windows 8

You'll be able to tag TV shows with Shazam soon enough

The popular music tagging service Shazam has reached 250 million users and has unleashed the ability to tag TV shows as well. The added functionality will enable users to find out what music is playing, who's acting on-screen, and more. The service is available in app form for Windows Phone, but it's often overshadowed by Microsoft's own Bing Audio music tagging integration on the mobile platform, which offers identical functionality.

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The Seattle Times interviewed CEO Steve Ballmer recently and the man behind Microsoft is sounding quite confident about this year’s upcoming launches.

During the interview, Ballmer gave his impression of how momentous this year’s launch line-up will be for Microsoft and he even pulled out two Lumia 920 phones from his pockets. Many have speculated wildly on this interview in relation to Surface pricing, so we thought it was time we looked at what exactly was said…

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I think we have briefly heard about this before, and Chinese tech site WPDang just got confirmation from their informants: Microsoft will cancel retail package of Windows 8. This means you won't be able to grab a DVD copy at nearby store. Instead, to get the latest member of the Windows family, you have the following options:

  • Buy a branded PC, and get preloaded Windows 8
  • Some OEM have Windows 8 upgrade coupons for buyers of existing Windows 7 computers, providing a way to the future
  • If you have a genuine copy of Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 7, Microsoft has an online upgrading program. Sets you $14.99 for an upgrade from Windows 7, and $39.99 for upgrade from its elder brothers

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New name-changes to Windows 8 could come down to Windows Phone 8 in China

Less than 24 hours ago, Microsoft opened up the much anticipated app submissions to the Windows 8 store. However, the great news has been thwarted by Microsoft's new app naming policy.

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Microsoft has revealed the entire list of pop-up stores (or holiday stores) it plans to open throughout North America this coming holiday season. It's a positive sign to see Microsoft build a larger retail presence to combat its main competitor - Apple. 32 stores will open up shop in 20 US states, as well as shops in British Columbia, Toronto, and Alberta, Canada. 

With the imminent release of Windows 8, coupled with new Office, Surface tablets and Windows Phone hardware, there's plenty of opportunity for Microsoft to build on its branding revamp to a more simplistic and modern feel. It's a common thought that Microsoft has almost become a new company to what consumers have grown accustomed to.

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We have already seen with the initial announcement of Windows Phone 8 that Microsoft is much more serious about building enterprise features into their next OS. Along with better security through full device encryption and secure-boot technologies Microsoft will allow business to deploy apps directly to the phone.

Currently the only way to manage a Windows Phone device is through the ActiveSync framework but this isn’t able to provide the level of granularity that micro-managing Systems Administrators need. Microsoft has now revealed that their In Tune product will provide the one stop shop for device management for Windows Phone 8 and also WinRT tablets. Hopefully this should mean much wider adoption of Windows Phone in the enterprise considering it will play nicely with existing Microsoft technologies.

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We first looked at live music service Pepper earlier this year at a previous WPUG event. The app and backend service impressed us with the variety of features available, as well as how unique the functionality is in a package we've yet to see elsewhere. Exclusively available for Windows Phone, we enjoyed having the Pepper team on-board pushing the platform further with continued support. We've now got word that an imminent update is on its way, as well as apps for both Windows 8 and the iPhone.

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Could we finally see a Windows 8-powered NOOK?

With Amazon wooing the world late last week with their new Fire and PaperWhite tablets (and eReader), many have been left wondering what Barnes & Noble’s response would be. The online book retailer has slashed prices recently on their NOOK tablets, paving the way for a new holiday refresh and release.

Now, sources to the site Digital Trends have confirmed with them that in late September in Union Square, New York, the company will unveil a new Nook tablet rumored to be powered by Windows 8.

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Prepare for a bit of Xbox 360 news that will spill over to Windows 8 and likely Windows Phone in the future as well. PopCap and Zen Studios have partnered up to introduce ‘Plants vs. Zombies Pinball’ to Pinball FX 2 on Xbox Live Arcade. If you’ll recall, most or all existing tables will appear in the forthcoming Windows Phone port as well, so consider this a sneak preview if you don’t play the Xbox 360 version of Pinball FX 2. Zen kindly provided a review code for the table, and now we’ve got full impressions to share after the break.

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By now it’s old news that the Zune Desktop as we know it will be phased out—in fact we’ve seen features already removed over the last few months.  What was to replace it though was always a bit of a mystery though there are only so many options available.

Now an image has leaked out of what appears to be the ‘companion app’ for Windows Phone and Windows 8—think of it as Zune Desktop the next generation. There's really not too much to the image though we suppose it is better than nothing.

