0 Samsung Shows Off Series 9 Laptop With Retina-Matching Display

Apple isn't the only one that can pack the pixels into a high-end laptop. At the IFA trade show in Berlin, Samsung showed off a 13-inch Series 9 laptop with a similar pixel density to Apple's 15-inch MacBook Pro.

The Series 9's display has a resolution of 2560 by 1440 pixels and a matte finish that makes it easy to view in bright light, Engadget reports. Assuming the screen measures 13.3 inches--same as existing Series 9 laptops--the density would be roughly 220 pixels per inch. Apple's MacBook Pro with Retina Display achieves roughly the same pixel density on a 15.4-inch, 2880 by 1800 pixel screen.

Of course, Apple's laptop has the considerable advantage of actually existing on the market today. The Series 9 on display at IFA was apparently just an engineering sample, and Samsung isn't saying anything about specs, pricing or release date.

Without official information on specs, my main concern is battery life. In general, the higher the display resolution, the more power you need. That could be an issue if Samsung wants to keep the laptop looking svelte. (The existing 13-inch Series 9 laptops measure a half-inch thick, which is 0.2 inches thinner than the MacBook Pro with Retina Display.)

Don't expect this PC to come cheap, either. The Series 9 is already Samsung's most expensive line, with a starting price of $1,300 for the 13-inch model. A 220-ppi display will likely send that price skyward.

Still, it's nice to see a premium PC design that rivals Apple without looking like a shameless copy. This could be a winner if Samsung can make the specs work.

0 iPad Mini's 'Guts' May Combine Old, New Technologies

A developer of a popular mobile app believes he's discovered evidence of what the insides of therumored iPad Mini will look like and why it could sell for as low as $249.

Marco Arment, creator of Instapaper, an iOS app for clipping and reformatting online content for reading later, deduced in his blog Thursday that iPad Mini will be essentially an iPad 2 in a smaller package with the graphics chops to run a Gruber display but not Apple's eye-popping Retina display.

"It’s a textbook Tim Cook supply-chain move: selling the last generation’s hardware at a lower price point to expand marketshare," Arment writes.

"But this time, it's more dramatic," he adds. "Rather than just sell the original iPad 2 with a price cut, they've made a new product designed to be far less expensive from day one by combining old and new parts: the 32nm iPad 2’s guts, larger-cut iPhone 3GS screens, a smaller case and battery, and the new iPhone’s low-power LTE chip for $100 more. "

"I bet they could sell that for $249, and that would be a steal," he adds.

Armant reached his conclusions about the Mini after reviewing device statistics delivered to him by his Instapaper user base. Those stats showed two new iPad models—iPad2,5 and iPad2,6.

While acknowledging that the new model designations could be faked by jailbreaking an iPhone, that's not consistent with Armant's prior experience with information appearing in his app's device stats. " I’ve never had a device show up there that didn't end up being a real, about-to-be-released Apple device," he wrote.

The two new iPad 2s could be upcoming revisions of the existing iPad 2, but the developer maintained that would be unlikely, considering how late the device is in its lifecycle. "The much more likely explanation is that iPad2,5 and iPad2,6 are the new 'iPad Mini' in Wi-Fi and GSM, and I haven’t recorded the likely iPad2,7 CDMA version yet," he writes.

Meanwhile, Bloomberg reports that Apple will be going to AU Optronics and LG Display for displays for the Mini and TPK Holding, a subsidiary of Foxconn Technology Group, for the lamination coating for the 7.85-inch screens.

Sharp, a large supplier of displays for Apple products, will be shut out of the initial Mini runs, the report noted.

The Japanese company may already have too much Apple on its plate. It hasn't even started producing screens for the next iPhone 5, expected to reach retailers September 21, according toThe Wall Street Journal. That development is raising questions about Apple's capability to meet the initial demand for the handset, the Journal says.

0 Can Over-the-Top Voice Services Free You From Mobile Minutes Charges

Even in an era when just about every service is available over the open Internet or through an app, consumers still have to pay for voice service. The “voice charges” line item still pops up on every cell phone bill, and it isn’t cheap.

Someday in the not-too-distant future--when all voice communications transmit via carriers’ data networks instead of a separate voice network--the carriers will bill you just once.

