Windows 8 first look -- and first touch

We just got a chance to play with the Consumer Preview of Windows 8, and so far, it's living up to its promise as a touch-friendly "reimagining" of Windows. Don't believe us? Take a look for yourself. Today, Microsoft is rolling out the first beta for non-developers.


But then I realized that it's not a layer of touch interface -- the Metro screen is the interface. The old-style Windows OS, which you can access anytime by launching certain apps or tapping the "Desktop" tile, is really just a legacy protector. The old Windows environment lets people run older Windows software they may rely on, and grants die-hard Windows nerds the administrative power to do the system tweaking that they are used to.Think of an operating system that is equal parts Windows Phone, iPad and traditional desktop Windows. If your head spins, you're not alone. When I first heard about the concept behind Windows 8 -- a full-blown Windows OS with a layer of touchy-feely Metro tile interface on top -- I had doubts. 

As you can see in the above video, most of the apps and actions you will engage in will take place in the Metro interface, especially if you are running Windows 8 on a tablet. That's where the interface comes alive, and that's what will spark the imagination of developers who work to build fun, new apps in time for the fall launch of actual Windows 8 products.

The challenges are great: Microsoft has to convince the world that the old stretchable-window interface is not where it's at. They also have to develop a tablet experience that is not just a full version of Windows, but can promise the long battery life and responsiveness that Apple delivers in an iPad. That's hard to do. 

As we monitor developments on both of those fronts, however, we can at least rest assured that, at this point, Windows 8 holds the kind of promise of progress not seen in a Windows operating system since the launch of XP. 

Apple expected to unveil new iPad

The tech tea leaves have been voraciously read. Now we're about to find out if all those rumors about the iPad 3 are true.

Apple (AAPL) on Tuesday sent out invitations to a "Special Event'' on March 7. In its first major launch since the death last fall of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, the company's expected to unveil the third generation of its hugely popular tablet at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco.

If the consensus predictions of analysts and bloggers are accurate, the new iPad will have a higher-resolution screen, a better camera, 4G LTE wireless capability, a pumped-up processor and a design similar to but a tad thicker than the iPad 2.

"It's arguably one of the world's worst-kept secrets,'' Sterne Agee analyst Shaw Wu said of the new iPad 3. Wu and his colleagues, along with anyone else with even a passing interest in Apple products, have been scouring the blogosphere, dissecting supply-chain movements and poring over online photographs of alleged components of the new tablet. And many of them expect the third iPad to be a show-stopper.

"It'll likely be another 10-inch screen and still have a home button, but it'll have this higher-resolution display, probably be faster, and have a better camera,'' said Andrew Murphy, a research analyst with Piper Jaffray. "We think the new iPad will be priced the same as the iPad 2, starting at $499. And while on the outside it'll look similar to its predecessor, we think that once you turn it on and use it, it will have a lot of the wow factor that people are looking for.''

Much of that wow will literally be in the eye of the person holding the iPad: It's called Retina Display, and this same double-strength dose of pixels that iPhone users currently enjoy could bring astonishing new clarity to the new iPad's screen. Steve Jobs claimed that Apple's "Retina Display'' screen served up an abundance of pixels that when viewed from 12 inches away constitute the maximum amount of detail that the human retina can perceive, while others dispute that.

Tea-leaf-reading fanboys found plenty of tantalizing hints as they studied Apple's e-mail invitation to the event, which featured a picture of an iPad with what looks like a high-resolution screen and the tag line "We have something you really have to see."

In addition to more screen clarity, the new iPad is widely expected to feature 4G LTE, an updated wireless standard that will allow users to download data much faster than they could on previous models of the Apple tablet. Press reports earlier this month, quoting people familiar with the matter, said Verizon and AT&T would sell a version of the coming iPad that runs on these newest fourth-generation wireless networks.

