Microsoft Unveils Windows 8
The new tablet-friendly system will be available later this year.
| Posted Wednesday, Feb. 29, 2012, at 10:22 AM
Photo by Paul J. Richards/AFP/Getty Images.
Microsoft is looking to dust itself off and prove that its newest product, Windows 8, still has game in a world now dominated by Apple and Google.
The software company has struggled to compete in the portable technology sector for the past couple of years but Reuters reports that shareholders hope that changes with the release of Windows 8. Microsoft released a beta version of the latest incarnation of the iconic operating system on Wednesday, giving the public its first look at it. If all goes well, the official release will come later this year.
The Associated Press reports that Windows 8 is "radically different from it’s predecessors," even leaving behind the PC staple, the Start menu. The new design, that Microsoft has dubbed Metro, mimics app-friendly buttons and tiles you would find on a smart phone. The tiles for mail and Facebook update in real time, so you don’t have to refresh for notifications.
One version of Windows 8 will run on phones and tablets made by ARM Holdings Plc., which has lent chip designs to the iPad, Samsung products and Texas Instruments. The other is a standard option compatible with Intel chips in laptops and desktops.
