Windows

Earlier this month Microsoft announced the Kinect for Windows Commercial Program that will give businesses “the tools to develop applications that not only could improve their own operations, but potentially revolutionize entire industries.” Following this announcement many wondered whether there would also be new PC-centric Kinect hardware in the offing. The company has now answered in the affirmative with confirmation that a new Kinect device with optimized hardware components and numerous firmware adjustments tailored for close up PC-user scenarios is on the way. Read More

During Nokia World 2011 in London, Nokia has announced its first Windows Phone 7-based smartphones in the form of the Lumia 800 and Lumia 710, both featuring 3.7-inch touchscreen displays and 1.4GHz single-core Qualcomm CPUs. Read More

Microsoft previewed the next version of its Windows OS in June at D9 and a few more details leaked out shortly after that, but the biggest reveal came this week with Microsoft giving a preview of Windows 8 to kick off its Build conference, followed by the Developer Preview hitting Microsoft servers for anyone to download. With the surge in popularity of touchscreen devices over the past few years the new OS is designed to run on a wider variety of devices and chipsets and embraces touch and apps in a big way with the new "Metro style" interface. Read More

HTC has unveiled HTC TITAN, billed as its largest screen smartphone featuring 4.7-inch WVGA 480x800 pixel display wrapped in a slim 9.9 mm (0.39 inch) aluminum shell. Running Windows Phone 7.5 (Mango), HTC TITAN boasts 8 megapixel camera, which comes with f/2.2 aperture lens, dual LED flash, BSI sensor and 720p video recording. Along with TITAN, HTC has also announced a lower spec'd Windows Phone 7.5 arrival in the form of 3.8-inch HTC Radar. Read More

Microsoft’s about-face in relation to the “modification of its products” – specifically its Kinect sensor – is complete with the company releasing the official Kinect for Windows SDK beta. When the motion controller was initially released and hackers set about creating open source drivers for the device, Microsoft responded saying it didn’t condone such actions. But it has since changed its tune, even going so far as to invite a group of developers to its Redmond campus for a live 24-hour coding marathon to build concept applications using the SDK. Read More

With Apple bringing a few user interface elements found in its iOS mobile operating system to its upcoming OS X Lion desktop operating system, Microsoft is taking a similar tack for its Windows 8 OS. Previewed last week at the D9 Conference, the next generation of the Windows operating system borrows heavily from Windows Phone 7 by replacing the traditional Windows Start menu with a tile-based Start screen that provides a customizable, scalable full-screen view of apps on the system. Read More

Apple's new MacBook Pro line-up might be grabbing all the headlines with its new Thunderbolt port, but the claimed battery life pales into insignificance when compared to that offered by HP. When running on the company's new Ultra-Capacity Notebook battery, the HP EliteBook 8460p is said to be capable of running for up to 32 hours between charges. It's one of a number of business notebook releases announced by HP, so let's take a closer look... Read More

In addition to the company's Slider PC7 computer, Samsung's high-end Series 9 laptop was one of the CES 2011 standouts that we wanted to go back and take a look at. Many have billed it as a Macbook Air killer, and though we wouldn't go quite that far, the comparison is certainly a valid one. The Series 9 sports a sleek design that will likely turn just as many heads as the afore-mentioned Cupertino competitor. Read More

Having full-blown computers linked to a central server delivering applications to office workers is so last century. More and more businesses are choosing to deploy thin-client or virtual desktop solutions, where much of the storage and processing needs are met at the data center. Advantages often include low power draw at the user end, low maintenance, and minimal desktop footprint. Chip PC's Plug PC cross-platform thin client or virtual desktop computer solution offers maximum load power consumption of just 3W, is about the same size as a pack of cards, and benefits from a processor architecture that provides the equivalent of 1.8GHz x86 processing power. Read More