Go ahead, bring your Windows 8 gadgets to work, says Microsoft

Windows 8 running on small devices using chips from Qualcomm, Nvidia, and others is not just a consumer play, as Microsoft made clear in a post this week.

In a blog posted Thursday, "Managing 'BYO' PCs in the enterprise (including WOA)", Mircrosoft's Jeffrey Sutherland, a program manager lead in the company's Management Systems group, addresses the "drive towards consumerization of IT" and how consumer technology is "bleeding into business organizations." In short, employees are bringing their personal laptops, tablets, and smartphones to work rather than using the devices assigned to them by … Read more

Windows 8 RT to bring eclectic mix of PCs

Microsoft affirmed today that Windows running on power-efficient chips from ARM will yield smaller, lighter devices. Not unlike Intel's goal for ultrabooks.

As of today, Windows on ARM is officially called Windows RT, or Windows Runtime -- which essentially refers to the Metro part of Windows 8.

Main points of today's Microsoft Windows RT announcement:

Pre-installed only: "This single edition will only be available pre-installed on PCs and tablets powered by ARM processors and will help enable new thin and lightweight form factors with impressive battery life." Touch-optimized Office: "Windows RT will include touch-optimized desktop … Read more

That $399 budget iPad 2 has precious silicon inside

Think the new $399 iPad 2 is just a cheaper knockoff of the original? Think again. There's some premium silicon inside.

The $399 Wi-Fi iPad 2 -- the only new iPad 2 that Apple now sells -- uses a more advanced version of the dual-core Apple A5 series chip, according to chip review site Anandtech.

That more advanced A5 chip is built on a cutting-edge Samsung manufacturing process, Anandtech says. Hardly a trivial difference.

As a chip's geometries shrink -- going from 45-nanometer to 32-nanometer, for example -- a lot of things can happen. All of them good. … Read more

Nvidia Tegra 4 chip leak whets appetite for non-iOS tablets

A roadmap of Nvidia's next chip, the Tegra 4, could also be a blueprint for the internals of future Android and Windows tablets.

If VR-ZONE's (in this case, VR-ZONE's Chinese-language site) sources speak the truth, then we've got plenty of tablets packing quad-core A15 chips to look forward to.

What's an A15 you ask? That's the next chip design -- officially the Cortex A15 -- from tablet and smartphone chip design powerhouse ARM.

Think of it this way: Four A15s are faster than the four Nvidia Tegra 3 Cortex-A9s now found in the Asus … Read more

Android Ice Cream Sandwich gains, but Gingerbread dominates

Android 4.x "Ice Cream Sandwich" is making gains, though Gingerbread still takes the lion's share, according to a snapshot of data provided to Android developers.

Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) had about a 2.9 percent share and Honeycomb had more than a 3 percent share, according to Android Developers, which describes the data as "the relative number of active devices running a given version of the Android platform."

ICS started appearing in devices only toward the end of last year.

The Web site says the data can help developers "understand the landscape of … Read more

A quad-core Windows 8 laptop more ultra than an ultrabook?

Can a quad-core Windows 8 laptop be as thin as an iPad? That's the design Qualcomm is aiming for. But we've heard this story before.

The San Diego-based chip supplier anticipates superthin laptops running Windows 8 on top of its Snapdragon chips, according to a report in PC World.

It's certainly an enticing idea: Laptops lighter and thinner than even Intel-based ultrabooks -- an idea also put forward by Nvidia, which already supplies its well-received quad-core Tegra 3 processor to Asus for its Tranformer Prime tablet.

At a macro level, this is about ARM versus Intel on … Read more

Windows PCs to decline as Android, Apple devices rise

The venerable Windows-Intel PC will see a sharp decline by 2016 while devices running Android and Apple's iOS are on the rise, market researcher IDC said today.

There will be a "dramatic shift" between 2011 and 2016, with the "once-dominant" Windows-Intel (aka, x86) PCs dropping from a market-dominating 35.9 percent share in 2011 to 25.1 percent in 2016," IDC said.

Mobile devices like Android phones and tablets and Apple iPhones and iPads will step into the void and begin to dominate. Android devices (using ARM chips) will grow from 29.4 percent … Read more

Windows 8 will support Retina-class displays

If manufacturers follow suit, Windows 8 tablets and hybrids will sport displays that rival, or exceed, the Retina Display on Apple's newest iPad.

Writing in Microsoft's Building Windows 8 blog, David Washington, a senior program manager at the company, directly addressed the new iPad's screen and discussed upcoming tablets with dot-per-inch (DPI) densities of at least 135. "Much higher than many of us are used to," he wrote.

Key tablet-display related points from the blog post:

135 DPI and up: Many Windows 8 tablet PCs will have pixel densities of at least 135 DPI. Washington … Read more

Google Nexus tablet a 'done deal,' claims report

The latest scuttlebutt about the rumored Google tablet makes the case with a lot more certitude. In fact, an Android enthusiast site goes so far as to say it's a "done deal," citing sources.

Let's get right to what that site, Android and Me, is claiming. The Asus MeMo 370T (see photo above)--which appears to be the template for the Google tablet--has been "scrapped after Google contracted with Asus to produce their 'Nexus tablet,'" the report begins.

Android and Me continues. "Earlier reports said the device would retail for $199-$249, but … Read more