Microsoft unveils new Windows 8 after complaints

 
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26 June 2013 Last updated at 09:59 GMT Help

Microsoft has unveiled version 8.1 of its Windows operating system at its annual developers conference in San Francisco.
A 'start' button is returning to the desktop mode's taskbar - but will personal and business users be won over?

Google Now update brings new cards for TV shows and Google Offers

        

Google improves location-aware and voice-controlled features for Now

An update to Google Now is bringing two new types of cards, TV shows and Google Offers, to users starting today. For those who have an internet-connected TV on the same network as their mobile device, Google Now can now listen to the show you're watching and offer more information -- such as actor or show details -- right on your device. For Google Offers users, Google Now will show reminders for upcoming saved offers when you're near a store that you can use the offer at, which expands on Google's current location-aware shopping and research cards.
Additionally, the latest update also includes a new voice action to play music from Google Now. You can now say "Play [artist name]", and a prompt will pop up letting you select your preferred music app from the ones you have installed. The app will then open and begin playing from the artist you asked for.
The new TV show card is U.S.-only for the moment, but the other new features should be available for everyone. You can grab the latest updated Google Search (which is Google Now) app from the Play Store link above.

Motorola reveals new logo

It was just a matter of time before Motorola was going to rebrand itself after being acquired from Google.  Fret not, logo aficionados; the famous M badge still persists through the recent changes.

The brand new Motorola logo revelead recently, complete with Google tagline. / © motorola.com

New logo, different colors

As seen above, they’ve switched to a new all-lower-case font for “MOTOROLA”, getting away from a bolded and italicized font that has been used for a long time now. The “M” badge is still there, although with a colored ring circling around it and the tagline “a Google company” displayed prominently underneath.  The new logo fits in well with the rest of the Google product line and brings an air of simplicity to it.
The change comes after recent announcements in regards to their new Motorola X Phone and the news that it would be produced within the United States.  The last time Motorola changed their logo was after their split from Motorola Solutions from a monochrome black “M” badge to a bright red one, which is pictured below.

Old Motorola logo, complete with a very red "M" badge. / © motorola.com

What do you think about the new Motorola logo? Personally, I could do with the Google tagline on the bottom, but I find the rest relatively polished and simple.

New Windows 8 Devices at Samsung London Event: the ATIV Q is Awesome!

Samsung just announced 3 new devices that will join the ATIV family. The ATIV line from Samsung are the Windows based devices and at the reveal in London Samsung showed us two new laptops, A hybrid tablet running both Windows 8 and Android, a Windows 8 tablet and finally an all in one computer.

The ATIV One 5, Samsung's All in One Computer / © samsungmobile.com

Samsung ended up showing us 9 new devices at the London event today, some of which where Galaxy devices which you can read about here. There were a total of 4 Galaxy devices revealed at the event and a total of 5 Ativ devices.

ATIV Q

The first device to be shown to members of the audience was the Samsung Ativ Q. This device is a hybrid one running two operating systems in Windows 8 and Android 4.2.2. One really neat feature about this device is that it allows you to seamlessly switch between the Windows 8 OS and the Android Jelly Bean OS. The Ativ Q also has a screen resolution of 3200 x 1800 which is the highest screen resolution in the world at the moment. The device can be used as a normal tablet, as a laptop with a keyboard, and can be placed in a reading or viewing position. Files can be shared around the two operating systems and the battery life is also impressive at it comes in at about 9 hours.

ATIV Tab 3

Samsung's Ativ tab 3 looks a lot like the Samsung Galaxy tab but this device is of course running Windows 8 and it is the world's thinnest Windows 8 tablet at well. The 10 inch tablet has a resolution of 1366 x 768 and has 64 GB of onboard storage. The storage is also expandable as the device comes with a Micro SD slot. Other features include an HDMI out port, and also a good 2 GB of RAM. This device along with the Ativ Q also includes a stylus which can be used for things like drawings etc.

