Microsoft has given the world its first official glimpse of Windows 8 tablets and the new touch-enabled take on the OS looks more than a little like Windows Phone 7‘s Metro UI writ large. While Microsoft says Windows 8 will play nicely with a mouse and keyboard, it’s been “designed and optimised for touch” from the start.
Windows 8 has a pretty radical look – check out the tiled start screen in the gallery above – Microsoft plans to mix traditional Windows applications with HTML5 web apps. Read on for a deeper dive into the OS and details on what we can expect from Windows 8 tablets. Is Microsoft finally getting its iPad fightback together?
Windows 8 will arrive with a range of different virtual keyboards for tapping away on Windows 8 tablets including a split keyboard for vertical use. Multitasking, which you can see the video above, works by having you swipe the app you want to use into the centre of the screen and partially swiping an app will snap it into place beside other windows.
Windows 8 will mix and match traditional desktop apps with web apps and there’ll be an entirely new version of Internet Explorer 10 and the Windows app store. Live tiles with notifications also make the jump from Windows Phone 7 to Windows 8.
Though Microsoft Windows president Steven Sinofsky showed off the Windows 8 interface and some Intel Atom based Windows 8 tablet prototypes at the D9 conference, he didn’t confirm a release date or give any idea of pricing.
Microsoft is also showing ARM-based Windows 8 tablets at Computex and says it’ll have more to show off at the Build Windows developer conference in September. Though we’re calling the OS Windows 8 right now, Sinofsky stressed it’s just a codename saying: “We’ll figure out the real name in due time.”
Microsoft is clearly working hard to produce a touch-friendly OS to fight the iPad but from the official pictures it’s clear that it’s still far from finished – check out the prototype photo viewer and the Twitter app in our gallery (Photo Feedr? Tweet@rama?). There’s also the big question of how usuable traditional Windows apps will translated to touch. That Excel screenshot looks more than a little fiddly.
Do you think Windows 8 tablets allow Microsoft to touch the kind of success Apple has seen with the iPad and iPad 2? Hit the comments and let us know…
Meh, I don’t care. I just bought an Asus Transformer (Android 3.1), and it’s truely amazing. Bridges the gap between both tablet and netbook.
Zedthegreat
What I think they need to do is sell competitively priced multi licence packs. If I can put this on my laptop and a tablet so that it is integrated (or sell the tablet with a laptop/desktop upgrade licence) then I am more keen to take this up than a standalone product where Android or Apple will have this sorted. Looks OK though.
