Are you ready for Windows 8?

It's been five months since Microsoft released the Developer Preview of Windows 8, since that time Steven Sinofsky and his team have been working towards the next major milestone (the Consumer Preview), scheduled for February.

As we draw closer to the next officially released build, new information has started to leak out. Specifically Microsoft recently revealed a set of minimum requirements that hardware manufacturers must follow for their devices to receive the "Windows 8 Certified" stamp of approval. This information offers a sneak peak at what we can expect from a standard Windows 8 device, as well as helps us understand how older devices will perform.

The important thing to note is that these minimum requirements are only for Windows 8 Certification and any device that does not meet these requirements will still be able to run Windows 8, just without the shiny sticker from Microsoft.

Minimum System Specification:

Microsoft requires that Windows 8 tablet and convertible devices meet the following minimum specification:

• Storage: Minimum of 10GB free space (after the Operating System)
• System firmware: UEFI
• Networking: WLAN and Bluetooth 4.0 + LE (Low Energy)
• Graphics: Direct3D 10 device with WDDM 1.2 driver
• Resolution: 1366×768
• Camera: 720p
• Ambient Light Sensor: 1-30k lux capable with dynamic range of 5-60K
• Accelerometer: 3 axes w/ data rates >= 50Hz
• USB: USB 2.0 with at least one controller and exposed port
• Magnetometer
• Gyroscope
• Speakers

The interesting point here is the minimum resolution of 1366×768, this is higher then the current iPad and also higher then many of the Windows 7 tablets on the market today.

5-Point Digitizers

We all know that Windows 8 is being positioned as "touch first". Therefore it’s good to see that Microsoft are defining a minimum requirement of 5 touch points. However this still falls short of the 10 touch points on the iPad and other competing Android tablets.

Near Field Communication (NFC)

Microsoft requires that any Windows 8 device supporting NFC must have "touch marks". Essentially meaning the device must be clearly marked as to where you make contact with the NFC reader (which seems logical). Personally I’m excited at the prospect of NFC (so many possibilities) and hope we start to see this as a standard with all future mobile devices (including you Apple!).

Hardware Buttons

Just like Windows Phone, Microsoft define that all Windows 8 tablet and convertible devices have 5 hardware buttons. Specifically:

• Power
• Rotation Lock
• Windows Key (minimum of 10.5mm diameter)
• Volume Up
• Volume Down

If I am reading this correctly, it sounds like these buttons must be physical (not touch). This is probably a good thing for usability, but could have an impact on the aesthetics.

CTRL + ALT + DEL

All Windows 8 devices without a physical keyboard that are connected to a domain (think business) must support "Windows Key + Power" to trigger CTRL + ALT + DEL. I assume this is for more then just locking your device, which means unfortunately Microsoft are still expecting us to have to find our way to task manager.

No Reboot Driver Upgrade

Microsoft requires that Windows 8 supports "no-reboot upgrade" for graphics card drivers. This is actually a significant change, especially considering Microsoft is hoping to make Windows devices have a more seamless "iPad like" experience. Driver have always been a pain in Windows (for to technical) and graphics drivers are often the worse culprits. Let's hope this new requirements improves the experience.

Two Second Resume (ARM devices not included)

All Intel compatible Windows 8 devices must be able to resume in two seconds or less. I don’t see the exclusion of ARM as a technical limitation, but probably a lack of experience with the platform running Windows. Overall this is a great requirement to have and let's hope the hardware manufactures are able to achieve it.

As we get closer to the Consumer Preview (previously known as Windows 8 Beta), I will be sure to post more findings. So check back soon.

Apple's Education Media Event

Today Apple held a special media event in New York focused on education. At the event they announced three new products that embracing modern technology, with the aim to create an immersive learning environment that will hopefully improve student engagement.

It should be no surprise that the key to this revolution is the iPad. Apple have signed a deal with Pearson, McGraw Hill, and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, which together make 90% of the textbooks currently used in schools. This deal will see new interactive textbooks created specifically for the iPad and made available to everyone through the new iBooks 2.0 app.

