Got Tips?

Windows 8 "Immersive" interface unveiled at AllThingsD D9 conference and Computex

By on June 1, 2011 8:32 PM
29 comments

Windows 8 Start Screen

Today at the All Things Digital’s D9 conference, Microsoft’s Windows and Windows Live President Steven Sinofsky joined Walt Mossberg on stage and showed off for the first time the "Immersive" user interface for Windows 8. According to Microsoft’s press release, below are some of the things that were shown off in today’s demo:

  • Fast launching of apps from a tile-based Start screen, which replaces the Windows Start menu with a customizable, scalable full-screen view of apps.
  • Live tiles with notifications, showing always up-to-date information from your apps.
  • Fluid, natural switching between running apps.
  • Convenient ability to snap and resize an app to the side of the screen, so you can really multitask using the capabilities of Windows.
  • Web-connected and Web-powered apps built using HTML5 and JavaScript that have access to the full power of the PC.
  • Fully touch-optimized browsing, with all the power of hardware-accelerated Internet Explorer 10.

You can check out the video from the D9 event this morning for yourself here:

Microsoft also posted the first of a series of videos called "Building Windows 8", now available on YouTube:

On the other side of the world, at the Computex Taipei Exhibition, Microsoft also showed off some more details about their Windows 8 operating system, including several hardware (specifically tablets) running on ARM and other SoC processors. According to Microsoft, all applications that exist on Windows now will run on ARM devices. Several tablet hardware requirements were also detailed, including minimum screen resolutions, touch considerations, and more. You can check out full live coverage of the Computex exhibition on Engadget.com.

Last but not least, Microsoft also announced that more details about Windows 8 will also be revealed at their new BUILD: Windows event, replacing PDC, to be held between September 13-16 in Anaheim, California. LiveSide will be attending this event to bring you full coverage on Windows 8 and more. So stay tuned!

Posted in Featured, News | Tags: , , ,

Comments

  • Anonymous

    I’ll admit my gut reaction was “Why have they broken Windows?” I preferred the rumour that the desktop would have one UI and tablets another… this seems to be jumping on the tablet bandwagon and throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

    I couldn’t see a business seeing this and thinking it’s what they need, I could see it bolstering consumer sales for the computer illiterate but Apple already has all of them in a tizzy.

    I’m worried.

    • Damaster – LiveSide.net

      Seeing it still has the same Win7 desktop, and supports all legacy applications, I think businesses will still use Windows. It’s too early to tell what else is under the hood with Windows 8. Perhaps businesses can disable the immersive (i.e. Metro) interface?

    • Chris

      In like that it’s included in windows.

  • john

    This is not the “tablet” UI, it will work across tablets, laptops, and desktop. Looks good too, except for that jolting transition to the aero desktop. Hopefully that will be reskinned a little bit.

    • https://parithon.startssl.com/ Anthony

      Tablet features today are installed with OS… I hope that this interface is apart of those features and can be uninstalled if you desire.

      • Chris

        I’m sure it is. It’s liked media center. Though why would you want to uninstall it?

  • http://doctorwhofan98.wordpress.com/ doctorwhofan98

    This better be just the tablet interface… I want the desktop version! With the user icon on the taskbar! And the roaming settings for WL! And the NEW Windows Explorer!

    NOT this fancy stuff!

    • Josh T.

      Well then don’t use the Immersive UI… You *can* choose.

    • https://parithon.startssl.com/ Anthony

      Did you watch the entire video from D9?  They asked that question and both Julie and Steven responded that you could opt to never use this new interface if that is your preference.

      • Anonymous

        Please, do you have a link to this video?

        • Chris

          It’s right in the blog post.

    • Chris

      You can use the classic UI. No one is forcing you to use this. But I can think of a lot of things I’d want in windows 8 then a user icon in the task bar.

      • http://doctorwhofan98.wordpress.com/ doctorwhofan98

        Oh… ok. I didn’t know the classic UI would still be available.

