Tag Archives: Windows 8

Kyle's Windows 8 (Photo Credit: Kyle Stewart/Magnae Famae)

8 Pros and Cons for Windows 8

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Kyle’s Windows 8 (Photo Credit: Kyle Stewart/Magnae Famae)

I recently downloaded Windows 8. Below, I have listed 8 pros, and 8 cons from my experience thus far with Windows 8.

Your experience with Windows 8 will be different of course. I hope that you don’t have as many installation problems as I did.

8 Pros for 8

  1. New! New! I love new things…
  2. It is at a great price of $39.99, compared to previous versions of Windows (Windows 7 costed over $100).
  3. Pro/Con: Your Microsoft Account is merged with Windows (for myself, this is a con).
  4. Speed… I’m finding Windows 8 to be much faster!
  5. Microsoft Office 2013 (Get the Preview for free) is awesome!
  6. The Start Screen just looks cool, maybe it’s a fad… maybe not.
  7. The boot is incredibly fast, clocking in at 5 seconds.
  8. The apps are great for the most part, all enjoying the new ‘metro’ design language.

The amazing Netflix app for Windows 8 (Photo Credit: Kyle Stewart/Magnae Famae)

8 Cons for 8

  1. I had so many installation problems with Windows 8. I spent hours on Twitter with their support account, and hours more on their phone support. In the end it worked.
  2. This is a massive file. 2GB. If you have a slow internet connection, DO NOT buy the digital download.
  3. Once Microsoft Office 2013 is available, it will cost $99/year. I am not looking forward to that.
  4. The Charms features are difficult to figure out at first.
  5. Is it just me, or are some pre-installed apps taking a really long time to load? Windows Store, for example.
  6. Setting everything up again. Trying to remember all of your passwords (You are using different passwords, right?) is not fun.
  7. Apps are far and few between. The ones that exist are great, but it is a limited selection.
  8. Internet Explorer is still the default browser and is still horrible.

 

What do you think of Windows 8? Leave your review in the comments.

Kyle Stewart will be publishing his final review before next Tuesday, on Magnae Famae.

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Image via The Verge

Windows 8 packaging revealed

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Image via The Verge

On October 26th, if you decide to pick up a copy of Windows 8 or Windows 8 Pro… here is the packaging you’ll see.

The Verge posted a photo of the packaging of the upcoming operating system. These boxed versions will be available in retail stores only.

What do you think of the packaging?

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Windows 8 to be available on October 26th

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Steven Sinosfky announced at Microsoft’s annual sales meeting that Windows 8 will be available on Friday, October 26th, 2012.

The launch will be for both upgrades, and new installs.

Let the countdown begin!

Will you be purchasing Windows 8?

 

Image via Supersite for Windows

Microsoft Office 2013 announced

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July 16th, Microsoft announced the new Microsoft Office 2013 (also Office 15) Public Preview in San Fransisco.

Microsoft Office 15 is dropping support for Windows XP and Windows Vista in this version of Office. They are continuing to support Windows 7, and obviously Windows 8.

When you open Office, you see a video. The video is emphasizing the fact that documents are now available everywhere, thanks to SkyDrive.

SkyDrive

This version of Office is heavily integrated with the Cloud. Well, SkyDrive. Microsoft’s Cloud-based service. Microsoft Office will be saving docs in the cloud automatically, to your SkyDrive account.

Image via Supersite for Windows

Word 2013

The iconic Microsoft Word comes with full PDF support. Including editing PDFs. It also comes with a great feature that allows you to Resume Reading wherever you left off (Thank you so much, Microsoft)!

The new and improved Design tab allows you to easily change document themes, borders, watermarks etc.

Powerpoint 2013

Powerpoint is just beautiful. It comes with some fantastic (and some ugly) new themes. Powerpoint is mainly redesigned, but has few new features. It is automatically in widescreen (16:9) and it also allows you to Present Online.

Excel, OneNote and Outlook 2013

To get reviews of these, go to Paul Thurrott’s Supersite for Windows.

Downloading Office

It takes some time to download Office. Make sure you have some. You can download Office 2013/Office 15 here.

Be sure to comment below with your thoughts on Microsoft Office 2013.

Gallery

Watch the complete Microsoft Surface Keynote

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Microsoft has posted the complete Keynote Presentation, of their announcement of the Microsoft Surface tablet, which they announced in Los Angeles on June 18th.

