Windows 10 Technical Preview 2nd - Review

PLEASE NOTE (CLICK HERE)

The version of Windows that Microsoft showed off this week has lots more features than the previews Windows Insiders have seen so far. Some of them will arrive in the next Insider build, some will come in February and others will show up over the next three, four or five months. We had a chance to see many of the new features in action – some on both phones and PCs – and to try a lot of them ourselves.

MAKING SENSE OF TOUCH

Some of the interface changes are small, but they make Windows 10 feel much more polished. They include a nicer taskbar, the Start menu having a simple control to flip from a small menu to a full-screen one, and neater, smaller borders around windows so they sit more comfortably next to each other

The notification bar replaces the Charm bar, and the default controls aren't that useful

The Charms bar has changed into a Windows Phone-style notification bar with an expandable set of handy settings – you can select what they are, although from a limited list – and you can get rid of individual notifications or whole sets of them, and pick which apps can put them there in the first place. Some of those notifications will let you click in and make an edit – like replying to a message right in the bar – which makes them much more useful than just having a list of what you've missed

You can choose which apps are allowed to show notifications

The new Settings app is sparse but will add many more controls

You do that from the new Settings app – in this build the full Control Panel is still there but over time everything will migrate into Settings, hopefully in a more logical arrangement than the jumbled mess Control Panel grew into

The Control Panel still lurks in this build

This build also has the first version of the interface changes Microsoft calls Continuum. This is called tablet mode and you can trigger it from the Notification bar, or by removing a removable keyboard. It switches all your windows to full screen, which is a very simplistic way of handling a tablet interface, but it combines with the other interface features to be more useful for touch users

Alt-Tab or swiping over the left side of the screen shows what apps you're running

You can now drag down a Windows desktop app to close it, just like a Windows Store app. When you swipe over the left edge of the screen you get the Alt-Tab view – and that includes both modern and Windows apps so you can pull them into place on-screen

Windows sit much more neatly side by side, sharing a single gutter rather than having two borders

If you want to arrange more than two apps your only option is currently the four-quarter Aero snap view which is still too fiddly to lay out with your fingers – but the Windows team is considering bringing back the Teeter feature that lets you drag windows around and have them snap into place in multiple vertical strips, as in Windows 8.1. This is still a work in progress, but it's more polished for both mouse and touch users in this build

CORTANA
As expected, Microsoft's voice-driven Cortana assistant comes to Windows 10, and she's very well integrated into the interface. There's always a Cortana bar in the taskbar and you can type a search in there, or tap the Cortana circle to see a welcome pane with your news, interests, weather and other Cortana info. You can tap the microphone icon to talk to Cortana – and we tried the "Hey Cortana" voice activation on a couple of different PCs and it worked well, even using a standard laptop microphone with lots of background noise

Search with Cortana and you get apps you already have, suggestions for more apps and web searches

When you search with Cortana, you get apps on your PC, apps you could install, settings on your PC and web results. That's the same set of results you see when you hit Windows-S and search, because Cortana takes over that keyboard shortcut. And when you hit the Windows key and type to search, you're doing the same Cortana search – just inside the Start menu interface, because you hit the key people associate with the Start menu

If you want to search for files you can type or say things like "show me my files about charity" or "show me my photos from last month" or "show me my slides from this year". That opens a new window with a list of files, not an Explorer window, and that window closes if you do anything else, which is irritating – but it's a very friendly interface to search that will learn new terms the same way Cortana does

Cortana suggests information as you type in the Spartan browser address bar

Being able to set a reminder by talking to your computer – or typing – is handy, but it's everything that Cortana knows about you that's going to be really important. The Project Spartan browser isn't in the build we were able to try out, but Cortana is built in: if you type in Delta because you want to go to the Delta website, and Cortana knows that you're tracking a Delta flight, the flight details pop up next to the address bar in the browser – just in case you wanted to check that flight. Cortana has huge potential in Windows and even these first features should be really useful

The Cortana integration in the new browser will mean you'll see the same search history whether you look in your browser, Cortana or the Start menu. That's just one of many more places where the multiple different tools we're used to in Windows are starting to turn into a more unified system

Project Spartan isn't in the mix yet – the browser here is still IE

HAPPIER APPS
The Office universal apps aren't in the Windows 10 build we tried either, but we have seen them in action on Windows 10 phones. Windows 10 is what you'll get on your phone as well as your PC or tablet, although the interface is designed for the small screen, and universal apps like Word, Outlook – for both mail and calendar – PowerPoint and Excel will be included on all Windows 10 devices

