Microsoft has unveiled its initial work on the next version of the Windows operating system, calling it Windows 10.
Revealed during a press event in downtown San Francisco, the new OS is designed to run across a wide range of machines, including everything from tiny “internet of things” devices in business offices to phones, tablets, laptops, and desktops to computer servers running in the massive data centers that underpin the world’s internet services. “Windows 10 will deliver the right experience at the right time on the right device,” said Microsoft operating systems chief Terry Myerson.
The OS will be available to consumers, but it was designed, in particular, for use by the world’s businesses. According to Myerson, businesses will be able to manage all their Windows 10 machines by way of a single central piece of software, and they will have the option of creating their own “app store” for use by employees across these devices.
In demonstrating an early incarnation of the new OS, Joe Belfiore, corporate vice president of Microsoft’s operating systems group, began by showing off the new Windows Start Menu that allows users to navigate applications and data on the OS. The previous version of the OS, Windows 8, moved away from the familiar Windows Start Menu, and this, according to many pundits, hurt the progress of the operating system. As demonstrated by Belfiore, the new Start Menu combines the look and feel of Windows 8—which introduced a colorful “tile” interface—with the more traditional Start Menu offered by its predecessor, Windows 7 (see images above).
Judging from initial comments from Myerson and Belfiore, Windows 10 is in many ways a response to Microsoft’s struggles with Windows 8, introduced two years ago. According to David Johnson, an analyst with Massachusetts-based research outfit Forrester Research, businesses have been slow to adopt Windows 8 because its interface—meant to serve both mouse-and-keyboard machines as well as touchscreen devices—was difficult to use, but also because upgrading to a new Windows OS is still not as easy as it should be.
Belfiore said that Microsoft is “not giving up” on touch devices. The aim is to provide an interface that suits both mouse-and-keyboard devices and touch screens. But as Windows 8 showed, this is a difficult thing to pull off. Apple, by contrast, continues to handle desktops and touchscreen devices with separate OSes. At one point, Belfiore demonstrated code that would allow devices to automatically switch between a mouse-and-keyboard interface and a touchscreen interface, depending on what hardware is attached to the machine.
Tomorrow, Microsoft will release a “technical preview” of the OS to a select group of users and testers. The final version of the OS is expected to arrive in the middle of next year, and Microsoft has indicated it will continually release updates to the new OS after it first ships.
Before revealing the name of the new Windows, Myerson gently teased the room full of reporters, who have closely followed all the online speculation about what the OS would be called. At first, he seemed to indicate it would be called Windows 9, the natural successor to Windows 8. Then he insinuated it would be called Windows One, a nod to Microsoft’s Xbox One gaming console and an apparent attempt to highlight that the OS will run on a wide range of devices. But then he revealed the Windows 10 name, an apparent effort to show that the new OS wants to take a particularly large step forward.
Selfies have been a popular form of narcissism since the first caveman drew a self-portrait on a cave wall using a mixture of dinosaur blood and mud, but only recently has humanity finally elevated the selfie to an art form.
And like any art form, selfies require the right tools - you can't paint without dinosaur blood, after all.
Luckily device makers are finally starting to cotton on to the fact that the selfie is the most important form of self-expression available to the modern phone-using public.
That's where these devices come in. They may have gorgeous screens and decent specs, or they may not. What's important is that they take better selfies than your friends' phones, and they have it down pat.
Huawei Ascend P7
Chinese firm Huawei knows exactly what the selfie crowd needs: more megapixels!
Appropriately the Huawei Ascend P7 packs an 8MPl snapper onto its face so you can see every pore and wrinkle on its 1080p screen as you make faces that resemble various animals.
The Ascend P7 is all about the megapixels
Huawei's latest flagship has decent specs in addition to that lovely camera, though importing it might be more trouble than it's worth when there are plenty of others with equally strong claims to the "king of the selfie" mantle.
Still, if more megapixels is all you're after, the Ascend 7 is the way to go.
Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime
The recently announced Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime stands out for being a mid-range phone currently scheduled to launch only in India, but the truly selfie-obsessed might consider importing it.
Its 5MP front camera is impressive when compared with other phones in its class, but it's not just the megapixels that will ensure your selfies wow friends and loved ones.
No, what's more important is the Grand Prime's front camera's wide-angle lens, which will ensure you're able to get all your friends - or cats, whatever floats your boat - in the shot with you.
