Macintosh OSX

The whole reason why macs never get viruses is because hackers don't see any profit in hacking a mac, even though macs arc is 64bit or higher currently pc's hold the market shares in the US, thus being hackers will see profit in hacking a pc and get more enjoyment out of it rather than trying to waste time on a mac, and wit a pc u can do a hell of a lot more than just a mac where u can only do graphic arts, music design, and so forth, and not even good enough to run games on it, oh yea another thing bout macs is that the os is pretty much locked and simplyfied where there's rly no probs with the mac osx and if there ever is any probs that the user experiences they always run to the apple store because they don't know squat on how to resolve the issue, when pc users can fix issues on their own and not have to run to the apple store for help. So yea I think the numerical order of os'es should remain the same currently.

THE STABLEST OS ITS PLUG AND PLAY ALL IS INSTALLED NO WORRIES ABOUT MALE WARE. 

Service is Apples best point. They cares much about the user experience. When they found some issues they slove them with updates. The most powerful os is OSX 10.8. Design and Dock are a plus point in the system it beats all. Its perfect for working and play sometimes a game. (Not playing hardcore games) but for what we have xboxes and PS3 consoles. It is the cheapest system on the marked and has the best update cycle. Best system on the market. All what you ned is onboard you don't need to install something. That's why Mac OSX is better than any other system.  IT can make all what a other system can do but you don't must worry about male ware viruses issues and you have someone to talk the geniuses hotlines and online chat on apples website.

SERVICE NO MALE WARE POWERFULNESS FEATURES YOU WOULD LOVE, NO DRIVER WORRIES, PERFECT PAKAGE FOR ONLY 15$.

By far one of the easiest operating systems to learn for a complete beginner (although switching from windows has a slight learning curve). Ideal for the artist and everyday user, the Mac OS is a personal favorite. The fact that it's unix based makes it quite similar to linux with very similar terminal commands. The only downside to Mac OS is the small range of games and the high price of the Macintosh computer required to run Mac OS X.

Mac is fully stability os in the world. The xp is not graphic os or any other os. I used all os except fedora, -security is most powerful, rich graphics. And main thing is almost all process works under commands.

They need to have more games but other than that... the compatibility with stuff like printers are excellent and it is very hardy and never crashes.

Macintosh are the best operating system of all the time! It's better than Windows. The graphic and the style it's very better! Macs run anything and they don't get viruses unlike windows and they don't slow down after years of use.

I love to be a Part of MAC. And What About YOU?

Fleeting Magnetism And OneWord: Plastics

Fleeting Magnetism

Eighteen months ago, China threatened to restrict exports of rare-earth metals, such as neodymium, used in the AC permanent-magnet motors powering the Nissan Leaf, Toyota Prius, and Chevrolet Volt. That prompted carmakers to explore alternatives. The most obvious candidate, already part of GM’s eAssist mild-hybrid system, is an AC induction motor containing no permanent magnets. (In an induction motor, static electric coils induce magnetism in a rotor made of steel laminations instead of permanent magnets.) While induction motors are slightly less efficient, they’re notably lighter, cheaper, and well suited to moderate-load, short-duration duty. The GM design shown here (ironically made in China), contributes more than 100 pound-feet of torque to curtail downshifts during passing and hill climbing.

OneWord: Plastics

 The trickledown from Formula 1 to road cars of ultralight, ultrastiff composites is migrating beyond carbon-fiber-reinforced tubs and body panels into suspension and powertrain domains. ZF’s experimental molded-plastic front and rear suspension systems cut both weight and parts count. Florida-based Composite Castings has produced a few four-cylinder engine blocks made of carbon-fiber-reinforced epoxy, saving 20 pounds over a comparable aluminum block. And an Australian firm, Carbon Revolution, has introduced the first single-piece carbon-fiber wheel that, in a 12.5-by-20-inch size, is 40 percent lighter than an aluminum wheel.

Golden Age of Gears And Goodbye to Flats

Golden Age of Gears

 Gearboxes have leapt from the greasy under(car)world into the limelight. Last year, Ferrari introduced an auxiliary two-speed automatic transaxle to power the FF sport wagon’s front wheels. Porsche presented a seven-speed manual for the new 911, and ZF unveiled a nine-speed automatic slated for use in 2013 Chrysler minivans. To keep the gear count rising, Hyundai has confirmed that the world’s first 10-speed automatic will arrive in the next-generation (probably 2015 model year) Equus and Genesis models.

Goodbye to Flats

 

Goodyear hopes its Air Maintenance Technology (AMT) will send flat tires the way of the buggy  whip. This elegantly simple idea positions a small air tube inside a groove molded into the tire sidewall. As the tire rotates, atmospheric air entering the tube through an inlet port is pressurized by sidewall deformation and pumped through a check valve into the main tire cavity.  AMT is self-regulating and requires no electrical power or electronic controls. The U.S. Department of  Energy and the Luxembourg government are backing Goodyear’s  AMT car and truck test programs.

Wireless Recharging And Thermal Juice

Wireless Recharging

Magnetic inductive-charging pads save the hassle of plugging in your cell phone, camera, MP3 player, or portable GPS unit. Scaled up, this approach could also recharge an electric car’s battery. Both Rolls-Royce and Audi have shown experimental systems in which energy is transferred inductively from a floor pad to a corresponding surface on the bottom of a car. According to Rolls, magnetic inductive recharging is 90-percent efficient and tolerant of alignment errors.

Thermal Juice

One-third of the energy in every gallon of the gas you burn is dumped out your exhaust pipe as waste heat. Schemes aimed at recouping some of that energy include turbocharging, turbo compounding (exhaust-driven turbines geared to the crankshaft), and the steam generators investigated by  both BMW and Honda. A promising approach also under development at BMW runs on the Seebeck effect that NASA used for decades to power spacecraft. Semiconductors heated by exhaust gas generate electricity during acceleration to supplement the re-gen energy recovered during braking. BMW believes that a thermoelectric generator (shown here) might improve mileage by  five percent.

Lighting-Bolt Iqnition And Cylinders on the Chopping Block

Lighting-Bolt Iqnition

Conventional spark plugs struggle to fire lean intake charges that are laced with heavy doses of exhaust gas. To prevent misfiring, Mercedes-Benz uses several sparks per combustion cycle in its new high-compression 3.5-liter  V-6. An alternative approach under development by Federal-Mogul is an Advanced Corona Ignition System, which sprays several ion streams into the combustion chamber like a miniature lightning storm. This high-frequency system occupies the same space as a conventional coil-and-plug ignition and has demonstrated a 10-percent mileage gain. Since this eliminates electrode arcing, which shortens the life of conventional plugs, ignition-system longevity should be improved.