The phone versions of these tuck the ribbon away in a formatting pane you have to open at the bottom of the screen, but they have a full range of features, from being able to track and review changes in Word, or use built-in commands like typing =lorem() to generate automatic text, to full animations and transitions in PowerPoint

Universal Outlook takes the clean look of the Windows 8.1 Mail client and adds in the best features of both the Windows Phone calendar and the management gestures of Accompli on the iPhone (recently bought by Microsoft) plus some new options

The agenda view in the Calendar is back in the universal Outlook app

The endless scrolling agenda is back so you can see a list of all your upcoming meetings, but you can also pinch and zoom to switch to month view or choose how many days you see on screen at once, and even how much space each day takes up on-screen. You can colour-code meetings, and that function uses the same categories you'd use in full Outlook today, so if you're already using categories you don't have to change what you do (although they won't sync for email until later on)

The classic email view in the new touch Outlook

On a PC you can look at messages in the familiar three-pane view; on a phone or tablet you'll use the one-pane inbox view more. The gestures for deleting and flagging mail from the inbox list work well – you can customise it (if you're left-handed, say), but the default is you swipe left to delete a message and right to flag it. It's less error-prone than Accompli, where you can delete a message without meaning to, and there will be other options like archiving messages using the same left/right distinction of messages you don't want, and messages you need to deal with

Because it's Outlook, the mail editor is powered by Word – so you can create tables in it, even on your phone

Again, the new universal Videos, Music and People apps weren't in the build we used, but they'll get makeovers similar to the Maps, Photos and Messaging apps we saw
Photos looks more like the Windows Phone photo app rather than the Windows 8 or 8.1 app, and it's more useful than either. It has features that users of Windows Live Photo Gallery will remember (it's built by that team) but updated to deal with Windows services like OneDrive and the oddities of Lumia phones. It doesn't let you tag photos, although Microsoft encouragingly told us "we know that's important". Currently it groups photos by day – the automatically curated albums will come later, as will naming the groups of photos you see by their location if they've been geotagged by your phone

The Photos app automatically groups and enhances your photos

But the two really useful features Microsoft is promising for Photos are already there, namely automatically enhancing photos (like fixing brightness, contrast and red eye) and not showing the same photo multiple times. If you used burst mode, or Windows Phone 8 uploaded the low resolution version of your photos to OneDrive and you copied the high resolution version to your PC, or you have a RAW and JPG version of the same file, you'll only see one of them
And that's handled very sensibly – you'll see the JPG until you want to edit and then you'll get the RAW, for example. We haven't tried that out with large and complex photo collections where images have been renamed, but so far it seems to really simplify managing your images

The Windows Phone Maps app gets much better and also comes to Windows desktop

The Maps app takes the five different phone navigation apps Microsoft put on Windows Phone and brings them together in one app where you can search for places, and receive navigation that automatically picks walking or driving depending on how close your destination is, can give you public transport routes, takes traffic into account and will reroute you if the traffic changes. And it has a clean simple interface that's ideal for phones and small tablets, where it's going to get used most, plus there's voice control – Cortana will read you directions and if you don't hear one you can say "say that again" to have it repeated
The Messaging app also has a very Windows Phone feel, bringing back the integration of text messaging with online messages – this time Skype. When a Skype notification appears at the top of your phone screen you can tap and answer it straight away without having to unlock the phone and open it. And you'll be able to jump from a text conversation to a phone call – that will include making a Skype call without having to go and open the Skype app, but the interface for that isn't in this version yet

This is the Start screen you see when you tap the control to show it full-screen

EARLY VERDICT
There are still areas of concern (especially OneDrive, which hasn't regained key features from Windows 8.1) and we didn't get a chance to try exciting features like Project Spartan, but the progress in this release is excellent.

If you love Windows 8.1 and touch, you'll have a lot of adjustments to make and we hope the continuing debates inside the Windows team bring back more of those interface features, but for most people Continuum is a good balance between updating the desktop look and making touch useful.

Key charm bar features are back on the Notification bar and desktop apps that want to will be able to use the Share charm, just like modern apps. Putting Cortana on the desktop is expected but still a stroke of brilliance, especially the way it's integrated into both Start and Search. Microsoft needs to keep up the quality, fill in more details about security and polish the final pieces, but at this stage Windows 10 looks like a version people will be happy to upgrade to.