Until then, however, savvy phone consumers can keep their voice-minutes needs to a minimum by taking advantage of the many so-called over-the-top services, which provide voice, video, messaging, and more by way of your device's Internet data connection, typically for free or for notably lower fees than the standard voice-minute plans charge. The savings can be even higher when you use an OTT service through your device's Wi-Fi connection, since Wi-Fi services are often free, or at least much more cost-effective than mobile networks are for high-bandwidth applications such as video chat or rich content messaging.

If you're using an OTT service over your device's regular wireless data connection, you need to pay attention, because it could chew up more data than you intended, incurring overage charges and eliminating any cost savings.

Skype and FaceTime

Two of the more well-known over-the-top services are Skype and Apple's FaceTime. Skype, which hundreds of millions of people use mainly on desktop or laptop PCs, is an app that provides free calling, video chat, and messaging between Skype users, and can make calls to regular phones for a cost. It is also available for iOS, Android, andWindows Phone, though with some limitations; Skype's mobile implementations require some user gymnastics to set up, as well.

FaceTime, as iPhone and iPad users know, allows owners of Apple products to conduct video chat sessions with one another. However, until the next version of Apple's iOS mobile operating system ships this fall, FaceTime works only over a Wi-Fi connection.

T-Mobile Bobsled Has 2 Million Users

Beyond Skype and FaceTime, you can find a host of newer entrants in the OTT voice, video, and messaging market, offering various tweaks and features. One of the latest to gain a significant following is the Bobsled service from T-Mobile, which originally launched as a way to initiate a call from a Facebook page.

T-Mobile's Bobsled is available for Android and iPhone.Bobsled has since morphed into more of a full-featured Internet voice app, available for Android and iOS mobile devices, but not for Windows Phone and BlackBerry. But unlike with Skype, all Bobsled calls are free, and the Facebook integration (such as the ability to leave voice messages on friends' Facebook walls) may be of greater interest to people who spend most of their online time on Facebook.

According to Alex Samano, director of communication services for T-Mobile USA, the Bobsled service has attracted 2 million users, who have made more than 10 million calls since the app's introduction in April 2011. Apparently the service is very popular among people who wish to contact folks in other countries, since according to T-Mobile 80 percent of all Bobsled calls so far are to a number outside the United States.

The other interesting twist to Bobsled is that you don't need to be a T-Mobile customer to use it--in fact, according to T-Mobile, 95 percent of its 2 million users aren't T-Mobile customers.

Video Chat From Tango, Oovoo

Another area attracting over-the-top innovation is video chat, in which two or more people use mobile phones or desktop connections to have a virtual-reality kind of interaction. One of the newer entries in this market is Tango, an app that soared like a rocket when it debuted in the fall of 2010.

Tango is one of the most widely used OTT voice and video chat services.What seems to have made Tango more of a success than some previous entries in the field is its ease of setup, which requires just a name and a phone number. Another interesting feature lets you turn off the video midcall, in case you need to do a hair check. Tango, whichraised a $40 million round of funding in April, claims to have 45 million registered users. Tango works over cellular connections and Wi-Fi, and offers client software for iOS, Android, and Windows Phone devices. It's also available for PCs.

Perhaps more full-featured is the OoVoo video chat service, which allows up to 12 people to participate in a group video chat. OoVoo has both a free version and a premium version ($30 per year or $3 per month), as well as a new Facebook app that should help the company add to its claimed installed base of 46 million users. The premium version eliminates ads, allows screen sharing, and has "priority support," according to OoVoo.

Can Carriers Compete in OTT?

Even as the new services gain followers, the real competition may start when the major wireless carriers finally give up on their voice and messaging cash cows and try to compete on features. Abig, expected shift in the phone-billing arena finally arrived last month, when Verizon unveiled its first attempt at so-called family plans, which allow users to bundle multiple devices together under a single data-services contract.

Vonage's over-the-top VoIP app.

Although the family-plan approach does help to cut the costs of separate voice and messaging plans, it doesn't result in savings for every user. It also fails to answer the competitive lure of video or voice chat services that are portable across multiple platforms and work with a single username.

We may have to wait several years for true champions to emerge in the over-the-top marketplace--or perhaps we'll be stuck with a mixed bag of similar but incompatible offerings. I haven't even mentioned the OTT services available from voice providers such as Vonage (which now has a mobile app), or from device manufacturers like Samsung, which is building a button for its ChatOn service into some of its newer phones.

