Living with Windows 8
Posted Tuesday, September 20, 2011 at 12:00 am by Jason Cartwright
Since Microsoft released the developer bits to the world, more than a Million of you have downloaded it. This doesn’t account for downloading once and installing it many times, so the number of installations is likely to be many more. While most people jumped at the chance to share there thoughts immediately after having installed it, I felt spending some real time living with Windows 8 would give a much better appreciation what’s in store for Microsoft’s next OS.
Windows 8 is like an onion, its vast and has many layers, each of which only exposes itself over time and really requires time to understand and make sense of it. Moving from version 7 to 8 on the surface seems simple enough, but the result of Microsoft’s ambitious changes are both complex and confusing.
It is important to recognize the development path from the Windows 8 developer preview, to public release and look at what will remain and what is still left up to the possibility of change based on user-feedback. My impression from conversations last week is that minor refinements, stability and performance is still to go, however Windows 8 as it stands, will largely be what we will see ship in around 12 months time.
Hands-on with WP7 launch device
Posted Monday, October 25, 2010 at 10:15 pm by Jason CartwrightToday I managed to finally get my hands on some final production hardware for Windows Phone 7 [Thanks Ben]. Despite launching last week and multiple hardware partners, WP7 devices are still difficult to get hold of. As regular readers would know I first used WP7 hardware back at Tech.Ed, but that was development / non-final hardware.
The HTC 7 Mozart from Telstra is a solid piece of hardware, great build quality, stylish looks and great performance. But of course you all knew that from the spec sheet right ? If not see below. One of my concerns after using development hardware was the responsiveness of the screen when accepting gestures. After using the Mozart today, these fears were completely alleviated, touches were registered as expected, swiping was smooth as silk and pinch and zoom in IE work just as good as the iPhone – very fast.
So while I haven’t spent enough time with the HTC Mozart for a review (coming soon), the biggest problem Microsoft has with WP7 actually has nothing to do with their software.. its a supply chain issue. Despite October 21st being the launch date, there has been severe shortages of hardware. Although Apple iPhones were in limited numbers, amazingly a single hardware device maker was to have more products at launch than HTC, LG and Samsung combined.
Bizarrely the Samsung Omnia 7 (my pick of the launch devices) has been made available only with business plans. Something omitted from Microsoft’s WP7 Australian launch.
More info @ WindowsPhones
iPhone 3GS arrives, hands on video
Posted Friday, June 26, 2009 at 10:21 am by Jason Cartwright
Check out my first impressions, thoughts, experience with being hands on with the new iPhone 3GS. There’ll be much more information after I spend some time with the device today.
Here’s my first video from the iPhone 3GS from inside the Optus store. (Apologies for the bad camera work).
