http://blogs.windows.com/windows/default.aspxAll Windows-Related Blogs (Non-Localized) for The Windows Blog.7.x Productionhttp://blogs.windows.com/windows/b/windowsexperience/archive/2013/05/22/hp-unveils-a-bunch-of-new-windows-8-pcs.aspxThu, 23 May 2013 04:53:00 GMTd5e57398-b9ef-4490-9955-07cbb4e4a80d:dc9c66cc-c7c8-4480-aae6-2525fc6aa2dfBrandon LeBlanc HP is announcing some new Windows 8 PCs today – including a brand new portable All-in-One PC called the HP ENVY Rove 20. Most if not all these new PCs all come with touchscreens. HP ENVY Rove 20:   The HP ENVY Rove 20 is a portable All-in-One PC designed for the entire family. It can be used as a desktop PC or can be easily moved into the living room to enjoy multi-player games, or used in the kitchen while cooking a favorite recipe using one of the many cooking apps from the Windows Store like HP Recipe Box . The ENVY Rove 20 has a unique hinged stand that allows the 20-inch diagonal capacitive touchscreen (10-point) to be positioned at a variety of angles including completely flat. The display itself is a 1600 x 900 IPS LED panel for fantastic looking graphics. It also has Beats Audio for a great listening experience. The HP ENVY Rove 20 will be available in July. HP ENVY 15 & 17 TouchSmart Notebooks: These PCs come with 15.6-inch and 17.3-inch flush glass full-HD touchscreen displays with discrete graphics from NVIDIA (great for gaming) and Beats Audio for sound with quad speakers and dual subwoofer. The ENVY 15 TouchSmart comes with the all-new 2013 AMD processors or 4th generation Intel processors. The ENVY 17 TouchSmart comes with 4th generation Intel processors. The HP ENVY 15 TouchSmart Notebook and will be available in the U.S. on June 5, 2013 with a starting price of $649. The HP ENVY 17 TouchSmart Notebook will be available in the U.S. on July 10, 2013 with a starting price of $799. The HP Pavilion 20 and 23 TouchSmart All-in-One PCs: These affordable All-in-One PCs have a 20- and 23-inch widescreen diagonal display respectively with 5-point optical touch technology along with an LED backlit display. The HP Pavilion 20 TouchSmart All-in-One PC will be available in the U.S. on June 23, starting at $619.99. The HP Pavilion 23 TouchSmart All-in-One PC will be available in the U.S. on June 5, starting at $749. HP Pavilion 11 TouchSmart PC: This is one of HP’s most affordable laptops yet. It comes with an 11.6-inch 10-point capacitive touchscreen. With quad-core performance and multiple ports including USB and HMDI – this PC is perfect for both work and play. The Pavilion TouchSmart 11 Notebook will be available in the U.S. on June 26, 2013 with a starting price of $399. HP Pavilion 14 TouchSmart Sleekbook: This is a new touch-optimized Sleekbook with AMD discrete graphics and up to 2GB of memory on select models. A full selection of ports including HDMI and USB and up to 1TB of hard drive storage and premium DTS Sound+ audio. A PC great for entertainment. The HP Pavilion TouchSmart 14 Sleekbook will be available in the U.S. on June 5, 2013 with a starting price of $479.99. You can also check out HP’s announcement from last week on the HP Split X2 . http://blogs.windows.com/windows/b/windowsexperience/archive/2013/05/22/the-asus-transformer-book-tx300-now-available.aspxWed, 22 May 2013 20:01:00 GMTd5e57398-b9ef-4490-9955-07cbb4e4a80d:32c847de-16d2-42b8-b836-4be98c90d3e1Brandon LeBlanc ASUS just passed along the note that the Transformer Book TX300 is now available at Amazon , B&H , BestBuy.com , CDW , Excaliber PC , PC Connection , and Tiger Direct starting at $1,499 (U.S.). The Transformer Book TX300 is a laptop with a detachable keyboard “station” so it can be used as a tablet. ASUS has incorporated a slick looking all-metal design for the PC with a spun metal finish for a sleek profile great for being on the go. The PC comes with the latest generation Intel Core processors – all the way up to a Core i7. It has a 13.3-inch IPS HD (1920 x 1080) touch display – great for 178-degree wide viewing angles - and comes with either 64GB or 128GB SSD options. And you get up to 5 hours of battery life as a laptop and up to 8 hours just as a tablet. The keyboard station actually comes with additional storage for the tablet when connected – either a 320GB or 500GB hard drive. The keyboard is backlit and comes with two USB 3.0 ports, an Ethernet port, mini DisplayPort and micro HDMI ports, and a SD card reader. For more on the ASUS Transformer Book TX300 – click here . http://blogs.windows.com/windows/b/windowsexperience/archive/2013/05/20/tech-tuesday-live-twitter-chat-acer-winchat.aspxMon, 20 May 2013 18:35:00 GMTd5e57398-b9ef-4490-9955-07cbb4e4a80d:81f43ad2-0ac5-4432-9dab-09dc73d54a94Kristina Libby As some of you know, I use an Acer Aspire S7 and love it. It’s a great device that has travelled from event to event, city to city and work place to fun place and back again. It’s why I’m thrilled to be joined by Acer for this week’s tech chat as they talk about the new Acer Aspire R7 (one of a few new PCs recently announced by Acer ). This device is a touch notebook with an inventive hinge that allows your screen to be manipulated at multiple function points – this makes reading, sharing and playing more enjoyable. With an optimized series of positioning points, you can be more effective and more comfortable. To participate in the Tech Tuesday Live Twitter Chat and be eligible to win an Acer R7, please do the following! Join us from 12-1 PT (3-4 ET) on Twitter Follow the hashtag #winchat Follow @windows , @kristinalibby , @aceramerica , @microsoftoem and @windowsblog to make sure you get the whole picture. For full legal terms and conditions, click here . http://blogs.windows.com/windows/b/windowsexperience/archive/2013/05/20/major-league-soccer-and-windows-partner-on-exclusive-app-fan-and-stadium-experiences.aspxMon, 20 May 2013 13:03:00 GMTd5e57398-b9ef-4490-9955-07cbb4e4a80d:e3829e4b-cbcc-4d11-8f76-89784c4e9596Brandon LeBlanc Soccer fans tend to bring a lot of enthusiasm to the sport with the chants, team spirit and gusto. The global appeal of soccer, which in much of the world is called Football, gives us all a common sport to know and discuss. Today we’re excited to share our multi-year partnership with Major League Soccer (MLS). We know sports fans love using technology to enhance and expand the experience on the field and soccer fans rank high in wanting to know and share their club’s latest stats and highlights! Together, MLS and Windows are bringing the game to you with unique in-stadium and online experiences for soccer fans. The Major League Soccer app for Windows 8 lets fans follow the entire season from anywhere at any time.   