Cylinders on the Chopping Block

 BMW and Mercedes-Benz reintroduced four-cylinder engines to their U.S. lineups after years of absence. Volvo is phasing out five- and six-cylinder engines in favor of threes and fours. Both Ford and GM have unveiled 1.0-liter three-cylinders slated for global duty. These and other makers are exploiting strides made with turbocharging and direct injection to deliver equivalent power from fewer cylinders and fewer cubic inches. The smaller, harder-working engines are cheaper, lighter, and significantly more fuel efficient. But don’t count on Corvette or Ferrari turbo V-6s—both brands have denied the existence of such engines for now.

DashBoard Dialogue And New Batteries

DashBoard Dialogue

 To improve today’s voice-recognition systems, carmakers are collaborating with smartphone makers to literally reach for the clouds. The connected car of tomorrow will exploit cloud computing, plus the vast menu of  IT tools, apps, and updates raining down on the mobile-communication world to stream your home music collection into your car or remind you to grab a quart of milk. One of  the handiest cockpit advancements connects an Escort radar and laser detector to an iPhone by means of a SmartCord Live cable. Thus paired, your smartphone is capable of displaying not only traffic, speed-limit, and speed-trap-location information but also any live alert reported by another Escort user in the area running the EscortLive app. This networking could be the most effective police countermeasure since the CB radio.

New Batteries

Imagine a $30,000 Chevy Volt with a roomy back seat or a Nissan Leaf with a 250-mile range. Success of the electric-car movement hinges on the arrival of  better batteries. Two enterprises racing to commercialize advanced solid-state battery technology—Sakti3 and Planar Energy—hope to multiply lithium-ion energy density by a factor of  two to three while halving cost. Their plans are to replace today’s liquid electrolytes with lithium superionic conductors called thio-LISICONs (solid ceramic material containing lithium, sulfur, germanium, and phosphorous) to save bulk and weight.  Automated manufacturing processes will trim cost, while the likelihood of a chemical meltdown caused by improper charging or collision damage should be reduced significantly. GM, a Sakti3 stakeholder, hopes solid-state batteries will be ready  for road-testing within five years.

Hong Kong, South Korea lag in IPv6 adoption

Asia's emerging markets are leading mature markets such as Hong Kong and South Korea in IPv6 adoption as these countries have faster growing mobile broadband populations and a smaller pool of IPv4 resources. The mature markets' slow uptake could hamper competitiveness in the long run, according to the Asia-Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC). According to a recent study by APNIC, the estimated IPv6 users in Hong Kong and South Korea as a percentage of the overall Internet population are 0.02 percent and 0.01 percent, respectively. Comparatively, the study showed Thailand, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Indonesia had higher IPv6 penetration than the two developed markets. Thailand had 0.16 percent of IPv6 users, Malaysia and Sri Lanka both had 0.13 percent, while Indonesia had 0.10 percent, the study revealed. 

The top 5 Asian markets in IPv6 adoption were Japan, which came in tops at 2.4 percent, followed by China at 0.67 percent. Australia had 0.42 percent, while Taiwan had 0.19 percent and Singapore 0.17 percent. In a phone interview with ZDNet Asia Wednesday, Paul Wilson, the director general of APNIC, explained the number of Internet users is growing faster in emerging markets than mature ones such as Hong Kong and South Korea.

This growth, driven by rising mobile broadband subscribers, means more new IP addresses are needed and increases the adoption of IPv6 address, Wilson said, adding this need to adopt IPv6 is not so pronounced in established markets. However, since Asia has ran out of IPv4 addresses, the executive noted even mature markets that still have available IPv4 resources need to prepare for the inevitable migration to the newer Web protocol for competitive reasons.

With most companies more dependent on the Internet these days, businesses that do not plan ahead for IPv6 migration could risk losing existing customers who are already using the newer IP (Internet Protocol). Being prepared includes looking to procure IPv6-compatible software, hardware and networking gear, or companies may risk paying more to cross over in the future, Wilson warned.

Enterprises lack IPv6 experts
 

Asked if IPv6 still has security issues to iron out, Wilson said the protocol provides more security capabilities than its predecessor. However, like other new technologies, mistakes caused by human error are likely when deploying IPv6 and this may lead to security concerns, he said.

This challenge is not helped by the general lack of IPv6-skilled professionals in the market, which is a major challenge for organizations looking to migrate. Those that do also have to put in more effort to retain and train their staff in this competitive recruitment climate, he added.

Apple to fix iOS Wi-Fi problems

Apple's dirty little secret, which was kept out of October 23rd's iPad 4 and iPad mini's limelight, is that iOS 6, the new and popular operating system for iPhones and iPads, still has serious Wi-Fi and 3G/4G networking problems. Now, though, it appears that a new version of iOS 6, iOS 6.01, will be fixing these problems in the next few weeks.

According to BGR, Apple sources confirm that they're testing iOS 6.01. I've also been told by sources at one of the major telephone carriers that testing has indeed begun. This update will fix numerous problems. These include the horizontal lines bug, a problem with the camera’s flash not going off, and other minor problems. The real news as far as I'm concenred is that it will will fix iOS 6's spotty Wi-Fi and fix the truly costly problem of iOS 6 using expensive 3G or 4G instead of free Wi-Fi when both are available.

Apple quickly fixed one self-inflicted Wi-Fi problem. This initial annoyance had iDevices phoning home to Apple only to end up locking devices off the Internet. That was the easy one. A host of other problems remain. These include iOS 6 users not being able to trouble connect with APs (Access Points) using WPA2 AES (Wi-Fi Protected Access II/ Advanced Encryption Standard) and some devices simply not being able to use Wi-Fi at all. We can hope that this forthcoming minor update will fix all these problems.

One problem that won't be solved though is Apple Maps. For that, you'll need to wait for, at least iOS 6.1 and it's all too likely that Apple Maps will still get you lost for long after that. Forturnately, there are many, better map alternatives for iDevices.

Up to speed: Small towns quick to download

You'd imagine that life in the city would provide the best chance of a decent internet connection, but small, regional towns with their own phone exchanges are a much better bet. There are only 500 people living in Manildra, for example. It's a small NSW town midway between Orange and Parkes, but it has its own ADSL2+-enabled phone exchange, and the small number of tests taken on the ZDNet Broadband Speed Test between February and September this year averaged 17.7Mbps. It's a similar story in Wallaroo, the little port town on the western edge of the Yorke Peninsula in South Australia. There's an ADSL2+-enabled exchange serving just a few thousand people, most of whom are only a stone's throw away, with no distance to build up resistance and compromise speed, and not many people sharing the backhaul connection to Adelaide.