Nokia Lumia 735
In TechRadar's review of the Nokia Lumia 735 we called the colorful Microsoft phone a "cheap and cheerful handset."
The Nokia 735 and its sister phone, the Nokia 730, sport a 5MP front camera, which admittedly isn't quite as impressive as the Ascend P7's 8MP shutter.
But more importantly these Windows Phones also come with an exclusive Lumia Selfie app that provides various extremely crucial effects (sepia!) and lets you take selfies with the more powerful rear camera thanks to a handy beeping countdown timer.
Sony Xperia C3
The Sony Xperia C3 shares the 5MP found on many of these phones' front cameras, but also comes with some extras that any self-respecting selfie-obsessor absolutely freaking needs.
Namely, the Xperia C3's front camera packs a "PROselfie" sensor with a soft LED flash that should perfectly illuminate your undoubtedly beautiful mug.
The Xperia C3: your ticket to laser eyes
It also comes with a "Superior Auto" mode and some fun augmented effects, like laser eyes. Who doesn't want laser eyes?
Samsung Galaxy Note 4
If you pay attention to the phone market then you've no doubt heard a lot about the Samsung Galaxy Note 4, but have you heard that it's a superior selfie-taker in addition to being a viciously spec'd phablet?
The Note 4's selfie appeal is twofold: firstly and foremost, it lets you tap on the rear-mounted heart rate sensor to take a photo with the front camera, rather than requiring you twist your thumb around to the front button.
Take it all in
Considering the Note 4's sheer size, this makes obsessively photographing your own face much easier than it might otherwise have been.
But perhaps even more interesting is the Note 4's selfie panorama capability, a unique feature as far as we can tell.
The enormous Samsung phone lets you stitch together multiple portrait-oriented photos take with the front camera into one super-wide, oddly tall selfie. Now if that's not a phone-selling feature then we apparently don't know what is.
HTC RECamera
OK, we're cheating a bit with this one, and in more ways than one.
First is the fact that the HTC RECamera hasn't even been properly announced yet, only teased in a brief video.
Now that is a perfect selfie device if we've seen one
Then there's the fact that it's not even a phone or a still camera.
But it's hard to ignore that this GoPro-like camera appears to be shaped exactly like a tiny periscope - and one that could hypothetically be quite easily pointed directly at one's face.
What goes around, comes around. We put aside our laptops in favor of tablets because they’re super-light, but still powerful. Developers recognized the power and mobile devices’ omnipresence in our lives and began to alter mobile platforms and apps to make them better productivity tools.
But the more work you do on a tablet, the more you crave a real keyboard. You could simply go back to you laptop, but that defeats the purpose, doesn’t it? Third-party keyboards, like Microsoft’s new Universal Mobile Keyboard, are the obvious answer.
Microsoft’s $79.95 keyboard is portable, battery-powered and Bluetooth-ready. It also pulls off the neat trick of effortlessly connecting to Windows devices (obviously), iPads, iPhones and Android devices. In a multi-platform environment like mine (I work on a Microsoft Surface Pro 3, but also travel with an iPad), this is a very welcome feature.
The look
The universal keyboard arrives in a clamshell-style case; the rubberized top connects magnetically to the keyboard and also serves as a stand for your tablet or smartphone of choice (up to 0.39 inch thick). If you want more distance between the keyboard and your mobile device, you simply pull the case apart.
At, by my estimation, roughly 80% the size of a full-scale keyboard, some keys on the Universal Mobile Keyboard have been moved or combined. For example, Backspace is in the traditional upper right corner, but it shares the space with Delete, which you access by holding down the Function Key. Once you know this trick it’s pretty easy to use.
Overall, the keyboard is 9.53 inches long by 4.29 inches wide and 0.47 inches tall. It weighs 12.9 ounces. For comparison, an iPad weighs 16.5 ounces. And without the rubber cover, the keyboard is about as thick as an iPad Air.
I tested the keyboard with an iPad Air, a Surface Pro 3, a Sony Xperia Z2 tablet and an iPhone 6. All fit in the stand channel, though the Xperia, which is thinner than an iPad Air, tipped way back. As for the Surface Pro 3, I found it more effective to ignore the stand and use the tablet’s built-in kick stand.
If a new iPhone 6 isn't exactly in your price range, there's always the option of a used device.
Of course, there are some risks when buying a previously owned iOS device from an unofficial retailer like acquaintances or online sellers. If it's stolen, for one, the device's original owner may have Activation Lock turned on. If you don't have the Apple ID and password, tough luck — the phone's locked to that user.