GOOD AND BAD

+

• Continuum and interface improvements
• The Notifications bar has the best parts of the Charm bar
• Cortana makes sense of both search and voice control
• Universal apps are much higher quality – on desktop and phone
  

-

• Die-hard Windows 8.1 users will miss some features
• Four-way Aero snap is still awkward and fiddly
• It's unclear what upgrades will cost after the first year
• No changes to OneDrive 

NOTE: This review is not made by me

SOURCE: TechRadar

Posted By Unknown 2/01/2015

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Windows 10 Launch. Will run on smartphones, tablets, laptops and PCs

   BE PART OF EVERY STEP

Join the Windows Insider Program so you can be part of every key moment along the way as they create Windows 10. You'll get Windows 10 Technical Preview, all the builds as soon as they're available, and an easy-to-use feedback app.

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Microsoft has unveiled Windows 10, or at least a very early 'Technical Preview' which will be available to anyone who wants to download and try it. Here's everything you need to know about the Windows 10 release date, price and new features including the return of the start menu, multiple desktops and more.

For those who want to give windows 10 a shot, you can download HERE

It's fair to say that Windows 8 has not been a universal success. In many ways a necessary step not terribly well executed, Windows 8's attempt to stitch together desktop and mobile has been way too radical to encourage new users. And as the longer life of existing PCs and laptops combines with the growth of smartphones and tablets to continually slow PC sales, Window 8 has come to be seen as a dud.

This means two things: a new and improved Windows in the fastest possible time and - oddly - a jump in numerals to Window 10.

Perhaps the biggest news about Windows 10 is that it will be - in Microsoft's words, "One product family, one platform, one store". For the desktop version of Windows 10, there will be no more 'duality', as Joe Belfiore put it. That means no more split personality between modern apps and the 'old' desktop.

EXPANDED START MENU
Windows 10 will look and work a lot more like Windows 7 than Windows 8, and it will be a place where traditional and modern apps co-exist happily. The Start menu - shown below - will return and it will be customisable, including being resizeable.

 

APPS THAT RUN IN A WINDOW

Modern apps will run on the desktop, just as had been rumoured and they'll be resizeable just like traditional apps.

IMPROVEMENTS TO SNAP

Windows 7's snap function will work with all apps, whether new or old. A new layout means you can snap four apps on the same screen. A new feature called Snap Assist allows you to grab apps from multiple desktops within Task View.

TASK VIEW 
There's a new button on the taskbar called Task View. Press it and you will see a thumbnail of all the apps which are open. It's very much like Mac OS X's Expose feature, and that's a good thing. It's Microsoft's way of helping novice users to get familiar and proficient with multitasking.

MULTIPLE DESKTOPS

WIndows 10 will also support multiple desktops, instead of requiring you to find your own way of doing it.

The new version will be also very much about making those who were unhappy with Windows 8 happy again. The focus is very much about the keyboard and mouse, but those who have devices with touch capabilities haven't been forgotten.

WHY IS IT CALLED WINDOWS 10?

During the short briefing in San Francisco when Microsoft unveiled Windows 10, it made it clear that the next version would be very much unified across all types of devices with screen sizes from 4 inches to 80 inches. It confirmed that the next version of Windows Phone - after 8.1 - would be 10 and said, "This product, when you see the product in your fullness I think you'll agree with us that it's a more appropriate name."

When questioned about ARM-based Surface tablets, the answer was, "we're building the software to update vast majority of devices out there."

Microsoft's Terry Myerson summed it up with, "Windows 10 represents the first step of a whole new generation of Windows, unlocking new experiences to give customers new ways to work, play and connect. This will be our most comprehensive operating system and the best release Microsoft has ever done for our business customers, and we look forward to working together with our broader Windows community to bring Windows 10 to life in the months ahead."

WINDOWS 10: A FREE UPDATE?
According to Indonesian news site Detik, the president of Microsoft Indonesia, Andreas Diantoro, has confirmed that Windows 9 - now 10 - will be a free upgrade for all Windows 8 users.

The bigger question is whether this will stretch to Windows 7 and even Vista users or not. We'll probably have to wait until 2015 to get an answer. 