In the past year, other tablet makers, including Samsung and Amazon, have released tablets far more affordable than the iPad in an attempt to catch up with Apple. But analyst Brian Marshall with ISI Group, who's spending this week at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona sampling the latest offerings, said the iPad 3 will only help Apple get out further ahead of its rivals.

"I've been looking at all the new tablets out there,'' he said by telephone from Spain Tuesday morning, "and while there are some extremely impressive Android-based devices, I don't think any of them have any real advantages over Apple. Their lead is already solidified. The iPad 3 will simply extend it even more.''

A new and more powerful iPad could expand the burgeoning universe of American adults who regularly use tablets to access their news and entertainment, said news industry analyst Ken Doctor, author of "Newsonomics: Twelve New Trends That Will Shape the News You Get.''

The new iPad, as well as the overall growth in the use of tablets for reading "is changing the business strategies of publishers, media outlets and other content providers in a huge way,'' he said. "Within two years, the tablet will evolve from simply a popular gadget and become a device for the masses to consume entertainment, news and information.''

Nokia shows a game-changer: 41-megapixel smartphone

BARCELONA, Spain –  Is it a smartphone with a camera or a camera with a phone?

Struggling cell phone maker Nokia has unveiled two new handsets that it hopes will revive its fortunes at the start of the world's largest mobile phone trade show on Monday -- including one with an eye-popping 41-megapixel camera.

Yes, you read that right. 

Chief executive Stephen Elop told reporters at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona that the new phones -- a low-price $250 smartphone that runs the Windows Phone operating system and the PureView 808 which sports the staggeringly high-resolution 41-megapixel camera -- demonstrates "the actions necessary to improve the fortunes of Nokia."

"With great products for consumers, I think the rest will fall into place," Elop said.

The PureView is also notable for the software powering it, Symbian -- which PCMag.com smartphone analyst Sascha Segan described as "the awkward, decade-old OS that Nokia has said it's phasing out in favor of Windows Phone."

Segan, reporting from the conference in Spain, noted that U.S. users were unlikely to get a chance to use the amazing camera, where the unpopularity of the Symbian OS would hamper the phone's success -- 41-megapixel camera or no.

Neil Mawston, a London-based analysts for Strategy Analytics, agreed that Nokia's new camera phone is impressive -- but that markets were expecting more.

"Technologically it is 'wow' but they have integrated it into a Symbian phone which is viewed as, rightly or wrongly, yesterday's technology, whereas I think there was some expectation that it might be in a Windows phone -- which is tomorrow's technology," Mawston said.

Nokia has lost its once-dominant position in the global cell phone market, with handsets running on Google's Android software and iPhones enjoying booming popularity.

The Finnish company is attempting a comeback with smartphones using Microsoft's Windows software in what Elop has called a "war of ecosystems."

"We will accelerate our global reach with new mobile devices and services," Elop said.

Malik Saadi, an analyst at the London-based Informa Telecoms & Media, said the introduction of Nokia's new Lumia 610 smartphone means the company is "now one step closer to bringing its [Windows Phone 7] to the entry-level smartphone segment" and "clearly shows strong dedication" by Nokia to its Windows strategy and smartphones for the non-U.S. market.

Nokia launched its new Windows Phone 7 in October, eight months after Elop announced a partnership with Microsoft, in a major strategy shift for the firm. Nokia said it would gradually replace the old Symbian platform used in its smartphones with the Windows operating system.

The new phones were introduced less than three weeks after Nokia announced plans to stop assembling cellphones in Europe by the year-end as it shifts production to Asia and to cut another 4,000 jobs -- its latest attempts to cushion itself from stiff competition in the smartphone sector. The job cuts follow nearly 10,000 layoffs announced last year.

Once the bellwether of the industry, Nokia has lost its dominant position in the global mobile phone market, with Android phones and iPhones overtaking it in the growing smartphone segment. It's also been squeezed in the low-end by Asian manufacturers making cheaper phones, such as ZTE.

Nokia became the leading handset maker in 1998 and reached 40 per cent market share in 2008, but the company has gradually lost share since then -- falling to below 30 per cent last year.

