Showing posts with label news. Show all posts
Microsoft Announces Windows 10
At its Windows event in San Francisco today, Microsoft announced the next release of its operating system. Known until now as codename Threshold, the successor to Windows 8 will officially be known as Windows 10. Terry Myerson, Microsoft’s Executive Vice President of Operating System, unveiled the name, after saying Windows is used by about 1.5 billion people. “Windows is at a Threshold and now it’s time for a new Windows,” Myerson said at the event. “It wouldn’t be right to call it Windows 9.”
The new operating system will offer a tailored experience for each device, but a single store will offer apps and updates across all devices. Windows 10 “will deliver the right experience on the right device at the right time,” Myerson said.
The Start menu not only has live tiles, but you can resize them, which impacts the overall size of the menu itself. You can also search the Web and receive results without opening up a browser.
While showing off the new operating system, Joe Belfiore, Corporate Vice President, Operating Systems Group at Microsoft, said today that going from Windows 8 to Windows 10 is like going from a Prius to a Tesla. “They don’t have to learn any new way to drive.”
Here Are Some Screen Starts : 
Despite the focus on the mice and keyboard today, Microsoft will keep the touch part of Windows 8 around. The argument here is that touch users have higher satisfaction on Windows 8 devices than on Windows 7 devices. The opposite is true for mouse and keyboard users. As a result, Microsoft wants businesses to think of Windows 10 as a merging of Windows 7 and Windows 8.
“One of the most important customers for Windows is the enterprise,” Myerson said at the event. Redmond is very interested in communicating that it has been hard at work to move away from Windows 8, which many have criticized for not being as easy to use with a mouse and keyboard.
The next version of Windows was widely expected to arrive sometime next year. Even the Wi-Fi password at the event was chosen to remind everyone of this: “Windows2015.”
Meet Matchstick, Mozilla's $25 Chromecast Alternative
Mozilla is expanding beyond its Firefox browser and trying its hand in the suddenly hot streaming video business.
Its take: the MatchStick HDMI streaming stick, which will sell for a limited time through Kickstarter at a starting price of $12 before it goes to retail. It's final price of $25 sets its sights on the Chromecast, the $35 streaming dongle from search giant Google. Matchstick runs on Firefox OS, the open source mobile operating system built by Mozilla on Firefox's underlying engine.
Mozilla has a keen interest in being known for more than just an Internet browser. The nonprofit Web advocacy organization receives a vast majority of its funding from Google, which also offers a competing browser in Chrome. Over the last two years, Mozilla has diversified into smartphones with its Firefox OS and now Matchstock in the hopes of getting support for open Web standards into more devices and more hands.
However, the Matchstick enters an already competitive field. Beyond the Chromecast, the streaming media space is crowded with Amazon's Fire TV, and market leaders Apple TV and Roku, all of which have long since secured the kinds of content partnerships such as Netflix and Hulu essential to the success of any entrant in the field. While Matchstick is promising to have them by its January launch, it doesn't appear to have secured them yet.
Graphene May Allow For Flexible, Low-cost Touchscreens
New research published today in the journal Advanced Functional Materials suggests
that graphene-treated nanowires could soon replace current touchscreen
technology, significantly reducing production costs and allowing for
more affordable, flexible displays.
The majority of today's touchscreen devices, such as tablets and
smartphones are made using indium tin oxide (ITO) which is both
expensive and inflexible. Researchers from the University of Surrey and
AMBER, the materials science centre based at Trinity College Dublin have
now demonstrated how graphene-treated nanowires can be used to produce
flexible touchscreens at a fraction of the current cost.
Using a simple, scalable and inexpensive method the researchers produced hybrid electrodes, the building blocks of touchscreen technology, from silver nanowires and graphene. Dr Alan Dalton from the University of Surrey said, "The growing market in devices such as wearable technology and bendable smart displays poses a challenge to manufacturers. They want to offer consumers flexible, touchscreen technology but at an affordable and realistic price. At the moment, this market is severely limited in the materials to hand, which are both very expensive to make and designed for rigid, flat devices."
Lead author, Dr Izabela Jurewicz from the University of Surrey commented, "Our work has cut the amount of expensive nanowires required to build such touchscreens by more than fifty times as well as simplifying the production process. We achieved this using graphene, a material that can conduct electricity and interpret touch commands whilst still being transparent."
Co-author, Professor Jonathan Coleman, AMBER, added, "This is a real alternative to ITO displays and could replace existing touchscreen technologies in electronic devices. Even though this material is cheaper and easier to produce, it does not compromise on performance."
"We are currently working with industrial partners to implement this research into future devices and it is clear that the benefits will soon be felt by manufacturers and consumers alike."
The research benefitted from funding and collaboration with M-SOLV, a touchscreen manufacturer.
Using a simple, scalable and inexpensive method the researchers produced hybrid electrodes, the building blocks of touchscreen technology, from silver nanowires and graphene. Dr Alan Dalton from the University of Surrey said, "The growing market in devices such as wearable technology and bendable smart displays poses a challenge to manufacturers. They want to offer consumers flexible, touchscreen technology but at an affordable and realistic price. At the moment, this market is severely limited in the materials to hand, which are both very expensive to make and designed for rigid, flat devices."
Lead author, Dr Izabela Jurewicz from the University of Surrey commented, "Our work has cut the amount of expensive nanowires required to build such touchscreens by more than fifty times as well as simplifying the production process. We achieved this using graphene, a material that can conduct electricity and interpret touch commands whilst still being transparent."
Co-author, Professor Jonathan Coleman, AMBER, added, "This is a real alternative to ITO displays and could replace existing touchscreen technologies in electronic devices. Even though this material is cheaper and easier to produce, it does not compromise on performance."
"We are currently working with industrial partners to implement this research into future devices and it is clear that the benefits will soon be felt by manufacturers and consumers alike."
The research benefitted from funding and collaboration with M-SOLV, a touchscreen manufacturer.