ATIV Book 9 Plus

This is the flagship Windows 8 laptop from Samsung. This high end device has a wonderful design, comes in at a thickness of 13.6mm and weighs in at just over 1.3 kg's. The device has the same screen resolution as the Ativ Q at 3200 x 1800 and the same size display at 13.3 inches. Other specs include 256 GB SSD, a micro HDMI port and also 2 USB 3.0 ports. Gorilla Glass is the material protecting the screen which also boasts touchscreen functionality.

ATIV Book 9 LITE

This is the cheaper version of the Ativ book 9 range of laptops. It comes in with a lot of the things that the Ativ Book 9 has but at a more affordable price. The screen resolution is no longer the 3200 x 1800 qHD but a more humble 1366 x 768 which is a noticeable drop when you view the two side by side. On the outside though the two look very similar.

ATIV One 5 Style

This device is a desktop PC running Windows 8, with the same look and feel as the Galaxy family of devices. The machine boasts a quad core AMD A6 processor and 4 GB of RAM. As far as storage is concerned it goes all the way up to 1 TB which means you will probably not run out of storage space for all your files. Moving on to connectivity, you have 3 USB 3.0 ports, 2 USB 2.0 ports, Bluetooth 4.0 and HMDI in and out.
It seems as if Samsung is looking to replicate the success of its Galaxy line with these Windows devices. Tell us what you think of Samsung's latest efforts by leaving a comment below.

Samsung's Galaxy S4 will soon be available in five new colors

To go along with the slew of new products Samsung is announcing today, the company also took a few moments to tout its flagship Galaxy S4 smartphone. Samsung also took a moment to introduce the phone in a number of new colors, much as it did last summer for the Galaxy S III. As shown on stage, the five new colors are blue, purple, red, brown, and pink — each with an appropriately goofy adjective added on for good measure. Samsung first announced that it would be bringing new colors out last month when it trumpeted Galaxy S4 sales of 10 million, but unfortunately it didn't say when or where these new colors would be available. If last year was any indication, we'd expect international territories to get them first, with different colors eventually trickling down to various US carriers a bit later.

Google Makes Google News In Germany Opt-In Only To Avoid Paying Fees Under New Copyright Law

Google News in Germany will soon change. Starting August 1, it will only index sources that have decided to explicitly opt-in to being shown on the search giant’s news-aggregation service. Google News remains an opt-out service in the other 60 countries and languages it currently operates in, but since Germany passed a new copyright law earlier this year that takes effect on August 1, the company is in danger of having to pay newspapers, blogs and other publishers for the right to show even short snippets of news.

Publishers will have to go into Google’s News tools page to agree to be indexed by Google News. Publishers who don’t do this will simply be removed from the index come August 1.

Many of Germany’s publishers had hoped to force Google to pay a licensing fee for their content, but today’s announcement does not even mention this. Instead, Google notes that it is saddened by the fact that it has to make this change. On its German blog, Google argues that Google News currently gets 6 billion visits per month and that, if anything, it’s providing a free service for publishers that brings them more traffic.

One of the main issues with the “Leistungsschutzrecht” (how’s that for a good German word?) — the ancillary copyright law that the German government passed after large protests earlier this year — is that it’s not clear when a “snippet” becomes a snippet. The law doesn’t feature a clear definition of how long a snippet actually is (140 characters? 160? 250?).

Google always argued that the new law was neither necessary nor useful and that it wouldn’t pay for links and snippets. A number of major German publishers have already said that they will opt-in to being featured in Google News, but there is a good chance that quite a few will decide that they don’t need the traffic.

Microsoft’s new Windows Phone ad tells Apple and Samsung fans to stop fighting

Microsoft has created what I consider a brilliant new Windows Phone ad that tells Apple and Samsung followers to stop arguing with each other all the time. It’s true that the Android vs. iOS battle has evolved nowadays into an Apple vs. Samsung battle. Microsoft says, “Don’t fight. Switch.” and just buy a Windows Phone handset instead.