Analysts said the new smartphone could attract users because of its low price but investors sent Nokia shares down more than 5 percent to €4.10 ($5.50) in afternoon trading in Helsinki, erasing a big boost it gained on Friday in anticipation of new announcements at the trade show.

Hands On With the HTC One X, S, and V

BARCELONA—HTC is simplifying. The smartphone company last month announced a plan to radically cut down the number of models it releases, and today at Mobile World Congress it's rolling out its three major Android phones for 2012: the HTC One S, X and V. I spent some quality time with them and came away impressed, but powerful partners could still kill HTC's branding revolution.

First, about S, X, and V: They're supposed to be the HTC One S, X and V everywhere in the world. No matter what carrier you buy them on, you're supposed to be able to buy an HTC One S, X or V. Are you starting to see the problem? If you haven't figured it out yet, I'll get to that later. First, the phones.

The HTC One X, pictured at the left, coming to AT&T, is the big one. This is a monster with a 4.7-inch screen; I think it's a hand-buster, but I hate those super-huge phones. It's well-designed for something with gigantism, though. Its standout feature is the 1280-by-720 Super LCD 2 screen, which is almost entirely non-reflective, looks great even outdoors and seems to bring the image right to the front, with no glass layer visible between you and the screen. It really pops. The white plastic body is solid and clearly made from the highest quality materials, with a big silver bullseye on the back for the camera.

The One X runs Android 4.0 with HTC's Sense, a software overlay that I've always liked but that some folks now criticize as unnecessary. It's certainly lighter on the land than it has been on previous versions of Android, not altering the base UI too much and not heavily altering the built-in PIM apps. HTC's attractive widgets, including its clock widget, are still available, and some UI elements are improved—for instance, multitasking now involves flipping through a Cover Flow-like set of screenshots.

HTC has a new image-processing chip which works wonders on the One X's camera: this thing is fast. The company told me it autofocuses in 0.2 seconds and goes shot-to-shot in 0.7. I took a bunch of pictures indoors and out and the f/2.0, 8-megapixel shooter was very fast, although not infalliable; I got one blurry photo taken before the autofocus locked in. HDR mode was a special treat, much, much faster than I've seen on other phones like HTC's Amaze 4G. With HDR on, I could take a photo with a bright background, have it balance out the foreground and background, and not have to wait several seconds for it to assemble. Another neat trick: you can shoot pictures in the middle of capturing a 1080p HD video without missing a beat. The phone has a 1.3-megapixel front camera, too.

Another new feature here: an entirely proprietary Wi-Fi display system called "Media Link HD" which works with a dongle HTC will sell for an as-yet-unknown price. Plug the dongle into your TV, swipe three fingers up on your One X screen, and the TV will mirror your phone wirelessly, including games and videos.

The One X Comes with Beats Audio, and Beats headphones too. And while the global version of the One X will be a quad-core phone with Nvidia's Tegra 3 processor running at 1.5GHz on board, AT&T's LTE version uses a Qualcomm S4 instead. I benchmarked the dual-core, 1.5GHz S4 as faster than a 1.2GHz Tegra, so it'll compete. The phone also has 32GB of storage on board and an 1800mAh battery, both sealed in and non-expandable.

That's a lot to process, isn't it? The HTC One X is a flagship statement from a company that clearly wants to take the momentum back from Samsung as the premiere provider of Android phones. It's huge, elegant, and stuffed full of new technologies and software ideas designed to make things easier. It's coming out on AT&T within the next few months, and it'll probably cost $299 with contract—that's my guess, not HTC's word.

T-Mobile's HTC One S, And The One With The Chin
HTC's One S, pictured at the right, is the middle child, and it's actually my favorite. This one is coming to T-Mobile. The One S is a smaller phone, about the width of an HTC Sensation but a little taller—in other words, totally usable in one hand. I can't believe I just described a phone with a 4.3-inch screen as "smaller," but that's what these 4.7-inch mega-phones do to you. The One S has a very attractive 4.3-inch, 960-by-540 Super AMOLED screen. It brings very saturated colors and deep blacks, but the pentile subpixel arrangement very slightly stipples some areas in a way that annoys people with extremely sharp eyes. Others won't notice.