WINDOWS 10 RELEASE DATE
Microsoft has stated that Windows 10 will launch "later in the year" in 2015, so we won't get the April release we were hoping for. But it has also said that it will share more about "universal apps" at its annual Build conference next April. The Technical Preview licence runs until April 15 2015, so expect a more complete beta then. 

SOURCE: pcadvisor.co.uk
As seen on: preview.windows.com

Posted By Unknown 10/06/2014

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Windows 9: What We Know So Far

Microsoft is already planning the next major round of updates to Windows 8 - the follow up to Windows 8.1, codenamed "Threshold".

Here, we'll track the latest leaks and rumours about the Threshold update, letting you know what to expect from Windows 8.2 - if that's what it's indeed called - when it arrives in early 2015.

NAME AND RELEASE DATES

The next major round of updates to Windows 8 is nicknamed "Threshold", according to Windows watcher Mary Jo Foley, who reports that the codename was mentioned in an internal email from Microsoft's head of OS Terry Myerson.

Despite that nickname, many started referring to the update as Windows 8.2.

But Microsoft is apparently reluctant to continue with the Windows 8 branding after its poor reception, instead considering calling the update Windows 9, according to Windows expert Paul Thurrott.

Threshold is expected to arrive in Spring 2015, Foley reported, which would be in keeping with previous reports that the next major OS update wouldn't come until then - which had led many to anticipate the release of Windows 9.

That doesn't mean Microsoft won't be releasing any updates in the coming year. Windows 8.1 Update 1 is expected to arrive in early 2014, alongside an update for Windows Phone 8.1, though this isn't thought to feature any major changes.

And according to Thurrott, Microsoft plans to share its vision for Threshold at the Build conference in April. That won't mean a detailed outline or a developer preview, but a high-level outline.

RETURN OF THE START MENU

Threshold will herald the return of the Start menu, according to Thurrott. The Start menu was controversially removed in Windows 8, and though the Start button returned in Windows 8.1, left-clicking it only returns users to the Metro/Modern UI start screen. Right-clicking the icon does bring up some of the Start menu's shortcuts, but still doesn't offer any way to launch applications within the desktop.

The next major update will see the Start menu resurrected - but only in desktop versions of the OS.

DIFFERENT VERSIONS

There will be three major versions of Windows following the Threshold update, according to Foley.

The first is a desktop version, designed to be used with a keyboard and mouse. It will feature the Start menu and may also allow Modern apps to run inside windows like more traditional applications.

The second is a Modern-style edition, focused on apps for tablets, while the third will merge Windows Phone and Windows RT to work across ARM handsets and tablets.

In addition to the consumer versions, there will also be an enterprise edition, but this may only be available via volume licensing

SOURCE: www.PCPro.co.uk

Posted By Unknown 2/14/2014

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Bump, a Mobile Contact Sharing App, is now Acquired by Google

After raising nearly $20 million and becoming one of the most downloaded mobile apps but failing to find real revenue, Bump Technologies has been acquired by Google. Its namesake app Bump lets you physically tap phones together to share contact info and more, and it will stay open for download. Congratulations might not be the right word, but Bump could have a bright future at the Googleplex.

Bump’s David Lieb writes “We strive to create experiences that feel like magic, enabled behind the scene with innovations in math, data processing, and algorithms. So we couldn’t be more thrilled to join Google.” It appears that the whole 25-person team including Lieb and fellow co-founder Andy Huibers will be coming aboard at the search giant.

Bump and the collaborative photo sharing app called Flock it released last year “will continue to work as they always have for now; stay tuned for future updates.” The blog post doesn’t mention what will happen to the Bump Pay app the startup built on top of PayPal that lets users make peer-to-peer mobile payments by knocking fists.

Terms of the acquisition weren’t disclosed, so it’s hard to tell exactly how strong of an exit this was for Bump and its investors, which include Y Combinator, Sequoia Captial, Felicis Ventures, SV Angel, Andreessen Horowitz, and many angels.

[Update: Sources familiar with the deal say the acquisition was definitely not a home run for Bump, but that it was no acquihire either as we suspected. They didn't specify an exact sale price but pegged the deal in the ballpark of $35 million. That would be modest premium on Bump's $19.9 million in funding but not a glowing multiple VC would want to brag to their LPs about.]

Bump gained huge popularity by being an early App Store hit. Instead of having to clumsily type out a new friend or professional colleague’s contact information, you and someone else could both open Bump, bump fists together while holding your phones, and the contact info, photos, audio, video, or other selected files would be shared between you instantly. As of March it had hit 1 billion photos shared and 125 million downloads, up from 100 million in August.