The ad takes place at a wedding. The groom’s side of the wedding all own Galaxy phones and the bride’s side all have iPhones. When someone with a Galaxy phone takes a picture, an iPhone user on the other side makes a snarky comment about how big it is. They start going back and forth until everyone at the wedding is throwing fists. Two people who seem to be working at the wedding stand calmly together as they use their Nokia Lumia 920 phones.

It’s not very often you hear the terms “Microsoft” and “brilliant new advertisement” together in one sentence, but this Windows Phone ad is really just quite well done. It gives off a good impression that Windows Phone is superior while all the inferior little brats argue, so to speak. I’m reminded of the “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street” episode of the Twilight Zone when the humans destroy themselves with their own fighting and finger-pointing while the aliens end up getting to sit back and watch effortlessly.

But enough chit chat. You can watch the Windows Phone ad in its entirety right here.

YouTube Windows Phone 8 app updated, brings new pinning feature and Kids-corner support

Finally, the official Windows Phone 8 YouTube app receives a new major update that brings lots of much-needed improvements. Features such as the ability to pin videos, playlists, and channels; support for Kids-corner is also added to the list.

Speaking of the list, here is the rest of the new application features:

• Pin videos, playlists, channels, and even search queries to Start as Live Tiles for fast access.
• The tile flips to show either the latest video from your subscriptions or the most popular one.
• A filmstrip view of playlists.
• Background playback of video.
• You can share videos to popular social networks, and via email and text.
• Kids-corner enabled for parental control

Who out there is loving the new YouTube?

Nokia: new affordable phones key to building emerging market share

Manufacturer to expand its range outside of premium smartphones, claiming it has ‘reinvented’ the affordable mobile market with its latest releases

Nokia has said it will focus on broadening its portfolio with low- and mid-range devices as it aims to increase its market share in emerging markets, in particular in China.

The four devices Nokia launched at MWC were all aimed at the budget-conscious consumer, with RRPs of between €15 (£13) for the Nokia 105 and €249 (excluding tax – £215) for the Lumia 720.

The Finnish manufacturer also launched its most affordable Windows Phone 8 device to date, the Nokia Lumia 520, at MWC alongside the €65 (£56) Nokia 301.

Nokia CEO Stephen Elop claimed the company had “reinvented” the affordable mobile market with the releases.

Its strategy, he said, is centred on increasing sales volumes by hitting all price points. He added in future the company will first release a premium device that will be the basis of a range of cheaper models.

He also said Nokia will continue with the Asha brand for its lower-end phones, and is “completely focused” on Windows Phone as an OS for its higher-end devices.

Elop said: “Nokia and Microsoft have a unique opportunity to move enterprise users to a better platform. We are going to tackle the competition together.

“Clearly, one of the themes of today is to take innovation from higher price points and bring them down to lower price points.

“This is very important for countries like China. A product like the Nokia Lumia 520 on [operator] China Mobile is a compelling one – we hope that is something that will allows us to move forward and increase our share of the Chinese market.

“We believe we have to continue to rapidly innovate at the high end. We are completely focused on Windows Phone for the high end and the Asha range for lower. We will start with high end and move that technology down.”

He added the company is getting “bolder” as high-profile companies such as Coca-Cola switch to Nokia Lumia devices.

Mall of America, the largest US retailer, recently announced it was moving its employees from BlackBerry to Nokia Lumia devices.

New wireless, solar-powered 'bionic eye' gives sight to blind rats

Scientists have been utilizing a variety of different bionic eye and retinal implant technologies as a way to restore sight to blind people, and today a research group from Stanford University is releasing the details behind a successful test of a wireless, solar-powered implant. In the new study published in Nature, the researchers detailed a tiny new microchip that can be embedded in the retina and wirelessly communicate with a set of video eyeglasses. The implant then translates the images from the glasses into electrical signals that the neurons in the eye can understand as visual images. The chip was tested in the eyes of rats who suffered from macular degradation (a leading cause of blindness), and brain activity measured in the rats' visual centers showed that the new implant was successfully transmitting images.