0 Intel Chips to Support Wireless Charging by 2014

Intel is betting on wireless charging and plans to build the technology into its products by the end of next year. Transmitters would be built into the notebooks and ultrabooks, with receivers built into a wide range of devices using Intel’s chips.

Details are rather scant, although company representatives told The Register on Thursday that charging times are similar to charging via USB. Intel’s Developer Forum takes place in San Francisco next month, so there’s a chance we’ll hear more on Intel’s wireless charging plans then.

The chipmaker is entering a market where there is already a proposed standard, which is called Qi. Qi has received a wide array of support, including Energizer, Texas Instruments, Verizon, and phone manufacturers including Nokia, Research In Motion, LG, and HTC.

Currently, 88 products are listed by the Wireless Power Consortium as being Qi-compatible, including phones from NTT DoCoMo and HTC.

Intel is not a part of that group, and its wireless charging effort is based ona platform created by IDTis apparently not Qi-compatible. Since Qi is already getting widespread support and Intel’s chips have made it in to very few mobile devices so far, Intel has some work ahead if it is to be a success.

To date, not a single Intel-powered smartphone has sold in the U.S., and its list of partners -- Lava, Orange, Lenovo, and ZTE -- are better known overseas than in Intel's home turf. Motorola is also a partner and plans to release its own phone on September 18, with an overseas debut expected for that device as well.

That doesn’t seem to faze Intel, though. “We are delighted to work with IDT to accelerate the progress toward that vision with their unique and proven skill to integrate the required features and functionality into a monolithic solution,” Intel’s PC growth and innovation chief Gary Huang says in a statement. “Customers and consumers alike have asked for a fully mobile wireless charging experience, and it is our objective to deliver it through the power of PC.”

0 Technology's Dark Side: Devious Devices Designed to Harm You

We're accustomed to the idea of hackers' trying to crack our computers, but today our TVs, cars, phones, and appliances are becoming increasingly vulnerable as we use technologies such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, RFID, cellular, and GPS to connect them.

Though increased connectedness has been a boon to convenience and communication, a sinister flipside has emerged: More and more real-world objects are hackable, some with potentially frightening real-world consequences.

Hackers can unlock your car and even start the engine. They can steal your credit card just by walking past you—without touching your wallet. They can hijack a lifesaving insulin pump and turn it against the user. Here's a roundup of some of the technology that bad guys can use to hack you and everything around you.

ATM Skimmers

ATM skimmers are rogue devices surreptitiously attached to automatic teller machines and programmed to read and record your bank card's magnetic strip, and then pass the data on to criminals.

Examples of a new thin ATM skimmer.Older ATM skimmers commonly made the card slot look unusually bulky or otherwise tampered-with, but detecting the new skimmers is much harder. They are so thin now that a crook can now insert the skimmer directly inside the card slot at your local ATM, grocery self-checkout, or gas pump, and still leave room for your card to pass through, thus ensuring that only an expert is likely to notice the skimmer's intrusion.

The information on your credit or debit card's magnetic strip is useless without the card's PIN code, and even the most sophisticated in-slot skimmer can't retrieve PIN codes. However, criminals have developed transparent rubber overlays that they place over the ATM's keypad, to record the victim's PIN code. ATM skimmers and PIN code recorders can be very difficult to detect before money goes missing from customers' bank accounts.

War Texting

The term war texting may sound like something that an easily distracted soldier might pause to perform during a lull on the battlefield, it actually refers to the process of hijacking hardware connected to ubiquitous GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) mobile phone networks.

Surveillance cameras, home automation systems, and cars often depend on GSM telephony for over-the-air firmware updates. Though GSM makes updating these systems far more convenient, it also leaves them vulnerable to outside attack.

Last year at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas, iSec Partners security consultants Don Bailey and Matthew Solnik demonstrated the threat of war texting by unlocking the doors of a Subaru Outback and then starting its engine—all remotely.

Bailey said that he and Solnik took about 2 hours to figure out how to intercept wireless messages between the car and the network, and then re-create the messages from his laptop.

Power Pwn

Another looming threat involves rogue chameleon devices—treacherous gear that victims fail to spot because it doesn't look odd or out of place.

Pwnie Express's Power Pwn incorporates covert wireless transfer capabilities in what looks like a simple surge protector.The Power Pwn, for example, masquerades as a typical office surge protector, but it conceals some crafty tech. The Power Pwn was developed by Pwnie Express with funding from DARPA, the Department of Defense's secretive and experimental research and development wing.

