Tag Archives: Windows 8.1

Asustek Computer has quietly begun to sell the world’s lightest tablet that runs Microsoft Corp.’s Windows 8.1 operating system. Asus VivoTab 8, which weighs only 330 grams, is now available in Japan, but shortly it will make to other markets as well. Surprisingly, the slate is not very expensive. Asus …

Valve Software’s inability to ship SteamOS and Steam Controller this year has upset many gaming PC makers, who hoped to boost their sales with new systems designed specifically for living rooms. Apparently, many companies now launch what was supposed to be Steam Machines as console-like gaming PCs with Microsoft Corp.’s …

While Microsoft Corp. will continue to offer its Surface Pro line of tablets designed for creative professionals and corporate users, the company is currently reconsidering the future of its Surface media tablets, at least, in their current form. According to a report, Microsoft may dump ARM-based Surface tablets and offer only …

Microsoft Corp. on Tuesday reiterated its commitment to its Surface Pro business tablets and said that its next-generation solutions of the kind, which are in development today, will be compatible with existing peripherals. The claim was made in order to persuade IT managers and CIO to consider Surface Pro as …

At present Microsoft Corp. only sells applications with Metro-style “modern” interface in its Windows Store, possibly to ensure that all the apps it sells are optimized for both PCs and tablets. However, starting next year the company will change alter its policy and will start sales of apps that do …

Microsoft Corp. has announced that its next-generation Windows 10 operating system will ship with DirectX 12 application programming interface (API). Keeping in mind that the OS is designed for all types of devices and DX12 is a corner stone for Microsoft’s ecosystem-related strategy, the news is hardly surprising. This week Microsoft …

Microsoft Corp. is expected to provide free Windows 9 upgrade to those who use Windows 8.1 today. Moreover, the company will reportedly offer Windows 9 with a huge discount to owners of Windows 7, the most popular version of Windows today. In a bid to make Windows 9 more popular …

Microsoft Corp. has unveiled a tiny device that turns every HDMI- and USB-equipped TV or monitor into a wireless display for Windows 8.1/Widows Phone 8.1-based personal computers, tablets or even smartphones. The gadget allows to show photos, videos or stream media content from PCs to TVs without a lot of …

At the Siggraph 2014 conference Intel Corp. demonstrated how the new DirectX 12 application programming interface can speed up rendering performance and improve battery life of mobile devices. The results of the demo were nothing but impressive: the new low-level API not only rather dramatically improves performance, but also allows …

In a bid to fight Chromebooks – systems running Google’s Chrome operating system – Microsoft has managed to encourage multiple of its partners to return ultra-low-cost personal computers (ULCPCs) to the market. Lenovo Group, along with a number of other PC makers, reportedly plans to release Windows 8.1-based systems that …

Sales of Surface tablets in the second quarter of calendar 2014 (Q4 FY2014) were significantly lower compared to the previous quarter, according to Microsoft. At the same time, sales of the company’s professional and media tablets in the fiscal 2014 were considerably higher compared to the Surface revenues a year …

Microsoft Corp. on Tuesday confirmed rumours that it plans to unify all of its operating systems for client personal computers. The move will help the company to cut its costs and offer similar user experience on different types of devices, including personal computers, tablets and smartphones. “We will streamline the …

Lenovo Group has issued a special statement denying plans to cease selling Microsoft Windows-based media tablets with displays smaller than 10” in the U.S. and Canada. Apparently, the company is working on new tablets with smaller screens for the aforementioned markets. The slates are projected to become available later this year. …

Several months after Microsoft Corp. made its Windows operating system free for devices with displays smaller than 9”, Lenovo Group decided to discontinue its Windows-based tablets with 8” screens in the U.S. because of the lack of interest from the end-users. The same actions can follow in other parts of …

As part of its major restructuring plan announced on Thursday, Microsoft Corp. will phase out its Google Android-based smartphones and will offer more affordable Lumia devices in order to address customers in budget as well as developing markets. Additionally, Microsoft announced plans to focus on higher-end smartphones and fight against …

