somewhat much more than 50 per cent all Home windows 8 consumers like it. That’s a lot less than the whopping sixty seven p.c approval score for Windows 7, but considerably past the puny 38 per cent of Vista customers who gave it a thumbs-up vote.
  In fact, being a measure of how deeply despised Vista was, be aware that the number of 1-star scores was increased than the complete of 4- and 5-star scores. That is not the case in the slightest degree with the more latest variations.
  The normal rating for Windows 7 on Amazon’s 1-5 scale is 3.seven. Look at that while using the pretty bad two.7 rating for Home windows Vista. At the time once again, Windows eight is correct smack during the center of individuals two, earning a median ranking of three.2.
  (With the sake of comparison, I checked out the most latest variation of OS X that Amazon marketed. Apple sells the more recent Lion and Mountain Lion on-line only, but Snow Leopard, which was introduced within the exact time as Windows 7, is just marginally a lot more well known than its Home windows rival. Snow Leopard earns a median score of three.nine, as opposed to Home windows 7’s 3.7. And, you already know, "haters gonna loathe.” For the proof, notice that fourteen p.c of Snow Leopard buyers gave the Apple OS a 1-star rating. Which is only three points reduce as opposed to "I loathe Windows 7" score.
  I suspect that none of these conclusions are stunning into the Microsoft administrators and merchandise planners who unveiled Home windows 8. They had to be aware of that a number of their style and design conclusions had been going being unpopular. People today never like it when you go their cheese. Time will inform if those people prospects shift somewhere else or slowly appear all over.