High-gain, extended-range Wi-Fi, 1000-foot-range Bluetooth, and 3G are built into the Power Pwn, which is designed to bypass your network security and firewalls, while maintaining a constant covert connection with the attacker.

The product's makers, Pwnie Express, say that the Power Pwn is intended as an enterprise test tool for network vulnerabilities, but anyone with $1300 can buy one. Considering the high value of information on business networks, the Power Pwn's price hardly guarantees that criminals won't be able to get their hands on one.

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)

An RFID chip.RFID chips are tiny devices that contain information about the object they are attached to, which may range from an ID card containing personal medical information, to a car-key fob, to your U.S. passport, to a pet, to an electronic door lock, and to a credit card.

The primary purpose of an RFID chip is to embed digital information in something nondigital, making the object easier to keep track of and communicate with.

Some RFID chips don't even require a battery; instead, they are powered electromagnetically by a nearby receiver.

But anything that has an associated RFID chip is potentially hackable—and with such chips priced as low as $0.07 each, RFIDs are sure to show up in more and more things inthe future.

Earlier this year at the ShmooCon hacker-centric security conference, security researcher Kirstin Paget demonstrated just how easy RFID-equipped credit cards are to hack. Using about $350 worth of equipment, Padget wirelessly copied her credit card's RFID data, cloned it onto a blank card, and then easily made a payment to herself using a Square card reader. Padget described the hack as "embarrassingly simple."

The ability of a knowledgable person to clone RFID with ease should raise red flags for anyone using the technology for personal data, door locks, or any other form of security.

Global Positioning System (GPS)

What users of the Girls Around Me app saw.GPS in and of itself is a benign technology, but the GPS built into smartphones can be problematic. App developers use GPS in all kinds of ways beyond simply establishing latitude and longitude coordinates. For example, apps such as FourSquare rely on GPS to track their users' social habits and spending habits, and let users share where they are hanging out by "checking in" on the app.

However, location-based app developers often provide their APIs (application programming interfaces) to third parties, increasing the danger of misuse by interested outsiders.

This is precisely what happened in April, with an app called Girls Around Me. Using a combination of FourSquare's and Facebook's APIs, the Girls Around Me app displayed for anybody to see the location, pictures, and even names of nearby women.

Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of this situation is that, under existing law, everything the developers of Girls Around Me did in making individual people's information available to its users was strictly legal. A level of intrusive data gathering that might raise concerns of stalking if pursued in person in the real world amounted to nothing more than the cleverly directed collection of readily available digital information.

Hackable Insulin Pumps

Jay Radcliffe, director of the Smart Device Threat Intelligence Center—and a type 1 diabetic who is always connected to an insulin pump—discovered that his Medtronic wireless insulin pump could be hacked and taken over by a rogue signal.

An insulin pump.From up to half a mile away, a hacker could assume control of the pump and deliver a deadly dose of insulin to an unsuspecting diabetic. The chances of such a thing happening are exceedingly small, but the potential consequences are dire. If nothing else, the scenario suggests a plot device in a James Bond movie featuring a ruthless criminal mastermind and an otherwise well-guarded diabetic target.

Though technology does far more good than bad in our lives, it has a dangerous side. Given that more and more of our world is connected through technology, criminals and hackers are virtually certain to find more ways to exploit the technology we depend on in our daily lives.

The best advice is to be aware of your devices' behavior. If you notice a change, it could be due to hacking. Often, this is how banks discover skimming and credit card fraud. You can also consult resources such as the FBI's Scams & Safety website to stay informed and safe from various threats, online and off.

0 Windows 8: Hate It Already? Why Waiting for Windows 9 Won't Help

Conventional Windows wisdom seems to hold that every other version of Windows is terrible and needs to be fixed by whatever version comes after that. Does this mantra sound familiar?

Windows XP, good. Windows Vista, bad. Windows 7, good. Windows 8, bad. Windows 9, good.

That's how it's supposed to go, right?

Given the drastic changes in Windows 8, it's no surprise that some users who hate it are already holding out hope for a better Windows 9.