According to Medical Daily, the new implant is actually an improvement of a similar piece of technology the team developed. For starters, the retinal implant previously had a physical connection to the video eyeglasses; the new wireless connection is a major improvement that should help reduce complications that cropped up with the old cable connection. The new chip can also be implanted in the sub-retinal layers of the eye, instead of on the surface of the retina — the creators of the implant say that this helps avoid unwanted signals and is actually a less complex surgery. Of course, the technology is only being tested on rats right now, but the team behind it found it to be a "promising approach to restoration of sight."

Lemon’s Mobile Wallet Gets More Useful With New Expense Reporting Service; Support For Transactions Is Next

Although you can’t ditch your leather-bound billfold yet, a startup called Lemon has been slowly building up a mobile wallet platform that’s encroaching on the traditional wallet’s territory, and even making it better in some cases. Today, it’s extending its feature set again with the addition of an expense reporting tool, which serves to augment its previously available receipt capture function.

Operating as a digital copy of your physical wallet, Lemon already helps you track credit card balances, access your saved cards on the go, cancel credit cards when your real wallet is lost or stolen, and save receipts by snapping a photo of them. But users have been demanding more, explains founder and CEO Wences Casares.

“The most active users of receipts were using them for their expense reports. And those users kept asking for more functionality,” he says. “They were doing a lot of inconvenient things to use it for receipts.”

Given that there are plenty of receipt trackers out there on the market today from services like QuickBooks, Expensify, Concur, and others, it’s somewhat surprising to find that users were turning to a consumer-facing tool to get the job done, especially when it required more manual effort.

Casares says that’s because, in many cases, expense tracking solutions (like Concur, e.g.) are sold to the enterprise, and then the company tells its employees this is what we have that you can use. But when users had more choice, they were opting for a simpler option: just snap a photo and be done with it, then deal with the headache of expense reporting later on.

Now Lemon can help with that latter part. Its new expense reporting application can accommodate photos of receipts and e-receipts which are forwarded to expenses@lemon.com for processing. When complete, receipts are saved in a PDF format for the user, and attached directly the expense report itself, which can also be output in CSV or XLS format for importing into other expense software.

Though Lemon has been designed for consumers, expense reporting pushes the product more towards business users, though not enterprise. With its centralized management dashboard, admins can group expense reports by individual, category or user-created tags, then approve and/or route approvals to others who process the reimbursements. The solution works well for smaller businesses or even individuals, who just need to track their expenses in a more organized manner.

The system is offered as a free trial within Lemon’s mobile app, updated today, and then the cost is $5/month per user going forward.

Casares says the company is now working to support deeper Quick Books integration, and will soon offer a refreshed mobile wallet user interface which allows users to group their cards into compartments – the way a “real” wallet works. Though he declined to provide download figures or user numbers, he says that Lemon is now capturing 1,000 new cards per hour.

Following the refresh, the next big move for Lemon will be to begin enabling transactions, using the data users’ have saved within their wallets already. Cesares says they’re considering many different avenues for this, but the plan is to start with e-commerce, not at point-of-sale. Guess you’ll have to hang on to your billfold for a bit longer, then.

Hands-On With Instagram’s New Video Feature

We’ve just made our way out of Facebook’s Headquarters in Menlo Park, where Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom took the stage to debut the app’s new (and not un-Vinelike) video functionality.

Kevin Systrom suggested on stage that they’ve been thinking about how to do video since day one — and if that’s the case, it shows. The new video functionality slips right into Instagram’s UI as if it were meant to be there.

As you scroll through your feed, videos are highlighted with a small play icon in the upper righthand corner. You can stop scrolling and hover over an item for 2 seconds and it’ll auto play, or you can tap it to begin playing it immediately. Even on the cellular connection I’m on right now, videos seem to start playing quickly, without a noticeable amount of time for buffering.

If you’re accustomed to Vine, the process of recording a video on Instagram is very, very similar: put your thumb down (in Instagram’s case, on a record button) to record, lift it to stop. Each time you do this, you create a new “segment” to your video, each of which can be deleted independently in the not-unlikely event that you mess up your video halfway through creating it.