The app features exclusive content and this season’s schedule, standings, highlights, play-by-play, roster lineups, game stats, goals, cards and substitutions. In addition, with live tiles - fans are able to customize their experience to get updates on their favorite club’s news right on their Start screen. So, go download the app from the Windows Store or go to www.mlssoccer.com for more information on your favorite team or where to stop-by for a demo in a stadium near you this season! http://blogs.windows.com/windows/b/windowsexperience/archive/2013/05/17/new-themes-and-wallpapers-alaska-new-zealand-sweden-and-sweets.aspxFri, 17 May 2013 23:15:00 GMTd5e57398-b9ef-4490-9955-07cbb4e4a80d:c9e124d4-6d5e-41e6-aca1-e74d49ebcb13Jennifer Shepherd Many years ago, I spent a week visiting my brother in Alaska. At the time, he was working on a fishing boat out of Homer, and I spent several days on the boat enjoying the sights of Kachemak Bay and the Kenai Peninsula. The impression that struck me immediately as my flight descended toward the tarmac, and that stayed with me throughout my visit, was just how huge and near the mountains looked; in fact, every aspect of nature seemed larger, closer, and more vivid. That’s one of the things I like about the photographs of Kyle Waters, featured in our new Alaskan Landscapes theme—the immensity and immediacy of Alaska’s natural landscape really comes through. On the subject of great landscapes, in my previous blog post I promised you more of Ian Rushton’s HDR photography, and I’m pleased to be able to follow through with not just one, but two new themes. The first is a tour of Queenstown and the surrounding landscape, including the shores of Lake Wakatipu and views of the Kawarau and Shotover rivers. The other, and my new favorite, is a walk through the lush greenery of One Tree Hill Domain and the adjoining Cornwall Park, in Auckland, New Zealand. I’m sure I don’t need to tell you what song I hear in my head when looking at these images! Fans of our Swedish seasonal themes might have noticed when we published the Swedish Autumn , Swedish Summer , and Swedish Winter themes several months ago, that something was missing . You’ll be relieved to know that we’ve finally filled in the missing season with Swedish Spring . For a total change of pace from landscape photography, I’m pleased to present a theme featuring the quirky artwork of illustrator Karyn Servin. The Delectable Designs theme’s cartoony cupcakes, popsicles, and other goodies will bring a cheerful pop of tasty color to your desktop. If you have an older version of Windows that can’t use themes, or if you prefer to use a single desktop background , be sure to check out the fresh wallpapers. Here are just a few: We also added a new tab to the Desktop backgrounds page, specifically for panoramic wallpapers . If you have Windows 8 or Windows RT, these wallpapers will automatically extend across dual monitors that have the same resolution setting. But you can also enjoy them on an older version of Windows or on a single monitor. And as I explained in an earlier post, you can use wallpapers on your Windows 8 or Windows RT lock screen , as well. By the way, you can control how wallpapers fit to the screen in the Desktop Background section of Personalization in Control Panel. To see the full width of a panoramic image on a single monitor, choose Fit in the Picture Position menu. The image will be scaled down to fit the width of your monitor, and you'll see black above and below it. To fill your entire monitor but see only the middle of the image, choose Fill in the Picture Position menu. This will fit the image to the height of your monitor, and crop off the right and left edges. As always, keep checking back on the Personalization Gallery – we’ll have even more new themes and wallpapers for you next month. http://blogs.windows.com/windows/b/windowsexperience/archive/2013/05/17/adobe-photoshop-express-for-windows-8-now-available-in-the-windows-store.aspxFri, 17 May 2013 20:50:00 GMTd5e57398-b9ef-4490-9955-07cbb4e4a80d:d7566418-422e-4eef-99cd-61d854078fbeBrandon LeBlanc Adobe Photoshop Express for Windows is now available for download from the Windows Store . Photoshop Express for Windows 8 comes with a variety of features to quickly edit your photos on your Windows PC or tablet. You can do the basic photo enhancements such as crop, straighten, rotate, flip, or remove red-eye. You can adjusts color, contrast, and brightness all at once. And you can use “slider controls” to enhance contrast, exposure, and white balance, or let the app auto-correct it for you. But my favorite feature are the quick one-touch filters – called “Looks” – to add different effects to your photos. The app comes with 15 free “Looks” with additional premium “Looks” available for purchase from Adobe. And of course once you’re done editing your photo, you can quickly share your photo out to folks on your favorite social networks or save to your PC. http://blogs.windows.com/windows/b/windowsexperience/archive/2013/05/17/app-roundup-7-apps-for-better-health.aspxFri, 17 May 2013 18:00:00 GMTd5e57398-b9ef-4490-9955-07cbb4e4a80d:2a80d94d-95b3-4e2f-909f-08db2f51b4ecKirsten Ballweg As I mentioned in a previous post , I’m a writer for Windows by day, and a musician by night. Musicians don’t always have the best health habits. Late nights, hanging out in smoky clubs, and getting paid in drink tickets have taken their toll on my health. So I decided to take a look at some apps that might get me back on the health wagon. Heart Age Before starting an exercise regimen, I thought it might be a good idea to figure out if my heart could handle it. Heart Age is a free app that estimates your heart's "true age" based on info like your height, weight, frequency, and intensity of exercise, cholesterol, and blood pressure. According to the test, I have the heart of a 28 year old. That sounds good to me! I ♥ Heart Age! Bodeefit Want a quick but brutal workout? Bodeefit has workout plans based on time (most are around 10-15 minutes) or number of rounds (the time these take depends on how fit your “bodee” is). The equipment you need is minimal—basically a floor, a wall, a box (for diabolical box jumps), and a bench (for dips and possibly for jumping over). There’s something reassuring about the video clip examples in this app. Watching a guy jumping on the box made me think that I could actually do that too. I