        • Chris

          Oh it is. If you watch the video it shows the classic windows user interface that looks a lot like Windows 7

          • http://doctorwhofan98.wordpress.com/ doctorwhofan98

            Ok

  • Mario Albertico

    All I see is a really spiced up Windows Media Center, but playing a bigger, more embedded role. Which makes you wonder…what’s going to happen to Windows Media Center…when this seems to be able to do everything WMC can do, except DVR…unless it will be built-in as well…

    Side note: they were grilling poor Julie like crazy, but a part of me thinks it’s good that Windows brass gets a live taste of just how tough the competition is winning in mindshare…

    • Chris

      Seems a bit different from media center in my opinion. Seems all the user functions in windows, but touched enabled and full screen against fancy color backgrounds.

      • Mario Albertico

        I guess what I’m trying to say is that they had to have thought about WMC…but more like “We have this awesome UI experience that is kinda just ‘there’…why not make it snazzier and force it at launch?” Of course they’ve added the awesome Windows Phone functionalities (keyboard, tiles, multi-tasking, etc.), but really…this looks like some mix of what HP has been doing with their MediaSmart/TouchSmart software and WP7…just more “immersive” in that we won’t call it an “app” on its own.

    • Anonymous

      I too thought of Media Center immediately when seeing this, when Sinofsky said this could scale up to a huge screen or down to a netbook I was struck by just how well it would work with media center… you’d never feel like you’d left the experience now but still be able to use the computer functions… my Dell ZinoHD is getting a copy for sure :)

      P.S. There’s definitely a lot more to come, for instance Julie mentioned a pen-keyboard…

      P.P.S. I agree it’s good for them to get a bit of a rough time but that can come from an unbias point of view… rather than that muppet Moss.

      • Mario Albertico

        Yep, I was thinking the same. And yes, I was curious as to why she called it a “pen-keyboard” (just watched the bit when she’s showing off the on-screen keyboard again, from the four icons that pop-up when pressing the keyboard button, there’s one with a pen that might be something like handwriting recognition found on Windows Vista, 7 today)…

        P.S. True…although I thought Kara was the one being tougher…almost to the point I found her sarcasm rather distasteful…

  • Manuel Costa (Portugal)

    As an user of Windows 7 Professional I am a little bit concerned about this version. I hope to have the option to choose between this version and the “normal” version. Otherwise I’ll be forced to change all the computers in my company to Mac or Linux.

    • Damaster – LiveSide.net

      You will have the option to use the “normal” version.

    • Chris

      You can use the classic UI.

      But if you were to change. Go Mac. No one uses Linux

  • Jaeldi

    I can’t believe they were complaining about the ‘old office’. The best answer would have been “Well you don’t want to have to buy ALL NEW APPS just because we updated the OS. Backwards compatibility is VERY important to customers” I’m looking at you Console Gaming Systems!!! (lol) “too consumery” are you kidding me? aye caramba. This reminds me of support complaints that started with “My Microsoft is broken” that ended up being just some feature in MS Word wasn’t preforming as expected. Maybe there’s been too much integration between Windows and Office if even people in the industry don’t make a logical separation between the two. ಠ_ಠ

  • http://twitter.com/jwk6 Jason Kohlhoff

    This is awesome!  I think this is exactly what Microsoft needs to do.

  • Anonymous

    test comment, ignore

  • Anonymous

    test

  • sokerstrikr15

    I Can’t Wait For This To Come Out!!!!!

  • http://twitter.com/reportered reportered

    I agree this new UI looks awesome., just the step change that Windows needs….can’t wait to have this on my laptop…already saving for a tablet too! lol

Theme
Codename I		 Powered by
WordPress		 Hosted by
SoftLayer		 Syndicated by
Feedburner		 Mobilized by
Carrington Mobile		 22 Queries
3.118 Seconds		 © 2006-2012 LiveSide.net
All rights reserved.