If you don’t want to watch the entire keynote, you can get a summary of all of the features in Microsoft Surface, here.

Also for your enjoyment is a (rather pointless) 64 second Dubstep video of the Microsoft Surface.

The new Microsoft Surface, running Windows 8; Image via CNET

Microsoft announces new “Microsoft Surface” tablet

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The new Microsoft Surface, running Windows 8; Image via CNET

Microsoft has announced a new tablet. This is only the second piece of hardware Microsoft has released, the other being the XBox.

The tablet comes shocking, as the invitations cam out last-minute to the press. Rumors immediately claimed it would be a tablet.

Technically Speaking…

It has USB 2, 10.6 inch display at 16:9. We are assuming it is 1080p (which is nothing in comparison to the iPad 3′s retina). It also has Gorilla Glass 2, and the latest Intel CPU (Ivy Bridge). And Intel Core i5.

It’s too bad that they couldn’t go with USB 3, and retina.

Microsoft was boosting it’s Wi-Fi stating that it had the best Wi-Fi of any tablet.

The Hardware

Microsoft also boosted its kickstand on the back, which will be great for “sitting back and watching movies”.

One of the really interesting things about the Microsoft Surface is the cover, which has a built-in backlit keyboard. Which they claim is twice as efficient as typing on glass.

Besides the kickstand, on the back of the Surface is a Camera.

The tablet is less than 2 lbs and less than 14mm. It is also using a stylus (which they are calling a pen), with Digital Ink.

Featured Apps

The tablet also has the new Windows Reader for (surprise!) reading.

They also spoke about a Netflix app, and how it is has the new Microsoft Office ’15.

“This spine feels like a book. You’ll hold it like a book. It will feel like it’s another book when you carry it with books.”

The Microsoft Surface with all of the various keyboards that will be offered; Image via The Verge

Pricing, Models and Availability

Now, the Microsoft Surface comes in either 32GB or 64GB. Pricing will be announced when we come closer to Microsoft Surface’s availability, but it will be similar to other tablets running ARM.

Microsoft has already launched the Microsoft Surface’s official website here. And has a Press Release here.

What do you think of the new Microsoft Surface? For more photos, check out the Gallery below.

windows-8-metro

New Details on Windows 8 leaked

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Windows 8 Consumer Preview (Image via OSXDaily)

A piece of code was found in the Windows 8 Consumer Preview that would allow a Metro Kill Switch to be in place. Also many more things were found in the code, but will not be put in place until Windows 8 is on-the-market.

The switch, would simply turn off the Metro style Windows 8 . This would make it so that only the Desktop version of Windows 8 appears. The kill switch will be located in the Control Panel under the soon-to-come What to do with Windows 8 Metro section.

The kill switch will look like a Light Switch, which will be like sliding things on and off in iOS. Other things in the Control Panel that will have ‘light switch looking things’ include:

  • A make Steve Ballmer’s face my desktop background switch
  • A Angry Birds version of  Windows 8 switch
  • A Return to Windows 2000 switch

Also, Microsoft will be including a Get out of Windows Free switch, which will instantly put Linux on your system, causing you to lose every piece of your data including valuable Pictures, irreplaceable family videos, and even the essay you’ve been working on for the past month!

Microsoft has plans to fill the Stable release of Windows 8 with endless Freeware! The list includes…

  • Al’s Virus Removal, now includes 24/7 webcam watching for burglars, free of charge!
  • Insta911, You can now instantly call 911 by simply clicking on the new 911 button, which will replace the space bar!
  • Auto-Back-Correct, This program will start yelling at you the second that your back starts slouching while typing. New features include a Texas-Person yelling a you, a British person yelling at you, A Spanish person yelling at you, and a Customer Support Rep from Microsoft yelling at you!
  • iPod Cancellation with Zune, now whenever you plug-in your iPod, instead of iTunes opening, A hundred Pop-up adds for Microsoft Zune will open. The final pop-up will tell you that your iPod has a virus, because while you were closing the pop-ups, a virus was put into your iPod telling you where you can buy a Microsoft Zune.
  • Google.com-does-not-exist, Now whenever you go to Google in any Web Browser, you will receive a Notification that Google doesn’t exist. You can use Microsoft Bing instead!
  • and many, many more pieces of Software that are sure to make your Circuits crash!

What do you think of all of the freeware and switches? Leave a comment below.