was wrong. Box jumps are hard! But the videos make it fast and easy to figure out how to actually do the exercises—a lot easier than reading a description on how to do each move. With workouts named Furious 10, Fire Breather, and Sit, Sit up, Crawl! I'm strangely looking forward to seeing what new form of torture awaits me next. If you want to save your results, you can sign up for a free Bodeefit account (or upgrade to a Pro membership for additional benefits). With the free membership, you’ll get daily workouts sent to your email address, and a paleo recipe from PaleOMG once a week. The paleo diet, if you haven’t heard of it, is based on what Paleolithic man might have eaten. So basically: meat, fish, certain vegetables, and no sugar, carbs, or dairy. The recipes actually look delicious and include banana bread, brownie trifle, and cake (with substitutions for ingredients not allowed on the diet). Those cave men ate a lot better than I thought! BallStrike Taking a workout and disguising it as a game is sheer brilliance. There’s no Mario or Ms Pac Man character in the game of BallStrike , though. Through the magic of your webcam, you’re the main character. Balls appear on the screen, and it’s your job to twist, turn, kick, hit, and jump around to destroy the balls. Just watch out for those pesky bombs. You want to destroy them, not the other way around. At the end of your session, you can share photos of yourself on Facebook, through email, and on other sites. The first few levels of the game are completely free. To get the full version of the app (complete with 12 levels of ball-striking fun) it will cost you US$3.49, but that seems a small price to pay if you like to kick and punch things as much as I do. MyPlate Calorie Tracker from LIVESTRONG.COM Losing weight, I’ve been told, is mostly about what you put and don’t put into your mouth. Exercise certainly helps and is very important for overall health and fitness, but as far as actual pounds go, it’s all about the food. The MyPlate Calorie Tracker has become my favorite app for tracking what I’m eating. It’s easy to add foods. Tap or click the + button under the meal you want to record, and then start typing. Then just pick from the results and, if necessary, adjust your serving size. With a database of more than 1.3 million food items (including many popular brands and restaurant items), you’re bound to find the foods you’re eating. Foods you eat often are shown in a list of recently eaten foods, so it’s easy to add them. You can also track the amount of water you’re drinking and how much and what type of exercise you’re doing. When you first start the app (after you sign in or create a free account), you decide how much weight you want to lose each week. MyPlate Calorie Tracker crunches the numbers for you. You can see how many calories you have left to consume, and how many you’ve used each day. I’m going to try using this for a full week. Hopefully the scale will say 2 pounds lost by next Friday. HealthVault Insurance info, health history, doctor info – HealthVault brings them all together in one place. I signed in, and then plugged in my info. Not only does Health Vault help track calories and weight, it can keep track of any health conditions you want to enter (oh, my aching back!). Many popular exercise or heath devices (like pedometers, blood pressure monitors, blood glucose monitors, and even some scales) work with Health Vault, so you can save all your data in one place. There are over 200 devices that are compatible, and the list is growing. Have a Fitbit ? You’re golden. If you use other health apps, they can plug into HealthVault too. So if you have prescriptions at Walgreens, CVS, or various other pharmacies with apps, HealthVault can pull in your prescriptions so all of your health info is in one place. You can also track health information for your family. So if you have kids or aging parents, HealthVault can help you out. KinectHealth When it comes to working out, I’m motivated by competition. The KinectHealth app is perfect for people like me. It offers virtual training videos that use your webcam to monitor your activity level. Then, the app shares info about your workout with your friends who also use KinectHealth, so you can all stay motivated. When you watch a workout video, you'll see your trainer on the main part of the screen, and on the left, you’ll see a video of yourself working out, with your stats. At the top of the screen are friends and trainers who've taken the training already. As the video plays, you can see how your friends were doing at that specific point in the video. Your friends don’t need to be doing the same video at the same time—KinectHeath saves their data and just replays it back to you. You’ll see how many calories they burned and if they were calm (a purple circle on their profile picture), active (a green circle), or hyper (a red circle). There were a good variety of video workouts available when I started the app (including yoga, Pilates, cardio, and strength). I decided to try out the Legs are Burning video, with the trainer, Jason. This workout delivered. As I did my squats and lunges along with Jason, my PC webcam monitored my activity. By the end of the training I was in the hyper zone. As you reach your fitness goals, your progress is shared with friends (and vice versa) so you can cheer each other on, or at least get guilted into working out more. Effective! Digital Health Scorecard From Johnson & Johnson, the makers of a lot of health-related items from baby powder to Nicorette®, comes the Digital Health Scorecard app. Plug in some numbers (the app walks you through 7 questions) and you’ll get your overall health score, based on The World Health Organization’s “Global Burden of Disease” data. The lower your score, the higher your chances of developing chronic diseases like diabetes, heart disease, or cancer. On the results screen you can see how various changes in your overall lifestyle might affect your score by using the “What if?” button. If you’re currently a smoker, you can see how your score would change if you quit. Or if you regularly enjoy a martini or two at lunch, you can drop your weekly drink number and see how much your score goes up. Making the comparison can be pretty motivating. But there’s no way I’m completely giving up my martinis. I like olives too much. And olives aren’t bad for you, at least in moderation, right? Here’s to your health! (Clink!) - Kirsten