The One S is a super-slim phone at 7.9mm, with a cool gray aluminum body. It'll use Qualcomm's dual-core S4 processor, and the T-Mobile model will run on the carrier's HSPA+ 42 network. It has the same rear camera as the One X, with a VGA front camera. It has 16GB of memory, and there's still no memory slot; like the One X, this is a unibody design. Ice Cream Sandwich is here just like on the other two phones, as well as Beats Audio. Beats headphones will probably be included, as will Media Link HD.

Held in the hand, this phone is pure elegance. I like how the Sense UI widgets give a little more humanity to Android's cold interface. The phone feels fast, and the body materials are top-notch. Compared with the One S, Samsung's Galaxy S II on T-Mobile is big and bulky, and probably no more capable.

So what of the HTC One V? It's the one with the chin. This design element is going to generate some strong opinions: the V has a big ol' chin jutting down below its 3.7-inch screen, just like the old HTC Legend did. The One V is HTC's affordable device, coming to regional carriers like MetroPCS around the end of the second quarter. Yep, it still has Ice Cream Sandwich.

The specs here aren't stunning, but the body is well built and the whole thing looks elegant – as long as you're okay with that chin. The One V has a 3.7-inch, 800-by-480 Super LCD screen; it's a bit more reflective than the Super LCD 2 on the other phones, and you can see the glass in front of the image. It's running a 1Ghz, single-core Qualcomm S2 processor, and has 4GB of storage with no memory card slot. It has Beats Audio, but doesn't come with Beats headphones.

Some of HTC's new innovations are still here, though: the new image chip works with the One V's 5-megapixel camera, although picture processing is much, much slower than it was on the One X; it took my One V a few seconds to assemble an HDR image that the One X handled nearly instantly.

HTC's Worst Partners
HTC wants to simplify: it wants you to be able to buy a One S, a One X or a One V on several different carriers.

But HTC's new branding strategy could pretty quickly be torpedoed by U.S. carriers, who demand unique names and slightly different specs for every phone so that devices can't be easily compared across carriers.

Other than the Apple iPhone, the one great example of a phone that crossed all carriers was the LG Optimus One, which was sold as the Optimus on at least six different carriers, but as the Vortex on Verizon and the Phoenix on AT&T. Samsung's Galaxy S II, another attempt at cross-carrier branding, has been saddled with the unfortunate moniker of "Epic 4G Touch" on Sprint and turned down by Verizon entirely. The iPhone is the only phone that the carriers don't make more confusing.

That's the big question with these very nice phones. HTC has always had the potential to match Apple's focus on design and elegance, but last year it had an overly complex product line. Will its carrier partners saddle its new phones with hideous names and unfortunate bloatware? Let's hope not.

Does Apple consider Facebook a friend or foe?

So, how does Apple really feel about Facebook? The iPad maker’s CEO Tim Cook answered that question at the company’s shareholders meeting Thursday. The Verge reports:

In response to a question from an audience member about whether Apple considered the web company a "friend" or "foe" at Apple's shareholder meeting Thursday, CEO Tim Cook explained that the two companies are aligned, with little overlap in their respective businesses, saying:

"We do a lot with them, and our users are using Facebook a tremendous amount. It’s not like some other companies [where] we see a significant overlap in the things we do, I have always thought that the two can do more together."

It looks like Facebook feels much the same, saying in a statement, "iOS is an important platform for Facebook and we have a good relationship with Apple." Whatever hard feelings there might have been about the failed iTunes/Facebook integration deal must be water under the bridge.