Microsoft Corp. may be just one step before of another major strategy shift. Satya Nadella, chief executive officer of the company, said that giant's goal is not only to provide devices and services, something that his predecessor wanted to do in 2013, but to provide productivity opportunities in the new …

Satya Nadella, chief executive officer of Microsoft Corp., on Thursday wrote an open letter to the company’s employees revealing some of his thoughts about the future of the company and the world we are heading to. Among other things the CEO of the world’s largest software developer said that the …

Although Microsoft Corp.’s Windows 7 operating system is nearly five years old and it has been almost two years since the release of the Windows 8 OS, the Win7 is still the world’s most popular operating system, according to Netmarketshare. Moreover, some PC makers continue to install it on new PCs. Still, …

Intel Corp. on Thursday announced that as a result of higher demand for business personal computers its sales for the second quarters will be significantly higher than expected. The world's largest chipmaker also increased its revenue and gross margin forecasts for the whole year. It is believed that businesses and …

Microsoft Corp. on Friday began to take pre-orders for the Kinect for Windows v2 motion sensor. The device is initially intended only for software developers who plan to take advantage of the Xbox One’s motion sensing capabilities on the PC. The software giant plans to start sales of the Kinect …

Windows 8 wasn't quite the disaster release that Windows Vista was back in the 00's, but it was far from great. People didn't like being forced into using a touch screen developed tab system on their desktop and laptop and the missing start button didn't help much either. Fortunately it …

Rumours about Microsoft Corp.’s smart-watch have been circulating for a couple of years now, but no trustworthy details have ever emerged. On Friday Forbes reported that the device may be released already this year and may feature rather advanced health and fitness tracking capabilities. But, perhaps, the most important thing …

Recently a lot of discussions about the possible future of Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox division arose. A comment regarding the Xbox unit made by Bill Gates even inspired talks that the software giant could spin-off its console business. However, according to Satya Nadella, the new chief executive officer of Microsoft, there …

Microsoft has confirmed that the company will be releasing a “cut-down” version of Windows 8.1 for OEM's. This will allow manufacturers to create cheaper devices for consumers and will help combat competition from open source solutions such as Android, Linux and even Chrome OS. The cheaper version of Microsoft's OS …

Microsoft Corp. on Tuesday introduced its all-new Surface 3 Pro tablet aimed at business users and enterprises. The slate is extremely thin and light, yet, it has a high-definition retina-class 12” display, is based on a high-performance x86 microprocessor and sports Windows 8 Pro operating system. Microsoft claims that the …

Microsoft Corp. said last week that sales of its Surface media and business tablets grew significantly year-over-year in the third quarter of its fiscal 2014. While this is generally a good for the company, since the growing amount of consumers chose Surface over rivals, this also meant that the company …

A smaller version of Microsoft Corp.’s Surface media tablet has been discussed ever since the launch of the original Surface back in 2012, but the software giant has never confirmed plans to release such a product. Nonetheless, in many cases rumours do materialise and the so-called Surface Mini tablet is …

Microsoft Corp. has just released Windows 8.1 update 1, but the work in Redmond, Washington, continues. Based on a new leak allegedly made by Wzor, a well-known source of Microsoft-related news with a good track record, the software giant may release a new Windows 8 update this year. The general …

At this week’s Build conference, Microsoft Corp. demonstrated the look of the new Windows 8.1 update 2014 as well as a number of new capabilities of the modernised operating system. As expected, Microsoft returned a number of “classical” Windows elements and added some new features. Key features of the Microsoft …

Microsoft Corp. announced at the Build 2014 conference on Wednesday that it would waive licensing fees for special versions of Windows operating systems for select devices. Microsoft wants to enable partners to offer lower-cost systems in the highly competitive smartphone, tablet and PC categories. Microsoft Windows will be available for …