Windows 8

Lenovo reveals the thin and streamlined ThinkPad T431s

Today at the Engadget Expand event held in San Francisco, Lenovo announced its new ThinkPad T431s laptop. This is an update to the company's already available T series of laptaps. The new laptops features a 14-inch screen and will be released in April with prices starting at $949.

Not to veer too far from what's it's known for, the new 14-inch laptop looks like a Lenovo ThinkPad: It's (graphite) black, and there's a red button nub in the middle of the keyboard for navigating; however, there are a few changes of note.

At 3.5 … Read more

Samsung calls demand for Windows 'lackluster'

Samsung mobile chief J.K. Shin offered some less-than-stellar observations about Microsoft in an interview published last night.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Shin said his company sees "lackluster demand for Windows-based products in Europe." And elsewhere around the world, he said, Microsoft's software efforts in smartphones and tablets are not going so well either.

"Smartphones and tablets based on Microsoft's Windows operating system aren't selling very well," Shin told the Journal, ostensibly referring to both Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8. "There is a preference in the market … Read more

Getting started with Twitter for Windows 8

Twitter released its first-ever Windows client yesterday for Windows 8. The client supports the usual array of Twitter features, but also includes a few that are unique to Windows 8. Here's how to get started with Twitter for Windows 8:

Setup

Download and install the Windows 8 Twitter app from the Windows Store. The first time you launch the app, you'll need to log in with your Twitter username and password to authorize the app. The second time you launch the app, you may be prompted to allow Twitter to run the in background. If you want show … Read more

Windows 8 failing to stem post-PC tide, analyst says

Nomura Securities analyst Rick Sherlund, one of the longest tenured and most respected Microsoft watchers on Wall Street, believes Windows 8 has failed to slow the post-PC era march, where consumers opt for smartphones and tablets ahead of personal computers.

"The tide continues to go out on PC sales as consumers and emerging market users prefer tablets and smartphones to Windows based PCs," Sherlund wrote in a research note sent to investors this morning. "Windows 8 has failed to ebb the receding tide."

Microsoft investors had hoped that Windows 8, which launched last October, would give … Read more

How Microsoft's Surface tablet was born

Microsoft faced a few key challenges in developing its Surface tablet, according to team leader Panos Panay.

In an interview with the Verge, Panay offered some tidbits detailing the tricky evolution of Surface. The Surface team's general manager said that Microsoft had two goals in mind for Surface RT, code-named Georgetown: news of the tablet couldn't leak beforehand and it had to be ready to ship when Windows 8 launched.

Right from the start, Microsoft wanted to try to build the tablet without upsetting its Windows 8 OEM partners, Panay said. Whether it achieved that goal is debatable.… Read more

Microsoft backs away from Flash ban in IE10

An about-face in Internet Explorer 10 shows Microsoft is not merely backing off from its hostility toward Flash Player, but actually warming up to the Adobe Systems browser plug-in for competitive reasons.

In September 2011, Microsoft declared that browser plug-ins are a relic from the Internet's early days, calling them bad for battery life, security, reliability, and privacy, and said that it would ban them when IE10 was running with Windows 8's Metro user interface, now called the "immersive UI."

But Microsoft gave Flash a reprieve in May 2012 by building a special version of Adobe'… Read more

Best Windows 8 laptops with optical drives

If your laptop shopping list includes a touch screen, SSD storage, or even NFC, finding a new system shouldn't be hard. But if you're still tied to your optical discs and need a DVD or Blu-ray drive, that's another story. This once-ubiquitous feature is hard to find in new Windows 8 laptops, largely restricted to older models that have had Win 8 slapped onto them and to a handful of larger desktop replacements.

As laptops continue to get thinner, a charge led by ultrabooks and the MacBook Air (and the MacBook Pro with Retina Display), I suspect we'll see fewer and fewer optical drives.

Slot-loading drives are easier to fit into a small chassis than tray-loading ones, but like Ethernet ports, optical drives may become an added cost that PC makers feel most shoppers can live without, thanks to online gaming, music, and movie services, and the growth of cloud computing.

Since the launch of Windows 8, we've reviewed only a handful of laptops that include optical drives. The list below gives our favorites, and a few that weren't quite as warmly received.… Read more

How to run Windows 8 apps on the desktop with ModernMix

Windows 8 apps are meant to be run from the Windows 8 Start screen and in full-screen mode. You can snap them to the side of the Start screen, but they're still limited to the Start screen. If you're simultaneously using desktop programs and apps, you'll have to toggle between your desktop and Start screen to use them. This inefficient back and forth can be alleviated with the use of a program called ModernMix. ModernMix, just released by StarDock as a public beta, aims to give Windows 8 users the flexibility to run Windows 8 apps right … Read more

Windows 8 hardware, take 2: Expect cheaper, smaller

With Windows 8 failing to spur PC demand, Microsoft is resorting to the oldest trick in the book: price cuts.

Reports Tuesday in Taipei-based Digitimes and the Wall Street Journal indicate that Microsoft will lower the price of Windows 8 for PC makers in the coming months.

Not surprisingly,that should result in cheaper Windows 8 tablets and hybrids, according to IDC's Bob O'Donnell.

"It lowers the vendors' total cost, which allows them to get to a lower price point," he said.

But maybe more importantly, Microsoft has offered another incentive: to spark the market for … Read more