Though clearly quite similar in concept, Instagram and Vine aren’t without their differences: Instagram’s max video length is over twice as long, at 15 seconds as opposed to Vine’s 6. The videos on Instagram don’t loop, which is interesting; while looping is something that may be a bit signature to Vine, I feel like it’s a bit limiting to not at least give the user the option. Oh, and of course, you’ve access to Instagram’s signature feature: filters.

Like with photos, filters must be applied after you shoot a video — you can’t see how a filter would look in a certain environment before filming. Once you’ve got your video shot, though, filters are applied in realtime on top of the video as your preview plays back.

One big catch: while you’ve always been able to import photos from your phone’s camera roll into Instagram, you can’t do that with videos — at least not in this first version. If you want a video in Instagram, you have to shoot it in Instagram. Kevin tells me that this is largely an interface challenge (how do you make it just as simple to edit an imported video?), but issomething that they’re considering changing in future releases.

Turning the page with a new Google Play Books app for Android

Google Play Books enables you to read more than 4 million books on the go, and it's available in the U.S., Canada, Australia, Germany, Spain, Italy, France, Korea and Japan. Today we’re bringing new features to the Books app to help you better explore your books and understand what you’re reading.

Places and dictionary 
School’s now in full swing and students are picking up the classics. Whether you're diving into Moby Dick or trying your hand at some Tolstoy, we want to make your reading experience as enjoyable and rewarding as possible. Starting today, when you come across an unfamiliar geographic location—a faraway city or distant mountain range—you can tap on the location to learn more about it. You’ll see an info card with a Google Map and the option to get more information by searching on Google or Wikipedia.

Explore locations using info cards in Turn Right at Machu Picchu: Rediscovering the Lost City One Step at a Time

Similarly when you come across an unfamiliar word (say, abligurition or jentacular), just tap it for a quick definition.

Translation
For those adventurous readers making their way through books in non-native languages, you can now easily translate words or phrases to and from a number of languages. Just select the text or word and use the button on the top action bar to indicate which language you’d like translate into.

Highlighting and notes
If you happen to page through any of the books on my shelf, you’ll likely find highlighted passages and illegibly scrawled notes in the margins. Starting today, our app lets you highlight text and easily take notes. And because all your books live in the cloud, highlights and notes sync on your tablet, phone and the web.

You will also notice a new sepia reading theme (in addition to the current day and night themes), 2D sliding page turn animation, and lots of stability improvements. Finally, you can now read Japanese books in a vertical, right-to-left layout—and flip pages from right to left.

We hope these features make reading more enjoyable—and productive.

New Google Now: the perfect travel companion for the holidays

Now Dasher! Now Dancer! Now, Prancer and Vixen! On, Comet! On, Cupid! On, Donner and Blitzen! For Santa’s holiday travel this season, Google Now is just the prescription.

As you head off this holiday season, the latest update to Google Now makes it even more useful for traveling. Before you even leave your house, Google Now will tell you what the weather will be like at your destination (just in time to make sure you remember to pack those mittens). At the airport, your boarding pass is automatically pulled up, helping you breeze through to the gate (launching shortly for United Airlines, with more to come). And once you've arrived at your destination, Google Now can help you uncover some great activities, by showing you events happening around you, suggesting websites for you to explore as you research things to do, or allowing you to learn more about specific pieces while you’re at a museum (using Google Goggles).

All of this builds on top of some of the other cards designed for travel, like the currency conversion, translation, and flight status cards -- hopefully taking a little bit of the stress out of holiday travel so you can focus on family and fun.

We're also making Voice Search even more powerful: you can find out the name of the song that’s playing (“What’s this song?”), quickly find product info (“Scan this barcode”) and post updates to Google+ simply by using just your voice.

These goodies are waiting for you in the updated Google Search app, available on Google Play for devices running Android 4.1, Jelly Bean, or higher.