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The popular Windows Mobile game HexaLines now breathes fresh air on the Windows Store as a Windows 8 title. We last looked at HexaLines with the news of the strategic game making its way to both Windows Phone and the desktop stores. The aim of the game is to expand by deploying new hexagons (all players start from the centre) and attempting to cut off or annihilate enemy colours.

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Is this a new Nokia Tablet with Windows 8?

It appears that Nokia may have more than just new phones to show off next week in New York City. According to the site WPDang, internal images from Nokia show what appears to be a full on Windows 8 Tablet in a "a mysterious Banner map" hidden on the site.

The actual device body is mostly out of view but instead what we see is a rather large display with Windows 8 tiles, including one for ‘Desktop’. In addition, what appear to be new high Symbian devices are also shown, meaning Nokia may not yet be done with that OS yet either.

Of course this could be an error in a render, though we would like to think that Nokia would not make such an obvious an amateur mistake...

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Microsoft has released a rather healthy list of Xbox games slated for Windows 8. The games are slated for availability for October 26th to coincide with the release of Windows 8.

The list of 40 games include titles from Microsoft Studios, Rovio, Miniclip, Gameloft, Babaroga, and Halfbrick Studios. There's no word on pricing and you'll be able to find these titles at the Windows Store via the Games app that comes with Windows 8.

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Listening to podcasts on the go is one of my favorite pastimes, a great way to catch up with the latest news or a special interest. For those of us who reside outside of North America, podcast support has been a bit limited to say the least. Unlike our pals in the US, we cannot subscribe to podcasts through the marketplace on either Zune desktop software or directly using the phone. Annoying, but Mango at least introduced a half-workable solution. Unfortunately, after the Tango update it’s no longer possible to use that either.

To subscribe to podcasts prior to Tango, first we needed to set them up in the Zune desktop suite. Once subscribed, simply plugging in the phone and synchronising would pass the podcast to it. Podcasts would the automatically download without further PC interaction. Alas, this is now not the case. What’s going on?

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Sony went big at IFA 2012 yesterday by unveiling a 20" Windows 8 table-top PC, which (when laid on a flat surface) looks something like a battle overview screen from Star Wars. The device is set to sport an Intel i7, i5 or i3 processor, accompanied by a maximum of 8GB RAM, 750GB or 1TB HDD, USB 3.0, SD card slot, HD webcam and Intel HD 4000 graphics. Powering Windows 8, the Sony VAIO Tab 20 will definitely turn heads.

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Mark your calendar, October is shaping up to be a busy month for Microsoft. Rumors have surfaced for release dates for both Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8.

Okay... we've known for some time that the general availability for Windows 8 is October 26th. It now appears that on October 25th, there will be a Microsoft launch event for Windows 8 and the Surface RT in New York City. No specifics on the event as of yet but Windows 8 and the Surface tablets should become available at midnight following the event.

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“Microsoft is not, and never will be, a hardware company.” That’s according to Charlie Kindel, former Windows Phone General Manager, who spoke at an event at ThinkSpace in Redmond last night. Referring to Microsoft’s Surface family of tablets, Kindel notes that sales will be a small fraction of its business in the PC industry as a whole. But didn’t we already know this?

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Samsung has just announced their range of Windows 8 devices. We have already touched on the ATIV S and Tab rumors earlier and now we know a whole lot more about what Samsung has in store. Samsung is no strangers to producing Windows PCs and looks like they are taking their duties very seriously with this latest line up.

The three devices we’re most interested in are the ATIV Tab, Samsung's super thin WinRT device, the ATIV Smart PC Pro and ATIV Smart PC running the full fat version of Windows 8. Aside from the ATIV tab they will have the detachable keyboard that’s looking to be the in thing with Windows 8 devices.  These three new tablets join the ATIV S Windows Phone to complete the Samsung ATIV lineup.

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Gaming on Windows 8 tablets (and the platform as a whole) just got a whole lot cooler with a demonstration of the Unreal Engine 3 running on an ASUS Windows RT tablet. Powered by NVIDIA's Tegra, the tablet was shown today running the engine flagship demo Epic Citadel at IFA Berlin. 

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Hold onto your seats, this is a big one. Sony has unveiled a 20" table-top Windows 8 PC today at IFA Berlin, titled VAIO Tap 20. The battery-powered PC features a stand allowing the user to adjust the device to suit immediate needs, whether it be tablet photo viewing (on the lap as it weighs in at a sturdy 11 pounds) or desktop-style web browsing. It's a Windows 8 PC that's surely going to turn some heads, so what's included in the package?

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