As evidence, I submit a sampling of comments from PCWorld readers:

• “What Windows 8 is, is just a media O.S... that's about it. On a tablet, that's fine or a cell phone. Vista was bad, Windows 7 is good.. Microsoft will make Windows 9 better.” -Shinobi

• “I'm another one who will NOT 'upgrade' to Windows 8 - maybe Windows 9 will be better, every alternate system seems to be a shambles, looks like 8 will continue the trend!” -jja7528

• “I hope that all PC manufacturers will give buyers the option to customize their PC's with the "OLD" Windows 7, at least until an improved Windows 9 comes out......” -SamDovels

I'm here to deliver the bad news: Windows 9 won't provide salvation, at least not if you're hoping for Microsoft to alter its current trajectory. Unless you're willing to embrace the changes Microsoft is making in Windows 8, be prepared to stick with your current version of Windows for a long time.

Windows Needs Change

Although Windows 8 has a fair share of perks for the traditional desktop, the operating system's featured attraction is its new touchscreen interface.

Instead of the pop-up Start menu that's been around since Windows 95, there's a full-screen Start page with a grid of big, touchable app tiles. Within this menu, you'll find the Windows Store, full of apps that seem to have tablets in mind.

To take advantage of the software, Microsoft and PC makers plan to sell laptop-tablet hybrids, meant to offer the best of both worlds.

If you have zero interest in tablets or touchscreens, these changes might seem upsetting. It's as if Windows, nerdy at heart, showed up to school with a hip new look, intent on abandoning its geeky friends.

Yet, it has to be this way. PC sales are down, while iPad sales are surging. People are turning to the iPad when they just need to get online or play with some apps. Although PC purists insist that you can't do real work on an iPad, the body of evidence to the contrary keeps increasing.

Office Suite apps abound, as do keyboard cases that make the iPad more laptop-like. You can write code and design webpages on the iPad. You can compose music and edit video, too.

None of this means the PC is doomed, but, as a general-purpose, go-to computing solution, PCs face a serious threat from tablets, especially the iPad. Microsoft must respond with an OS that makes sense for tablets.

Understanding Microsoft's Angle

You might argue that Microsoft should have left Windows alone while building a separate tablet OS on the side. But who would use the latter?

Apple iPadWindows PC users would have little incentive to switch, which leaves Microsoft to figure out how to lure prospective iPad buyers. That's a tall order, and it certainly hasn't worked out for Android tablets, which aren't selling very well.

Instead of going that route, Microsoft is using Windows 8 to force the transition for anyone who buys a new PC.

As Technologizer's Harry McCracken pointed out a year ago, Microsoft's transition to Windows 8 is as radical a change as the company's move from DOS to Windows 3.0. Then, as now, Microsoft had to tread lightly, letting people fall back onto their old software and old ways of doing things.

But, over time, the old way got phased out. Today's command prompt is but a distant relative of the DOS version, and most Windows users never go near it.

Microsoft is banking on the chance that, as it redefines Windows, it can guide users through their own transitions. If you've used a PC your entire computing life, changing OSes means throwing away all the keyboard shortcuts you've learned, as well as losing all your USB accessories, the file system, and the eponymous windows.

Windows 8 lets you keep all those things while it introduces something new.

Looking Ahead

From here, the future of Windows could play out in a few ways:

One possibility would be for Microsoft to concede defeat. Instead of forcing users to adopt the new Windows interface, Microsoft could give users the option to boot directly into the desktop, launch programs through an old-school Start menu, and maybe even bring back the Start button.

This seems like the least likely option, given the steps Microsoft has taken to make its new interface unavoidable. I don't think Microsoft will cave unless there's a huge backlash.

With Windows 8, Microsoft offers the possibility of one device that handles both desktop and tablet needs, without the need for remote desktop applications. Splitting up the OS would eliminate that advantage.

This might be possible in the distant future, but right now Microsoft's strategy hinges on exposing everyone to the new user interface, so I wouldn't expect a split any time soon. Besides, businesses have taken a liking to the iPad, even as they continue to rely on desktop software.

Microsoft is betting that buyers will like the fact that one device can do both without the need for remote desktop applications. Splitting up the OS would eliminate that advantage.

The last possibility, and the one I think most likely, would be for Microsoft to continue to evolve Windows.

The new interface would become more powerful and useful, while gradually chipping away at all the reasons you might need to revert to the desktop. Slowly, the benefits that the new interface provides—things like universal search, app-to-app sharing, and built-in cloud storage—would overshadow its drawbacks.