Back to reality: Microsoft's new Xbox One policies retreat from the future

Last week at E3, in a private room inside Microsoft's massive, green booth, Marc Whitten spent most of our interview talking about the future. "As we think of the next five to ten years of innovation," he said, "we're going to be able to drive really great new experiences. I'm personally most proud of the Xbox 360, and how different the 360 is from what it was in 2005. And that's all about making really big platform bets and bets about the future of entertainment." Whitten would talk about the launch experience at times, but he was much more interested in finding ways to guide Xbox users to the brave new connected world of gaming and entertainment.

Which made today's abrupt about-face all the more surprising. Microsoft announced that the Xbox One will no longer check to see if you're online every 24 hours, and it won't impose any restrictions on disc-based games. The changes address two of the biggest criticisms with Microsoft's plans — points Sony rammed home during its own E3 press conference — and Whitten said it's all about listening to users. "What we've heard is that people love our games, love the entertainment experience," he said in an interview after today's announcement. "Frankly they love the vision of what Xbox is. But they've also told us very clearly that they want choice. They want the choice to use their games on physical discs just like they always have, and they want to be able to use their Xbox when they can't connect to the internet. And we listened."

The changes aren't completely terrible — today's move breathes life back into the used game market and, perhaps even more importantly, makes the One usable without a stable internet connection. But in reality, Microsoft may have listened a little too hard. Its policy changes are drastic, and they bring a couple of problematic consequences. If you buy a game on a disc, you'll always have to have the disc to play the game, and the Xbox's family sharing plan that would have allowed up to 10 people to share a game library is now pretty much defunct. Fast switching between games is also dead on arrival, unless you've downloaded massive digital titles to the console's hard drive. You'll still be able to access games you downloaded from any Xbox, of course, which Microsoft seems to hope means you'll download a lot more games. The sharing service could be similarly tied only to digital downloads, and why it's gone completely isn't exactly clear.

Whitten talked constantly about giving users "choices," but in doing so Microsoft has brought its futuristic vision crashing back to the present. The company so intent on moving its users into a world full of online single-player games and driveatars now offers gamers a way to use their One almost exactly like they used an Xbox 360. Whitten hopes the advantages are enough to drive people online, though. "We're still very excited about those features, and we think most people are still going to play in this digital, connected experience. They're going to play games like Titanfall and Forza that take unique advantage of the cloud to really change the experience."

Most gamers will still buy into Microsoft's vision, he said, and that vision hasn't changed a bit. "We believe most people will choose to be connected, and play online, because just what they can do is so powerful with the architecture of Xbox One."

One rigid, controversial requirement Microsoft's not changing its mind about? The always-on Kinect. "Kinect is a core part of our architecture," Whitten said, "and how we believe the experience can be transformed. When people get a chance to see how Kinect can transform gaming even with a gamepad in my hand… they love it. And we want to make sure there's a consistent experience that goes along with it, so that anywhere I am I can say 'Xbox TV' or 'Xbox Home' or 'Xbox go to Halo.' And that we believe is critical to the evolution of the gaming experience in the living room."

Only a week ago, Microsoft seemed to believe that an always-on, always-listening, always-connected expereience was also critical to the evolution of the gaming experience. But now, by offering buyers the option to game nearly the same way they did in 2005, it's turned a bold, next-gen console into something that feels all too familiar.

Sprint LTE reaches 110 markets with launches in Miami, New Orleans, Tampa, and more

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Sprint may be in the middle of a complicated set of acquisitions and mergers, but it's continuing to build out its LTE network. The company says that it has activated LTE service in 22 US cities today, including Miami, Tampa, New Orleans, and Raleigh, bringing its network footprint to 110 markets around the country. That compares to 278 LTE markets for AT&T and 497 for Verizon Wireless, which was the first to build the high-speed cellular network across the country. T-Mobile's nascent LTE network only covers seven cities. Today's announcement still leaves Sprint with major holes in its LTE coverage, however, with cities like New York, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and many more without service. Some users have seen LTE connectivity in these cities, but Sprint is testing its cell sites and service isn't widespread or reliable enough for an official launch. The company plans to have 200 million people covered with service by the end of the year.

