Software & Apps News - Page 152

Computex 2012 - Wow, we didn't expect to see this, but here it is. 3DMark for Windows 8, as it's called at this stage of development. The test was running at a screen resolution of 1280 x 720 with an AA sample count of 1. What you are seeing here is by no means a finished product at all.

As we walked around the Nangang Computex hall yesterday we managed to get some very exclusive eyes-on time with 3DMark for Windows 8 running on an MSI system. The system to be exact is an Intel Core i7-3960K, Big Bang-XPower II motherboard and two MSI GTX 680 Lightning video cards in SLI.

We told some of our friends last night and some questioned the relevance of a new 3DMark for Windows 8 considering at least at this stage that the new Microsoft OS will ship with DirectX 11. We don't know much more about the next 3DMark than you do based on what we can see in the video above, but it's very cool to see none the less.

Apparently I am not the only one who thinks that Windows 8 is going to be terrible. A Wall Street Journal writer by the name of John Dvorak shares some of the same concerns as me and even went as far as to say "Windows 8 looks to me to be an unmitigated disaster that could decidedly hurt the company and its future."

I'm not sure I would go quite that far, but some of his concerns are echoed by journalists around the web. His major problem seems to lie in the new Metro desktop interface that appears to be designed for tablets. He had some hope when it appeared that he could still use the old style desktop, but with the latest release candidate, that is no longer an option.

Dvorak says:

Apple's next-generation mobile operating system, iOS 6, is expected sometime in the coming months, but BGR is reporting about their Maps app which will support 3D mapping. Apple aren't using Google's mapping data this time around.

BGR has sourced some exclusive information, and photos, of Apple's new Mapps app, with the app featuring an updated user interface as well as a brand new navigation bar. This bar is said to be silver instead of blue. The current Maps app follows the normal blue iOS color scheme, but it looks like Apple could move toward a silver theme for iOS 6, like the iPad.

The iPhone Maps app has a floating 'locate me' button in the bottom left corner. In order to access 3D mode, you'll have to peel back the lower right corner of Maps. Once 3D has been enabled, you can switch in and out of 3D mode by tapping a 3D icon in the lower left hand corner. Apple's acquisition of C3 Technologies has helped them back 3D mapping into their Maps app, which should be a great feature in the new iPhone and iOS.

Windows 8 Release Preview is out a little early, and whilst it's just a Chinese version, it's been said that users have been able to install an English language pack through Windows Update. The leaked ISO has been confirmed and tested by a few websites such as PCBeta (Chinese) and WinUnleaked (English) and is available right now various torrent sites. Personally, I'll be waiting for the official version of the OS, which is expected sometime next week, right in the middle of Computex.

Build 8400 does include some goodies, such as improved multi-monitor support, a new boot screen, as well as updated wallpapers and cursors. The final version of Windows 8 is expected to not include the translucent Aero Glass, but is present in the current build of Windows 8, including build 8400.

Build 8400 improves upon Metro, where we see News, Travel and Sports apps have been added. Also, DigiTimes is reporting that sources have told them Microsoft may increase the price of OEM versions of Windows 8, which could make it harder on system builders to keep their prices sharp, especially on the Ultrabooks.

With Windows 8 Zune is out and Xbox is in. Zune will be no more, that Microsoft has made abundantly clear. We finally have an answer as to what is replacing it: Xbox. Increasing from its humble roots as a gaming platform, the large brand will become an entire entertainment center for Windows 8 on phones, PCs, tablets, and TVs.

From Microsoft:

This year, Xbox becomes the premium entertainment service for Microsoft. Whether on your PC, tablet, TV or phone, Xbox will be a gateway to the best in music and video, your favorite games and instant access to your friends.

A Microsoft-sponsored IDC report claims that the annual support costs for a Windows XP systems are five times higher than a Windows 7-based system, as part of Microsoft's latest efforts in pushing more people toward Windows 7.

