Windows 8

Steven Sinofsky, President of the Windows Division at Microsoft presented at the ‘All Things Digital;’ Conference #D9 yesterday. Steven announced a few details about what we can expect from the next version of the Windows operating system.

Windows 8 will feature a new UI similar to the tile-based interface of Windows Phone 7 and this will all be touch enabled (see the video below).

Windows 8 will focus on two types of apps:

· Classic Windows desktop apps- they will run and look similar to Win 7 today. They will open from the Start screen into familiar Win 7.

· HTML5/Javascript apps – they will look more like mobile apps and will run in a different experience than classic Windows apps. This includes IE10. This new style of app will be able to access everything new in Windows 8.

The concept of HTML 5 application is these be like mobile apps and will run in a different experience than classic Windows applications additionally HTML 5 applications will have access to a number of new features in Windows 8 and both type native windows and HTML 5 applications can run side by side.

Apps using “new Windows” programming are built in HTML and Javascript. Windows 8 will run both those apps and ones written in traditional Windows code. Now, it’s wait and see to the Professional Developer Conference. Also, if you’re interested in building applications for Windows 8, you should keep September 13-16 free and book a flight to California for this: https://www.buildwindows.com/.

Windows 8 start screen will appear with a a lock screen similar to Windows Phone 7 and be displayed with s a clock, upcoming calendar item and notification and customisation of this screen will be possible.

Windows 8 will not require any specific enhancement to hardware in terms of memory, disk space, CPU than Windows 7 and exciting for the UK Academic space is Windows 8 will run on Intel, AMD and ARM based chips.