These newly designed textbooks are graphical, interactive, and make use of features such as 3D imaging, embedded video, and multi-touch gestures. They also offer unique ways for students to take notes and prepare revision material. The textbooks will be made available through a new section of the iBooks store, where they can be published for free or sold for up to $14.99 (with Apple taking their normal 30% cut). Once published authors will be able to continually update the content (like the App Store), with any customer automatically receiving the updates for free.

As well as iBooks 2.0, Apple also announced iBooks Author for Mac OS X. This is a free application available on the Mac App Store that allows anyone to quickly and easily create a textbook for iOS. This includes full multi-touch control, as well as the ability to add HTML widgets, interactive photo galleries, movies, Keynote presentations, 3D objects, and more. The aim is to provide a simplified creation process, therefore allowing the teacher to focus on the content, while the application ensures the output is both beautiful and compatible.

The final announcement was related to Apple's iTunes U service. iTunes U has been available through the iTunes Store for some time, with over 1000 universities publishing audio and video lectures for free. This has always been a great service that I have used many times (specifically the Stanford iOS lectures). Today Apple released a new iTunes U app that expands the learning possibilities beyond just audio and video lectures, to a full-fledged learning environment. The app allows you to instantly watch videos, read books, and view all your course notes in one central location, making the impressive iTunes U library available to all, even when on the go. By consolidating the content and making it more accessible, Apple hopes that schools will be able to adopt iTunes U as part of their curriculum (as well as drive iPad sales).

Finally, Apple have released a short promotion video showing off each of the new products and how they can be used together to enhance the learning experience. Although the marketing video has been sprinkled with "Apple Magic", I believe the points are valid and the potential for the iPad to be used as a learning aid is both real and exciting. I for one would have loved to have had access to a device like the iPad, instead of an out of date, uninspiring textbook.

iBooks 2.0, iBooks Author and iTunes U are all available for free from today.

CES 2012

Another year, another Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. This year we saw new OLED TV's, Ultrabooks and Windows tablets. Also Microsoft gave their final (slightly odd) keynote presentation, where they (like normal) reviewed the previous years momentum and outlined the "exciting" year ahead.

Being a one man blog it is impossible for me to highlight all the amazing announcements at CES, however thankfully the guys over at The Verge have us covered. I suggest you check out their CES Hub, which includes all the latest news, exclusive interviews and videos from the show floor.

It looks like it was a great event, maybe one day I'll have the opportunity to join in person!

The Perfect Mac Setup

Did you get a new Mac from Christmas? Or is the new year just the perfect excuse for a fresh start? Either way, I thought i would share my three step process to setting up a new Mac.

Mac OS X Lion

Firstly, if you are not already running the latest version of Mac OS X, upgrade now!

Mac OS X Lion has now been out for over six months and during that time has received two major updates (v10.7.2), which has squashed the majority of the early bugs. Don't get me wrong, Lion is not perfect, but it combines powerful features, with unrivaled performance and reliability, making it the best version of Mac OS X ever made (if not the best operating system ever made). Therefore in my opinion Lion is an obvious upgrade for all users with a compatible Mac (Intel Core 2 Duo and above).

The other great thing about Lion is that if you are already running Mac OS X Snow Leopard the upgrade process is cheap and simple, costing just £25 from the Mac App Store. If you are running an older version of Mac OS X that does not support the Mac App Store then you can grab a full copy of Lion on USB from the Apple Store for £55.

Unlike Windows, Mac OS X is great straight out of the box, therefore there is little need to make any major changes. However I personally recommend the following:

• "Disable Automatic Login" from "System Preferences > Security & Privacy" to have your Mac require a password on start-up (especially important if you have a notebook).

• If you plan to use your Mac for work or other "sensitive" documents I recommend enabling full system encryption (known as FileVault). With Mac OS X Lion FileVault can be easily enabled from "System Preferences > Security & Privacy" and has little to no performance impact.

• Finally, as I like a minimal desktop and am a big user of quick launchers (we'll get to Alfred), I like to enable "Minimize windows into application icon" for a cleaner Dock and "Automatically hide and show the Dock". Both of these options can be found in "System Preferences > Dock". 

Once complete (and you have added your own desktop background) you should have a beautiful, clean operating system, ready for anything (see mine below).

 

Mac OS X Lion Enhancements

Now we have the basics setup, let's take a look at a couple of my favourites OS enhancements:

Dropbox - With Lion, Apple introduced iCloud integration for synchronising your data between Apple devices. However currently iCloud has a number of frustrating limitations, therefore I still prefer to use Dropbox.