Even if Windows 8 bombs, Microsoft won't give up. When Redmond wants in on an important market, it tends to keep throwing money and resources at it. We saw that with Bing, we saw it with Windows Phone, and we're going to see it again with Windows 8.

Time will tell if Microsoft can be more successful with Windows 8 than those other efforts. Either way, it's highly unlikely that Microsoft will abandon its current vision and let this new wave of computing pass the company by. Desktop purists may not like the new look of Windows, but it's here to stay.

0 Test Driving Windows 8 RTM

I’m writing this on an Asus Zenbook UX31A at a Peet’s Coffee on Stevens Creek Boulevard in the heart of Silicon Valley. In an adjacent table a man and woman have papers spread out on a table, talking in hushed tones, with the word “Apple” occasionally audible.

Installed on the Zenbook is a freshly minted copy of Windows 8 RTM. The official launch date for Windows 8 remains October 26, but the RTM (“release to manufacturing”) is available to Microsoft Technet and MSDN subscribers today.

The default Windows 8 desktop background

PCWorld has covered the major features in articles on the release preview and consumer previewversions. Rather than dive once more into the myriad of features of Windows 8, I thought it would be more interesting spending a day with Windows 8 doing actual work. The goal here is to dive into the deep end of the pool of Microsoft’s vision of the future of PC computing. Not only is this laptop running the RTM, but I also installed the preview release of Microsoft Office 15.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

A Brief Word on Installation

This is not a detailed review; that’s impossible in a few hours. But while PCWorld will be serving up tutorials on Windows 8 installation and upgrading, I’d like to touch briefly on installation.

Installing Windows 8 on this Zenbook is actually my second attempt. The first attempt on different hardware failed due to driver issues with Wi-Fi.

Installing Windows 8 on the Zenbook went smoothly, but only after figuring out that several of the disk partitions on the Zenbook were GPT-style partitions. That seemed a bit odd for a modern Microsoft operating system, but after nuking all the partitions and reformatting, the rest of the installation went smoothly.

When you first boot into Windows 8, you’re asked if you want to use your Microsoft login (formerly your Windows Live login). If you say yes, you are dropped into the full-on Windows 8 experience, including full integration with Microsoft’s SkyDrive cloud storage service, social networking services, and simple access to the Microsoft Store. You can opt out of this, but then you end up with an enhanced (or crippled, depending on your point of view) Windows 7 experience.

After logging into Windows 8 with my Microsoft ID, my phone buzzed with an SMS confirmation message. I also received a similar message via email. Both asked me to give permission for the new system to access my SkyDrive folders. That little bit of extra security may help assuage some security fears. In the increasingly cloud-driven technology world, the line between security and convenience is becoming increasingly blurred.

Office 15 Preview Installed

I followed up the Windows 8 installation by installing the Office 15 preview. Windows 8, Office 15, and SkyDrive make up the three legs of the tripod that shores up Microsoft’s new vision of computing. Office 15’s SkyDrive integration when running under Windows 8 seems much less sluggish and more organic than under Windows 7.Elan touchpad control panel

After installing Office 15, I encountered one more issue: the touchpad. The Zenbook’s Elan touchpad supports edge detection, but Windows 8 saw the touchpad as a “Microsoft PS/2 Mouse.”

Using the touchpad in this mode is a pretty terrible experience. The touchpad lacked any advanced features—no multitouch gestures or palm detection.

I hit up the Asus website, where I found actual 64-bit Windows 8 drivers for the Elan touchpad. After that, usability went up considerably, though it's still not perfect. Palm detection seems to go in and out. Multitouch gestures work great, but edge detection works only some of the time.

One key problem for me in this installation is that Cisco’s AnyConnect 2.5 VPN client software wouldn’t connect to PCWorld’s corporate VPN. Some Internet searches uncovered possible solutions, but none seemed to work. So while I can write on the Windows 8 system, I’ll have to post it from my desktop system. Since I’m saving this to my SkyDrive, grabbing the file from another system is simple.

After installing software, the Windows 8 user interface screen became cluttered with tiles. Tile sizes seem to vary and, while there may be some logic to the organization, it's not always esthetically pleasing.

Windows 8 start screen, after installing a bunch of stuff.

The Usability Experience

While the touchpad worked reasonably well after installing the new drivers, I carry around a Logitech Anywhere MX mouse for most normal use; I've never been much of a fan of touchpads. Windows 8 recognized the Logitech Unifying receiver after I inserted it into the USB port, and I was mousing away in short order.

