windows

Windows Phone 8 one step closer to 1080p support -- report

Microsoft's Windows Phone 8 operating system might soon support 1080p resolution, leaked file information in Visual Studio 2013 suggests.

Former Nokia and Microsoft engineer Justin Angel tweeted out on Monday an image of Visual Studio 2013. The image showed Windows Phone 8 emulator files containing 1080p resolution of 1,920 x 1,080.

Microsoft's mobile operating system supports 720p resolution, as well as WVGA and WXGA. Full 1080p support, however, has been sorely lacking from the operating system. The resolution is available on several Android handsets.

For its part, Microsoft hasn't confirmed that 1080p support is coming … Read more

Wise Care 365 Pro is now half off for a lifetime subscription

PC optimizers are pretty common these days. But how can you tell which one is worthy of keeping your machine fast and free of errors? One sure way to tell is to try it out. Wise Care 365 Free has always been a favorite with our editors as well as users. With over 50,000 downloads a week, Wise Care 365 is a go-to cleaner application for many people.

Main features:

All-in-one utility: Besides optimizing performance, WC365 also includes a Disk Cleaner and Registry Optimizer to help your PC get in shape. Comprehensive cleaning helps slim down your system by … Read more

Windows Store hits 100,000 apps: Impressed?

Microsoft's Windows Store has hit the 100,000 apps mark in short order.

"Thanks for a great \\build! Just passed 100k apps in the Windows Store," Microsoft tweeted earlier today.

That was fast. Windows 8 was launched only last October.

How fast? Google took longer to reach that point -- roughly two years after the Android Market formally opened for business.

And it took about a year and a half for the iPad to garner 100,000 iPad-specific apps. "The platform has been out for 453 days, with developers getting access to its software development kit … Read more

How to export Feedly subscriptions to OPML

We rely on cloud services more and more every day, trusting service providers with our data. But as Google Reader users know all too well, it's sometimes necessary to take that data elsewhere. Many Google Reader users have migrated to Feedly, and the subscription data that once lived on Google's servers now resides on Feedly's. Feedly just recently added the ability to export your feeds to an OPML file, so if Feedly shuts its doors like Google Reader did, you can use it to import your feeds to another reader. Here's how:

Step 1: From the … Read more

Get an Asus 11.6-inch touch-screen laptop for $299.99

I'm starting to rethink this whole touch-screen thing.

In the past I've come down on the "meh" side of touch-screen laptops, feeling like it doesn't really add anything to the Windows experience. Nice, sure, but not really necessary.

Then, over the weekend, I was gathered around my laptop with my sister, brother-in-law, and other family members, looking at listings for rescue dogs. (Yeah, we're adopting.) And as everyone congregated, to a person they reached for the screen and tried to make the page scroll.

After I yelled at them to "stop getting fingerprints … Read more

Windows 8 overtakes Vista, burbling above 5 percent of the market

Windows 8 has hit a new milestone. It's now the third most used operating system in the world, at least in the eyes of market tracker Net Applications.

For the month of June, Windows 8 scored 5.1 percent of all desktop OS Web traffic seen by Net Applications. That boost helped Microsoft's latest OS finally leapfrog over Windows Vista, which grabbed a 4.62 percent share last month.

The most recent figure showed a healthy gain for Windows 8 from its 4.27 percent share in May and continued growth since its official release in October. Over … Read more

Despite Windows 8.1, PC market prospects aren't pretty

Windows 8.1 may fix Microsoft's dot-zero release but it may not fix the PC market.

After Citi Research revised its PC market growth forecast down to negative 10 percent growth earlier in the month, market researcher IDC chimed in on Friday with a less-than-upbeat snapshot for May.

"May results reflect deteriorating conditions rather than improvement and the market will probably fall short of projections," said Loren Loverde, an IDC analyst in a statement, referring to May regional PC shipments.

"The results for May are behind pace for achieving the projected [second quarter 2013] growth rate,&… Read more

Windows 8.1 vs. Apple: Twofer or tablet?

Will new Windows 8.1 hybrids finally expose the iPad for what it really is, a mere tablet?

That's what Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer suggested this week.

When speaking at the company's Build Conference on Wednesday, he described in colorful -- and maybe just a tad exaggerated -- terms how tablets don't measure up to laptops (or even pencil and paper).

Enter the "2-in-1," as Microsoft likes to call hybrids. During his keynote presentation, Ballmer brandished the Lenovo ThinkPad Helix as an example of a 2-in-1 he has used.

The Helix can be a pure … Read more

How to export your Google Reader data

If you're still hanging on to Google Reader, it's time to let it go. After Monday, Google Reader will no longer be available. People with only a few subscriptions will be able to migrate to another service without much hassle, but those with more than just a few will want the option to bulk-import the subscription data. Even if you don't move the data to a new service right away, it'll be nice to have for future reference.

To export your Google Reader data, follow the steps below:

Step 1: Go to Reader settings, then click … Read more