Microsoft faces a real uphill battle in trying to compete with entrenched mobile powerhouses like Apple, Google and RIM, and Windows Phone 7 is likely the last chance for Redmond to have any hope of staying relevant in the smartphone wars. At a gaming event in Toronto yesterday, I got a firsthand demo of the new operating system, and here’s a little of what you can expect.

For starters, Microsoft won’t allow device manufacturers to run roughshod over their OS by allowing them to tinker and tweak it. This also includes strict specs on what the hardware needs to have under the hood, and how it should look on the outside. For a company that once criticized Apple and RIM for being so stringent about the hardware-software combination, this about-face from Microsoft is actually a little refreshing.

The LG handset used for the demo is purely a mockup, but the simplistic elegance is what Microsoft wants, according to the Microsoft spokesman providing the demo. This means manufacturers like Samsung, LG, Motorola and HTC will surely create only-touchscreen devices, as well as others that have slide-out keyboards. Screen sizes have been set for between 3.5” to 4” with a resolution of 800×480. Needless to say, I found the screen to be crisp and vibrant, so that’s a good sign.

As expected, the interface closely resembles the Zune HD interface, though it’s not a direct ripoff. The main home screen is made up of tiles that offer up the usual list of apps that connect to other services. Standard stuff like email, messaging, contacts and media are plain to see, including direct channels to access Facebook, Twitter and Windows Live. Tiles can be added, removed or rearranged at will, though I’m not sure if there will be a folder system to constrain the top-to-bottom interface design. If not, scrolling could be a bit cumbersome with a lot of apps.

Viewing messages of all types is easy enough, and typing isn’t bad, either. The predictive text is a bit unusual in that a lineup of potential words appears below the text box, allowing you to drag and drop a word in place of another. The typing mechanics also helped give a better indication of how responsive the screen was, as did scrolling and interacting with tiles. From what I can see so far, it looks quite good.
The key element Microsoft is selling with the new OS is integration with services, especially those run by Microsoft. I saw an Office tile, which can best be assumed to be both an app to work on Office documents, but perhaps also a way to work with documents created on Office online. Xbox Live integration is also being highly-touted, especially since gameplay can be affected by actions you undertake on the phone. There may also be the ability to purchase and play downloaded arcade games on the phone, too.

The cross-platform idea isn’t new, as others are already doing it, but at least Microsoft appears to be taking it seriously this time. Windows Live services, and Bing search and mapping are more examples of how the company wants to give way for functionality that leads to greater interactivity on both devices involved. The problem is that it’s hard to measure just how good that is until the final product is ready to launch.

The presence of apps may make or break Windows Phone 7. There were very few that I could see in the demo, and though Microsoft has opened the floodgates for developers already, there’s no telling just how much support there will be from the community. Considering there’s no backwards compatibility with prior Windows Mobile apps, the ground is pretty fertile for new ideas — assuming the incentives are all there.

The lack of multitasking hit some alarm bells for me. Having one app functioning in the background is one thing, but not being able to have a third-party one running in the background could prove to be problematic for those who need that. I have no idea how well Windows Phone 7 will work with a Mac, if at all.

Flash video is already confirmed for Windows Phone 7, which adds a key element missing the iPhone. But it seems that Flash won’t be fully unleashed at launch. Cut, copy and paste are nowhere to be found as well, which might irk some.

Having said all that, there is promise here. Managing and viewing media seems pretty nifty, and I was always a fan of the Zune interface, save for a couple of annoying aspects. If Microsoft can work out the kinks and offer features that competitors can’t or won’t, then the smartphone race could get a lot more interesting.

Source:-http://whatsyourtech.ca/2010/08/19/windows-phone-7-demo-impresses-but-questions-remain/comment-page-1/

Are you planning to move to Windows 7 at your organization? If so, you probably already know that one of the biggest challenges in any upgrade is resolving compatibility issues, not just with software but also with hardware. IT professionals sometimes have to deal with a bunch of cranky devices and components that may not play nicely with the new OS.

The problem mostly applies to older printers, scanners, and other peripherals for which manufacturers may not have written Windows 7 specific drivers. But it can also span to newer components. I bought a newNetgear ( News – Alert) router early this year to discover that the company had no Windows 7 driver ready and only supported XP and Vista. After I upgraded my PC from Vista to Windows 7, I had to force it to use a generic Wi-Fi driver, which never quite worked properly. Months later, Netgear finally released a Windows 7 driver, and the router has performed fine since then.

Depending on your environment, compatibility issues can be tricky when jumping to Windows 7. Those of you already running Windows Vista should face fewer issues as many components can use Vista drivers under Windows 7. But clearly that’s not always the case as I learned with my Netgear router. Those of you still on Windows XP could bump into a greater number of hardware incompatibilities since XP drivers won’t work under Windows 7.

Also, any of you eyeing the 64-bit version of Windows 7 may run into additional issues with devices that have 32-bit drivers but not 64-bit ones. A 64-bit operating system requires 64-bit hardware drivers.