The area around Crowley Vale in Queensland's Lockyer Valley has a population of just 1,600. It's so small that it doesn't even have its own Wikipedia entry, but it does have an ADSL2+ phone exchange, and it averaged 15.2Mbps from the 24 ZDNet broadband speed tests we tracked. It's the same across all of our top speed locations; small populations with their own DSL2+ exchange:

• Marian, home to 1,000 people, 24km inland from Mackay
  
• Riverton, just 700 people in the heart of South Australia's Clare Valley
  
• Monto in Queensland, birthplace of Mal Meninga, home to 1,500 people
  
• Moorooduc on Victoria's Mornington Peninsular, a small town of 1,000
  
• Tarwin Lower, 175 km south-east of Melbourne, with just 115 people
  
• Dunolly, heart of Victoria's goldfields, home to just 1,000.
  

In each case, the exchange serves far beyond the towns themselves, but most of the population is situated just a block or two away. It's a different story, of course, for country folk who are forced to make do with the exchanges located in neighbouring towns. Our bottom 10 postcodes comprise nearly 100 tests barely reaching 1Mbps. The only positive take-out for these people is that they'll never exceed their download limit — and, if they do, they probably wouldn't even notice that their speed had been throttled.

Big-city folk sit somewhere between the two extremes. No suburban location made it into our top 10, and there would be hell to pay if they made it to the bottom of the list. In Double Bay, home to Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull, users get an average of 8.3Mbps. That's well above the country's average of 5.6Mbps (averaged from all of our DSL speed tests), and far above the result from Whittlesea, the heart of the prime minister's electorate, where speeds average 4.7Mbps.

The answer for Julia Gillard is simple. If the speed isn't to your liking, go bush! Find a small town with its own DSL2+ exchange, and enjoy the ride.

iPad Mini and new iPad look headed to EE's 4G network

Apple's marketing chief Phil Schiller named EE as a 4G partner for the new iPads. Image: James Martin/CNET

Apple's new iPad Mini 7-inch tablet and fourth-generation iPad, introduced on Tuesday, look likely to plug into EE's 4G network in the UK. At a launch event in San Jose, Apple's marketing chief Phil Schiller presented the new iPad and the much-anticipated iPad Mini, which will go up against Google's popular Nexus device. Among their many features, both tablets will have built-in support for LTE networks, Schiller said, but did not specify which spectrum this covers.

However, British operator EE appeared in a presentation slide showing carrier partners for the new iPad - a sign that the new Apple tablets will follow the iPhone 5's lead in being able to tap into the T-Mobile and Orange operator's soon-to-launch 1800MHz-based 4G services. "New features include a FaceTime HD camera, twice the Wi-Fi performance when compared to previous iPad models and support for additional LTE carriers worldwide," Apple said in its launch announcement.

After the launch of its previous tablet, the 'new' iPad, Apple had to field complaints over restricted LTE reach and paid an AUS $2.25m fine for marketing it as 4G, even though it didn't work on Australia's LTE networks. With the recently released iPhone 5, the company broadened its partners out, but still worked with only two 4G carriers in the whole of Europe - one of which was EE. Perhaps due to the 4G tweaks, the Wi-Fi-only models of the fourth-generation iPad and iPad Mini will arrive first. They are set to go on sale on 2 November via Apple's online and high street stores, as well as at retail partners such as Carphone Warehouse. The 4G-capable versions will start shipping a "couple of weeks after the Wi-Fi models", Apple said.

Neither EE nor Apple had responded to a request for comment at the time of writing. The new iPad Mini is about one-quarter thinner and half as light as the last generation of full-size iPad, according to Apple. It has a multitouch display measuring almost 8 inches, though this is not a Retina display, as some fans had hoped. Built on an A5 chip, it runs iOS 6 and promises 10 hours of battery life. With Wi-Fi only, the iPad Mini will cost £269 with 16GB of storage, rising to £349 with 32GB and £429 with 64GB. The same tablet with added 4G and other cellular capability is priced at £369, £449 and £529 correspondingly.

The fourth-generation iPad is built on a new chip, the A6X, that Apple says has "twice the CPU performance and up to twice the graphics performance" of its A5X predecessor. The tablet, which has a 9.7-inch Retina display, also runs on iOS 6. The new iPad with Wi-Fi only comes in at £399 (16GB), £479 (32GB) and £559 (64GB). Add in cellular, and the prices are £499, £579 and £659. Pre-orders for all models open at Apple's online store on Friday for buyers in the UK, the US and 24 other countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

Huawei under fire in Ghana for alleged bribery

China's Huawei Technologies has been accused of bribing Ghana's ruling party, in return for a US$43 million tax exemption, leading to calls for the telecoms equipment maker to be kicked out of the country. At a press conference in the capital Accra, a spokesman for Alliance for Accountable Governance (AFAG), Davis Opoku, produced documentary evidence to support the civil society group's claims, according to a report Wednesday by the Daily Guide. He claimed Huawei had been funding the activities and operations of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), breaking the country’s electoral laws. According to news site Joy Online, the documents shown at the press conference included invoices and plane tickets for some government officials. These indicated Huawei had been printing campaign paraphernalia, T-shirts, cups, caps and key holders, worth millions of dollars, for the NDC's 2012 election campaign.

The AFAG said following the "immoral" gesture by Huawei, the government "in a reciprocal gesture awarded the Huawei group what could arguably go down as one of the juiciest contracts to be doled out by the current NDC government", according to a report by the Statesman Online. The Statesman noted the deal awarded to Huawei in September 2011 involved a contract totalling US$150 million for an e-government platform. The Chronicle pointed out under Ghana's Political Parties Act, only a citizen may contribute in cash or in kind to the funds of a political party. A non-citizen shall not directly or indirectly make a contribution or donation or loan, whether in cash or in kind to the funds held by or for the benefit of a political party, it added.

If found guilty, Huawei and the NDC party could face hefty sanctions, according to AFAG, which has also called for the immediate deportation of Huawei officials for the violation of the Political Parties Act. Elsewhere in Africa, the telecoms equipment maker has also been subject to investigations. Earlier this month, the Ugandan government reportedly ordered an investigation into its national fiber optic project over alleged inflated costs and use of inferior equipment by Huawei. In markets such as the United States, Huawei has been under the spotlight for accusations of spying, due to alleged links to the Chinese military. However, a White House review released on Thursday has so far found no evidence. It is still under scrutiny in the UK, which is set to launch its own investigations. The company has also been banned from taking part in Australia's NBN project due to national security concerns.