It didn’t take long to realize how seriously improved the responsiveness of the mouse has become. Charms, sidebars, and Windows 8 UI features popped up with no lag. Clicking on items offered similar immediacy. In fact, the mouse experience is so improved that the user interface formerly known as the Metro UI didn't get in the way nearly as much.

You're never more than a couple of clicks away from the desktop, if you prefer that, but the desktop seems almost extraneous now. More often than not, you can get to any important running app just by moving your mouse to the corners. In fact, that's the single tutorial tip you're given during the Windows setup process: Move your mouse to the corners.

Note the app sidebar to the left of the start screen.

Spinning the mouse wheel lets you scroll smoothly through all tiled screens, whether it's the main UI, the Microsoft Store, or other applications using the new interface style.

That sidebar you see above is easy to bring up in the main Windows 8 UI. What I thought was equally useful was making it available in the Windows desktop. Given how Windows 8 uses screen real estate, having a monitor with higher pixel density is a good thing. The laptop I'm using includes a 1080p IPS panel.

The sidebar can also be made visible in the desktop.

The other thing I've gotten used to while using the release preview was to start typing when in the main tile interface. As you type a word, the number of choices diminish.

The first letter of any word in the file or app name seems to be searchable, so when I typed the letter "A," I got entries for the Dark Arcane game, Help and Support, Windows Fax and Scan and finally, Access 2013.

Just start typing in the UI to find apps.

It has taken me some time to adapt to the radical change in the visual experience. Microsoft is using DirectX to accelerate all the graphical UI elements while simplifying the style of those same elements. Gone is the faux 3D, drop shadows, and beveled windows, replaced with flat, saturated colors and tiles. It seems almost too simplistic but, by the same token, my eye wasn't distracted by extraneous elements.

Accelerating all UI elements, including text, with the graphics processor makes Windows a much more fluid experience. Enlarging text in browsers or apps seems smoother than the staggered steps in Windows 7. The integrated Intel HD 4000 GPU in the Zenbook is more than adequate, though you can see a slight flickering in the text as the antialiasing kicks in when you're changing text size.

Sticky Applications

Apps can remain sticky, even when you think they're shut down.One minor concern I had revolved around sticky applications. When you close an app, it doesn’t really close. It remains dormant in the background.

There’s no CPU hit, but some memory is consumed. The laptop I used had 4GB of RAM, though some of that was reserved for the integrated graphics frame buffer. I loaded up a bunch of apps just to see what happened.

The system tended to be mostly responsive. “Mostly” means that the preview version of Word would occasionally freeze. This freeze turned out to be temporary, not a hard lock.

The combination of many open apps plus Word’s SkyDrive integration seemed to result in slow temp saves. This seemed to happen rarely, but worrying nonetheless. On the other hand, this is a beta version of Office, so what I experienced may simply be a bug in Word.

The Store and More Shopping

I was also eager to try out the Microsoft Store, shown below. There's a lot of curiosity around the new store, but it's really gone live only since the RTM. While I didn't try to count all the available apps, only a few hundred seem to be currently, and most are free.

The Microsoft store in Windows 8.In fact, after a fair amount of searching, I could only find three paid apps, all games. Then again, only a small handful of users will be running the RTM. The real deluge will come as the October 26th release for the final version of Windows 8 nears.

I didn't have time to explore a lot of apps, but I checked out a couple of Twitter clients (including MetroTwit).

The Windows 8 MetroTwit twitter app

Then I wasted some time... er, explored the Wikipedia app.

The Windows 8 visual Wikipedia appWhile checking out Wikipedia, the Naturespace app ran in the background, playing soothing ambient sounds recorded from nature.

Naturescape turns out to be more soothing than you expect.

Gamer that I am, I checked out a handful of games, though most seemed to be pretty casual and light. I wasted a little too much time on Dark Arcane,shown below, which is really just a simple point-and-click puzzle adventure.

Dark Arcane, a point-and-click Windows 8 game.

The Microsoft Store isn't the only way to hand Microsoft your hard-earned money. If you click on games, you would expect to get a folder of game links, as you did with Windows 7.

You would be wrong. Instead, you find yourself in the Xbox Games store, as shown below. Despite its name, it's not just a way to buy games for your Xbox 360; you can also buy PC games as well. Your Microsoft account is tied to your Xbox account, which also merges in the elements of what was once the Games for Windows Live store.