Shareholders also wanted to know if Apple was going to distribute dividends.VentureBeat.com reports:

Apple reported a $13.06 billion profit in the first quarter of 2012, and the company is sitting on $90 million in cash. Chief executive Tim Cook explained the cash flow as “more than we need to run a company.” He also assured shareholders that the company is heavily considering how best to spend the money, though it doesn’t look like a dividend is coming any time soon.

One shareholder expressed the opinion that Apple shouldn’t administer a dividend, but rather reinvest the money in media acquisitions. Acquisitions are another way the company could use its money to create a better product and lift its stock prices, though it doesn’t provide an immediate payout to stock owners.

Another shareholder brought up the company’s deeper ties with Twitter, particular now that iOS 5 provides options to tweet right in the operating system’s user experience. Cook said that while the integration has been “great for Twitter,” it has also been “great for our users.” But where does that leave the other giant, social elephant in the room Facebook? Cook calls the social network a “friend.”

“We do a lot with them, our users use Facebook an enormous amount,” said Cook at the shareholders meeting, “I’ve always thought that the two companies could do more together.”

In other Apple news, Proview is suing the company in U.S. court over the iPad trademark. The Post’s Hayley Tsukayama reports:

Proview, the Chinese electronics maker that is suing Apple over the trademark to the iPad, has apparently taken its legal battle to U.S. court. A report from the Wall Street Journal found a previously unknown lawsuit between Apple and Proview filed in California’s Santa Clara Superior Court on Feb. 17.

Apple purchased the trademark through a subsidiary called IP Application Development. According to the Journal report, Proview is accusing Apple of fraud, saying that the representatives it negotiated with claimed that they wanted the “IPAD” trademark because it was an abbreviation of the company name.

Apple and Proview could not immediately be reached for comment.

On Thursday, a Shanghai court suspended its decision in a dispute between the two companies, saying it will wait for a higher court to rule on the case. Lower courts have sided with Proview in the past, and the Guangdong High Court will begin its hearing on the matter Feb. 29. The suspension means that Apple can continue selling the iPad in area stores.

No iPhone 4S prompts 500,000 subscribers to quit T-Mobile

Customers have been leaving T-Mobile USA, the country's No. 4 cellphone company, for the last two years. Now that all three of the bigger carriers have the iPhone, that stream has turned into a flood.

The company on Thursday said it lost a net 526,000 subscribers in the fourth quarter. Worse, it lost a net 802,000 subscribers on contract-based plans, which are the most lucrative. That's an unheard-of figure for an industry that was characterized by rapid growth for more than a decade.

T-Mobile, a Bellevue, Wash.-based subsidiary of Germany's Deutsche Telekom AG, is now losing subscribers from contract-based plans faster than regular phone companies are losing landline customers.

Sprint Nextel Corp., the No. 3 carrier, started selling the iPhone in October, joining Verizon Wireless and AT&T Inc. in the "iPhone Club." That coincided with the launch of the iPhone 4S, which propelled U.S. iPhone activations to a record 13.7 million over three months.

The iPhone helped Sprint post a rare increase in contract-based subscribers. Verizon and AT&T, the top two carriers, posted healthy increases as well.

It's now clear that many of those new subscribers were coming from T-Mobile USA.

As the smallest of the four national carriers, T-Mobile was struggling even before all of its competitors had the iPhone. Its parent company has said it's not interested in investing in it. Last year, Deutsche Telekom appeared to have found an exit strategy, in the shape of a sale to AT&T for $39 billion. But that deal was blocked by U.S. regulators, who said it would reduce competition.

T-Mobile's CEO, Philipp Humm, on Thursday promised that the company will get back into the game through network upgrades. With the collapse of the deal, AT&T was forced to pay a break-up fee of $3 billion in cash and some spectrum licenses, so T-Mobile now has some room to maneuver.

Neville Ray, the company's chief technology officer, said T-Mobile will start building a network using the new "LTE" wireless standard, which gives higher data speeds, and will have it operational next year. This upgrade is possible because of the spectrum from AT&T.