Dropbox is natively available for just about every platform and seamlessly synchronies all of your personal files. It works great with Mac OS X and is one of those applications that you download (for free) and forget about.

Alfred - If I was only allowed one OS enhancement it would have to be Alfred! I like to keep my Mac setup simple and minimal. Therefore instead of having thousands of icons scattered across the operating system I access all of my files and applications through Alfred, the worlds best quick launcher.

I simply click "Option + Space" and start typing. Alfred allows me to instantly access applications, folders, files, web sites, media and even system commands. I rarely even have to open the Finder or the Dock!

Moom - The next OS enhancement changes the usability of the "zoom button" (green orb) that sits in the top left corner of every window. Without Moom the zoom button is unpredictable and in my opinion basically useless. Moom changes that, by giving you complete control over its action.

Once Moom has been installed it seamlessly displays a pop-up each time you hover over the zoom button. From here you can customise the options. For example, I have it set so I can instantly resize any window to 1280x800, move a window to a different display or snap a window to one side. This is such a basic feature, but incredibly useful in day to day use.

BetterZip - The final OS enhancement is a simple application called BetterZip. As you can probably tell from its name, BetterZip is an archiving application for compressing and decompressing files. Although the Finder does a pretty good job with standard ZIP files, more exotic compression formats are become increasing popular (such as RAR, 7z, etc). This is where BetterZip is a must have application and although there are free alternatives (The Unarchiver) I personally find BetterZip to be faster and more reliable (therefore worth the small asking price).

OS X Lion Software Picks

So now Mac OS X Lion should be near perfect! But what about other applications? Well I have listed a few of my "must have" picks below:

Google Chrome - Firefox is good, Safari is good, Chrome is better. It's as simple as that!

Microsoft Office 2011 - Apple fanboys are quick to dismiss Microsoft Office, however when 90% of the world uses Windows, this is a must have suite (weather we like it or not). The latest version of Office comes with all the normal applications (Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook) and in my experience is the only way to guarantee document compatibility between a Mac and Windows PC.

Evernote - There are plenty of note taking applications available for the Mac and I am a big fan of Notational Velocity, however as I jump between different platforms a lot, it is useful to have an application like Evernote that you know will be well supported and offer a broad range of powerful note taking features.

BBEdit - Every computer needs a great text editor. Weather it's a simple note, draft document or web development, a text editor is a must have application and in my opinion BBEdit is the best in the world (on any platform). It is extremely powerful, but at the same time fast and simple to use.

Pixelmator - My final software pick is Pixelmator, an excellent image editor only for the Mac. Adobe Photoshop is extremely powerful, but for me (like most people) it's overkill and the 1001 features simply slow me down. This is where Pixelmator is the perfect, it has many of the power features of Photoshop (at least the ones you are most likely to use), but retains a simple user interface that is fast and easy to navigate. It you only ever need to make minor touch-ups, crop, resize or add a basic filter to an image then I am confident that Pixelmator will be your perfect companion. 

Although this list is a great start, I recommend you check out my Top Mac Applications section, which as the title implies is an ever growing list of the best applications for the Mac. I do my best to keep it up to date, so if you think of anything I have missed, please feel free to drop me a comment.

2012 Technology Predictions

Each year I write a quick article summarising what consumer technology I hope to see released in the coming year. I previously stated that 2011 would be "the year of the tablet" and although we saw a lot of devices released I think it's fair to say that the iPad still ruled supreme. I expect this trend to continue into 2012, with tougher competition coming from Samsung and Amazon, while devices such as the BlackBerry PlayBook will likely fade into the background.

Alongside the tablet, I think the major theme for 2012 will be TV (home entertainment) and media distribution. We are already starting to hear rumours that Apple are working on a TV and I expect to see cloud services such as iTunes Match and Google Music expand, with the inclusion of streaming for TV series and movies. This will be a very interesting battle to watch, as Apple, Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Sony all fight for the right to own your living room. 