With time, though, other ways to quickly share contact information emerged. Meanwhile, Bump remained free and wasn’t earning any meaningful revenue so paying its strong mobile engineering team may have burned through the $16.5 million round led by Andreessen that the startup raised in November 2011.

Then Apple dropped a bomb on Bump. It announced a new feature called AirDrop for iOS 7 that would make sharing files between nearby phone a native feature. That could have curtailed Bump’s steady growth. It was time for Bump to throw in the towel.

Based on these factors, the acquisition may have been more lucrative than a basic acquihire, but not big enough to be considered a home run.

From one perspective, the sale might be considered a failure. Bump could have minted if it found a way to monetize its huge user base, but couldn’t find a way to go it alone and so instead folded into a tech giant. From a different perspective, Bump’s soft landing could be said to have kept investors from losing money while giving its team an opportunity for greater impact thanks to Google’s resources.

What may have interested Google actually isn’t Bump itself, but Flock. The app uses geolocation to determine which of your Facebook friends you’re nearby, and then offers to create a collaborative photo album with them that includes all the shots any of you took at that party, concert, or day in the park. The idea is that your friends might not broadcast all those photos to social media, but you’d still want to see them as you all shared the experience together. The Flock design philosophy was to strip as much out of the photo sharing process as possible to make it seem almost automatic.

Google might look to turn Flock into a part of Google+ as a way to simultaneously compete with Facebook’s photo sharing and Dropbox’s photo saving services. Google+’s Party Mode was a pioneer in collaborative photo sharing centered around events, but the late-comer social network has still failed to gain serious engagement. Facebook recently launched shared albums, making it more dire for Google to get deeper into the space.

The acquisition also scores Google a trove of mobile communication patents that it could use to help nearby devices sync up. These include an app noticing that sensors on two devices share similar readings to determine that they’re in proximity. Google could use these patents to improve Android and create richer alternatives to near-field communication (NFC).

With Bump and Flock’s features combined with Google’s built in-audience, the ideals of “irreducible” design the startup embodied could make a bigger impact without having to generate revenue directly.

SOURCE: TechCrunch.com

Posted By Unknown 10/20/2013

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Google's Doodle: 15th Birthday Hacks

Google is now 15 and they announce it with their new doodle, "Piñata Doodle" and somehow there's the secret how to get the unlimited score of the game.

1. Open the Google homepage OR Google Doodles Page in the Google Chrome browser

2. Click the Play button on the cake in the Google doodle

3. Right click anywhere on the doodle and select "Inspect Element"

4. Click on the "Sources" tab

5. Click the small arrow on the left hand side of the inspector window (just below the X)

6. Click the arrow next to "logos/2013/bday13"

7. Click "bday13.js"

8. Click the "{ }" button at the bottom of the window, next to the line and column number

9. Scroll down to line 1744 and click on the number 1744 on the left hand side of the window

10. Click in the doodle to hit the pinata
(you'll notice that the animation will freeze and line 1744 will be highlighted)

11. On the right hand side of the window (under "Watch Expressions"), locate the word "Closure" and click the arrow next to it

12. Scroll down until you find the letter "S"

13. Double click the number next to "S" and change it to something big (100 for example)

14. Press the play button

HINT! In step 12, if you want to change the number of lives you have, find the letters "bd" and change the number next to it to the number of lives you want

Thanks to user Robert Bressi to make the video: Click Here for the Video

Posted By Unknown 9/27/2013

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Juju starts Charm Championship with rewards of $10,000

What is "Juju" Actually?

WATCH THIS VIDEO

PRIZES

$10,000 USD prize for each category:

In addition individual charm maintainers of a reviewed charm in the “reviewed” section of the Charm Store receive $200 if their charm is included in a winning template. This can be awarded multiple times, to a maximum total of $3,000 per category.

Winners in three categories

• High Availability - represents a full stack of HA-enabled services to accomplish a task.
• Data Mining - represents a full stack of data mining and “big data” analysis.
• Monitoring - represents a full stack of monitoring solutions for existing services.

FAQ
Q: Who should participate?

A: Anyone who has an infrastucture stack in the cloud and is interested in managing complex services.

Q: Where can I ask questions and discuss the prizes?

A: There is a mailing list for it here.

Q: How do I actually contribute?