AT&T and Verizon Wireless already have LTE networks running, and Sprint has said it plans to go through with the upgrade as well.

T-Mobile is investing $4 billion in the network upgrade, $1.4 billion more than it had planned earlier.

Sony PlayStation Vita Launches With New PS Store Apps

While the Sony PlayStation Vita had a soft launch last week with the limited, First Edition bundle ($350 for a 3G Vita, a carrying case, and a 4GB memory card), Sony's new gaming handheld officially launches today, and with that launch comes new additions to the device's digital download platform, the PS Store.

The Editors' Choice PlayStation Vita, so favored because of its excellent gaming abilities in spite of significant media playback issues, is now available from most retailers, with preorders (or, for the earlier adopters, major import markups and fees) unnecessary. The $250 Wi-Fi-only Vita is also on sale for the first time in the United States, along with the $300 non-bundle 3G/Wi-Fi Vita. The 3G/Wi-Fi Vita is part of a launch bundle, separate from the First Edition bundle, which includes an 8GB memory card (but not case) for a limited time.

Today's launch adds several titles to the PS Store. While several games were available on the store last week, the app selection was nearly nonexistent. But users can now download Netflix, Flickr, and LiveTweet apps for free, though 3G users will definitely want to keep their Wi-Fi connected for the first app. Several new games have also been added, including Plants Vs. Zombies and Touch My Katamari.

While the Vita has a front-facing camera, Skype is still currently unavailable for the device, though it's expected to hit the PS Store in the near future. Sony has remained quiet about the availability of PSOne Classics or expanding the PSP backwards compatibility library for the Vita.

Vita games and accessories have been on sale for a few weeks, but until now, only importers and purchasers of the first edition bundle last week have been able to use them.

For more, see PCMag's rull review of the PlayStation Vita and the slideshow below, as well as our picks of the top 10 most-anticipated Vita games.

Not sure if you should get the Vita or stick to mobile gaming? Check out Sony PlayStation Vita vs. Your Phone.

ABC peaks into Apple factory's working conditions

Nightline is touting an exclusive look inside Foxconn's facilities amid public pressure on Apple to improve the working conditions in its supply chain.

A worker at an Apple supplier facility in Chengdu, China.

(Credit: Apple)

ABC is touting an inside look at the working conditions in Foxconn, a key vendor for Apple and other major technology companies.

The report airs Tuesday night on the network's Nightline news program, with a preview already up on its site.

Apple has faced increasing criticism from advocate groups, which are calling for the construction of a more ethical iPhone and an improvement in the conditions at the suppliers that the company works with. Groups have already delivered hundreds of thousands of petitions to Apple stores around the world.

The criticism was largely sparked by a series of articles from the New York Times, both analyzing why workers in China are mainly doing the work of building Apple products and detailing the conditions in those factories.

Since then, Apple has worked overtime to get public sentiment back on its side. Apple CEO Tim Cook said at a Goldman Sachs conference last week that the company does more in the industry to help the workers at its vendor partners. The company has joined the Fair Labor Association and is seeking a more rigorous audit of its suppliers.

ABC's preview breaks little ground, hitting upon the same themes of overworked employees who complain of long hours, little overtime, and poor living conditions. But it does yield some fascinating insight through interviews with workers. Despite the tough conditions, demand for jobs at the factory remain high. The preview also addresses the spate of suicides that Foxconn had to deal with in 2010, as well as last year's explosion that killed a few workers and left many injured.

The report marks an unprecedented amount of transparency from Foxconn, which has been known to be secretive and aggressive in shutting the media from its facilities. A Foxconn executive admitted to ABC that it would not have considered opening its doors if it were not for the public pressure Apple--a massive customer--was facing in the U.S.

While Apple has taken the brunt of the heat, many technology companies, from Hewlett-Packard to Sony, use the facilities to construct everything from laptops to video-game consoles. Advocate groups argue that Apple should use its leadership role in technology to push for change with its suppliers.