O2 scraps Ericsson database after second major network outage

O2 is removing key Ericsson technology from its network, following two outages this year that led to widespread customer disruption across the U.K. After a second outage earlier this month, which cut off two million customers from the network for more than 20 hours, O2 announced in a blog post that the country's second largest network will no longer use Ericsson's technology, which was also blamed for an earlier outage in July.

The July outage led to as many as 7 million of the firm's 21--22 million customers -- or a third of its U.K. customer base -- with expensive paperweights as phones, after phone calls wouldn't connect and data services were cut off. A post-mortem discovered that O2's transition to Ericsson's Centralized User Database left millions of phones unable to 'authenticate' with the network, according to The Register.

Following the outage, affected O2 customers were recompensed with a 10 percent bill discount for July. 

Ericsson's database technology allows SIM cards to register to O2's network and giving users' access to the network. But O2's chief operating officer Derek McManus said the firm is "not prepared to risk this happening to our customers for a third time and are implementing a proven alternative solution."

McManus also said the firm will spend an additional £10 million ($16.1m) on the transition away from the Ericsson database, on top of the £1.5 million ($2.4m) it spends on infrastructure every day.

While the move is good news for O2 and its customers, Ericsson's technology is firmly in the spotlight following the two major outages -- the worst O2 has suffered in years. As The Register explains, O2 isn't cutting all its ties with Ericsson as the mobile giant outsourced its entire mobile network infrastructure to the Swedish telecoms equipment maker in 2009.

It's even likely that Ericsson will be at the top of the list to supply new technology as the firm moves away from Ericsson's database technology. That said, Huawei may also be on the shiny new server shortlist after the Chinese telecoms maker won an contract with O2 earlier this year. 

In spite of the U.S. House Intelligence Committee across the pond, the U.K. remains invested in Huawei technology, even though the U.K. Parliament is starting to warm up to the idea that Huawei may be bad news -- even though there is little proof in the pudding that Huawei has actually done anything wrong beyond suspicion.

GSMA: Only 45 percent globally subscribe to mobile services

The number of mobile subscribers globally will reach 3.2 million by end-2012, excluding inactive SIM cards and multiple SIM card users, and this means mobile operators can capitalize on the "significant" market opportunities available for the next few years, the GSMA notes.

In its report released Thursday, the trade association's Wireless Intelligence team found the total mobile connections worldwide will stand at 6.8 billion including machine-to-machine (M2M) communications by the fourth quarter of this year. Excluding M2M and inactive SIM cards, the number of connections will drop to 5.9 billion, it added.

Additionally, since consumers on average use 1.85 SIM cards each, the total number of unique mobile subscribers globally will reach 3.2 billion by the end of the year. A unique subscriber can have multiple connections, or SIM cards under his or her name, the report noted.

This means global mobile subscriber penetration is only at 45 percent by end-2012, it added.

The primary research was conducted in 2009, 2011, and 2012 across 39 countries, which constitute about 75 percent of global connections. There was an even split between developed and developed economies, the research team stated.

"Unconnected" to drive growth
 

Looking ahead, future mobile subscriber growth will be driven by demand from "unconnected" populations in developing countries, particularly those in rural areas. The research estimates these populations would come to about 1.8 billion people through the next five years. Elaborating, the findings predict subscriber penetration in developed countries will pass 80 percent in five years' time, and growth is expected to slow then. By contrast, the penetration rate for developing economies is forecasted to increase from 39 percent in 2012 to 47 percent in 2017.

In Asia, specifically, subscriber penetration currently stands at 40 percent and is expected to grow to 49 percent in 2017. China's subscriber penetration rate will rise from 43 percent to 52 percent during the same time frame. "In developing markets, where there is clearly an opportunity for growth for the mobile industry, SIM per user patterns are influenced by cost-conscious, low-usage consumers who tend to accumulate prepaid SIM cards depending on the latest and most affordable prepaid tariffs," Anne Bouverot, director general of GSMA, pointed out.

Ultimately, the research points to a "significant growth opportunity" for the mobile industry as it continues to connect the world's population, Bouverot added.

10 corporate IT headaches over the next five years

ORLANDO---Corporate information technology departments will face common problems over the next five years---agility, budget crunches and the need to innovate---but at a scale they just haven't had to deal with until now. That's a high-level takeaway from a Gartner overview at its Symposium powwow. Gartner analyst David Cappuccio ran through the research firm's top 10 technologies CIOs will have to worry about over the next five years. The trends surfaced are a followup to Gartner's earlier keynote. 

Here's a look the 10 issues and my take on them.

By organizational entrenchments and disruption, Gartner is referring to vendors as well as IT. One prediction is that 30 percent of companies using software as a service will switch to on-premises applications due to poor service levels by 2014. Also by 2014, market consolidation will nuke 20 percent of the top 100 IT service providers.

Also: Can big data engineer marketing influence? | Mobile retailing: A non-factor

As far as the IT department, service levels also matter. IT support will have to show usefulness or it'll simply go away. Customer experience will determine whether the IT department lives on and agility will matter as development times shorten.

Gartner's No. 2---software defined networks seems like a bandwagon pick in some respects. Isn't everyone since VMware's acquisition of Nicira talking software defined networks now? The argument that SDNs will impact IT is that data center operations will change along with workloads and application requirements.

The big data issue for IT has been covered repeatedly. Gartner's biggest highlight revolves around managing storage growth and getting a handle on requirements between now and 2015. The talent shortage will be painful. Gartner estimates that big data demand will generate 1 million jobs in the global 1000, but only a third of them will be filled.

For No. 4, Gartner's pitch about the hybrid data center is on target. The reality is that commodity services will go cloud, but no one is going to ditch the infrastructure they already have.

As for Gartner's client-server disruption argument it noted that 90 percent of enterprises will skip Windows 8 and client server technologies will be a grab bag. That prediction isn't much of a stretch given many companies are still going Windows 7. For more on this Windows upgrade cycle, see Ed Bott's history lesson on enterprises and Microsoft's latest OSes.

The Internet of things is a technology that I would have put higher from a business model perspective. Sensor data and smart objects affects many other areas---including big data management.

Regarding No. 7, the move to appliances as a cure-all has been well underway. What's interesting here is Gartner's argument that virtual appliances will alter the equation. Will virtual appliances render all those physical appliances (Exadata, Netezza etc.) moot?

On operational complexity, Gartner's takeaway was that employee owned devices will be compromised by malware more than double the rate of corporate-owned devices. Welcome to the BYOD headache. IT is paying for more technology than it actually uses---20 percent of features and functions in a system are used. Operational complexity will always be an issue. The fix is elusive.

For No. 9, virtual data centers will mean staff shifts and force innovation. The vertical organizations in corporate IT won't work going forward.

