The full Windows 8 tablet, which made its behind-the-scenes debut in Las Vegas during CES, has been awaited since last year's Los Angeles Surface event. Originally expected in late January and 90 days after the launch of the Surface RT on October 26, the launch window has shifted a little. Still, it's on its way in two weeks. Panos Panay, Microsoft Surface general manager, made the announcement.
Microsoft added Office 2013 to the Home Use Program (HUP), which lets employees of some companies and organizations buy the new suite for $9.95. The deal had been tipped previously by several sources, including a Microsoft HUP marketing portal, which noted that promotional materials would be available to volume licensees on Jan. 17. Vanderbilt University had also told its faculty and staff that Office 2013 would be hit HUP no later than the middle of this month.
When a disaster happens, chances are you want to get in touch with your loved ones as soon as possible, either to tell them that you’re fine or to make sure they are. To make this easier, Microsoft is launching HelpBridge, a mobile app for iOS, Android and Windows Phone. HelpBridge, which is based on Microsoft’s Windows Azure platform, lets you notify your friends and family by SMS, email or a message to your Facebook wall that you are okay when a disaster happens. Those messages can include your location, too.
Windows Phone users lack of access to the Google site came to light late last week. Google officials said that they had always disabled access to the Google Maps site for Windows Phone users. A number of Windows Phone users disagreed and said they believed Google began redirecting them more recently to the generic Google site when they tried to access maps. Google officials initially said that the Google Maps site wasn't working for Windows Phone users because the Internet Explorer versions that are part of Windows Phone don't use the Webkit rendering engine.
Despite a mixed reaction to its arrival at the end of October, Windows 8 continued to grow in market share by the end of December 2012. New desktop market share numbers released by Net Applications show that Windows 8 jumped from 1.06 percent market share at the end of its first full month on the market to 1.77 percent by the end of December. That's a month-to-month jump of almost 60 percent. Note that these numbers include Windows 8 and Windows 8 on touch screens, but not Windows RT.
There’s no love lost between Microsoft and Google: The two have been feuding for more than a decade, with Microsoft regularly calling Google out for anti-competitive behavior in search. As AllThingsD pointed out yesterday, one issue that’s cropped up again is the lack of a Windows Phone app for YouTube. On Microsoft’s public policy blog, Microsoft VP & Deputy General Counsel Dave Heiner has an extensive post complaining about YouTube’s lack of support for its mobile platform, and how that affects its users.
Ever since Microsoft unveiled the Windows RT Surface and its much more PC-like Windows 8 Surface Pro sibling, the big question has been about price. Well, consider the question answered: the Surface Pro will cost $899 for a 64GB version, and $999 for 128GB of storage. A full ultrabook-level Intel Core i5 processor, 10.6-inch 1,920x1,080-pixel display, 4GB of RAM, and an included Surface Pen are some of the Surface Pro's distinguishing features.
Microsoft's Visual Studio 2012 Update 1 is now available for download. The update allows users to develop applications for Windows XP and more thoroughly test their work. The previous version of Microsoft's development tool was launched along with .NET 4.5 in September this year. An update arrives so quickly following the launch is part of Microsoft's plan to upgrade Visual Studio at shorter intervals.
Tami Reller, chief marketing and financial officer for Windows, announced the number during her appearance at the Credit Suisse Annual Tech Conference. Microsoft had not released any sales figures for Windows 8 other than saying the company sold 4 million upgrade licenses of the operating system to those with previous versions of Windows during the first three days it was available. Microsoft launched Windows 8 commercially on October 26.
Microsoft will support its Surface RT tablet with updates, including security patches, until April 2017, or nearly four-and-a-half years after its launch. The support lifecycle for the Surface with Windows RT tablet is less than half the usual 10 years Microsoft allots its software products - including Windows 8 - but is considerably longer than what Apple has given the first-generation iPad, which has already dropped off.