Samsung Ativ Book 9 Plus: the new ultrabook champion has arrived

Samsung's dual-OS Ativ Q will no doubt dominate the headlines emanating from the company's Premiere 2013 event that just wrapped up, but for some of us the star of the show was another Windows device, the Ativ Book 9 Plus. This horribly disjointed name has been attached to a laptop the likes of which we've literally never seen before.

The 13.3-inch screen squeezes in an unprecedented 3200 x 1800 resolution, and what's dramatically more, Samsung promises it'll go for a full 12 hours of use. Compare that to Apple's newly refreshed MacBook Air, which can go for 13 hours but has to power a much tamer 1440 x 900 display. The Ativ Book 9 Plus also has a touchscreen, which the Apple machine lacks.

Most impressive about Samsung's new flagship laptop, however, is its build quality. Not since the current Air design was introduced by Apple in late 2010 have I felt this enamored and pleased with the construction of a new portable computer. The aluminum unibody exterior is perfectly rigid and robust, and the hinge opens up to a full 180 degrees. The display is well supported whatever angle you choose to position it at, and the single piece of glass covering it lends this machine a subtle elegance.

Whatever Intel and Microsoft may believe about hybrid tablet-laptop devices, there's just no getting away from the fact that the best Windows 8 machines are likely to be purely one or the other. The Ativ Book 9 Plus proves this point by being a perfectly streamlined expression of the ultrabook ideal. Without the physical compromises inherent in creating a convertible device, Samsung has perfected a hardware design that is every bit as delightful and robust as the MacBook Air. And let's not forget about Asus' Zenbook line or Acer's extremely competent Aspire S7. The world of laptops looks to be growing ever richer in desirable machines, with Samsung's star shining brightest tonight.

Windows 8.1 revealed in new Microsoft video

Microsoft is offering people a peek at Windows 8.1 in action courtesy of a new video.

Posted Wednesday on YouTube, and embedded into a Microsoft blog, the tour conducted by Jensen Harris, Microsoft's director of program management for Windows User Experience, shows off key enhancements to the Start screen, the All Apps screen, and the search tool.

The video kicks off with a glimpse of the new lock screen, which can now display a collage of photos gathered from your PC and your SkyDrive account. The tour then segues to the Start screen where you can now shrink or enlarge your tiles using a wider array of sizes.

Then it's on to the All Apps screen, where tiles can now be sorted by date installed, most used, or category, as well as by name. Tiles from the All Apps screen can easily be added to the Start screen via a touch of your finger, assuming you're using a touch-screen device.

Windows 8.1 will let you better customize the Start screen using new built-in images or the same wallpaper that appears on your desktop. That latter option is a smart move on Microsoft's part as it helps to unify the Start screen and desktop, at least in appearance.Moving and naming groups of apps on the Start screen is much easier in Windows 8.1, as Harris demonstrates. You can select multiple tiles at a time and then drag them into their own separate group. Windows then displays a text field where you can name the group.

The revamped search feature in Windows 8.1 ties together results from your PC as well as the Web so you no longer have to hunt for information in different places. The search pane now displays all results across categories, another time-saving feature.

Finally, Microsoft has improved the ability to run multiple apps side by side, as Harris shows. You can more easily open a new app next to an existing one and precisely adjust the size of each app's respective window.

Available free to Windows 8 users, Windows 8.1 is slated to launch later this year. But Microsoft will release a preview edition on June 26.

New magnetic film could make storage technology 10,000 times more efficient

Magnets, how do they work? Researchers at MIT have recently discovered that we might not have the firm grasp of magnetism once assumed. Past experiments have occasionally hinted at a bizarre phenomenon that caused thin magnetic films to flip polarity in the wrong direction — against the electron flow. Now the team from MIT has published a paper detailing the effect, and it could have a huge impact on storage technology.