Okay, so how do you know if a peripheral will operate under Windows 7? One of the first and best resources to check is Microsoft’s (News – Alert) own Windows 7 Compatibility Center. This website lets you search for and browse software and hardware to see what items are compatible with the new OS. The hardware section includes printers, scanners, cameras, storage devices, network cards, and a host of other components.

The Compatibility Center will tell you if the device is compatible with Windows 7, both 32-bit and 64-bit. If so, it provides a link to the manufacturer’s website where you can download the specific driver for that device. If not, it directs you to the manufacturer’s general driver site where you can search yourself. You’ll also find a link to Microsoft’s own Answers forum site where you can swap messages with other users about the device in question.

What if Microsoft tells you that your device isn’t supported under Windows 7? You do have a few options.

One option is to look for and try the Windows Vista version of the driver. In many cases, the Vista driver for a printer or scanner may work just fine under Windows 7. Of course, your mileage may vary, so you’ll need to test this out on your own.

Another option is to use the Windows 7 driver for a different but related model. For example, I have an older HP Laserjet for which no Windows 7 drivers exist. But Microsoft does include drivers for newer Laserjet printers with Windows 7. To run my printer under 64-bit Windows 7, I simply selected a similar Laserjet driver. But even this can be a case of trial and error. The initial driver I tried printed standard documents and Web pages, but it would not print PDF files. I ran a search for PDF printing problems and included the name of my printer. After checking a few different search results, I found a suggestion to use a different Laserjet driver, which allowed me to print PDFs along with standard documents.

Source:-http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/10/amazon-hopes-to-build-hardware-beyond-kindle/

A julgar pelo que foi revelado por esses dias, a versão do Windows 7 que deve vir embarcado nos tablets que a Microsoft prometeu lançar este ano, será bem diferente do que nos acostumamos à ver. Desenvolvida pela empresa UI Centric, a interface gráfica chama-se Macallan e tem um visual bem interessante, que oferece uma experiência de uso completamente diferente.

A julgar pelo que foi mostrado pela empresa (conforme pode ser visto no vídeo abaixo), a interface tem tudo para cair no gosto do usuário por causa de suas transparências e efeitos visuais como a de página virada.

Segundo a empresa, houve a preocupação de criar algo novo, não apenas a simples adaptação de um sistema operacional móvel ou de desktop para a realidade dos tablets. E ao que parece, deu certo. No vídeo, o sistema aparece rodando no hardware de um grande fabricante que deve lançar seu tablet no terceiro trimestre.

Source:http://www.melhornotebook.org/2010/08/03/windows-7-para-tablet-promete-novidades/

Touch-based interfaces have captured everyone’s imagination, thanks in large part to the iPhone. With Windows 7, Microsoft joins Appls in bringing touch to the desktop, baking touch capabilities into the OS itself. Whereas Apple quietly added touch to Mac OS X Leopard a couple years back, Microsoft has hyped its Microsoft Surface technology for more than a year. Beneath this hype has been the suggestion that, with Windows 7, a touch revolution is brewing.

[ See what Windows 7’s top 20 features are. And explore the new Windows 7 in InfoWorld’s Deep Dive report. | Check out what the new Mac OS XTwo years of avid iPod Touch use has gotten me excited about the idea of touch UIs, so I was eager to try out the vaunted touch technology in Windows 7. My MacBook Pro has touch capabilities in its trackpad, but I usually run the laptop closed when working at my desk, so its touch capabilities haven’t been regularly accessible. The new breed of all-in-one PCs with touch-sensitive screens from Dell and Hewlett-Packard promised to change the equation and make touch on the PC as cool and functional as touch on an iPhone.

Well, that was the theory. The truth has been a bitter disappointment. In both Windows 7 and Mac OS X Snow Leopard, the touch experience has been underwhelming.Limited deployment is partly to blame, as — despite marketing hype — neither Apple nor Microsoft is making a serious effort to touchify their OSes. For Microsoft, touch seems to be a technology crush it won’t admit it’s fallen out of love with; for Apple, touch seems to be a key part of its non-PC strategy. (Neither Apple nor Microsoft would talk to InfoWorld about touch technology.)

Of course, Microsoft and Apple may have reason for not getting serious about touch. After all, outside of the obvious use in self-contained kiosk environments, does touch really make sense on a PC?My early experience suggests it does not.Here are the key concerns that make PC touch useless for most people — and that will continue to plague any notion of a “touch revolution” on the desktop PC for years to come.
What makes the touch interface so compelling on the iPhone and on quality copycats such as the Palm Pre is that the use of touch gestures are a fundamental part of the operating system and the applications. Just as using a mouse is fundamental and universal in Windows and Mac OS X, touch gestures are universal in the iPhone, Palm Pre, and so on. This means the user interfaces are designed with touch at the core, and typically work intuitively as you put your finger to the screen.

Source:-http://www.infoworld.com/d/windows/windows-7-touch-dead-arrival-914