And finally, IT demand will be insatiable. Adding capacity won't work and corporations won't control most of the demand via apps, social networks and other things. Key issue: By 2017, 40 percent of enterprise contact information will be leaked into Facebook via mobile devices.

DiGi Q3 profit up 7.8 percent, eyes more data boost

Malaysian telco DiGi has posted a 7.8 percent rise in its net profit at RM315 million for the third quarter,  boosted by growth from data revenue which it is hoping to grow further. In earnings announced Tuesday, DiGi noted for the three months ended September earnings rose 4.1 percent to RM1.58 billion. This was boosted by a 3.4 percent increase in data revenue to RM460 million.

Henrik Clausen, CEO of DiGi, pointed out in the statement data revenue accounted for about 31 percent of its total service revenue for the first nine months of the year. He added the company had invested between RM700 and RM750 million this year to upgrade its network to cater to the increased demand from data users and a growing shift from voice to data.

Over the past three months, the telco had prioritized its resources to improve its new network and expanding its 3G coverage, according to Clausen, who added this would remain a core focus. The CEO added DiGi had also invested significantly in strengthening its retail presence "to enable better access to mobile Internet for more customers, and enhance the customer experience across our touch-points". "All this will enable us to capture a bigger piece of the mobile Internet and broadband market in the long-term," Clausen said.

For 2013, DiGi is aiming to outgrow its industry peers in terms of revenue growth, according to its presentation. It expects to deliver growth of between 5 and 7 percent, above the industry average of 5 percent.

Microsoft commits to a new preview test build of IE10 for Windows 7 in November

It's been almost a year and a half since Microsoft released a test build of Internet Explorer (IE) 10 for Windows 7. Since that time, Microsoft officials have refused to comment as to why there were no further builds or when a final version of IE10 for Windows 7 would be available.

On October 17, there was finally a ray of hope for those IE10 loyalists wanting Microsoft's latest browser on Windows 7. In an IEBlog post, Microsoft officials said a new preview of IE10 for Windows 7 would be out some time in November 2012.

Microsoft delivered its most recent preview of IE10 for Windows 7 in June 2011.

There's no updated word as to when the final IE10 for Windows 7 will be out. But at least there's finally official confirmation the product is still alive.

A leaked Microsoft roadmap from late last year led some of us to believe Microsoft was planning to deliver IE10 for Windows 7 at the same time as IE10 for Windows 8 was released to manufacturing. But that turned out not to be the case.

IE10 for Windows 8 will be generally available on October 26, as it is built into Windows 8.

Update: This just in from my ZDNet colleague Ed Bott: The coming November preview is a full browser with the UI. This isn't just another developer preview, according to Microsoft officials.

Microsoft readies Office 365 University bundle for Q1 2013

Just when you thought you had seen a full list of all the new Office 365 releases that Microsoft will be rolling out over the next few months, another new SKU emerges.

The Office 365 University offering, due in the first quarter of 2013, will be sold online, at retail locations and at Microsoft Stores in 52 markets worldwide, the Softies disclosed late last week.

The SKU includes the 2013 versions of Word, PowerPoint, Excel, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher and Access.It also provides users with an additinal 20 GB of SkyDrive cloud storage (for a total of 27 GB) and 60 Skype world minutes per month.

Microsoft is positioning Office 365 University as the subscription-centric upgrade to Office 2010 University and Mac 2011 University. In February this year, Microsoft quietly replaced the Office Professional Academic 2010 SKU with a new one called "Microsoft Office University 2010." The new SKU is for "higher-education" students and faculty only. Microsoft Office Home and Student is Microsoft's recommended product for parents and families with K-12 students.

The pricing: $1.67 per user per month, or $79.99 for a four-year subscription. (Note: The pricing for Office 365 University listed in a slide deck with which Microsoft has been providing partners listed the price at $3.30 per user per month.

Looks like the $3.30 price in the partner deck was wrong. From a Microsoft spokesperson: "The pricing listed in the blog post officially announcing Office 365 University is the correct price." I think Microsoft also plans to continue to offer Office 365 for Education, going forward. If the company does continue with this SKU, the new Office 365 line-up will look like this, as the new versions begin to roll out in November:

• Office 365 Home Premium
• Office 365 University
• Office 365 for Education
• Office 365 ProPlus
• Office 365 Small Business
• Office 365 Small Business Premium
• Office 365 Midsize Business
• Office 365 Enterprise and Government

The difference between Office 365 for Education and Office 365 University is basically what I mentioned above, the spokesperson confirmed. "Office 365 for education is made available to students through their universities that are signed up for the Office 365 for education service. Office 365 University is sold at retail and available to any eligible university and college students, faculty and staff."

Microsoft's Skype for Windows 8 to launch October 26

After screen-shot tease after screen-shot tease, it was just a matter of when, not "if," Microsoft would release a version of Skype customized for Windows 8. And today, October 22, is the day when Microsoft is lifting the curtain on the new client due October 26.

Skype for Windows 8 will be in the Windows Store on October 26, the day Windows 8 and its ARM-based sibling, Windows RT, are generally available. Skype for Windows 8 also will be preinstalled on "the top 12 Windows OEMs' machines," Skype officials said. It won't be preinstalled on Surface RT devices; instead, it will be in the Windows Store for Surface RT because Skype didn't quite make the internal deadline cut-off for preinstallation. (Just in case there's any doubt or confusion, this new Skype app will run on both Windows 8 and Windows RT.)

Skype for Windows 8 was re-architected from the ground up, said Derek Snyder, head of Mobile Marketing at Skype. (Before joining Skype, Snyder was Executive Communications Manager & Technical Advisor for Windows Phone.) Remember those stories about Skype moving away from a pure peer-to-peer (P2P) model, to more of a hybrid model? That's exactly what's happened.

On the back-end, in the months after Microsoft's acquisition of Skype was finalized, the pair have been moving Skype to use the Windows Messenger infrastructure. Storage of pictures, video and other Skype content is now happening on Windows Azure.

In the longer term, Skype most likely will replace Messenger some day. There's no public timetable as to when that will happen, but Skype recently began testing new Windows and Mac beta releases that allow users to sign in using their Windows Live ID (Microsoft Account) so they can send and receive instant messages and see presence information from those using Messenger.

On the front end, the user interface in Skype for Winows 8 has been overhauled so it has a true Metro/tiled look and feel. (The Skype team is using "Modern" to refer to this look, though that is not the official Microsoft replacement term for the Metro UI.) The Windows 8 version of Skype is less Facebook-centric, Snyder said, though Facebook integration is still a feature.

Skype for Windows 8 takes advantage of all the usual Windows 8 features, such "snapping" so Skype can run side-by-side with another app; integrating with Bing allowing image searching and association inside Skype; and running in the background in a low-power-consumption but always-on mode.