A: See this page with the step by step. But basically, model your stack in Juju, export it, and submit the yaml file via github.

Q: Aren’t you just doing this to get a bunch of free work?

A: NO! The charms in the Charm Store are Free Software that we want people to improve to drive knowledge sharing between devops forward. Keep your secret sauce secret, we want to concentrate on improving the blocks people use to build their infrastructure.

BASELINE RULES

• Communication
• Entrants are encouraged to join the Juju mailing list for updates about the competition.
• Entrants MUST fill out this form to be eligible for the prizes.

• Submission
• Charms that are to be submitted for the charm maintainer prize must do so via the contribution steps. For help, contact us via the mailing list or #juju on Freenode.
• All entries must be submitted for Ubuntu 12.04.
• Each participant (or participant organisation) may submit as many bundles as they wish, but a maximum of two will be considered in the contest. All deployment bundles and charms must be the participant’s original work.
• Optionally, submit an RFP to receive feedback. Feel free to mail jorge@ubuntu.com with your idea if you want the team to review it.

• Work must endeavour to be production quality, not a cowboy script or proof of concept.

• The four-judge panel will select the best bundle: Mark Mims, Marco Ceppi, Kapil Thangavelu and Adrian Cockroft. The winner will be chosen at the judges’ discretion. Judges’ decision will be final and no correspondence will be entered into. Judges do not have to pick a winner for each category if the entries are deemed undeserving of a prize.

JUDGEMENT CRITERIA

• Straightforward: It does what is says it does, and the README is detailed enough for any user to be able to deploy your bundle. Pretend you’ve hired a new sysadmin who needs to deploy your entire infrastructure in a new datacenter.

• High Quality: Each charm in a bundle will be judged according to the charm quality guidelines:
• Must include charm integration tests in the individual charms. The bundle itself will also be judged according to this criteria
• Depth and breadth of the bundle’s included tests weight heavily.
• Charm Quality Score of the entire bundle will be taken into heavy consideration to determine how robust the charms are.
• 25 on the Charm Rating scale is the baseline, charms not meeting this baseline will be considered detrimental to the bundle’s overall quality.

• Complexity: Are you solving an interesting infrastructure problem for a complex stack? Does it solve infrastructure “gunk”?
• Extra points for going deep on identified problem area.

• Completeness: The completeness of each bundle will be reviewed. Ideally a bundle exposes the configuration services via Juju so the user doesn’t have to remember where to set things by hand.

• Integration with other services: A mature stack should include charms that integrate with other charms, and have hooks to enable them to be monitored, cached, and do whatever other things you can think of.

• Robustness of the bundle: Does the combination of charms provide idempotent hooks, clean configuration, and upgrades that are effective and data-safe?

• Innovative Design: Does the charm separate installation logic from relation logic in a way that provides seamless scalablity, upgradability, etc?

• Novelty: Does the charm add to charm-helpers or do something in a way that hasn’t been done before?  Does it use Juju for something new and exciting?

• Responsiveness: a review is necessary to getting the charm into the contest, so submit early and respond often! Failure to respond to feedback may jeopardise your chances of winning.

SOURCE: juju.ubuntu.com

Posted By Unknown 7/05/2013

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Call of Duty: Ghosts

Call of Duty: Ghosts will be the tenth main installment in the series, and is in development at Infinity Ward. The game is slated for a November 5, 2013 release

Activision has officially confirmed that its next COD instalment will take the form of Call of Duty: Ghosts. the focus of intense speculation for the past couple of weeks, Activision unveiled Call of Duty: Ghosts with a new teaser trailer and dedicated website last week on May 1.

Originally thought to be called Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, Call of Duty: Ghosts is said to be the COD game for "the next generation."

"Everyone was expecting us to make Modern Warfare 4, which would have been the safe thing to do. But we're not resting on our laurels," said Mark Rubin, executive producer of Infinity Ward. "We saw the console transition as the perfect opportunity to start a new chapter for Call of Duty. So we're building a new sub-brand, a new engine, and a lot of new ideas and experiences for our players. We can't wait to share them with our community."

Call of Duty: Ghosts FEATURES

Call of Duty: Ghosts features showcased during Xbox One reveal

Call of Duty: Ghosts was given its world première during the Xbox One reveal on May 21, revealing more of the game's features. Speaking directly to the Activision developers, Microsoft provided fans of the series with more details on they game.