Fortunately, Apple has released a new Activation Lock Status checker on iCloud.com for used buyers. All you have to do is enter the phone's serial or IMEI numbers (which can be found under the about tab in iPhones' general settings) into this form:
I entered my phone's serial number, which opened this screen:
If you enter the information of a device with Activation Lock on, the tool will tell you to contact the previous owner — if you know the legitimate owner — and it provides instructions for owners on how to clear a phone for reuse. This lock feature was first introduced with iOS 7. Activation Lock automatically turns on when you use the Find My iPhone feature, which allows you to pinpoint the location of an iOS device remotely.
Note that the iCloud tool doesn't seem to be compatible with mobile Safari, so be sure to have another means to access the Activation Lock Status tool if you're meeting someone to pick up the iOS device. Otherwise, the tool is a useful way to make sure you aren't buying a useless Apple product.
According to Mashable Apple may be showing off its new iPads and iMacs sooner than expected.
The Cupertino-based company is planning to hold its next event Oct. 16, not Oct. 21 as previously reported, Recodereports.
Apple is expected to show off the next generation iPad Air and iPad Mini at the event. The upcoming iPads are said to have faster processors, likely the same A8 chip in the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, and quite possibly Apple's Touch ID system — which first launched more than a year ago on the iPhone 5S, but has not yet shown up on an iPad.
A new line of iMacs and the launch of Apple's new operating system, OS X Yosemite, could also be on the schedule that day, according to a report from 9to5Mac earlier this week.
Apple first previewed Yosemite at WWDC in San Francisco in June and early beta versions of the operating system include references to high resolution displays.
The upcoming event will likely be more low-key than last month's U2-dominated iPhone and Apple Watch event in Cupertino's cavernous Flint Center.
Capturing life with your significant other can be tricky, especially if one person is always behind the lens. Photographers
Kendrick Brinson and David Walter Banks are documenting their happy
memories in a creative way. Whenever they travel to a new place, they
photograph themselves locking lips in the same signature pose.
"David and I have so many photos of each other...but this little pose
documents a tiny happy memory of a beautiful place we went and we both
appear in it for a change," Brinson tells Mashable. Even professional photographers can find themselves in a vacation photo rut.
The couple originally met at the University of Georgia where they
both studied photojournalism. While the two were friends all through
their college career, they didn't start dating until after graduation,
and married in 2012. A year ago, the couple left their jobs at local
newspapers in Atlanta to become commercial photographers in Los Angeles.
Since they're always on the go, Brinson and Banks never plan out
their pose. "The camera is usually balanced on a bench or rock or trash
can and then set on self-timer. We've had the foresight to use a tripod
only once or twice because it's usually a spur-of-the-moment
inclination," says Brinson.
The couple's amorous photo series has also inspired their Instagram
followers to capture the pose themselves with the hashtag
#BrinsonandBanksing. "It's so funny to think it was all a happy accident
that turned into a fun little side project...As long as David's back
holds out, we hope to do it until my hair is gray."
Fans can see more photos of the couple's romantic photo op on their website or on Instagram.
The Windows Phone 8.1 powered Nokia Lumia 830 is expected to be available from AT&T, starting on November 7th.
But for those statesiders that can't wait until then, an unlocked
version of the handset is available right now from Expansys USA. The
price for the phone is $449.99, and the device is available in black,
orange, green and white.
The Nokia Lumia 830 is equipped with a 5
inch screen offering a resolution of 720 x 1280. That combination
provides a pixel density of 294ppi. Driving the phone is a quad-core
1.2GHz Snapdragon 400 CPU with an Adreno 305 GPU handling graphics. 1GB
of RAM is on board along with 16GB of native storage. A 128GB capacity
microSD slot is available and a 10MP rear-facing camera has an aperture
of f/2.2, which should allow the camera to snap decent shots in
low-light conditions. And with OIS, your trembling hands don't make
watching your videos a painful experience. A .9MP camera is found on the
front of the phone, which is powered by a 2200mAh battery. Windows
Phone 8.1 is pre-installed, which means that personal assistant Cortana
comes with the model.
Eventually, the Nokia Lumia 830 will be
available from AT&T for a subsidized price. But that could be more
than a month away. If you don't mind paying the retail price for the
phone, you can purchase it right now from Expansys USA.
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