Other interesting tidbits about where Skype is going with Windows 8:

• Skype plans to continue to offer users a multiplatform experience. Expect more enhancements on platforms other than Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 to continue.
• There's still no public timetable as to when Skype will be fully integrated and federated with Lync. But it's coming. "But expect to see more mobile-specific, mobile-first from us, going forward," said Snyder.
• Skype is planning to provide lots of tips and how-to content to help users figure out how to take advantage of Windows 8-specific features with Skype. These will range from things like "what are toasts?" to "how to put Skype on your lock screen."
• Skype is aiming to get users to leave Skype running on their machines all day and use chat as the first place they go when they sign in.

Living with Windows 8: On the desktop, it's just a better Windows 7

 

It's been over a year since I first installed a build of Windows 8 on a test machine. Since then, I've run it on a wide range of hardware, including slate-format tablets, hybrid touch/pen/keyboard tablet PCs, traditional laptops and multi-monitor desktop PCs – hardware that mixes the old (with Vista and XP-era devices) and the new (a recently upgraded Core i5 desktop system). It's been on Intel processors, on AMD, on physical, on virtual: on pretty much every machine I could find in the office. Testing and benchmarking is all very well, but you only really get to know an OS by living with it, using it every day to do everyday tasks on your everyday PC. For me, that means the good old-fashioned desktop PC. Most of my time is spent in front of a multi-monitor desktop machine, exactly the configuration that many people have worried about in comments to various Windows 8 posts. While desktop users may soon be in the minority, there are still plenty of us around. I rely on tools like Office and Adobe Lightroom and they rely on the desktop – and that’s unlikely to change until the tools change. So for my desktop PC, there’s very little change between 7 and 8 in the way I work.

So, after a couple of months of using nothing but 8, does it work on the desktop? The answer has to be “Yes”. I had work to do, and it got done - and, after all, I could have gone back to 7 easily, as I’d kept an image backup of my old machine and all my files are on a server or on SkyDrive. One thing I’ve noticed in the months since Windows 8 reached RTM, its evolution hasn’t ended – and it’s still getting better. When I upgraded my desktop from Windows 7 to 8 just after RTM it was to all extents and purposes just a slightly faster Windows 7 machine with a new UI. But with the recent 160MB post-RTM update, and with the arrival of some new device drivers and a couple of new pieces of hardware, it’s becoming something rather different. The one big change, of course, is the Start Screen. As changes go, it’s a huge one, but it’s not the showstopper that some have made it out to be. I’ve ended up treating it as a full screen version of the old Start menu, and use it in much the same way. Just like the start menu, the Start Screen ends up full of apps I’ve installed, and I occasionally tidy it up. There was a little work in getting it the way I wanted to start with, but again, starting with a fresh install of Windows XP or 7 I’d be doing much the same thing – grouping applications and removing references to functions or tools I don’t intend to use.

Launching apps is easy enough. Tap the Windows key and start typing, once the word wheel filter shows your app, just select and click – or hit return. You’re instantly back on the desktop and in the application you want to use. That’s all there is to it, and if you used Vista or 7’s search box as your main method of navigation you’ll find the Start Screen slightly more efficient as you don’t need to click in the search box to start finding apps or files. The arrival of a new Microsoft Sculpt Comfort keyboard made some operations even easier. While Windows 8’s Charms are just a mouse gesture away, having them on the keyboard is much easier. Four separate Charm keys mean you can get to Search, Share, Devices and Settings without having to move your fingers away from the keyboard. If you’re using a Windows 8 Store-style app, the keyboard also comes with four keys that replicate the main Windows 8 touch gestures. One handles a left swipe application switch, while another toggles the Snap view for the running application. The other two launch the Start Screen task switcher and open the app bar. The final piece of the jigsaw puzzle cam with the arrival of a set of driver updates for Microsoft’s Touch Mouse. I’ve been switching back and forth between the Touch Mouse and a Logitech MX since I first played with the Touch Mouse back at CES 2011. For some reason it just didn’t quit gel for me on Windows 7. But with these latest Windows 8 drivers, it’s really come into its own. Now, instead of just a couple of basic gestures, the whole Touch Mouse surface is active. I can use two fingers swiped right to switch apps, left to open the charm bar. I can scroll horizontally in the Start Screen and vertically in my apps – in fact all the gestures from the Windows 8 touch UI are here, and they translate simply from screen to the surface of the mouse. That free download has given the Touch Mouse a new lease of life, led to the retirement of the old Logitech device (even if I do still kind of miss its weighted metal free-wheeling scroll wheel), and saved me from spending hundreds of pounds on a new touch-enabled desktop monitor.

Of course keyboard and mouse aren’t the whole story. I’ve also used a wide range of peripherals. Nearly all have worked flawlessly – in fact there’s only been one notable failure, an 8-year old HP inkjet printer that’s not yet received Windows 8 drivers (and to be honest, probably won’t). Still, even it has carried on working after a fashion, with an old laptop running Windows 7 acting as a temporary print server. That’s the real value of the Windows ecosystem, and Microsoft’s backward compatibility: over time it will save you money by keeping old hardware running. Finally, what about software? Well, if you’ve invested in Windows desktop software, it’ll all still run. The only tools I’ve had major problems with are low level system utilities, especially those that hook into the Windows power subsystems to monitor battery usage. That’s not surprising, as one of the parts of Windows that’s had the most change in Windows 8 are its power management features. The underlying APIs have changed, and that means that tools will need to be updated to work with new hardware. Other minor problems have come from applications that hooked directly into Windows 7’s Aero user interface to dynamically update application colour schemes. Aero isn’t part of Windows 8, and again, those features aren’t available. In practice, switching to a default colour solves these problems. Your app may not change colour with your OC, but at least it works...

On the desktop, then, Windows 8 is just a better Windows 7. It’s faster, better at networking, and has all the features you expect to find in Windows. Like all new relationships, there are a few niggles at first, but they go away soon enough once you get used to how Windows 8 does things just that little bit differently. Sure, the new user interface does take a little getting used to, but if you match it with the latest keyboards and mice you’re both going to get along just fine.

Windows Server 2012: The road to RTM

Windows 8 Server (as it was first called) has a Metro (as it was called then) Start screen (top), but IT managers are expected to spend most of their time in the new Server Manager dashboard (bottom).

