windows 8

Emirates Airline is giving its flight attendants a tech upgrade. The airline announced today that it will be handing out 1,000 HP ElitePad 900 tablets equipped with Windows 8 to its crew and staff.

Emirates made this announcement today during the Windows 8 launch event in Dubai, which is home to the airline. The carrier said it picked the HP ElitePad 900 as its device of choice because it is light, has a long battery life, and was built specifically for business users.

"To support our crew, we have created an application on Windows 8 that delivers a … Read more

User interface design guru Jakob Nielsen is none too pleased with what he's found in Windows 8, which he calls a "misguided" product.

Nielsen, who has spent much of his career analyzing all kinds of user interfaces, including most notably Flash software for Web animation, says that the new Windows 8 user interface "smothers usability with big colorful tiles while hiding needed features."

To arrive at that conclusion, Nielsen brought in 12 "experienced PC users" to try out Windows on both PCs and Surface RT tablets. In that study, Nielsen found that the … Read more

Getting to a Microsoft store isn't easy. That's a problem.

It's a problem because in the wake of the Windows 8 release late last month, the best selection of the coolest devices is at a Microsoft store. Throw in solid ambiance too.

Best Buy? I don't think so. Though my local Best Buy in Los Angeles has a few interesting Windows 8 PCs, like the Lenovo Yoga convertible, it's mostly business as usual.

Same old big box chaos with clam shells that look pretty much like the clam shells that were there last year.

And … Read more

Windows 8 may not be selling nearly as well as Microsoft projected, according to a report.

"Sales of Windows 8 PCs are well below Microsoft's internal projections and have been described inside the company as disappointing," Paul Thurrott wrote on his Supersite For Windows today, citing a source inside Microsoft.

The culprit? "Lackluster PC maker designs and availability," according to Thurrott.

But he lists plenty of other reasons too, including Windows 8 itself as "confusing" because of its mix of touch and a standard Windows 7 desktop.

And he cites the simultaneous release … Read more

Update, November 16, 2012: The method for pinning Web sites with Chrome was added to this blog post.

The Windows 8 Start screen comes prepopulated with lots of tiles, some of which you won't ever use. Instead of wasting that precious space, you can remove the tiles you don't use and pin your favorite Web sites to the Start screen for quick and easy access. Here's how:

Step 1: Open Internet Explorer from the Start screen and go to the Web site you want to pin.

Step 2: Click the pin icon in the lower right-hand corner … Read more

Better mobile support and more desktop options give SkyDrive users a bit of a boost today, as Microsoft updates its cloud storage service.

The desktop improvements include the ability to share SkyDrive files with one click from Windows 8's File Explorer (also known as Windows Explorer in previous versions of Windows,) and selectively sync folders from a Windows or Mac. This can help keep small-drive devices from filing up too quickly.

Android and Windows Phone apps have been updated, too, so that you can now more easily browse files in your SkyDrive. You'll also be able to control … Read more

The Windows 8 Mail e-mail app has a nice, clean interface and works with a variety of e-mail accounts, including Gmail and Yahoo! Mail. Here's how to add them to Windows 8 Mail:

Step 1: Make sure you're logged in to Mail with a Microsoft account. If you're using a local account to log in to Windows 8, you'll need to log in to Mail with a Microsoft account before you can add other e-mail accounts.

Step 2: From within Mail, use the Win+I shortcut to quickly get to Mail settings, then click on Accounts.… Read more

Lenovo has bumped up the specs on its latest home theater PC but kept it as compact as ever.

Announced today, the new mini IdeaCentre Q190 is an upgrade to Lenovo's current Q180. And based on its features, it does qualify as a true upgrade.

The Q190 offers a 3rd-generation (Ivy Bridge) Intel Core i3 processor, a hard drive as large as one terabyte, a 24-gigabyte SSD cache, and as much as 8GB of memory. The PC can also be outfitted with Windows 8 Pro.

In comparison, the Q180 comes with an Atom chip, a 750GB hard drive or … Read more

Hewlett-Packard isn't overly impressed with Microsoft's Surface tablet.

Speaking in an interview published yesterday with IDG Enterprise, HP PC business chief Todd Bradley said that his company could "hardly call Surface competition," adding that the Microsoft-branded tablet is quite flawed.

"One, very limited distribution," Bradley said, listing what he feels are the Surface's greatest flaws. "It tends to be slow and a little kludgey as you use it....It's expensive. Holistically, the press has made a bigger deal out of Surface than what the world has chosen to believe."

Microsoft … Read more