http://blogs.windows.com/windows/b/extremewindows/archive/2013/05/16/dell-announces-new-workstations-dell-precision-t1700-series-and-dell-precision-r7610.aspxThu, 16 May 2013 19:15:00 GMTd5e57398-b9ef-4490-9955-07cbb4e4a80d:9f7b8f42-9c8e-4e36-94e6-8bd5389bed80Gavin Gear Today Dell announced some exciting new workstation PCs, the Dell Precision T1700 small form-factor workstation, the Dell Precision T1700 mini-tower workstation, and the Dell Precision R7610 rack-mounted workstation. The new Dell Precision T1700 mini-tower (left) and Dell Precision T1700 small form-factor (right) The new T1700 mini-tower now offers 150W for graphics and an expanded set of ISV certifications, providing customers with even more power and reliability – all at about the price of a typical desktop PC. The new Dell small form-factor T1700 workstation PC is an incredibly small and light workstation PC that takes up minimal space. Both new T1700 workstations offer next-generation Intel processors, your choice of AMD or NVIDIA professional discrete graphics and Intel integrated graphics. These workstations also have some great standard features like dual front mounted USB 3.0 ports and PCIx x16 Gen 3 slots. Pricing for both T1700 workstations will be released by Dell on June 4. The new Dell Precision R7610 rack workstation Today Dell also announced a new member of the Dell rack workstation family: the R7610. Compared to previous Dell rack workstations, this new rack workstation will offer: Greater performance Enhanced remote experience New virtualization capabilities For this new rack workstation, Dell has packed the hardware capabilities of the Dell T7600 tower workstation into a compact 2U rack form-factor. In addition to 1:1 remote computing, the R7610 now enables up to four users to access the workstation in a virtualized environment without sacrificing performance, resulting in increased access and better utilization of their assets. The Dell R7610 can support up to four single wide graphics cards including the NVIDIA Quadro K2000, NVIDIA Quadro K4000, and AMD FirePro W5000 cards or up to three double wide cards like the NVIDIA K5000. Also of note is the fact that the Dell R7610 supports Dell’s Reliable Memory Technology , and memory capacity has been expanded to four channels with up to 256GB in 16 DIMM slots. The Dell Precision R7610 rack workstation will be available starting at $2,179 on May 21. For more details, please see the official Dell press release . Find me on twitter here: @GavinGear http://blogs.windows.com/windows/b/windowsexperience/archive/2013/05/16/pre-order-the-lenovo-yoga-s11-today-available-in-june.aspxThu, 16 May 2013 15:42:00 GMTd5e57398-b9ef-4490-9955-07cbb4e4a80d:1a7729cd-b2cb-4e23-b996-6148ceb435c0Brandon LeBlanc Starting today, you can now place orders for the IdeaPad Yoga 11S Ultrabook from www.lenovo.com and pre-order from Best Buy . Various models of the Yoga 11S will be available in Best Buy stores starting on June 23. The estimated retail price for the Intel Core i3 model is $799.99 (U.S.). The Yoga 11S follows in the footsteps of its predecessor, Lenovo’s Yoga 13, and boasts an 11.6-inch HD IPS screen with 10-finger touch support. And like the Yoga 13, the Yoga 11S converts into four modes, including “tent,” as shown in the above photo. It can be used as like a laptop or folded and flipped to be used like a tablet. For more on Lenovo’s Yoga PCs – click here . http://blogs.windows.com/windows/b/windowsexperience/archive/2013/05/14/hp-announces-the-hp-split-x2.aspxWed, 15 May 2013 04:50:00 GMTd5e57398-b9ef-4490-9955-07cbb4e4a80d:80010d32-1464-4143-b3c7-a516ee31ce5cBrandon LeBlanc Today, HP is announcing the HP Split x2. The Split x2 is a two-in-one detachable PC that can be used as a high-performance laptop or a tablet.   The Split x2 comes with a powerful third-generation Intel Core processor and a 13.3 diagonal HD touchscreen display. You can get the device with an optional hard disk in the base (the keyboard) that gives you expanded storage capacity. And it has dual-batteries – one in the tablet and another in the base. The design of the Split x2 features a “soft-touch” coating for a comfortable hold and apparently protects against fingerprint smudges. It has Beats Audio for fantastic audio and a trackpad that allows for multiple finger gestures (they call it the HP ClickPad). For more on the HP Split x2, click here . The HP Split x2 is expected to be available in the U.S. in August with a starting price of $799.99. http://blogs.windows.com/windows/b/windowsexperience/archive/2013/05/14/how-to-import-itunes-playlists-into-the-music-app.aspxTue, 14 May 2013 18:08:00 GMTd5e57398-b9ef-4490-9955-07cbb4e4a80d:dae57323-a2e7-4300-a4d8-ce37620783dcBrandon LeBlanc If you have spent a great deal of time building out playlists in iTunes, you probably don’t want to have to rebuild those playlists. With the Music app in Windows 8, you can import those playlists into your collection. If you are on a Windows 8 PC with iTunes installed and your music collection physically downloaded on the PC, you can follow these easy steps to add your iTunes playlists into the Music app. Step 1: Open the Music app. Step 2: Tap or click on “my music”. Step 3: Under “my music”, tap or click on “playlists”. Step 4: Bring up the app commands by either swiping from the bottom or right-clicking. Step 5: Tap or click on “Import playlists”. Step 6: The Music app will then look for playlists in your Music library on your PC and playlists created in iTunes. Just click “Import playlists” to import them in! The end result is you should see your iTunes playlists in the Music app – as seen here with my iTunes playlist called “iTunes Stuff”. If you have an Xbox Music Pass, you can sync your music to the cloud. The Music app can automatically scan your music collection and match the information to music from the Xbox Music Store. If a match is made, that music is tagged and available for streaming on your Windows 8, Windows RT, or Windows Phone devices and your Xbox 360 console. In order to make sure you have cloud sync enabled: Start the Xbox Music app in Windows 8 or Windows RT. Swipe from the right or go to the upper-right or lower-right corner to bring out the charms. Tap or click on the Settings charms, and then tap or click Preferences. Make sure Xbox Music Cloud is set to “On.” If you want to import your iTunes playlists on a Windows RT device – you will first need to move all your music files from your Music library on the PC that has iTunes installed (including the “iTunes” folder in your Music library) and all your music to your Windows RT device and then follow