Microsoft has shown off early release versions of its next operating system ‘Windows 8’. Demonstrations of the system running on computers, phones and tablet pc’s were given at conferences in both the USA and Taiwan.
Early versions show the start screen for Windows 8 closely resembling the tiled layout seen on Microsoft’s newest mobile operating system. The live tiles, that link to popular applications and data streams, can be manipulated via pressing on a screen.
Microsoft have said themselves that it has been designed ‘first and foremost around touch and gesture’ for the more modern touch screen pc’s, tablets and phones, however they insist that it is also easily usable with a keyboard and mouse.
There is no release date yet confirmed for the system, however it is widely expected to be available for October 2012.
Microsoft have also declared that despite Apple’s dominance in the tablet pc market with the iPad and iPad 2, they are not ‘out of the game’ and have reportedly demanded that hardware firms only work with a single chip manufacturer when putting their tablet devices together, in an effort to get them out quicker and increase the number of Microsoft run tablets being used.
This has angered computer firms however, with Jim Wang, president of Acer, saying ‘This industry doesn’t belong to Microsoft or Google, it belongs to all the participants, So they can’t make the decision for all of us. That’s the problem’.
We will be keeping an eye on any future developments regarding Microsofts next big OS release.
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