The next big version of Windows got a lacklustre reception when it first landed on a tablet. It looked and worked great, yeah, but was knocked for a little clunkiness. Now, it’s running on superfast phone guts — and it will be great.
We stopped by Nvidia’s CES fortress, where a prototype tablet was running Windows 8 on the blazing Tegra 3 mobile processor. But this ARM processor is way more than mobile — as you can see here, it’s capable of running a full desktop operating system (and HD video!) smoothly. But more importantly, because it’s using a majorly efficient brain, a tablet like this — meant to represent a standard, generic model — will get killer battery life (at least as much as a comparable Android slate). It’ll run cool. It’ll run without that much maligned fan. And it’ll run fast.
This is the future of computing, and although it’s stuck behind a glass case for the moment, it’s starting to feel very real.
Commander Sheppard
Wednesday, January 11, 2012 at 12:07 PMIts a confusing, and busy as a xbox 360 interface! NICE TRY, but no thanks!
Salmonpie
Wednesday, January 11, 2012 at 12:27 PMI think Micorsofts plan is the convergence of all of their operating systems
MotorMouth
Wednesday, January 11, 2012 at 12:34 PMSo what other GUI works better, do you think? What you see in this photo will replace the Start menu and compared to it’s endless lists of stuff, I think it is awesome. It is also much better than iOS and Android’s rows and rows of dead app icons, or a desktop full of them, and much better than OS X’s dock. It is very customisable and Live Tiles make it really useful. e.g. If you have an icon for a weather app, it will show you the current temp and the day’s forecast without you having to actually launch the app. It is a bit like the floating gadgets you get in Win7, except much cleaner and way cooler.
wsDK_II
Wednesday, January 11, 2012 at 1:36 PM^^ This
James Ray Cox
Wednesday, January 11, 2012 at 3:09 PMAndroid uses widgets to do the same thing, if you have an android device and are just using the homescreens to house ‘rows of dead app icons’ then you are doing it wrong.
MotorMouth
Wednesday, January 11, 2012 at 3:17 PMSo what? No-one was suggesting it was some exclusive feature, I was just pointing out that it looks this way for a reason.
MDolley
Wednesday, January 11, 2012 at 12:46 PMBut you haven’t customised it. You haven’t placed the programs you use front and centre, you haven’t got live tiles showing your upcoming appointments and latest tweets.
Unlike the Xbox, Metro on Windows 8 is a completely different experience when you give it a little love.
TSH
Wednesday, January 11, 2012 at 12:14 PM<3 Win8. Still prefer the Lenovo ultratablet though… :–P
matt
Wednesday, January 11, 2012 at 12:29 PMI looking forward to it but this video doesn’t show much. It can play movies? Thats not really surprising is it?
Commander Sheppard
Wednesday, January 11, 2012 at 1:42 PMand why isn’t the xbox customisable? its stupid! give me iOS any day!
krys
Wednesday, January 11, 2012 at 7:04 PMYou want a customisable OS yet you refer to iOS
where the only thing you can do is change some icons around and the wallpaper
S0ULphIRE
Thursday, January 12, 2012 at 6:37 AMStereotypes, what’s that one about Apple users again? :p
Normandy
Thursday, January 12, 2012 at 11:11 AMSo how do I move my icons around on the Xbox, how do I customise it’s sounds… Oh that’s right you can’t. I can in iOS ! Another person who doesn’t use iOS yet professes to know all about it… Sigh!
Lachlan
Thursday, January 12, 2012 at 11:30 AMChanging sounds and moving icons is not customising an Operating System. I have an iPhone and I love it. But I still agree with the rest of these people.
Another person who owns a few Apple products and can’t see the value of a competitive market… sigh!
EdC
Thursday, January 12, 2012 at 12:50 AMI don’t understand how any tech. publication can actually think that a fixed, unflexible interface is better than using widgets to do exactly the same thing but in a way the user wants it to work. I get how fans of a particular OS, Microsoft employees or people who just aren’t capable of understanding how to drop a widget on the home screen might like this but a tech. blog?
Ash
Thursday, January 12, 2012 at 11:02 AMWho the hell is still recording in 4:3 these days? Come on, that video should have been at least widescreen 720p in this day and age.
Normandy
Thursday, January 12, 2012 at 11:13 AMSomeone at reckons this is great os that’s who ! Fail!!!!
George
Thursday, January 12, 2012 at 2:50 PMLooks ugly and outdated, big chunky icons taking up screen space, reducing what can be displayed on a single screen.