the steps outlined above to import your iTunes playlists. http://blogs.windows.com/windows/b/extremewindows/archive/2013/05/14/how-to-configure-and-use-file-history-in-windows-8.aspxTue, 14 May 2013 16:53:00 GMTd5e57398-b9ef-4490-9955-07cbb4e4a80d:77e128b8-cce1-4b42-aaf5-aa7384e608c5Gavin Gear File History is a new feature in Windows 8 that automatically keeps a backup history of your personal data. I previously wrote a detailed article about File History in Windows 8 with a lot of detail about this feature. In this post I’ve created a video to show you how easy File History is to use, and how flexible it is for backing up and restoring your files. In this video I talked about File History with photos, but File History works just as well for any other kind of file including office documents, videos, and any other files you have in your document libraries. As a quick recap, most users will need to do the following to get going with File History in Windows 8: Add non-library folders to document libraries (optional, if non-library folders need File History) Populate “Exclude Folders” list for File History (optional) Plug in an external storage device Launch the File History Control Panel Click the “Turn On” button If you already have an external drive plugged in and use default settings, you will only need to perform steps 4-5 above. Now that’s easy! Find me on twitter! @GavinGear http://blogs.windows.com/windows/b/bloggingwindows/archive/2013/05/14/windows-keeps-getting-better.aspxTue, 14 May 2013 14:45:00 GMTd5e57398-b9ef-4490-9955-07cbb4e4a80d:eb20c640-f162-4cd6-93a9-768a5df5caeeBrandon LeBlanc Windows 8 was built for a world that blends our work and our personal lives, a world where we expect high quality touch experiences everywhere, and a world that is always on the go and always connected. Windows 8 redefines our market from PCs to mobile computing. We are pleased with the progress we’ve seen with Windows 8 so far . Our OEM partners have delivered tablets, touch laptops, and convertibles that bring the vision of Windows 8 and mobile computing to life. They have introduced some incredible (and unique) new form factors like the Dell XPS 12 , the Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13 , the Sony VAIO Tap 20 , or the recently announced Acer Aspire R7 . And today at retail, you can find a powerful mobile touch laptop starting at just over $400. We now have more than 70,000 apps in the Windows Store (the online app store for Windows) – apps such as Twitter, eBay, Netflix, CNN and games like Temple Run: Brave, Bejeweled LIVE and Angry Birds Star Wars and many others . As PCs continue to evolve for this world of mobile computing, so does Windows 8. Today at the JP Morgan Technology, Media & Telecom Conference in Boston , Tami Reller shared with the audience that the update previously referred to as “Windows Blue” will be called Windows 8.1 and will be a free update to Windows 8 for consumers through the Windows Store. During her remarks today, Tami reiterated our goal of delivering continual updates to create a richer experience for Windows customers. Windows 8.1 is part of that and continues the journey we first began with Windows 8 last fall. Windows 8.1 will help us to deliver the next generation of PCs and tablets with our OEM partners and to deliver the experiences customers— both consumers and businesses alike —need and will just expect moving forward. Today, there are more devices – and choice – allowing you to pick the right Windows 8 device that meets your needs. Windows 8 provides a great experience for consuming and creating content, for both work and play and on the go. And you’ll immediately benefit from continual updates – whether it’s from app updates through the Windows Store, performance updates through Windows Update or the Windows 8.1 update later this year. We have much more to share about Windows 8.1 in the coming weeks. We will also be making a public preview of Windows 8.1 available starting on June 26, timed with the Build developer conference in San Francisco. The preview will be available for Windows 8 and Windows RT. http://blogs.windows.com/windows/b/business/archive/2013/05/13/construction-smb-always-on-always-connected-with-windows-8-pro.aspxMon, 13 May 2013 16:15:00 GMTd5e57398-b9ef-4490-9955-07cbb4e4a80d:17914661-4c5b-4161-a197-56489e2ba2f8Jay Paulus I often sit down with IT staff and decision makers from small and medium-size businesses [SMBs] to discuss their unique technology needs and challenges. One of the biggest themes I hear in these meetings is the importance of mobile technology that allows them to be connected to their business from anywhere. Compared to larger enterprises, these small, rapidly growing businesses have fewer resources and employees at their disposal and need the technology that they adopt to wear as many hats as they do. Above all, SMBs want their technology to give them a fast, flexible computing experience so they can stay competitive and always be one step ahead of their customers and competitors. Meet Glenigan, a construction intelligence supplier. One such fast-moving midsize company that has taken advantage of Windows 8 Pro is Glenigan , based in the United Kingdom. Glenigan is a construction intelligence supplier; the company provides construction project sales leads, market analysis, forecasting, and intelligence by searching thousands of construction planning apps across the UK and aggregating the information on behalf of their clients. Glenigan helps companies increase their profits by providing timely intelligence about construction jobs. Whether customers are looking to bid for new construction work or refurbishment projects, Glenigan helps them stay ahead of competitors. The company offers access to its continually updated leads database as well as email alerts on construction projects that help customers bid for work contracts at the right time. At the end of the day, Glenigan’s business depends on technology that helps them outpace competitors. Since January, Glenigan has been using the Lenovo ThinkPad Twist and the ThinkPad Tablet 2 to do just that. Tablets and convertibles with Windows 8 Pro help Glenigan’s employees stay connected to their clients, colleagues, and their ever-changing database of customer leads from anywhere.   