What's this Xbox stuff doing in my Windows 8?

In a similar manner, clicking on "Music" and "Video" takes you to the Xbox music and video stores, respectively. The Music app does allow you to play any music you own, but you're always presented with new music to buy. It seems just a little too aggressively up front—worse in some ways than iTunes.

Not just for buying: playing a song in the Windows 8 music app.

Your Home Network

After writing a few hundred words, I drained my mocha and headed home to integrate the new Windows 8 system into my mostly Windows 7 home network, which proved straightforward.

Windows 8 works with Windows home groups, and sharing files is easy. I had actually installed Windows 8 earlier in my home office, and attached the system to my local Wi-Fi network. As I fired up the home network, Windows 8 also found a number of other devices on the network, including two printers (one network-attached, the other shared off a desktop system), the Onkyo network connected TX-NR 809 A/V receiver.

Windows 8 enumerates my network.

Hardware Web pages replace the Windows 7 hardware property page. The look varies, depending on how much work the OEM puts into making the page useful and attractive. For example, the page for the HP Photosmart printer offered up lots of information, as shown below.

Hardware web pages under Windows 8 can look good.On the other hand, the hardware page for the Onkyo TX-NR809 network attached A/V receiver is certainly not the epitome of elegant page design, as you can see here.

Windows 8 hardware web pages may not look so great, either.

Window 8 also includes Microsoft's Smartglass application. Smartglass is a way to control certain aspects of the Xbox 360 dashboard using Windows 8.

Smartglass lets you control the Xbox 360 dashboard.

While Smartglass is really tuned to work effectively with Windows 8 tablets, connecting up with the laptop and navigating the Xbox 360 on the network was pretty simple. You do need to have Xbox Companion enabled in the Xbox 360's settings if you want to use Smartglass; it's off by default. You can use Smartglass to navigate the Xbox 360's user interface and even launch games.

You can launch Xbox 360 games with Smartglass.

Bedtime Dreams

I've clearly only touched the surface by trying to give you a feel for what it's like to use Windows 8 and associated applications. I've yet to install any full-on desktop games. That will come later, as we explore using Windows 8 on desktop PCs. It's worth taking a moment to recap the day.

It begins with a full installation of Windows 8 (not an upgrade install).

After navigating minor headaches like the inability to install with GPT partitions present and having to hunt down proper touchpad drivers, the installation was pretty smooth. During that process, I also connected to my home network, configured the laptop into the home group, and proceeded to install applications.

This is also where I personalized the system, which included bringing up the Windows 8 settings screen. It bears a strong resemblance to the Xbox 360 control panel.

General PC settings -- it's not the same as the control panel.

I installed a variety of applications, including Microsoft Office 2013 preview, Google Chrome, Techsmith's Snagit (for taking screen shots), and a number of apps from the Windows Store. At that point, it was time for a little caffeine boost, so I headed over to a nearby coffee shot, bought a mocha, and started to write.

Returning home, I played a few games, checked out some social media, and connected to the Xbox 360 to see how Smartglass actually works. Now I'm sitting down to wrap up this first day with Microsoft's shiny new OS.

Final Thoughts

The integration with SkyDrive, both within Windows and the Office 2013 preview, is excellent, and a more robust experience than running under Windows 8. Most users should have no problems being productive.

I also discovered that Microsoft is pretty serious about using Windows 8 as a platform for "monetization." (I really hate that term.) You're given multiple opportunities to plunk down your money for music, videos, apps, and other virtual goods.

The real problem is that the shopping experience seems a little too in your face. Now we have an idea of why Microsoft is making the upgrade available at such a low cost—the company hopes to make it back in online store sales.

Still, you can ignore most of that, and spend most of your time in the good old Windows desktop if you prefer. Everything is really just a touch or mouse gesture away.

Windows 8, it turns out, is highly usable. The final release is noticeably more responsive with the touchpad and mouse than the prerelease versions. The user interface is easier to navigate than I'd feared, and the whole affair seems to hang together pretty well.

The responsiveness of the UI, down to mouse movements, scrolling and swiping large swaths of UI screen is incredibly smooth, made possible by GPU acceleration of most of the UI elements.

Whether Windows 8 will be a big winner is still an open question. It clearly has improvements over Windows 7, though the two-step to access the Windows desktop will no doubt be off-putting to some users.