 

The first glimpse of Microsoft's new server OS — then called Windows 8 Server — came (as with its desktop counterpart) at the BUILD conference in September 2011. Bill Laing, head of Microsoft's Server and Cloud Division, described its focus as "optimising your IT for the cloud". Even in its pre-beta state, it was clear to reviewer Simon Bisson that Windows 8 Server was "an evolution that builds on features introduced in Windows Server 2008, optimising it for private cloud operation and for operation at scale, while retaining the features that small and medium-sized organisations need". The biggest change we noted was the consolidation of UI modes into three options — Windows GUI, UI-less Server Core and Server Manager with Microsoft Management Console snap-ins — with a key enabler being a huge increase in the number of available PowerShell cmdlets. Changes to the (now more standards-based) PowerShell stack provided support for operations on up to thousands of machines, including remote deployments and sites with virtual servers.

A new Metro-like Server Manager made its first appearance in the Developer Preview, providing a tile-based dashboard of information on multiple servers with colour-coded views denoting where action is required. Version 3 of Hyper-V added native PowerShell support for easier automation of virtual machines and ran on systems with up to 160 logical processors and 2TB of memory, with hosted VMs supporting up to 32 virtual processors and 512GB of memory. NUMA support allowed the performance of virtual machines to be optimised, while WHEA support meant that memory errors only take down the affected VM rather than the entire server. A new VHDX format supported virtual hard disks larger than the previous 2TB limit. Builders of private clouds got the ability to create continuously available fibre-channel-based servers with clusters of over 32 nodes and 4,000 VMs, with live migration and failover clustering, and I/O redundancy. On a smaller scale, Hyper-V could handle disaster recovery, with asynchronous replication of VMs to a remote site, and VM migration became easier.

Networking changes, centred around the use of Windows 8 Server as the basis for cloud services, included the introduction of DHCP Guard, which blocks VMs from exposing services to other VMs other virtual networks. Managing virtual networks in Windows 8 Server meant low-level changes in the network stack, and increased reliance on DNS and DHCP, plus new tools for IP address management. On the storage side, Windows 8 Server supported tools for handling thinly provisioned, easily extensible, virtual disks. Two new concepts were introduced: storage pools and storage spaces, the former describing virtual disks and the latter providing tools for managing resiliency and performance. New tools for online disk scanning and repair were provided, plus support for data deduplication. Setting up an Active Directory server became easier in Windows 8 Server, with a new Administrative Center allowing you to view PowerShell commands used on the system. You could also set up a domain controller as a virtual machine, with support for snapshots and copies.

Data access control was improved in Windows 8 Server, with automatic data identification based on metadata and document classification, and centrally defined policies for access using Active Directory and Group Policies. Acknowledging new flexible working patterns, a new Unified Remote Access role bundled the previous Direct Access, VPN and cross-premises connectivity technologies. BranchCache was improved to take advantage of the new data deduplication features. When it comes to web server duties, the new IIS (whose development team had been moved to the Azure group) gained features that help support scalable cloud services. A major change was support for WebSockets, allowing HTML 5 apps to access data over asynchronous connections. Last in a long list of improvements in Windows 8 Server Developer Preview was improved virtual desktop support, including enhanced RemoteFX tools and support for Windows 8 desktop features such as multi-touch.

After our first exposure to Microsoft's new server OS, reviewer Simon Bisson described it as "the next step in the evolution of Windows" where "a new version of the Hyper-V hypervisor makes it clear that you're expected to run Windows 8 Server as a virtual machine, not a standalone server". Overall, we were 'impressed with what we've seen so far".

The state of Windows 8 apps

Microsoft will official launch Windows 8 today, but most of the details of this major overhaul are already well-known. Millions of people have tried out early versions of the OS and the first reviews of Microsoft's Surface tablets appeared earlier this week. So far Surface RT appears to be a tale of two tablets. The hardware is a hit, but the Windows RT software still needs a lot work. I haven't tried a Surface RT tablet yet, but I have been using Windows 8 as my production system, on a Lenovo ThinkPad X220 Tablet, for several months. There are some significant differences between the two versions--the obvious one is that Windows RT can't run legacy Windows applications--but the overall experience is the same, and Microsoft clearly hopes that over time users will do more using the Start screen and Windows 8-style (formerly known as Metro) apps. While I'd agree that both Windows RT and Windows 8 still have some rough edges, I'm more optimistic that things will improve quickly as developers fill in the holes in the Windows Store, and both the built-in and third-party apps add features.

A lot has been made of the number of apps. Microsoft said that there will be 10,000 apps, including 5,000 in the U.S., when Windows 8 launches. (The latest count is around 7,000 Windows Store apps with more than 4,000 in the U.S.) Not surprisingly this is far fewer than are available for iOS or Android. I'm not sure the number really matters all that much as long as Microsoft gets the right apps quickly. I'd also argue that it is equally important that Microsoft gets the built-in apps right. Before I get into the apps, a couple quick comments on the environment. In Windows 8, there are really two Windows worlds. There's the new Windows 8 Start screen, which is what Microsoft means when it talks about Windows "reimagined," and there's the classic desktop, which is basically Windows 7 without a Start button. Both Windows 8 and Windows RT have the classic desktop. The difference is that in Windows RT the desktop is limited to the included versions of Windows Explorer, Internet Explorer and Office 2013 RT (Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote) and you can’t install additional classic apps.

The Start screen consists of the Live Tiles that display information and launch apps. If you swipe in from the edges, or place the cursor there, you get menus. The right edge shows system settings, the bottom displays all applications and the left shows all open apps and lets you switch between them (swiping all the way from top to bottom closes the current app). These menus are context-aware so that you get different options depending on the app you're using. For example, you can open the settings menu on the right-hand side and use the Charms bar to share content between apps and services. These conventions take some getting used to, but once you get them down, they work well. It is easy to open and close apps, and to switch among them. But there are still some rough edges. Most Live Tiles work fine, but a handful don’t display any information at all and or seem to get stuck on a headline or content from the last time you launched the app. Some apps have menus that slide down from the top and others don’t, and there's no way to tell without randomly swiping at the screen. The share Charms are not fully leveraged by many apps and don’t work in the desktop at all. For example, if you are viewing a Web page in the Windows 8-style version of IE, you can e-mail it, send it to Twitter or clip it to Evernote; open the same page in the desktop version of IE and you can’t share it at all using the Charms menu. Instead you get this sad message: "Nothing can be shared from the desktop."

Similarly, there's a nice feature that lets you split the screen between two apps so you can keep an eye on e-mail or social feeds while working on a document, for example. But when you leave the Mail or People app open in a side-pane, it doesn’t automatically update--you have to figure out to swipe up from the bottom (or right-click) and choose Get updates--which makes it less useful. Windows has always included some built-in apps, but the Microsoft apps for Windows 8 are much more ambitious.  The key ones include apps for communications (Mail, Calendar, People and Messaging) and managing photos, music and videos. But there's also a Maps app, a Skype client, a SkyDrive tool, and several widgets for accessing online content including Bing, News, Finance, Travel, Sports and Weather. Early versions of these apps felt so rudimentary that I spent all of my time working in the Windows desktop and barely used the Start screen and Windows 8 apps. Lately Microsoft has been updating them and they are getting better. For example, the SkyDrive app now lets you create folders and move files around and the Photos app has some basic image editing features (here's a complete list of the changes to date). But some of the apps, in particular the Mail and People apps, still feel like works in progress.