SMBs take Windows 8 Pro tablets on a train. According to Neil Taylor, PC and Network Support Analyst at the company, the biggest benefits Glenigan has experienced while testing Windows 8 Pro has been the speed and mobility of the platform. After interacting with the Windows 8 Pro devices, he notes, “It is always on, always connected, so I can manage my day from anywhere, anytime, anyplace—and it just works. With Microsoft Office 2013, I can connect to Outlook and Word and documents on SharePoint sites, and I can go home and carry on working. That’s the beauty of it.” The ThinkPad’s twist capabilities in particular help employees stay productive while traveling. Theresa Ferguson, Head of Delivery at Glenigan, describes it like this: “I was sitting in a coffee shop, waiting for the train, filling out a questionnaire, and I was using the laptop to start answering questions. The train arrived, I closed the keyboard, switched to tablet mode, and just carried on. I didn’t even realize I had done it.” As a company, Glenigan has been increasing its focus on making employees as mobile as possible in recent years and Windows 8 fits into this vision. All of their teams meet with customers onsite, whether representing the research, content, or technical teams. The Windows 8 testers have enjoyed the benefits of the new touch-based operating system over more traditional desktop models while they are on the road. For instance, they can easily take their devices with them when visiting their parent company in London, two hours from the company headquarters in Bournemouth. Mobility also increases employee communication within the office, so colleagues can more easily move around and exchange ideas with each other. This is something Glenigan’s management hopes will increase over time as their core office incorporates more mobile devices. When comparing the company’s experience with the iPad and Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet 2, Taylor notes that with Apple, people can’t join to the Windows domain network or install Office, but the Windows 8 tablet is always connected so “you can access the network and you can access your files and it’s just there.” Outside of the flexibility Windows 8 Pro offers, Glenigan highlights inherent security features like picture password that help the business transmit information securely from anywhere. Taylor calls Windows security over Apple security a “no brainer.” Deploying Windows 8 alongside other systems. Glenigan is a perfect example of many of the SMBs I talk with that are actively working within a mixed operating system environment. Glenigan has approximately 110 employees and most of them are currently using Windows 7 32-bit as the standard desktop platform; they also use laptops with Windows 7 Enterprise 64-bit. The Windows 8 devices have been integrated into their business operations alongside this existing infrastructure to increase the company’s mobile operations with simple-to-use, lightweight touch devices. Whether SMBs need a notebook, a tablet, or an all-in-one, whether touch-based or a keyboard-and-mouse system, Windows 8 offers a variety of choices to fit their needs. There is also great compatibility between Windows 7 and Windows 8, and this makes it easier to adopt Windows 8 with existing systems. Glenigan’s case shows how technology can be a key business enabler. Whether it’s visiting a construction site, traveling to another city by train, or meeting with clients on the road, the devices just have to work. With Windows 8, Glenigan has discovered that they can have it all. They don’t have to sacrifice performance while away from the office or trade flexibility for reliable business functionality. To learn more about Glenigan’s recent interactions with Windows 8 and Office 2013, check out this new case study . And for more information about Windows 8 Pro for small and midsized businesses, click here . http://blogs.windows.com/windows/b/bloggingwindows/archive/2013/05/10/building-on-our-vision-of-modern-computing.aspxFri, 10 May 2013 18:27:00 GMTd5e57398-b9ef-4490-9955-07cbb4e4a80d:7c165b24-bb75-41fb-8d6b-4fcd97cb7057Julie Larson-Green Earlier this week I was on stage at the WIRED Business Conference  talking about Windows and how it continues to evolve. With Windows 8 we bet on the computing trends shaping today and tomorrow: mobility, touch, apps that connect seamlessly and are with you everywhere you go. We are no longer tied to the desktop, literally and figuratively.  Each month more than a billion unique Windows PCs get updates from us – and even more are running inside companies around the world. That’s a lot of devices and represents to us the trust and commitment we have with people. Most of them are running Windows 7, some are still running Windows XP, but more and more are running Windows 8 every day.  Earlier this week my colleague Tami Reller announced we have sold more than 100 million licenses of Windows 8  through the first six months on the market.  We know people choose Windows because it’s important to their lives and their businesses. They trust and rely on Windows for serious productivity and more and more serious fun. We are proud to keep evolving Windows in a way that brings forward over 25 years of computing and to create the platform for tomorrow. As with every radical change, learning is a process. We are getting smarter every day about how to help people learn and make the most of their devices. From work in Windows, to online content, as well materials and demos at retail we are constantly improving and moving forward. At the WIRED Business Conference I announced we’d share the first public preview of what we are calling internally Windows “Blue” in late June timed with the Build conference . It’s an update to Windows 8 and builds on our vision of modern computing. An OS that lets apps work seamlessly together and put the things you care most about right at your fingertips. We are excited to share the next steps in this vision soon. Julie Larson-Green Corporate Vice President, Windows http://blogs.windows.com/windows/b/windowsexperience/archive/2013/05/10/app-roundup-more-news-apps.aspxFri, 10 May 2013 18:00:00 GMTd5e57398-b9ef-4490-9955-07cbb4e4a80d:91a05f86-2ce6-44e5-bed9-e66053f801a7David S I’ve already mentioned some of the news apps I like in a previous post , but there are actually a few more I'd like to tell you about. One of the most distinctive memories from my childhood is of my parents disappearing behind the daily newspaper (back when even a small town had both a morning and evening paper), emerging only to read something funny or amazing to each other. The distinctive rustle a paper makes in a quiet room is rapidly becoming a thing of the past. There are trade-offs involved in swapping physical media for the