Seeing a magnetic pole going in the wrong direction is a rare occurrence, so researchers have been understandably curious about the cause of this effect. Geoffrey Beach and his team at MIT have found that it’s not the magnetic material that’s responsible for the flipping pole, it’s the metal it is placed next to.

Beach used very thin films of ferromagnetic material to work out the specifics. When this film was placed on a slab of platinum and exposed to a current, it exhibited the backwards magnetic pole (or spin orientation). Move it over to a backing of tantalum, and the poles go in the correct direction again. Here is where the plot thickens: both platinum and tantalum are nonmagnetic, so how could they affect the magnetic properties of the film?

The mechanism relies on the way a spin orientation behaves in a very thin magnetic film. In most materials, the direction of pole changes is essentially random over time. With thin materials, all the poles are aligned. The current applied can push the magnetic domains with more or less force depending on the nonmagnetic material it is passing through. Platinum, for example, allows the current to bowl over the spin orientation of the magnetic film to the “wrong” side.

So how does this change storage technology? All magnetic storage media are based on the arrangement of magnetic domains. Positive and negative alignments in a magnetic material make up the ones and zeros that describe your favorite cat GIF, or that video you took on vacation. With this effect, small amounts of power can change the spin orientation of the film dramatically. Thus, it is incredibly high efficiency.

Beach and his team suspect that magnetic storage based on these films could be 10,000 times more energy efficient than traditional technology. Thin magnetic films could be used to provide dense, low-energy storage for both hard drives and solid state systems. This could mean dramatic power savings for mobile devices, which rely on NAND flash memory to store data.

This new class of magnetic material is not even a science-fiction proposition — it is completely compatible with present day manufacturing technology. Manipulation of magnetic domains on this scale was unthinkable even a few years ago, and the benefits could be enormous. Beach suggests thin magnetic films could find their way into consumer storage technology sooner than you think.

New PS4 and Steam Sidescroller Mercenary Kings Designed by Paul Robertson!

Tribute Games is working on a new retro 2d title, Mercenary Kings, for release on Sony’s PS4 and Valve’s Steam service. The game is a run and gun shooter that will feature 4 player co-op gameplay and a deep weapons crafting system. The character sprites and animation are being done by the great Paul Robertson, so it oozes pixel style.

Most folks first witnessed Paul Robertson’s pixel art genius when his Kings of Power 4 Billion Percent video went viral years ago (if you haven’t seen it, do yourself a favor and watch it now). This led to Paul working on the art for several games, most notably the Scott Pilgrim side scrolling brawler that came out in 2010. His work takes the 16 bit sprites of yesteryear and injects an irreverence, humor, and outright strangeness into them. He’s garnered quite the cult following over the years.

But Mercenary Kings is certainly not a piece of style over substance. The new indy title sports a weapons customization system that rivals many graphically intense, big budget 3D shooters as well as 4 player split screen co-op.

From the Playstation Blog announcement:

What really makes Mercenary Kings stand out is the depth of its crafting system. While you’re on missions, defeating enemies and completing objectives will reward you with loot. This loot can be used to craft new gun parts and combine them to fit your play style! Want to put a shotgun barrel on that sniper rifle receiver? Why not!? Each gun is split up in five (receiver, magazine, stock, sight and barrel) with a selection of ammo types. We have over 300 gun parts already in the game so the possibilities are endless.

Enough rambling about customization. The game really starts to shine when you play with friends. A lot of people ask us why we went with split screen over forcing everyone in one screen. With our mission system, we quickly realized we wanted to give players the freedom to split up, and tackle various objectives separately and then possibly meet back up to take on the bigger main objective. Since our levels aren’t linear and bosses don’t necessarily always appear at the same spot, it’s a good idea to split up to find where the boss appeared this time and meet back up once found and take him down together!

While “retro, indy, 2D sidescroller with a nifty art style” is in danger of becoming as tired a trope as “veiny necked dude in power suit kills stuff”, Mercenary Kings manages to do something new. It looks great and, more importantly, it looks like it’ll a blast to play.

Be on the look out for Mercenary Kings on the PS4 and Steam, and be sure to check out the trailer below!