Featuring “a whole new story with brand new characters in a whole new world”, Activision said it aims to produce a cast of characters that the player can feel more connected to. For this, the developer has brought in the writer of Syriana and Traffic, Stephen Gaghan.

Set ten years after a "massive attack" on the US, you play as a group of special forces soldiers known as The Ghosts. "You are the underdog fighting back against a superior force."

What's a huge new addition to the Call of Duty: Ghosts squad is their new canine companion. The first COD game to feature a dog, the mutt will aid the team by sniffing out explosives and protecting the soldiers in other, as yet undisclosed, ways. 

Said to be a key aspect as to how players strategise throughout the game, we can see many a level where the squad will have to protect their new canine buddy.

The new gaming engine used by Call of Duty: Ghosts utilises Pixar's SubD technology to improve the smoothness of graphics, especially noticeable on the weapons at close range notes Activision developers. 

Stating that the key word for the new graphics engine is "immersion", the Call of Duty: Ghosts developers say this game will have the best graphical fidelity of any in the series. Characters now automatically leap over any low cover in their way and can intelligently lean in and out of cover. New AI technology also allows for a more responsive environment, including fish that will intuitively move out of your way as you near them. 

Also revealing "just two of the new features coming to the next-generation of Call of Duty multiplayer", Activision explains the new dynamic experience and character customisation. 

Similar to Battefield 4, Call of Duty: Ghosts multiplayer will introduce a new dynamic experience driven by large scale events like floods and earthquakes, but also by smaller player-driven incidents like buildings collapsing from explosions.

RELEASE DATE

Activision has confirmed that a Call of Duty: Ghosts release date is scheduled for November 5, shipping on current generation Xbox 360 and PS3 consoles as well as PS4 and Xbox One.

Fans are so eager to get their hands on the game that just 24 hours after Activision officially unveiled Call of Duty: Ghosts, the game soared straight to the top of the charts for Amazon pre-orders. Six months before the game will ship to consumers, the game is currently occupying the number one and number two spots in the gaming chart for the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions respectively on Amazon UK. 

Posted By Unknown 6/09/2013

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Windows 8.1 Official First Look

In a new walk-through video, Microsoft has given us a run through of the changes set to hit Windows 8 devices with the launch of Windows 8.1.

It doesn't show off anything particularly revolutionary or that we didn't know was coming - new tile sizes! apps you can reposition! background colours! - but is a pleasant sneak peak at the changes that should be released later this month.

STOP/START

One thing that's significant in its absence from the video is the return of the Start button, which has had Windows fans frothing at the mouth.

Presumably this is still set to make an appearance in the software update, as promised by Microsoft last month.

We'd imagine so, given that we've already seen the boot to desktop Start button combo leak in some Windows 8.1 images.

Windows 8.1 (previously codenamed Blue) will be released as a free download at Microsoft's Build conference which takes starts on June 26.

SOURCE: www.techradar.com

Posted By Unknown 6/07/2013

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Samsung Galaxy S4 REVIEW

The Samsung Galaxy S4 is the most hotly anticipated smartphone ever from the Korean brand, and with a glut of top end features, it's the most powerful and desirable device Samsung has created yet.

One of the most impressive things about the phone is the fact the size hasn't changed from its predecessor - the Galaxy S4 comes in at 136.6 x 69.8 x 7.9mm (5.38 x 2.75 x 0.31 inches), meaning there's no extra heft to try to work with in your palm.

However, despite this fact, the screen on the S4 has been increased once more, to a whopping 5-inch display with Full HD resolution. This means the same amount of pixels you'd have seen on a TV that cost well over £1,000 four years ago is now riding around in your pocket.

Let's not pretend that Samsung is a pioneer in this area though: like a great many features of the Galaxy S4, the phone borrows a lot from the other top smartphones of the moment. Both the Sony Xperia Z and the HTC One have screens that rock the same resolution, but neither of them have the jaw-dropping clout of the Super AMOLED HD screen on offer here.

On top of that, there's a much faster processor packed under the hood, ample storage space for media thanks to an expandable memory card slot, and the likes of 4G, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC and pretty much any other connection you care to mention on board.

Samsung has tried to supplement this with a tranche of software upgrades too, meaning a more powerful camera, a better way to communicate with your friends and consume media, and interestingly a big push into health through dedicated apps too.

The Samsung Galaxy S4 costs the same as the HTC One, give or take a pound or two, on contract. This will still put it around £35 per month, which isn't too bad for such a high design.