Microsoft have also issued a statement that has told organizations if they have not started "the migration to a modern PC, you are late". Windows XP gets orphaned by the software company with no further support or patches in April 2014, close to 13 years since it launched.

The report states that 42-percent of Windows' non-home installed base remains on the ageing Windows XP OS. If this continues, 11-percent of all Windows users will continue to be powered by Windows XP when the security patches end in 2014. As for support costs: IT workers' time and worker productivity costs jump by 25- and 23-percent respectively in year four.

Amazon has had a feature like this for sometime and it looks as though Apple is finally following suit. It's no surprise that iOS users like to save money just as much as Android users who get this feature from the Amazon app store. The only announcement regarding this is a tweet by Apple, so this could be a one time thing, but I doubt it is.

The tweet by Apple says "Cut the Rope: Experiments is our #FreeAppoftheWeek. Go to the App Store for your free download. tw.appstore.com/uUj" so I'm going to guess it will be a continuous thing going forward. To go along with this, the description of the app says "***FREE FOR A LIMITED TIME***".

The app itself is actually a pretty fun game. I've played it before on a Windows 7 tablet that was running Windows 8. The object of the game is to cut various strings and manipulate objects to get the piece of candy over to the monster. While I'm not sure I would pay for the app, I'd definitely take it if it was free as it is now.

Facebook Camera is a new app which is designed to let users see just pictures from all of your Facebook friends. Designed and released by Facebook, I can't help but feel the Instagram acquisition is partly to blame for this. With the new app comes the ability to share multiple photos at once, instead of having to upload them one at a time.

The new app makes viewing photos easier as you can swipe through the pictures in an album. In Facebook's words: "When you launch the app, you'll see a feed of just great photos from the people you care about. You can swipe to see more of any album or tap to enlarge an individual photo." Cool. But isn't that what you already do on the regular Facebook app?

The reason to believe it is due in part to the Instagram acquisition? This feature right here: "It's also easy to edit photos with new tools like the ability to crop, rotate and add filters to any picture in your camera roll." Specifically, the add filters function. The new app will be available on iPhones later today and Facebook is offering the option to have a link texted to your iPhone.

Windows 8 is nearing release, and with it, we're prompted with more and more news about it, but that's good, right? The latest out of the gate is that the upcoming OS from Redmond is booting... too fast? Yes, too fast. Everyone wants quicker boot times, and Windows 8 definitely delivers in that way.

But, there are problems with an OS that boots too quickly, that if you need to enter the setup menu by pressing F2/F8 during the boot, there's next to no time to tap those keys. What did Microsoft do? Well, they can't just hold the OS boot time back, that would be crazy, so they've had to add some new features to the OS to make it easier to get to these menus.

If you have a machine with a solid-state drive installed, you can boot into a machine in around 7 seconds, and this will only decrease as hardware gets faster over time. In a test machine at Microsoft sporting an SSD and UEFI system, the time window to tap F8 is 200 milliseconds, yes, 200 milliseconds. In the case where you can't boot into Windows, Windows 8 will automatically enter automatic failover behavior which is determined by an algorithm that establishes a baseline over several boots.

NVIDIA have just released some new drivers to the public, and what makes these stand out from the other R300 series of drivers is that these are the first WHQL-certified drivers from the R300 family of drivers. NVIDIA have baked plenty of improvements, and features into the R300 series of drivers.

The GeForce 301.42 WHQL does contain some nuggets of gold, such as improving support for the GTX 600 Series of cards. We're looking at the inclusion of GEFORCE GTX 670 4-way SLI support, and a bunch of HDTV displays getting a dded support, as well as the usual single- and multi-GPU bugs being squished. New and/or improved SLI and 3D Vision profiles have arrived, for new games such as Max Payne 3, Dirt: Showdown, Sniper Elite V2, and Street Fighter X Tekken.

For more information on the GeForce 301.42 WHQL drivers, check out NVIDIA's page.