electronic variety, but in my view, the trade-offs are worth it. A good full-screen app can reproduce that disappearing-into-the-paper sensation, and also that sense of discovery when you’re reading one thing and stumble onto something else. Plus, I'm no longer limited to the worldview of my local newsroom. And I definitely don’t miss the clutter of daily papers piling up in the corners. The Wall Street Journal It’s important to note that the Wall Street Journal app is free, but without a subscription, you get access to only some of the content. For non-subscribers, you can still see a lot of the articles and the whimsical little illustrations that give the WSJ such a memorable look. The familiar dot drawings are supplemented with plenty of videos and other rich content. The New York Times As with the Wall Street Journal app, you need a subscription for full access to the New York Times app, too. But stories in the Top News section are free, as is a lot of the other world-class content. Eschewing the single-picture-plus-wall-of-text format of some news sites and apps, many articles here are carefully laid out with images embedded within them, leading the eye along. The paper has long been a leader in digital content, and it really shows here, in not only the rich media content, but in every detail, from the icons denoting each section to the beautifully designed navigation.  NBC News The NBC News app is rock solid. It may be your basic mix of video and text (I prefer to read more than watch, so I love that every video comes with a write-up), but it simply feels good to browse. Going as deep as you can into each sub-section, there’s still plenty to explore.  Beyond just stories from the NBC newscast and clips from TODAY, there are also pretty decent blogs on technology, entertainment, and other topics. Engadget Befitting its role as a technology news source, Engadget delivers a fun and fast browsing experience that feels a little different from the apps that come from more traditional media outlets. With images and video, there seems to be less of an effort to find the one perfect picture. It’s not careless so much as loose and fun. It feels younger. The content is served up with the most recent stories first, and is also browsable by whatever type of technology you’re most interested in. These news apps not only deliver content efficiently, they also make consuming the news a pleasurable and aesthetically pleasing experience. Even without that papery rustle. David S. http://blogs.windows.com/windows/b/springboard/archive/2013/05/10/springboard-series-windows-community-party-at-teched-us.aspxFri, 10 May 2013 16:47:00 GMTd5e57398-b9ef-4490-9955-07cbb4e4a80d:f3dc290e-6218-4351-baf3-6c58477605f4Stephen L Rose PLEASE NOTE- The Springboard Series/Windows Community Party Event is now SOLD OUT and the registration tool is now closed. To celebrate  all of the great support we have received over the past year from IT pros, we are happy to announce the registration information for the Springboard Series Windows Community Party at TechEd North America*. The party is open to any attendees of TechEd North America in New Orleans and is located within walking distance from the conference center and hotels. Since there are only 350 tickets available, don’t delay. Last year’s party sold out in only 20 minutes! The pass will be distributed onsite at the Windows Information Counter in the Microsoft Solutions Experience. You must bring your confirmation acceptance email to the booth and photo ID to receive your party pass and lanyard. No exceptions Second, this will be my final time hosting the annual Springboard Community Party as I will soon be taking on a new role at Microsoft focusing on strengthening relationships with our customers and partners in the U.S. I am extremely excited to take on this new role, but also sad that I will no longer be supporting the IT pro community via the Springboard Series. I want to thank all of you have supported our efforts over the past 5 years and want to assure you that the Springboard Series will continue to evolve to better help you in your efforts to support your infrastructure and end users. I personally am excited to see what new things the future will bring. Save the Date! Date: Wednesday, June 5th Time: 7:00 – 11:00 pm CDT Location: Broussard’s Restaurant in the French Quarter- 819 Rue Conti, New Orleans, LA * Please be aware that we will not be having an event in Madrid. The registration link above is for the TechEd North America event only. http://blogs.windows.com/windows/b/extremewindows/archive/2013/05/09/hands-on-with-the-dual-gpu-lenovo-y500-gaming-laptop.aspxThu, 09 May 2013 17:01:00 GMTd5e57398-b9ef-4490-9955-07cbb4e4a80d:f37d8146-d478-4530-a6c5-9412d2cd97d7Gavin Gear When it comes to the Windows 8 laptops I use, I want it all. I want a beautiful full-HD screen, a quad core CPU, lots of RAM, multiple USB 3.0 ports, plenty of disk space, great sound, and tons of graphics horsepower all wrapped up in a pretty package. Sound demanding? Yes I am, and I know you are too. The engineers at Lenovo are thinking about people like us because the new Windows 8 Lenovo Y500 laptop satisfies all of these requirements, and then some. The Lenovo Y500 as tested with Dual NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M GPUs, JBL speakers, and 1920x1080 full-HD display (click to enlarge) The Lenovo Y500 was designed with PC gaming in mind, but it’s also a great PC for a variety of other tasks including photo and video editing, watching streaming HD movies, and running productivity apps like Word and Excel. And, since there are plenty ports, connecting displays or devices is no problem with the Y500. Right side, from left: Headphone and Microphone jacks, USB 2.0 port with offline charging, locking receptacle (click to enlarge) Here on the right side of the PC you can see the vents that cool the second NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M GPU which resides in the optical bay area that Lenovo calls the “Ultrabay”. You can actually remove the 2 nd GPU (when PC is powered down) and replace it with other accessories including: Second cooling fan DVD burner – product link Additional HDD – product link Now that’s versatile! Left side, from left: DC power input (not pictured), VGA out, Ethernet, HDMI out, USB 3.0 ports (click to enlarge) Wrapping around to the front edge (user-facing) at the right-hand side of the picture above we see the status LEDs and SD card reader. I really like how the Y500 ports are integrated; things feel