I've run into a few others issues with the built-in apps. First, in the Music app the process of signing up for Xbox Music Pass was convoluted, and in the end it simply didn’t work without providing any explanation. I'm going to chalk this up to the fact that the service hasn't completely launched and hope that the user experience gets better in the next couple of days. Second, when you open an attachment or click on a file, it often opens in Windows 8-style apps such as Reader or Video. This is OK if you just want to read or view something, but if you want to do any real work, chances are you meant to open the file in a desktop app. As with previous versions of Windows, you can change these program defaults, but it takes a little work. Third-party apps are also a work in progress. The Metro versions of Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox are early betas and are not yet available through the Windows Store. The biggest omissions are official clients for Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Other categories are hit or miss: photo editing lacks Instagram; games includes Fruit Ninja and Cut the Rope, but not Angry Birds; music has iHeartradio, but not Rdio or Spotify; video has Netflix and Hulu Plus, but not HBO Go; and the news apps include USA Today and The Financial Times, but not The New York Times or Wall Street Journal. Some of the apps that are there need work--Kindle is downright kludgy and Evernote doesn’t support rich-text notes (though I do really like the ability to clip virtually any content in a Windows 8-style app to Evernote).

Microsoft may be trying to transform itself into a "devices-and-services" company, but in the near-term its success still depends on building good software. Windows 8 is an adjustment, but many of the features do work well and the apps should get better quickly. I'm looking forward to seeing what Microsoft has to say on all this and will post updates later today.

Windows 8 launch: Microsoft makes the case for the PC

The Windows 8 launch today seemed designed to put to rest any rumors that Microsoft is running away from the PC. Instead a parade of executives made the case that Windows 8 is the foundation for the "best PCs ever made"--ones designed to work as both laptops and tablets, and for both work and play. The purpose of the event was really to launch several products. New Windows 8 devices and software upgrades go on sale at 12:01 am local time tomorrow. The Windows Store--the app store, not the Microsoft retail stores--is also officially open for business. And Microsoft and its hardware partners will also begin selling Windows RT devices at the same time.

CEO Steve Ballmer said that there were 670 million existing Windows 7 PCs "just waiting to be upgraded" and he cited estimates that another 400 million Windows 8 PCs will be sold each year. And Steve Sinfosky, the head of the Windows and Windows Live group, said the Windows Store has more apps than any existing app store had at launch (though he did not mention the company's stated goal of 10,000 apps at launch). There were few surprises at the launch, which was streamed live. Most of the features of Windows 8, and the apps and services that are currently available, are well-known at this point. I was surprised that the company didn't announce any additional big-names apps coming to the Windows Store--perhaps that is coming over the next few days--and I expected to hear more details on new services such as Xbox Music. Instead Microsoft execs largely focused on new Windows 8 convertibles, laptops and desktops from their partners (they'll apparently be talking about Microsoft's own Surface hardware in a later session).

Sinofsky talked about some of the key improvements in Windows 8 including longer battery life, faster boot times, a smaller memory footprint, and compatibility with existing Windows apps. He said that around 1,000 new PC designs have already been certified for Windows 8. He also talked a bit about Windows RT, noting that while it doesn’t run legacy Windows apps, the experience and Windows 8-style apps will get better over time through Windows Store updates and it already supports some 420 million hardware peripherals. That's a competitive advantage over IOS and Android tablets. Mike Angiulo, who is in charge of hardware and the PC ecosystem, and Julie Larson-Green, the Vice President of Program Management for Windows, demonstrated some of the basic features of Windows 8 and showed off several Windows 8 PCs including laptops (Lenovo's ThinkPad X1 Carbon and the Acer Aspire S7-191), tablets and convertibles (the Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet 2 and Dell XPS 12) and all-in-ones (the Dell XPS One and Sony VAIO Tap 20). Angiulo said Windows 8 PCs with touchscreens will start at $499. The pair also highlighted several Windows RT tablets from tablets Asus, Dell, Lenovo, Samsung, and of course Microsoft.

Ballmer gave the big picture on Windows 8. He said that, for the first time, Windows has "first-rate tablets," in addition to desktops and laptops adding that touch "pushes the boundaries of what a PC really is." He talked about the content and services that Microsoft is developing around these devices including a new version of Office; Internet Explorer 10; the Bing Apps (News, Finance, Travel, Maps, Weather and Sports); SkyDrive; Skype; and the Xbox music, video and games. Finally, he talked about how these Windows 8 services will work with smartphones running Windows Phone 8, which the company is set to announce on Monday (October 29).

Windows 8's competition is Google first, Apple iPad second

A year from now Microsoft will either be a significant mobile and tablet player due to Windows 8 or it will be losing market share. And the outcome may boil down to Microsoft's relationship with hardware partners. That's a takeaway from Gartner analyst David Cearley. His top 10 strategic technology trends included a hefty dose of Windows 8 cast in a mobile context. Cearley moved to clarify the research firm's take that 90 percent of companies won't adopt Windows 8 in 2013. "Ninety percent of companies won't adopt Windows 8 in 2013, but that doesn't mean that 90 percent won't adopt it," said Cearley. "Windows 8 is Microsoft's anchor point for mobile as well as a cross-over experience."

But the adoption of Windows 8 will be slow. "Enterprises will evaluate Windows 8 as part of a mobile strategy," he said. Putting Windows 8 in a mobile frame changes everything. Why? Google---not Microsoft---has the OEM relationships on the mobile front. There will be more Android powered hardware than Microsoft can match. In other words, Windows 8 needs a form factor that's a hit and can bring along other partners. "One of the most important battles over the next year isn't Microsoft vs. the Apple and the iPad. It's Microsoft vs. Google in various markets. Can Microsoft win over OEMs?" said Cearley. "This is where the Surface comes into play. Microsoft is trying to walk a balance."

Sure, Windows 8 is more enterprise friendly, but consumers will determine the operating system's fate, he said. "If Windows 8 is suboptimal with consumers there will be challenges," said Cearley. In a nutshell, Windows 8 could see challenges in the beginning with its app selection and ecosystem and how quick it iterates will determine Microsoft's success. "Microsoft will face significant challenges next year if it doesn't execute," said Cearley. "If it addresses consumer traction it may see share grow."