But before we dissect all the possibilities the phone has to offer, let's look at the design. As we mentioned, it's impressive in its form factor, thanks to the sub-8mm thickness, and at 130g it manages to still be light without shaving off so much heft that you feel like you've got a flimsy piece of plastic.

That's probably the biggest compliment we can pay the Samsung Galaxy S4 - where its predecessor felt a little bit cheap in the hand, the S4 manages to bring a much more solid build and better construction to boot.

So while the "faux metal" band makes a comeback on this model, it looks a lot more premium. And there's very little flex in the chassis when you hold it tightly, which was another problem with the Galaxy S3 at times.

That doesn't mean that the phone is completely remodelled from the S3 - it's very similar in appearance, so much so that a number of people asking to see it during our review thought we were palming them off with our old S3. The polycarbonate chassis remains, but that brings with it the faithful battery cover, which conceals a removable battery and microSD slot.

We're not so fussed about the battery being able to drop out of the phone - so few people carry around a spare battery, and nowadays portable charging blocks are becoming so cheap and light that they make much more sense too.

We'd almost prefer something like the Sony Xperia Z, which has a refined and packaged chassis but doesn't need a removable battery: it makes use of a slot instead for the memory card. This integrated nature would make for a slightly more premium feel to the phone.

However, it's a small gripe with the S4, as while the cover feels flimsy, it's better than it was on the S2 and the S3, and they both sold like hot cakes.

In the hand, the Samsung Galaxy S4 feels much better than any other Samsung phone we've held (apart from the gargantuan smartphones the brand used to make - the i8910 Omnia HD might have been built like a brick, but it felt wonderful to hold). The screen's spread towards the sides of the phone means a much narrower bezel, and the effect is certainly impressive.

It might look very similar to the S3, but when you take the Samsung Galaxy S4 up close, you really start to appreciate the nuances.

We'd say it feels a lot more like the LG Optimus G range now - when we first picked it up, we were struck with how similar it felt in terms of sturdiness and the polycarbonate construction to the LG Optimus G Pro.

That's no criticism, as the device was well built too, but it has a similar rounded feel. This is intriguing given the history of the two companies, and shows more of a leaning towards the plastic shell from the Asian brands in general.

Buttonry has barely changed from before - the power button has been shifted slightly on the right-hand side, and is now much easier to hit. Samsung has clearly taken some lessons from the Galaxy Note 2, which has a really well positioned power/lock button.

The volume key is less easy to hit, and could be lower down in our eyes, but the travel on both of these buttons is satisfying, and you'll always know when you've hit them.

The plastic used on the home key has been upgraded too, with a more solid feel under the thumb when you press down to get back to the main home screen. The two buttons flanking it give you access to menus or take you back from whence you came, and while both are easily hidden, they light up nicely with an even glow when called into action.

There are loads of sensors on the front of the phone above the screen, including cameras to track your eyes, a 2MP camera for HD video calling and a proximity sensor for knowing where the phone is in relation to your ear. On the white review unit we had, their presence looks rather ugly either side of the generous earpiece, but on the darker models this is less of an issue.

The other notable addition to the design of the Galaxy S4 is the infra red blaster on the top of the phone. This enables you to control your TV, satellite box, DVD player, amp and even air conditioner. Again, this isn't a new feature, but it works well in practice, and despite being small is powerful enough indeed.

Other than that, there's not a lot more to say about the design of the phone, as it's just a little underwhelming. We know it's unfair to lambast a brand for not overhauling the design every year, but in the One X and the One, HTC has proven that it is possible to offer up a new design each time around and still keep things attractive.

Looking so similar to the Galaxy S3, you can't help but feel Samsung has gone a little too Apple and created something more in keeping with the Samsung Galaxy S3S - a minor update to a great phone to keep those coming out of contract happy that they have a premium phone to upgrade to.

We do implore you to get the phone in your hand before making a judgement though - while it's not got the best design on the market when it comes to materials, it's a big step forward compared to the Galaxy S3 and allows for a grippy and easy-to-hold phone, with a whopping screen inside.

To just dismiss it for being plastic would be doing the S4 a disservice as it has so much more going for it than that, but it's worth remembering that to a lot of people, the way a phone looks is as important as how much RAM it's got on board and how fast the CPU is - if not more so.

SOURCE: www.techradar.com

Posted By Unknown 5/29/2013

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