With that said, there are also a couple of key products (yes, I'm an Apple fanboy) that I'm personally looking forward to, specifically:

Apple MacBook Pro / Air

Last year we saw the MacBook Air take the world by storm. So much so that the PC industry created a new category "the ultrabook" in an attempt to keep up. I fully expect to see this trend continue into 2012, with the MacBook Pro receiving an "Air" inspired redesign. For example, I believe we will see an updated unibody redesign, with the removal of the optical drive and introduction of sold state storage (replacing the existing 2.5" mechanical hard drive). This combined with the new Intel "Ivy Bridge" architecture and dedicated graphics from NVIDIA or AMD will result in a very powerful combination. Finally, I think there is an outside chance that Apple will introduce a Retina Display for the Mac, which would essentially be an ultra-high resolution panel, potentially moving the 15" MacBook Pro from a standard resolution of 1440x900 to an impressive 2880x1800. This upgrade could be a revolution for image quality and signify a major reason why you would want to buy a Mac over a PC. To help backup this claim, we have already seen hints of this configuration in Mac OS X Lion, with the hidden "HiDPI" mode.

Regarding the MacBook Air, I think it's safe to say that it will also get upgraded to the Intel "Ivy-Bridge" architecture, which should provide significant graphics improvements (up to 60% increase) as well as enable multi-monitor support. I think there is also an outside chance that the MacBook Air will also receive Retina Display, however this may not be possible if Apple want to retain the current price point, which is important as the MacBook Air is now the default Mac notebook. 

• Predicted Release Date - MacBook Pro - March / April 2012
• Predicted Release Date - MacBook Air - April / May 2012

Apple iPad 3

I expect to see an iPad 3 released in Q1 2012. I believe it will bring a faster quad core processor (the Apple A6) as well as more memory and better cameras. However the main feature will be a significant update to the display, resulting in a 2048x1536 resolution, which will be simply breathtaking. This upgrade will result in near print quality sharpness for text (think iPhone 4) and eye-popping quality for video and pictures (full HD+). I expect the iPad 3 to retain its current form factor (9.7-inch) and price point £399 to £559.

If this specification turns out to be true, then I predict the iPad 3 will be the must have device of 2012.

• Predicted Release Date - iPad 3 - February 2012

Apple iPhone 5 and iOS 6.0

Although there is a chance that we will see an iPhone 5 in June / July, I think it is more likely going to arrive in September alongside the official release of iOS 6.0. The interesting thing here is that I believe we have already seen the iPhone 5 prototype (image shown below).

During the build up to the iPhone 4S launch there were a huge number of rumours about a leaked device with a 4-inch display and tapered unibody design. These rumours were so strong that I have to believe this was in fact a leaked prototype. Now this does not mean Apple will not significantly change the device over the next few months, however I for one really like the design and would be more then happy if this actually became the final product.

Regarding the shift to a 4-inch display, I think this will happen, due to the increasing pressure from large display Android devices (like the Samsung Galaxy Nexus). However, any change in display size could have an impact on the way applications work (requiring a re-design), therefore it will be important that Apple handle the change carefully with developers. This could mean that the iPhone 5 is announced, several months before it is released (maybe in July).

• Predicted Release Date - iOS 6.0 Beta - June / July 2012
• Predicted Release Date - iPhone 5 - September 2012 

Microsoft Windows 8

That's right, a non-Apple product! I would normally be writing about the latest version of Mac OS X, however things are currently very quiet on this front. However Microsoft have clearly defined their intentions with Windows 8 and I expect to see the first beta in early 2012 (February) with the release candidate coming later in the year.

The reason I am excited about Windows 8 is that Microsoft are taking a risk, as for the first time since Windows 95, they are re-inventing the user interface (check out my impressions of the Developer Preview).

This new Windows Phone inspired (Metro Style) user interface is a radical departure from the traditional Windows desktop and brings with it a new application framework, Windows App Store and "touch first" approach. Although the traditional desktop is still available, Microsoft have been clear that the new Metro Style user interface is what they expect consumers (not businesses) to be using going forward.

For now the jury is still out as to whether this ambitious strategy will pay off, however I have my concerns. If it fails, this could be a major disaster for Microsoft (specifically CEO Steve Ballmer) and the future of Windows in general.

• Predicted Release Date - Windows 8 Beta - February 2012
• Predicted Release Date - Windows 8 Release Candidate - Late 2012