like they are in the right place to me. While the Y500 may not look like the traditional Lenovo business-class machines, it retains the high quality look and feel throughout. The Y500 is a high-quality PC with nice exterior finishes and details (click to enlarge) Another thing that feels right to me about the Y500 is the screen. The 15.6” diagonal size is great because it’s large enough for gaming and demanding tasks (like complex video editing UI) at high resolution. A 15”-class PC feels like the right balance of screen real estate and mobility for the kinds of demanding tasks I use a laptop for. Since I ride a motorcycle to work, I love the fact that the Y500 easily fits into my backpack. Highlight: Dual GPU NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M Graphics If someone mentioned a PC with NVIDIA dual-GPU SLI-enabled graphics, you’d probably think of a desktop PC right? Well the Lenovo Y500 laptop is available with the same kind of killer-gaming-pc dual GPU setup. When you pair this kind of extreme graphics with a full-HD 1920x1080 display, you have an amazing gaming and media capability that you can use anywhere. From the NVIDIA Control Panel: SLI and PhysX settings for the dual GeForce GT 650M graphics setup in my Lenovo Y500 I had some fun with the Y500 running one of the latest DirectX 11 games: EA’s Need for Speed Most Wanted. Running at full 1920x1080 resolution and mixed medium/high settings, this game consistently held 40fps during gameplay, a great result for such a visually intense game. At these settings, Need for Speed Most Wanted looked awesome, and gameplay was very smooth. Need For Speed Most Wanted Gameplay – 40fps at full HD resolution and medium/high settings (click to enlarge) While I have had a lot of fun gaming on the Y500, I also get down to business with this PC and use it for my daily work. One of my productivity highlights with this PC has been photo editing (including images for this article). What made this a great photo editing laptop? The photo-goodness list includes the large high resolution screen, powerful accelerated graphics, USB 3.0 ports for my portable hard drive, and the great integrated trackpad. Any photo pro will tell you that display quality is paramount for photo editing, and I found the Y500 display to be extremely good for photo work. Adobe Photoshop CS6 running on the Y500, the 15.6” full-HD is perfect for these kinds of tasks Photoshop feels good on this PC, but it also runs fast thanks to hardware acceleration using the NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M dedicated graphics. The hardware acceleration in Adobe Photoshop CS6 was configured and enabled by default following install, I love it when thing just work! Note that Lenovo has recently started shipping Y500 PCs with the newer NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M graphics, so these models will perform even better with graphically intensive applications. Here are some specs for the Y500: (full specs available here ) Intel Core i7-3630QM RAM: 8GB (min), 16GB (max) DDR3 Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M, 2GB GDDR5 (GT 650M tested in this article) Display: 15.6" 1366x768 or 1920x1080 Find me on twitter! @GavinGear http://blogs.windows.com/windows/b/bloggingwindows/archive/2013/05/07/julie-larson-green-at-the-wired-business-conference.aspxTue, 07 May 2013 19:24:00 GMTd5e57398-b9ef-4490-9955-07cbb4e4a80d:df23dc7f-57a6-406e-9111-bc259ca0760bBrandon LeBlanc Julie Larson-Green, Corporate Vice President for Windows, took to the stage at the Wired Business Conference a little while ago to talk about Windows 8 – reiterating much of the momentum Tami talked about earlier in this blog post . She also talked about our approach to making Windows 8 for a world where mobility is at the forefront. We continue to listen and respond to our customers. As part of the continuing journey for Windows 8, we have an update planned due out later this year codenamed “Windows Blue.” Julie unveiled that at BUILD at the end of June, we’ll be releasing a public preview of Windows Blue for folks to check out. Look for more from us on Windows Blue leading up to Build in June! http://blogs.windows.com/windows/b/windowsexperience/archive/2013/05/07/sony-introduces-the-vaio-fit.aspxTue, 07 May 2013 17:04:00 GMTd5e57398-b9ef-4490-9955-07cbb4e4a80d:0c67af23-dc4f-45ef-bf49-739110f95e5aBrandon LeBlanc Sony today is unveiling a brand new VAIO line – the VAIO Fit.   Sony’s VAIO Fit is designed with students and business users in mind – great design and performance at an entry-level price point. The VAIO Fit will be available in 14-inch and 15-inch models. VAIO Fit laptops uses weight-saving aluminum materials in its construction to be thin and light – making it a great PC for someone on the go. In terms of performance, VAIO Fit laptops will come with third generation Intel Core processors, up to a Core i7, optional NVIDIA Graphics with up to 2GB of VRAM, Hybrid Hard Drive and Solid State Drive (SSD) options, and optical drives (including Blu-ray Disc writing options as well). So with regards to performance, the VAIO Fit has you pretty set. VAIO Fit laptops ALSO come with high resolution displays. The VAIO Fit 15 comes with full HD (1920 x 1200). The VAIO Fit 14 comes with what Sony is calling “HD+” (1600 x 900). The VAIO Fit comes with an optional capacitive touchscreen and the display itself is LED backlit (as well as color enhancement technology) that gives the laptop excellent picture quality but conserves battery life. The VAIO Fit includes a full-size backlit keyboard. The VAIO Fit 15 also comes with an integrated number pad. And the VAIO Fit also comes with Near Field Communication technology (NFC) that allows people to quickly send content such as website URLs by simply touching any compatible NFC to the VAIO Fit. For audio, the VAIO Fit uses audio technology called ClearAudio+ for the entire line. This technology gives a “virtualized” surround sound experience. The VAIO Fit 14E and VAIO Fit 15E have “big box speakers” and the VAIO Fit 15E has its own subwoofer. The Fit 14 and 15 are available in Steel Black, Steel Pink and Steel Silver for about $649 and $699. The Fit 14E and Fit 15E are available in Black, Pink and White for about $549 and $579. Sony is also announcing updated to their current All-in-One (VAIO Tap 2) and Ultrabook (VAIO T Series 15 and VAIO L Series 24) lines. For their Ultrabooks – think touch! For more information on the new Sony VAIO Fit laptops and updates to some of their current PC lines – click here .